President Barack Obama delivers remarks at a DNC meeting in Washington on March 16
…with David Plouffe, who introduced the President
See the full text of the speech here – it’s brilliant. Extracts:
“It is – boy, it is nice to see so many friends in a room. (Laughter.) I live in Washington, so that doesn’t always happen. (Laughter.) But when you gather up so many folks who helped get me where I am today — I am reminded of that story of Abraham Lincoln when he was President. Back then anybody could have — he had office hours. And he’d let people come in and meet with him. And somebody insisted on coming to see him, barged through the door, said to his personal assistant, “I need to see the President. I’m the one who got him elected.” And none of you have done that, of course. (Laughter.)
So the assistant goes in, mentions this to Lincoln. Lincoln looks at his watch — he’s got a little bit of time. He says, “Oh, bring the guy in.” He says, “Sir, I understand you’re the person responsible for getting me elected.” He says, “That’s right.” He says, “Well, I forgive you.” (Laughter.) So I forgive all of you. (Laughter.)
….There are times where Michelle reminds me that I volunteered for this job — (laughter) — because she looks at me and I looked tired. But I’m telling you, I am having an extraordinary time, because there aren’t many moments in our lives where we know that we’re making a difference. And this is one of those moments.
….And my hope is that the same spirit that helped change this country in 2008, that that spirit is still in each and every one of you. Obviously the first time around it’s like lightning in a bottle. There’s something special about it, because you’re defying the odds. And as time passes, you start taking it for granted that a guy named Barack Hussein Obama is President of the United States. (Laughter and applause.) It’s not — but we should never take it for granted. And I hope that over the next couple of years, as we’re seeing a lot of you as I travel around the country, I hope that all of you still feel that sense of excitement and that sense of possibility, because we still have so much more to do.
…..I know that sometimes people may get frustrated and think, you know what, Obama is being too nice and we need to get in there and take it to them. (Laughter.) And there will be times where that’s important. But I also think it’s important for us not to lose that spirit that animated us early on, which was to say that we don’t want to just fight the same old battles over and over again. It’s important for us to make sure that we are actually doing the work of changing our politics even as we are changing our policies.
And that’s tough. It makes our job a little bit harder sometimes. But I think it’s absolutely important if we’re going to achieve our goals.”
“Don’t **** with me, okay? Thank you.”
