INTERVIEWER: Okay, you're rolling?
You, uh-- Obviously, you put a lot of thought
into, uh, the decision to do this.
Have you given thought to, when you're successful,
what would you want people to say...
-Yeah. -...about how America
was different than the day you walked in the door?
Well, I-- I don't think that we're going to solve
all of our problems in eight years,
uh, or ten years.
You know, one of the things about life,
both for each of us and for the country as a whole,
is that there're always going to be new challenges.
There are always going to be new difficulties.
But I hope that at the end of an Obama administration,
people will look back and say "We changed our politics," uh,
so that people could take pride in their government again
and could feel that the government
was working for the people and not just for the few.
That, at the end of an Obama administration,
this country's a little more fair,
and a little more just.
That our economy is a little more balanced
and that people have a-- a slightly better chance
of achieving the American dream.
And if we set this country on the right trajectory now,
then we-- we won't have solved every problem,
but we will have laid the foundation
for future generations to continue
what's been this great experiment in democracy.
♪ (THEME MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
BARACK OBAMA: So this is the Old State Capitol.
REPORTER: One thing you can say with certainty
about Barack Obama is that there has never been
another presidential candidate like him.
He is ambitious and just daring enough
to invite comparisons to one of the few American presidents
who was elected with even less political experience
than he has.
STEVE KROFT: Three years ago, you were a state legislator
here in Springfield.
What makes you think that you're qualified
to be president of the United States?
It-- You know, I think we're in a moment of history
where... probably the most important thing
we need to do is to bring the country together.
-Nice to meet you. Hi. -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
OBAMA: And, one of the skills that I bring to bear
is being able to pull together
the different strands of American life
and focus on what we have in common.
Hi, how are you?
-I'm Hillary Clinton... -(CROWD CHEERING)
REPORTER 2: Senator Hillary Clinton has burst
onto the campaign field.
I'm running for president, and I'm in it to win it
-with your help! -(CROWD CHEERING)
REPORTER 3: A recent CBS news poll shows
that Black voters, who could provide the key
to winning early Democratic primaries,
are weary of Obama.
How important is race in defining yourself?
I am rooted in the African American community,
-but I'm not defined by it. -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
OBAMA: I am comfortable in my racial identity,
but, uh, that's not all I am.
REPORTER 3: The stage is set for tomorrow's announcement.
Senator Barack Obama will make it official.
He is in this race for president.
And while he has never positioned himself
as "the Black candidate"...
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -...the question of his race
is, of course, and will continue to be much discussed
and debated, especially among African Americans.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -KROFT: You think the country is ready
-for a Black president? -Yes.
You don't think it's going to hold you back?
Well-- No. You know, the--
I think i-- if I don't win this race, uh,
it will be because of other factors.
It's-- It's going to be because I have not shown
to the American people
a vision for where the country needs to go
that, uh, that they can embrace.
JEREMIAH WRIGHT: I was scheduled the next morning
to be in Springfield.
Due to the implication, Senator Obama called me.
He called me three times that day.
He was very worried about my prayer. (CHUCKLES)
And I said, “Why?”
He said, "You know, I go to Iowa the next day,
don't say anything in your prayer
that's gonna upset farmers."
And I said, man, I'm the one talking about
how you brought Southern Illinois together
to stop distrusting and mistrusting Chicago.
I wouldn't do that in a prayer.
He called back, "David's worried." Axelrod.
"David's worried. Are you-- Are you sure?"
I said, "I'm straight."
The third call, he said, "Rev...
Rolling Stone has got their hands
on one of your sermons...
and David feels that if I take you out
on the stage with me
to open up the ceremony with a prayer,
the press will only focus on you.
You know, you can be over the top sometimes."
I said, "What are you talking about?"
-♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
...oppressions.
JEREMIAH WRIGHT: I'm thinking, what have I done?
What have I said?
What sermon of mine have you heard
that's over the top?
Maybe we need to declare war on racism.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -WRIGHT: He said,
"I still want you to pray for me and my family.
Can you do that before I go out?"
I said, "Yes, I can do that."
He said, "I'll see you in the morning."
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
WRIGHT: I landed in Springfield.
There was a car waiting for me that took me to the Capitol.
We joined hands in a circle, and I prayed for the family,
I prayed for him,
I prayed a non-partisan prayer... (CHUCKLES)
...and asked that the candidate...
most dedicated to the principles of the founders
would be elected,
and that God would keep him and his family safe.
Secret Service then took Barack out to the platform.
I walked up with Michelle and stood next to her
as he announced.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -It was here in Springfield,
where North, South, East and West come together,
that I was reminded of the essential decency
of the American people.
Where I came to believe that through this decency,
we can build a more hopeful America.
And that is why, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol,
where Lincoln once called on a house divided
to stand together,
where common hopes and common dreams still live,
I stand before you today to announce
-my candidacy... -(CROWD CHEERING)
...for President of the United States of America.
AL SHARPTON: When he made the announcement
that day in Illinois, at the same time in Virginia
there was a Black Agenda Conference.
That I was there.
SHARPTON: I wish, you know, all of this about,
uh-- uh, our friend, Barack, announcing today,
I wish Obama had announced here.
-Because Lincoln-- -(CROWD CHEERING)
Lincoln did not free us,
the abolitionist movement freed us.
And I was not yet there supporting him.
We've got to quit giving the wrong people credit
for our history.
(CROWD CHEERING)
MICHAEL ERIC DYSON: Black leaders were kind of resentful
'cause he kind of did an inrun
around Black leadership.
Most Black people who rise in Black communities
have to come through and kiss the ring
of the Black political dignitaries and potentates.
-Obama leap frogged over them. -(CROWD CHEERING)
By ourselves, this change will not happen.
Divided, we are bound to fail.
But the life of a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer
tells us that a different future is possible.
(CROWD CHEERING)
CORNEL WEST: He makes the announcement at Springfield,
tied to the legacy of Abraham Lincoln,
which is a rich one. So, we-- we understood--
Okay, I mean, political calculation,
every politician has to do that.
And you don't want to alienate your white fellow citizens
-coming out of the box. -(CROWD CHEERING)
He tells us that there is power in words.
He tells us that there's power in conviction.
That beneath all the differences of race and region,
faith and station we are one people.
WEST: He's got large numbers of white brothers and sisters
who have fears and anxieties,
and he's got to speak to them in such a way
that he holds us at arm's length enough to say he loves us,
but doesn't get too close to scare them off.
-(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) -So, he's walking this tightrope.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -I want us to take up
the unfinished business of perfecting our union
and building a better America!
I'm not for or against him as a brother,
if there's any white supremacist perception
of Barack, I defend him. Why? ‘Cause I hate white supremacy.
But he's gotta be accountable.
And starting off in Springfield, Illinois,
is not impressive to me.
-(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) -Hey.
He called me up. He said "Professor West,
I-- I heard what you said about my speech,
why did you say it?" I said, I said it because I believed it.
(CROWD CHEERING)
WEST: He said "I was wondering whether you would work with me?"
I said, "I've got one question.
What is your relation to the legacy
-of Martin Luther King, Jr.?" -CROWD: Barack Obama!
WEST: "And how will your campaign
enact the struggle against poverty,
militarism, racism, and materialism?
Those are the evils that Martin Luther King, Jr. saw
right before he was murdered."
I can still sing "We Shall Overcome!"
We shall overcome because the arc
of the moral universe is long
-but it bends towards justice. -...bends towards justice.
-It bends towards justice. -(CROWD CHEERING)
WEST: He was very honest with me and he said,
"Professor West, you know that I'm-- I'm not as radical as you are,
but I do see myself directly connected
to the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr."
I said, "That sounds wonderful to me."
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-Hillary! -(CROWD CHEERING)
REPORTER: Forty-two years ago, it would have been unimaginable.
Two Democratic presidential contenders,
one a woman, another an African American,
courting Black voters in Alabama,
preaching to overflowing churches.
Are you ready to march?
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
DAVID REMNICK: Every year,
there's a commemoration of Selma,
a great encounter between the forces
of the civil rights movement led by John Lewis and others...
-(INDISTINCT CLAMOR) -...and police with truncheons.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
REMNICK: And Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama
want to make an impression in Selma.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
REPORTER: Many black voters say they're torn
between voting for the African American, Obama,
-or sticking with the Clintons... -(CROWD CHEERING)
...who've supported civil rights for years.
