Obama: Our Time Has Come

POSTED BY Raleigh-Elizabeth Smith, 05 February 2008

Obama addressed a passionate crowd in Chicago to chants of "Obama, Obama" as he took the stage. Before beginning his speech, he introduced Dick Durbin, the Senior State Senator of Illinois, and declared how good it was to be back home. He then sent his condolonces to the victims of tonight's storms in Tennessee and Arkansas and said he hopes the federal government responds quickly and rapidly to get them all the help that they need. He then addressed the night's results, results which left many questions still in the air.

"One thing on this February night we do not need final results to know: our time has come our movement is real and change is coming to America."

He went on to tell a story about him and Durbin one year ago, saying they learned the age-old lesson that a house divided cannot satnd. "We are more than a collection of red states and blue states," Obama urged the crowd. "We are and always will be the United States of America." Chants of "USA, USA" filled the room.

Obama went on to say that "what began as a whisper" in Iowa where seniors and students stood up to say "maybe this year, this time can be different," and spread to the hills of New Hampshire and deserts of Neveda, teachers, cooks, kitchen workers stood up to say maybe Washington doesn't have to be run by lobbyists, but by the voices of American people. They reached the coast of South Carolina, but people said maybe we don't have to be divided by race and region and gender. Crumbilng schools steal the futures of black and white children, and Obama said that it is time to come together and give American children everywhere a chance to live out their dreams - "this time can be different." What "started as a whisper" swelled to a chorus of millions singing for change, "a chorus that cannot be ignored."

With his dependable charisma and preacher's charm, he concluded in the affirmative: "Mot this time, not this year. The stakes are too high to play the same Washington game with the same Washington players and somehow expect a differet result. This time must be different. This time we have to turn the page. This time we have to write a new chapter in American history. This time we have to seize the moment."