If you don’t know who Barack Obama is after last night, your head is buried deep in the political sand. I didn’t know who he was before last night, I’ll admit… but I do now. And I am blown away.

I am decidely republican. I am more moderate than the Rush Limbaugh’s and Sean Hannity’s of the world, but I am republican. I voted for W. I’ll do it again. I cheer at the TV when Dennis Miller goes off on a rant every night at 9pm. But I am sure, that last night, I witnessed history, as the first black President of the United States addressed a national audience for the first time during his keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

The hair on my arms stood up along with the audience for each every break for applause.

Since then, I have spent a great deal of time reading. I want to figure out exactly who this guy is and if my conscience can let me get behind him. So far, my conscience is fine with it.

Obama is running for the opening Senate seat in Illinois. Originally he was running against Jeri Ryan’s x-husband, Jack Ryan, but she put the stop to that with the accusations that he was trying to get her to go to sex clubs. Now the Republicans are clamoring to find somebody who might beat him. They won’t find anyone. Mike Ditka just won’t cut it against this guy.

Here’s some of the key bullet points about him:

• He’s 42 years old
• He’s a Liberal Democrat
• He’s married with 2 daughters
• Currently an Illinois State Senator
• Running for opening US Senate position
• His father was a Kenjan immigrant, mother was a midwestern white woman
• He was born in Hawaii, spent a few years as a kid in Jakarta, then back to Hawaii for school at Punahou School, Hawaii’s top prep academy
• As a teen-ager, he tried marijuana and cocaine, admits it, and is forgiven
• Columbia undergrad
• Harvard Law School Magna Cum Laude
• First African-American president of the Harvard Law review
• In 1995 write his memoir, “Dreams from My Father”
• Practices civil-rights law in Chicago
• Teaches Constitutional Law at University of Chicago Law School
• Electrified the crowd at the DNC last night
• Will be the only African-American Senator in November (and only the 3rd in history)
• Will be the first African-American President soon

Here’s some great links so you can learn more. Trust me, this is worth the time.

• Barack’s Blog.
• His official campaign site.
• Last night’s DNC speech in RealVideo format
• Last night’s DNC speech transcript
• Great New Yorker article telling all about him
• Chicago Sun Times article about last night
• New York Times article about last night
• USA Today article about last night

OK, that’s all I have time for right now. You’ll hear from me again on this issue I’m sure.