Turn left at Capitol Hill...right into History.

Finally pulled into DC around midnight and made it to Kim's home in Maryland shortly after. I managed to get turned around somehow thanks to a poor satellite signal that turned my GPS into a worthless talking box on my dashboard ("Recalcualting, recalculating..."). But my mix up led to a detour through downtown DC that was more than welcome. Women in gowns and men buried beneath thick woolen trench coats crossed the streets, going to or from some grand ball. I suddenly felt that tingle of anticipation, starting in my fingers as they drummed impatiently on the steering wheel and ending up stuck in my throat in a giddy bark of laughter. This is it, I thought. History. And I'm here.

The epilogue of Dreams From My Father was Obama's speech from the 2004 Democratic National Convention. I had never heard it before; I only knew it as the defining moment in his career. That rare twist of fate when magic, inspiration, ambition and guts come crashing together. And from the explosion emerged a movement. Led by a man who would go on in four years to represent the future of a nation.

So, it's past 2 a.m. and I am heading to bed. But I'll let him have the last word tonight. Because Obama understands -- as well as Lincoln, Frost, Shakespeare, Dr. King and other leaders did centuries before him -- the sheer power of the spoken word. That it can change the course of a people like a strike of lightening.

To me, this was the acceptance speech for an election he did not yet know he would run.

It is that fundamental belief -- it is that fundamental belief -- I am my brother's keeper, I am my sisters' keeper -- that makes this country work.

It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams, yet still come together as a single American family: "E pluribus unum," out of many, one.

Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes.

Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America.

-- Barack Obama, 07/27/04