Obama Ipsum

For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars.

Because the Iraq war is not just a security problem, it's a moral problem. And just as we keep our keep our promise to the next generation here at home, so must we keep America's promise abroad. These are the policies I will pursue. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Palestinians must abandon violence.

It's what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. That's the promise we need to keep. Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire.

So it's 1985, and I'm in Chicago, and I'm working with these churches, and with lots of laypeople who are much older than I am. 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. We are the party of Kennedy. As a young man, I worked in Chicago communities where many found dignity and peace in their Muslim faith. 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.

But as Americans, we also know that this is a nation of laws, and we cannot have those laws broken when more than 2,000 people cross our borders illegally every day. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years. I reject the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal, but I do believe that a woman who is denied an education is denied equality.

Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.