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The First Draft is Always a Little Different
Posting Date: Nov 23 2008 11:17PM
SPEAKING NOTES FOR SEN. BARACK OBAMA
Election Day
November 4, 2008
Victory Speech – SECOND DRAFT
Whassup Hello, Chicago.
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible if you have enough money, who still wonders if Oprah Winfrey is the queen of the free world [the dream of our founders is alive in our time,] who still questions the wisdom of the American public [the power of our democracy,] tonight is your answer.
It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around McDonald’s franchises and Dunkin Donuts schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by fat people who waited three hours and four hours like stunned turkeys, many for the first time in their lives because they never got off their asses to vote before, [because they believed that this time must be different,] that their voices could be that difference. And God knows, those are the people we want picking our leaders ... the people who had never even seen a ballot before today.
It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, beautiful and butt-ugly, Democrat and Republican, smart and stupid, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, Redneck, gay, straight, bi-sexual, bi-curious, disabled, not disabled and really disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states, blue states, and states where people like fried chicken for breakfast. We are, and always will be, the United States of America.
It’s the answer that led those who’ve been told for so long by people who actually know a thing or two [so many] to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the breasts [arc] of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment, monkeys are officially flying out of Dick Cheney’s butt [change has come to America].
A little bit earlier this evening, I received an extraordinarily long soulful kiss from Oprah Winfrey [gracious call from Senator McCain]. I didn’t realize that he has nothing to do with those frozen cakes I like so much.
Senator McCain fought long and hard in this campaign to stay awake during most of his own speeches. And he’s fought even longer and harder to make people forget his inconvenient first wife [for the country that he loves]. He has endured long bus rides with the Palin family [sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine]. We are better off now that he will finally retire and leave us alone [for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader].
I congratulate him; I congratulate the hot chick who cost him the election [Governor Palin] for all that they’ve achieved. And I look forward to ignoring them [working with them to renew this nation\'s promise] in the months ahead.
I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart, and spoke loudly like a drunk at a bar for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of an unimportant town that just coincidentally happened to be in the key battleground state in this election [Scranton] ... and rode with on the train home to Delaware, the vice president-elect of the United States, Oprah Winfrey [Joe Biden].
And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best lady [friend] for the last 16 years ... the rock of our family, the love of my life, the booty that I call, the nation\'s next first lady ... Michelle Obama.
Sasha and Malia ... I love you both more than you can imagine. And you have earned the new fancy private school and twenty-four hour security [puppy] that\'s coming with us ...to the White House.
But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to Oprah [you]. It belongs to George W. Bush for destroying the Republic Party [you].
I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. I mean, in case you haven’t noticed yet, America ... I’m black! We didn\'t start with much money or many endorsements other than the only one that mattered – from Oprah. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington because that would have been stupid; we would have stepped into a room to hatch a campaign. It began in the 7-11 parking lots [backyards] of Des Moines and the Taco Bells [living rooms] of Concord and the Gas ‘n’ Sips [front porches] of Charleston. It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to fund my private campaign jet [the cause].
It drew strength from the disenfranchised young people who embraced [rejected] the reality [myth] of their generation’s ignorance and apathy ... who left their homes and their families for the chance to score some tail on the campaign trail [jobs that offered little pay and less sleep].
It drew strength from the old codgers [not-so-young people] who shuffled around in [braved] the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers hoping not to get shot on sight, and from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized and proved that more than two centuries later a candidate with hundreds of millions of dollars to spend would still take advantage of the common folk while paying high-priced consultants top dollar [a government of the people, by the people, and for the people is a nice cliché has not perished from the Earth].
This is your time to donate again [victory].
And I know you didn’t do squat [this just] to win an election. And I know you didn’t do it for me. You did it because Oprah told you to [you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead]. For even as we celebrate tonight, I want to do everything I can to lower your expectations because I probably won’t be that good of a president when the dust settles and we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century, none of which, let me remind you, is my fault.
Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for reasons that are unclear to all of us.
There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep watching late-night television and wonder how they’ll make the mortgage or pay their doctors’ bills or save enough for their child’s college education.
There’s new energy to harness or not, depending on the oil lobby, new jobs to be created in fast-food and custodial service, new schools to build in neighbourhoods that don’t really need them, and threats to meet with paranoia-driven violence, alliances to repair.
The road ahead will be long and remember: that isn’t may fault. Our climb will be steep which means we won’t make much progress at all. We may not get there in one year or even in one term, so re-elect me even if I get nothing accomplished in four years. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there as long as you understand that the raised bar I promised during the campaign just got lowered to your shoetops.
I promise you, we as a people will get there, though I refuse to define where “there” is so that I can proclaim at any time that we have arrived.
There will be setbacks and false starts. Just lowering those expectations again. There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as president which kind of sucks since I’m going to run this government so close to the middle-of-the-road that you won’t know my administration from vanilla ice cream. And we know the government can’t solve every problem that George Bush is leaving for me like landmines in the White House lawn.
But I will always be honest with you until such time as it is inconvenient [about the challenges we face]. I will listen to you, or at least have one of my staff pretend to do so especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it’s been done in America for 221 years – by making secret deals among powerful people [block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand].
What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night, which should be pretty obvious to you since I’m not actually president yet.
This victory alone is not the change we seek except that my speaking fee just went up exponentially. Have you seen what Bill Clinton pulls in now? It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen so don’t blame me when nothing changes [if we go back to the way things were].
It can’t happen without you, but mostly without me [without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice].
So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, of risk-aversion where each of us resolves to get off our lazy duffs [pitch in and work harder] and look after not only ourselves but mostly ourselves [each other].
Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Bourbon [Main] Street suffers.
In this country, we rise or fall like yo-yo’s [as one nation, as one people]. Let’s resist the temptation to plunk ourselves on the sofa and watch reruns of CSI [fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long].
Let’s remember that your expectations need to take a big step down starting right now [that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity. Those are values that we all share.] And while the Democratic Party is generally completely disorganized, sometimes blind squirrels do find nuts [has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress].
As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours: Slavery may be good for the economy, but it’s just not a good idea, morally-speaking [We are not enemies but friends]. Though passion may have been Bill Clinton’s trademark in office, you can count on me to keep it in my pants [strained, it must not break our bonds of affection].
And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, you better get with the program ‘cause I’m the man in charge now, yo [I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help.] And I will be your president, too. And don’t you forget it.
And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, really, we don’t give a crap about you unless you’ve got oil, nice cheap child labor or nuclear weapons [from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared,] and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand, so don’t you dare forget it. Every president gets his own war, so I’m making a list and the first sucker could be you, Canada.
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Next week - The big finish. Don\\\'t you dare miss it. |
