First off, it's annoying to hear him say thank you so many times while the crowd keeps cheering. He's an egomaniac - he should have said it politely a couple times, then got down to business. Also, is it just me, or did Michelle Obama's smile look a little bit vicious, like a conquering victor enjoying the spoils of war...?
To Chairman Dean and my great friend Dick Durbin; and to all my fellow citizens of this great nation;
With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.
Humility? Really? Standing in front of a Greek Temple?
Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the farthest a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours -- Hillary Rodham Clinton. To President Clinton, who last night made the case for change as only he can make it; to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service; and to the next Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you. I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night.
Nice statement about the Clintons. Also, simply riding a train home to multi-million dollar house doesn't make you a man of the people...
To the love of my life, our next First Lady, Michelle Obama, and to Sasha and Malia I love you so much, and I'm so proud of all of you.
Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.
It is that promise that has always set this country apart that through hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams as well.
That's why I stand here tonight. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors -- found the courage to keep it alive.
This is a good start. Sounds nice and American so far.
We meet at one of those defining moments a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.
Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach.
Here we go...America sucks, and only he can fix it.
These challenges are not all of government's making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.
Broken Washington, yes. Is it all Dubya's fault? Hardly. Also, Bush isn't running in 2008...they always seem to forget that.
America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.
This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work.
Commencing sob stories in which helpless people have nowhere to turn but the all-powerful government, and in which the actual facts of those helpless people cannot be examined despite being used as political pawns.
This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he's worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.
We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.
Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land enough! This moment ...
As predicted: this-is-the-moment mantra shows up the first time!
...this election is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough."
Now let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that we owe him our gratitude and respect. And next week, we'll also hear about those occasions when he's broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need.
I don't need your kind of change: economic disaster and nanny-stateism...
But the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.
Has anyone examined this assertion? I'd like to know if that's an accurate number. I've heard both 90% and 95%, so I'm suspicious.
The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives on health care and education and the economy Senator McCain has been anything but independent. He said that our economy has made "great progress" under this President.That's true - we've seen incredible economic growth since Bush has been in office.
He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong.Also true. See my post from earlier today.
And when one of his chief advisors the man who wrote his economic plan was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a "mental recession," and that we've become, and I quote, "a nation of whiners."
The only people whining are liberals. Why is it that they're always complaining about how bad America is, and then can't fess up to whining?
A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud auto workers at a Michigan plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on the brakes that they made. Tell that to the military families who shoulder their burdens silently as they watch their loved ones leave for their third or fourth or fifth tour of duty. These are not whiners. They work hard and give back and keep going without complaint. These are the Americans that I know.
Pass the arugula, please.
Now, I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn't know. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year?You idiot, you took that completely out of context! It was a joke, and McCain even predicted in the very next sentence that you would do just that.
How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans?Because those tax breaks on corporations will affect almost all Americans. You would know that if you had any understanding of basic economics.
How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people's benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?
Not true on the education statement. And, last I checked, the stock market remains profitable while Social Security is bankrupt. Bald-faced lie #1.
It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it.Nice comments for the man who posted an ad tonight congratulating Obama on his historic accomplishment.
For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps even if you don't have boots. You're on your own.If you actually had any understanding of economics or the American spirit, you'd realize that this idea of individualism is what made America great. Why should the government provide for us what we can provide for ourselves?
Well it's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change America.
You see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country.
Right. The bigger the government, the better for you in the elite ruling class. The peasants can line up to accept the handouts you decide to throw their way.
We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage; whether you can put a little extra money away at the end of each month so you can someday watch your child receive her college diploma. We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was President when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush.
Not true...bald-faced lie #2.
We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500...
Why not? Those people and companies employ a LOT of other people, providing good jobs for them and their families. Why do those jobs not count in your world?
...but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job an economy that honors the dignity of work.Another unassailable sob story...
The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great a promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight.That's why you don't get economics - economic strength is measured by imports and exports, tax rates, income rates, etc., not a feel-good promise.
Because in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton's Army, and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the GI Bill.
