Bob Hayes Online

Every blogger in creation – even the ones who should instead be concentrating on earning money so they can throw Blogger Bashes – will be blogging about the inauguration of Barack Obama today. And rightly so; it’s a historic event and an achievement of which our country can justifiably be proud. If you had told me thirty years ago that one day a black man would be president…well, I wouldn’t have blinked, actually, because I was ten and very idealistic about America. But if you’d caught me a few years later, when the cynicism had set in, I would have been surprised.

Unsurprisingly to anyone who knows me, Mr. Obama is not, to say the least, on my political team. There is no doubt whatsoever that within a month I’ll be spluttering at the TV news and pounding out spasmodically pained editorial pieces about the latest Obama disaster and how he’s the Worst President Ever. But bearing that in mind, I do find myself with an elevated spirit today.

This is an optimistic moment for America, and – whatever policy disasters Mr. Obama leads us into – this cannot help but have a bracingly salutary effect on the racial divide in this country, which for years has been a quiet cancer on the soul of the republic. Every black child in the United States is about to see a black man taking the reins of the most powerful country of the world – a slap in the face to the still-animate ghost of a racist social order that proclaims blacks are fit only to entertain or to draw welfare checks, and a crushing blow to the “progressive” rhetoric of permanent racial oppression. To the person saying “you can’t do that because you aren’t good enough” and the person saying “you can’t do that because they won’t let you”, Barack Obama is a shining counterexample.

It’s nice to find out that my ten-year old self was the one with wisdom. Good morning, Mr. President. God bless you and godspeed.

This is just really something. Quite good artwork, devoted to the service of a cause that seems laughably sincere. Yes, great artist of the People! Save us from the fundie wickedness that is Sarah Palin with your artistic genius!

H/T Lileks, who I think I saw on the street in Denver but I was too shy to say introduce myself, instead making a couple of jokes at the expense of the bird porn people. Besides, he was working. (Well, I was working, too, in that bizarre kind of “I don’t have to be doing this, but I want to be doing this, so it’s work” kind of way. But he was like getting a paycheck and everything, so I didn’t want to bug him.)

(Although, in retrospect, it occurs to me that even someone of Lilek’s stature in the midst of doing actual reportage on the bird porn people, cannot really say “This was important! Why are you bugging me!?”I shoulda said hi. Damn!)

Last night, I dreamed that Hillary Clinton got lost in a city where (for some reason) I was a resident, and she needed to take the bus to get back to her hotel, but she didn’t know the system. For some reason her Secret Service people were nowhere to be found, although Chelsea Clinton and a boyfriend were tagging along. I offered to take her on the bus route, which I was apparently an expert in, and we had a very gracious and respectful conversation on the route. I think we talked education policy, mostly. When we got to our destination she went off with her Secret Service people.

The same night, my wife had a dream about John McCain, that she was campaigning with him and they were riding on an airplane together, but on the outside of the plane. She worried that they would fall off, especially when the plane came dangerously close to a mountaintop, but they landed safely.

I think tonight maybe we’ll watch “Firefly” episodes on DVD.

Now that just about every attack on Palin has been thumpingly rebutted by well-regarded neutrals, about the only thing left hanging over her head is Troopergate. Unfortunately for Democrats, nobody cares about Troopergate. At worst, she will be seen as bending but not breaking rules in order to get rid of someone who was protecting a wife-beating child-tasering nightmare of a cop. She was entitled to fire the guy because she didn’t like his shifty eyes; that she has any reason at all (even personal reasons) will just make it more OK with the electorate. The library thing had more potential resonance – is she a scary book-burning fundie? – and that, too, is down the drain.

More the the point, at this date she can pretty much come out and refer to Hymietown, slap a wounded returning soldier for cowardice, and take a million-dollar check from Exxon at high noon in Times Square with “bribe” written in the memo field in 100-point type, and nobody will believe it. The shotgun salvo of slime that was fired at her from day one, and which across the board has been resoundingly disproved and rebutted, in some cases humiliatingly for the media “leaders” who drank too much Kool-Aid, made it clear to the electorate that there are big chunks of the media (from blogs to glossies) who will say and do anything to smear her, out of fear that she will derail the crowning of the Chosen One. “Yeah, yeah, what other lies are you going to print today” is now the default reaction to negative Palin news, and I don’t see that changing in time to effect the election.

Here’s my call for the elections.

