That's what I asked Awearness co-blogger Liza Sabater very early this morning when she exclaimed, "Is that John Legend?" as we waited to board our flight out of LaGuardia to Denver for the Democratic National Convention here.

I'm pretty unhip when it comes to music today, which I almost hold as a mantle of my age and lack of interest in popular culture, but I'll admit I was a bit embarrassed when she told me.

John Legend, of course, is a famous singer/songwriter and public supporter of Barack Obama. (He was featured in the viral YouTube hit by will.i.am "Yes We Can".)

Not only that, he's got one of the most coveted gigs a young troubadour could ask for: performing the opening night of the convention for tens of thousands of Obama supporters who have converged in the mile-high city to blog, network, or just be part of this epically historic event.

It turns out that Legend was on our flight, with a rather stunning date, and was greeted by an entourage by our flight's baggage claim carousel. A true 21st Century journalist, Liza had her cell phone's video rolling, documenting every second of our trip just in case something interesting happened.

Even I was star-struck for a minute, and as I said, I didn't even know who John Legend was. Why? Because at that moment, it sank in: we're really at the DNC. And John Legend represents the kind of youthful spirit that's driving Obama's campaign. (So youthful that even a 33 year-old like me has to ask who he is.)

But as we'll see in the days to come, Obama represents a lot more than youthful optimism, and his appeal reaches far beyond the MTV generation. That he's as celebrated by so many is just further affirmation of what some pundits were saying back in 2003, when he began campaigning for the US Senate. He truly could be the "great white hope" of the Democratic party.