The Speech that Made Obama President

In 2004, a one-term senator from Illinois took the stage to deliver the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. By the time Barack Obama had finished speaking, Democrats across the country knew they had seen the future of their party.

Political speech experts featured in this episode include:

Michael A. Cohen
Author, Live From The Campaign Trail

Mario Cuomo
Former Governor of New York

Robert Lehrman
Chief Speechwriter for Vice President Gore and Professor of Speechwriting, American University

Charlton McIlwain
Professor of Communication, New York University

Jeff Shesol
Speechwriter for President Clinton and Founding Partner, West Wing Writers

PODIUM is a bi-weekly series that embraces the art of public speaking and honors those with something to say. From historic political speeches, to contemporary commencement addresses, to wedding toasts, the series explores various genres of speechmaking and provides inspiring, insightful analysis including "how-to" content.

Created and produced by @radical.media, THNKR gives you extraordinary access to the people, stories, places and thinking that will change your mind.

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[Guitar and drum intro music plays]

[Piano music plays]

[Guitar strums and Audience cheers]

>>ROBERT LEHRMAN: Barack Obama in 2004 was totally unknown.

People were saying, "Huh, I don't know who this guy is.

Wonder why they picked him."

>>MICHAEL COHEN: He had this reputation as a bit of an upstart.

As sort of a young, rising figure in the party.

But no one knew who this guy was.

This was his chance to introduce himself to people.

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

My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya.

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

>>LEHRMAN: The next thing he says is about his mother's family.

His grandfather fought in World War II, he used the GI Bill, they settled in Kansas.

So white people could say, "Huh, oh.

He's just like us."

>>OBAMA: My parents shared not only an improbable love;

they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation.

I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story.

That I owe a debt to all of those who came before me,

and that in no other country on earth is my story even possible.

[New Age transition music plays]

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

and we felt, as a country, like we've grown further apart.

>>COHEN: '04 was very much a divisive partisan race.

Obama's speech was in some ways an antidote to that.

>>OBAMA: Alongside our famous individualism,

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

If there's a child on the south side of Chicago who can't read,

that matters to me, even if it's not my child.

[Audience applauds]

If there's a senior citizen somewhere who
can't pay for their prescription,

and having to choose between medicine and the rent,

that makes my life poorer, even if it's not my grandparent.

[Audience applauds]

It is that fundamental belief, I am my brother's keeper,

I am my sister's keeper, that makes this country work.

[Audience applauds]

"E pluribus unum," out of many, one.

>>COHEN: He gives a speech that presages his entire political message of 2008

which is this sort of post-partisan argument.

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

the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes.

Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America;

there is the United States of America.

[Audience applauds]

[Jazzy transition music plays]

>>MARIO CUOMO: Obama was born with two great gifts.

One is his mind, and the other is his ability to speak to large groups of people.

>>LEHRMAN: There are three things that Obama does that really makes that speech effective.

He wants concrete detail, he likes story, and he loves antithesis,

the use of repetition and structure to show contrast.

"There is not a liberal America, or a conservative America."

There is one America.

>>OBAMA: There's not a black America and white America

and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America.

[Audience applauds]

The pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue states,

but I've got news for them too.

We worship an awesome God in the blue states,

and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states.

[Audience cheers]

We coach little league in the blue states and, yes, we've got some gay friends in the red states.

[Audience applauds]

We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes,

all of us defending the United States of America.

[Audience cheers]

>>COHEN: The way he uses his hands, he actually points a lot

and does a lot of "this", and a lot of "this", and a lot of "that".

>>MCILWAIN: In doing so, he gives off this sense of energy.

"I am new, I am someone who is dynamic."

>>COHEN: And he doesn't do that so much anymore.

He's a little more solemn, and reserved when he gives speeches today.

And I think it's more reflective of his office.

[Guitar-based transition music plays]

[Audience applauds]

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

[Audience chanting "Obama"]

Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we participate in a politics of hope?

It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs;

the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores;

the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta;

the hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds;

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

[Audience applauds]

>>OBAMA: Hope. Hope in the face of difficulty.

Hope in the face of uncertainty, the audacity of hope.

[Audience cheering]

>>LEHRMAN: His appearance at that convention, which was the best speech of the convention,

better than John Kerry's, was electrifying.

And without it, he wouldn't be president.

>>CUOMO: I think sincerity means a lot.

There are people who, when they speak, they speak the truth as they see it.

And they're- they're very effective doing that.

>>OBAMA: I believe this country will reclaim it's promise,

and out of this long political darkness, a brighter day will come.

Thank you very much, everybody.

God bless you.

[Audience cheers]

[Drum-based outro music plays]