The other night Barack Obama won in Iowa.  But to my mind that wasn’t the real story of the night.  What moved me was his victory speech.

A familiar and well deserved lament about American politics is that the substance has disappeared, and has been replaced by opinion polls and focus groups.  Speeches sound as though every line has been tested by market research - they push familiar buttons and are devoid of the life and character that we associate with America’s greatest leaders of the past.

The other night in Iowa, Barack Obama showed us something different. It was simply spellbinding.  Obama’s message was simple: change and hope.  I haven’t seen anything like that since watching videos of Bobby Kennedy in Indianapolis and MLK in Washington.

Even the pundits were thunderstruck. After the speech Chris Matthews called the speech heroic, twice.  I’m not sure which commentator said it, but several months ago I remember hearing an apt analogy: Hillary was driving a car with a top speed of 80 mph and she was driving at top speed.  Obama, on the other hand was driving a car with a top speed of 200 mph but he was only driving 70 mph.  That has changed.

Since his amazing Democratic convention speech in 2004, I have been waiting to see Obama demonstrate the strength and inspiration he displayed that night.  On a snowy night in Iowa, Obama finally shifted gears and went from 70 mph to 200 mph. Let’s hope that he keeps it up.