I listened to Barack Obama speak last night and I felt something that up to that point I had only heard people describe. Something akin to the comfort that Franklin Roosevelt brought to a poor and frightened nation with his fireside chats and to the renewed sense of optimism that John F. Kennedy brought to a nation plagued by conflict. It was a feeling of awe, a dawning awareness that grew with every word that I was witnessing a truly historical moment, a promise of hope and connection that was capable of piercing even the hardest shell of cynicism. While paying tribute to a man who stood up 45 years ago to the day and talked about a dream, Barack Obama talked about his dreams for all of us, and I couldn't help but thinking that some day we might be quoting words from this speech and remembering how this man came along when we needed him most and helped to change our lives for the better.

We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job - an economy that honors the dignity of work.

The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party.  I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain.  The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag.  They have not served a Red America or a Blue America - they have served the United States of America.

We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country.  The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals.  I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination.  Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers.  This too is part of America's promise - the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.

. . .history teaches us - that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from Washington.  Change comes to Washington.  Change happens because the American people demand it - because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.

This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich.  We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that's not what makes us strong.  Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores.

Instead, it is that American spirit - that American promise - that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.

The full text of the speech is here.

After listening to Barack Obama last night I was filled with an overwhelming sense of relief because here is a man others will truly hear. Over the fear mongering and the smears of the radical right, over the obfuscation and sensationalist hype of the erstwhile fourth estate, over the self-defeating insistence that liberals are the source of everyone's problems. I was filled with an overwhelming sense of hope because here is a man others will recognize as the man truly best for the job.

In recent years I have become more politically active than I was when I was young but no politician has ever really inspired me until last night. Barack Obama moved me to tears but he also moved me to act. I will do whatever I can to make sure that this man is our next president.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 8:41 AM