That's the agonizing choice for John Lewis,
bludgeoned during the Selma March,
and now a congressman.
It was tough, it was very-- It was tough.
I supported, uh, President Clinton
and got to know Hillary.
It was one of the tough decisions
of my political life.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
REMNICK: The Clintons felt that they had deep inroads
with the African American community and with-- with reason.
You'll remember in the-- in a certain New Yorker magazine,
Toni Morrison wrote that Bill Clinton
was the first Black president, said with some irony,
said with all kinds of... But mostly with admiration too.
(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
REMNICK: Obama gives his speech at Brown Church.
And Hillary is down the street at another church.
Yes, that long march to freedom
that began here has carried us a mighty long way.
It's-- It's a contest.
-Thank you, thank you. -(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
Oh, giving all praise and honor to God...
-CROWD: Amen! -...for bringing us here today.
I just want to talk a little bit about... Moses,
and Aaron and Joshua...
because we are in the presence today...
-of a lot of Moseses. -ATTENDEE: A lot.
Uh, we're in the presence today of giants...
whose shoulders we stand on.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
REMNICK: He begins paying tribute
to what he calls the "Moses generation."
Who's Moses?
Martin Luther King, who did not see--
Famously says it in his speech,
"I might not get there with you."
As great as Moses was...
despite all that he did...
leading a people out of bondage...
he didn't cross over the river to see the Promised Land.
God told him, "Your job is done.
We're going to leave it to the Joshua generation...
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -...to make sure it happens.
There are still some battles that need to be fought.
Some rivers that need to be crossed."
Obama pronounces himself
the head of the Joshua generation.
S-- That's incredibly nervy.
Moses told the Joshua generation,
"Don't forget where you came from."
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
And I worry sometimes that the Joshua generation
in its success forgets where it came from.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Thinks it doesn't have to make as many sacrifices.
SHERRILYN IFILL: You think people in the 1940s
and 1950s woke up and said,
"We are the civil rights generation, let's do this,"
as though it was, you know, fantastic?
Our nostalgia has made us look back
at that period of time as though it was great,
but it was not great getting hit in the head
on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
These weren't fun times.
These were times of commitment, when people decided
that they weren't gonna take it anymore
and that they could make this country better.
OBAMA: Folks complaining about the quality of our government,
I understand there's something to be complaining about.
-(CROWD CHUCKLING) -I'm in Washington.
I see what's going on.
It means we can't sit out elections.
It means we can't just vote for people
and then not show up to hold them accountable.
It means we can't think that government
-is something other people do. -But I'll tell you what.
I also know that, if cousin Pookie would vote...
(CROWD CHEERING)
...and... if Uncle Jethro would get off the couch
-and stop watching SportsCenter... -(CROWD APPLAUDING)
...and go register some folks and go to the polls,
we might have a different kind of politics.
That's what the Moses generation teaches us.
Kick off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -Go do some politics.
Change this country!
That's what they teach.
To me, that event is as much his declaration
to run for president...
as his announcement speech in Springfield...
but it's made particular to the Black community.
(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
SPEAKER: You got my vote. You got my vote, man.
SPEAKER: He got my vote. You got my vote. You got my vote.
Hey, I appreciate that.
I think that there is a assumption
on the part of some commentators
that somehow, the Black community
i-- is so unsophisticated
that the minute you put an African American face
up on the screen, that they automatically say,
"That's our guy."
-I wanted to say hello. -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
OBAMA: A Black candidate has to earn Black votes
the same way that he's gotta earn white votes.
Uh, and-- and that's exactly how it should be.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
People were asking me, "Who you gonna support?"
And I said that, "Well, everybody
that's my color is not my kind."
I bring you the senator from Illinois,
-Senator Barack Obama. -(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
SHARPTON: He had always said to me,
"I'm not asking you to support me,
-just don't hurt me." -Thank you!
There was concern. Is he going to represent us?
Is he going to take our issues seriously.
What does he know about us? Who-- We don't really know him.
I am proud to be a candidate
for the presidency of the United States of America.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -DYSON: And Black people are practical,
we're no longer interested in symbolic politics run
as a-- a reaction to white supremacy,
run as, you know, a-- a candidate who will protest.
No, we want real people who are able to really win.
-(CROWD APPLAUDING) -I am mindful
-that I wouldn't be here... -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
...if it had not been for Reverend Al Sharpton
-running for president... -(CROWD APPLAUDING)
...and Carol Moseley Braun running for president,
and Jesse Jackson running for president,
and Shirley Chisolm running for president.
My candidacy changes the present course
of our nation.
I got involved as a protest, really.
Resisting how liberals were taking us for granted
and dismissing us and marginalizing us
in the process.
And so one thing led to another.
I felt that we had the right to run
and the reason to run and the capacity
to take our case to the next level.
-Who would have thought? -ATTENDEE: I would.
DYSON: We love Jesse Jackson.
In '88 he really, what? Got seven million votes?
So that was tremendous.
After 38 contests...
I would be in front.
That's more than symbolic, that was substance
-but we need more of that. -(CROWD APPLAUDING)
I sense all across America a desire for something new,
-a desire to turn the page... -(CROWD APPLAUDING)
...a desire to write a new chapter
in American history.
And if I have all of you working with me,
then I guarantee you
that not only will we win this election,
but we are also going to transform America.
Thank you very much!
I appreciate you guys, thank you!
(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
SHARPTON: The more I talked to him, the more I felt
that Barack Obama was authentic,
because he wouldn't say to me what he knew I wanted to hear.
But he said to me what I needed to hear.
And that was, "I really do believe
we can make the country go forward,
and that our community can get what they want."
(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
HOST: All right! We're ready, thank you.
-How's it going, Cedar Rapids? -(CROWD CONTINUE CHEERING)
Thank you! Thank you!
VALERIE JARRETT: Early in the campaign,
our strategy was all hands on deck in Iowa.
And the theory of the case was that if we can win Iowa,
then he would be credible.
Not just to people in white America
but also people in Black America,
who were hesitant about his chances of winning.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-REPORTER: Is this fun to do? -I love doing this.
This-- This is what politics is all about.
Can I say hello?
-SPEAKER: Yeah. -SPEAKER 2: You sure can!
JARRETT: But that strategy came with a cost,
and the cost was Black people feeling somewhat neglected.
Now we came up with a magic solution,
which was we asked Michelle to go to South Carolina.
JELANI COBB: I don't think that any of us ever thought
that we would see a Black president in our lives.
I used to say that in 2007
there were only four people in the United States
who thought that it was possible
for a Black man to be elected president,
and they all lived at the same address
on the South Side of Chicago.
-Hi, how are you? -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-I'm Michelle Obama. -Yes, ma'am.
Nice to see you.
DYSON: Black people were very skeptical.
Any Black man that rises, boy, it's gonna be tough,
and white folk are gonna be pissed,
and you gonna be vulnerable, and it might not work out.
MICHELLE OBAMA: Now I know folks talk in the barbershops
and beauty salons.
I've heard it myself. See people say, you know,
"That Barack Obama he's a nice guy,
but I'm not sure America's ready for a Black president."
She gave an extraordinary speech
that really spoke to the feelings
in the African American community,
the feelings of fear.
Of worrying, "Would he lose?" Worrying, "Would he be hurt?"
I know that people understand that Barack is special.
-(CROWD CHUCKLES) -You don't see
this kind of man often.
And I equate it to like, you know,
we all have that aunt,
that grandmother that bought all that new furniture?
Spend her life savings on it, and then what she do?
She puts plastic on it to protect it.
(CROWD LAUGHING, APPLAUDING)
JARRETT: Everyone in the audience,
which was comprised of primarily African American women,
all knew about their grandmother's couch.
I think folks just want to... protect us...
from the possibility of being let down.
(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING)
Not by us, but by the world.
She gave them permission by acknowledging their fear,
but then said "Look, I have the most to lose."
If you're willing to heed Coretta Scott King's words
and not be afraid of the future, but have faith in God's grace,
then I truly believe that together,
there's no challenge that we can't overcome.
-Thank you. -(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
KROFT: There are African Americans
who don't think that you're Black enough,
who don't think that you have had the required experience.
The truth of the matter is, you know,
when I'm walking down the South Side of Chicago
and, uh, visiting my barbershop, and...
playing basketball in, uh, in some of these neighborhoods,
those aren't, uh, those aren't questions that I get asked.
ZARIFF: I didn't know he was this or that.
