Tuesday, December 2, 2008
60 things girls need to understand about guys!!!!
A list of 51 different things that girls wish guys knew,my girlfriend suggests
Thursday, November 27, 2008
britney dishes out on k-fed being a bad influence on her kids
| Posted Nov. 25, 2008 Britney Spears' heavily hyped comeback will culminate with the release of "Circus" on Dec. 2., the same day she turns 27. And while you'd think her birthday would be a time for her to reflect on the choices she's made that have led her to her current circumstances -- her father in control of her life; custody of sons Sean Preston, 3, and Jayden James, 2, lost to ex-husband Kevin Federline -- she instead seems to be blocking out some of her past behavior.
"I didn't think my husband was gonna leave me," Brit tells Rolling Stone in a new cover story optimistically titled "Yes She Can!" (and somewhere, Barack Obama's press office sighs heavily). "Otherwise, I'd be with my babies 24/7. But since they're almost like twins, they both take care of each other. I think they look like me. They don't look like their father at all." And even though Spears' own mother said last month that Federline "could have been a real pill about a lot of things, but he wasn't," the popster apparently doesn't think he's doing a perfect parenting job. "And it's weird 'cause they're starting to learn words like 'stupid,' and Preston says the f-word now sometimes. He doesn't get it from us. He must get it from his daddy," finger-points Britney. "I say it, but not around my kids." How quickly she's forgotten her memorable tirade against a paparazzo in July 2007 while driving around with her tots. In video of the incident, Spears rolls down the window of her Mercedes and, as her kids wail heartbreakingly in the backseat, tells the shutterbug, "Hey, baby. When are you gonna get on a diet? Have you ever tried Weight Watchers, you fat [bleep]? Why don't you run? You need to [bleeping] jog, you p***y. Yeah, run. Run, b***h!" Anyhoo, Britney plays the proud mother in the carefully orchestrated sit-down ("We were never left alone together, and my questions had to be submitted ahead of time for approval," the reporter tells USA Today), marveling at how fast they're growing up and sharing a personal anecdote.
"Every time they come to visit me, I think about how they're such special people," says Spears, who is allowed two visits and one overnight per week with her sons. "Like, they're going to preschool now! I went there to pick them up on Friday, and seeing them in their little classroom and seeing Jayden being bad or not listening? It's like, those are mine, and it's just crazy, you know what I mean?" Bubbles Brit, "And the things that are coming out of their mouths right now -- they're learning so much, and it's new, and you never know what they're going to say, and they're so smart yet so innocent. They're obsessed with monsters, and every night we look outside, and we have to show them that there's no monsters out there. It's dark outside, but there's nothin' out there, you know?" Speaking of things that go bump in the night, the days when she would drive aimlessly around into the wee hours with an army of paparazzi in tow are long gone. "I feel like an old person now," sighs Spears, who compared her life to "Groundhog Day" in her new documentary, which debuts on MTV on Nov. 30. "I do! I go to bed at, like, 9:30 every night, and I don't go out or anything, you know what I mean? I just feel like an old fart." Not that her life is completely devoid of fun. She reveals how she's gone on a few chaperoned dates, although neither resulted in a love connection. "One of the dates I had recently, I was accompanied by my assistant Brett and my manager Larry Rudolph's friend Adam Leber," recalls Britney, who stepped out last week with a chiseled fella named Marco. "Right when we got there, we just knew it was just bad. He looked like an older version of Harry Potter, but skinnier. So I had to get dessert first." And then there was a meet-and-greet with a gentleman who "was really, really tall and a lot older. We're trying to ask him questions, like, 'OK, you're into martial arts, so what kind of martial arts are you into?' And he was like, 'Oh, all kinds.' So we were just cracking up." For now, it's all work and little play for Spears, who jetted to Europe on Monday to promote "Circus." One unnamed track, which she says she wrote, is about "artistic expression and the masquerade of people acting and putting on shows," explains Brit. "Through that, you create your own world. The song talks about how other people are coming into this girl's world, but she didn't invite them in. So she's saying, 'Why are you here, if I didn't invite you?' It's complicated, but you can tell it's me who wrote it, because it's in my voice and there's a difference." Still, she's worried about revealing too much of herself to the public, which has already been witness to her flashed lady parts and her ambulance-chauffeured trip to the hospital. "It's scary to put yourself out there and be like, 'Oh, God, is that cool?' If you're not going to really go for it, you can't just go there halfway," says Britney. "But sometimes, when you go for it, you can't lose." |
Britney: My Life Is Like 'Groundhog Day'
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| Posted Nov. 18, 2007 With exactly two weeks to go before Britney Spears completes her much-ballyhooed comeback with the release of "Circus," the publicity machine has cranked into overdrive with the release of some attention-grabbing (and, we're guessing, slightly out-of-context) excerpts from her new documentary. "I have really good days, and then I have bad days," she admits in "Britney: For the Record" (via People and the London Sun), a 90-minute, behind-the-scenes look at her life since her epic and painfully extended public meltdown. According to Spears, who turns 27 on the same day "Circus" is released, her current, closely monitored circumstances are kind of like being in prison -- or a Bill Murray movie. "Even when you go to jail, you know, there's the time when you're gonna get out," sighs Brit, who is legally unable to make any major decisions (her father, Jamie, remains her permanent guardian until the court says otherwise). "But in this situation, it's never-ending. It's just like 'Groundhog Day.'"
