"You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead."

[Clio the Leo]

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 their children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor's bills, or save enough for college. There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even 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 that 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 join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it's been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years - block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.

What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not 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 cannot happen without you.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and 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 us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us 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, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values 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, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.

<snip>

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do.

[NYC_SKP]

1. "We may not get there in one year or even one term..."

:applause:

:kick:

Recommended~

[Clio the Leo]

2. And over a year later, still hopeful...

.... lol, albiet "cautiously."

(But I think that was said more to prevent it from being used in a soundbite against him later than anything else.)

[impik]

3. Nice try

It won't help. They don't remember and don't want to remember what he said then. They don't remember don't want to remember what he said in his inauguration address or in Denver. They don't care about the historical perspective. They remember only what they want to remember.

[Clio the Leo]

5. Dont remember?

Or weren't paying attention?

lol .... maybe everyone was drunk. :)

[fugop]

6. I know I was!

Drunk, that is! But I remember it all anyway. Frankly, after wishing I'd been drunk enough to black out the prior eight years, it was nice to finally have something worth remembering!!!

[lamp_shade]

4. K&R

[Cha]

7. Hey, glad I found this thread..

it was linked on a reply to some OP who Pres Obama was losing.

Poor them. He'd be losing me too if I paid attention to all the lies and gossip that gets swirled around here. I'd think he was the biggest loser in the Universe..if I were a sucker.