Crimson Flames Tied Through My Ears

My rough transcription – but possibly accurate, I rewound several times - from Obama’s Tuesday night victory speech:

[McCain’s] plan to win in November appears to come from the very same playbook that his side has used time after time and election after election.

Yes, we know what’s coming. I’m not naive. We’ve already seen it.

The same names and labels they always pin on everyone who doesn’t agree with their ideas. The same efforts to distract us from the issues that effect our lives by pouncing on every gaffe and association and fake controversy in the hopes that the media will play along.

The attempts to play on our fears and exploit our differences, to turn us against each other for political gain, to slice and dice this country into red states and blue states, blue collar and white collar, white, black, brown, young, old, rich, poor…

This is the race we expect… The question then is not what kind of campaign they will run…

It’s what kind of campaign we will run.

I’ve been a politics watcher for a long time now, and frankly I’ve gotten more and more cynical with each passing election cycle. Without even realizing it, over time I came to believe that no one ever could change the tone in Washington – or would even try.

Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now