In the face of that young student who sleeps just three hours before working the night shift, I think about my mom, who raised my sister and me on her own while she worked and earned her degree; who once turned to food stamps but was still able to send us to the best schools in the country with the help of student loans and scholarships.
Hey, wait a minute, I thought people didn't have to work to provide for themselves. Wasn't that the indication of the failed policies of George W. Bush? Isn't that the change you want to make?
When I listen to another worker tell me that his factory has shut down, I remember all those men and women on the South Side of Chicago who I stood by and fought for two decades ago after the local steel plant closed.
And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle-management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman.
How do you know that??
She's the one who taught me about hard work. She's the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me. And although she can no longer travel, I know that she's watching tonight, and that tonight is her night as well.
I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me.
Let's not forget some of the other stories that have shaped you, like domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, racist hater Jeremiah Wright, convicted felon Tony Rezko, and radical philosopher Saul Alinsky...
And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as President of the United States.
What is that promise?
It's a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have the obligation to treat each other with dignity and respect.
Especially if you do exactly what the government tells you to do, think, buy, and say.
It's a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road.
Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems...
You're such a hypocrite on this one! You've proposed government expansions and programs for every problem under the sun!
...but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology.
Our government should work for us, not against us.
No, it should get out of the way, and out of our pocketbooks.
It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity...
Why? Why should the government ensure opportunity? Isn't it our responsibility to live our own lives?
...not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work.So, if you're not willing to work, then you're apparently exempt from having to go to work...?
That's the promise of America the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper.
That's the promise we need to keep. That's the change we need right now. So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am President.
Good, give us the details!
Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.That sounds good, I like it.
Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.One little problem - by raising taxes on corporations, no corporation will want to create jobs here in America because it will be more expensive than elsewhere.
I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.
See paragraph above...and when have Democrats ever been favorable to small businesses? They're a huge swath of that $250K+ 'rich' on whom you're pledging to raise taxes!
I will cut taxes cut taxes for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.But that's exactly what you're going to do! Bald-faced lie #3.
And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.How? Details, please. It's one thing to set a goal, but quite another to reach it.
Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them.
And Biden's been there for 35 of them.
In that time, he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels.Good! Those things mean smaller, lighter cars which are less safe and cost more. And we know that renewable fuels would disappear tomorrow if the government didn't subsidize them, and they also cause hunger in third world countries.
And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.
Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.McCain and the Republicans realize that. They're proposing to drill, as well as increase nuclear power and other alternative forms of energy (wind, solar, etc.). Why are the Democrats not allowing a vote on that proposal?
As President, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power.We can already do all that, but Democrats and their lobbyists won't allow more nuclear plants to be built!
I'll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars.How??? Are you going to subsidize car dealerships with taxpayer money, too?
And I'll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels...
Which will, in turn, cause rampant starvation and death in third world countries...
...an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced.
They can (and will) if you get your way with taxes!
America, now is not the time for small plans.Based on your tax ideas, you certainly believe that!
Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy. Michelle and I are only here tonight because we were given a chance at an education. And I will not settle for an America where some kids don't have that chance. I'll invest in early childhood education.With our taxpayer dollars...
I'll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support.
With our taxpayer dollars...
And in exchange, I'll ask for higher standards and more accountability.That's already here, too. It's called No Child Left Behind, which, if I'm not mistaken, you don't support.
And we will keep our promise to every young American if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.There's that mandatory volunteerism I've mentioned before! Also, there are these things called student loans that allow people to afford college education.
Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums.Bald-faced lie #4...we will all end up paying FAR more for 'free' universal health care (which will be far less effective than what we currently get) through ungodly high tax rates. Just ask anyone from Canada, England, or anywhere else that has this system.
If you don't, you'll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves.Actually, I think it would be good to allow all of us to have the same plan Congress has now - it's a heckuva plan, and actually uses the free market to achieve the best possible care for the lowest possible cost! Let's do it!
And as someone who watched my mother argue with insurance companies while she lay in bed dying of cancer, I will make certain those companies stop discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most.
Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.
Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses...
Can we also protect American taxpayers from Congressional bailouts of private industries?
...and the time to protect Social Security for future generations.
Again, HOW??
And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.
That's a myth. Read John Stossel.
Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I've laid out how I'll pay for every dime by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don't help America grow. But I will also go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less because we cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy.Yeah, right! When was the last time a Democrat cut taxes? Kennedy, in the 1960s, I believe.
And Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America's promise will require more than just money. It will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our "intellectual and moral strength."Very true.
Yes, government must lead on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and businesses more efficient.For example, you can only buy the kind of light bulbs they allow you to buy...
Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs alone can't replace parents; that government can't turn off the television and make a child do her homework; that fathers must take more responsibility for providing the love and guidance their children need.That's true. SO WHY IN THE WORLD ARE YOU VOTING DEMOCRAT??? IT IS THE DEMOCRAT PARTY THAT HAS DESTROYED THE FAMILY BY REPLACING THE FATHER FIGURE WITH THE GOVERNMENT ITSELF!!! DO YOU NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HISTORY???
Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility that's the essence of America's promise.I agree, completely. I don't think he means this, though, because more individual responsibility means less government.
And just as we keep our keep our promise to the next generation here at home, so must we keep America's promise abroad. If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have.
Good. You'll get pounded. I can't wait to watch!
For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war...
You weren't even in the Senate at the time, so you didn't even vote on it! It's awfully easy to say you opposed something when you didn't have to put your money where your mouth was.
...knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face. When John McCain said we could just "muddle through" in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11...
Wow, it's that breathtaking revisionism again!
...and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights.Bill Clinton did have bin Laden in his sights. In fact, Sudan offered him to us twice, but Clinton said no.
John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell but he won't even go to the cave where he lives.
So, if you know where Osama bin Laden is, why haven't you revealed that information?
And today, as my call for a time frame to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush Administration...
You idiot, Bush has said all along that he would withdraw when the conditions on the ground allowed it. The conditions -- THANKS TO THE SURGE, WHICH YOU OPPOSED -- are now allowing that, so he's withdrawing as promised. By the way, how can you say that Bush is now agreeing with your 16-month withdrawal plan when you've been saying that for a year? If we'd withdrawn when you started preaching about it, we would have lost the war!
...even after we learned that Iraq has a $79 billion surplus while we're wallowing in deficits, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war.
That's not the judgment we need. That won't keep America safe. We need a President who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past.
Says the man who mirrors the failed Presidency of Jimmy Carter.
You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in eighty countries by occupying Iraq.Actually, you do. We've done it. Didn't you know that Al Qaeda viewed Iraq as the central front in the War on Terror? Didn't you know that we've kicked the snot out of them there now? Of course you do, you just won't admit it. Also, we're not occupying Iraq, we're liberating it. If we were occupying it, we'd be raping its natural resources (oil) and ruining its people. Ask any soldier, and he'll tell you they love the American troops. You'd probably know that if you spent more time there than a brief photo op and pickup basketball game.
You don't protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington.That's precisely what you have pledged to do...!
You can't truly stand up for Georgia when you've strained our oldest alliances. If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice but it is not the change we need.
We are the party of Roosevelt.
Who actually had the guts to fight a war after America was attacked.
We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe.Those were different Democrats back then. They had a spine.
The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans -- Democrats and Republicans have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.
As Commander-in-Chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle...
YOU LIE!!! YOU HAVE PLEDGED TO GUT THE AMERICAN MILITARY!!! That's #5.
and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home.Sounds good, I can get on board with that one.
I will end this war in Iraq responsibly...
You idiot, it's already over.
...and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts.Bald-faced lie #6...see above for his promise of handling the military.
But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.Is the job of President to make America look good in the eyes of the world, or to protect the Constitution and American citizens?
These are the policies I will pursue.That's why we can't let you win.
And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain.
Yep, I look forward to it, too. You're going to tank.
But what I will not do is suggest that the Senator takes his positions for political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and patriotism.Uh-oh...I've already done that. Oh well...
