Elegy

I was a slug today--slept late, read back issues of The New Yorker on a chaise lounge in the back yard, had drinks and snacks with Wini and Mike, and then we went off to see "Elegy," the film with Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz, based on the Philip Roth novel "Dying Animal."

I don't like Philip Roth ordinarily; I find him self-centered, misogynistic, and pitiful. In high school our English teacher had us read "Goodbye Columbus," and that was it for me. I hated his portrayal of women, all materialistic and vain. By mistake I read "The Human Stain" a few years back, which is a bitter novel. Roth somehow wanted to get back at women and African Americans in 300 pages. Our book club cheered when he didn't get the Nobel Prize for literature this year; it went to Doris Lessing instead. So I didn't go into the theater with great expectations other than seeing Ben Kingsley.

He might be the greatest living English-speaking actor around. I had just seen him in "Wackness," which I highly recommend as a coming-of-age film that rivals "Catcher in the Rye" as the modern white teenage angst story.

Kingsley added his touch to this film, a layered and crafted story about a man, David Kepesh, who is much like the way I imagine Roth to be: self-centered, misogynistic, and pitiful. David's professional life is dedicated to understanding art, literature, music, and beauty. His own life is without any real emotional connection: he has had an on-going monthly liaison over twenty years with Caroline, a business woman who is too busy to have any real emotional connection. He teaches and has a weekly radio show. Much of his life is explained during frequent conversations he has with George, a poet friend, played by an aging Dennis Hopper, who like David has numerous women for sport. There is genuine friendship between the men, although competition and envy, too.

Because the sexual harassment warning is posted just outside his office at Columbia University, David has learned to wait to choose his next woman until after grades are released. David has a semester-end party to which he invites his students. He waits until then to swoop down on Consuela, played by Penelope Cruz. She is beautiful and charming, and keeps a portion of herself away from him. He becomes obsessed with her beauty, obsessed with her. It is far too self-centered on his part to be called love.

The script creates parallels between David and people who buy original art, believing that they own it. Instead the art owns them, and David cannot quite experience Consuela, can't quite love her, or allow her to love him.

The film is touching and real because of the amazing performances by both Kingsley and Cruz. This is a mature portrayal of aging men who are losing their sense of virility and purpose. It isn't pretty. David is not admirable. Nor is George. But the film is engaging and well worth a viewing.

Obama's Acceptance Speech Annotated

Barack Obama's acceptance speech was an amazing exercise in rhetoric. It's a fine example of messaging and framing, and infusing his story and that of the Democratic Party with underlying American values. My friend Rob said the only thing that was missing was Barack taking off his jacket and rolling up his sleeves.

Click here to watch it in its entirety, something that everyone should do in order to better understand this complex and intelligent man.

It needs to be analyzed and explained to people. Slate.com did an annotation of Obama's speech, which didn't quite hit all of the important points. Click here to read that version.

Here's mine. Annotations are in red.

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 the presidency of the United States.

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. To President Clinton, who last night made the case for change as only he can make it; to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service; and to the next Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you. 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, and to Sasha and Malia I love you so much, and I'm so proud of all of you.

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.

In his first book, the memoir Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, Obama tells the story of his parents and the resulting impact on how he grew up, the development of his self-identity, and his determination to change the world.

It is that promise that has 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.

Here he is referencing the tension between individual and community, which is a constant theme that differentiates the underlying principles of the Republican and Democratic parties.

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.

The use of ordinary people with ordinary jobs is intended to collapse the media-projection of Obama as elitist.

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 card bills you can't afford to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach.

Here he walks a tenuous road between articulating the woes that are familiar to most Americans while not destroying hope for a better future.

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.

This is a subtle yet important analysis that differentiates the role of government as seen by Democrats and Republicans. He is suggesting a “failure to respond,” which is a synonym of neglect.

America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.

Rather than use the language of entitlement, Obama is referring to potential.

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.

This is an echo of what happened to Obama’s own mother. She was between jobs when she was diagnosed with cancer and therefore without access to insurance.