And while Murray's character eventually changed and grew and became a better person by being forced to live the same day over and over again, Britney appears to chafe a bit from the more structured, less aimless-driving-and-gas-station-stop existence. "I think it's too in-control. If I wasn't under the restraints I'm under, I'd feel so liberated. When I tell them the way I feel, it's like they hear but they're really not listening," says the popster, who also reckons there's a lack of "passion" and "excitement." "I never wanted to become one of those prisoner people. I always wanted to feel free." But Spears, who lost custody of sons Sean Preston, 3, and Jayden James, 2, to ex-husband Kevin Federline following a January police standoff and her subsequent hospitalization, seems to realize the road to recovery -- both personal and professional -- is long and bumpy. "If you do something wrong in your work, you can move on," she figures, "but I'm having to pay for a long time." Brit hopes the documentary, which tracks three months in her life and debuts on MTV on Nov. 30, will offer a positive look at the strides she's made since her head-shaving, paparazzo-dating, gurney-strapped nadir. "I wanted to make this film because I started to feel like I wasn't being seen in the light that I wanted to be seen in," she explains. "This is an opportunity to set the record straight and talk about what I've been through and where I'm headed." Concludes the optimistic Britster, "I think I've learned my lesson now, and enough is enough." |
trouble in the paradise of lindsay and ronson
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| Posted Nov. 24, 2008 The good news is that the tabloids are treating Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson like any other Hollywood couple. The bad news is the inevitable rift rumors have begun. On the heels of the flour-bombed starlet's declaration to Harper's Bazaar that her DJ inamorata is "a wonderful person and I love her very much," the pair is being accused of bickering all over the world. According to the London Daily Mirror, the joined-at-the-hip honeys had a tiff Thursday night at the ridiculously opulent and star-packed kickoff party for the Atlantis resort in Dubai. Lindsay, 22, was allegedly miffed because she felt Ronson, 31, who had been hired to DJ at the $20 million shindig, was focused more on her tune-spinning than on her. The paper claims the underemployed actress "collapsed in a heap before storming angrily" to the DJ booth as the bash wound down. "How many more songs were you going to play?" Lohan is said to have hollered. "How long does it take to pack? It takes five minutes. PACK!" At that point, designer Matthew Williamson purportedly popped up to play amateur mediator, saying, "Now Sam, you speak first, then Lindsay, it's your turn."
This is the latest report of squabbling between the squeezes to surface, with similar tales emerging from their recent stops in London and New York. They're "fighting like cats and dogs," a source tattles to the New York Post. "They fight every day, screaming, crying and yelling at each other. Sam and Lindsay are still very much together and very much in love, but drama just seems to follow Lindsay, and Sam hates it. She deals with Lindsay every day. And every day for Sam means questioning, 'Is this worth it?'" Adds another source, "Lindsay is high-maintenance and a lot to deal with. Sam has always dealt with her. But it isn't easy." The paper claims Lohan and Ronson are seeing a couples counselor in order to work through some of their ostensibly "escalating" problems, although a rep for the actress says she knows nothing about the supposed therapy sessions. |
of leo and kate's makeout,paris post benji break
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| Posted Nov. 24, 2008 If David Spade could find a way to bottle the seemingly irresistible pheromones he emits when among the opposite sex, he'd be so stinkin' rich he'd never have to co-star in another second-rate sitcom again. The funnyman, whose inexplicably impressive romantic history includes wooing Heather Locklear, reportedly offered the gift of saliva to Nicollette Sheridan at her 45th birthday party Friday night at Los Angeles hot spot Luau, the same place they were seen enjoying a "deep conversation" last month. Word is, Spade and the veteran "Desperate Housewives" vixen arrived separately and remained out of smooching range for part of the evening before coming together for some snuggle time. "They cuddled and kissed," a spy tells People. "They were full-on making out in a booth." But did that same spy share the sighting with several other media outlets? Us, OK! and E! News all just happen use the same "full-on making out" line in their reports of the birthday bussing, with the latter two also noting how Nicollette and David "cuddled and kissed." Anyhoodle, insiders say the two aren't an item, although People's eyewitness relays how Spade "winked at her and stood by her side while she blew out the candles on her cake." Sheridan, you'll recall, split with fiancé Michael Bolton in August, while Spade became a reluctant first-time dad in August when Playboy Playmate Jillian Grace gave birth to a baby girl.
Maybe Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Bosworth are just really tactile people, but their surprisingly demonstrative behavior at GQ's Men of the Year bash last week in Los Angeles raised more than a few eyebrows. "They were really close together and acted super flirty," a snitch tells People of the comely pair. "They just kept getting closer as the night went on." Later, the fat-free starlet, who began dating model James Rousseau soon after she parted ways with Orlando Bloom in 2006, joined the actor, who's been on-and-off with model Bar Refaeli for the last couple of years, at hot spot Bardot, where their newfound chumminess supposedly continued. "Kate was all over Leo," a clubgoer informs Star. "Her body language suggested that she wanted to be more than just friends and wasn't worried who saw. They spent the entire night together side by side, intimately whispering in each other's ears and squeezing each other tight." Adds the hawk-eyed, conclusion-drawing witness, "Leo and Kate acted as if there was no one else in the club. She was making sure his focus was solely on her, and the black skintight dress she was wearing certainly helped."