Normally when you come into a shop,
into Hyde Park Hair Salon, you're just-- you're yourself.
No titles.
There were some reporters in the shop at one point
during the campaign, and one of the reporters asked me,
"Oh, do you cut his hair to appear like he's white?"
I'm like, "Excuse me?"
I said, "How do you do that?"
That was my reply, but it stunned me.
It was unnecessary.
But it's necessary, I guess, for a lot of people.
(CROWD CHEERING)
REPORTER: Barack Obama has said that the big-city cab drivers
who once refused to pick him up
had no doubt about his Blackness back then,
nor should anyone else now.
But recent polls show Hillary Clinton
is the choice of more Black Democrats,
and it's clear that Obama's racial identity
gives pause to some.
SHARPTON: He was loudly condemned by some.
And in private even more loudly, "He wasn't Black enough.
He didn't have the slave experience."
-(CROWD CHEERING) -Thank you, Apollo!
COBB: There's always been a kind of heterogeneous idea
of like what it is to be Black in this country.
And so, what was more important than his name
or his lineage was his ability to culturally interact
on terms with African Americans.
(CROWD CHEERING)
COBB: One of the things the campaign did
in South Carolina was they released this DVD
of him going around and talking to voters.
-Retired Sergeant Major, sir. -Man, retired Sergeant Major.
-He still looks like a Sergeant Major. -(CROWD LAUGHING)
And there's one point where he goes into a barbershop
and he starts, uh, cracking on this guy's shoes.
-How you doing, President? -I'm doing good, man.
(LAUGHS)
And check out those shoes too.
Check ‘em out.
-Man. -(INDISTINCT CHATTER, LAUGHTER)
You got some, you got some. What's that?
-I dunno-- -You got some alligator?
And that was just something
that only a person who was comfortable
-in this culture would do. -(CROWD CHEERING)
-Are you fired up? -CROWD: Fired up!
Are you ready to go?
REPORTER: Of course there are whites who will never vote for Obama
-because he is Black. -Let's go change the world.
I don't want to sound prejudiced or anything, but for one, um,
I'm not gonna...
I don't want to vote for a-- a colored man
-to be our president. -(BUS ENGINE REVVING)
REPORTER: Barack Obama's bus rode through rural Iowa Monday,
as he takes his message to small towns in the state.
We'll show that we value farming in this country
by launching a program that gives a hand
to the next generation of farmers
and helps them buy their first farms.
REPORTER 2: It's an interesting move
just two weeks before the caucus,
because rural Iowa is certainly not Obama's base.
The question is whether or not Obama can connect
with the primarily-white rural voters here.
VOTER: It's still my neighbors in small towns
who don't have jobs.
Uh, it's still people in my parish
who are struggling with retirement incomes,
and those are no different whether we live in Chicago
or-- or in, uh, Laurens, Iowa.
OBAMA: How many people here definitely plan
to caucus tomorrow? Raise your hands.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -That's what I'm talking about.
DAVID AXELROD: The campaign picked up momentum
over the course of the year in Iowa.
We knew that if we didn't win the Iowa caucuses we were done.
We had to-- We had to break through there.
REPORTER: Tonight, the Democratic front runners
are in a frantic drive to rally supporters
and win over converts.
REPORTER 2: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards
have been virtually tied
according to some of the late polling
going on surrounding this race.
REPORTER 3: And just so supporters know what's at stake...
Tomorrow night, the future of the free world
-is riding on your shoulders. -(CROWD LAUGHING)
-Don't feel any pressure. -(CROWD LAUGHING)
OFFICIAL: Thirty-one, 32, 33. Obama...
COBB: I was living in Atlanta and there was a watch party.
And I-- I don't think... very many people
really, really thought that he was going to win Iowa.
And then all of a sudden, he won Iowa.
(CROWD CHEERING)
OBAMA: They said this country was too divided,
but on this January night,
at this defining moment in history,
you have done what the cynics said
-we couldn't do. -(CROWD CHEERING)
COBB: I remember like, leaving,
and there was a white guy wearing a t-shirt that said,
"He's Black, I'm proud."
And then right after that, I saw a t-shirt
that had Martin Luther King
and Barack Obama next to each other.
And then I saw that t-shirt everywhere
in the days that followed.
DYSON: After he won in Iowa,
Black people were like, "What's that? What's his name?
Barack Oberman? What's his name?
Yeah, let's we'll do-- Yeah, he's good!
-He's like really good." -(CROWD CHEERING)
DYSON: Hillary Clinton was darn near knighted
as the heir apparent.
It was her turn, she had waited as a woman in this country.
But Obama swooped right in
and figured out, now, it's kind of my time.
CROWD: Obama! Obama!
So he earned it, right, the old fashioned way.
Shoe leather, meeting people, winning at the polls,
and Black people were like, "This man could really win!"
-How's it going, New Hampshire? -(CROWD CHEERING)
REPORTER: He rocketed out of Iowa
and into New Hampshire
and this morning woke up to a poll
showing a comfortable lead here over Senator Clinton.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -REPORTER 2: In his stump speech,
he now says "we" instead of "I." The implication?
What happened in Iowa was the start of a movement.
REPORTER 3: Obama's victory has recast the Democratic race,
creating new pressure on Senator Hillary Clinton.
HILLARY CLINTON: I did very, very well with people over 45,
and I didn't do as well with people under 30.
And I take responsibility for that.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
REPORTER 4: The Obama crowds are large and energized,
they also tend to be young.
OBAMA: That's why you're here,
and in one day's time
-we can stand up for change... -(CROWD CHEERING)
...that all of us can believe in.
(CROWD CHEERING)
REPORTER 5: In another corner of the state,
a different side of Hillary Clinton.
You know, I have so many opportunities from this country.
I just don't want to see us fall backwards.
-No. So... -(CROWD APPLAUDING)
(CROWD CHEERING)
Thank you! (LAUGHS)
OBAMA: 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.
(CROWD CHEERING)
I want, especially, to thank New Hampshire.
Over the last week, I listened to you.
And in the process, I found my own voice.
(CROWD CHEERING)
REPORTER: New Hampshire voters have redefined the race
for The White House,
but what drove people to vote the way they did?
Even Hillary Clinton's own tracking poll
showed that she was going to lose big.
Something happened in that last 48 hours
that changed people's minds.
Hillary Clinton retooled her campaign a little bit.
Started getting out of the bubble,
started actually talking to voters,
answering all of their questions,
had an emotional moment, humanized herself.
Is it possible people lied to pollsters
saying they were going to vote for
for an African American candidate and then not?
I've gotten a number of emails now from people
in different campaigns, Democratic strategists,
other people out there saying, "Well, could it be a race?
Could it be a race? Could it be a race?"
(AIRPLANE ENGINE REVVING)
REPORTER 2: We turn next to the campaign trail.
The politics of race and possible trouble
for the Clinton campaign.
It involves comments Senator Clinton made
about Martin Luther King,
and something Bill Clinton said about Barack Obama.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -This whole thing
is the biggest fairy-tale I've ever seen.
REPORTER 3: Clinton said what he was describing
as a fairytale was the media portrayal
-of Obama's record on Iraq. -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
REPORTER 4: As the Democratic campaign
moves forward, Hillary Clinton is backpedaling.
So, the Obama campaign is deliberately
-distorting this... -REPORTER 5: Today on Meet the Press,
she sought to blame Barack Obama for the firestorm caused
by a remark of hers in New Hampshire.
Dr. King's dream, uh, began to be realized
when President Lyndon Johnson passed
the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
REPORTER 5: She said she did not mean to belittle
Dr. King's accomplishments,
which is exactly how many African Americans took it.
REPORTER 2: Sources in the Obama campaign say
African American leaders are outraged
and believe the Clinton campaign is using racial code words.
REPORTER 6: His fairy-tale comment was all over talk radio,
and there was an email being sent around
with a detailed list of comments from the Clintons.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -REPORTER 6: All this led
experts to worry that this historic campaign
between a woman and an African American man
now threatens to divide Democrats along racial lines.
TIM RUSSERT: In terms of accountability, Senator Obama,
Senator Clinton on Sunday told me
that the Obama campaign had been pushing this story line.
And true enough, your Press Secretary
in South Carolina, four pages
of alleged comments made by the Clinton people
about the issue of race.
In hindsight, do you regret pushing this story?
Well, not only in hindsight, but, uh, going forward.
I think that our supporters, our staff get overzealous.
