Obama Speech Excerpts

After last night's primaries
"It's with that hope that we began this journey, the hope that if we could go block by block, city by city, state by state, and build a movement that spanned race and region, party and gender, if we could give young people a reason to vote and the young at heart a reason to believe again ... if we could inspire a nation to come together and we could turn the page on a politics that has shut us out, let us down, and told us to settle, we could write a new chapter in the American story.

We were told this was impossible. We were told the climb was too steep. We were told our country was too cynical, that we were just being naive and we couldn't really change the world as it is.

But then a few people in Iowa stood up and said, 'Yes, we can.'

And then a few more of you stood up, from the hills of New Hampshire to the coast of South Carolina. And then a few million of you stood up, from Savannah to Seattle, from Boise to Baton Rouge.

And tonight, because of you, because of a movement you built that stretches from Vermont's Green Mountains to the streets of San Antonio, we can stand up ... we can stand up with confidence and clarity to say that we are turning the page and we are ready to write the next great chapter in America's story."

"Now, in the weeks to come, we will begin a great debate about the future of this country with a man who has served it bravely and loves it dearly. And tonight, I called John McCain and congratulated him on winning the Republican nomination.

But in this election, we will offer two very different visions of the America we see in the 21st century. Because John McCain may claim long history of straight talk and independent thinking - and I respect that - but in this campaign, he has fallen in line behind the very same policies that have ill-served America.

He has seen where George Bush has taken our country and he promises to keep us on the very same course."

"Can we send a message to all those weary travelers beyond our shores who long to be free from fear and want, that the United States of America is and always will be the last best hope on Earth?

We say, we hope, we believe, yes, we can."

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