"I have never been more hopeful about our future."
~ U.S. President Barack Obama, speech November 6, 2012

Closing paragraph from The Audacity of Hope, Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream ~ 2006

"At night, the great shrine [the Lincoln Memorial] is lit but often empty.  Standing between marble columns, I read the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural Address.  I look out over the Reflecting Pool, imagining the crowd stilled by Dr. King's mighty cadence, and then beyond that, to the floodlit obelisk and shining Capitol dome.
And in that place, I think about America and those who built it.  This nation's founders, who somehow rose above petty ambitions and narrow calculations to imagine a nation unfurling across a continent.  And those like Lincoln and King, who ultimately laid down their lives in the service of perfecting an imperfect union.  And all the faceless, nameless men and women, slaves and soldiers and tailors and butchers, constructing lives for themselves and their children and grandchildren, brick by brick, rail by rail, calloused hand by calloused hand, to fill in the landscape of our collective dreams.

It is that process I wish to be a part of.

My heart is filled with love for this country."