This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he's worked on for twenty years and watch it 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; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.

These are the three themes of his roadmap for America: health insurance, keeping jobs here with a new tax structure, and the need for compassionate programs, especially in how we treat our veterans.

Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land enough! 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. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On Nov. 4th, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough."

“Eight is enough” is an ironic reference to the 1077-1981 sitcom “Eight is Enough,” and continues the theme that electing McCain guarantees the same failed Bush policies.

Now 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 respect. 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.

Respectful reference to McCain’s war record which has already been a short-cut to impressing on the American people his allegedly competency to become commander-in-chief.

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 ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.

Throughout the convention people used this figure, or 95%, to emphasize that although once a maverick, McCain has come under the influence of the discredited Bush administration.

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 advisors the man who wrote his economic plan was talking about the anxiety 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."

In early July former Senator Phil Gramm who had served as an economic adviser to McCain, inferred that the economy wasn’t so bad and that United States was only in a “mental recession” and that it had become a “nation of whiners.”

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 give back and keep going without complaint. These are the Americans that I know.

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. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars 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 one hundred million Americans? 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?

This is a devastating criticism that paints McCain as out of touch and oblivious rather than inhuman and cruel. He does not attack his character, but his actions. But it is crafted to get people to think about just why McCain would say such things when it appears so disconnected to ordinary people’s experiences.

It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it.

This criticism is so important to Obama’s strategy of portraying McCain that he repeats it.

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 you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps even if you don't have boots. You're on your own.

Well it's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change America.

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--when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush.

Here he finally mentions Bill Clinton in the context of prosperity. Again, he walks a subtle line of listing the problems America faces, always in personal terms, but without removing hope.

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 to 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.

Here is a reference to his own compelling life story and America’s past commitment to honor returning veterans.

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.

His own story which places him among people instead of above them.

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, 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.

This is a reference to his grandmother who is still living. He was raised by his maternal grandparents.

I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me. And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as President of the United States.

McCain issued a Paris Hilton funny Internet-based ad that equated Obama with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Hilton returned the favor with an even funnier ad mocking McCain's age and stating her energy policy, that was a hybrid of McCain’s and Obama’s.

What is that 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 the obligation to treat each other with dignity and respect.

This is a recurring theme that tries to balance individuality with community.

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, look out for American workers, and play by the rules of the road.

This is a balance between free markets and government policy that prevents the export of jobs overseas without consequences.

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 new science and technology.

Again, a reference to the proper role of government. There are some things that government must do: protect the territorial integrity, keep us safe in our consumerism, foster public education, innovation, and invest in infrastructure. These examples all remind listeners of the Bush administration’s failures and an allusion to Bush's assault on science.

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.

Here is the main articulation of the role of government in policy terms, so that people can understand how they are affected when they change their expectations of government.

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.

Here is the triumph of the community over the individual, a reversal of the ethos of the past eight years of an "ownership" society, with reference to Genesis 4:9. "Where is your brother Abel?" Cain answered with a show of innocence, "Why ask me? I don't know! Am I my brother's keeper?"

That's the promise we need to keep. That's the change we need right now. So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am President.

In an interview with Judy Woodruff before the acceptance speech, Michelle Obama characterized the upcoming speech as “a conversation with America,” which explains why he was so relaxed and calm in his delivery, rather than filled with fiery oratory as expected.

Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.

Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America.

I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.

I will cut taxes cut taxes for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.

Number one on the list is tax reform that would redistribute tax liability. According to projections, over 80% of families would benefit from the Obama tax plan.

And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.

Number two: Frames energy independence in terms of national security and the economy, not primarily as an environmental concern.

Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he's 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 as 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.

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. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I'll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced.

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. 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. 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 your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.

Public education is the third priority, and again, Obama personalizes the importance of this resource, in referring to his and Michelle’s stories of their access to quality education.

Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American. 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. 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.

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 jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.

Universal health care is the dividing line between Obama and McCain unlike between Obama and Clinton where the differences were negligible. McCain wants to tax employer-based health care as a way of funding health care for others.

