Okay, you're rolling?
You, uh-- Obviously, you put
a lot of thought
into, uh, the decision to do this.
Have you given thought to,
when you're successful,
what would you want people to say
-Yeah.
-about how America
was different than the day
you walked in the door?
Well, I-- I don't think
that we're going to solve
all of our problems in eight years,
uh, or ten years.
You know, one of the things about life,
both for each of us
and for the country as a whole,
is that there're always
going to be new challenges.
There are always going to be
new difficulties.
But I hope that at the end
of an Obama administration,
people will look back and say
"We changed our politics," uh,
so that people could take pride
in their government again
and could feel that the government
was working for the people
and not just for the few.
That, at the end
of an Obama administration,
this country's a little more fair,
and a little more just.
That our economy
is a little more balanced
and that people have
a-- a slightly better chance
of achieving the American dream.
And if we set this country
on the right trajectory now,
then we won't have solved
every problem,
but we will have laid the foundation
for future generations to continue
what's been this
great experiment in democracy.
So this is
the Old State Capitol.
One thing you can say
with certainty
about Barack Obama is that
there has never been
another presidential candidate
like him.
He is ambitious
and just daring enough
to invite comparisons to one of the few
American presidents
who was elected with even less political
experience than he has.
Three years ago,
you were a state legislator
here in Springfield.
What makes you think
that you're qualified
to be president
of the United States?
It-- You know, I think we're
in a moment of history
where probably
the most important thing
we need to do is to bring
the country together.
Nice to meet you. Hi.
And, one of the skills
that I bring to bear
is being able to pull together
the different strands
of American life
and focus on what we have in common.
I'm Hillary Clinton
Senator Hillary Clinton has burst
onto the campaign field.
I'm running for president,
and I'm in it to win it
with your help!
A recent CBS news poll shows
that Black voters,
who could provide the key
to winning early
Democratic primaries,
are weary of Obama.
How important is race
in defining yourself?
I am rooted in
the African American community,
but I'm not defined by it.
I am comfortable
in my racial identity,
but, uh, that's not all I am.
The stage is set for tomorrow's
announcement.
Senator Barack Obama
will make it official.
He is in this race for president.
And while he has never
positioned himself
as "the Black candidate"
the question of his race
is, of course, and will continue
to be much discussed
and debated, especially
among African Americans.
You think the country is ready
for a Black president?
Yes.
You don't think
it's going to hold you back?
Well-- No. You know, the--
I think i--
if I don't win this race, uh,
it will be because of other factors.
It's-- It's going to be
because I have not shown
to the American people
a vision for where
the country needs to go
that, uh, that they can embrace.
I was scheduled the next morning
to be in Springfield.
Due to the implication,
Senator Obama called me.
He called me three times that day.
He was very worried
about my prayer.
And I said, ""Why?"
He said, "You know,
I go to Iowa the next day,
don't say anything in your prayer
that's gonna upset farmers."
And I said, man,
I'm the one talking about
how you brought
Southern Illinois together
to stop distrusting
and mistrusting Chicago.
I wouldn't do that in a prayer.
He called back,
"David's worried." Axelrod.
"David's worried.
Are you-- Are you sure?"
I said, "I'm straight."
The third call, he said, "Rev
Rolling Stone has got their hands
on one of your sermons
and David feels that if I take you out
on the stage with me
to open up the ceremony
with a prayer,
the press will only focus on you.
You know, you can be
over the top sometimes."
I said,
"What are you talking about?"
oppressions.
I'm thinking, what have I done?
What have I said?
What sermon of mine have you heard
that's over the top?
Maybe we need
to declare w*r on racism.
He said, "I still want you to pray
for me and my family.
Can you do that
before I go out?"
I said, "Yes, I can do that."
He said,
"I'll see you in the morning."
I landed in Springfield.
There was a car waiting for me that
took me to the Capitol.
We joined hands in a circle,
and I prayed for the family,
I prayed for him,
I prayed a non-partisan prayer
and asked
that the candidate
most dedicated to the principles
of the founders would be elected,
and that God would keep him
and his family safe.
Secret Service then took Barack
out to the platform.
I walked up with Michelle
and stood next to her
as he announced.
It was here in Springfield,
where North, South, East
and West come together,
that I was reminded
of the essential decency
of the American people.
Where I came to believe
that through this decency,
we can build a more hopeful America.
And that is why, in the shadow
of the Old State Capitol,
where Lincoln once called
on a house divided
to stand together,
where common hopes
and common dreams still live,
I stand before you today to announce
my candidacy
for President
of the United States of America.
When he made the announcement
that day in Illinois,
at the same time in Virginia
there was a Black Agenda Conference.
That I was there.
I wish, you know,
all of this about,
uh-- uh, our friend, Barack,
announcing today,
I wish Obama had announced here.
Because Lincoln--
Lincoln did not free us,
the abolitionist movement freed us.
And I was not yet there
supporting him.
We've got to quit
giving the wrong people credit
for our history.
Black leaders were kind of resentful
'cause he kind of did an inrun
around Black leadership.
Most Black people
who rise in Black communities
have to come through
and kiss the ring
of the Black political
dignitaries and potentates.
Obama leap frogged over them.
By ourselves,
this change will not happen.
Divided, we are bound to fail.
But the life of a tall, gangly,
self-made Springfield lawyer
tells us that a different future
is possible.
He makes the announcement
at Springfield,
tied to the legacy
of Abraham Lincoln,
which is a rich one.
So, we-- we understood--
Okay, I mean, political calculation,
every politician has to do that.
And you don't want to alienate
your white fellow citizens
coming out of the box.
He tells us that there is power
in words.
He tells us that there's power
in conviction.
That beneath all the differences
of race and region,
faith and station we are one people.
He's got large numbers of white
brothers and sisters
who have fears and anxieties,
and he's got to speak to them
in such a way
that he holds us at arm's length
enough to say he loves us,
but doesn't get too close
to scare them off.
So, he's walking this tight rope.
I want us to take up
the unfinished business
of perfecting our union
and building a better America!
I'm not for or against him
as a brother,
if there's any
white supremacist perception
of Barack, I defend him. Why?
'Cause I hate white supremacy.
But he's gotta be accountable.
And starting off
in Springfield, Illinois,
is not impressive to me.
Hey.
He called me up.
He said "Professor West,
I-- I heard what you said
about my speech,
why did you say it?" I said,
I said it because I believed it.
He said "I was wondering whether you
would work with me?"
I said, "I've got one question.
What is your relation to the legacy
of Martin Luther King, Jr.?"
"And how will your campaign
enact the struggle against poverty,
militarism, racism, and materialism?
Those are the evils that
Martin Luther King, Jr. saw
right before he was m*rder*d."
I can still sing
"We Shall Overcome!"
We shall overcome because the arc
of the moral universe is long
-but it bends towards justice.
-bends towards justice.
It bends towards justice.
He was very honest
with me and he said,
"Professor West, you know that I'm--
I'm not as radical as you are,
but I do see myself
directly connected
to the legacy
of Martin Luther King, Jr."
I said, "That sounds wonderful to me."
Hillary!
Forty-two years ago,
it would have been unimaginable.
Two Democratic
presidential contenders,
one a woman,
another an African American,
courting Black voters in Alabama,
preaching to overflowing churches.
Are you ready to march?
Every year,
there's a commemoration of Selma,
a great encounter between the forces
of the civil rights movement
led by John Lewis and others
and police with truncheons.
And Hillary Clinton
and Barack Obama
want to make an impression in Selma.
Many black voters say they're torn
between voting
for the African American, Obama,
or sticking with the Clintons
who've supported civil rights
for years.
