Obama Ipsum

"People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters....And in that single note - hope! - I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Let me also address the issue of Iraq. America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own. Among some Muslims, there is a disturbing tendency to measure one's own faith by the rejection of another's.

We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. To the love of my life, our next First Lady, Michelle Obama, and to Sasha and Malia - I love you so much, and I'm so proud of all of you. I'll invest in early childhood education. And when the first Muslim-American was recently elected to Congress, he took the oath to defend our Constitution using the same Holy Koran that one of our Founding Fathers - Thomas Jefferson - kept in his personal library.

This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit. And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.

In this election, we offer that choice. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side, I felt I heard God's spirit beckoning me.

John Kerry understands the ideals of community, faith, and service because they've defined his life. Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. "And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back."

Thank you.