America, now is not the time for small plans.

[unamaga]

Right, so, I should probably have something interesting and deep to say, but all I can think about is:

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.

So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.

America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits. What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose. That's what we have to restore.

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 they are 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. You know, passions may 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. But 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.

I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.

You make a big election about small things.

Yes. Just yes. *deep breath*

Comments

[kashmir1.livejournal.com]

Yes we can.

[unamaga.livejournal.com]

*flaps arms weakly*

[anne-jumps.livejournal.com]

*does too*

[mausi.livejournal.com]

It gives me goosebumps to hear him speak, but more importantly, it gives me hope.

[kashmir1.livejournal.com]

more importantly, it gives me hope

EXACTLY.

[mausi.livejournal.com]

You guys all have your free buttons (https://pol.moveon.org/obamabuttons/?rc=homepage), right?

[kashmir1.livejournal.com]

I have my free stickers, too. :D

[unamaga.livejournal.com]

OMG! *orders right away*

[unamaga.livejournal.com]

God, yes. I come out of every speech he makes feeling lighter.

Yes yes yes!

[telesilla.livejournal.com]

This.

Just...this.

Re: Yes yes yes!

[unamaga.livejournal.com]

*arms of yay*

[clex_monkie89.livejournal.com]

I don't know who I love more right now him or you--because I completely forgot today was Thursday and managed to completely miss his speech.

[unamaga.livejournal.com]

It's up practically everywhere if you want to see it!

[clex_monkie89.livejournal.com]

MOG REALLY? Link please? NO ONE on my FList has it up or linked.

[unamaga.livejournal.com]

if you go to msnbc.com, it's right there on the front page. :D :D

[clex_monkie89.livejournal.com]

Oh, DUH. MOG, my blonde is showing, time to dye my hair again.

[skipmcgee.livejournal.com]

That whole speech had me going 'Oh SNAP'.

And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's work, because I want my daughters to have the exact same opportunities as your sons.

:flails:

Re: Yes yes yes!

[unamaga.livejournal.com]

YES. Fjawg;oiwfjaJAFIjia. *can't even*

[darsynia.livejournal.com]

fdklsjafdslkafjdsa.

Yes. He really needed to do this [redacted rant about McCain], and the eloquence in which he did it makes me warm and fuzzy with happy.

How much do I love that he used the word 'happy' in his speech and it DIDN'T sound cheesy? ♥

[unamaga.livejournal.com]

I KNOW. That man. I've never felt patriotic in my life, but now? Yeah.

[darsynia.livejournal.com]

Makes me think to myself, 'okay, you really want this? Prove it. Go out and help' which scares me because, really, not fun.

But, who am I to want change if I'm not willing to assist in some way in the process of obtaining it?

[unamaga.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I'm with you there. I would be more than willing to stand outside a school and help register young people to vote if I didn't think I'd suck at it, haha.

[mausi.livejournal.com]

So recruit online ;)

[smangosbubbles]

I want you to be my President, Mr. Obama.

(Sadly, I won't be old enough to vote come November, but my dad's already said he's voting for Obama. He hasn't voted in close to two decades (as far as I know).)

[unamaga.livejournal.com]

And that right there is why Obama will win! \o/

[drkquail.livejournal.com]

God. GOD. PAT FREAKIN'BUCHANAN CANNOT SHUT UP ABOUT HOW AWESOME THAT SPEECH WAS. He said it was the best convention speech he has ever heard.

When we win over Pat Buchanan, we have a real shot. YES. WE. CAN!

[unamaga.livejournal.com]

DUDE! I CANNOT STOP FLAILING!

[drkquail.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHA! Tucker Bounds, one of the McCain mouthpieces on CNN, looks like he's about to cry. And Ben Stein is already spinning Obama's words to make him seem like he was attacking McCain by calling him a coward.

FEAR OBAMA AND HIS LAUNDRY LIST OF IDEAZ!

[unamaga.livejournal.com]

Ahahahahahaha, BRILLIANT!

My life would be complete if Jon Stewart and Ben Stein got into it, btw. I mean. That would be EPIC. And Jon would totally win.

[drkquail.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I have this sneaking suspicion that Stein's slooooow thing is just an act to lull his opponents into a false sense of superiority. And then he'd strike. Like a cobra.

A clear-eyed, mono-tone cobra.

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

Are you serious?

PAT BUCHANAN?

I. I don't even know how to respond to that. Has the sun turned green, by any chance?

[skipmcgee.livejournal.com]

Lol, you sound like half the people over on ONTD Political (http://community.livejournal.com/ontd_political/617148.html?page=74&view=27102908#comments)

[beeej.livejournal.com]

I want to listen to that man on my TV for the next four years, and the next four years after that, too.

[unamaga.livejournal.com]

*happy, patriotic sigh*

[chickyoops.livejournal.com]

He's incredible. He makes me want to be an American citizen.

[unamaga.livejournal.com]

Heee! \o/

[loves-bitch.livejournal.com]

Hon, for the first time in a long time I am not at all ashamed to say that I am an American.

I am crying so much because I am thinking that this hope must of been what people felt when they heard Martin Luther King and Kennedy talk.

That's why I stand here tonight. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women - students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors -- found the courage to keep it alive.

That right there is where I started bawling and haven't really stopped.

[raynedanser.livejournal.com]

Makes you all tingly, doesn't it?

[melagan.livejournal.com]

I should probably have something interesting and deep to say

When something has been this well and elegantly said, I think it's okay to be speechless :)

\o/

[shadowserenity.livejournal.com]

oh my god. He is such a captivating speaker.