That's the agonizing choice
for John Lewis,
bludgeoned during the Selma March,
and now a congressman.
It was tough, it was very--
It was tough.
I supported, uh, President Clinton
and got to know Hillary.
It was one of the tough decisions
of my political life.
The Clintons felt that
they had deep inroads
with the African American
community and with-- with reason.
You'll remember in the-- in a
certain New Yorker magazine,
Toni Morrison wrote that Bill Clinton
was the first Black president,
said with some irony,
said with all kinds of
But mostly with admiration too.
Obama gives his speech
at Brown Church.
And Hillary is down the street
at another church.
Yes, that long march to freedom
that began here has carried us
a mighty long way.
It's-- It's a contest.
Thank you, thank you.
Oh, giving all praise and honor
to God
-Amen!
-for bringing us here today.
I just want to talk
a little bit about Moses,
and Aaron and Joshua
because we are
in the presence today
-of a lot of Moseses.
-A lot.
Uh, we're in the presence today
of giants
whose shoulders we stand on.
He begins paying tribute
to what he calls the "Moses generation."
Who's Moses?
Martin Luther King, who did not see--
Famously says it in his speech,
"I might not get there with you."
As great as Moses was
despite all that he did
leading a people out of bondage
he didn't cross over the river to see
the Promised Land.
God told him, "Your job is done.
We're going to leave it to the Joshua
generation
to make sure it happens.
There are still some battles
that need to be fought.
Some rivers
that need to be crossed."
Obama pronounces himself
the head of the Joshua generation.
S-- That's incredibly nervy.
Moses told the Joshua generation,
"Don't forget
where you came from."
And I worry sometimes
that the Joshua generation
in its success
forgets where it came from.
Thinks it doesn't have
to make as many sacrifices.
You think people in the 1940s
and 1950s woke up and said,
"We are the civil rights generation,
let's do this,"
as though it was,
you know, fantastic?
Our nostalgia has made us look back
at that period of time
as though it was great,
but it was not great
getting hit in the head
on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
These weren't fun times.
These were times of commitment,
when people decided
that they weren't gonna
take it anymore
and that they could make
this country better.
Folks complaining about
the quality of our government,
I understand there's something
to be complaining about.
I'm in Washington.
I see what's going on.
It means we can't sit out elections.
It means we can't just vote for people
and then not show up
to hold them accountable.
It means we can't think that government
is something other people do.
But I'll tell you what.
I also know that,
if cousin Pookie would vote
and if Uncle Jethro
would get off the couch
and stop watching SportsCenter
and go register some folks
and go to the polls,
we might have
a different kind of politics.
That's what the Moses generation
teaches us.
Kick off your bedroom slippers.
Put on your marching shoes.
Go do some politics.
Change this country!
That's what they teach.
To me, that event is
as much his declaration
to run for president
as his announcement speech
in Springfield
but it's made particular
to the Black community.
You got my vote.
You got my vote, man.
He got my vote. You got my vote.
-You got my vote.
-Hey, I appreciate that.
I think that there is a assumption
on the part of some commentators
that somehow, the Black community
i-- is so unsophisticated
that the minute you put an African
American face up on the screen,
that they automatically say,
"That's our guy."
I wanted to say hello.
A Black candidate
has to earn Black votes
the same way that
he's gotta earn white votes.
Uh, and-- and that's exactly
how it should be.
People were asking me,
"Who you gonna support?"
And I said that, "Well, everybody
that's my color is not my kind."
I bring you the senator from Illinois,
Senator Barack Obama.
He had always said to me,
"I'm not asking you to support me,
just don't hurt me."
Thank you!
There was concern.
Is he going to represent us?
Is he going
to take our issues seriously.
What does he know about us?
Who-- We don't really know him.
I am proud to be a candidate
for the presidency
of the United States of America.
And Black people are practical,
we're no longer interested
in symbolic politics run
as a-- a reaction
to white supremacy,
run as, you know, a--
a candidate who will protest.
No, we want real people
who are able to really win.
I am mindful
that I wouldn't be here
if it had not been
for Reverend Al Sharpton
running for president
and Carol Moseley Braun
running for president,
and Jesse Jackson
running for president,
and Shirley Chisolm
running for president.
My candidacy changes
the present course of our nation.
I got involved as a protest, really.
Resisting how liberals
were taking us for granted
and dismissing us
and marginalizing us in the process.
And so one thing led to another.
I felt that we had the right to run
and the reason to run
and the capacity
to take our case to the next level.
-Who would have thought?
-I would.
We love Jesse Jackson.
In '88 he really, what?
Got seven million votes?
So that was tremendous.
After 38 contests
I would be in front.
That's more than symbolic,
that was substance,
but we need more of that.
I sense all across America
a desire for something new,
a desire to turn the page
a desire to write a new chapter
in American history.
And if I have all of you working
with me, then I guarantee you
that not only will we win
this election,
but we are also going
to transform America.
Thank you very much!
I appreciate you guys, thank you!
The more I talked to him,
the more I felt
that Barack Obama was authentic,
because he wouldn't say to me
what he knew I wanted to hear.
But he said to me
what I needed to hear.
And that was, "I really do believe
we can make the country go forward,
and that our community
can get what they want."
All right!
We're ready, thank you.
How's it going, Cedar Rapids?
Thank you! Thank you!
Early in the campaign,
our strategy was all hands
on deck in Iowa.
And the theory of the case was
that if we can win Iowa,
then he would be credible.
Not just to people in White America
but also people in Black America,
who were hesitant
about his chances of winning.
-Is this fun to do?
-I love doing this.
This-- This is what politics
is all about.
-Can I say hello?
-You sure can!
But that strategy came
with a cost,
and the cost was Black people feeling
somewhat neglected.
Now we came up
with a magic solution,
which was we asked Michelle
to go to South Carolina.
I don't think that any of us
ever thought
that we would see
a Black president in our lives.
I used to say that in 2007
there were only four people
in the United States
who thought that it was possible
for a Black man
to be elected president,
and they all lived at the same address
on the South Side of Chicago.
Hi, how are you?
-I'm Michelle Obama.
-Yes, ma'am.
Nice to see you.
Black people were very skeptical.
Any Black man that rises, boy,
it's gonna be tough,
and White folk are gonna be pissed,
and you gonna be vulnerable,
and it might not work out.
MICHELLE Now I know folks talk
in the barbershops and beauty salons.
I've heard it myself.
See people say, you know,
"That Barack Obama he's a nice guy,
but I'm not sure America's ready
for a Black president."
She gave an extraordinary speech
that really spoke to the feelings
in the African American community,
the feelings of fear.
Of worrying, "Would he lose?"
Worrying, "Would he be hurt?"
I know that people understand
that Barack is special.
You don't see
this kind of man often.
And I equate it to like, you know,
we all have that aunt,
that grandmother that bought
all that new furniture?
Spend her life savings on it,
and then what she do?
She puts plastic on it
to protect it.
Everyone in the audience,
which was comprised of primarily
African American women,
all knew
about their grandmother's couch.
I think folks just want to
protect us
from the possibility
of being let down.
Not by us, but by the world.
She gave them permission
by acknowledging their fear,
but then said "Look,
I have the most to lose."
If you're willing to heed
Coretta Scott King's words
and not be afraid of the future,
but have faith in God's grace,
then I truly believe that together,
there's no challenge
that we can't overcome.
Thank you.
There are African Americans
who don't think
that you're Black enough,
who don't think that you have
had the required experience.
The truth of the matter is, you know,
when I'm walking down
the South Side of Chicago
and, uh, visiting my barbershop, and
playing basketball in, uh,
in some of these neighborhoods,
those aren't, uh, those aren't
questions that I get asked.
