Announce my candidacy for president of the United States of america. Early in the campaign, black people were feeling somewhat neglected. Is he going to represent us . Is he going to take our issues seriously . People felt he wasnt black enough. Mccains crowds turned uglier. The discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn. This is not a man who sees america the way that you and i see america. Okay, youre rolling. You obviously put a lot of thought into the decision to do this. Have you given thought to when youre successful, what would you want people to say about how america was different than the day you walked in the door . I dont think that were going to solve all our problems in eight years or ten years. One of the things about life, both for each of us and for the country as a whole, is that there are always going to be new challenges. There are always going to be new difficulties. But i hope that at the end of an obama administration, people will l
we, the people, in order to form a more perfect union 221 years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched america s improbable experiment in democracy. the document they produced was eventually signed, but ultimately unfinished. it was stained by this nation s original sin of slavery. i chose to run for president at this moment in history because i believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together, unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes, that we may not look the same and may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren. this belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the american people. but it also comes from my own story. i m the son of a black man from kenya and a wh
announce my candidacy for president of the united states of america. early in the campaign, black people were feeling somewhat neglected. is he going to represent us? is he going to take our issues seriously? people felt he wasn t black enough. mccain s crowds turned uglier. the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn. this is not a man who sees america the way that you and i see america. okay, you re rolling. you obviously put a lot of thought into the decision to do this. have you given thought to when you re successful, what would you want people to say about how america was different than the day you walked in the door? i don t think that we re going to solve all our problems in eight years or ten years. one of the things about life, both for each of us and for the country as a whole, is that there are always going to be new challenges. there are always going to be new difficulties. but i hope that at the end of an obam
national convention in denver in 2008. no one can question barack obama s patriotism. like all of us, he was taught what it means to be an american by his family, his grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line in world war ii, his grandfather who marched in patton s army, and his great uncle who enlisted in the army right out of high school at the height of the war. there s a point where john kerry mentions that barack obama s uncle, who is a veteran of world war ii, is present in the convention hall, and he requests that his uncle stand up and be acknowledged by the crowd. please join me in saluting this american hero, charlie payne. this elderly white man stands up, you know, this man who would not be out of place at any vfw hall in the country. and i happened to be with a
i m the son of a black man from kenya and a white woman from kansas. i was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a depression to serve in patton s army during world war ii, and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at fort leavenworth while he was overseas. i ve gone to some of the best schools in america and i ve lived in one of the world s poorest nations. i am married to a black american who carries within her the blood of slaves and slave owners, an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. i have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles, and cousins of every race and every hue scattered across three continents. and for as long as i live, i will never forget that in no other country on earth is my story even possible. it s a story that hasn t made me the most conventional of