The Countdown: 28: Change

28 days left on the old election ticker.
4 weeks to the day.
Debate day too.

I'm watching the wrap-up of the town hall debate, in which both candidates have managed not to throttle each other in front of the Real People in the audience, but stuck to more measured barbs.

The campaign isn't going so easily. Attack ads. Allegations. Blood on the political floor.

Change is the key. Obama started out using the term, but now both candidates are trying to grab it.

Well, it's going to come ... no matter who wins. Isn't this time amazing? A little terrifying? Nothing is promised, and I believe any number of things could still go badly wrong with the process of the election. (As we're covering in our series this month, there is no uniform voting system across the country, and there are a lot of quirks, loopholes and challenges.)

Plus: life, to put it bluntly, is not fair. Sometimes that makes me sad; sometimes it's just something you have to take into account. We spend so much time here on our show talking about the unexpected ways that race, for example, affects politics. Light bends around the issue of race; there is a black hole that skews polls and twists hearts.

I had so many links I wanted to add about stories we're following, but I'll leave us with a thought instead: what are you going to do about the hole we're in? No matter who wins, we've got some heavy lifting to do as a nation and as a world. So what is your role?

I love this quote from Dr. King: "Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve." So, how are you prepared to serve as we face some of the biggest challenges of our time? What are you prepared to ask of yourself ... even if your candidate loses? Or if he wins?

Farai Chideya

Tags: Barack Obama | John McCain

10:15 PM ET | 10- 7-2008 | permalink

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