I didn't know he was this or that.
Normally when you come into a shop,
into Hyde Park Hair Salon,
you're just-- you're yourself.
No titles.
There were some reporters
in the shop at one point
during the campaign,
and one of the reporters asked me,
"Oh, do you cut his hair
to appear like he's white?"
I'm like, "Excuse me?"
I said, "How do you do that?"
That was my reply,
but it stunned me.
It was unnecessary.
But it's necessary, I guess,
for a lot of people.
Barack Obama has said
that the big-city cab drivers
who once refused to pick him up
had no doubt
about his Blackness back then,
nor should anyone else now.
But recent polls show
Hillary Clinton
is the choice
of more Black Democrats,
and it's clear that Obama's racial
identity gives pause to some.
He was loudly
condemned by some.
And in private even more loudly,
"He wasn't Black enough.
He didn't have
the sl*ve experience."
Thank you, Apollo!
There's always been a kind of
heterogeneous idea
of like what it is to be Black
in this country.
And so, what was more important
than his name
or his lineage was his ability
to culturally interact
on terms with African Americans.
One of the things
the campaign did
in South Carolina was
they released this DVD
of him going around
and talking to voters.
-Retired Sergeant Major, sir.
-Man, retired Sergeant Major.
He still looks like a Sergeant Major.
And there's one point
where he goes into a barbershop
and he starts, uh,
cracking on this guy's shoes.
-How you doing, President?
-I'm doing good, man.
And check out those shoes too.
Check 'em out.
Man.
You got some, you got some.
What's that?
-I dunno--
-You got some alligator?
And that was just something
that only a person
who was comfortable
in this culture would do.
Are you fired up?
Are you ready to go?
Of course there are Whites
who will never vote for Obama
-because he is Black.
-Let's go change the world.
I don't want to sound prejudiced
or anything, but for one, um,
I'm not gonna
I don't want to vote
for a-- a colored man
to be our president.
Barack Obama's bus rode
through rural Iowa Monday,
as he takes his message
to small towns in the state.
We'll show that we value farming
in this country
by launching a program
that gives a hand
to the next generation of farmers
and helps them buy
their first farms.
It's an interesting move
just two weeks before the caucus,
because rural Iowa is certainly
not Obama's base.
The question is whether
or not Obama can connect
with the primarily-white
rural voters here.
It's still my neighbors
in small towns who don't have jobs.
Uh, it's still people in my parish
who are struggling
with retirement incomes,
and those are no different
whether we live in Chicago
or-- or in, uh, Laurens, Iowa.
How many people here
definitely plan
to caucus tomorrow?
Raise your hands.
That's what I'm talking about.
The campaign picked up momentum
over the course of the year in Iowa.
We knew that if we didn't win
the Iowa caucuses we were done.
We had to-- We had to
break through there.
Tonight, the Democratic front runners
are in a frantic drive to rally
supporters and win over converts.
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton,
John Edwards have been virtually tied
according to some of the late polling
going on surrounding this race.
And just so supporters
know what's at stake
Tomorrow night,
the future of the free world
is riding on your shoulders.
Don't feel any pressure.
Thirty-one, 32, 33. Obama
I was living in Atlanta
and there was a watch party.
And I-- I don't think
very many people
really, really thought
that he was going to win Iowa.
And then all of a sudden,
he won Iowa.
They said this country
was too divided,
but on this January night,
at this defining moment in history,
you have done what the cynics said
we couldn't do.
I remember like, leaving,
and there was a white guy
wearing a t-shirt that said,
"He's Black, I'm proud."
And then right after that,
I saw a t-shirt
that had Martin Luther King
and Barack Obama next to each other.
And then I saw that t-shirt everywhere
in the days that followed.
After he won in Iowa,
Black people were like,
"What's that? What's his name?
Barack Oberman? What's his name?
Yeah, let's we'll do--
Yeah, he's good!
He's like really good."
Hillary Clinton
was darn near knighted
as the heir apparent.
It was her turn, she had waited as a
woman in this country.
But Obama swooped right in
and figured out,
now, it's kind of my time.
So he earned it, right,
the old fashioned way.
Shoe leather, meeting people,
winning at the polls,
and Black people were like,
"This man could really win!"
How's it going, New Hampshire?
He rocketed out of Iowa
and into New Hampshire
and this morning woke up to a poll
showing a comfortable lead here over
Senator Clinton.
In his stump speech,
he now says "we" instead of "I."
The implication?
What happened in Iowa was
the start of a movement.
Obama's victory has recast
the Democratic race,
creating new pressure
on Senator Hillary Clinton.
I did very, very well
with people over 45,
and I didn't do as well
with people under 30.
And I take responsibility for that.
The Obama crowds
are large and energized,
they also tend to be young.
That's why you're here,
and in one day's time
we can stand up for change
that all of us can believe in.
In another corner of the state,
a different side of Hillary Clinton.
You know, I have so many
opportunities from this country.
I just don't want
to see us fall backwards.
No. So
Thank you!
Well, first of all,
I want to congratulate
Senator Clinton
on a hard-fought victory
here in New Hampshire.
She did an outstanding job,
give her a big round of applause.
I want, especially,
to thank New Hampshire.
Over the last week,
I listened to you.
And in the process,
I found my own voice.
New Hampshire voters have
redefined the race for The White House,
but what drove people
to vote the way they did?
Even Hillary Clinton's
own tracking poll
showed that she was
going to lose big.
Something happened
in that last 48 hours
that changed people's minds.
Hillary Clinton retooled
her campaign a little bit.
Started getting out of the bubble,
started actually talking to voters,
answering all of their questions,
had an emotional moment,
humanized herself.
Is it possible people lied to pollsters
saying they were going to vote for
for an African American
candidate and then not?
I've gotten a number
of emails now from people
in different campaigns,
Democratic strategists,
other people out there saying,
"Well, could it be a race?
Could it be a race?
Could it be a race?"
We turn next
to the campaign trail.
The politics of race
and possible trouble
for the Clinton campaign.
It involves comments
Senator Clinton made
about Martin Luther King,
and something Bill Clinton said
about Barack Obama.
This whole thing is the biggest
fairy-tale I've ever seen.
Clinton said
what he was describing
as a fairytale
was the media portrayal
of Obama's record on Iraq.
As the Democratic campaign
moves forward,
Hillary Clinton is backpedaling.
So, the Obama campaign
is deliberately distorting this
Today on Meet the Press,
she sought to blame Barack Obama
for the firestorm caused
by a remark of hers
in New Hampshire.
Dr. King's dream, uh,
began to be realized
when President Lyndon Johnson passed
the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
She said she did not mean to belittle
Dr. King's accomplishments,
which is exactly how many African
Americans took it.
Sources in the Obama campaign say
African American leaders are outraged
and believe the Clinton campaign is
using racial code words.
His fairy-tale comment was
all over talk radio,
and there was an email
being sent around
with a detailed list of comments
from the Clintons.
All this led experts to worry
that this historic campaign
between a woman
and an African American man
now threatens to divide Democrats
along racial lines.
In terms of accountability,
Senator Obama,
Senator Clinton on Sunday told me
that the Obama campaign had
been pushing this story line.
And true enough, your Press Secretary
in South Carolina, four pages
of alleged comments
made by the Clinton people
about the issue of race.
In hindsight, do you regret
pushing this story?
Well, not only in hindsight,
but, uh, going forward.
I think that our supporters,
our staff get overzealous.
Uh, they start saying things
that I would not say.
And it is my responsibility
to make sure
that we're setting a clear tone
in our campaign.
