Obama Stopped, Turned To Marvel At The Crowd: "They were the ones he, and we, were waiting for"

[kpete]

The Obama Majority
By Harold Meyerson

................

“I want to take a look one more time. I’m not going to see this again.”

............................

Obama’s legions have proven that they can win elections, and this matters a great deal more, the president has learned, than whatever trace elements of goodwill he may win by deferring to Congress.

The Obama Majority — its existence and mobilization — is what enabled the president to deliver so ideological an address. No such inaugural speech has been delivered since Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, demanding the curtailment of government programs and secure in the knowledge that much of the white working class had shifted its allegiance away from the Democrats and supported his attack on the public sector and minority rights. On Monday, Obama, secure in the knowledge that the nation’s minorities had joined with other liberal constituencies to form a new governing coalition, voiced their demands to ensure equality and to preserve and expand the government’s efforts to meet the nation’s challenges. As he left the stage, he stopped and turned to marvel at the crowd, at the new American majority they represented. They were the ones he, and we, were waiting for.

MORE:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/harold-meyerson-obama-forges-a-new-majority/2013/01/22/c66489a6-64a7-11e2-9e1b-07db1d2ccd5b_story.html

[Skraxx]

1. Love It, Gives Me Goosebumps

n/t

[SaveAmerica]

3. Me too!

[riverbendviewgal]

2. love the picture

It is historically awesome.

[topcat007]

4. Loved it

He is so decent at the core.

[mehrrh]

6. Obama's view - loved it

This showed me, too, that he is a decent, honest man with ideals and dreams for America; that he constantly strives to improve the nation; that he truly wants to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

[SunSeeker]

5. Yes we can. Yes we did. nt

[FailureToCommunicate]

7. May it come to pass...

Thanks, kpete.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

8. Oh boo. He didn't really say those words, did he. I checked the article and there

are no quotes. Did I miss it?

I wish he had said it...would have been a brilliant, wonderful line.

[handmade34]

10. he did say it

http://swampland.time.com/2013/01/22/obamas-exit/

[Laura PourMeADrink]

11. I know he said that. I am talking about the "they are the ones we've been waiting for remark"

[handmade34]

12. oh ya

that would be cool


((I was just lost in the moment when I saw him do that))

[Plucketeer]

9. He's right to be awestruck

I did think this gaze was a cool statement in itself. The throng was there to physically SEE what their efforts had wrought. I'd be awed by the sight of them too. A veritable SEA of hope for change.

I sure hope his inaugural address was a shopping list - as opposed to a wish list. What is it they're saying - he's got 5 or 6 months to really get anything done in this term? While I appreciate the noble goals of his first term, I sure hope he spends the next half year trying to improve the nation instead of improving Washington DC.

[xtraxritical]

15. Five or six months? Wait until January 2015 when Democratcs control both houses of Congress.

edit to correct date!

[Plucketeer]

16. Fingers crossed! nt

[ailsagirl]

13. Very touching

[hfojvt]

14. I marvel at such a large crowd to cheer

an emperor who has no clothes.

I mean, there he is, just one month after passing tax cuts for the rich that will increase inequality, and making them permanent, and he speaks out against inequality to a cheering crowd.

Apparently I have been waiting for a crowd to cheer the guy who stabbed me in the back.

Who knew?