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Tonight we’re on our way, but we know how much further we have to go.  We know it takes more than one night or even one election to overcome decades of money and the influence, the bitter partisanship and petty bickering that shut you out, let you down, told you to settle.

We know our road will not be easy, but we also know that, at this moment, the cynics can no longer say that our hope is false.  We have now won east and west, north and south, and across the heartland of this country we love.
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We are bringing together Democrats and independents and, yes, some Republicans.  I know this.  I meet them when I’m shaking hands afterwards.  There’s one right there, an Obamacan, that’s what we call them.

They whisper to me.  They say, “Barack, I’m a Republican, but I support you.”  And I say,   “Thank you.”
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It’s time to stand up and reach for what’s possible, because together people who love their country can change it.

Now, when I start talking like this, I have to say, some people will tell you that I’ve got my head in the clouds, that I’m still offering false hopes, that I need a reality check, that I’m a hope- monger.

But, you know, it’s true.  My own story tells me that in the United States of America there’s never been anything false about hope, at least not if you’re willing to work for it, not if you’re willing to struggle for it, not if you’re willing to fight for it.
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Understand this:  Hope is not blind optimism.  Hope is not ignorance of the barriers and the challenges that stand between you and your dreams.  I know how hard it will be to change America.

I know it won’t be easy to provide health care for all Americans like I’ve proposed.  If it was easy, it would have already been done.

I know that it won’t be easy to change our energy policy. ExxonMobil made $11 billion last quarter.  They don’t want to give those profits up easily.

I know how hard it will be to alleviate poverty that’s built up over centuries.  I know how hard it will be to improve our schools, especially because improving our schools will involve more than just money.

It will require a change in mindset, a belief that every child counts, that it’s not somebody else’s problem, a belief that parents have to parent, and turn off the TV set, and put away the video game, and that our students have to raise their standards of excellence.

That’s not easy to do, changing attitudes, changing culture.  I know it’s hard, because I’ve fought those fights.  I fought on the streets of Chicago as a community organizer to bring jobs to the jobless in the shadow of a shuttered steel plant.

I fought in the courts as a civil rights lawyer to make sure people weren’t denied their rights because of what they looked like or where they came from.

I fought in the legislature to take away power from lobbyists, and to provide health care to those who didn’t have it, and to fix a criminal justice system that was broken.  And I’ve won some of those fights, but I’ve lost some of them, too, because I’ve seen good legislation die when good intentions weren’t enough, when they weren’t backed by a mandate for change, when the American people weren’t enlisted in the process of change.

I know how hard these things are.  The politics of hope does not mean hoping things come easy.

But I also understand that nothing worthwhile in this country has ever happened unless somebody somewhere is willing to hope, when somebody is willing to stand up, somebody who’s willing to stand up when they’re told, “No, you can’t,” and instead they say, “Yes, we can.”
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That’s how women won the right to vote, how workers won the right to organize, how young people like you traveled down South to march, and sit-in, and go to jail, and some were beaten, and some died for freedom’s cause.  That’s what hope is.

That’s what hope is.  That’s what hope is,

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It’s the same message we had when we were up, the same message when we’re down, that out of many, we are one, that our destiny will not be written for us, but by us, and that we can cast off our doubts and fears and cynicism because our dreams will not be deferred, and our future will not be denied, and our time for change has come.

Thank you very much, Madison.  I love you guys.  Thank you.