Obama’s convention bounce was about two points, and it dissipated as those bounces do. There was no bounce from the Republican convention, because the convention (Palin’s speech aside) was a near-disaster. (I’ve never heard more boring Republican speeches in my life, and I’ve heard a lot of boring Republican speeches.) Instead, the post-Palin shift in the polling is structural; it’s a big chunk of purple America deciding that they (a) love her and (b) hate the people who have been smearing her grotesquely from the moment she came onto the national stage, who (rightly or wrongly) are tightly bound up with Obama and his friendly media in the public view. McCain has shifted the race by as much as ten percentage points, permanently, and will go down in history as making the most electorally significant VP pick ever. (And so much for the conventional wisdom that VP picks change nothing.)

The Wilder effect is very likely operative in this election, and is probably worth about four or five points. (Voters are reluctant to tell pollsters they aren’t going to vote for a black candidate, so they lie.) On paper, McCain has been a few points behind for months; in reality, McCain has been a little bit behind or a little bit ahead all through the general season, and is now solidly ahead by at least a few points. He will win in the EC comfortably but not overwhelmingly, and will somewhat blunt the Democratic gains in the Congress.

The “why” of all this is simple. Palin is an outstanding VP candidate, and has won real votes from millions of people who previously leaned Obama or didn’t know who to vote for. In addition, enthusiasm for her has revitalized a GOP establishment which was unenthusiastic at best. On the flip side, Obama is an unqualified candidate, and everyone not enthusiastically waving banners for him knows it. He captured the nomination by winning the hearts of the party’s activist base, but cannot win in the general election. Hillary knew this and she and Bill were both crucified for daring to even allude to it; after Obama’s defeat destroys the hope of a unified Democratic administration and Congress, there will be a great deal of bitter recrimination and a lot more infighting as the finger of blame gets passed around.

Many hard-left news sources (such as the spectacularly unconvincing “Sambo” article  that’s been circling the drain for the last few days) will froth in denial of these new facts on the ground for the next couple of months, but they will convince noone but themselves; there will be a great wailing and gnashing of teeth on November 5. (“How could this happen when everything I read says that it wouldn’t?”)

You have to love the Democrats; they basically have every advantage they could have short of God himself descending from the Throne and announcing “Vote Democrat, all my children!”, and they’ve thrown it away. No Presidency, and what should have been veto-proof majorities in both houses will instead be just another slight pro-Dem shift. (If the Obama campaign completely implodes as their defeat looms, it might even be a neutral race in terms of Congressional outcomes, as dispirited Democratic voters don’t bother to turn out for the down-ticket races, but I don’t think they’ll completely implode.)

So, it’ll be McCain but not by a landslide, and a range of Congressional outcomes somewhere between modest Democratic gains in both houses to no major shift in either house, depending on how well the Obama campaign handles its slow-motion defeat.

You can apply a wishful-thinking discount to this if you want – I won’t pretend that this isn’t an outcome I don’t want to see. However, I’m already applying a wishful-thinking discount internally, and secretly expect a McCain blowout and no big losses in Congress for the GOP, despite our richly deserving them.

Jesse of Pandagon decides it’s hilarious to mock John McCain as “Manhug McCain” after seeing this photo of McCain hugging Bush.

Jesse doesn’t know – or perhaps he does – that the reason McCain hugs people like that is because while he was fighting in Vietnam, he was shot down, breaking both his arms, which were never properly treated. While he was a POW, he was brutally tortured by the Viet Cong, further damaging his arms. He can no longer raise his arms very high; this is about as good a hug as he can give.

The radical left: bringing class and style to political snark since 1968.

Clinton has been about to take the stage “any second now” for ten minutes, it seems.

Sean Hannity is chatting with Karl Rove. Rove expects a full-throated endorsement of Obama. I suggest instead we’ll see another Hillary-style incredibly well delivered, but substantively inadequate, speech. Just as Senator Clinton didn’t praise Obama much, President Clinton is likely to similarly focus on “big themes” and what he wants to see, rather than how great Obama is. I expect a fair amount of Republicans=evil, of course.

Clinton walks on to “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow”. I have never seen so many Democrats waving American flags before. It’s like Flagfest in 2008 in there. To top this, John McCain is going to need to wear a flag. Hillary and Chelsea aren’t waving flags, but just about everybody else is.