South Carolina is
the first southern primary.
It was a crucial primary for both us
and for Hillary Clinton.
The majority of voters
who participate
in the Democratic primary there
are African American
but Barack needed white votes
as well and wanted them
because he didn't want to win
on that basis.
I wanna be so persuasive
that nobody leaves this room
thinking they should vote
for anybody else.
I want everybody here to vote
for Barack. Everybody!
Barack Obama hit the lunch crowd
at a restaurant in Columbia,
where he greeted nearly every customer.
Nearly all of them White.
Of course, we can take a
picture, what's your name?
-Sean.
-Sean.
Polls show he's been losing support
among white voters here,
and spent much of the week
trying to downplay race.
He's blamed the media for hyping it,
and encouraged voters
to look past color.
If I came to you
and I had polka dots
but-- but you were convinced
that I was gonna put
more money into your pockets,
and help you pay for college,
and help keep America safe,
you'd say, "Okay.
You know, I-- I wish
he didn't have polka dots,
but I'm still voting for him."
Partly out of curiosity,
and partly out
of legitimate support,
I decided that I was going to go
to South Carolina.
We are in this place,
Denmark, South Carolina,
on the Get Out the Vote operation.
We walk up to this house,
and this older white woman
comes to the door
and tells me not to come any closer.
And I said, "Okay." And,
you know, I stopped where I was
and she said, "I already know
the date and I know the time,
I'm going to be right there
to vote for Senator Obama."
All the signs
have been positive.
Encouraging polls, the big crowds,
the confident campaign,
but Obama has seen this before
in New Hampshire.
Who can you trust to be there
for you in sunshine and storm?
On her last big rally in South Carolina,
Hillary Clinton called in
her number one surrogate.
The former president today sought
to lower expectations
suggesting Obama has the edge
here because he's Black.
Jesse Jackson won South Carolina
twice in '84 and '88.
And he ran a good campaign,
and Senator Obama's run
a good campaign here,
he's run a good campaign
everywhere.
He's got a good--
He's a good candidate
with a good organization.
When Bill Clinton came out
at the South Carolina primary
and, uh, tried to dismiss
the significance-- Kind of,
"Well, even Jesse Jackson won that."
What are you saying?
Translation, even if he wins,
Obama is just this year's
Jesse Jackson.
Yes, we can! Yes, we can!
Yes, we can!
-Yes, we can! Yes, we can!
-Thank you. Thank you!
Yes, we can! Yes, we can!
Yes, we can!
-Yes, we can! Yes, we can!
-Thank you, everybody. Thank you!
You know, over two weeks ago,
we saw the people of Iowa
proclaim that our time
for change has come.
But there were those who doubted
this country's desire
for something new.
Who said Iowa was a fluke
not to be repeated again.
Well, tonight,
the cynics who believed
that what began in the snows
of Iowa was just an illusion,
were told a different story
by the good people of South Carolina.
South Carolina
was a beautiful night.
He got about 30 percent
of white votes in the state
in addition to a majority
of Black votes,
and built the multi-racial coalition
that we had hoped for.
Completely outstripped
everyone's expectations.
And in that hall
the night when he spoke,
there were people chanting
"race doesn't matter".
Now that was premature.
That was more of a hope
than a reality,
but this was a big moment
in the campaign,
and I think a big moment
for the country.
I did not travel around
this state over the last year
and see a White South Carolina
or a Black South Carolina.
I saw South Carolina.
This is not, though
they are enormously important,
Jesse Jackson, Reverend Al Sharpton,
stalwarts of the Civil Rights movement.
But those who were perceived
to be, necessarily so, as people
who could channel Black anger,
to express Black grievance,
to realize Black progress.
With Barack Obama,
there's a different moment here.
I saw what America is,
and I believe
in what this country can be.
That is the country I see.
That is the country you see,
but now it is up to us
to help the entire nation
embrace this vision.
He really resonated in a more
transcendent way.
In a way that was informed
by a broader sweep
of the American possibility,
because his own life
was the product of that.
He gave an interracial pedigree
to hopefulness.
I know what America can achieve,
I've seen it! I've lived it!
And with Barack Obama
we can do it again!
The Kennedy endorsement
was incredibly important for Obama.
Not because Kennedy would bring
large numbers of votes
but because Kennedy was
an establishment figure
and his willingness
to lay hands on Obama
and say he's ready to be president
really spoke to concerns
that people had about that.
The next president of the United States,
Hillary Clinton!
The endorsement is a
huge blow to Hillary Clinton,
a longtime friend and colleague
of Ted Kennedy.
The senior senator from Massachusetts
repeatedly scolded Bill Clinton
for his divisive tactics
in South Carolina.
--For Bill Clinton, who has always
cast himself as President
Kennedy's political heir,
today's endorsement
is a slap in the face.
We need to nominate somebody
with the experience,
and the fortitude, and the know-how
to take whatever they send our way
and send it right back.
As of tonight, our latest CBS News
Democratic delegate count
shows Obama leading Clinton by 97.
So the battle goes on, and with ten
straight wins
momentum is on Obama's side.
This is our moment!
This is our time!
And another blown today
to the Clinton campaign.
She's lost 11 straight primaries and
caucuses to Barack Obama
and now Clinton has lost a very
important supporter.
Congressman John Lewis of Georgia
switched sides today.
He is now backing Obama.
He represented something new.
He represented a real sense
of hope and optimism.
It was daring, just daring.
It became uncomfortable for Black people
to explain,
as political leaders,
why they weren't with Obama.
So, it's not that they swayed
the people to support Obama.
Obama's love among the people
swayed the leaders to come along.
Obama!
I felt that it was my responsibility
to be true to the cause.
What really was going to help
the cause?
Putting a guy like this
in The White House,
if we could help do that
and not get in the way.
Or playing to the--
what, uh, my pastors call
the "cheap seats"
of just rah-rah-rah,
and we end up with nothing.
Thanks for being here. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Now moving on
to the Republicans,
John McCain clinched
the nomination last night.
And today, he went over
to The White House.
Last night, both Senator Obama
and Senator Clinton called
to congratulate me.
I pledged at that time
and I pledge again,
a respectful campaign.
A respectful campaign
based on the issues
and based on the stark differences
and vision that we have
for the future of America.
How's it going Mississippi?
In another win for Barack Obama
last night in Mississippi,
he regained a significant lead
over Hillary Clinton
in the pledge delegate count.
But the talk of the Democratic race
today was once again about race,
and prominent Democratn Geraldine
Ferraro's assertion
that Obama wouldn't have gotten this
far if he was not Black.
I rejected what she said,
and I certainly do repudiate it.
And, uh, regret deeply that, uh,
you know, it was said.
I-- This-- This is politics, uh,
and, you know, part of the problem
that we have right now is that,
uh, we have too much at stake
to be engaged in these politics.
You know, uh, campaigns
are really long oral exams
and character tests
for the presidency.
Ours really came on a day
in March of 2008.
I served Trinity church
for 36 years.
I had never taken a sabbatical.
So, I told the congregation,
Don't call, don't text,
don't email,
I'm going on sabbatical.
First thing we're gonna do
is go on a family vacation.
We're going on a cruise.
We want to turn now
to an in-depth look
at a very important figure
in Democratic frontrunner,
Barack Obama's life.
His long-time pastor,
the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
Reverend Wright has made a number of
controversial statements over the years.
Now that Obama is a national figure,
the question is,
could the Reverend
become a liability?
The media had been taking a hit,
saying that they were going
too soft on Barack Obama
and that they were having
you know this, basically,
love fest, and that he hadn't gotten
the kind of critical coverage
that a presidential candidate needs.
