What was most notable about President-elect Sen. Barack Obama’s victory speech was its stress on the idea that the United States isn’t merely a country ruled by one group that got more votes than another and therefore can impose its political will on the losers — but a cohesive united whole that can cooperate and work together.
His comments reaching out to those who voted against him, saying that he needs their help, are what many Americans have longed to hear: a sign that there is a genuine the light at the end of a murky tunnel of an era where seemingly the only ones that really counted were the ones who voted for a President.
Obama also sought to lower expectations about magical solutions to the country’s mind-boggling problems. And he made it clear by his repetition of his “yes we can” riff that it wasn’t just a campaign rhetorical device but will be a concept that frames his administration.
A year from now will his “yes we can” refrain be perceived as having been a blueprint or a pipe-dream that vanished in the nightmare of bureaucratic and partisan realities? Or will these realities start shifting back to the time when America’s ruling elite considered the concepts of consensus, partisan cooperation and compromise admirable, rather than signs of weakness?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<iframe height="339" width="425" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/27546437#27546437" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>The full text of his victory speech is HERE.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.