The view from Invesco Field

I don't know how it came across on TV last night, but the experience I had last night at Invesco Field was almost indescribable.

The intensity was probably something like being at a major sports championship game (Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, Boston fans, take your pick). The drama and star power around us was like being at the Oscars. The last night of the convention, from the security checks for 84,000 people, the tight message control from all the speakers, to the timing of the fireworks -- all of it was executed flawlessly. It was a dizzying celebration.

The Obama campaign, and Barack Obama himself, have been critiqued for doing events like this so well. The thrust of this messaging is that Obama is somewhat akin to a cult figure, a self-proclaimed Messiah who expertly manipulates his audiences emotionally. Brainwashes them. I don't get that at all.

I am a free, independent, critical thinker. I support Barack Obama because of his platform, his leadership style, and his story. There's no shortage of information out there about his position on the issues.

But for someone to say that emotions should play no role in the election of the President is akin to saying that disabled veterans shouldn't feel any pain, single mothers without health insurance shouldn't experience worry, that first-time homebuyers who were manipulated and exploited shouldn't feel bitter. Or that old civil rights warriors shouldn't feel a deep sense of fulfillment, or that environmentalists shouldn't feel hopeful, or that people like me shouldn't be jubilant when 84,000 other people gathered in one place are thinking and feeling the same thing that I do at the same time: that politics is changing in this country -- and it is incredibly exciting to be part of it.