Delayed by Sandy, but not denied, I am heading to Cleveland to do what I can to help re-elect the president. When I came of age, I realized that the things I most cared about were: ensuring civil rights; eradicating poverty; caring for the earth and ending war.

They still are, and for me Barack Obama remains the embodiment of that unfulfilled agenda. Mitt Romney is its antithesis.

It is neither an easy nor a popular agenda, and we are engaged in a battle whose outcome is uncertain, and some of the reason for that falls on people like me.

Drawn to Obama’s humanness, we turned him into an icon . . . and then expressed our disappointment when he showed himself to be human.

We loved his innocence . . . until it became his inexperience.

We resonated to his appeal across race, class, gender and ideological differences . . . except when it led him to compromise on issues we held non-negotiable.

But it was more than just his frailties or our expectations. He inherited a global depression that was created by the values he opposed and was creating an America we would not recognize. He faced two off-the-books wars and policies that made us loathed around the world. And he encountered implacable opposition that was as well-funded as it was mean-spirited.

He accomplished much, from health care to Iraq, that is significant and lasting.

He is not prefect, but I believe that Barack Obama has been one of the best presidents of my lifetime, and he has the chance to help transform this nation.

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