This political campaign has been one for the ages, especially for those of us who consider ourselves political junkies.  Nearly every manner of intrigue and nuance has been involved, and we're just now getting to the heart of the general campaign.

First of all, whatever one thinks of Barack Obama's politics, it is certainly an uplifting story to see the USA have an African-American with basically a 50-50 shot of winning the Presidency.  In becoming the Democratic nominee, he defeated the wife of a former President (much to that particular President's chagrin), as well as much more well-established party luminaries who no doubt thought that their own respective times had come (one striking example:  longtime Senator Joe Biden, now #2 to Obama).  Obama did so having served, at the time of his announcement, less than two years in our national legislature.  If the rise of Barack Obama shows nothing else, it shows the road to even the highest office in the land is not reserved only for the rich and connected.  This fact emphatically re-affirms the basic tenets of the American dream:  we all have the opportunity to achieve in this country, not just a wealthy (or white) elite.

Obama's opponent is, of course, John McCain.  Here we have a candidate who was left for dead (figuratively speaking, of course) as late as this time last year.  A candidate who had laid off nearly all of his campaign staff because he was out of money, and seemed to be continuing his campaign in a quixotic quest to keep his issues of reform and national security on the table.  Along the way, he defeated better-funded candidates with more cache from Law & Order's Fred Thompson to "America's Mayor" Rudy Giuliani.  Again, this shows that regardless of how well-connected one might be, regardless of how much money one might have, the American political scene is one that depends more on the ability to woo voters than to raise campaign cash.

Then we get to the most surprising player of all in the election game of 2008:  Republican VP Nominee Sarah Palin.  If Barack Obama's rise has been astounding, new superlatives might be necessary to describe her ascent.  She rose through the ranks of grassroots Alaska politics:  from city council and then mayor of a small town in Alaska to the head of the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to Governor of Alaska.  Ironically, when Frank Murkowski was elected Governor and resigned the US Senate, he considered appointing her to his Senate seat.  He appointed his daughter instead, and Palin defeated him in the subsequent Republican primary before beating a former Democratic governor in the general election.  Her rise has been noted at each step for a strong commitment to reform and to shaking up the established power structure.

The Palin pick not only made history, but McCain could have made no other choice for running mate that would've electrified the grassroots of the Republican Party.  In Minneapolis, all the buzz was about Gov. Palin, and more people watched her acceptance speech than watched McCain's or Obama's.  But again, we have a complete outsider — Juneau is closer to Washington state than Washington, DC.  The Palin family is far from wealthy and connected; her husband is a commercial fisherman and oilfield worker (and, interestingly, a union member).

Whichever ticket wins in November, we are witnessing history in the making — either the first African American President, or the first female Vice President.  We are also witnessing barriers coming down in other, more subtle ways — the de-centralization of power, for example.  In very few countries and very eras could we see such a confluence of meteoric rises.  In very few elections could we see such a shaking of the establishment.