OBAMA: Thank you.Thank you.Thank you so much.
Tonight, more than 200 years after a former colony won the right to determine its own destiny, the task of perfecting our union moves forward.(APPLAUSE) OBAMA: It moves forward because of you.It moves forward because you reaffirmed the spirit that has triumphed over war anddepreion, the spirit that has lifted this country from the depthsof despair to the great heights of hope, the belief that while eachof us will pursue our own individual dreams, we are an Americanfamily and we rise or fall together as one nation and as onepeople.(APPLAUSE) Tonight, in this election, you, the American people, reminded usthat while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long,we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back, and wek now in our hearts that for the United States of America the best is yet to come.(APPLAUSE) OBAMA: I want to thank every American who participated in thiselection...(APPLAUSE) ...whether you voted for the very first time or waited in line for a very long time.(APPLAUSE) By the way, we have to fix that.(APPLAUSE) Whether you pounded the pavement or picked up the phone...(APPLAUSE) ...whether you held an Obama sign or a Romney sign, you made your voice heard and you made a difference.I just spoke with Governor Romney and I congratulated him and Paul Ryan on a hard-fought campaign.(APPLAUSE) We may have battled fiercely, but it\'s only because we love this country deeply and we care so strongly about its future.From George to Lenore to their son Mitt, the Romney family has chosen to give back to America through public service and that is the legacy that we honor and applaud tonight.(APPLAUSE) In the weeks ahead, I also look forward to sitting down with Governor Romney to talk about where we can work together to move this country forward.(APPLAUSE) I want to thank my friend and partner of the last four years ,America\'s happy warrior, the best vice president anybody could ever hope for, Joe Biden.(APPLAUSE) OBAMA: And I wouldn\'t be the man I am today without the woman who agreed to marry me 20 years ago.(APPLAUSE) Let me say this publicly: Michelle, I have never loved you more .I have never been prouder to watch the rest of America fall in love with you, too, as our nation\'s first lady.(APPLAUSE) Sasha and Malia, before our very eyes you\'re growing up to become two strong, smart beautiful young women, just like your mom.(APPLAUSE) OBAMA: And I\'m so proud of you guys.But I will say that for now one dog\'s probably enough.(LAUGHTER) To the best campaign team and volunteers in the history of politics...(APPLAUSE) The best.The best ever.Some of you were new this time around ,and some of you have been at my side since the very beginning.(APPLAUSE) But all of you are family.No matter what you do or where you go from here, you will carry the memory of the history we made together and you will have the life-long appreciation of a grateful president.Thank you for believing all the way, through every hill,through every valley.(APPLAUSE) You lifted me up the whole way and I will always be grateful for everything that you\'ve done and all the incredible work that you put in.(APPLAUSE) I know that political campaigns can sometimes seem small, even silly.And that provides plenty of fodder for the cynics that tell us that politics is nothing more than a contest of egos or the domain of special interests.But if you ever get the chance to talk to folks who turned out at our rallies and crowded along a rope line in a high school gym, or saw folks working late in a campaign office in some tiny county far away from home, you\'ll discover something else.OBAMA: You\'ll hear the determination in the voice of a young field organizer who\'s working his way through college and wants tomake sure every child has that same opportunity.(APPLAUSE) You\'ll hear the pride in the voice of a volunteer who\'s going door to door because her brother was finally hired when the local auto plant added another shift.(APPLAUSE) You\'ll hear the deep patriotism in the voice of a military spouse whose working the phones late at night to make sure that no one who fights for this country ever has to fight for a job or aroof over their head when they come home.(APPLAUSE) That\'s why we do this.That\'s what politics can be.That\'s why elections matter.It\'s not small, it\'s big.It\'s important .Democracy in a nation of 300 million can be noisy and mey and complicated.We have our own opinions.Each of us has deeply heldbeliefs.And when we go through tough times, when we make bigdecisions as a country, it necearily stirs paions, stirs upcontroversy.That won\'t change after tonight, and it shouldn\'t.Thesearguments we have are a mark of our liberty.We can never forgetthat as we speak people in distant nations are risking their livesright now just for a chance to argue about the iues that matter,the chance to cast their ballots like we did today.(APPLAUSE) But despite all our differences, most of us share certain hopesfor America\'s future.We want our kids to grow up in a countrywhere they have acce to the best schools and the bestteachers.(APPLAUSE) A country that lives up to its legacy as the global leader intechnology and discovery and innovation, with all the good jobs andnew businees that follow.OBAMA: We want our children to live in an America that isn\'tburdened by debt, that isn\'t weakened by inequality, that isn\'tthreatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.(APPLAUSE) We want to pa on a country that\'s safe and respected andadmired around the world, a nation that is defended by thestrongest military on earth and the best troops thisthat\'s the future we hope for.That\'s the vision we share.That\'s where we need to go -forward.