You remember when you were a kid and your dad took you somewhere to meet someone important? It could've been a preacher or a baseball player or maybe even one of your father's coworkers. But the person you were going to meet was someone special and because your dad said so, your eyes glazed over as you met that person. It happened to me when my dad took me to hear Tom Landry when I was about 10.

And it happened again when I met Barack Obama last week.

OK, OK, so I didn't actually meet Obama, the dynamic junior senator from the state of Illinois. But it was fun to come fairly close.

The occasion was the U.S. Senate reception in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in D.C., June 20. I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to the capital with Barbara Yarbrough, Midland's winner of the 2006 Jefferson Award for community and public service that she so richly deserved.

Last Tuesday, everyone tuxed up or put on their finest dress (tux for me) and visited the senate building as many of the recipients received their awards and had their pictures taken with a U.S. Senator from their respective states. Ms. Yarbrough received hers and had her picture taken with John Cornyn.

A lot of other senators dropped by ... Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Richard Lugar (R-Illinois), Olympia Snow (D-Maine) and even Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn). There were many others.

No one -- not one senator -- quieted the room like Barack Obama (that's him at the far right in the photo above, with the Jefferson winner from Chicago, Stanley Ratliff, and his family.)

Obama has been hailed as "the future of the Democratic Party" and Newsweek recently said he was that party's best chance to reclaim the White House in '08 though some party faithful say it will more likely be '12. At this early juncture, he doesn't appear to have a downside, save maybe for his relative inexperience. Certainly, there will be plenty who find his politics to be a downside.

I know Obama doesn't do a lot for people around here, but politics aside, he has that magnetic appeal and a striking ability to turn heads. He conducts himself not only in a professional manner, but I watched him listening. He stands there, hands clasped or arms folded, a genuine look of concern given only by a listener truly taking in the words of common people. He seemed a good man who should be given a chance and not torn down because of party affiliation.

His ability to draw people in, too, is likely based mostly on this video, but come October, when his book "The Audacity of Hope" is released, he will likely be widely known for words like these.