What a ride it’s been, Barack Obama. From your 2008 victory while I was a junior in Ann Arbor to tonight’s speech in Chicago, you have turned this country around 180 degrees.

In case anyone has forgotten, the United States was the laughing stock of the world, letting George Bush “Jr.” win back-to-back elections but never actually catching bin Laden. W disgraced our public school systems with the unrealistic, ineffective “No Child Left Behind,” ruined New Orleans with an abysmal response to Hurricane Katrina, inherited a national surplus from Bill Clinton, but slashed taxes so severely for the wealthy and wasted so much on war he handed Obama an all-time recession.

With hard-work and a commitment to science and clean energy, Obama turned around Detroit’s auto industry. It took him two years to do what “W” couldn’t in two terms: bring to justice the man responsible for 9/11. He restored global relations to the degree that he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. As the first black President, he overcame a racist, Republican Congress who refused to pass any of his good-intentioned bills. As he said tonight, in America, a nation of innovation, it must be about two beneficial ideas, not pure, blind opposition just to take down the other party.

His message of hope and togetherness was desperately needed after Drumpf’s victory lap season reeked of a Russian-rigging.

I promise to continue, out of admiration, respect, and the love of watching Barack & Michelle Obama these last eight years, to always keep fighting for the truth.

OBAMA