And so they go to Jeremiah Wright.
The angels in Heaven were singing,
God never fails!
ABC had all these tapes
of Jeremiah Wright's sermons,
and there were millions of them and
it kind of wasn't a priority.
They had a lot to do
during the campaign.
Most of them are long
and irrelevant to anything.
Bless the Lord.
Oh, my soul.
And then they stumble upon
a couple of these sermons
that seemed incendiary.
The government gives them the drugs,
builds bigger prisons,
passes a three-strike law,
and then wants us to sing
"God Bless America"?
No, no, no, not God Bless America,
God Damn America!
That's in the bible,
for k*lling innocent people.
God Damn America.
They took clips
and wove them together
into, you know, the most
incendiary things he had said
over a 30-year career
in like two minutes.
Uh, but it had the desired effect.
We have supported state terrorism
against the Palestinians
and Black South Africans,
and now we are indignant!
Because the stuff
we have done overseas
is now brought right back
into our own front yards!
They were deeply critical
of American foreign policy
and in a language
that was, uh, way more inflammatory
than most of America,
White America, could stomach.
And Obama had found a home
in this church.
Cruise ships only broadcast
certain stations.
They had Fox News on the boat
and were playing a-- a clip
from a sermon I preached
the Sunday after 9/11/01.
I say, "What?"
So, we started changing the channel.
It was on all of the channels.
I want to show you a clip
from Barack Obama's pastor,
it's getting a lot of play right now.
We bombed Hiroshima,
we bombed Nagasaki!
What you're about to hear
is inflammatory to some,
to others, harsh as it sounds,
it's the truth.
And we nuked far more
than the thousands in New York
and the Pentagon
and we never batted an eye.
Obviously, his remarks
are incendiary.
It comes at a particularly bad time.
Obama was in the Senate the day
this "greatest hits of Reverend Wright"
surfaced. He was voting all day.
I don't think he had a sense
of how much it had captured
the imagination of the media.
God damn America.
We tried to reach Reverend Wright
to get his reaction now
to the fallout from his fire
and brimstone sermon,
but we're told he's on vacation
and not available.
On a cruise ship
they sit you at one table
where you sit every meal.
The White families
at the table next to ours
had requested to be moved.
They don't want to sit next
to an "anti-American r*cist." A what?
And they will not only attack you
if you try to point out what's going on
in White America, US of KKK A.
This is going to scare
the hell out of White people,
-and you know that that's true.
-No, it's designed to attempt to scare.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s
last sermon was gonna be
"Why America may go to hell."
It was not "America should go to hell."
It didn't-- It was not
"America ought to go to hell."
It may go to hell
because if you don't come
to terms with racism,
poverty, militarism, materialism,
those evils are gonna suck all
the good stuff out of your democracy.
That's in part what Jeremiah Wright
was talking about.
Barack knows what it means
to be a Black man
living in a country
and a culture that is controlled
by rich, white people.
Hillary can never know that.
Hillary ain't never been called
a n*gg*r.
That became for us
the cruise from hell.
I stayed in the cabin
most of the time
so that the nasty remarks,
name calling
would not be something
my family had to be exposed to.
But they heard that,
my grandkids were hearing this.
Breaking news at this hour,
after a day of headlines
about the controversial remarks
by Pastor Jeremiah Wright
of the Trinity United Church of Christ,
Pastor Wright is quote "no longer
on the Obama presidential
campaign committee."
I was a chairperson
of his religious advisory team.
I saw myself get dismissed
from that position on television.
Your campaign saying
this afternoon it had no plans
to ask Reverend Wright to step down.
Obviously, that has changed.
Did he step down tonight
or did you ask him to leave?
You know, I-- I think
there was a recognition
that, uh,
he's on the verge of retirement,
he's taking a sabbatical, uh,
and that it was important, uh,
for him to step out of the spotlight
in this situation.
Unfortunately,
as an American politician,
you can't get too close
to that kind of prophetic fire
or you get burned.
So, I can understand Barack,
in some sense,
wanting to get a distance
as a politician.
I-- These particular statements
that have been gathered,
uh, are ones
that I strongly objected to
strongly condemned.
I-- Had I heard them in church,
I would have expressed that concern
directly, uh, to Reverend Wright.
So, I didn't become familiar
with these until, uh, recently.
But on a personal level
and on a very deep, uh, truthful level,
you had to try to teach people
that there are voices in
our society that are radical
that are not up for elections.
He called me that night and said,
"I want to make a speech.
I want to make a speech
about race, and I want to put
this Reverend Wright issue in context."
And we said, "Okay." And he said,
"And I want to do it no later
than Tuesday." This was Friday.
He felt that he owed
the American people an explanation
and that they had
to hear it directly
and honestly from him.
A very painful thing for Obama
was dealing with his pastor,
very painful.
And it was very painful
to the community
because people were angry
because they were trying
to act like he threw his pastor
in front of the bus.
We set up this speech for the
Constitution Center in Philadelphia
on the theory
that if you're gonna go down,
go down on a big stage.
The anxiety in the room was palpable.
And he turned to me and said,
"You know,
I'm gonna go out there
and give this speech"
"and people will either accept it
or they won't."
Thank you. Thank you.
-"And if they don't"
-Thank you. Thank you.
"then I just won't be president,
but at least I'll have said
what I think needs to be said."
He said,
"That's worth something."
We the people, in order to form
a more perfect union
221 years ago
in a hall that still stands
across the street,
a group of men gathered
and with these simple words
launched America's improbable
experiment in democracy.
The document they produced
was eventually signed,
but ultimately unfinished.
It was stained by this nation's
original sin of sl*very.
I chose to run for president
at this moment in history
because I believe deeply
that we cannot solve
the challenges of our time
unless we solve them together.
Unless we perfect our union.
I think what was extraordinary
about Obama's so-called race speech
is the fact that it happened at all.
There was no precedent.
I mean, yes, Black people had run for
president before,
but at this stage in the game,
there wasn't a clearly
marked road that said,
this is how this kind
of Black person deals
with people trying to disparage him
and take him down
in the name of race.
Throughout the first year
of this campaign,
against all predictions
to the contrary
we saw how hungry
the American people were
for this message of unity.
Despite the temptation
to view my candidacy
through a purely racial lens,
we won commanding victories
in states
with some of the whitest populations
in the country.
Obama was forced to give
a speech on race,
he was forced to.
He was in trouble.
This is not to say that race
has not been an issue in this campaign.
And yet, it's only been
in the last couple of weeks
that the discussion of race
in this campaign
has taken
a particularly divisive turn.
Smaller things had ended presidential
candidacies.
Howard Dean just yelled off key
and that was it, you know,
his presidency is done.
I have already condemned,
in unequivocal terms,
the statements of Reverend Wright
that have caused such controversy,
and in some cases pain.
But the truth is, that isn't all
that I know of the man.
The man I met more than 20 years ago
is a man who helped introduce me
to my Christian faith
and who, over 30 years, has led
a church that serves the community
by doing God's work here on earth.
The church contains, in full,
the kindness and cruelty,
the fierce intelligence,
and the shocking ignorance,
the struggles and successes,
the love
and, yes, the bitterness and biases
that make up the Black experience
in America.
I can no more disown him
than I can disown
the Black community.
I can no more disown him
than I can disown
my white grandmother.
A woman who helped raise me,
a woman who sacrificed again
and again for me,
a woman who loves me as much as
she loves anything in this world,
but a woman who once confessed
her fear of Black men
who passed her by on the street.
And who, on more than one occasion,
has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes
that made me cringe.
These people are part of me.
