Yes, We Can

Thank you, New Hampshire. I love you back. Thank you. Thank you. Well, thank you so much. I am still fired up and ready to go. Well, first of all, I want to congratulate Senator Clinton on a hard-fought victory here in New Hampshire. She did an outstanding job. Give her a big round of applause.

You know, a few weeks ago, no one imagined that we'd have accomplished what we did here tonight in New Hampshire. No one could have imagined it. For most of this campaign, we were far behind. We always knew our climb would be steep. But in record numbers, you came out, and you spoke up for change.

And with your voices and your votes, you made it clear that at this moment, in this election, there is something happening in America. There is something happening when men and women in Des Moines and Davenport, in Lebanon and Concord, come out in the snows of January to wait in lines that stretch block after block because they believe in what this country can be.

There's something happening when Americans who are young in age and in spirit, who've never participated in politics before, turn out in numbers we have never seen because they know in their hearts that this time must be different. There's something happening when people vote not just for the party they belong to, but for the hopes they hold in common.

Whether we are rich or poor, Black or White, Latino or Asian, whether we hail from Iowa or New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina — we are ready to take this country in a fundamentally new direction. That's what's happening in America right now. Change is what's happening in America.

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What Change Looks Like:

Our new American majority can end the outrage of unaffordable, unavailable health care. We can bring doctors and patients, workers and businesses, Democrats and Republicans together, and tell the drug and insurance industry that while they get a seat at the table, they don't get to buy every chair — not this time, not now.

Our new majority can end the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas and put a middle-class tax cut in the pockets of working Americans. We can stop sending our children to schools with corridors of shame and start putting them on a pathway to success. We can reward great teachers with better pay and more support.

We can harness the ingenuity of farmers and scientists, citizens and entrepreneurs to free this nation from the tyranny of oil and save our planet from a point of no return. When I am President of the United States, we will end this war in Iraq and bring our troops home.

We will finish the job against al-Qaida in Afghanistan. We will care for our veterans. We will restore our moral standing in the world. And we will never use 9/11 as a way to scare up votes. It is not a tactic — it is a challenge that should unite America and the world.

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A Creed of Hope:

We know the battle ahead will be long. But always remember this: No matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We've been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics. They will only grow louder in the weeks and months to come. We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

When we've faced impossible odds — when we were told we weren't ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't — generations of Americans responded with a simple creed:

Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Yes, we can.

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation: Yes, we can. It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom: Yes, we can. It was sung by immigrants and pioneers who pushed westward through hardship: Yes, we can.

It was the call of workers who organized, women who reached for the ballot, a president who chose the moon as our frontier, and a king who pointed us toward the promised land: Yes, we can — to justice and equality, to opportunity and prosperity.

Yes, we can heal this nation. Yes, we can repair this world. Yes, we can.