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.

In 2006, the bankruptcy laws were amended, something that Joe Biden supported, to make it more difficult for ordinary people to be relieved of their credit card debt. The law is patently unfair. The majority of people who file for bankruptcy file because of medical bills. And now with the foreclosure crisis, many people borrowed money off their credit card accounts to pay mortgages, and now have no relief from interest as high as 32%.

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 exactly the same opportunities as your sons.

Equal pay for equal work is a long-standing feminist agenda item, and a strong portion of Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

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 twenty-first century challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy.

How Obama will pay for this.

And 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 for providing the love and guidance their children need.

Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility that's the essence of America's promise.

Here is the essence, once again, of Obama’s theme: individual responsibility and responsibility to the community.

And just as we keep our 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.

This is a challenge directly to McCain to display their skills and stature to be commander-in-chief.

For 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 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. John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell but he won't even go to the cave where he lives.

This is a reference, now documented, that Bush had the opportunity to kill Osama bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountain caves.

And today, as my call for a time frame 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 a $79 billion surplus while we're wallowing in deficits, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided war.

This week the Iraq government and the Bush administration negotiated a 2011 timeline for American pullout despite Bush’s claim that a timeline would merely encourage the insurgency.

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.

You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in eighty 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 it is not the change we need.

Reiterated the irresponsibility and devastation of the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq.

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.

It was appropriate to leave out Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton here since they were not wartime presidents.

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.

I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda 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.

These are the policies I will pursue. And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain.

A line-by-line listing of foreign policy priorities and again, another calm challenge to McCain to debate him.

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 patriotism.

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.

Obama effectively takes off the table the tactic used so brutally by the Bush administration of calling any critics “unpatriotic.” He also sets a tone for a different kind of campaign against McCain that would minimize the Republican “killing” machine, i.e. Swiftboating, White Watering, claiming that the Clintons killed Vince Foster, and the fear of imminent terrorist attacks.

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 our sense of higher 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. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than 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. Passions 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. 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.

Here is a call for consensus, to find a way to unite over the underlying issues: preventing unwanted pregnancies, keeping automatic weapons out of the hands of criminals, respecting the needs of gays and lesbians, and being humane in our treatment of the men and women, and their children, caught up in the immigration crisis.

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 the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from.

Fear is Republican tactic to distract people from their lack of new ideas to solve these problems.

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.

Reference to his mixed race background and seeming lack of political experience as an asset.

But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you.

A powerful reference back to the line Hillary Clinton used to cajole her supporters into backing Obama on Tuesday night of the convention: "Did you support me because of me, or because of the veteran who's returning home or because of that mother with cancer who's struggling without health care?"

For eighteen 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. 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.

Change comes from the grassroots, not top down. He is alluding to the fact that he has listened to what people have been saying to him.

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. 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, when 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 terrorist hands.

And I've seen it in this campaign. In the young people who voted for the first time, and in 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. I've seen it in the workers who would rather cut their hours back a day 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.

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.

This litany is so powerful, in that he reminds people that what we do with our resources is the issue at stake here.

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.

And it is that promise that forty five 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.

A reference to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech given on the same day as the acceptance speech.

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 frustration 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. 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.

What it means to be a woman--a mother and a daughter

Yesterday my friend Carrie came over with her six year old daughter. Carrie is 34 years old; her mother and I are the same age. We swam, snacked, chatted, and played with her daughter Corrine. We found a praying mantis whom Corrine named Danielle. We cut fresh herbs from the garden: thyme, oregano, marjoram, and mint. Carrie and I spoke about what we learned from our mothers.When I was growing up, my mother tried to teach me how to be kind and subservient; I'm about to turn 60. Carrie's mother tried to teach her how to be kind, independent, and strong. Just another fifteen years later, I've tried to teach my daughter how to be kind, independent albeit connected to a network of friends and family, strong, and a leader.