The crowd will not stop cheering President Clinton. Hillary has the glassy look of someone who is being upstaged bigtime. Clinton is asking the crowd to hush now, we have to get on with the show. He decides to just start talking over them, and again asks them to sit down, but they aren’t. They’re starting to chant “Bill, Bill Bill”. Boy he’s really trying to damp down the praise. “I love this, and thank you, but we have important work to do tonight.”

Michelle Obama looks similarly unpleased at the continuing adulation. “This should be Barack’s love!”

Clinton cracks that he’s here to open for Joe Biden. Makes a crack that the primary was so hot it increased global warming.

He’s proud of his wife’s great, great campaign.

Hmm, well, he’s leading off with how much he and Hillary are going to do to elect Barack Obama. A jibe at Obama about how important the Clintons are, with 18 million voters on her side.

Our nation is in trouble, on two fronts. American dream under siege at home, leadership in the world has been weakened. Here comes the economy litany, so I’m going to take the opportunity to run to the bathroom. Segues into a list of Bush administration failures.

Next president has to fix the American dream and restore America’s world leadership. Wow, way to load Obama down with an impossibly high standard, Bill! And Barack is apparently the man to do this amazing job. Obama is terrific – he is articulate and smart and wonderful. (Well, so much for my guess!) His policies are superior to the Republican alternatives.

The long primary tested and strengthened Obama (see, the Clintons helped!) and his selection of Joe Biden is apparently “hitting it out of the park”. Joe Biden’s vast experience and wisdom, supporting Barack’s insight and instincts, will give us the national security leadership we need. Hmm, isn’t having an experienced VP backing up the more emotion-driven leader the big meme among lefties about Bush-Cheney? Bill is a genius at praising Obama with one hand and slandering him with the other.

When Obama is president, we will have fewer enemies. Apparently deciding that an enemy isn’t a threat means he isn’t an enemy anymore, or maybe its the Obama charisma that will turn enemies into friends.

Now we’re into a relisting of great things Clinton wants to see done, and that Obama will apparently be able to do. Diplomacy first, military force as a last resort, that’s how Obama will run things. (Same as every other president in the history of the United States.) When Obama can’t convert adversaries into partners (ok, my sarcasm was apparently the actual causal mechanism being proposed), he will stand up to them.

More about the economy must be strong. (Hey, let’s tax the rich! That always causes economic growth.)

The world is better moved by the power of our example, than by the example of our power. That’s a good line.

Now some more Republican crimes. A lot of vigorous head shaking from Hillary. Health care, military overdeployment, Katrina. “America can do better that, and Barack Obama will do better than that.”

That got some good applause.

“But first we have to elect him. The choice is clear.”

John McCain is a good man, heroic service, terrible suffering, loves his country, isn’t an orthodox right-wing tool. But he’s wrong on the two big issues of the election, rebuilding the American dream and restoring American leadership. Agrees with the evil right-wing theory that is running the government. (Not sure which right-wing evil is being invoked here.) Republican leadership on the economy has ruined everything after Bill Clinton made everything wonderful in his term.

John McCain pushes bad policies. Bandaids for health care, etc. Going it alone in the world, instead of building shared opportunities. Four more years. In this case, the third time is not the charm. Lot of laughter and applause for that one.

16 years ago, he had the honor of leading the party to victory and bringing the nation to peace and prosperity. Republicans said that Clinton was too young and too inexperienced to be commander in chief. That didn’t work in 1992 (probably because Clinton did have executive experience.) Barack Obama is on the right side of history.

Switching to floaty rhetoric now. A lot of jabby finger gestures. More praise for Biden. Barack Obama will lead us away from the division and fear of the evil Bush Years, back to community and hope. (Ah, he had to get “hope” in there!) If you believe America must be a place for hope, then you have to vote Obama.

God bless you!

His energy level started really high but declined quickly; the middle and early end were pretty downbeat, relative to his best. Came up somewhat at the end. Well, I was wrong – there was some praise of Obama and some Obama love – and plenty of Republicans=evil.

Chelsea introduces. She is mercifully extremely brief.

I don’t know the introductory song. (This is because I am old.) Hillary wears a lovely orange pantsuit which has only a modest resemblance to orange sherbet.

Crowd is very enthusiastic. All those people in line were here to see Senator Clinton, and I talked to more than a couple of people today who were in Denver for Hillary, not for Obama. Quite a lot of enthusiasm on the floor. A wave of “Hillary!” signs has appeared.
My big question: how much McCain Bashing vs how much Obama love.

