From CNN's Jack Cafferty:
My friend, CNN Contributor Donna Brazile, said the inauguration of the first African-American U.S. President is a day to rejoice. On CNN.com, she explains why President Obama succeeded where others before him have failed.
What surprises you the most?
Only four years ago, Barack Obama became the junior senator from Illinois. He was a virtual unknown.
Brazile, a Democratic strategist, believes the key to President Obama's success was that he did not run as a black candidate, unlike people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. He ran as a progressive Democrat.
Brazile points out that most people thought it would simply make the campaign trail interesting when Obama decided to run. No one expected yesterday's events to be the culmination of that decision.
But on a cold night in Iowa, Obama knocked off Hillary Clinton in arguably the whitest place in America, and it was game on. He won primary after primary including Georgia and Virginia, the former seat of the Confederacy. And in the general election, he mopped the floor with John McCain.
The American people didn't see a black man when they looked at Obama; they saw someone who held out hope for a better future for them and their families. It's all pretty amazing stuff.
Here’s my question to you: What surprises you most about Barack Obama's climb to the presidency?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Gary from El Centro, California writes:
What surprised me was how he took down the Clinton machine during the primary campaign. A person of lesser talent would not have been able to accomplish that. He was the right person, in the right place, at the right time, with the right set of skills. The perfect storm!
Karen from Tennessee writes:
What surprised me most wasn't Barack Obama or anything to do with his fast ascension to the presidency. Rather, it was the pair the GOP offered us as a choice. How could Obama not win?
Janie from Springfield, Massachusetts writes:
How differently each black candidate ran for office. Obama ran as an intelligent, educated, dignified, objective thinker who weighed both sides of an issue before speaking, and spoke of race relations as a solvable problem. Jesse and Al ran as angry black men who acted entitled to respect (but didn’t really know how to earn it, like Obama) and always took the side of any African-American who complained of anything (think Tawana Brawley) without any thinking about whether their complaints had merit.
Eric writes:
What surprised me the most was the people that elected this unqualified and inexperienced person to office in this very troubled time. The liberal media was ridiculously biased and the people decided to vote on the info they got from the news rather than researching Mr. Obama’s record. I hope I am wrong but I truly feel that this president is going to keep us going in the wrong direction.
Sandi from Arizona writes:
What a great surprise that Obama was so good at reading the needs of the country. After many disappointments in the Bush administration, most importantly Katrina, Americans were wanting to do something to change the environment of government. He clearly saw this and after losing New Hampshire made what I think is the speech of a lifetime proclaiming that there was no more waiting, that "We are the ones we have been waiting for." It rocked my world, made me cry, and made me want to participate in politics for the first time in my life.
Marcus writes:
He could not have made it without a biased media.