0:00:00.000,0:00:09.000
[Guitar and drum intro music plays]

0:00:09.000,0:00:13.000
[Piano music plays]

0:00:13.000,0:00:19.760
[Guitar strums and Audience cheers]

0:00:19.760,0:00:24.640
>>ROBERT LEHRMAN: Barack Obama in 2004 was totally unknown.

0:00:24.640,0:00:27.400
People were saying, "Huh, I don't know who this guy is.

0:00:27.410,0:00:28.640
Wonder why they picked him."

0:00:28.640,0:00:31.240
>>MICHAEL COHEN: He had this reputation as a bit of an upstart.

0:00:31.240,0:00:34.040
As sort of a young, rising figure in the party.

0:00:34.040,0:00:35.420
But no one knew who this guy was.

0:00:35.420,0:00:37.660
This was his chance to introduce himself to people.

0:00:38.030,0:00:45.250
>>BARACK OBAMA: Tonight is a particular honor for me because, let's face it, my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely.

0:00:46.760,0:00:52.460
My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya.

0:00:53.000,0:00:58.160
>>COHEN: What makes a great political feat is if you can somehow fold your story into this larger American story.

0:00:58.160,0:01:00.619
>>LEHRMAN: The next thing he says is about his mother's family.

0:01:00.629,0:01:05.709
His grandfather fought in World War II, he used the GI Bill, they settled in Kansas.

0:01:05.709,0:01:08.909
So white people could say, "Huh, oh.

0:01:08.909,0:01:10.789
He's just like us."

0:01:10.860,0:01:13.880
>>OBAMA: My parents shared not only an improbable love;

0:01:13.880,0:01:17.940
they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation.

0:01:19.020,0:01:23.780
I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story.

0:01:23.780,0:01:27.220
That I owe a debt to all of those who came before me,

0:01:27.220,0:01:31.080
and that in no other country on earth is my story even possible.

0:01:31.470,0:01:35.560
[New Age transition music plays]

0:01:35.560,0:01:40.380
>>CHARLTON MCILWAIN: Going into this speech, we've had four years of George Bush,

0:01:40.380,0:01:43.580
and we felt, as a country, like we've grown further apart.

0:01:43.590,0:01:46.570
>>COHEN: '04 was very much a divisive partisan race.

0:01:46.570,0:01:49.180
Obama's speech was in some ways an antidote to that.

0:01:49.189,0:01:51.689
>>OBAMA: Alongside our famous individualism,

0:01:51.689,0:01:58.709
there's another ingredient in the American saga, a belief that we are all connected as one people.

0:01:59.420,0:02:02.540
If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read,

0:02:02.540,0:02:05.020
that matters to me, even if it's not my child.

0:02:05.020,0:02:05.820
[Audience applauds]

0:02:05.820,0:02:10.100
If there's a senior citizen somewhere who[br]can't pay for their prescription,

0:02:10.100,0:02:12.220
and having to choose between medicine and the rent,

0:02:12.220,0:02:15.400
that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandparent.

0:02:15.400,0:02:17.220
[Audience applauds]

0:02:17.220,0:02:20.760
It is that fundamental belief, I am my brother's keeper,

0:02:20.920,0:02:24.400
I am my sister's keeper, that makes this country work.

0:02:24.410,0:02:25.410
[Audience applauds]

0:02:25.410,0:02:29.230
"E pluribus unum," out of many, one.

0:02:29.660,0:02:34.540
>>COHEN: He gives a speech that presages his entire political message of 2008

0:02:34.540,0:02:36.540
which is this sort of post-partisan argument.

0:02:36.540,0:02:41.460
>>OBAMA: Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us,

0:02:41.460,0:02:47.280
the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes.

0:02:48.200,0:02:54.740
Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America;

0:02:54.740,0:02:57.560
there is the United States of America.

0:02:57.560,0:02:58.720
[Audience applauds]

0:02:58.730,0:03:01.080
[Jazzy transition music plays]

0:03:01.080,0:03:04.360
>>MARIO CUOMO: Obama was born with two great gifts.

