American Story

David Olive

Description

Obama first captured America's attention with his keynote address to the Democratic National Convention in 2004. Now, Obama's superb and captivating oratory style has earned him comparisons to John F. Kennedy and even Martin Luther King. He speaks on themes of race, identity, community and his hoped-for vision of America. His legions of supporters gravitate towards his unblemished idealism. Here, Olive explores Obama's controversies, anti-war stance, Christian faith and his racially-charged remarks.

Sujets

• USA
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: Ecw Press
• Date de parution: 15 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781554903450
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

AN AMERICAN STORY
AN AMERICAN STORY
THE SPEECHES OF BARACK OBAMA
A Primer by DAVID OLIVE
Copyright David Olive, 2008
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise - without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and ECW Press.
Please note: Copyright is not claimed for any part of the original work prepared by a U.S. Government or U.S. State officer or employee as part of that person s official duties. However, such works, together with all materials contained herein, are subject to the preceeding copyright notice as to their organization and compilation in this book.
Published by ECW Press 2120 Queen Street East, Suite 200 Toronto, Ontario, Canada M 4 E 1 E 2 416.694.3348 / [e-mail]
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Olive, David, 1957- An American story : the speeches of Barack Obama : a primer / David Olive.
Includes text of 21 speeches by Barack Obama. ISBN 978-1-55022-864-9
1. Obama, Barack. 2. Speeches, addresses, etc., American. 3. Obama, Barack-Oratory. 4. United States-Politics and government-2001-. I . Obama, Barack II . Title.
E 901.1.023045 2008 328.73092 C 2008-904943-8
Cover and Text Design: Tania Craan Cover photo: Michael Maloney/San Francisco Chronicle/Corbis Typesetting: Gail Nina Second printing: Webcom
The publication of An American Story has been generously supported by the OMDC Book Fund, an initiative of the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and by the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program ( BPIDP ).

PRINTED AND BOUND IN CANADA
For Allison Nowlan
Through the night with a light from above.
- Irving Berlin, God Bless America
We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression - everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way - everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want - which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants - everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear - which, translated into world terms, means a worldwide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor - anywhere in the world.
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, The Four Freedoms, address to the U.S. Congress, January 6, 1941
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
The Politics of Hope and Reality
Barack Obama on the Major Issues
Michelle Obama: The Achiever
A note on Barack Obama s Oratorical Style and its Impact
SPEECHES
IRAQ WAR Obama s prescient warning about an Iraq invasion
NATIONAL UNITY Obama denounces false divisions among Americans
PROSPERITY AND FAIRNESS Obama calls for a middle-class revival
EDUCATION REFORM America can t afford to fall behind in the 21st-century economy
LITERACY Improved literacy is the key to American competitiveness
VETERANS Obama condemns neglect of military veterans
A CARING SOCIETY Obama s pragmatic approach to progressive politics
GLOBAL WARMING The climate-change threat requires urgent action
RELIGION AND POLITICS Religious faith should not be divorced from politics
STEM CELL RESEARCH A reminder that science has saved millions of lives
COMPASSION The role of Dr. King s example in everyday American life
RESOLVING IRAQ A blueprint for Iraq withdrawal and restoring Mideast stability
HEALTH CARE Universal coverage as an American competitive advantage
TERRORISM A long-delayed plan for crushing global terrorism
THE GOLDEN RULE Only with mutual respect can Americans move forward
POLITICAL REFORM It s time the American public, not lobbyists, ran Washington
RACE IN AMERICA The real grievances of both blacks and whites can no longer be ignored
FOREIGN POLICY A new American worldview both hard-line and humanitarian
ECONOMIC RENEWAL The Iraq conflict distracts us from crises at home and abroad
NOBILITY OF PUBLIC SERVICE America needs your service to community, country, and the world
PATRIOTISM Obama redefines patriotism for the 21st century
VICTORY SPEECH A new beginning for a nation that finally has transcended the ultimate race barrier
INAUGURAL ADDRESS Confronting economic adversity, Obama invokes America s long tradition of triumph in trying times
An Obama Primer From birth to 44th U.S. president
Internet Resources
Bibliography and Selected Reading
Acknowledgments
I m grateful to Jack David of ECW Press, who conceived the project, for his patience and diligence and that of his superb team at ECW. I d also like to thank J. Fred Kuntz and Joe Hall, former editor-in-chief and managing editor, respectively, of the Toronto Star , for their encouragement and support.
I owe a considerable debt to librarians at several news organizations and to campaign staff of Barack Obama, John McCain, and Hillary Clinton for their assistance. They have helped make this rough working draft of history as accurate as possible.
Introduction
The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
- U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt , commencement address at Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, Georgia, May 23, 1932
I have long believed there was a divine plan that placed this land here to be found by people of a special kind, that we have a rendezvous with destiny. Yes, there is a spirit moving in this land and a hunger in the people for a spiritual revival. If the task I seek should be given to me, I would pray only that I could perform it in a way that would serve God.
- Future U.S. President Ronald Wilson Reagan , 1976 campaign letter
There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.
- U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton , inaugural address, January 20, 1993
I was sitting cross-legged on the double bed in my nineteenth-floor aerie in Boston s historic Custom House, now a Marriott but still a reminder of the city s maritime tradition, when Barack Obama said the words that propelled him onto the national stage in 2004. I was hunched over a laptop, struggling to meet a newspaper deadline. The young man on the TV had been describing one of the most unlikely backgrounds of any major U.S. political figure, and now he had my undivided attention as he described an us and them mentality that had poisoned U.S. politics for much too long.
The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats, Obama told the crowd at the Fleet Center a few blocks from where I sat. But I ve got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.
Who was this rail-thin Midwesterner, by way of Honolulu, Jakarta, Los Angeles, Manhattan, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, now poised to become only the third African-American elected to the U.S. Senate in the history of the republic?
Whoever he was, the keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic National Convention that nominated John Kerry as its presidential candidate was an unusually compelling orator and, more importantly, was describing the America for which I had so much affection. It was America before it fell hostage to the take-no-prisoners culture wars calculated to splinter the country into distinct voting blocs that could be wooed or ignored as the mood of policy strategists in Washington dictated. The media reflected these divisions, catered to and nurtured them - though only at the national level. Pigeonholing politicians and think-tank experts as liberal or conservative, rural or urban, powerful or on the outs was habitual with Meet the Press and the other Washington-based Sunday morning political talk shows. There wasn t much room for nuance, for delving into the complexities of issues.
That wasn t so much the case with the local NBC affiliate in Savannah, where the newscasts continued to be dominated by local heroes - the churches and their homeless shelters, the food-bank drives, the families that took in Sri Lankan refugees, and the citizens who put a full-court press on city hall, or even the state legislature, to finance an overpass at the level crossing where two young boys had been killed in the past three years. Where these real Americans fit into the tired Washington battles over feminism, tax cuts, abortion, racial profiling - or if they did at all - just didn t matter to them. In Sacramento and St. Louis, everyday folks were eager to be drawn into a larger cause by a larger leader, someone who would win their nodding approval four years hence in observing that our can t-do, won t-do, won t-even-try politics had grown small.
As a sometime speechwriter and observer at three of these conventions, I wondered how this young statesman had so ably captured the America that I ve always thought America wants to be and usually is - if you go out and look for it. That is a privilege denied, apparently, to the Washington-based pundits, who need to get out more.
Obama was describing my self-reliant relatives in a Buffalo suburb and in Southern California and my colleagues in New York, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. The communal spirit of New York