The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America they have served the United States of America.
So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.
You're just wrong on how you do it.
America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices...
Which the government will be happy to dictate to you...
...and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose our sense of higher purpose. And that's what we have to restore.
We may not agree on abortion,
Translation: pleeeeeease don't hammer me for my support of infanticide!!!
...but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals.Common liberal myth: making something illegal will prevent the bad guys from getting that something. Reality: making something illegal only prevents the good guys from getting that something. Wake up!
I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination.Visiting in the hospital is not the same thing as formal, legal marriage.
Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child...
Why can't the child go home with her?
...or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers.Whoa! Did he just say that? That's one of the best arguments for reducing illegal immigration!
This too is part of America's promise the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
Since when have you ever compromise with your Republican counterparts? You're the most liberal Senator in Congress! To you, 'working with others' means they do it your way.
I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters.You mean like intimidating donors and trying to silence devastating campaign ads that you can't refute?
If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.That's a pretty ironic thing to say, considering you'd been in the Senate for 143 days before you ran for President, and McCain has a quarter century of experience there.
You make a big election about small things.
And you know what it's worked before. Because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn't work, all its promises seem empty. If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it's best to stop hoping, and settle for what you already know.
I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington.
Hint hint: vote for me because I'm black...
But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you.Oh, is that why you're standing in front of a Greek Temple and had your own pseudo-presidential seal made up?
For eighteen long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said enough to the politics of the past. You understand that in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old players and expect a different result. You have shown what history teaches us that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington. Change happens because the American people demand it because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.Hope-change-unity...
America, this is one of those moments.This-is-the-moment...
I believe that as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming. Because I've seen it. Because I've lived it. I've seen it in Illinois, when we provided health care to more children and moved more families from welfare to work.Except the ones you kicked out of Michelle's hospital so it didn't go bankrupt, you mean?
I've seen it in Washington, when we worked across party lines...You've never done that. It's hard to believe he's saying this again, even after the same story was told by Biden last night and was obliterated today. See this post.
...to open up government and hold lobbyists more accountable, to give better care for our veterans and keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands.
And I've seen it in this campaign. In the young people who voted for the first time, and in those who got involved again after a very long time. In the Republicans who never thought they'd pick up a Democratic ballot, but did.
Those were Rush Limbaugh fans in Operation Chaos, and they're now re-registering as Republicans for the general election.
I've seen it in the workers who would rather cut their hours back a day than see their friends lose their jobs, in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb, in the good neighbors who take a stranger in when a hurricane strikes and the floodwaters rise.
I thought you were going to lower the oceans...?
This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that's not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores.
Instead, it is that American spirit that American promise that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.
That promise is our greatest inheritance.
I agree, this is good stuff.
It's a promise I make to my daughters when I tuck them in at night, and a promise that you make to yours a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west; a promise that led workers to picket lines, and women to reach for the ballot.
And it is that promise that forty five years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln's Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream.
The men and women who gathered there could've heard many things. They could've heard words of anger and discord. They could've been told to succumb to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred.
But what the people heard instead people of every creed and color, from every walk of life is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one.
Of course, you had to know he was going to say something about Martin Luther King, Jr...
"We cannot walk alone," the preacher cried. "And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back."
America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone.
Is this the point where we become citizens of the world rather than citizens of America...?
Whew! We made it! Now, let the media orgy begin...At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise that American promise and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.
Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.
Just a couple thoughts. First, I thought it was ridiculous how the cameras kept showing people weeping in the crowd. Get a life! Second, while Obama is clearly a gifted orator (provided the teleprompters function correctly), I don't think this speech really offered much new material. There were some details that I don't recall hearing before on some of his plans, but that's about it. Like I said, after pledging to heal the sick and raise the oceans, what else is there to promise?
Also, I was able to catch six blatant lies and provide sources for those lies immediately, and -- if I may be so bold -- make a number of other valid points of rebuttal, and I'm an amateur doing this for a hobby. I can't wait to see what the real pundits do to this speech!
There's my two cents.
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