Uh, they start saying things that I would not say.
And it is my responsibility to make sure
that we're setting a clear tone in our campaign.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
AXELROD: South Carolina is the first southern primary.
It was a crucial primary for both us
and for Hillary Clinton.
The majority of voters who participate
in the Democratic primary there are African American...
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
...but Barack needed white votes as well and wanted them
because he didn't want to win on that basis.
I wanna be so persuasive that nobody leaves this room
thinking they should vote for anybody else.
(CROWD CHEERING)
I want everybody here to vote for Barack.
Everybody!
REPORTER: Barack Obama hit the lunch crowd
at a restaurant in Columbia,
where he greeted n early every customer.
Nearly all of them white.
Of course, we can take a picture, what's your name?
-Sean. -Sean.
REPORTER: Polls show he's been losing support
among white voters here,
and spent much of the week trying to downplay race.
He's blamed the media for hyping it,
and encouraged voters to look past color.
If I came to you and I had polka dots...
-but-- but you were convinced... -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
...that I was gonna put more money into your pockets,
and help you pay for college,
and help keep America safe, you'd say, "Okay.
You know, I-- I wish he didn't have polka dots,
-but I'm still voting for him." -(CROWD APPLAUDING)
COBB: Partly out of curiosity,
and partly out of legitimate support,
I decided that I was going to go to South Carolina.
We are in this place, Denmark, South Carolina,
on the Get Out the Vote operation.
We walk up to this house,
and this older white woman comes to the door
and tells me not to come any closer.
And I said, "Okay." And, you know, I stopped where I was
and she said, "I already know the date and I know the time,
I'm going to be right there to vote for Senator Obama."
(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
REPORTER: All the signs have been positive.
Encouraging polls, the big crowds,
the confident campaign,
but Obama has seen this before in New Hampshire.
Who can you trust to be there for you in sunshine and storm?
-CROWD: Hillary! -REPORTER 2: For her last big rally
in South Carolina,
Hillary Clinton called in her number one surrogate.
REPORTER 3: The former president today sought
to lower expectations
suggesting Obama has the edge here because he's Black.
Jesse Jackson won South Carolina twice in '84 and '88.
And he ran a good campaign,
and Senator Obama's run a good campaign here,
he's run a good campaign everywhere.
He's got a good-- He's a good candidate
with a good organization.
When Bill Clinton came out at the South Carolina primary
and, uh, tried to dismiss the significance-- Kind of,
"Well, even Jesse Jackson won that."
What are you saying?
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -SHARPTON: Translation,
even if he wins,
Obama is just this year's Jesse Jackson.
(CROWD CHEERING)
CROWD: Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can!
-Yes, we can! Yes, we can! -Thank you. Thank you!
CROWD: Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can!
-Yes, we can! Yes, we can! -Thank you, everybody. Thank you!
OBAMA: You know, over two weeks ago,
-we saw the people of Iowa... -CROWD: Whoo!
...proclaim that our time for change has come.
(CROWD CHEERING)
But there were those who doubted
this country's desire for something new.
Who said Iowa was a fluke not to be repeated again.
Well, tonight, the cynics who believed
that what began in the snows of Iowa was just an illusion,
were told a different story
by the good people of South Carolina.
(CROWD CHEERING)
AXELROD: South Carolina was a beautiful night.
He got about 30 percent of white votes in the state
in addition to a majority of Black votes,
and built the multi-racial coalition
that we had hoped for.
Completely outstripped everyone's expectations.
(CROWD CHEERING)
AXELROD: And in that hall the night when he spoke,
there were people chanting race doesn't matter.
(CROWD CHANTING)
AXELROD: Now that was premature.
That was more of a hope than a reality,
but this was a big moment in the campaign,
and I think a big moment for the country.
I did not travel around this state over the last year
and see a white South Carolina or a Black South Carolina.
-I saw South Carolina. -(CROWD CHEERING)
This is not, though they are enormously important,
Jesse Jackson, Reverend Al Sharpton,
stalwarts of the Civil Rights movement.
But those who were perceived to be, necessarily so, as people
who could channel Black anger, to express Black grievance,
to realize Black progress.
With Barack Obama, there's a different moment here.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -I saw what America is,
and I believe in what this country can be.
That is the country I see. That is the country you see,
but now it is up to us
to help the entire nation embrace this vision.
(CROWD CHEERING)
DYSON: He really resonated in a more transcendent way.
In a way that was informed by a broader sweep
of the American possibility,
because his own life was the product of that.
He gave an interracial pedigree to hopefulness.
(AIRPLANE ENGINE REVVING)
I know what America can achieve, I've seen it!
I've lived it!
And with Barack Obama we can do it again!
(CROWD CHEERING)
AXELROD: The Kennedy endorsement
was incredibly important for Obama.
Not because Kennedy would bring large numbers of votes...
but because Kennedy was an establishment figure
and his willingness to lay hands on Obama
and say he's ready to be president
really spoke to concerns that people had about that.
ANNOUNCER: The next president of the United States,
-Hillary Clinton! -(CROWD CHEERING)
REPORTER: The endorsement is a huge blow to Hillary Clinton,
a longtime friend and colleague of Ted Kennedy.
REPORTER 2: The senior senator from Massachusetts
repeatedly scolded Bill Clinton
for his divisive tactics in South Carolina.
-(CROWD APPLAUDING) -REPORTER 3: For Bill Clinton, who has always
cast himself as President Kennedy's political heir,
today's endorsement is a slap in the face.
We need to nominate somebody with the experience,
and the fortitude, and the know-how
to take whatever they send our way
-and send it right back. -(CROWD APPLAUDING)
REPORTER 4: As of tonight, our latest CBS News Democratic delegate count
shows Obama leading Clinton by 97.
So the battle goes on, and with ten straight wins
-momentum is on Obama's side. -(CROWD CHEERING)
This is our moment!
This is our time!
REPORTER 5: And another blow today to the Clinton campaign.
She's lost 11 straight primaries and caucuses to Barack Obama
and now Clinton has lost a very important supporter.
Congressman John Lewis of Georgia switched sides today.
-He is now backing Obama. -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
He represented something new.
He represented a real sense of hope and optimism.
(CROWD CHEERING)
JOHN LEWIS: It was daring, just daring.
DYSON: It became uncomfortable for Black people to explain,
as political leaders, why they weren't with Obama.
So, it's not that they swayed the people to support Obama.
Obama's love among the people
swayed the leaders to come along.
CROWD: Obama!
SHARPTON: I felt that it was my responsibility
to be true to the cause.
What really was going to help the cause?
Putting a guy like this in The White House,
if we could help do that and not get in the way.
Or playing to the--
what, uh, my pastors call the "cheap seats"
of just rah-rah-rah, and we end up with nothing.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -Thanks for being here. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
REPORTER: Now moving on to the Republicans,
John McCain clinched the nomination last night.
And today, he went over to The White House.
Last night, both Senator Obama and Senator Clinton called
to congratulate me.
I pledged at that time and I pledge again,
a respectful campaign.
A respectful campaign based on the issues
and based on the stark differences
and vision that we have for the future of America.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -How's it going Mississippi?
REPORTER 2: In another win for Barack Obama
last night in Mississippi,
he regained a significant lead over Hillary Clinton
in the pledge delegate count.
But the talk of the Democratic race today
was once again about race,
and prominent Democrat Geraldine Ferraro's assertion
that Obama wouldn't have gotten this far if he was not Black.
GERALDINE FERRARO:
HILLARY: I rejected what she said,
and I certainly do repudiate it.
And, uh, regret deeply that, uh, you know, it was said.
I-- This-- This is politics, uh,
and, you know, part of the problem
that we have right now is that, uh, we have too much at stake
to be engaged in these politics.
You know, uh, campaigns are really long oral exams
and character tests for the presidency.
Ours really came on a day in March of 2008.
I served Trinity church for 36 years.
I had never taken a sabbatical.
So, I told the congregation,
Don't call, don't text, don't email,
I'm going on sabbatical.
First thing we're gonna do is go on a family vacation.
We're going on a cruise.
REPORTER: We want to turn now to an in-depth look
at a very important figure in Democratic frontrunner,
Barack Obama's life.
His long-time pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
Reverend Wright has made a number
of controversial statements over the years.
Now that Obama is a national figure,
the question is,
could the Reverend become a liability?
