It was March 18th, 2007 when Barack Obama visited Oakland and I went to see him speak in person for the first time. It was there I first heard him promise universal healthcare by the end of his first term in office. "And I want to be accountable for this," he said. Of his speech that day, I said:

Above all, it was a message of optimism: yes, the system is broken, but it can be fixed, by us, right now. And this funny, sincere, incredibly, hypnotically charismatic man seems like just the right guy to do it

Today, the trust he inspired has been validated, and the promise he made has been -- as far as I am concerned -- kept. Sure, the coverage is not quite universal. And lots of things won't kick in until 2014, after the end of his first term. But that's politics. It's a business of compromise, and incremental advance. But he promised the biggest change to healthcare in a generation, and here it is.

Good going, Barry.