(APPLAUSE) That\'s where we need to go.Now, we will disagree, sometimes fiercely, about how to getthere.As it has for more than two centuries, progre will come infits and starts.It\'s not always a straight line.It\'s not always asmooth path.By itself, the recognition that we have common hopes and dreamswon\'t end all the gridlock or solve all our problems or substitutefor the painstaking work of building consensus and making thedifficult compromises needed to move this country forward.But thatcommon bond is where we must begin.Our economy is recovering.Adecade of war is ending.A long campaign is now over.(APPLAUSE) And whether I earned your vote or not, I have listened to you, Ihave learned from you, and you\'ve made me a better president.Andwith your stories and your struggles, I return to the White Housemore determined and more inspired than ever about the work there isto do and the future that lies ahead.(APPLAUSE) Tonight you voted for action, not politics as usual.(APPLAUSE) You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours.And in thecoming weeks and months, I am looking forward to reaching out andworking with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we canonly solve together.Reducing our deficit.Reforming our tax code.Fixing our immigration system.Freeing ourselves from foreign oil.We\'ve got more work to do.(APPLAUSE) OBAMA: But that doesn\'t mean your work is done.The role ofcitizens in our Democracy does not end with your vote.America\'snever been about what can be done for us.It\'s about what can bedone by us together through the hard and frustrating, but necearywork of self-government.That\'s the principle we were foundedon.(APPLAUSE) This country has more wealth than any nation, but that\'s notwhat makes us rich.We have the most powerful military in history,but that\'s not what makes us strong.Our university, our cultureare all the envy of the world, but that\'s not what keeps the worldcoming to our shores.What makes America exceptional are the bonds that hold togetherthe most diverse nation on earth.OBAMA: The belief that our destiny is shared; that this countryonly works when we accept certain obligations to one another and tofuture generations.The freedom which so many Americans have foughtfor and died for come with responsibilities as well as rights.Andamong those are love and charity and duty and patriotism.That\'swhat makes America great.(APPLAUSE) I am hopeful tonight because I\'ve seen the spirit at work inAmerica.I\'ve seen it in the family busine whose owners wouldrather cut their own pay than lay off their neighbors, and in theworkers who would rather cut back their hours than see a friendlose a job.I\'ve seen it in the soldiers who reenlist after losing a limband in those SEALs who charged up the stairs into darkne anddanger because they knew there was a buddy behind them watchingtheir back.(APPLAUSE) I\'ve seen it on the shores of New Jersey and New York, whereleaders from every party and level of government have swept asidetheir differences to help a community rebuild from the wreckage ofa terrible storm.(APPLAUSE) And I saw just the other day, in Mentor, Ohio, where a fathertold the story of his 8-year-old daughter, whose long battle withleukemia nearly cost their family everything had it not been forhealth care reform paing just a few months before the insurancecompany was about to stop paying for her care.(APPLAUSE) I had an opportunity to not just talk to the father, but meetthis incredible daughter of his.And when he spoke to the crowdlistening to that father\'s story, every parent in that room hadtears in their eyes, because we knew that little girl could be ourown.And I know that every American wants her future to be just asbright.That\'s who we are.That\'s the country I\'m so proud to leadas your president.(APPLAUSE) OBAMA: And tonight, despite all the hardship we\'ve been through,despite all the frustrations of Washington, I\'ve never been morehopeful about our future.(APPLAUSE) I have never been more hopeful about America.And I ask you tosustain that hope.I\'m not talking about blind optimism, the kindof hope that just ignores the enormity of the tasks ahead or theroadblocks that stand in our path.I\'m not talking about thewishful idealism that allows us to just sit on the sidelines orshirk from a fight.I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing insideus that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, thatsomething better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keepreaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.(APPLAUSE) America, I believe we can build on the progre we\'ve made andcontinue to fight for new jobs and new opportunity and new securityfor the middle cla.I believe we can keep the promise of ourfounders, the idea that if you\'re willing to work hard, it doesn\'tmatter who you are or where you come from or what you look like orwhere you love.It doesn\'t matter whether you\'re black or white orHispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich orpoor, able, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here inAmerica if you\'re willing to try.(APPLAUSE) I believe we can seize this future together because we are notas divided as our politics suggests.We\'re not as cynical as thepundits believe.We are greater than the sum of our individualambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states andblue states.We are and forever will be the United States ofAmerica.(APPLAUSE) And together with your help and God\'s grace we will continue ourjourney forward and remind the world just why it is that we live inthe greatest nation on Earth.Thank you, America.God ble you.God ble these UnitedStates.(APPLAUSE)