0:03:04.360,0:03:10.680
One is his mind, and the other is his ability to speak to large groups of people.

0:03:10.980,0:03:15.820
>>LEHRMAN: There are three things that Obama does that really makes that speech effective.

0:03:15.820,0:03:21.000
He wants concrete detail, he likes story, and he loves antithesis,

0:03:21.000,0:03:25.020
the use of repetition and structure to show contrast.

0:03:25.020,0:03:28.260
"There is not a liberal America, or a conservative America."

0:03:28.260,0:03:29.560
There is one America.

0:03:29.560,0:03:33.140
>>OBAMA: There's not a black America and white America

0:03:33.140,0:03:38.740
and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America.

0:03:38.740,0:03:39.700
[Audience applauds]

0:03:39.700,0:03:44.820
The pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue states,

0:03:44.830,0:03:46.470
but I've got news for them too.

0:03:46.470,0:03:49.250
We worship an awesome God in the blue states,

0:03:49.250,0:03:52.740
and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states.

0:03:52.740,0:03:55.120
[Audience cheers]

0:03:55.120,0:04:00.860
We coach little league in the blue states and, yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states.

0:04:00.860,0:04:01.400
[Audience applauds]

0:04:01.400,0:04:05.460
We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes,

0:04:05.460,0:04:09.560
all of us defending the United States of America.

0:04:09.560,0:04:11.120
[Audience cheers]

0:04:11.120,0:04:13.840
>>COHEN: The way he uses his hands, he actually points a lot

0:04:13.840,0:04:15.900
and does a lot of "this", and a lot of "this", and a lot of "that".

0:04:15.900,0:04:18.298
>>MCILWAIN: In doing so, he gives off this sense of energy.

0:04:18.298,0:04:21.579
"I am new, I am someone who is dynamic."

0:04:21.579,0:04:23.379
>>COHEN: And he doesn't do that so much anymore.

0:04:23.380,0:04:27.020
He's a little more solemn, and reserved when he gives speeches today.

0:04:27.020,0:04:28.930
And I think it's more reflective of his office.

0:04:28.930,0:04:31.450
[Guitar-based transition music plays]

0:04:31.450,0:04:32.710
[Audience applauds]

0:04:32.710,0:04:37.190
>>OBAMA: In the end, in the end, that's what this election is about.

0:04:37.190,0:04:38.610
[Audience chanting "Obama"]

0:04:38.610,0:04:45.290
Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we participate in a politics of hope?

0:04:46.060,0:04:49.340
It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs;

0:04:50.000,0:04:53.520
the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores;

0:04:54.180,0:04:59.560
the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta;

0:04:59.560,0:05:03.200
the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds;

0:05:03.200,0:05:08.640
the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.

0:05:08.640,0:05:10.720
[Audience applauds]

0:05:10.720,0:05:14.860
>>OBAMA: Hope. Hope in the face of difficulty.

0:05:14.860,0:05:20.500
Hope in the face of uncertainty, the audacity of hope.

0:05:20.500,0:05:21.860
[Audience cheering]

0:05:21.860,0:05:25.900
>>LEHRMAN: His appearance at that convention, which was the best speech of the convention,

0:05:25.900,0:05:29.200
better than John Kerry's, was electrifying.

0:05:29.420,0:05:31.620
And without it, he wouldn't be president.

0:05:31.620,0:05:33.840
>>CUOMO: I think sincerity means a lot.

0:05:33.840,0:05:37.920
There are people who, when they speak, they speak the truth as they see it.

0:05:37.920,0:05:40.260
And they're- they're very effective doing that.

0:05:40.440,0:05:43.660
>>OBAMA: I believe this country will reclaim it's promise,

0:05:43.660,0:05:47.260
and out of this long political darkness, a brighter day will come.

0:05:47.270,0:05:48.270
Thank you very much, everybody.

0:05:48.270,0:05:49.270
God bless you.

0:05:49.270,0:06:03.270
[Audience cheers]

0:06:03.270,0:06:12.670
[Drum-based outro music plays]