ABSTRACT
In February 2007, Barack Obama, the junior Senator from Illinois, declared his candidacy for the presidency of the United States. “We all made this journey for a reason,” he told the adoring collection of well-wishers who braved the freezing Illinoisan weather to listen to their favored candidate. He continued:
It’s humbling, but in my heart I know you didn’t come here just for me; you came here because you believe in what this country can be. In the face of war you can believe there can be peace. In the face of despair, you can believe there can be hope. In the face of a politics that’s shut you out, that’s told you to settle, that’s divided us for too long, you believe we can be one people, reaching for what’s possible, building that more perfect union.