COBB: The media had been taking a hit,
saying that they were going too soft on Barack Obama
and that they were having you know this, basically,
love fest, and that he hadn't gotten, uh,
the kind of critical coverage
that a presidential candidate needs.
And so they go to Jeremiah Wright.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -The angels in Heaven were singing,
God never fails!
ABC had all these tapes of Jeremiah Wright's sermons,
and there were millions of them and it kind of wasn't a priority.
They had a lot to do during the campaign.
♪ (THEME MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
REMNICK: Most of them are long and irrelevant to anything.
WRIGHT: Bless the Lord. Oh, my soul.
♪ (HYMN PLAYING) ♪
And then they stumble upon a couple of these sermons
that seemed incendiary.
The government gives them the drugs,
builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law,
and then wants us to sing "God Bless America"?
No, no, no, not God Bless America,
God Damn America!
That's in the bible, for killing innocent people.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -God Damn America.
They took clips and wove them together
into, you know, the most incendiary things he had said
over a 30-year career in like two minutes.
Uh, but it had the desired effect.
We have supported state terrorism
against the Palestinians and Black South Africans,
-and now we are indignant! -(CROWD APPLAUDING)
Because the stuff we have done overseas
is now brought right back into our own front yards!
They were deeply critical of American foreign policy
and in a language...
that was, uh, way more inflammatory
than most of America White America, could stomach.
And Obama had found a home in this church.
♪ (SOFT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
WRIGHT: Cruise ships only broadcast certain stations.
They had Fox News on the boat...
and were playing a-- a clip...
from a sermon I preached...
the Sunday after 9/11/01.
I say, "What?"
So, we started changing the channel.
It was on all of the channels.
I want to show you a clip from Barack Obama's pastor,
it's getting a lot of play right now.
We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki!
What you're about to hear is inflammatory to some,
to others, harsh as it sounds, it's the truth.
And we nuked far more than the thousands in New York
and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye.
Obviously, his remarks are incendiary.
It comes at a particularly bad time.
AXELROD: Obama was in the Senate the day
this "greatest hits of Reverend Wright" surfaced.
He was voting all day.
I don't think he had a sense of how much it had captured
the imagination of the media.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -God damn America.
REPORTER: We tried to reach Reverend Wright
to get his reaction now
to the fallout from his fire and brimstone sermon,
but we're told he's on vacation and not available.
On a cruise ship they sit you at one table
where you sit every meal.
The white families at the table next to ours
had requested to be moved.
They don't want to sit next to an "anti-American racist."
A what?
And they will not only attack you
if you try to point out what's going on
in white America, US of KKK A.
This is going to scare the hell out of white people,
-and you know that that's true. -No, it's designed
to attempt to scare.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s last sermon was gonna be
"Why America may go to hell."
It was not "America should go to hell."
It didn't-- It was not "America ought to go to hell."
It may go to hell
because if you don't come to terms with racism,
poverty, militarism, materialism,
those evils are gonna suck all the good stuff
out of your democracy.
That's in part what Jeremiah Wright
was talking about.
Barack knows what it means
to be a Black man living in a country
and a culture that is controlled by rich, white people.
Hillary can never know that.
Hillary ain't never been called a (BLEEP).
That became for us the cruise from hell.
I stayed in the cabin most of the time
so that the nasty remarks, name calling...
would not be something my family had to be exposed to.
But they heard that, my grandkids were hearing this.
Breaking news at this hour, after a day of headlines
about the controversial remarks by Pastor Jeremiah Wright
of the Trinity United Church of Christ,
Pastor Wright is quote "no longer
on the Obama presidential campaign committee."
WRIGHT: I was a chairperson of his religious advisory team.
I saw myself... get dismissed
from that position on television.
Your campaign saying this afternoon it had no plans
to ask Reverend Wright to step down.
Obviously, that has changed.
Did he step down tonight or did you ask him to leave?
You know, I-- I think there was a recognition
that, uh, he's on the verge of retirement,
he's taking a sabbatical, uh, and that it was important, uh,
for him to step out of the spotlight
in this situation.
Unfortunately, as an American politician,
you can't get too close to that kind of prophetic fire
or you get burned.
So, I can understand Barack, in some sense,
wanting to get a distance as a politician.
I-- These particular statements that have been gathered,
uh, are ones that I strongly objected to
strongly condemned. I-- Had I heard them in church,
I would have expressed that concern
directly, uh, to Reverend Wright.
So, I didn't become familiar with these until, uh, recently.
But on a personal level
and on a very deep, uh, truthful level,
you had to try to teach people
that there are voices in our society that are radical...
that are not up for elections.
AXELROD: He called me that night and said,
"I want to make a speech.
I want to make a speech about race, and I want to put
this Reverend Wright issue in context."
And we said, "Okay." And he said,
"And I want to do it no later than Tuesday."
This was Friday.
JARRETT: He felt that he owed the American people
an explanation
and that they had to hear it directly
and honestly from him.
SHARPTON: A very painful thing for Obama
was dealing with his pastor, very painful.
And it was very painful to the community
because people were angry
because they were trying to act like he threw his pastor
in front of the bus.
AXELROD: We set up this speech for the Constitution Center
in Philadelphia
on the theory that if you're gonna go down,
go down on a big stage.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
AXELROD: The anxiety in the room was palpable.
And he turned to me and said, "You know,
I'm gonna go out there and give this speech..."
(CROWD CHEERING)
"...and people will either accept it or they won't."
Thank you. Thank you.
-AXELROD: "And if they don't..." -Thank you. Thank you.
"...then I just won't be president,
but at least I'll have said what I think needs to be said."
He said, "That's worth something."
We the people, in order to form a more perfect union...
221 years ago...
in a hall that still stands across the street,
a group of men gathered and with these simple words
launched America's improbable experiment in democracy.
The document they produced was eventually signed,
but ultimately unfinished.
It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery.
I chose to run for president at this moment in history
because I believe deeply
that we cannot solve the challenges of our time
unless we solve them together.
Unless we perfect our union.
ELIZABETH ALEXANDER: I think what was extraordinary
about Obama's so-called race speech
is the fact that it happened at all.
There was no precedent.
I mean, yes, Black people had run for president before,
but at this stage in the game,
there wasn't a clearly marked road that said,
this is how this kind of Black person deals
with people trying to disparage him
and take him down in the name of race.
Throughout the first year of this campaign,
against all predictions to the contrary...
we saw how hungry the American people were
for this message of unity.
Despite the temptation to view my candidacy
through a purely racial lens,
we won commanding victories in states
with some of the whitest populations
in the country.
Obama was forced to give a speech on race,
he was forced to.
He was in trouble.
This is not to say that race
has not been an issue in this campaign.
And yet, it's only been in the last couple of weeks
that the discussion of race in this campaign
has taken a particularly divisive turn.
COBB: Smaller things had ended presidential candidacies.
Howard Dean just yelled off key
and that was it, you know, his presidency is done.
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms,
the statements of Reverend Wright
that have caused such controversy,
and in some cases pain.
But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man.
The man I met more than 20 years ago
is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith
and who, over 30 years, has led a church
that serves the community
by doing God's work here on earth.
The church contains, in full, the kindness and cruelty,
the fierce intelligence, and the shocking ignorance,
the struggles and successes, the love
and, yes, the bitterness and biases
that make up the Black experience in America.
I can no more disown him
than I can disown the Black community.
I can no more disown him
than I can disown my white grandmother.
A woman who helped raise me,
a woman who sacrificed again and again for me,
a woman who loves me
as much as she loves anything in this world,
but a woman who once confessed her fear of Black men
who passed her by on the street.
And who, on more than one occasion,
has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes
that made me cringe.
These people are part of me.
And they are a part of America, this country that I love.
As opposed to just cutting Jeremiah Wright off immediately,
uh, or even kind of saying
"It's not possible for me to win,"
he does exactly what a professor
or a teacher would do in that circumstance,
which is step into the middle of it
and look at it, panoramically,
and then try to understand it for what it is.
Under other circumstances, we would call that a class.
In Barack Obama's circumstance,
this is a public address or speech.
The fact is that the comments that have been made
and the issues that have surfaced
over the last few weeks
reflect the complexities of race in this country
that we've never really worked through.
A part of our union that we have not yet made perfect.
We do not need to recite here
the history of racial injustice in this country,
but we do need to remind ourselves
that so many of the disparities that exist
between the African American community
and the larger American community today
can be traced directly to inequalities
passed on from an earlier generation
that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery
and Jim Crow.