“Thank you very much, I am so honored to be here tonight!”

I am here tonight as a proud mother, as a proud Democrat, a proud Senator, a proud American, and a proud supporter of Barack Obama. “My friends, it is time to take back the country we love.” Hey, that’s McCain’s catchphrase. Whether you voted for her, or for Obama, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose. (So much for the Hillary-backdoor conspiracy theories.)

We are all on the same team, and none of us can afford to sit on the sidelines. This is a fight for the future and it is a fight we must win together. I haven’t spent the past 35 years in the trenches, advocating for children, campaigning for universal health care, helping parents balance work and family, and fighting for women’s rights here at home and around the world, to see another Republican in the White House squander our promise of a country that really fulfills the hopes of our people. You haven’t worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership. No way, no how, no McCain.

(She is speaking with such deliberateness and articulation that the above paragraph is almost word for word.)

Barack Obama is my candidate, and he must be our President. Tonight, I ask you to remember what a Presidential election is about. When the polls have closed and the ads are finally off the air, it comes down to you, the American people. For me, it’s been a privilege to meet you in your homes, workplaces, and communities. Your stories reminded me every day that America’s greatness is bound up in the American people. Your hard work, devotion for duty, love for our children, and determination to keep going in the face of obstacles, have taught me so much. You have made me laugh and made me cry. I will always remember the single mom who had adopted two autistic kids, and had no health insurance, and discovered she had cancer. She greeted me with her bald head painted with my name on it, and asked me to fight for health care for her and her daughters. I will always remember the young man in a Marine Corps t-shirt who waited for months for health care, and asked me to take care of my buddies who are still over there. I will always remember the young boy who told me that his mom worked for minimum wage and her employer had cut her hours, and he didn’t know what his family would do. I will always be grateful for everyone in the 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the territories, who joined our campaign on behalf of all the people left out and left behind by the Bush Administration.

To my supporters, the Sisters of the Traveling Pantsuit (audience laughter), thank you. We never gave up and we made history, and along the way America lost two great Democratic champions. One of our finest young leaders, Arkansas Democratic chair Bill Watney, who believed with all his heart that America and the South should be Democratic from top to bottom, and Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones, a courageous leader and loving mother who never gave up her quest to make America better and fairer. She was an inspiration to me and to us all. Our heart goes out to her son and to Bill’s wife, who came to Denver to join this family of Democrats.

Bill Watney and Stephanie Tubbs-Jones knew that after eight years of George Bush, people are hurting at home and our standing is eroding around the world. We have a lot of work ahead of us, lost homes, lost jobs, a Supreme Court in right-wing headlock, the biggest deficit in our history. I ran for President to rebuild the middle class and provide opportunities to the people willing to work for it, so people could afford gas and groceries, to create a new energy system etc., to create a universal right to college.  We need to create a world-class educational system and make college affordable, to make sure that America is defined by deep and meaningful equalities, civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights. Ending discrimination, promoting unionization. To help every child live up to his or her God-given potential. To make America a nation of immigrants and of laws. To make government an agent of public good, not private plunder. To end the war in Iraq, bring our troops home with honor, and care for veterans.

We will work for an America that will join with our allies in confronting shared challenges (poverty, genocide, terrorism, global warming). Most of all, I ran up to stand for those who have been invisible to their government for eight long years. That’s why I ran for President, and that’s why I support Barack Obama for president.

I want you to ask yourselves, were you in this campaign just for me? Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like it? Or were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer? Were you in it for that young boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in it for all the invisible people?

We need leaders again who can tap into American optimism and confidence, leaders who can help us show ourselves and the world that with our ingenuity, creativity, and innovation there are no limits to what is possible in America.

This will not be easy. Progress never is. But it will be impossible if we don’t fight to put a Democrat back into the White House. We need to elect Barack Obama because we need a President who understands that America can’t compete in the global economy by giving money to oil speculators. (Damn that marketplace!) We need a president who understands that the genius of America depends on the strength and vitality of the middle class. Barack Obama started his career fighting for workers displaced by the global economy. He knows that change comes from the bottom up, and that government isn’t about the favored few.

Barack Obama will revitalize the economy, defend working people, and meet the global challenges of our time. Democrats know how to do this; we did it before with President Clinton and the Democrats. If we do our part, we’ll do it again with President Obama and the Democrats. Just think of what America will be as we transform our energy economy, create millions of jobs, give middle class families the tax relief they deserve, and she cannot wait to see Barack Obama sign into law a health care plan that covers every single American.