And they are a part of America,
this country that I love.
As opposed to just cutting
Jeremiah Wright off immediately,
uh, or even kind of saying
"It's not possible for me to win,"
he does exactly what a professor
or a teacher would do
in that circumstance,
which is step into the middle of it
and look at it, panoramically,
and then try to understand it
for what it is.
Under other circumstances,
we would call that a class.
In Barack Obama's circumstance,
this is a public address or speech.
The fact is that the comments
that have been made
and the issues that have surfaced
over the last few weeks
reflect the complexities
of race in this country
that we've never really
worked through.
A part of our union that we have
not yet made perfect.
We do not need to recite here
the history of racial injustice
in this country,
but we do need to remind ourselves
that so many of the disparities
that exist
between the African American community
and the larger
American community today
can be traced directly to inequalities
passed on from an earlier generation
that suffered under
the brutal legacy of sl*very
and Jim Crow.
The anger is real.
It is powerful.
And to simply wish it away,
to condemn it
without understanding its roots,
only serves to widen
the chasm of misunderstanding
that exists between the races.
In fact, a similar anger exists
within segments
of the White community.
Most working and middle-class
White Americans
don't feel that they've been
particularly privileged by their race.
Their experience
is the immigrant experience.
As far as they're concerned,
no one handed them anything.
They built it from scratch.
So, when they are told to bus
their children to a school across town,
when they hear an African American
is getting an advantage
in landing a good job
or a spot in a good college
because of an injustice that
they themselves never committed,
when they're told that their fears
about crime in urban neighborhoods
are somehow prejudiced,
resentment builds over time.
Now I believe in staying
in contact with the humanity
of my precious White brothers
and sisters,
but they need to understand that
in a White supremacist civilization,
you've been the beneficiary of
unbelievable privilege and entitlement,
that you have a right to justice,
you have a right to fairness,
but your resentment
will never have the same weight,
morally and spiritually,
as a Black rage
who had to come to terms
with foremothers and forefathers
r*ped and violated
and exploited and lynched.
And when he presented
that equivalent,
it made me upset. I said,
"you're not telling the truth!"
To wish away the resentments
of White Americans,
to label them as misguided
or even r*cist,
without recognizing
they are grounded
in legitimate concerns, this too
widens the racial divide
and blocks the path to understanding.
It was the attempt, the desire,
to create a language of embrace.
And his critics will say that's
a language that ignores reality.
That it's too idealistic.
But that's him.
The profound mistake
of Reverend Wright's sermons
is not that he spoke
about racism in our society,
it's that he spoke
as if our society was static,
as if no progress had been made,
as if this country,
a country that has made it possible
for one of his own members to run
for the highest office in the land
and build a coalition
of White and Black
Latino, Asian, rich, poor,
young and old,
is still irrevocably bound
to a tragic past.
The Senator came
to my home to ask me
to stop preaching
until after the election.
I've been preaching this way
for 50 years
regardless of who's running
for what office.
Carol Moseley Braun,
Harold Washington, Barack Obama.
That doesn't change or affect
or alter the gospel in any way.
He then paid me one
of the highest compliments
I've ever had paid to me.
He said to me, "You know
what your problem is?"
I said, "What's my problem?"
"As a preacher,
you have to speak the truth."
I said, "That's a good problem to have."
Do you consider
yourself a Black man
-or an American first?
-An American, absolutely.
Is there a difference between
Black patriotism and White patriotism?
No, I don't think so. I mean, what
what I think is that
the African American community
is much more familiar
with some of the darker aspects
of American life
and American history.
I think that they understand
America much less
as a marching band playing
John Philip Sousa,
and they understand America
much more
as a jazz composition
with blue notes.
And I think those are different things.
And so, the African American community
can express great rage
and anger about this country
and love it all the same.
Tonight, Minnesota
after 54 hard-fought contests
We love you, Obama!
our primary season
has finally come to an end.
Because you chose to listen
not to your doubts or your fears,
but to your greatest hopes
and highest aspirations.
Tonight, we mark the end
of one historic journey
with the beginning of another.
A journey
a journey that will bring a new
and better day to America.
Because of you,
tonight I can stand here and say
that I will be
the Democratic nominee
for the president
of the United States of America.
He is 46 years old and his life has been
an extraordinary American journey.
Last night he made history
by becoming
the presumptive nominee
of the Democratic party.
The first African American
major party nominee.
He turned away Hillary Clinton, the
first woman to get as far as she did.
This historic victory
comes with a two-fold challenge,
battling Senator John McCain
while trying to unify a deeply
divided Democratic party.
So, reporters,
don't unpack your bags,
it'll be a long hot summer.
Senator McCain
talks a great deal
about his experience
as a-- as a prisoner of w*r
-Right. Right.
-and how it has shaped him.
What is the thing
that has shaped you?
It-- The story for me is
of being born into
pretty humble circumstances.
Not having a dad in the house.
But having a mother
and grandparents who loved me,
who instilled in me some pretty, uh,
you know, Midwestern Kansas
values of hard work
and stick-to-it-ness, and honesty
and looking out
for other people, uh,
and-- and what's shaped me
most powerfully,
maybe because I'm half Black
and half White,
uh, that a big chunk
of my childhood,
I was sort of an outsider,
I didn't quite fit anywhere.
Part of what shapes me is--
is, uh, being able
to find a connection
with all kinds of different people,
and-- and want to
bring them together
and bridge misunderstandings,
and-- and bridge conflict,
so that we can actually
get things done.
And that, I think is something
that led me into public service.
And in some ways, that's something
very profoundly American about me.
A fist bump? A pound?
A t*rror1st fist jab?
The gesture everyone seems
to interpret differently.
Rumors and innuendo
are as much a part
of a presidential campaign
as flag pins and chicken dinners.
But after a week of radio talk shows
and websites spreading the word
that Michelle Obama may have used
a racial epithet against white people
in a speech
Some, uh-- uh,
reference to white people
as "whities," allegedly.
and continuing whispers
about whether Obama is a Muslim,
the campaign has launched
a new counter offensive,
a website. It's called
FightTheSmears dot com
and is devoted to debunking false rumors
about the Obamas.
First it was my name, right?
That was a problem.
And then there was
the Muslim-email thing.
This particular one alleges,
among other things,
that you took the oath of office
on the Quran and not the Bible?
Now it's the patriotism thing.
Barack Obama refuses to
salute the flag,
he refuses to wear a flag pin.
And my wife's comment.
Let me tell you something,
for the first time in my adult lifetime,
I'm really proud of my country.
She already clarified herself.
She was very clear about it.
I'm proud of this country,
and I'm proud
of the fact that people are ready
to roll up their sleeves
and do something phenomenal.
There's always some nonsense
going on in general elections, right?
If it wasn't this,
it'd be something else.
You know, the Obamas
are remarkably focused.
Eyes on the prize.
The prize, by the way,
is not the presidency.
The prize is the work.
It's not that it does not hurt
to be defamed and misnamed.
But I think that what served
both of them well,
was understanding that
they were in service to a larger ideal,
and that what leadership meant
in that moment
was to just keep on the path.
Thank you, guys.
Racism is always
a very convenient tool
to use by those who want power.
They don't have to, themselves,
be motivated by race.
They can just be motivated
by the desire to hold on to,
attain, or broaden
their base of power.
And because racism
is so deeply baked
into the American psyche,
you only have to tap into the vein.
Thank you. Thank you, guys.
-Senator, good luck.
-Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you, guys.
A political firestorm erupted today
over a magazine cover cartoon
of Barack Obama and his wife.
The New Yorker cover
depicts the couple
doing a fist bump
in the Oval Office.
