Yes we can...

source: BarackObama.com

I want to congratulate Senator Clinton on a hard-fought victory herein New Hampshire.
A few weeks ago, no one imagined that we'd have accomplished what wedid here tonight. For most of this campaign, we were far behind, andwe always knew our climb would be steep.

But in record numbers, you came out and spoke up for change. And withyour voices and your votes, you made it clear that at this moment - inthis election - there is something happening in America.

There is something happening when men and women in Des Moines andDavenport; in Lebanon and Concord come out in the snows of January towait in lines that stretch block after block because they believe inwhat this country can be.

There is something happening when Americans who are young in age andin spirit - who have never before participated in politics - turn outin numbers we've never seen because they know in their hearts thatthis time must be different.

There is something happening when people vote not just for the partythey belong to but the hopes they hold in common - that whether we arerich or poor; black or white; Latino or Asian; whether we hail fromIowa or New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina, we are ready to takethis country in a fundamentally new direction. That is what'shappening in America right now. Change is what's happening inAmerica.

You can be the new majority who can lead this nation out of a longpolitical darkness - Democrats, Independents and Republicans who aretired of the division and distraction that has clouded Washington; whoknow that we can disagree without being disagreeable; who understandthat if we mobilize our voices to challenge the money and influencethat's stood in our way and challenge ourselves to reach for somethingbetter, there's no problem we can't solve - no destiny we cannotfulfill.

Our new American majority can end the outrage of unaffordable,unavailable health care in our time. We can bring doctors andpatients; workers and businesses, Democrats and Republicans together;and we can tell the drug and insurance industry that while they'll geta seat at the table, they don't get to buy every chair. Not thistime. Not now.

Our new majority can end the tax breaks for corporations that ship ourjobs overseas and put a middle-class tax cut into the pockets of theworking Americans who deserve it.

We can stop sending our children to schools with corridors of shameand start putting them on a pathway to success. We can stop talkingabout how great teachers are and start rewarding them for theirgreatness. We can do this with our new majority.

We can harness the ingenuity of farmers and scientists; citizens andentrepreneurs to free this nation from the tyranny of oil and save ourplanet from a point of no return.

And when I am President, we will end this war in Iraq and bring ourtroops home; we will finish the job against al Qaeda in Afghanistan;we will care for our veterans; we will restore our moral standing inthe world; and we will never use 9/11 as a way to scare up votes,because it is not a tactic to win an election, it is a challenge thatshould unite America and the world against the common threats of thetwenty-first century: terrorism and nuclear weapons; climate changeand poverty; genocide and disease.

All of the candidates in this race share these goals. All have goodideas. And all are patriots who serve this country honorably.

But the reason our campaign has always been different is because it'snot just about what I will do as President, it's also about what you,the people who love this country, can do to change it.
That's why tonight belongs to you. It belongs to the organizers andthe volunteers and the staff who believed in our improbable journeyand rallied so many others to join.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that nomatter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can withstand thepower of millions of voices calling for change.
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who willonly grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We've beenasked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned againstoffering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never beenanything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossibleodds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn'ttry, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with asimple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.

Yes we can.

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared thedestiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trailtoward freedom through the darkest of nights.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores andpioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for theballot; a 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. Yes we can to opportunity andprosperity. Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair thisworld.

Yes we can.

And so tomorrow, as we take this campaign South and West; as we learn that the struggles of the textile worker in Spartanburg are not sodifferent than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas; that the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people;we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in America's story with three words that will ring from coast tocoast; from sea to shining sea - Yes. We. Can.