Nothing says "I'm single and loving it" quite like strapping on a shiny pleather minidress and matching spats, Bedazzling a policeman's hat, uncomfortably arching your back and striking a pose. At least that seemed to be Paris Hilton's strategy Sunday night as she showed off how well she's doing in the post-Benji Madden era by styling a shiny, airtight ensemble for a Pussycat Dolls event in Los Angeles. Speaking of the split, the starlet told Ryan Seacrest last week that she and Benji were just "taking a break," but the Chicago Sun-Times thinks there may be a ulterior motive behind the Ross-and-Rachel-like breather, namely, a romantic experiment. A Paris insider tells the paper that she wants "to know if she absolutely can't stand to be apart from him. ... That's her test to make sure this is the guy for her ... something she's never felt before with anyone." If true, she seems to be failing the test. The London Daily Mirror says she made a beeline for Los Angeles hot spot Villa on Friday night with pal Avril Lavigne after hearing her ex was hanging out there with twin brother Joel. But someone apparently tipped Benji off, because he made a hasty exit just moments before she arrived, allegedly grumbling, "Can't I have a night out in peace?"
You'd figure that British chef Gordon Ramsay wouldn't have a second to spare in his ridiculously busy life, filled as it is with his eatery empire and a gazillion different TV shows on both sides of the Atlantic. But Britain's News of the World claims the tongue-lashing- and four-letter-word-loving restaurant mogul, who has four kids with wife of 12 years Tana, recently carved some time out of his packed schedule to rendezvous at a London hotel with mistress extraordinaire Sarah Symonds, who is the author of the book "Having an Affair? A Handbook for the 'Other Woman,'" a how-to tryst tome that she promoted on "Oprah" last year. While Ramsay is remaining tight-lipped on the accusations (the tabloid contends the purported affair began in 2001 and continued off-and-on), a mole tells Metro.UK that he may sue. "There are so many holes in this story," insists the insider. "I'm not going to say what those holes are, but it is going to the legal team." The Ramsays, who were named Celebrity Family of the Year in 2007 (Ramsay received Father of the Year honors the year before), made a point to stand together in the wake of the allegations. "Everything is fine," the chef's spokesman assured the London Sun. "Life is good and it's business as usual for their marriage." The embattled pair reinforced that status quo statement by walking hand-in-hand on Sunday in front of photographers. The following day, Mrs. Ramsay showed no signs of turmoil as she took the kids to school. When asked how she was doing, she smiled and responded, "I'm good, thanks for asking." As for Symonds, she's also mum on the report, although she did declare late last year, "I am reformed. I would rather be alone than ever again have to face the utter loneliness a mistress feels in an affair."
One thing that apparently differentiates Paul McCartney's yearlong romance with American businesswoman Nancy Shevell from his ultimately disastrous relationship with Heather Mills, besides a distinct lack of drama: His onstage repertoire has expanded. The Times of London reports that when Shevell accompanied the Beatles legend to his concert in Tel Aviv last month, he performed "My Love," a song he wrote in honor of his wife, Linda, who succumbed to cancer in 1998. Seems Mills would "stomp out" if he played it, so he removed it from the set list; Nancy, on the other hand, was unconcerned when he dedicated the Wings ditty to Linda, and she looked on "adoringly" as he sang. "I just like being in love," Sir Paul reveals to the paper, offering no further details about Shevell, who accompanied him on a road trip across the U.S. over the summer. She's equally circumspect, but shrugs off a question as to whether his iconic status stresses her out. "I don't find it stressful," Shevell tells the paper. "I'm a cancer survivor, I run a trucking company and I've got a 16-year-old to raise. That's stress." Looks like French actress-model Noemie Lenoir won't have to buy baby wipes in bulk. The New York Post says she steering clear of hygienically minded Terrence Howard, who reportedly serenaded her at a Miami bash a few days back. After the story surfaced, Lenoir was supposedly bombarded with cautionary tales. "Calls were flooding into her agency," a source tells the paper. "At least 50 women called to tell Noemie to stay away after seeing the Page Six item. She now wants nothing to do with him." |
Celebrity Quotes: What Celebrities Are Thankful for
Celebrity Quotes: What Celebrities Are Thankful for This Year
Associated Press
Being rich and/or famous doesn't stop Hollywood from taking a moment to gorge on turkey and take stock of this year's blessings. The Associated Press asked dozens of celebrities what they're thankful for. Here are just a few samples:
"I am grateful for so many
things in 2008. I feel like there's a chance of real promise in this country." — singer Faith Hill."I think we want to be, most of all, thankful for the fans. This year, they've been always sticking around for us, always been there for us. The fans are the best. They've come to every concert. They've slept outside (of) venues. And we can't thank them enough." — Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers.
"Health. It's all about health. My health. My loved ones' health. We're all here. We're all OK. As I get older (starts to chuckle) we're all hanging on! What's going to happen next year? So far, we made it through another one." — musician Barry Manilow.
"I'm thankful that America actually stood up and did something quite extraordinary (with the election). ... I've been over here for 12 years and I have a green card and I've been delaying becoming a citizen because I was really troubled by the politics in this country, and sort
of befuddled by it." — Australian actor Simon Baker, "The Mentalist.""Mostly it's my family. I think I've realized that mostly this year, because there's been so many crazy ups and downs, and so many different things, and I've always had the same family to come home to that will treat me like the same Miley as I was in Nashville. So, cool." —
musician Miley Cyrus."On a personal level, my family's health. And on a global level, I guess everyone still has hope, and I like that." — actor John Travolta.