Barack Obama will end the war responsibly, bring our troops home, and repair our alliances around the world, and he will have a terrific partner in Michelle Obama. Everyone who saw her speech knows she will be a great First Lady, and we are fortunate that Joe Biden will be at Obama’s side, a strong leader and good man who understands economics and foreign policy. (Good to have those competencies in the Administration.)

John McCain is a colleague and a friend. He has served with honor and courage, but we don’t need four more years of the last eight years. More economic stagnation and less affordable health care, more high gas prices and less alternative energy, more jobs getting shipped overseas and fewer jobs created here at home, more skyrocketing debt and home foreclosures, more war and less diplomacy, more of a government where the privileged come first and everyone else comes last…well, John McCain says the economy is fundamentally sound. He doesn’t think there’s a health care crisis, and wants to privatize Social Security, and thinks it’s OK for women to receive unequal pay for equal work. It makes sense that McCain and Bush will be together at the Republican convention, because these days they’re hard to tell apart. (Great enthusiasm.)

America is still around after 232 years because we have risen to every challenge in every new time, changing to be faithful to our new values of equal opportunity and the common good. I know what the means for Americans. I’m a Senator because of the efforts of the suffragists. 72 year campaign to get the vote for women. And 88 years ago today the 19th amendment became enshrined in the Constitution, giving women the right to vote. My mother was born before women could vote, my daughter got to vote for her mother for President. This is the story of America.

Harriet Tubman suddenly brought into it. “Keep going!” Don’t ever stop – keep going, if you want a taste of freedom, keep going. Even in the darkest moments, that is what Americans have done. We have found the faith to keep going. I have seen it in our firefighters, teachers, union workers, small business people, our military. We’re Americans, we’re not big on quitting. Before we can keep going, we’ve got to get going by electing Obama the next President of the United States. We don’t have a moment to lose, or a vote to spare. The fate of the nation and our children hangs in the balance. Think of the children come election day. Think about your grandparents when you vote. Fill the lives of our children with possibility and hope.

In America there is no chasm too deep, no ceiling to high, for all who work hard, have faith in God and our country, and each other. That’s our mission, Democrats – let’s elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden. God bless you, and Godspeed.

Hillary wrote to NASA as a girl and said she wanted to be an astronaut, but they weren’t taking girls. She’s glad this has changed.

Hillary gives little girls something to look up to. Asks the woman who plays her on SNL if she really laughs like that. “Hillary doesn’t sing well. You don’t want her to sing.” Our first serious female Presidential candidate. She’s led on education and healthcare. “American Girl” is playing in the background.

Her mother told her she could do anything she wanted in America. Chelsea’s voiceover says that her mom doesn’t care about her own ambition, it’s about America. Yeah, ok, kid. 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling. Anyone who has been counted out but refused to be knocked out, for moms and dads who told their kids they can be anything they want to be, the veterans, for everyone who works hard, this one is for you! (This one what? 2nd place finish?)

18 million cracks in the glass ceiling again. A whole new world of possibility. Now I believe she’s finally coming out to speak.

Apparently the security queue is so long that there are still thousands of people outside wanting to see Hillary, so they’re bringing out the light guns.

Brian Schweitzer named a Republican to the lieutenant governorship, lowered taxes, and greatly expanded energy production in Montana. Oddly enough, this gets little applause from the crowd. Barack Obama will do the same for the country. (OK, great!)

He had a framed picture of President Kennedy in his boyhood kitchen, even though his parents had no education. (Not sure what the connection is here.) But they believed in education so they worked hard to send their kids to school.

Until we address the energy crisis, our problems will only get worse. The White House is leading us in the wrong direction. Now Senator McCain wants four more years of the same. Can we afford four more years? NO, responds the crowd. Everyone got the talking points, I guess. Is it time for a change? YES! When do we need it? NOW! And who do we need as the next President? BARACK OBAMA! This guy should be leading protesters outside.

Right now we import 70% of our oil, while spending billions of dollars all over the world that always seems to end up in the accounts of people who are hostile to American values and our way of life. (PETA gets oil money?) CO2 emissions are increasing global temperatures, sea levels are rising (I thought they had stopped when Obama made that speech, but I guess I was wrong.) We need a new clean energy system that is clean, green, and American-made. We need a president who will marshal the nation’s resources, get the job done and deliver the change we need. That leader is Barack Obama!

