AN AMERICAN STORY AN AMERICAN STORY THE SPEECHES OF BARACK OBAMA A Primer by DAVID OLIVE ECW Press Copyright © David Olive, 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and ECW Press. Please note: Copyright is not claimed for any part of the original work prepared by a U.S. Government or U.S. State officer or employee as part of that person’s official duties. However, such works, together with all materials contained herein, are subject to the preceeding copyright notice as to their organization and compilation in this book. Published by ECW Press 2120 Queen Street East, Suite 200 Toronto, Ontario, Canada m4e 1e2 416.694.3348 / [email protected] library and archives canada cataloguing in publication Olive, David, 1957– An American story : the speeches of Barack Obama : a primer / David Olive. Includes text of 21 speeches by Barack Obama. isbn 978-1-55022-864-9 1. Obama, Barack. 2. Speeches, addresses, etc., American. 3. Obama, Barack—Oratory. 4. United States—Politics and government—2001-. i. Obama, Barack ii. Title. e901.1.o23o45 2008 328.73092 c2008-904943-8 Cover and Text Design: Tania Craan Cover photo: © Michael Maloney/San Francisco Chronicle/Corbis Typesetting: Gail Nina Second printing: Webcom The publication of An American Story has been generously supported by the OMDC Book Fund, an initiative of the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and by the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (bpidp). printed and bound in canada For Allison Nowlan “Through the night with a light from above.” – Irving Berlin, “God Bless America” “We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression — everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way — everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want — which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants — everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear — which, translated into world terms, means a worldwide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor — anywhere in the world.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “The Four Freedoms,” address to the U.S. Congress, January 6, 1941 Table of Contents Acknowledgments xiii Introduction xv The Politics of Hope and Reality 1 Barack Obama on the Major Issues 41 Michelle Obama: The Achiever 65 A note on Barack Obama’s Oratorical Style and its Impact 87 SPEECHES iraq war Obama’s prescient warning about an Iraq invasion 91 national unity Obama denounces false divisions among Americans 97 prosperity and fairness Obama calls for a middle-class revival 107 education reform America can’t afford to fall behind in the 21st-century economy 117 literacy Improved literacy is the key to American competitiveness 127 veterans Obama condemns neglect of military veterans 137 a caring society Obama’s pragmatic approach to progressive politics 145 global warming The climate-change threat requires urgent action 153 religion and politics Religious faith should not be divorced from politics 165 stem cell research A reminder that science has saved millions of lives 183 compassion The role of Dr. King’s example in everyday American life 189 resolving iraq A blueprint for Iraq withdrawal and restoring Mideast stability 193 health care Universal coverage as an American competitive advantage 209 terrorism A long-delayed plan for crushing global terrorism 217 the golden rule Only with mutual respect can Americans move forward 237 political reform It’s time the American public, not lobbyists, ran Washington 245 race in america The real grievances of both blacks and whites can no longer be ignored 253 foreign policy A new American worldview both hard-line and humanitarian 271 economic renewal The Iraq conflict distracts us from crises at home and abroad 287 nobility of public service America needs your service to community, country, and the world 295 patriotism Obama redefines patriotism for the 21st century 305 victory speech A new beginning for a nation that finally has transcended the ultimate race barrier 317 inaugural address Confronting economic adversity, Obama invokes America’s long tradition of triumph in trying times 325 An Obama Primer From birth to 44th U.S. president 335 Internet Resources 363 Bibliography and Selected Reading 365 Acknowledgments I’m grateful to Jack David of ECW Press, who conceived the project, for his patience and diligence and that of his superb team at ECW. I’d also like to thank J. Fred Kuntz and Joe Hall, former editor-in-chief and managing editor, respective- ly, of the Toronto Star, for their encouragement and support. I owe a considerable debt to librarians at several news organizations and to campaign staff of Barack Obama, John McCain, and Hillary Clinton for their assistance. They have helped make this “rough working draft of history” as accu- rate as possible. xiii Introduction “The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” — U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, commencement address at Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, Georgia, May 23, 1932 “I have long believed there was a divine plan that placed this land here to be found by people of a special kind, that we have a rendezvous with destiny. Yes, there is a spirit moving in this land and a hunger in the people for a spiri- tual revival. If the task I seek should be given to me, I would pray only that I could perform it in a way that would serve God.” — Future U.S. President Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1976 campaign letter “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.” — U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton, inaugural address, January 20, 1993 I was sitting cross-legged on the double bed in my nine- teenth-floor aerie in Boston’s historic Custom House, now a Marriott but still a reminder of the city’s maritime tradition, when Barack Obama said the words that propelled him onto the national stage in 2004. I was hunched over a laptop, xv struggling to meet a newspaper deadline. The young man on the tv had been describing one of the most unlikely back- grounds of any major U.S. political figure, and now he had my undivided attention as he described an “us and them” mentality that had poisoned U.S. politics for much too long. “The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats,” Obama told the crowd at the Fleet Center a few blocks from where I sat. “But I’ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.” Who was this rail-thin Midwesterner, by way of Honolulu, Jakarta, Los Angeles, Manhattan, and Cambridge, Massachu- setts, now poised to become only the third African-American elected to the U.S. Senate in the history of the republic? Whoever he was, the keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic National Convention that nominated John Kerry as its presidential candidate was an unusually com- pelling orator and, more importantly, was describing the America for which I had so much affection. It was America before it fell hostage to the take-no-prisoners “culture wars” calculated to splinter the country into distinct voting blocs that could be wooed or ignored as the mood of policy strate- gists in Washington dictated. The media reflected these divi- sions, catered to and nurtured them — though only at the national level. Pigeonholing politicians and think-tank experts as liberal or conservative, rural or urban, powerful or on the outs was habitual with Meet the Press and the other Washington-based Sunday morning political talk shows. There wasn’t much room for nuance, for delving into the complexities of issues. xvi AN AMERICAN STORY That wasn’t so much the case with the local nbc affiliate in Savannah, where the newscasts continued to be dominat- ed by local heroes — the churches and their homeless shelters, the food-bank drives, the families that took in Sri Lankan refugees, and the citizens who put a full-court press on city hall, or even the state legislature, to finance an overpass at the level crossing where two young boys had been killed in the past three years. Where these real Americans fit into the tired Washington battles over femi- nism, tax cuts, abortion, racial profiling — or if they did at all — just didn’t matter to them. In Sacramento and St. Louis, everyday folks were eager to be drawn into a larger cause by a larger leader, someone who would win their nod- ding approval four years’ hence in observing that “our can’t- do, won’t-do, won’t-even-try” politics had “grown small.” As a sometime speechwriter and observer at three of these conventions, I wondered how this young statesman had so ably captured the America that I’ve always thought America wants to be and usually is — if you go out and look for it.