"In 2008 my son was born, Zuma Nesta Rock. So, that is clearly the most massive thing for me. ... I lucked out because my wife is really good with him. So, right now (wife Gwen Stefani is) doing most of it. So, my life hasn't changed that much, drastically. But it's incredible
to have another little spirit right there." — musician Gavin Rossdale."I'm just blessed to have two very lovely children in my life, and health. It's something people don't think about a lot. I'm very lucky to be healthy and have healthy kids." — actress Reese Witherspoon.
"I'm most thankful that our country reminded everybody that we are a part of the world, and we're capable of incredible greatness in this country." — actress Mary Steenburgen.
"I'm grateful for all the times I laughed this year. That sounds crazy, but as you get older, you really take a moment and go, 'I laughed there, I had a sweet moment there. I took my kid to (hamburger restaurant) In-N-Out.' You know, I've to say, that's it for me pretty much
at this point in my life: Just take those moments." — actress Rene Russo.Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Madelyn Dunham, Obama's grandmother, dies at 86
Dunham, 86, Senator Barack Obama's grandmother, died late Sunday evening in Hawaii after battling cancer, which Obama announced upon arriving here Monday for a campaign stop on the eve of Election Day.
"She has gone home," Obama said, his voice tinged with emotion as he briefly spoke of her death at a campaign rally here. "She died peacefully in her sleep with my sister at her side, so there's great joy instead of tears."
Obama learned of his grandmother's death at 8 a.m. Monday, aides said, but appeared at a morning rally in Florida without making an announcement. A written statement was issued around 4:30 p.m., in the name of Obama and his sister, before he spoke at an evening rally in Charlotte. The delay was intended to allow his sister, who was six hours behind in Hawaii, time to take care of a few details before news of the death became public.
Dunham was the final remaining immediate family member who helped raise Obama during his teenage years in Hawaii. He called her Toot, his shorthand for "tutu," a Hawaiian term for grandparent.
Obama broke from the presidential campaign trail in late October to travel to Honolulu to bid his grandmother farewell. He spent part of two days with her, as she lay gravely ill in the small apartment where he lived from age 10 to 18.
While Dunham was too sick to travel to see her grandson on the campaign trail, Obama and other family members said that she closely followed his bid for the presidency through cable television. Yet she became a figure in his campaign, seen through images in television commercials intended to give him a biographical anchor.
Dunham, who grew up near August, Kansas, moved with her husband, Stanley Dunham, to Hawaii. In the early stages of his candidacy, Obama spoke wistfully about his grandparents, whose all-American biography suddenly was critical to establishing his own story.
For Obama, the loss came on the final full day of his presidential campaign. Campaigning in New Mexico, Senator John McCain and his wife, Cindy, offered their condolences Monday, saying: "Our thoughts and prayers go out to them as they remember and celebrate the life of someone who had such a profound impact in their lives."
His grandmother's illness had been weighing on him in recent weeks, friends said, which is why he insisted on interrupting his schedule to visit her last month. While she was gravely ill, aides said, Obama carried on a limited conversation with her. He kept the visit to one day, advisers said, partly out of her own insistence that people not create a fuss.
Obama moves America beyond racial politics
On Tuesday, America leaped.
Millions of voters — white and black, Hispanic and Asian, biracial and multiracial — put their faith and the future of their country into the hands of a 47-year-old black man who made history both because of his race and in spite of it.
African-Americans wept and danced in the streets on Tuesday night, declaring that a once-reluctant nation had finally lived up to its democratic promise. Strangers of all colors exulted in small towns and big cities. And white voters marveled at what they had wrought in turning a page on the country's bitter racial history.
"It brought tears to my eyes to see the lines," said Bob Haskins, a black maintenance worker at an Atlanta church, where scores of college students voted on Tuesday. "For these young folks, this is a calling. Everything that Martin Luther King talked about is coming true today."
Tobey Benas, a retired teacher who voted for Obama in Chicago, also savored the moment: "I can't believe how far we've come," said Benas, who is white. "This goes very deep for me."
In a country long divided, Obama had a singular appeal: He is biracial and Ivy League educated; a stirring speaker who shoots hoops and quotes the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr; a politician who grooves to the rapper Jay-Z and loves the lyricism of the cellist Yo Yo Ma; a man of remarkable control and startling boldness.
He was also something completely new: an African-American presidential candidate without a race-based agenda. And his message of unity and his promise of a new way of thinking seemed to inspire — or least offer some reassurance — to a country staggered by two wars, a convulsing economy and sometimes bewildering global change.
Americans, of course, have not suddenly become colorblind or forgotten old wounds. But millions of white citizens clearly decided Obama was preferable to the alternative, even if some had to swallow hard when they walked into the voting booth.
"In difficult economic times, people find the price of prejudice is just a little bit too high," said Governor Michael Easley of North Carolina, a white Democrat. "They're saying, 'We don't care what your race is. If you can make things better, we're for you.' "
Easley said he knew big changes were coming when he passed a pickup on the road a few weeks ago. The white driver, who looked like he had been hunting, was wearing camouflage apparel and had a gun rack in his truck. Easley said he was sure he was looking at a McCain supporter — until he saw the Obama stickers plastered on the door.
"I thought to myself, 'We might be winning now,' " Easley said. "We could cross that chasm, we could cross the Rubicon this time."
Confident in the country's ability to move beyond racial politics, Obama had his finger on the pulse of a nation in transition.
Day by day, year by year, racial tensions have eased as black and white classmates giggle over scribbled notes, co-workers gossip over cups of coffee, predominantly white audiences bond with Oprah and people have grown accustomed to black executives on Wall Street, black movie stars in Hollywood and black cabinet secretaries in the Oval Office.
