9. Obama Tonight

Victory Speech

What a sense of history he has. A master historian
and analyst of the Presidency. What the Office can and cannot do, and how to act in it.
To dare to remake the Gettysburg address and succeed!

And a rhetorical poet.
At first, “Yes, We Can” was a chant game, Join in, encourage the speaker,
get excited.
But then it turned out on victory night that he had planned from
the beginning that it was the original Yankee ‘Can do’
the quality that differentiated the new world from Europe.
“Yes We Can.”

I just heard that Obama himself cancelled the Tuesday night fireworks.

Last Monday

One thinks one has seen everything this man can give. Every skill he has as a speaker. Every quality as a person. Every goal he can lead us to.
And then he takes you further. He rises to another level.
He did this last night – Sunday night – dead tired – bringing his call for unity to an emotianal pitch that trasnformed the moral quality of his listeners. That must have been the height. But then tonight in Virginia he raised the level yet again.

Surely it has been one of the priveleges of my fairly long life to have lived through this campaign..

And tonight they photographed the audence – people crying, their emotions carrying them beyond themselves.