You all know the narrative. A one term president is not a successful president. Whether this is actually true or not is irrelevant. That is simply the story that is told about one term presidents.
Two-term presidents, on the other hand, are a different story. True, Republicans have given us two-term presidents who we would not regard as successes - but that is their unique talent. By electing Barack Obama to a second term we have given the president an enormous opportunity: not just for the next four years, but to burnish a long lasting legacy for himself.
Barack Obama is now not just the first African-American president. He is also the first two-term African-American president. That in and of itself is remarkable and sure to be recorded by the history books.
But a much more impressive future may await him. There is a joke that has been circulating that it took George W. Bush eight years to screw up the country, so how could Barack Obama possibly fix it in four years? And there is certainly a measure of truth to this. Although Pres. Obama ran his first campaign on the theme of hope, most of us would admit these have been four hard years. We have spent them climbing out of an enormous hole.
I want to get to know the Barack Obama running a White House above the waterline. I yearn to see the Barack Obama no longer hobbled by the failed years of the Bush administration. I know he can soar. No, I know we can soar.
It is time to once again start talking about the audacity of hope. Hope is not just a fleeting emotion, it isn't just the faint belief in prospects for a better day - it is a philosophy that asserts boldly that our better days are in front of us. It is a confidence born not of certainty, but of faith - faith in ourselves, faith in our brothers and sisters, and faith in the goodness of humanity.
Coming out of the worst economic crisis most of us have known, we still chose hope. This time, nobody can tell us we were fooled by a slogan, by a logo, or oratory. This time we chose, caveat emptor, to believe the best things we could believe about our President.
And about ourselves.
Congratulations everyone. You chose to believe in a future that is built here and now, on this good Earth, and in this great land. And we will build it.
Together.