Still, the fact that Americans would be willing, at last, to elect a black president stunned many scholars, politicians and advocates for civil rights. They remain keenly aware of the nation's record of denying black aspirations — from the time African slaves were forced to these shores nearly 400 years ago, to the broken promises of Reconstruction, to the bloody resistance to the civil rights movement in the 1960s, to the last lynching of a black man in 1981.
"The history of the country is such that you wonder when, if ever, certain things will ever happen," said Representative James Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat who is 68. "You sit down and you say, 'How did the Lord allow me to be a part of all this? Why not my mother and father or their parents? Why me?' "
Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Harvard scholar of African-American history, said that the election rivaled the day in 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and the day 101 years later when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. Then Gates declared, "There's never been a moment like this in our lifetime, ever."
For older blacks, Obama's victory was particularly momentous. They marveled as they compared the scenes of white policemen beating black marchers in the 1960s to those from this year's campaign rallies where thousands of white people waved American flags and chanted, "O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!"
Richard Hatcher, who became one of the nation's first black mayors when he was elected in 1967 to lead Gary, Indiana, said he believed the election would reshape the perceptions that blacks and whites have of each other.
"That's the great hope," Hatcher said. "We do not have to be absolutely obsessed with the issue of race anymore. There's no reason why the vision of America cannot be real."
A century or so ago, such optimism was unthinkable. Before the Civil War, only two black people — a justice of the peace and a township clerk — had managed to get elected to public office in the entire country.
The prospects for black politicians were so dim that Frederick Douglass, the former slave and abolitionist, when asked what he might do as president, dismissed the question as absurd, saying, "No such contingency has even one chance in 60 million to be realized."
After black men won the right to vote in 1870, they sent 23 African-Americans to Congress over the next three decades. But by 1901, when the last black lawmaker of that era left Capitol Hill, Southern whites had disenfranchised blacks, using, among other devices, the poll tax, intimidation and violence.
By the time Obama announced his White House bid last year, though, white voters had elected black members of Congress, state legislators, mayors, even governors. This year, 70 percent of white adults surveyed in a New York Times/CBS News poll said the United States was ready to elect a black president.
Still, most of the political establishment — black and white — thought that Obama had no chance. Previous black presidential candidates had never drawn significant white votes. And Obama, only the third black lawmaker ever elected to the Senate, had an unusual biography — a white mother from Kansas, black father from Kenya, a childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia — and a relatively thin résumé.
But once the primary season started, it became clear that Obama had a persona and a message that resonated deeply with voters. Variously a soaring orator, a sober policy wonk, an urgent promoter of change and a steady leader, he displayed a gift for finding consensus that let him draw support from people who might disagree with each other.
African-Americans, wary at first of a candidate who had not emerged from the civil rights movement or the black church, soon embraced him. And though he struggled to win over white, working-class voters, many whites were attracted to a candidate who rarely talked about race and focused on their concerns about the war in Iraq, health care and the economy.
His biracial background may have reassured voters who might otherwise have felt uneasy, said Governor James Doyle of Wisconsin, a white Democrat. "He has understood that occasionally white people say things that can be hurtful and can still be wonderful, loving people."
Yet Obama also expressed pride in his African-American identity. Gates, the Harvard professor, called Obama "the postmodern race man."
"He can wear it, he can take it off, he can put it back on. It's just an aspect of his identity," Gates said. "People don't see him primarily as black. I think people see him primarily as an agent of change."
Obama is a student of history, and he turned to it in delivering the speech in March that many believed saved a candidacy threatened by his ties to his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., whose 2003 "God damn America" sermon became notorious.
The senator spoke of the legacy of slavery, of black grievance and white resentment, and of the possibility of redemption.
"I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy — particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own," he said then. "But what we know — what we have seen — is that America can change."
"The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society," Obama added. "It's that he spoke as if our society was static, as if no progress has been made."
Civil rights leaders cautioned that much work remains to be done. But Lattrell Foster of Chicago, 32, who voted for the first time on Tuesday, was still close to tears as he considered the enormity of the nation's progress and vowed to tell his children about it. "Just like my grandparents told me what it was like during the civil rights movement," he said. "I feel like this night is a culmination of that history."
Why has America turned on Sarah Palin?
Why has America turned on Sarah Palin? Obviously, her wobbly television interviews haven't helped. Nor have the drip, drip of scandals from Alaska, which have tarnished her reformist image. But Palin's problems run deeper, and they say something fundamental about the political age being born. Palin's brand is culture war, and in America today culture war no longer sells. The struggle that began in the 1960s - which put questions of racial, sexual and religious identity at the forefront of American politics - may be ending. Palin is the end of the line.
This won't be the first time a culture war has come to a close. In the 1920s, battles over evolution, immigration, prohibition and the resurgent Ku Klux Klan dominated election after election. Those issues pitted newly arrived, saloon-frequenting, big-city Catholics against old-stock, teetotaling, small-town Protestants.
Then, in the 1930s, the culture war died. A big reason was the Depression, which put questions of economic survival front and centre. In the 1920s boom economy, politicians were largely free to focus on identity politics. By Franklin Roosevelt's election in 1932, that was a luxury leaders could no longer afford.
