If the people will lead, the leaders will follow. The ratification of the new START treaty, without question, was uncertain as recently as one week ago. But because of the indefatigable efforts of us, citizens who stand for global solutions to global challenges, we turned the tide. We moved the mountain. We carried the day.

Imagine what other mountains we're going to move in the months and years to come.

At the heart of the new START treaty stands a Big Idea that can be expressed in a single sentence. When both we and our potential adversaries agree to mutually limit our military muscle and to mutually open ourselves to external inspections, that's better for us, for American national security, than when we insist that we cannot allow our armaments or our sovereignty to be constrained in any way (as the right demagogically demands), and consequently our potential adversaries remain wholly unconstrained as well.

After 20+ hearings and over 900 questions submitted for the record, we are finally one step closer to a full Senate debate and vote on New START, maybe even starting tomorrow. As Politico told us today: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to bring the START treaty to the floor as early as Tuesday evening, despite continued protests from senior Republican leadership that the treaty should wait until the next Congress." Senator Reid also threatened (promised) to bring the Senate back after Christmas if they don't get through everything that needs to be done.  As a tax payer I have to say that I'm happy to finally see Harry Reid figure out that he needs to protect our national security and that we can't punt this important vote to the next session because we don't want to work late.

The New START nukes treaty is at a critical make it or break it moment. The administration and Majority Leader Reid are determined to ratify this important disarmament agreement. Senator Reid is going to make the vote happen. Will the right number of Senators acknowledge their responsibilities to keep this country safer and vote for the treaty?

Senator Kyl (R-AZ) stated last Tuesday that he didn't think there was enough time for the Senate to consider New START in the post-election session. Many people reacted by concluding that this was the end of the road for New START. As the logic goes, Senator Kyl is key to unlocking the right number of Republican votes to make the treaty happen. But this gives too much credit to Senator Kyl and fails to recognize that many other Republicans have yet to state their views on the treaty. It presumes that Republican Senators are willing to vote against national security in order to follow the Party's lead.

In a speech this morning, President Obama outlined his plans and goals for the next few weeks. He emphasizes the overarching need for non-partisan consensus in order to prevent legislative deadlock. Although the economy has obviously been a critical issue in Tuesday's past election, President Obama also spoke of the need to address foreign policy issues, specifically the Senate ratification of the New START treaty, during the upcoming lame-duck session. Please read the President's remarks below:

"THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. I just want to make a few quick remarks to expand on some things that I said yesterday. Obviously Tuesday was a big election. I congratulated the Republicans and consoled some of our Democratic friends about the results, and I think it's clear that the voters sent a message, which is they want us to focus on the economy and jobs and moving this country forward. They're concerned about making sure that taxpayer money is not wasted, and they want to change the tone here in Washington, where the two parties are coming together and focusing on the people's business as opposed to scoring political points.