Barack Obama knows there’s no single platform for this new energy system. Oil, geothermal, renewable, we need them all, in a system built on American innovation. After eight years of a White House waiting hand and foot on Big Oil, John McCain offers more of the same. At a time of rising fuel prices, while American families struggle to keep their tanks full, John McCain voted 25 times against renewable and alternative energy. (Booo!) He voted against biofuels, against solar energy (booo!) – he even voted against wind energy. This hurts American energy independence and cost 100,000 jobs.

John McCain has taken more than $1 million in contributions from the oil and gas industry. (Crowd is shocked.) Now he wants to give those companies $4 billion in tax breaks. He’s a devil, that McCain! (<a href=”http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/obamas_oil_spill.html”>FactCheck.org</a> says that Obama has taken $213,000, so I guess he’s only 21.3% evil.

A joke about McCain’s inability to enumerate his houses wins applause in the blogger lounge. There isn’t enough oil in America to meet our energy needs. The most important barrel of oil is the one we don’t use. Barack Obama understands this. Barack Obama will take every opportunity to create new sources of energy, across the board. (Does that include ANWR?)

Obama’s energy policy will create 5,000,000 green-collar jobs and save America. He’ll give you a tax credit for buying a hybrid. Barack will provide total energy independence. John McCain’s plan will not, because it is (once again) four more years. America needs energy independence. The petrodictators will never own American wind and sunshine and we should never again be beholden to their barrels of crude. The Obama energy plan is ambitious, and critics will pick away at the details. Cynics will say it’s impossible. Senator McCain will say “no we can’t”. He’s a downer, that Senator McCain.

Can’t America do better than four more years of Washington as usual? (Yes!) Is it time for a change? (Yes!) As strong a team as Obama and Biden are, they need all of us to win this election and create a new energy system and bring in an era of American energy independence. They need everyone to stand up. (The crowd duly stands up.)

We want them! We want them to hear you, from Denver to Detroit, from Montana to Mississippi, from California to the Carolinas…even our men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan can hear us. Can we afford four more years of the same? (NO!) Is it time for change now? (YES!) Are we going to declare our energy independence and change the world? (YES!) Who’s going to do it? Barack Obama!

Let’s go win this election.

Deval Patrick was born poor in the South Side of Chicago, but in one generation has risen to the chief executive of Massachusetts, and his daughter has traveled on four continents. This shows that America is awesome. (I guess that the eight Clinton years made up for the failed bad policies of the Republican presidents who presided over the majority of the time that Governor Patrick was making that ascent.)

Greatest Generation, Federal highway system, system of colleges and universities, civil rights movement. These are the chapters of the American story, and Barack Obama understands that. Barack understands that the gateway to a better life is a first-rate education. That’s why he’ll invest in early education so that all these kids will stop failing out of kindergarten. Pay teachers more, emphasize math and science more, help students pay for college. A well-educated America will make things again. (Yeah, because Yale graduates always hit the assembly line.) Working people will be able to see a path to the middle class and a secure future.

John McCain says he believes in education, but we know he’s lying because he’s against funding Head Start and wants to abolish the Department of Education. This is no surprise, because John McCain is hypocritical just like Bush. “These are the same folks who say they believe in small government and fiscal restraint, but are responsible for the biggest runup of the Federal deficit in history.” (Well, he’s got us there.) Compassionate conservatives abandoned people before and after Katrina.

The American people have had enough, but Democrats don’t deserve to win just because Republicans deserve to lose. We need more and better programs and policies and we also need a better vision. When he was growing up in Chicago, everything was broken. But later when he got a scholarship to boarding school, things got better. His teachers would get on his case if he didn’t perform. They were trying to teach them that they were members of a community. Barack Obama challenges us to rebuild our national community.

Government can’t solve every problem. But government is the name we give the things we choose to do together. Let’s not kid ourselves, this won’t be easy. The status quo is powerful. Lots of people, even some in the Democratic party, don’t want to rock the boat. If we’re going to get the leadership that the times demand, we have to work for it. Have to ask Republicans and independents to take a chance. We have to put our cynicism and learn to say again, like the Greatest Generation, that “yes we can.”

(Little applause for this seemingly easy applause line.)

Barack Obama isn’t just a campaign, it’s a <em>cause</em>.