He's in Muslim clothing,
she's in camouflage.
The cover also shows an American flag
burning in the fireplace
and a picture of Osama Bin Laden
hangs on the wall.
Barry Blitt drew
a cover that meant
to take every crazy stereotype
about Michelle and Barack Obama,
and put them into one image.
And you were seeing these images
and this rhetoric
on Fox News for example, all the time.
We didn't draw it out of nowhere.
And, um, the reaction was not,
let's just say, uniformly fantastic.
I can't tell you
how many people have said to me,
David, you know, if-- if they
wouldn't have known
this was on the cover
of The New Yorker magazine,
they would have just seen this cartoon
and they would have-- and been asked,
"Which magazine
has this on the cover?"
Almost every one of us
would've said
some neo-n*zi magazine,
the Ku Klux Klan
Oh, come on, Wolf,
come on, come on, come on.
The fact is-- Wait a minute,
the fact of the matter
is that it is on The New Yorker
and context means a lot.
The New Yorker cover
now appears on websites
of Obama's opponents,
many conservatives.
The New Yorker's perceptive cover,
says RightWingNews dot com.
Obama had no response,
but his campaign said, quote
We had published,
I don't know how many covers
making fun of George Bush,
politically, in myriad ways.
The reason for the reaction
to this cover
was that a mainly
liberal audience said,
"Of course, I understand this.
But those people out there"
"those rubes
in the big square states
who can't understand anything
are going to see this
as not something ironic
or a comment on something,
but as reality."
And I found that wrong
and condescending.
A new Newsweek poll suggests
12 percent of voters
still think Obama
is a practicing Muslim,
26 percent think
he was raised Muslim,
and 39 percent think he attended
an Islamic school.
So, is the magazine pointing out
anti-Obama myths or perpetuating them?
One sub current
of the 2008 campaign
had been this really irrational fear
that Barack Obama represented
some sort of revenge-fantasy
for Black people.
What his identity did was allow people
to run wild
with the most feverish conjurings
of their conspiratorial minds.
So there is a really great moment
that expresses Obama's
kind of strategic relationship
to Black identity,
and that was in the
Democratic National Convention
in Denver in 2008.
No one can question
Barack Obama's patriotism.
Like all of us, he was taught
what it means to be an American
by his family.
His grandmother who worked
on a b*mber assembly line
in World w*r II,
his grandfather who marched
in Patton's Army,
and his great uncle
who enlisted in the army
right out of high school
at the height of the w*r.
There's a point
where John Kerry mentions
that Barack Obama's uncle,
who is a veteran of World w*r II,
was present in the convention hall.
And he requests
that his uncle stand up
and be acknowledged by the crowd.
Please join me in saluting
this American hero, Charlie Payne.
This elderly white man
stands up,
you know, this man who would
not be out of place
at any VFW hall in the country.
And I happen to be with a group
of Black delegates
who all howled with laughter
because you understood exactly
what he was doing.
And the guy next to me said,
"If I had a white uncle,
I'd take him to every
job interview I went to."
That was a kind
of brilliant inversion
of the one-drop rule in America.
Because as they say,
"If you are Black at all,
you are all Black."
Barack Obama turned that inside out.
"If you don't understand who I am,
if you're trying to figure out
who I am, well, here's my uncle.
There's a good chance
that you have an uncle
who is just like this guy."
Charlie, your nephew,
Barack Obama,
will end this politics
of distortion and division.
That flag that hangs
from the rafters
and that you have waved here
this evening,
that flag doesn't belong
to any ideology,
it doesn't belong
to any political party.
It is an enduring symbol
of our nation,
and it belongs
to all the American people.
John McCain! John McCain!
John McCain!
John McCain! John McCain!
John McCain! John McCain!
My friends, I've spent
the last few months
looking-- looking for a running mate
who can best help me
shake up Washington
and make it start working again
for the people
that are counting on us.
We're going to turn to the political
preoccupation of the nation.
Who will McCain pick
for Vice President?
Of course, we know
Barack Obama's selection
of a running mate
was a tightly held secret.
For months,
I've searched for a leader
to finish this journey alongside me.
I've found that leader.
A man with a distinguished record.
A man with fundamental decency.
And that man is Joe Biden.
My friends
and fellow Americans,
I am very pleased
and very privileged
to introduce to you
the next Vice President
of the United States.
Governor Sarah Palin
of the great state of Alaska.
If John McCain had hoped
to use his announcement
of a running mate
to steal the spotlight
from the Democrats
the day after their convention ended,
he succeeded.
The question of the day was Sarah who?
Who is Sarah Palin?
I'm a hockey mom from Alaska.
I'm not one of those movers and shakers
within the Republican party
that I think, conventionally,
you would think, would be tapped.
Palin has been governor
less than two years,
but is already the state's
most popular politician.
She is the anti-Washington
Republican conservative.
Pro-g*n, anti-ab*rtion
with a political record as far
outside the beltway
as anyone can get.
Before I became governor
of the great state of Alaska
I was mayor of my hometown.
I guess a small-town mayor
is sort of like
a community organizer,
except that you have
actual responsibilities.
Whatever the long-term impact
of Sarah Palin
on McCain's chances,
uh, she gave him a short-term
adrenaline shot,
and his campaign began
to attract big crowds.
But the tone
and tenor of the crowds
turned uglier and uglier.
I was reading today a copy
of The New York Times.
And I was really interested
to read in there
about Barack Obama's friends
from Chicago.
Turns out
one of his earliest supporters
is a man who, according
to The New York Times,
was a domestic t*rror1st
and part of a group--
Part of a group that, quote,
"launched a campaign of bombings
that would target the Pentagon
and the US Capitol."
Man.
The Palin factor. The campaign
that's turned down and dirty.
Down in the polls,
the McCain campaign
has found a new attack dog.
Senator McCain and his operatives
are gambling
that they can distract you
with smears
rather than talk to you
about substance.
I am just so fearful
that this is not a man
who sees America the way
that you and I see America.
They'd rather tear
our campaign down
than lift this country up.
That's what you do
when you're out of touch,
out of ideas,
and running out of time.
I'm afraid this is someone
who sees America
as imperfect enough to work
with a former domestic t*rror1st
who had targeted his own country.
Even as just a journalist,
the crazy emails about
how really I got it all wrong,
and that Barack Obama
was created by t*rrorists
and b*mb-throwing radicals.
Unfortunately, that crap entered
the mainstream.
In the-- In the name of Sarah Palin.
He's palling around with t*rrorists.
This language was--
And feeling was--
It's not just some
American marginalia over here.
People saw it as sufficient enough
that it needed whipping up.
I'm afraid if he wins,
the Black will take over.
He seems like a sheep,
or a wolf in sheep's clothing,
to be honest with you.
He must support t*rrorists.
You know, if-- if it walks like a duck
and quacks like a duck,
it must be a duck.
And that, to me, is Obama.
You have to have some degree
of optimism
and some degree of faith
in White America
because the majority of the population
can already be president.
I don't know how you become
president without that, right?
Or at least at that point,
I don't know how you
become president without that.
Uh, but I think also that
that faith might prevent you
from seeing certain things.
The belief in the goodness
of White America
did not allow you to see
that this could actually
get really bad.
Yes, ma'am.
Ma'am, if you're going
to walk up like that
I'm not going to give you the mic.
Okay, I gotta ask you
a question.
I do not, uh, believe in
I can't trust Obama.
I-- I have read about him,
and he's not-- he's not--
he's a, uh,
he's an Arab. He is not
-No, ma'am. No, ma'am.
-No?
No, ma'am. No, ma'am. No, ma'am.