And now McCain has cynically chosen a young woman with no experience who feigns feminism by stealing Hillary Clinton's "18 million cracks in the glass ceiling" phrase. Don't forget: Sarah Palin is a fundamentalist Christian who is anti-choice, and has skirted the "creationism" issue by saying we need to dialogue with fools. Follow her emerging biography from my favorite blog: talkingpointsmemo.com

Now we can't be blinded by gender, just as we can't be blinded by race. I didn't vote for Hillary Clinton in the primary, although I've supported her as my Senator. The Sunday before the New York Primary, I stayed in bed most of the day with my laptop. I searched, I read, and intermittently, I called friends with one question: Who are you voting for?

My whole life I've wanted to vote for a woman, something my college-aged daughter reminded me way into Super Tuesday primary night when she found out I actually voted for Obama. (She was a Hillary supporter, and this is her first presidential election.) My whole life I've felt like an outsider until now, until I look and see other accomplished women all around. I opposed the war in Iraq since before it started. Our family marched in 18 degree weather on the infamous march to nowhere, when New York City Police Commissioner Kelly diverted the excess crowds away from the United Nations Park. How come I knew invading Iraq was about oil and Hillary didn't?

I watched the dipdive.com video and wept. I loved the energy Obama was generating, is generating. I loved the language he was using. Hillary was trying to sound like a stereotypical working class white man and Barack was speaking like a spiritual feminist. That attracted me. And the fact that all of these young people--all races, all genders--were electrified and engaged. Because this much I know: a democracy can't survive without its citizens fully participating. Somehow I saw my vote for Obama as opening the door for thousands of young people so that they, too, would become a part of the American nation in the real sense of citizenry.

Then I spoke with Margaret: If you don't believe it's possible, then it isn't.

Obama is the World's Candidate

Fresh from Buenos Aires where a friend, Zeynep, a Turkish woman I met in Jerusalem this summer, is vacationing: During the last two days, television has been live from US as if Obama is this country's or the world's candidate for presidency. I think this is the majority
of the world's hope.

Someone oughta

Last week a group of us went to hear our friend Vanessa preach. The theme of her sermon was "Someone oughta." She challenged all of us into doing something when recognizing a need, something wrong, something missing.

"Someone oughta make sure that disillusioned Hillary supporters don't get hoodwinked into voting for McCain." That means you and me.

Why I am voting for Barack Obama

I am a middle aged woman with a career in law, a mother, and a wife. I am voting for Barack Obama for President.

Here’s why: We need a president who understands the boundaries of the US Constitution and respects the Rule of Law. Obama taught Constitutional Law at one of the most prestigious law schools in the country, University of Chicago, and has already shown the courage needed to stand by the Rule of Law, even in times of uncertainty. Steadfast belief in the Constitution is essential to democracy. According to Jane Mayer, in her book The Dark Side, immediately after September 11, 2001, the current administration improvised policies that ignored the restraints of the Constitution and international treaties. Decision making was concentrated into the hands of a few—Vice President Dick Cheney, his counsel David Addington, Donald Rumsfeld, Jay Bybee, and John Yoo--marginalizing those career professionals within the Departments of State, Defense, and Justice who questioned the legitimacy of their decisions and decision making processes.

We need a president who can restore our faith in the competency of government. Obama has surrounded himself with the best and the brightest of three generations of advisors. We need to rebuild our federal government so that it serves the interests of the people who work hard and pay their taxes. Cronyism and profiteering have marked this administration, whether it’s in New Orleans or Baghdad. Bush’s appointments have been ideological rather than based on knowledge and skill. Too many people have gotten rich off no-bid contracts; there has been no accountability, only scandal and profits for a few.

We need a president guided by a strong moral compass who can reclaim America's place as a beacon of opportunity and fairness. I can only hope that once in office he has the strength to maintain integrity; no one knows for sure what impact such power might have on any individual. To maintain a democracy here we need an engaged and informed electorate. Obama has inspired a new generation of young people to see themselves as part of the American community. We cannot win the hearts and minds of disillusioned men and women who have no hope, without living by example, making the United States once again the nation where people live "with liberty and justice for all."