The anger is real. It is powerful.
And to simply wish it away,
to condemn it without understanding its roots,
only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding
that exists between the races.
In fact, a similar anger exists
within segments of the white community.
Most working and middle-class white Americans
don't feel that they've been particularly privileged
by their race.
Their experience is the immigrant experience.
As far as they're concerned, no one handed them anything.
They built it from scratch.
So, when they are told to bus their children
to a school across town,
when they hear an African American
is getting an advantage in landing a good job
or a spot in a good college
because of an injustice that they themselves never committed,
when they're told that their fears
about crime in urban neighborhoods
are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.
Now I believe in staying in contact with the humanity
of my precious white brothers and sisters,
but they need to understand
that in a white supremacist civilization,
you've been the beneficiary
of unbelievable privilege and entitlement,
that you have a right to justice,
you have a right to fairness,
but your resentment will never have the same weight,
morally and spiritually, as a Black rage
who had to come to terms with foremothers and forefathers
raped and violated and exploited and lynched.
And when he presented that equivalent,
it made me upset. I said, "You're not telling the truth!"
To wish away the resentments of white Americans,
to label them as misguided or even racist,
without recognizing they are grounded
in legitimate concerns, this too widens the racial divide
and blocks the path to understanding.
It was the attempt, the desire,
to create a language of embrace.
And his critics will say
that's, uh, a language that, um, ignores reality.
That it's too idealistic.
But that's him.
The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons
is not that he spoke about racism in our society,
it's that he spoke as if our society was static,
as if no progress had been made, as if this country,
a country that has made it possible
for one of his own members
to run for the highest office in the land
and build a coalition
-of white and Black... -(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
...Latino, Asian, rich, poor, young and old,
is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past.
(CROWD APPLAUDING)
WRIGHT: The Senator came to my home to ask me
to stop preaching until after the election.
I've been preaching this way for 50 years...
regardless of who's running for what office.
Carol Moseley Braun, Harold Washington, Barack Obama.
That doesn't change or affect or alter the gospel in any way.
He then paid me one of the highest compliments
I've ever had paid to me.
He said to me, "You know what your problem is?"
I said, "What's my problem?"
"As a preacher, you have to speak the truth."
I said, "That's a good problem to have."
♪ (SOLEMN MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
INTERVIEWER: Do you consider yourself a Black man
-or an American first? -An American, absolutely.
Is there a difference
between Black patriotism and white patriotism?
No, I don't think so.
I mean, what... what I think is that
the African American community...
is much more familiar
with some of the darker aspects
of American life and American history.
I think that they understand America much less
-as a marching band playing... -(CROWD CHEERING)
...John Philip Sousa,
and they understand America much more
as a jazz composition with blue notes.
And-- And I think those are different things.
And so, the African American community
can express great rage and anger about this country
and love it all the same.
(CROWD CHEERING)
OBAMA: Tonight, Minnesota...
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
...after 54 hard-fought contests...
CROWD: We love you, Obama!
...our primary season has finally come to an end.
(CROWD CHEERING)
Because you chose to listen not to your doubts
or your fears,
but to your greatest hopes and highest aspirations.
Tonight, we mark the end of one historic journey
with the beginning of another.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -A journey...
a journey that will bring a new and better day to America.
Because of you,
tonight I can stand here and say
that I will be the Democratic nominee
for the president of the United States of America.
(CROWD CHEERING)
BRIAN WILLIAMS: He is 46 years old and his life has been
an extraordinary American journey.
Last night he made history by becoming
the presumptive nominee of the Democratic party.
The first African American major party nominee.
He turned away Hillary Clinton,
the first woman to get as far as she did.
KATIE COURIC: This historic victory
comes with a two-fold challenge,
battling Senator John McCain
while trying to unify a deeply divided Democratic party.
So reporters don't unpack your bags,
it'll be a long hot summer.
KROFT: Senator McCain talks a great deal
about his experience as a-- as a prisoner of war...
-Right. Right. -...and how it has shaped him.
What is the thing that has shaped you?
It-- The story for me is...
of being born into pretty humble circumstances.
Not having a dad in the house.
But having a mother and grandparents who loved me,
who instilled in me some pretty, uh,
you know, Midwestern Kansas values of hard work
and stick-to-it-ness, and honesty
and looking out for other people, uh,
and-- and what's shaped me most powerfully,
maybe because I'm half Black and half white,
uh, that a big chunk of my childhood,
I was sort of an outsider, I didn't quite fit anywhere.
Part of what shapes me is--
is, uh, being able to find a connection
with all kinds of different people,
and-- and want to bring them together
and bridge misunderstandings, and-- and bridge conflict,
so that we can actually get things done.
And that, I think is something that led me into public service.
And in some ways, that's something
very profoundly American about me.
A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab?
The gesture everyone seems to interpret differently.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -REPORTER: Rumors and innuendo
are as much a part of a presidential campaign
as flag pins and chicken dinners.
But after a week of radio talk shows
and websites spreading the word
that Michelle Obama may have used
a racial epithet against white people in a speech...
Some, uh-- uh, reference to white people
as "whities," allegedly.
...and continuing whispers about whether Obama is a Muslim,
the campaign has launched a new counter offensive,
a website. It's called FightTheSmears dot com
and is devoted to debunking false rumors about the Obamas.
First it was my name, right? That was a problem.
And then there was the Muslim-email thing.
This particular one alleges, among other things,
that you took the oath of office on the Quran
-and not the Bible? -(CHUCKLES)
Now it's the patriotism thing.
Barack Obama refuses to, uh, salute the flag,
he refuses to wear a flag pin.
And my wife's comment.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -Let me tell you something,
for the first time in my adult lifetime,
I'm really proud of my country.
She already clarified herself. She was very clear about it.
I'm proud of this country, and I'm proud
of the fact that people are ready
to roll up their sleeves and do something phenomenal.
There's always some nonsense going on
in general elections, right?
If it wasn't this, it'd be something else.
(CROWD CHEERING)
ALEXANDER: You know, the Obamas are remarkably focused.
Eyes on the prize.
The prize, by the way, is not the presidency.
The prize is the work.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
ALEXANDER: It's not that it does not hurt
to be defamed and misnamed.
But I think that what served both of them well,
was understanding that they were in service
to a larger ideal,
and that what leadership meant in that moment
was to just keep on the path.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -Thank you, guys.
IFILL: Racism is always a very convenient tool
to use by those who want power.
They don't have to, themselves, be motivated by race.
They can just be motivated by the desire to hold on to,
attain, or broaden their base of power.
And because racism is so deeply baked
into the American psyche,
you only have to tap into the vein.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -Thank you. Thank you, guys.
-ATTENDEE: Senator, good luck. -Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you, guys.
REPORTER: A political firestorm erupted today
over a magazine cover cartoon of Barack Obama and his wife.
The New Yorker cover depicts the couple
doing a fist bump in the Oval Office.
He's in Muslim clothing, she's in camouflage.
REPORTER 2: The cover also shows an American flag
burning in the fireplace
and a picture of Osama Bin Laden hangs on the wall.
♪ (SOFT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
REMNICK: Barry Blitt drew a cover that meant
to take every crazy stereotype about Michelle and Barack Obama,
and put them into one image.
And you were seeing these images
and this rhetoric on Fox News for example, all the time.
We didn't draw it out of nowhere.
And, um, the reaction was not,
let's just say, uniformly fantastic.
WOLF BLITZER: I can't tell you how many people have said to me,
David, you know, if-- if they wouldn't have known
this was on the cover of The New Yorker magazine,
they would have just seen this cartoon
and they would have-- and been asked,
"Which magazine has this on the cover?"
Almost every one of us would've said
some neo-Nazi magazine, the Ku Klux Klan...
Oh, come on, Wolf, come on, come on, come on.
The fact is-- Wait a minute, the fact of the matter
is that it is on The New Yorker and context means a lot.
REPORTER: The New Yorker cover now appears on websites
of Obama's opponents, many conservatives.
The New Yorker's perceptive cover,
says RightWingNews dot com.
Obama had no response, but his campaign said, quote...
(READS QUOTE)
REMNICK: We had published, I don't know how many covers
making fun of George Bush, politically, in myriad ways.
The reason for the reaction to this cover
was that a mainly liberal audience said,
"Of course, I understand this.
-But those people out there..." -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
"...those rubes in the big square states
who can't understand anything are going to see this
as not something ironic or a comment on something,
but as reality."
