Another great Mayor stumps for Obama: Cory Booker

The other day I talked about Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak and his support for President Obama. Yesterday Newark Mayor Cory Booker went to New Hampshire to talk to students about Obama 2012 on behalf of the campaign's Greater Together initiative. The event was covered by c-span and you can watch the whole thing here. But it was so powerful I thought I'd provide a few excerpts.

Democracy cannot be a spectator sport...I often say that as Americans we're getting caught up in a state of "sedentary agitation."...

I know I stand here right now drinking deeply from wells of freedom and liberty and opportunity that I did not dig. I eat lavishly from banquet tables that were prepared for us by our ancestors. And what frustrates me now is that so many of us are sinking into cynicism, surrendering to it as opposed to realizing that we have a choice in America. No matter how tough times are, we can just consume the blessings that we were given or we can metabolize them and put them to work...

We have a choice in America every single day: we can surrender to things as they are, or we can take responsibility for changing them...

When I met Barack Obama before he was President Obama, I met a guy, sat down in Newark, New Jersey...and it was just two guys talking about our nation and our hope for what could happen in our country. And at that point I said "Look, whatever this guy does, I want to follow him." I want to be a part - not of his vision - but I want to be a part of the vision he has about what our nation is...what the real story of America is. That America is a place of inclusion. That we're a country that believes that everybody has something to contribute...

This is a complicated time. There are no easy ways to success. As a matter of fact, I always say that the pre-condition to triumph is great frustration...but I do believe this nation has a destiny and I believe what the great American leader Fredrick Douglas said "You don't get everything you pay for but you have to pay for everything that you get."

He finished by calling us all to sacrifice and service.

As a bonus, when I went to youtube to see if this speech was posted there (it isn't), I ran across this one from the 2008 Democratic Convention..."Bald Men for Obama."



I love what Van Jones says about the Obama generation..."its not just one." He's right. Its also about Rybak and Booker and Jones and Baldenegro and on and on.