Letters & Speeches
Ambassador Blake's speech on Barack Obama at the Elizabeth Moir School
November 18, 2008
Good morning and thank you very much for inviting me here to speak.
Wherever I go these days, I’m asked for my opinion about the landmark victory of Barack Obama so I thought I would use my time today to tell you a little bit about our President-elect and my new boss: who he is; how he got to be President; and why is he different. After that I would be happy to take any of your questions.
Who is Barack Obama?
Barack Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961.
His father was born and raised in a small village in Kenya, where he grew up herding goats while his mother is a white woman from a small town in Kansas. His name means “one who is blessed” in Swahili.
Barack Obama grew up for a few years in Indonesia and then moved to Hawaii where he went to high school.
He got his undergraduate degree from Columbia University in 1983 and moved to Chicago in 1985, where he became a community organizer with a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods plagued with crime and high unemployment.
It was that experience that persuaded him that to truly improve the lives of people in that community and other communities, it would take not just a change at the local level, but a change in America’s laws and in our politics.
So he earned his law degree from Harvard in 1991, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Soon after, he returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer and teach constitutional law. Finally, his advocacy work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate, where he served for eight years. In 2004, he became the third African American since Reconstruction to be elected to the U.S. Senate.
Why is His Election Historic?
This is the first time that an African-American has been elected President of the US. This is very significant for America. It was only 40-50 years ago, the United States was experiencing the darkest days of the Civil Rights movement. Segregation was a reality; Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated, and there were gross inequalities between blacks and whites. Now, just 40 years after Martin Luther King, Jr’s assassination, Barack Obama is our President-elect who will take office on January 20.
How Did He Get Himself Elected President?
There are a lot of post-mortems going on but a few things stand out to explain Obama’s victory.
First and foremost is his unique ability to inspire and unite people. That was first evident when he spoke during the 2004 Democratic convention about the need to unite America. It also came through in his two huge best selling books: his autobiography: Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance and The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream which had as its central theme the need to unite politics in the United States to address our common problems.
It was this inspirational ability that brought millions of new voters over to him. In fact when you compare Barack Obama’s vote totals to those of John Kerry who was the Democratic candidate for President in 2004, Barack Obama did better than Kerry in every electoral measure — including age, sex, race, religion, income and region.
Another significant factor in Obama’s success was his innovative use of modern technologies in his campaign. In fact, this is the first election that has been significantly influenced by the internet and its immense networking capabilities.
To illustrate my point, let me give you a couple of statistics:
- Many of you are probably familiar with Facebook: Obama’s Group on Facebook has over two million members (maybe more now!).
- Obama’s videos on his YouTube page have been viewed 85 million times. That’s probably more than Sanath Jayasuria, MS Dhoni, Aishawarya Rai and Shah Rukh Khan combined.
- In Ohio, in mid October, 17 percent of Ohio residents reported they have received an email or text message from the Obama campaign. Here I receive text message to join the army but have not heard from any Sri Lankan politicians!
This new technology affected the campaign in many ways.
- It excited voters by making them feel part of the process. When voters signed up on Obama’s website or Facebook page, they immediately become part of his network. They then received emails, news updates, and other information.
- For example, early in the campaign, Obama created a website, MyBO (for My Barack Obama), which created a network of volunteers and people actively supporting his candidacy. Through the network, the campaign was able to easily send information to volunteers and to motivate them to call their friends and visit their neighbors in order to build support for Obama.
Most of all Obama’s internet-focused campaign helped him raise money, LOTS of money, a record $640 million in fact. America’s presidential elections are very expensive. This year, the candidates spent over one billion dollars on the campaign. That money went for costly television advertisements, paying staff in cities around the country, and paying all the logistical costs for what amounted to a 22 month campaign.
More than 3 million Americans have donated to Obama’s campaign, donating mostly small amounts. Most of these donations have come through his website. And remember, once someone donates, the campaign has that person’s email address. They keep in contact with them, like I just mentioned, and don’t hesitate to ask for further donations. I think people will look back at this election and say that Obama’s campaign was built on the internet and he probably would not have enjoyed so much success had he not used the internet so much to his advantage.
Another new phenomenon in this election cycle is the new world of political blogs and websites that has developed. Sites like RealClearPolitics.COM and Politico.COM have millions of readers each day. The editors and authors of these sites nearly instantly offer their opinions and commentary on the campaign and report any item which may be newsworthy. During this election, most stories were uncovered and propagated by online media, rather than by conventional media.
Further capitalizing on the internet, the candidates on several occasions produced advertisements only for the web, knowing full well that those advertisements would not only spread around the internet, but would also be picked up by television stations on their local news. Barack Obama even took out an advertisement on a video game. I’m sure his purpose was not just to target the video game users, but also to have the story be picked up on other websites and on the television, thus reinforcing his image as a “the candidate of change.”
Why is He Different?
To conclude, I thought I would quote some of Barack Obama’s own words to tell you why he will be different and perhaps uniquely poised to bring not only to bring our country together, but also to build America’s friendships and partnerships around the world.
“If, as president, I travel to a poor country to talk to leaders there, they will know I have a grandmother in a small village in Africa without running water, devastated by malaria and AIDS,” he said. “What that allows me to do is talk honestly not only about our need to help them, but about poor countries’ obligation to help themselves. There are cousins of mine in Kenya who can’t get a job without paying an exorbitant bribe to some midlevel functionary. I can talk about that.”
Referring to the time he spent in Indonesia, Obama said: “I have lived in the most populous Muslim country in the world, had relatives who practiced Islam. I am a Christian, but I can say I understand your worldview, although I may not agree with how Islam has evolved. I can speak forcefully about the need for Muslim countries to reconcile themselves to modernity in ways they have failed to do.”
Nowhere in American history has the chasm between our ideals and our practice been greater than on questions of race. Here’s what Obama had to say: “We can’t entirely remake the world,” but “what we can do is lead by example.”
And these words from his great speech the night he won the election: “For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime - two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century. Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us. There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor's bills, or save enough for college. There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair.
The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America - I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you - we as a people will get there……To those who seek peace and security - we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright - tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.
For that is the true genius of America - that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.”