Hello, Chicago.
If there is anyone out there who still
doubts that America is a place where all things are
possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is
alive in our time, who still questions the power of our
democracy, tonight is your answer.
It's the answer told by lines that
stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation
has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four
hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they
believed that this time must be different, that their voices
could be that difference.
It's the answer spoken by young and old,
rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white,
Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled
and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world
that we have never been just a collection of individuals or
a collection of red states and blue states.
We are, and always will be, the United
States of America.
It's the answer that led those who've
been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful
and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on
the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of
a better day.
It's been a long time coming, but
tonight, because of what we did on this date in this
election at this defining moment change has come to America.
A little bit earlier this evening, I
received an extraordinarily gracious call from Sen. McCain.
Sen. McCain fought long and hard in this
campaign. And he's fought even longer and harder for the
country that he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America
that most of us cannot begin to imagine. We are better off
for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.
I congratulate him; I congratulate Gov.
Palin for all that they've achieved. And I look forward to
working with them to renew this nation's promise in the
months ahead.
I want to thank my partner in this
journey, a man who campaigned from his heart, and spoke for
the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton
and rode with on the train home to Delaware, the vice
president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.
And I would not be standing here tonight
without the unyielding support of my best friend for the
last 16 years the rock of our family, the love of my life,
the nation's next first lady Michelle Obama.
Sasha and Malia I love you both more
than you can imagine. And you have earned the new puppy
that's coming with us to the new White House.
And while she's no longer with us, I
know my grandmother's watching, along with the family that
made me who I am. I miss them tonight. I know that my debt
to them is beyond measure.
To my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all
my other brothers and sisters, thank you so much for all the
support that you've given me. I am grateful to them.
And to my campaign manager, David
Plouffe, the unsung hero of this campaign, who built the
best -- the best political campaign, I think, in the history
of the United States of America.
To my chief strategist David Axelrod
who's been a partner with me every step of the way.
To the best campaign team ever assembled
in the history of politics you made this happen, and I am
forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done.
But above all, I will never forget who
this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to you. It belongs
to you.
I was never the likeliest candidate for
this office. We didn't start with much money or many
endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of
Washington. It began in the backyards of Des Moines and the
living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston.
It was built by working men and women who dug into what
little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to the
cause.
It grew strength from the young people
who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy who left
their homes and their families for jobs that offered little
pay and less sleep.
It drew strength from the not-so-young
people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to
knock on doors of perfect strangers, and from the millions
of Americans who volunteered and organized and proved that
more than two centuries later a government of the people, by
the people, and for the people has not perished from the
Earth.
This is your victory.
And I know you didn't do this just to
win an election. And I know you didn't do it for me.
You did it because you understand the
enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we
celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will
bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet
in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.
Even as we stand here tonight, we know
there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq
and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.
There are mothers and fathers who will
lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how
they'll make the mortgage or pay their doctors' bills or
save enough for their child's college education.
There's new energy to harness, new jobs
to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet,
alliances to repair.
The road ahead will be long. Our climb
will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in
one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than
I am tonight that we will get there.
I promise you, we as a people will get
there.
There will be setbacks and false starts.
There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy
I make as president. And we know the government can't solve
every problem.
But I will always be honest with you
about the challenges we face. I will listen to you,
especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you
to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way
it's been done in America for 221 years -- block by block,
brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.
What began 21 months ago in the depths
of winter cannot end on this autumn night.
This victory alone is not the change we
seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And
that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.
It can't happen without you, without a
new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.
So let us summon a new spirit of
patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to
pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves
but each other.
Let us remember that, if this financial
crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a
thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.
In this country, we rise or fall as one
nation, as one people. Let's resist the temptation to fall
back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity
that has poisoned our politics for so long.
Let's remember that it was a man from
this state who first carried the banner of the Republican
Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of
self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity.
Those are values that we all share. And
while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight,
we do so with a measure of humility and determination to
heal the divides that have held back our progress.
As Lincoln said to a nation far more
divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though
passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of
affection.
And to those Americans whose support I
have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but
I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your
president, too.
And to all those watching tonight from
beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those
who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of
the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is
shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.
To those -- to those who would tear the
world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and
security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered
if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved
once more that the true strength of our nation comes not
from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but
from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty,
opportunity and unyielding hope.
That's the true genius of America: that
America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've
already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must
achieve tomorrow.
This election had many firsts and many
stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on
my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in
Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood
in line to make their voice heard in this election except
for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.
She was born just a generation past
slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or
planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for
two reasons -- because she was a woman and because of the
color of her skin.
And tonight, I think about all that
she's seen throughout her century in America -- the
heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the
times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed
on with that American creed: Yes we can.
At a time when women's voices were
silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them
stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.
When there was despair in the dust bowl
and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer
fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common
purpose. Yes we can.
When the bombs fell on our harbor and
tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a
generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes
we can.
She was there for the buses in
Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and
a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall
Overcome." Yes we can.
A man touched down on the moon, a wall
came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own
science and imagination.
And this year, in this election, she
touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because
after 106 years in America, through the best of times and
the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.
Yes we can.
America, we have come so far. We have
seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight,
let us ask ourselves -- if our children should live to see
the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live
as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What
progress will we have made?
This is our chance to answer that call.
This is our moment.
