Obama Ipsum

A belief that there are better days ahead. In that time, I've had the chance to talk with Americans all across this country. They're ready to turn the page on the old politics and the old policies - whether it's the war in Iraq or the health care crisis we're in, or a school system that's leaving too many kids behind despite the slogans. Wright deliver a sermon called "The Audacity of Hope." And during the course of that sermon, he introduced me to someone named Jesus Christ. We are taking concrete actions to change course.

But I've got news for them, too. Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the farthest - a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours - Hillary Rodham Clinton. America, we cannot turn back. This same story can be told by people from South Africa to South Asia; from Eastern Europe to Indonesia.

And it's around this time that some pastors I was working with came up to me and asked if I was a member of a church. What is that promise?

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was President - when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush. John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell - but he won't even go to the cave where he lives. Finally, I want to discuss economic development and opportunity.

Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. I get it.

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