Obama Ipsum

A belief that there are better days ahead. Well it's time for them to own their failure. We all put our country first. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America's founding.

And I found that I recognized in these folks a part of myself. This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. When John McCain said we could just "muddle through" in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. They have killed in many countries. The fourth issue that I will address is democracy.

And I think they recognized a part of themselves in me too. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. Because in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton's Army, and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the GI Bill. Many more are simply skeptical that real change can occur.

I thought of the families I've met who were struggling to get by without a loved one's full income, or whose loved ones had returned with a limb missing or nerves shattered, but who still lacked long-term health benefits because they were Reservists. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam. For decades, there has been a stalemate: two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history that makes compromise elusive. Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away.

And that man is John Kerry. She had this enormous capacity for wonder, and lived by the Golden Rule. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. For peace to come, it is time for them - and all of us - to live up to our responsibilities. But I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose.

Thank you.