The other thing that killed the '20s culture war was generational change. Over time, Catholics and other immigrants left their ghettos and began to assimilate. The cut-off of mass immigration in 1924 ushered in an era of cultural consolidation in which the differences among white Americans came to matter less and less. When Democrats nominated a Catholic, Al Smith, for president in 1928, he lost in a landslide. But by 1960, when they nominated John Kennedy, he grabbed a far larger share of the Protestant vote, and won.
Something similar is happening today. Our era's culture war also began in prosperity. It was in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the high point of America's postwar boom, that African Americans took to the streets in vast numbers to demand equal rights. And it was in the early 1960s, as a result of the vast increase in postwar college enrolment, that students began challenging the conformity of American life. Middle-class baby boomers sparked the movements for women's rights and gay rights and the rise in blue-state secularism, all of which helped touch off this era's culture war. The relationship between prosperity and cultural conflict is not exact, of course, but it is significant that during this era's culture war we have gone a quarter-century without a serious recession.
Economic issues have mattered in presidential elections, of course, but not until today have we faced an economic crisis so grave that it made cultural questions seem downright trivial.
In 2000, in the wake of an economic boom and a sex scandal that led to a president's impeachment, 22 per cent of Americans told exit pollsters that "moral values" were their biggest concern, compared with only 19 per cent who cited the economy.
Today, according to a recent poll, the economy is up to 44 per cent and "issues like abortion, guns and same-sex marriage" down to only 6 per cent.
It is no coincidence that Palin's popularity has plummeted as the financial crisis has taken centre stage. From her championing of small-town America to her efforts to link Barack Obama to former domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, Palin is treading a path well-worn by Republicans in recent decades. She is depicting the campaign as a struggle between the culturally familiar and the culturally threatening, the culturally traditional and the culturally exotic. But Obama has dismissed those attacks as irrelevant, and the public, focused nervously on the economic collapse, has largely tuned them out.
Palin's attacks are also failing because of generational change.
The long-running, internecine baby boomer cultural feud is not that relevant to Americans who came of age after the civil rights, gay rights and feminist revolutions. Even many younger evangelicals are broadening their agendas beyond abortion, stem cells, school prayer and gay marriage. And just as younger Protestants found JFK less threatening than their parents had found Al Smith, younger whites - even in bright-red states - do not view the prospect of a black president with great alarm.
The economic challenges of the coming era are complicated, fascinating and terrifying, while the cultural battles of the 1960s feel increasingly stale. If John McCain loses, the Republicans will probably choose someone like Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts, or the Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, to lead it back from the wilderness, someone who - although socially conservative - speaks fluently about the nation's economic plight and does not try to substitute identity for policy.
Although she seems like a fresh face, Sarah Palin actually represents the end of an era. She may be the last culture warrior on a national ticket for a very long time.
Obama's Speech after becoming President of America
Barack Obama has made history by becoming the first African American to win the White House.
This is the full transcript of his speech to the nation in Chicago early this morning.
Hello, Chicago.
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference.
'We are the United States': Barack Obama gives his acceptance speech in Chicago early today
It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.
We are, and always will be, the United States of America.
It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America.
See video of Obama making his acceptance speech here
A little bit earlier this evening, I received an extraordinarily gracious call from Senator McCain.
Senator McCain fought long and hard in this campaign. And he's fought even longer and harder for the country that he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine. We are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.
I congratulate him; I congratulate Governor Palin for all that they've achieved. And I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead.
I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart, and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton ... and rode with on the train home to Delaware, the vice president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.
And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years ... the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation's next first lady ... Michelle Obama.
First family: The Obamas in Chicago today
Sasha and Malia ... I love you both more than you can imagine. And you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us ...to the new White House.
And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother's watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight. I know that my debt to them is beyond measure.
To my sister Maya, my sister Alma, all my other brothers and sisters, thank you so much for all the support that you've given me. I am grateful to them.
And to my campaign manager, David Plouffe ... the unsung hero of this campaign, who built the best - the best political campaign, I think, in the history of the United States of America.
To my chief strategist David Axelrod ... who's been a partner with me every step of the way.
To the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics ... you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done.
But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to. It belongs to you. It belongs to you.
We did it: Alex Wong, 5, of Nevada, listens to Barack Obama's acceptance speech on television early today
I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington. It began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston. It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to the cause.
It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy ... who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep.
It drew strength from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on doors of perfect strangers, and from the millions of Americans who volunteered and organized and proved that more than two centuries later a government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not perished from the Earth.
This is your victory.
And I know you didn't do this just to win an election. And I know you didn't do it for me.
You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime - two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.
Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.
There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after the children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage or pay their doctors' bills or save enough for their child's college education.
There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.
The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there.
I promise you, we as a people will get there.
AUDIENCE: Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can!
OBAMA: There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem.
But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years - block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.
What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter cannot end on this autumn night.
This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were.
It can't happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.
So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.
Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.
In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.
Let's remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House, a party founded on the values of self-reliance and individual liberty and national unity.
Those are values that we all share. And while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.
As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.
And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.
And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces, to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.
To those - to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.
That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight's about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.
She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons - because she was a woman and because of the colour of her skin.
And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America - the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.
At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.
When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.
AUDIENCE: Yes we can.
OBAMA: When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.
AUDIENCE: Yes we can.
OBAMA: She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that We Shall Overcome. Yes we can.
AUDIENCE: Yes we can.
OBAMA: A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination.
And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change.
Yes we can.
AUDIENCE: Yes we can.
OBAMA: America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves - if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?
This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.
This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.
Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America.Obama's Historical acceptance speech for nomination from democratic party for presidential candidate
The following is the transcript of Senator Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, as recorded by CQ Transcriptions.
OBAMA: Thank you so much.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you very much.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you, everybody.
To -- to Chairman Dean and my great friend Dick Durbin, and to all my fellow citizens of this great nation, with profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for presidency of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
Let me -- let me express -- let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the farthest, a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my daughters and to yours, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
(APPLAUSE)
To President Clinton, to President Bill Clinton, who made last night the case for change as only he can make it...
(APPLAUSE)
... to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service...
(APPLAUSE)
... and to the next vice president of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
I am grateful to finish this journey with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every night.
To the love of my life, our next first lady, Michelle Obama...
(APPLAUSE)
... and to Malia and Sasha, I love you so much, and I am so proud of you.
(APPLAUSE)
Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story, of the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.
It is that promise that's always set this country apart, that through hard work and sacrifice each of us can pursue our individual dreams, but still come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can pursue their dreams, as well. That's why I stand here tonight. Because for 232 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.
We meet at one of those defining moments, a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more.
Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit cards, bills you can't afford to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach.
These challenges are not all of government's making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.
(APPLAUSE)
America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.
(APPLAUSE)
This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work.
We're a better country than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment that he's worked on for 20 years and watch as it's shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.
We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty...
(APPLAUSE)
... that sits...
(APPLAUSE)
... that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.
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Tonight, tonight, I say to the people of America, to Democrats and Republicans and independents across this great land: Enough. This moment...
(APPLAUSE)
This moment, this moment, this election is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive.
Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third.
(AUDIENCE BOOS)
And we are here -- we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look just like the last eight.
(APPLAUSE)
On November 4th, on November 4th, we must stand up and say: Eight is enough.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, now, let me -- let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that we owe him our gratitude and our respect.
(APPLAUSE)
And next week, we'll also hear about those occasions when he's broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need.
But the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time.
Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but, really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than 90 percent of the time?
(APPLAUSE)
I don't know about you, but I am not ready to take a 10 percent chance on change.
(APPLAUSE)
The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives -- on health care, and education, and the economy -- Senator McCain has been anything but independent.
He said that our economy has made great progress under this president. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong.
And when one of his chief advisers, the man who wrote his economic plan, was talking about the anxieties that Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a mental recession and that we've become, and I quote, "a nation of whiners."
(AUDIENCE BOOS) A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud auto workers at a Michigan plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on the brakes that they made.
Tell that to the military families who shoulder their burdens silently as they watch their loved ones leave for their third, or fourth, or fifth tour of duty.
These are not whiners. They work hard, and they give back, and they keep going without complaint. These are the Americans I know.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans; I just think he doesn't know.
(LAUGHTER)
Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under $5 million a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies, but not one penny of tax relief to more than 100 million Americans?
OBAMA: How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people's benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?
(AUDIENCE BOOS)
It's not because John McCain doesn't care; it's because John McCain doesn't get it.
(APPLAUSE)
For over two decades -- for over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy: Give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else.
In Washington, they call this the "Ownership Society," but what it really means is that you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck, you're on your own. No health care? The market will fix it. You're on your own. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, even if you don't have boots. You are on your own.
(APPLAUSE)
Well, it's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change America. And that's why I'm running for president of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
You see, you see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes progress in this country.
We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the mortgage, whether you can put a little extra money away at the end of each month so you can someday watch your child receive her college diploma.
We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was president...
(APPLAUSE)
... when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of go down $2,000, like it has under George Bush. (APPLAUSE)
We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off and look after a sick kid without losing her job, an economy that honors the dignity of work.
The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great, a promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight.
Because, in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched in Patton's army, and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go to college on the GI Bill.
In the face of that young student, who sleeps just three hours before working the night shift, I think about my mom, who raised my sister and me on her own while she worked and earned her degree, who once turned to food stamps, but was still able to send us to the best schools in the country with the help of student loans and scholarships.
(APPLAUSE)
When I -- when I listen to another worker tell me that his factory has shut down, I remember all those men and women on the South Side of Chicago who I stood by and fought for two decades ago after the local steel plant closed.
And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own business or making her way in the world, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle management, despite years of being passed over for promotions because she was a woman.
She's the one who taught me about hard work. She's the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me. And although she can no longer travel, I know that she's watching tonight and that tonight is her night, as well.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine.
(APPLAUSE)
These are my heroes; theirs are the stories that shaped my life. And it is on behalf of them that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as president of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
What -- what is that American promise? It's a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have obligations to treat each other with dignity and respect.
It's a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs, to look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road.
Ours -- ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves: protect us from harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our toys safe; invest in new schools, and new roads, and science, and technology.
Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who's willing to work.
That's the promise of America, the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation, the fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper.
That's the promise we need to keep. That's the change we need right now.
(APPLAUSE)
So -- so let me -- let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am president.
(APPLAUSE)
Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.
(APPLAUSE)
You know, unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.
(APPLAUSE)
I'll eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.
(APPLAUSE)
I will -- listen now -- I will cut taxes -- cut taxes -- for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class.
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And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: In 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
(APPLAUSE)
We will do this. Washington -- Washington has been talking about our oil addiction for the last 30 years. And, by the way, John McCain has been there for 26 of them.
(LAUGHTER)
And in that time, he has said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil than we had on the day that Senator McCain took office.
Now is the time to end this addiction and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution, not even close.