He's a-- He's a decent, family man,
citizen that I just happen
to have disagreements with
on-- on fundamental issues,
and that's what this campaign
is all about.
He's not. Thank you. Thank you.
We all thought that was
McCain's finest moment
in the whole, uh, campaign.
Now, I want to acknowledge
uh, that Senator McCain,
yesterday, tried to tone down
the rhetoric
in some of his town halls.
I don't think Obama
was surprised
by some of the acrimony out there.
This is little Hussein.
He understood
that there were these
darker impulses out there.
But at the same time,
he was traveling the country,
and there were as many
as a hundred thousand people
showing up at his rallies.
That was a tonic in a way
for some of the ugliness
that we saw on the other side.
We have had a-- a remarkable campaign
and, uh, you know,
when we started 21 months ago,
I-- I didn't know
how it would turn out.
And no matter what happens tomorrow,
I'm going to feel good
about how it's turned out
because all of you have created
this incredible campaign.
Uh, some of you heard
that my grandmother, uh,
who helped raise me, passed away,
uh, early this morning
and I--
-Look, she-- she has gone home.
-Yeah!
And she died peacefully
in her sleep
with my sister at her side.
And so, there's great joy
as well as tears.
I'm not gonna talk about it too long,
because it's hard a little
to talk about.
Uh
She was somebody
who was a very humble person
and a very plain-spoken person.
She was one of those quiet heroes
that we have all across America
-Just like you!
-who--
They're not famous.
Uh, their names
aren't in the newspapers,
But each and every day
they work hard.
They look after their families.
They sacrifice for their children
and their grandchildren.
They aren't seeking the limelight.
All they try to do
is just do the right thing.
And the satisfaction that they get
is seeing that their children,
and maybe their grandchildren
or their great grandchildren,
uh, live a better life than--
than they did.
And that's what America's about.
That's what we're fighting for.
And, North Carolina
in just one more day,
we have the opportunity
to honor
all those quiet heroes
all across America
and all across North Carolina.
We can bring change to America
to make sure that their work
and their sacrifice is honored.
That's what we're fighting for!
They opened the floodgates this morning
at voting places across the country.
The lines began forming,
even before the sun came up.
And in many cases,
lines as far as the eye could see.
Even with the long lines,
both campaigns were still
working feverishly to add to them.
Anybody else you can get
to come out and help us,
we'd really appreciate it.
In Indianapolis,
Obama worked the phones
in a last minute "get out the vote"
effort.
Hi, Pam?
This is Barack Obama, how are you?
It wasn't unexpected at that point
that he was going to be elected,
if you looked at the polling.
But, I was one of the people
who firmly believed that,
"I'll believe it when I see it."
Of course in politics,
it ain't over until people vote.
I was one of those people
who that was my first time
ever voting, period.
Like, ever.
Like, Barack Obama was the first person
that energized me and made me say,
"Yo, I want to go out here and vote."
I decided to call
a watch-night service
like we do on New Year's Eve,
down at Martin Luther King's
church in Atlanta.
This election is not
the promised land,
but I tell you,
it is a major down payment
on the promised land.
And when it flashed
across that screen,
Obama won Ohio,
I was in my fifties,
and it was the first time in my life
that I could honestly tell a kid,
you could be president.
We're only a few seconds
away from the top of the hour
when these states will be closing
and there are some big ones.
And presumably,
we'll be able to see
what's going on and make,
perhaps, a major projection
at that point.
This is a moment that a lot
of people have been waiting for.
This is a moment that, potentially,
could be rather historic
Five, four, three,
two, one!
And CNN can now project
that Barack Obama,
47 years old, will become the
President-elect of the United States.
We project he now
has enough electoral votes. More than
I never thought
that I would live to see a Black man
or a Black woman as president
of the United States of America.
My own mother, my own father,
my grandparents
didn't become registered voters
until after the Voting Rights Act
was passed
and signed into law
on August 6th, 1965.
And to live to see
Barack Obama become president
of the United States of America
was almost too much.
I jumped up so high
I didn't think my feet
were going to touch the floor,
and I started crying.
It was the moment
the movement and the mission
all came together.
Man, to my mind came the martyrs.
Our warriors fight for civil rights
in America, we're soldiers too.
Fighting for freedom in America is
risky, it's very dangerous.
And those who made it
possible were not there.
I wish Dr. King, Medgar Evers
for a moment just--
God gave them 15 seconds
to look at-- look at their work.
This is their work,
he's the result of our work.
Ladies and gentlemen
the next First Family of the United
States of America.
When he won, we all won.
I went to Grant Park.
If you're in Grant Park,
it seemed like America
had finally done
something significant.
It was an affirmation
of what America could be at its best.
America's not always at its best.
But, I-- I felt, that night, election
night, as a Black man in America,
that this is what America could be.
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 been
a long time coming
but tonight, because of what
we did on this day,
in this election,
at this defining moment,
change has come to America.
That's the true genius
of America
that America can change.
Our union can be perfected.
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 is a lot like the millions
of others
who stood in line
to make their voice heard
in this election,
except for one thing,
Anne Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.
She was born
just a generation past sl*very,
when someone like her couldn't vote
for two reasons.
Because she was a woman
and because of the color of her skin.
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.
-Yes, we can!
America,
we have come so far.
We have seen so much.
But there's 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 Anne 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.
This is our time
to reclaim the American dream
and reaffirm that fundamental truth
that out of many, we are one.
That while we breathe, we hope.
And where we are met
with cynicism and doubt,
and those who tell us that we can't,
we will respond
with that timeless creed
that sums up the spirit of a people.
Yes, we can.
Thank you, God bless you,
and may God bless
the United States of America.
Oh wow!
Nice, guys. Thank you.
Thank you very much, everybody.
Thank you very much.
This morning, we woke up
to more sobering news
about the state of our economy.
Now, the United States
has only one government
and one president at a time.
And until January 20th of next year,
that government
is the current administration.
I've spoken to President Bush.
I appreciate his commitment
to ensuring
that his economic policy team
keeps us fully informed
as developments unfold.
And I'm also thankful
for his invitation to The White House.
For almost two years now,
Barack Obama has been in campaign mode.
And suddenly overnight,
everything has changed.
Barack Obama will replace
one of the most unpopular presidents
in modern history.
He will inherit two wars
and an economic crisis not seen
since The Great Depression.
His first legislative goal
will be to get Congress to pass an
economic stimulus package
that he hopes will create jobs
and put money in the pockets
of ordinary citizens.
Have there been moments
when you've said,
"What did I get myself into?"
You know, surprisingly enough,
I feel, uh, right now that
I'm- I'm doing
what I should be doing.
I, Barack Hussein Obama,
do solemnly swear.
That I will execute the office
of President
to the United States faithfully.
The day when he was inaugurated,
I walked up to him
and asked him to sign something.
He wrote on this piece of paper,
"It's all because of you, John."
I said,
"Well, thank you Mr. President."
He gave me a hug, I hugged him.
And we both teared up.
Now, you've gota Black man
in that White House
built primarily by Black sl*ves.
That's moment that, uh,
I think all of us
of all colors would feel very,
very deeply.
I'll never forget that as long
as I live.
Rappers and basketball players.
That was the range in which
Black men existed
in the pop culture
for the most part. That was it.
And so it was really
something beautiful
about, you know,
seeing something else.
This was Black Camelot.
How much more American
could we get than this?
After the parade, he came back
to The White House
for a meeting with several of us,
uh, who had been friends
with him across the years.
And as he got ready to go,
he grabbed me and he said,
"Rev, I'm in it now."
He said, "Pray for me."
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