President Barack Obama’s speech in
Chicago after his re-election
Tuesday night, as transcribed by Roll
Call: Thank you so much. Tonight, more than 200 years after
a former colony won the right to
determine its own destiny, the task
of perfecting our union moves
forward. It moves forward because of you. It
moves forward because you
reaffirmed the spirit that has
triumphed over war and depression,
the spirit that has lifted this country
from the depths of despair to the great heights of hope, the belief
that while each of us will pursue our
own individual dreams, we are an
American family and we rise or fall
together as one nation and as one
people. Tonight, in this election, you, the
American people, reminded us that
while our road has been hard, while
our journey has been long, we have
picked ourselves up, we have
fought our way back, and we know in our hearts that for the United
States of America the best is yet to
come. I want to thank every American
who participated in this election,
whether you voted for the very first
time or waited in line for a very long
time. By the way, we have to fix
that. Whether you pounded the pavement or picked up the phone,
whether you held an Obama sign or
a Romney sign, you made your
voice heard and you made a
difference. I just spoke with Gov. Romney and
I congratulated him and Paul Ryan
on a hard-fought campaign. We
may have battled fiercely, but it’s
only because we love this country
deeply and we care so strongly about its future. From George to
Lenore to their son Mitt, the
Romney family has chosen to give
back to America through public
service and that is the legacy that
we honor and applaud tonight. In the weeks ahead, I also look
forward to sitting down with Gov.
Romney to talk about where we
can work together to move this
country forward. I want to
thank my
friend and
partner of
the last four
years, America’s
happy
warrior, the
best vice
president
anybody could ever
hope for, Joe
Biden. And I wouldn’t be the man I am today
without the woman who agreed to
marry me 20 years ago. Let me say
this publicly: Michelle, I have never
loved you more. I have never been
prouder to watch the rest of America fall in love with you, too, as
our nation’s first lady. Sasha and
Malia, before our very eyes you’re
growing up to become two strong,
smart beautiful young women, just
like your mom. And I’m so proud of you guys. But I will say that for now
one dog’s probably enough. To the best campaign team and
volunteers in the history of politics.
The best. The best ever. Some of
you were new this time around,
and some of you have been at my
side since the very beginning. But all of you are family. No matter what
you do or where you go from here,
you will carry the memory of the
history we made together and you
will have the lifelong appreciation of
a grateful president. Thank you for believing all the way, through every
hill, through every valley. You lifted
me up the whole way and I will
always be grateful for everything
that you’ve done and all the
incredible work that you put in. I know that political campaigns can
sometimes seem small, even silly.
And that provides plenty of fodder
for the cynics that tell us that
politics is nothing more than a
contest of egos or the domain of special interests. But if you ever get
the chance to talk to folks who
turned out at our rallies and
crowded along a rope line in a high
school gym, or saw folks working
late in a campaign office in some tiny county far away from home,
you’ll discover something else. You’ll hear the determination in the
voice of a young field organizer
who’s working his way through
college and wants to make sure
every child has that same
opportunity. You’ll hear the pride in the voice of a volunteer who’s
going door to door because her
brother was finally hired when the
local auto plant added another shift.
You’ll hear the deep patriotism in
the voice of a military spouse who’s working the phones late at night to
make sure that no one who fights
for this country ever has to fight for
a job or a roof over their head
when they come home. That’s why we do this. That’s what
politics can be. That’s why elections
matter. It’s not small, it’s big. It’s
important. Democracy in a nation of
300 million can be noisy and messy
and complicated. We have our own opinions. Each of us has deeply held
beliefs. And when we go through
tough times, when we make big
decisions as a country, it necessarily
stirs passions, stirs up controversy. That won’t change after tonight,
and it shouldn’t. These arguments
we have are a mark of our liberty.
We can never forget that as we
speak people in distant nations are
risking their lives right now just for a chance to argue about the issues
that matter, the chance to cast
their ballots like we did today. But despite all our differences, most
of us share certain hopes for
America’s future. We want our kids
to grow up in a country where they
have access to the best schools and
the best teachers. A country that lives up to its legacy as the global
leader in technology and discovery
and innovation, with all the good
jobs and new businesses that
follow. We want our children to live in an
America that isn’t burdened by
debt, that isn’t weakened by
inequality, that isn’t threatened by
the destructive power of a warming
planet. We want to pass on a country that’s safe and respected
and admired around the world, a
nation that is defended by the
strongest military on earth and the
best troops this — this world has
ever known. But also a country that moves with confidence beyond this
time of war, to shape a peace that
is built on the promise of freedom
and dignity for every human being. We believe in a generous America,
in a compassionate America, in a
tolerant America, open to the
dreams of an immigrant’s daughter
who studies in our schools and
pledges to our flag. To the young boy on the south side of Chicago
who sees a life beyond the nearest
street corner. To the furniture
worker’s child in North Carolina who
wants to become a doctor or a
scientist, an engineer or an entrepreneur, a diplomat or even a
president — that’s the future we
hope for. That’s the vision we
share. That’s where we need to go
— forward. That’s where we need
to go Now, we will disagree, sometimes
fiercely, about how to get there. As
it has for more than two centuries,
progress will come in fits and starts.
