President-Elect Obama: "Yes We Can"

Posted to Politics Watch by Kelsey Proud at 12:11 a.m., Nov. 5, 2008

"Yes we can," or at least our new president thinks so.

The campaign anthem for the former democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was the key theme tonight in president-elect Obama's acceptance speech.

Facing an estimated crowd of over 200,000 in Chicago's Grant Park, Obama congratulated and honored defeated opponents Sen. John McCain  and Gov. Sarah Palin.

"I congratulate him," Obama said. "I congratulate Gov. 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."

Obama said that the election "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." He declared to the citizens of the world, "A new dawn of American leadership is at hand."

After thanking his opponents, Obama thanked his closest supporters, including his wife Michelle, and his children Sasha and Malia, to whom he said, "You have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the new White House."

Obama expressed his gratitude to the young voters and said that his campaign "grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy," and addressed those on the other side of the his victory when he said "I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too."

The pinnacle of Obama's speech was reached with the story of Ann Nixon Cooper, a 106-year-old woman born the generation after slavery. Reflecting on all that Cooper had seen in her lifetime, Obama wondered to the crowd, " 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," Obama said. "This is our moment."