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Yes we can. Yes we did. Yes we will.
Did anybody else wake up today with the feeling of Christmas morning? Or maybe it was like your birthday?
How did you feel? Was it like getting a new car, or a big fat diamond? Or was it more like a pair of socks from your second least-favorite aunt?
Having spent the last few months as a volunteer for the Democratic Party of Loudoun County, I can tell you I’m squarely in the car/diamond camp. In fact, the victory of Barack Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, is even better – it’s a gift that the whole country, the whole world, can share. Yes … we … can!
Even if Obama and Biden weren’t your chosen candidates, I hope you can appreciate the significance of the moment, a high-water mark in the history of our country. It was, in many ways, the realization of a dream, written in the faces of civil rights activists John Lewis and Jesse Jackson last night.
In one sense, this has been a hell of a long trip. But even just a year ago, how many people thought we’d be taking it now?
Actually, it took a while for Obama to register on my personal radar screen. I remembered him from the 2004 Democratic Party convention.
He was the handsome guy with the funny name, the one with the awesome speaking skills and the great message about no-blue-states-no-red-states-just-the-United-States-of-America. Just to say that at a party convention, the most partisan of political events, was a kind of joyful heresy. It struck a chord. But to be honest, I barely noticed when Obama announced his candidacy.
I was mulling over support for Hillary Clinton around the holidays last year when my husband and I were talking with my sister at her home in Columbus, Ohio.
“What do you make of the Democratic candidates?” I asked her. “Who do you think they should nominate?”
“It’s got to be Obama,” she said. My sister had read both of his popular books and was a big fan. She shared with me his ideas about compromise, about bringing people together. She spoke of his unique background and personal experiences, and about his clear, fluid, honest writing style.
The more I tuned into Obama in the ensuing months, the more I liked him. I started rooting for him during the primary season, and cheered when he won the nomination after an extended battle with Clinton.
By August, I was at the Democratic Party HQ in downtown Leesburg, working the phones. It was a little tedious at first, with as many people supporting McCain as Obama.
But as the summer turned to fall, and the economy fell into the crapper, the support for Obama grew stronger. Much of the bloom fell off the rose as folks learned more about McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin. And the negativity that seemed to be the centerpiece of the Republican Party’s strategy started to wear thin. In the end, I knew far more about what the McCain/Palin ticket was against, than what it was for.
I’m convinced you can’t win a campaign on what you hate or what you fear. You have to be for something. You have to offer hope.
I feel that’s a message that resonated with a lot of people – in Loudoun County, in our used-to-be red state of Virginia, and in our country. I saw hope reflected in all the people who came to volunteer at the Democratic Party office and the Obama headquarters.
But more than hope, I saw the will to act, to become involved. I saw seniors and veterans making phone calls alongside moms and college-aged kids. I saw parents proudly bring their children to the Obama rally at Ida Lee Park to witness a little piece of history. I saw people of all ages, races and backgrounds come together to march right down the middle of King Street in the Leesburg Halloween parade. Some folks canvassed door-to-door. Others stuffed envelopes, put up lawn signs, did computer work or talked to their friends and neighbors.
All of it culminated in a great victory last night, and the world is celebrating.
Did we know that if we worked together, we could make this happen? Yes we did.
As Barack Obama reminded us last night:
“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.”
Yes, we will.
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More like a sinking feeling of dread. At least Clarke county stayed red.
Posted by WhyMe
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Bush said just about the same thing in his last acceptance speech...read it here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12258...
Yes we can, raise social security taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise income taxes, raise dividend taxes, raise capital gains taxes, raise the minimum wage, tax 401K's, mandate employers to provide some unknown health insurance, spend a trillion on national health insurance, provide a college education for everyone, help people with their mortgages and gas, and give a tax refund to 95% of Americans! and protect our troops abroad, and win the war on terror! and not make the current recession any worse! No money, no problem, just bankrupt the Country!
Mining for credit card data bad if Bush is doing it to find terrorists, but good if the DNC is doing it to win elections...
http://www.businessandmedia.org/artic...
Where are the liberals screaming about the incredibly gross invasion of Joe the Plumber's privacy and records? Ok to dig up and "spread around" his tax records, divorce records, child protective services records to win an election, but the DNC thinks terrorists records should be private...
Yes we can, yes we will (if it helps us and our cronies.)
300 million dollars of untraceable small dollar contributions! from Mickey Mouse, and Good Will and other phoney names...Wonder where they came from? more than Bush raised in his entire campaign...why don't you write about that?
The audacity of fraud and corruption....big money, buying elections, media special effects and production to brain wash the masses....just need Ted Turner, Oprah, the Kennedys and a few other major players to support the suppression of the truth or ask any questions...
McCain has plenty of ideas and specifics, but no one wanted facts, just American Idol glitz...and unsupportable promises..
Posted by apennysaved
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Must see this:
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2008/1...
and Newsweeks take on the cult of Obama
http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=214933
and Chris Matthews on his "job" to make sure the Obama presidency "works" (not just report the facts)
http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=214933
Posted by apennysaved
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Another view:
http://townhall.com/columnists/BenSha...
Posted by apennysaved
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i wonder . . .
we're all familiar with rhetoric about John McCain's "temper." bursts of demonstrative anger. i nevertheless feel that getting downright angry at times of injustice is appropriate. curiously, though, John McCain showed no signs of a "temper" during his campaign, and that speaks volumes.
HOWEVER . . .
i've a nagging concern about what may be an underlying, ever-present current of anger, defensiveness, and resentment in Barack Obama---possibly present in a subconscious way, but nevertheless possibly present. THIS kind of anger could be a far more dangerous thing for a president to have. it could affect his (1) views, (2) policies, (3) actions, (4) demeanor, and his (5) international relations.
might the occasional burst of anger be preferable to an underlying, ever-present resentment and anger that affects everything about a person? if i'm right about President-Elect Obama, i fear greatly for our beloved country.
thank you for allowing me to comment.
Posted by antny02
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I agree with you. I remember watching on cnn.com as state after state declared, hooting as Virginia went blue (I'd never been so proud) and being so happy when Obama was declared President Elect that I was in tears.
Yes, we can.
Posted by donna_shipley
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