I got on the Obama bandwagon fairly early, and our then-small group here in Maryland did some visibility events, including in neighborhoods and at an Orioles game in the early summer of 2007. It was worth that. It was worth the frigid and icy month in December and early January of 2007-2008 in Iowa, and the blizzard and ice storm on primary day in Cleveland, and the countless doors I knocked on in Pennsylvania, and the miserable weather here in Maryland on primary day, and the week in Hampton Roads before the general election.
This is for the elderly African-American guy in Harrisburg, PA who told me that he appreciated what I was doing, but that they'd never let an African-American be elected to the Presidency. Not only did we achieve that, but that President achieved something that Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, and Bill Clinton couldn't achieve.
This is for the elderly African-American guy, suffering from a recent stroke, who I took to the early voting location in Hampton, Virginia, who said he thought he'd never see the day that somebody who looked like him might actually be elected President, and said he'd wait in line to vote if it killed him.
This is for the women who were told that they weren't tough enough to be effective political leaders. Not only did it take the first African-American President, it took the first woman Speaker of the House to accomplish something that generations of male House Speakers, including such masters of the legislative process as Sam Rayburn, were unable to achieve.
We need to go to work on improving this legislation, and on achieving the rest of our agenda, but for tonight, I'll just say, "YES WE DID!" And it was all worth it.