WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.000
[Guitar and drum intro music plays]

00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:13.000
[Piano music plays]

00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:19.760
[Guitar strums and Audience cheers]

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

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

00:00:27.410 --> 00:00:28.640
Wonder why they picked him."

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

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

00:00:34.040 --> 00:00:35.420
But no one knew who this guy was.

00:00:35.420 --> 00:00:37.660
This was his chance to introduce himself to people.

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

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

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

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

00:01:00.629 --> 00:01:05.709
His grandfather fought in World War II, he used the GI Bill, they settled in Kansas.

00:01:05.709 --> 00:01:08.909
So white people could say, "Huh, oh.

00:01:08.909 --> 00:01:10.789
He's just like us."

00:01:10.860 --> 00:01:13.880
>>OBAMA: My parents shared not only an improbable love;

00:01:13.880 --> 00:01:17.940
they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation.

00:01:19.020 --> 00:01:23.780
I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story.

00:01:23.780 --> 00:01:27.220
That I owe a debt to all of those who came before me,

00:01:27.220 --> 00:01:31.080
and that in no other country on earth is my story even possible.

00:01:31.470 --> 00:01:35.560
[New Age transition music plays]

00:01:35.560 --> 00:01:40.380
>>CHARLTON MCILWAIN: Going into this speech, we've had four years of George Bush,

00:01:40.380 --> 00:01:43.580
and we felt, as a country, like we've grown further apart.

00:01:43.590 --> 00:01:46.570
>>COHEN: '04 was very much a divisive partisan race.

00:01:46.570 --> 00:01:49.180
Obama's speech was in some ways an antidote to that.

00:01:49.189 --> 00:01:51.689
>>OBAMA: Alongside our famous individualism,

00:01:51.689 --> 00:01:58.709
there's another ingredient in the American saga, a belief that we are all connected as one people.

00:01:59.420 --> 00:02:02.540
If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read,

00:02:02.540 --> 00:02:05.020
that matters to me, even if it's not my child.

00:02:05.020 --> 00:02:05.820
[Audience applauds]

00:02:05.820 --> 00:02:10.100
If there's a senior citizen somewhere who
can't pay for their prescription,

00:02:10.100 --> 00:02:12.220
and having to choose between medicine and the rent,

00:02:12.220 --> 00:02:15.400
that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandparent.

00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:17.220
[Audience applauds]

00:02:17.220 --> 00:02:20.760
It is that fundamental belief, I am my brother's keeper,

00:02:20.920 --> 00:02:24.400
I am my sister's keeper, that makes this country work.

00:02:24.410 --> 00:02:25.410
[Audience applauds]

00:02:25.410 --> 00:02:29.230
"E pluribus unum," out of many, one.

00:02:29.660 --> 00:02:34.540
>>COHEN: He gives a speech that presages his entire political message of 2008

00:02:34.540 --> 00:02:36.540
which is this sort of post-partisan argument.

00:02:36.540 --> 00:02:41.460
>>OBAMA: Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us,

00:02:41.460 --> 00:02:47.280
the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes.

00:02:48.200 --> 00:02:54.740
Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America;

00:02:54.740 --> 00:02:57.560
there is the United States of America.

00:02:57.560 --> 00:02:58.720
[Audience applauds]

00:02:58.730 --> 00:03:01.080
[Jazzy transition music plays]

00:03:01.080 --> 00:03:04.360
>>MARIO CUOMO: Obama was born with two great gifts.

00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:10.680
One is his mind, and the other is his ability to speak to large groups of people.

00:03:10.980 --> 00:03:15.820
>>LEHRMAN: There are three things that Obama does that really makes that speech effective.

00:03:15.820 --> 00:03:21.000
He wants concrete detail, he likes story, and he loves antithesis,

00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:25.020
the use of repetition and structure to show contrast.

00:03:25.020 --> 00:03:28.260
"There is not a liberal America, or a conservative America."

00:03:28.260 --> 00:03:29.560
There is one America.

00:03:29.560 --> 00:03:33.140
>>OBAMA: There's not a black America and white America

00:03:33.140 --> 00:03:38.740
and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America.

00:03:38.740 --> 00:03:39.700
[Audience applauds]

00:03:39.700 --> 00:03:44.820
The pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue states,

00:03:44.830 --> 00:03:46.470
but I've got news for them too.

00:03:46.470 --> 00:03:49.250
We worship an awesome God in the blue states,

00:03:49.250 --> 00:03:52.740
and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states.

00:03:52.740 --> 00:03:55.120
[Audience cheers]

00:03:55.120 --> 00:04:00.860
We coach little league in the blue states and, yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states.

00:04:00.860 --> 00:04:01.400
[Audience applauds]

00:04:01.400 --> 00:04:05.460
We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes,

00:04:05.460 --> 00:04:09.560
all of us defending the United States of America.

00:04:09.560 --> 00:04:11.120
[Audience cheers]

00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:13.840
>>COHEN: The way he uses his hands, he actually points a lot

00:04:13.840 --> 00:04:15.900
and does a lot of "this", and a lot of "this", and a lot of "that".

00:04:15.900 --> 00:04:18.298
>>MCILWAIN: In doing so, he gives off this sense of energy.

00:04:18.298 --> 00:04:21.579
"I am new, I am someone who is dynamic."

00:04:21.579 --> 00:04:23.379
>>COHEN: And he doesn't do that so much anymore.

00:04:23.380 --> 00:04:27.020
He's a little more solemn, and reserved when he gives speeches today.

00:04:27.020 --> 00:04:28.930
And I think it's more reflective of his office.

00:04:28.930 --> 00:04:31.450
[Guitar-based transition music plays]

00:04:31.450 --> 00:04:32.710
[Audience applauds]

00:04:32.710 --> 00:04:37.190
>>OBAMA: In the end, in the end, that's what this election is about.

00:04:37.190 --> 00:04:38.610
[Audience chanting "Obama"]

00:04:38.610 --> 00:04:45.290
Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we participate in a politics of hope?

00:04:46.060 --> 00:04:49.340
It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs;

00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:53.520
the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores;

00:04:54.180 --> 00:04:59.560
the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta;

00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:03.200
the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds;

00:05:03.200 --> 00:05:08.640
the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.

00:05:08.640 --> 00:05:10.720
[Audience applauds]

00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:14.860
>>OBAMA: Hope. Hope in the face of difficulty.

00:05:14.860 --> 00:05:20.500
Hope in the face of uncertainty, the audacity of hope.

00:05:20.500 --> 00:05:21.860
[Audience cheering]

00:05:21.860 --> 00:05:25.900
>>LEHRMAN: His appearance at that convention, which was the best speech of the convention,

00:05:25.900 --> 00:05:29.200
better than John Kerry's, was electrifying.

00:05:29.420 --> 00:05:31.620
And without it, he wouldn't be president.

00:05:31.620 --> 00:05:33.840
>>CUOMO: I think sincerity means a lot.

00:05:33.840 --> 00:05:37.920
There are people who, when they speak, they speak the truth as they see it.

00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:40.260
And they're- they're very effective doing that.

00:05:40.440 --> 00:05:43.660
>>OBAMA: I believe this country will reclaim it's promise,

00:05:43.660 --> 00:05:47.260
and out of this long political darkness, a brighter day will come.

00:05:47.270 --> 00:05:48.270
Thank you very much, everybody.

00:05:48.270 --> 00:05:49.270
God bless you.

00:05:49.270 --> 00:06:03.270
[Audience cheers]

00:06:03.270 --> 00:06:12.670
[Drum-based outro music plays]