Former Colorado Senator Gary Hart embodied the ‘change’ and transcendence he talks about in this article. Oh, God, what might have been, if not for ‘Monkey business‘ on the turbulent waters to the island of Bimini?
I don’t want to revisit the past but Mr. Hart’s article moved me. 
He was a change agent brimming with ideas to galvanize a nation long before Mr. Obama had any notion of transcending anything.
Isn’t it always the case though that leaders with the best ideas often possess fatal flaws? Gary Hart, Gary Hart, Gary Hart. I remember the time now like it was yesterday. ‘Where’s the beef?’ Walter Mondale, parroting doggerel from a television jingle, kept bellowing. So when Mr. Hart was caught with a woman not his wife, it became easy to throw the man overboard and forget his ideas.
The intervening years, I believe, proved him prophetic on some of those ideas. For instance, Mr. Hart saw the dangers we faced as a nation from terrorism, yelled enough about them, but went unheeded, until the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. We then proceeded to ignore him some more. But, I guess, there’s no solace in thinking about being right. Not now. Not for Mr. Hart. Not for Mrs. Lee Hart, his wife, who had to live with the pain of his wanderings. Not for the former Donna Rice. And certainly not for us.
I don’t know anything so I am not suggesting Sen. Barack Obama has some skeleton in his closet. Whatever it is, if there is a ‘it,’ I just don’t want to know. I want this moment to last. I believe Mr. Obama is as good as we seem to think he is. And he has to lead now. Our nation needs him to.
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