And I found that wrong and condescending.
REPORTER: A new Newsweek poll suggests 12 percent of voters
still think Obama is a practicing Muslim,
26 percent think he was raised Muslim,
and 39 percent think he attended an Islamic school.
REPORTER 2: So, is the magazine pointing out anti-Obama myths
or perpetuating them?
(BUS ENGINE REVVING)
COBB: One sub current of the 2008 campaign
had been this really irrational fear
that Barack Obama represented
some sort of revenge-fantasy for Black people.
What his identity did was allow people to run wild
with the most feverish conjurings
of their conspiratorial minds.
So there is a really great moment
that expresses Obama's
kind of strategic relationship to Black identity,
and that was in the Democratic National Convention
in Denver in 2008.
(CROWD CHEERING)
JOHN KERRY: No one can question Barack Obama's patriotism.
Like all of us, he was taught what it means to be an American
by his family. His grandmother who worked
on a bomber assembly line in World War II,
his grandfather who marched in Patton's Army,
and his great uncle who enlisted in the army
right out of high school at the height of the war.
There's a point where John Kerry mentions
that Barack Obama's uncle,
who is a veteran of World War II,
was present in the convention hall.
And he requests that his uncle stand up
and be acknowledged by the crowd.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -KERRY: Please join me
in saluting this American hero, Charlie Payne.
(CROWD APPLAUDS)
COBB: This elderly white man stands up,
you know, this man who would not be out of place
at any VFW hall in the country.
And I happen to be with a group of Black delegates
who all howled with laughter...
because you understood exactly what he was doing.
And the guy next to me said, "If I had a white uncle,
I'd take him to every job interview I went to."
(CROWD CHEERING)
COBB: That was a kind of brilliant inversion
of the one-drop rule in America. Because as they say,
"If you are Black at all, you are all Black."
Barack Obama turned that inside out.
"If you don't understand who I am,
if you're trying to figure out who I am,
well, here's my uncle.
There's a good chance that you have an uncle
who is just like this guy."
KERRY: Charlie, your nephew, Barack Obama,
will end this politics of distortion and division.
That flag that hangs from the rafters
and that you have waved here this evening,
that flag doesn't belong to any ideology,
it doesn't belong to any political party.
It is an enduring symbol of our nation,
and it belongs to all the American people.
(CROWD CHEERING)
CROWD: John McCain! John McCain! John McCain!
John McCain! John McCain!
My friends, I've spent the last few months
looking-- looking for a running mate
who can best help me shake up Washington
and make it start working again
for the people that are counting on us.
(CROWD CHEERING)
REPORTER: We're going to turn to the political preoccupation
of the nation.
Who will McCain pick for Vice President?
REPORTER 2: Of course, we know Barack Obama's selection
of a running mate was a tightly held secret.
OBAMA: For months, I've searched for a leader
to finish this journey alongside me.
I've found that leader.
(CROWD CHEERING)
A man with a distinguished record.
A man with fundamental decency.
-And that man is Joe Biden. -(CROWD CHEERING)
JOHN MCCAIN: My friends and fellow Americans,
I am very pleased and very privileged
to introduce to you
the next Vice President of the United States.
(CROWD CHEERING)
Governor Sarah Palin of the great state of Alaska.
(CROWD CHEERING)
REPORTER: If John McCain had hoped
to use his announcement of a running mate
to steal the spotlight from the Democrats
the day after their convention ended,
he succeeded.
The question of the day was Sarah who?
Who is Sarah Palin?
SARAH PALIN: I'm a hockey mom from Alaska.
I'm not one of those movers and shakers
within the Republican party
that I think, conventionally, you would think,
would be tapped.
REPORTER 2: Palin has been governor less than two years,
but is already the state's most popular politician.
She is the anti-Washington Republican conservative.
-Pro-gun, anti-abortion... -(GUNSHOTS)
...with a political record as far outside the beltway
-as anyone can get. -(CROWD CHEERING)
PALIN: Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska...
-(CROWD CHEERING) -...I was mayor of my hometown.
I guess a small-town mayor
is sort of like a community organizer,
except that you have actual responsibilities.
(CROWD CHEERING)
Whatever the long-term impact of Sarah Palin
on McCain's chances,
uh, she gave him a short-term adrenaline shot,
and his campaign began to attract big crowds.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
AXELROD: But the tone and tenor of the crowds
turned uglier and uglier.
I was reading today a copy of The New York Times.
(CROWD BOOING)
And I was really interested to read in there
about Barack Obama's friends from Chicago.
(CROWD BOOING)
Turns out one of his earliest supporters
is a man who, according to The New York Times,
was a domestic terrorist and part of a group--
(CROWD BOOING)
Part of a group that, quote,
"launched a campaign of bombings
that would target the Pentagon and the US Capitol."
(CROWD BOOING)
-Man. -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
REPORTER 3: The Palin factor. The campaign
-that's turned down and dirty. -(CROWD APPLAUDING)
REPORTER 3: Down in the polls, the McCain campaign
has found a new attack dog.
OBAMA: Senator McCain and his operatives are gambling
that they can distract you with smears
rather than talk to you about substance.
I am just so fearful that this is not a man
who sees America the way that you and I see America.
They'd rather tear our campaign down
-than lift this country up. -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
That's what you do when you're out of touch,
out of ideas, and running out of time.
(CROWD CHEERING)
PALIN: I'm afraid this is someone who sees America
as imperfect enough to work with a former domestic terrorist
who had targeted his own country.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
REMNICK: Even as just a journalist,
the cr-- crazy emails about how really I got it all wrong,
and that Barack Obama was created by terrorists
and bomb-throwing radicals.
Unfortunately, that crap entered the mainstream.
In the-- In the name of Sarah Palin.
He's palling around with terrorists.
This language was-- And feeling was--
It's not just some American marginalia over here.
People saw it as sufficient enough
that it needed whipping up.
(CROWD CHEERING)
I'm afraid if he wins, the Black will take over.
He seems like a sheep,
or a wolf in sheep's clothing, to be honest with you.
He must support terrorists.
You know, if-- if it walks like a duck
and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.
And that, to me, is Obama.
You have to have some degree of optimism
and some degree of faith in white America
because the majority of the population
can already be president. I don't know how you become
president without that, right?
Or at least at that point,
I don't know how you become president without that.
Uh, but I think also that that faith might prevent you
-from seeing certain things. -(CROWD CHEERING)
TA-NEHISI COATES: The belief in the goodness of white America
did not allow you to see... (CHUCKLES)
that this could actually get really bad.
-(CROWD APPLAUDING) -Yes, ma'am.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Ma'am, if you're going to walk up like that
I'm not going to give you the mic.
ATTENDEE: Okay, I gotta ask you a question.
I do not, uh, believe in I can't trust Obama.
I-- I have read about him,
and he's not-- he's not-- he's a, uh,
-he's an Arab. He is not -(CROWD CHUCKLES)
-No, ma'am. No, ma'am. -ATTENDEE: No?
No, ma'am. No, ma'am. No, ma'am.
He's a-- He's a decent, family man,
citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with
on-- on fundamental issues,
and that's what this campaign is all about.
-He's not. Thank you. Thank you. -(CROWD APPLAUDING)
-Yes. -♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
We all thought that was McCain's finest moment
in the whole, uh, campaign.
-Now, I want to acknowledge... -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
...uh, that Senator McCain, yesterday, tried to tone down
the rhetoric in some of his town halls.
(CROWD SHOUTING)
AXELROD: I don't think Obama was surprised
by some of the acrimony out there.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
This is little Hussein.
AXELROD: He understood that there were these
-darker impulses out there. -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
But at the same time, he was traveling the country,
and there were as many as a hundred thousand people
showing up at his rallies.
That was a tonic in a way for some of the ugliness
that we saw on the other side.
(CROWD CHEERING)
OBAMA: We have had a-- a remarkable campaign...
and, uh, you know, when we started 21 months ago,
I-- I didn't know how it would turn out.
And no matter what happens tomorrow,
I'm going to feel good about how it's turned out
because all of you have created
-this incredible campaign. -(CROWD CHEERING)
Uh, some of you heard that my grandmother, uh,
who helped raise me, passed away,
uh, early this morning...
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -...and I--
-Look, she-- she has gone home. -CROWD: Yeah!
And she died peacefully in her sleep...
with my sister at her side.
