Wow.

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I know you didn't do this for me.  You did this--you did this because
you believed so deeply in the most American of ideas - that in the
face of impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.

I know this--I know this because while I may be standing here tonight,
I'll never forget that my journey began on the streets of Chicago
doing what so many of you have done for this campaign and all the
campaigns here in Iowa - organizing, and working, and fighting to make
people's lives just a little bit better.

I know how hard it is.  It comes with little sleep, little pay, and a
lot of sacrifice.  There are days of disappointment, but sometimes,
just sometimes, there are nights like this - a night--a night that,
years from now, when we've made the changes we believe in; when more
families can afford to see a doctor; when our children--when Malia and
Sasha and your children--inherit a planet that's a little cleaner and
safer; when the world sees America differently, and America sees
itself as a nation less divided and more united; you'll be able look
back with pride and say that this was the moment when it all began.

This was the moment when the improbable beat what Washington always
said was inevitable.

This was the moment when we tore down barriers that have divided us
for too long - when we rallied people of all parties and ages to a
common cause; when we finally gave Americans who'd never participated
in politics a reason to stand up and to do so.

This was the moment when we finally beat back the politics of fear,
and doubt, and cynicism; the politics where we tear each other down
instead of lifting this country up. This was the moment.

Years from now, you'll look back and you'll say that this was the
moment - this was the place - where America remembered what it means
to hope.

For many months, we've been teased, even derided for talking about
hope.

But we always knew that hope is not blind optimism.  It's not ignoring
the enormity of the task ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our
path.  It's not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight.
Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the
contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to
reach for it, and to work for it, and to fight for it.