It’s not always a straight line. It’s
not always a smooth path. By itself, the recognition that we have
common hopes and dreams won’t
end all the gridlock or solve all our
problems or substitute for the
painstaking work of building
consensus and making the difficult compromises needed to move this
country forward. But that common
bond is where we must begin. Our economy is recovering. A
decade of war is ending. A long
campaign is now over. And whether
I earned your vote or not, I have
listened to you, I have learned from
you, and you’ve made me a better president. And with your stories and
your struggles, I return to the
White House more determined and
more inspired than ever about the
work there is to do and the future
that lies ahead. Tonight you voted for action, not
politics as usual. You elected us to
focus on your jobs, not ours. And in
the coming weeks and months, I
am looking forward to reaching out
and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we
can only solve together. Reducing
our deficit. Reforming our tax code.
Fixing our immigration system.
Freeing ourselves from foreign oil.
We’ve got more work to do. But that doesn’t mean your work is
done. The role of citizen in our
democracy does not end with your
vote. America’s never been about
what can be done for us. It’s about
what can be done by us together through the hard and frustrating,
but necessary work of self-
government. That’s the principle
we were founded on. This country has more wealth than
any nation, but that’s not what
makes us rich. We have the most
powerful military in history, but
that’s not what makes us strong.
Our university, our culture are all the envy of the world, but that’s
not what keeps the world coming
to our shores. What makes America exceptional
are the bonds that hold together
the most diverse nation on earth.
The belief that our destiny is
shared; that this country only works
when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future
generations. The freedom which so
many Americans have fought for
and died for come with
responsibilities as well as rights. And
among those are love and charity and duty and patriotism. That’s
what makes America great. I am hopeful tonight because I’ve
seen the spirit at work in America.
I’ve seen it in the family business
whose owners would rather cut
their own pay than lay off their
neighbors, and in the workers who would rather cut back their hours
than see a friend lose a job. I’ve
seen it in the soldiers who reenlist
after losing a limb and in those
SEALs who charged up the stairs
into darkness and danger because they knew there was a buddy
behind them watching their back. I’ve seen it on the shores of New
Jersey and New York, where
leaders from every party and level of
government have swept aside their
differences to help a community
rebuild from the wreckage of a terrible storm. And I saw just the
other day, in Mentor, Ohio, where a
father told the story of his 8-year-
old daughter, whose long battle
with leukemia nearly cost their
family everything had it not been for health care reform passing just a
few months before the insurance
company was about to stop paying
for her care. I had an opportunity to not just talk
to the father, but meet this
incredible daughter of his. And
when he spoke to the crowd
listening to that father’s story,
every parent in that room had tears in their eyes, because we knew
that little girl could be our own. And
I know that every American wants
her future to be just as bright.
That’s who we are. That’s the
country I’m so proud to lead as your president. And tonight, despite all the hardship
we’ve been through, despite all the
frustrations of Washington, I’ve
never been more hopeful about our
future. I have never been more
hopeful about America. And I ask you to sustain that hope. I’m not
talking about blind optimism, the
kind of hope that just ignores the
enormity of the tasks ahead or the
roadblocks that stand in our path.
I’m not talking about the wishful idealism that allows us to just sit on
the sidelines or shirk from a fight. I have always believed that hope is
that stubborn thing inside us that
insists, despite all the evidence to
the contrary, that something better
awaits us so long as we have the
courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting. America, I believe we can build on
the progress we’ve made and
continue to fight for new jobs and
new opportunity and new security
for the middle class. I believe we
can keep the promise of our founders, the idea that if you’re
willing to work hard, it doesn’t
matter who you are or where you
come from or what you look like or
where you love. It doesn’t matter
whether you’re black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American
or young or old or rich or poor, able,
disabled, gay or straight, you can
make it here in America if you’re
willing to try. I believe we can seize this future
together because we are not as
divided as our politics suggests.
We’re not as cynical as the pundits
believe. We are greater than the
sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of
red states and blue states. We are
and forever will be the United
States of America. And together with your help and
God’s grace we will continue our
journey forward and remind the
world just why it is that we live in
the greatest nation on Earth. Thank you, America. God bless you.
God bless these United States. Copyright 2012 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This
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