And so, there's great joy as well as tears.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -I'm not gonna talk about it too long,
because it's hard a little to talk about.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -Uh...
She was somebody who was a very humble person
and a very plain-spoken person.
She was one of those quiet heroes
that we have all across America...
-ATTENDEE: Just like you! -...who--
They're not famous.
Uh, their names aren't in the newspapers,
But each and every day they work hard.
They look after their families.
They sacrifice for their children
and their grandchildren.
They aren't seeking the limelight.
All they try to do is just do the right thing.
And the satisfaction that they get
is seeing that their children,
and maybe their grandchildren or their great grandchildren,
uh, live a better life than-- than they did.
And that's what America's about.
That's what we're fighting for.
And, North Carolina...
in just one more day,
-we have the opportunity... -(CROWD CHEERING)
...to honor all those quiet heroes
all across America and all across North Carolina.
We can bring change to America
to make sure that their work and their sacrifice is honored.
That's what we're fighting for!
♪ (INTENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
REPORTER: They opened the floodgates this morning
at voting places across the country.
REPORTER 2: The lines began forming,
even before the sun came up.
REPORTER 3: And in many cases,
lines as far as the eye could see.
REPORTER 2: Even with the long lines,
both campaigns were still working feverishly
to add to them.
Anybody else you can get to come out and help us,
-we'd really appreciate it. -(CROWD APPLAUDING)
REPORTER 4: In Indianapolis, Obama worked the phones
in a last minute "get out the vote" effort.
Hi, Pam?
This is Barack Obama, how are you?
It wasn't unexpected at that point
that he was going to be elected, if you looked at the polling.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
KEN MACK: But, I was one of the people
who firmly believed that, "I'll believe it when I see it."
Of course in politics, it ain't over until people vote.
CHARLAMAGNE THA GOD: I was one of those people
who that was my first time ever voting, period.
Like, ever.
Like, Barack Obama was the first person
that energized me and made me say,
"Yo, I want to go out here and vote."
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
I decided to call a watch-night service
like we do on New Year's Eve,
down at Martin Luther King's church in Atlanta.
(CONGREGATION APPLAUDING)
LEWIS: This election is not the promised land,
but I tell you, it is a major down payment
-on the promised land. -(CONGREGATION CHEERING)
And when it flashed across that screen,
-Obama won Ohio, -(CONGREGATION CHEERING)
I was in my fifties,
and it was the first time in my life
that I could honestly tell a kid,
-you could be president. -(CONGREGATION CHEERING)
-(CROWD CHEERING) -WOLF: We're only a few seconds
away from the top of the hour
when these states will be closing
and there are some big ones. And presumably,
we'll be able to see what's going on and make,
perhaps, a major projection at that point.
This is a moment that a lot of people have been waiting for.
This is a moment that, potentially,
could be rather historic...
CROWD: Five, four, three, two, one! (CHEERING)
And CNN can now project that Barack Obama,
47 years old, will become the President-elect
of the United States.
We project he now has enough electoral votes.
-More than... -LEWIS: I never thought
that I would live to see a Black man
or a Black woman as president of the United States of America.
My own mother, my own father, my grandparents
didn't become registered voters
until after the Voting Rights Act was passed
and signed into law on August 6th, 1965.
(CROWD CHEERING)
LEWIS: And to live to see
Barack Obama become president of the United States of America
was almost too much.
(CROWD CHEERING)
LEWIS: I jumped up so high
I didn't think my feet were going to touch the floor,
and I started crying.
(CROWD CHEERING)
It was the moment...
the movement and the mission all came together.
Man, to my mind came the martyrs.
(INDISTINCT CLAMOR)
JESSE JACKSON: Our warriors fight for civil rights
in America, we're soldiers too.
Fighting for freedom in America is risky, it's very dangerous.
(GUNSHOT FIRES)
JESSE: And those who made it possible were not there.
(CROWD CHEERING)
I wish Dr. King, Medgar Evers...
for a moment just--
God gave them 15 seconds to look at-- look at their work.
This is their work, he's the result of our work.
-ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen... -(CROWD CHEERING)
...the next First Family of the United States of America.
-When he won, we all won. -(CROWD CHEERING)
I went to Grant Park. If you're in Grant Park,
it seemed like America had finally done
-something significant. -(CROWD CHEERING)
MACK: It was an affirmation
of what America could be at its best.
America's not always at its best.
But, I-- I felt, that night, election night,
as a Black man in America,
that this is what America could be.
(CROWD CHEERING)
OBAMA: If there is anyone out there...
who still doubts that America is a place
where all things are possible...
who still wonders if the dream of our founders
is alive in our time...
who still questions the power of our democracy,
tonight is your answer.
(CROWD CHEERING)
OBAMA: It's been a long time coming...
but tonight, because of what we did on this day,
in this election, at this defining moment,
-change has come to America. -(CROWD CHEERING)
OBAMA: That's the true genius of America...
that America can change.
Our union can be perfected.
This election had many firsts and many stories
that will be told for generations,
but one that's on my mind tonight's
about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta.
She is a lot like the millions of others
who stood in line to make their voice heard
in this election, except for one thing,
Anne Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.
She was born just a generation past slavery,
when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons.
Because she was a woman
and because of the color of her skin.
And this year, in this election,
she touched her finger to a screen and cast her vote
because after 106 years in America,
through the best of times and the darkest of hours,
she knows how America can change.
-Yes, we can. -CROWD: Yes, we can!
OBAMA: America, we have come so far.
We have seen so much.
But there's so much more to do.
So, tonight, let us ask ourselves...
If our children should live to see the next century...
if my daughters should be so lucky
to live as long as Anne Nixon Cooper,
what change will they see?
What progress will we have made?
This is our chance to answer that call.
This is our moment.
This is our time to reclaim the American dream
and reaffirm that fundamental truth
that out of many, we are one.
That while we breathe, we hope.
And where we are met with cynicism and doubt,
and those who tell us that we can't,
we will respond with that timeless creed
that sums up the spirit of a people.
Yes, we can.
-CROWD: Yes, we can! -Thank you, God bless you,
and may God bless the United States of America.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING)
-Oh wow! -(CROWD CHUCKLES)
-Nice, guys. Thank you. -(JOE BIDEN CHUCKLES)
Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very much.
This morning, we woke up to more sobering news
about the state of our economy.
Now, the United States has only one government
and one president at a time.
And until January 20th of next year,
that government is the current administration.
I've spoken to President Bush.
I appreciate his commitment
to ensuring that his economic policy team
keeps us fully informed as developments unfold.
And I'm also thankful
for his invitation to The White House.
-(AIRPLANE ENGINE REVVING) -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
REPORTER: For almost two years now,
Barack Obama has been in campaign mode.
And suddenly overnight, everything has changed.
BARBARA WALTERS: Barack Obama will replace
one of the most unpopular presidents in modern history.
He will inherit two wars
-and an economic crisis not seen... -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
...since The Great Depression.
REPORTER 3: His first legislative goal
will be to get Congress to pass an economic stimulus package
that he hopes will create jobs and put money in the pockets
-of ordinary citizens. -(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
KROFT: Have there been moments when you've said,
-"What did I get myself into?" -(CHUCKLES)
You know, surprisingly enough, I feel, uh, right now that...
I'm- I'm doing what I should be doing.
(CROWD CHEERING)
OBAMA: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear.
JOHN ROBERTS: That I will execute the office
of President to the United States faithfully.
LEWIS: The day when he was inaugurated,
I walked up to him and asked him to sign something.
He wrote on this piece of paper,
"It's all because of you, John."
I said, Well, thank you Mr. President.
He gave me a hug, I hugged him.
-And we both teared up. -(CROWD CHEERING)
WEST: Now, you've got a Black man in that White House
built primarily by Black slaves.
That's moment that, uh, I think all of us
of all colors would feel very, very deeply.
I'll never forget that as long as I live.
(CROWD CHEERING)
COATES: Rappers and basketball players.
That was the range in which Black men existed
in the pop culture for the most part.
That was it.
And so it was really something beautiful
about, you know, seeing something else.
This was Black Camelot.
How much more American could we get than this?
(CROWD CHEERING)
ALVIN LOVE: After the parade, he came back to The White House
for a meeting with several of us,
uh, who had been friends with him across the years.
And as he got ready to go, he grabbed me and he said,
"Rev, I'm in it now."
He said, "Pray for me."
♪ (THEME MUSIC PLAYING) ♪