“Yes We Can”

Barack Obama
Delivered to supporters in Nashua, NH
January 8, 2008 “Elephant Removal”
Gets the elephant in
Well, first of all, I want to congratulate the room out of the
Senator Clinton on a hard-fought victory way, so he can
here in New Hampshire. She did an speak freely without
outstanding job. Give her a big round of the audience
applause. thinking, “When’s he
Perspective
going to admit that
Without making any You know, a few weeks ago, no one imagined
he lost?
excuses or that we'd have accomplished what we did here
diminishing himself, tonight in New Hampshire. No one could have
Obama says that imagined it.
he’s always been
the underdog. The For most of this campaign, we were far
simple fact that he behind. We always knew our climb would be
is competing is steep. But in record numbers, you came out,
cause for optimism. and you spoke up for change. Intrigue
Something is
And with your voices and your votes, you happening to make
made it clear that at this moment, in this people vote for
election, there is something happening in Obama—what is it?
America.

There is something happening when men and

women in Des Moines and Davenport, in
Lebanon and Concord, come out in the snows
of January to wait in lines that stretch
block after block because they believe in
what this country can be.
Imagery
More than just There is something happening. There's
romantic, it implies something happening when Americans who are
that Obama and his Elevation
young in age and in spirit, who've never A vote for Obama is
campaign must be participated in politics before, turn out in
truly different to more than just a
numbers we have never seen because they know
inspire such vote, it is support for
in their hearts that this time must be
passionate support. these ideals.
different.

There's something happening when people vote

not just for the party that they belong to,
but the hopes that they hold in common.

And whether we are rich or poor, black or

white, Latino or Asian, whether we hail from
Iowa or New Hampshire, Nevada or South So is a vast majority
Carolina, we are ready to take this country of voters, according
in a fundamentally new direction. to polls.

That's what's happening in America right

now; change is what's happening in America.
He addresses the
You, all of you who are here tonight, all
crowd in New
who put so much heart and soul and work into
Hampshire, but the
this campaign, you can be the new majority
larger TV audience
who can lead this nation out of a long
is the real target.
political darkness.
Empowerment
Democrats, independents and Republicans who All of this language
are tired of the division and distraction is employed to
that has clouded Washington, who know that
associate support
we can disagree without being disagreeable,
for Obama with
who understand that, if we mobilize our
empowering
voices to challenge the money and influence
citizens. The
that stood in our way and challenge
ourselves to reach for something better, continual use of
The ultimate “we” links the
description of there is no problem we cannot solve, there
is no destiny that we cannot fulfill. citizens to the
efficacy. candidate and vice
Our new American majority can end the versa. It’s the
outrage of unaffordable, unavailable health language of a
care in our time. We can bring doctors and movement, not a
patients, workers and businesses, Democrats campaign.
and Republicans together, and we can tell
the drug and insurance industry that, while
they get a seat at the table, they don't get
to buy every chair, not this time, not now.
Sum > Parts
Our new majority can end the tax breaks for Most Americans
corporations that ship our jobs overseas and support both free
put a middle-class tax cut in the pockets of trade and tax cuts.
Opportunity
working Americans who deserve it. But by linking
This is what a vote
for Obama makes undesirable
We can stop sending our children to schools outcomes from the
possible. with corridors of shame and start putting
two, Obama can
them on a pathway to success.
tear down a straw
man and make a
We can stop talking about how great teachers
contrary argument
are and start rewarding them for their
greatness by giving them more pay and more of his own that
support. We can do this with our new wouldn’t stand
majority. otherwise. The sum
of his argument is
We can harness the ingenuity of farmers and greater than its
scientists, citizens and entrepreneurs to parts. The “middle-
free this nation from the tyranny of oil and class” tax cut
Notice the change save our planet from a point of no return. doesn’t hurt either,
from “we can” to since 53% of
“we will.” The And when I am president of the United Americans identify
former are States, we will end this war in Iraq and themselves as
possibilities, but the bring our troops home. “middle-class.”
latter are pledges,
moral absolutes that We will end this war in Iraq. We will bring
cannot be our troops home. We will finish the job --
compromised.
 we will finish the job against Al Qaida in
Afghanistan. We will care for our veterans.
We will restore our moral standing in the
Unity world.
Here Obama
establishes that we And we will never use 9/11 as a way to scare
share problems and up votes, because it is not a tactic to win
destinies. This lays an election. It is a challenge that should
the groundwork for unite America and the world against the
his later arguments common threats of the 21st century:
about sharing terrorism and nuclear weapons, climate
politics, too. change and poverty, genocide and disease.

All of the candidates in this race share We all want this

these goals. All of the candidates in this utopia....
race have good ideas and all are patriots
who serve this country honorably.
..but this movement
But the reason our campaign has always been is the only feasible
different, the reason we began this path there...
improbable journey almost a year ago is
because it's not just about what I will do
as president. It is also about what you, the
people who love this country, the citizens
of the United States of America, can do to
change it.

That's what this election is all about. ...and you, the

audience member,
That's why tonight belongs to you. It
can be a part of it.
belongs to the organizers, and the
volunteers, and the staff who believed in
this journey and rallied so many others to
join the cause.

This is about so We know the battle ahead will be long. But

much more than always remember that, no matter what
Wolf Blitzer obstacles stand in our way, nothing can
reporting primary stand in the way of the power of millions of
numbers. voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a The Trap

chorus of cynics. And they will only grow Arguing against
louder and more dissonant in the weeks and Obama on his terms
The Write-Off
months to come. is cynical and
Provides the unpopular—people
audience with an
We've been asked to pause for a reality want to believe they
easy way to dismiss
check. We've been warned against offering can affect the
critics: they’re the people of this nation false hope. But in political process.
cynical and un- the unlikely story that is America, there America was
American. has never been anything false about hope. founded on the
same hope and
For when we have faced down impossible odds, optimism he’s talked
about for 12
 when we've been told we're not ready or that
we shouldn't try or that we can't,
generations of Americans have responded with
a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a
people: Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Yes, we
can.

It was a creed written into the founding

documents that declared the destiny of a
nation: Yes, we can.
Even in our
country’s darkest It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists
hours, hope for as they blazed a trail towards freedom
something better through the darkest of nights: Yes, we can.
still prevailed.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out The American Dream:
from distant shores and pioneers who pushed ultimate symbol of
westward against an unforgiving wilderness: opportunity.
Yes, we can.

The struggles of the It was the call of workers who organized,

past. We overcame women who reached for the ballot, a
them. president who chose the moon as our new
frontier, and a king who took us to the
mountaintop and pointed the way to the
promised land: Yes, we can, to justice and
equality.
The struggles of the
future. We can Yes, we can, to opportunity and prosperity.
overcome them, Yes, we can heal this nation. Yes, we can
with your support. repair this world. Yes, we can.

And so, tomorrow, as we take the campaign

south and west, as we learn that the
struggles of the textile workers in
Spartanburg are not so different than the
plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas, that
the hopes of the little girl who goes to the
crumbling school in Dillon are the same as Reiteration
the dreams of the boy who learns on the Obama hammers
streets of L.A., we will remember that there the message home,
is something happening in America, that we using the next two
are not as divided as our politics suggest, primary states as his
that we are one people, we are one nation. anvil.

And, together, we will begin the next great

chapter in the American story, with three
words that will ring from coast to coast,
from sea to shining sea: Yes, we can.

Thank you, New Hampshire. Thank you. Thank

you.