(APPLAUSE)
As president, as president, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I'll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America.
(APPLAUSE)
I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars.
OBAMA: And I'll invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy -- wind power, and solar power (OTCBB:SOPW) , and the next generation of biofuels -- an investment that will lead to new industries and 5 million new jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced.
(APPLAUSE)
America, now is not the time for small plans. Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy.
You know, Michelle and I are only here tonight because we were given a chance at an education. And I will not settle for an America where some kids don't have that chance.
(APPLAUSE)
I'll invest in early childhood education. I'll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries, and give them more support. And in exchange, I'll ask for higher standards and more accountability.
And we will keep our promise to every young American: If you commit to serving your community or our country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.
(APPLAUSE)
Now -- now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American.
(APPLAUSE)
If you have health care -- if you have health care, my plan will lower your premiums. If you don't, you'll be able to get the same kind of coverage that members of Congress give themselves.
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And -- and as someone who watched my mother argue with insurance companies while she lay in bed dying of cancer, I will make certain those companies stop discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most.
(APPLAUSE)
Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their job and caring for a sick child or an ailing parent.
Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are protected ahead of CEO bonuses, and the time to protect Social Security for future generations.
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.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I've laid out how I'll pay for every dime: by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that don't help America grow.
But I will also go through the federal budget line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less, because we cannot meet 21st-century challenges with a 20th-century bureaucracy.
(APPLAUSE)
And, Democrats, Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America's promise will require more than just money. It will require a renewed sense of responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our intellectual and moral strength.
Yes, government must lead on energy independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and businesses more efficient.
Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs alone can't replace parents, that government can't turn off the television and make a child do her homework, that fathers must take more responsibility to provide love and guidance to their children.
Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility, that's the essence of America's promise. And just as we keep our promise to the next generation here at home, so must we keep America's promise abroad.
If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament and judgment to serve as the next commander-in-chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have.
For -- for while -- while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats that we face.
When John McCain said we could just muddle through in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights.
You know, John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the gates of Hell, but he won't even follow him to the cave where he lives.
(APPLAUSE)
And today, today, as my call for a timeframe to remove our troops from Iraq has been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush administration, even after we learned that Iraq has $79 billion in surplus while we are wallowing in deficit, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war.
That's not the judgment we need; that won't keep America safe. We need a president who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the ideas of the past.
(APPLAUSE)
You don't defeat -- you don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in 80 countries by occupying Iraq. You don't protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough in Washington. You can't truly stand up for Georgia when you've strained our oldest alliances.
If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough talk and bad strategy, that is his choice, but that is not the change that America needs.
(APPLAUSE)
We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe.
The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans, Democrats and Republicans, have built, and we are here to restore that legacy.
(APPLAUSE)
As commander-in-chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home.
(APPLAUSE)
I will end this war in Iraq responsibly and finish the fight against Al Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts, but I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression.
I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation, poverty and genocide, climate change and disease.
And I will restore our moral standing so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.
(APPLAUSE)
These -- these are the policies I will pursue. And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain.
But what I will not do is suggest that the senator takes his positions for political purposes, because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other's character and each other's patriotism.
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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.
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So I've got news for you, John McCain: We all put our country first.
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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, and 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.
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The -- 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.
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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 a hospital and to live lives free of discrimination.
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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.
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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.
And you know what? It's worked before, because it feeds into the cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn't work, all its promises seem empty. If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then it's best to stop hoping and settle for what you already know.
I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this office. I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in the halls of Washington.
But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the naysayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me; it's about you.
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It's about you.
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For 18 long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said, "Enough," to the politics of the past. You understand that, in this election, the greatest risk we can take is to try the same, old politics with the same, old players and expect a different result.
You have shown what history teaches us, that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington.
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Change happens -- change happens because the American people demand it, because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.
America, this is one of those moments.
I believe that, as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming, because I've seen it, because I've lived it.
Because I've seen it in Illinois, when we provided health care to more children and moved more families from welfare to work.
I've seen it in Washington, where we worked across party lines to open up government and hold lobbyists more accountable, to give better care for our veterans, and keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists.
And I've seen it in this campaign, in the young people who voted for the first time and the young at heart, those who got involved again after a very long time; in the Republicans who never thought they'd pick up a Democratic ballot, but did.
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I've seen it -- I've seen it in the workers who would rather cut their hours back a day, even though they can't afford it, than see their friends lose their jobs; in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing a limb; in the good neighbors who take a stranger in when a hurricane strikes and the floodwaters rise.
You know, this country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that's not what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores.
Instead, it is that American spirit, that American promise, that pushes us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is unseen, that better place around the bend.
That promise is our greatest inheritance. It's a promise I make to my daughters when I tuck them in at night and a promise that you make to yours, a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west, a promise that led workers to picket lines and women to reach for the ballot.
(APPLAUSE) And it is that promise that, 45 years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln's Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream.
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The men and women who gathered there could've heard many things. They could've heard words of anger and discord. They could've been told to succumb to the fear and frustrations of so many dreams deferred.
But what the people heard instead -- people of every creed and color, from every walk of life -- is that, in America, our destiny is inextricably linked, that together our dreams can be one.
"We cannot walk alone," the preacher cried. "And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back."
America, we cannot turn back...
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... not with so much work to be done; not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for; not with an economy to fix, and cities to rebuild, and farms to save; not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend.
America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone.
At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise, that American promise, and in the words of scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.
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