'Yes We Can' speech 4 years later: Can Obama inspire Democrats like he did in 2008?
theGRIO REPORT - Four years and one day ago, Barack Obama was dealt a surprising blow to a presidential campaign that was surging...
Four years and one day ago, Barack Obama was dealt a surprising blow to a presidential campaign that was surging. Expected to effectively end the Democratic primary race with a win in the New Hampshire primary, he instead suffered a narrow defeat to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton.
But when he went on stage that night at Nashua High School South, Obama reshaped his loss into a defining moment in his political career. His speech and it’s “Yes We Can” refrain turned into a theme for his campaign, a Will.I.Am music video that became an Internet sensation and one of the prime examples of how Obama had captured Democrats, particularly the young, like no candidate since John F. Kennedy.
MSNBC Slideshow: Barack Obama’s first three years in office
Can Obama ever recapture that magic? Polls suggest the president remains very popular with Democrats overall, particularly those under 30 and African-Americans. But it’s not clear if the enthusiasm of 2008, when supporters went across the country to campaign for him and Hollywood seemed enthralled with the potential president, can return again.
WATCH BARACK OBAMA’S 2008 ‘YES WE CAN’ SPEECH:
[youtubevid http://youtube.com/watch?v=Fe751kMBwms]
“I felt the day he was sworn in and I looked at those crowds and couldn’t get through the streets of Washington, I kept thinking the bar is so high and the expectation level is unrealistically high there is no one that can live up to it,” said Jim Demers, a New Hampshire Democrat who attended the “Yes We Can” speech four years ago. “I knew it was going to be a challenging four years.
But he added, “I’m still a total believer and follower.”
There are others who were passionate about Obama in 2008, but have become frustrated with him as president.
“Back in the heady days of the 2008 campaign, a powerful, impassioned speech like the one Obama delivered would have had a definite positive impact on the numbers. But the soaring rhetoric now comes with a bitter aftertaste,” Arianna Huffington wrote last year after an Obama economic speech. “Perhaps it’s because we feel like we’ve seen this movie before. Call it ‘Attack of the Impassioned Yet Empty Rhetoric.’”
Obama’s re-election campaign is eager to get supporters as inspired as they were four years ago. On Sunday, exactly four years since the speech, the campaign’s aides posted the “Yes We Can” speech on barackobama.com and linked to it on the campaign’s Twitter feed. They are organizing supporters to vote for Obama in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, even though the president does not have an opponent.
In his campaign speeches, the president himself, trying to create the passion of 2008, has emphasized that this election is perhaps even more important than four years ago. Obama tells supporters that if he is not reelected, a Republican president will reverse the policies on health care and other issues he implemented.
At the same time, Obama himself acknowledges how much times have changed from the euphoria of 2008.
“I know there are times where some of you felt frustrated because we haven’t gotten everything we wanted to get done right away,” he said at one of his fundraisers last year. “I know who you all are.”
He added, “I know the conversations you’ve been having. Oh, I don’t know, I don’t like that compromise with the Republicans. I don’t know, that health care thing, why did it take so long? I don’t know — Obama, he’s older now. He used to look so fresh and exciting and — I still got that poster, but I don’t know.”
To win re-election, Obama does not need actors appearing in music videos about him. Many frustrated Democrats, including Huffington, are likely to prefer him to any Republican, despite their complaints now.
But the passion of 2008 made it easier for Obama to win over swing voters. Die-hard supporters donated money heavily, giving Obama a huge advantage in campaign fundraising over Clinton and later Sen. John McCain.
His supporters from heavily Democratic areas like New York City and Washington, D.C. flew or drove hundreds of miles to Ohio, Virginia and other swing states to campaign for him.
Obama backers say they might very well campaign enthusiastically for him again this year, but it’s likely to be with a different feeling and focus than four years ago.
“No one, not the makers of t-shirts with Obama giving a high-five to Martin Luther King, not hip-hop artists like Will.i.am or Common, could produce anything more inspiring or interesting than Obama himself was producing. It was a dream that he was sharing with all of us after what many of us thought was a nightmare of a decade,” said Eric Gottesman, a New Hampshire Democrat who aided Obama’s campaign in 2008 and also attended the “Yes We Can Speech.”
He added, “Of course, it is hard to live up to that kind of aspiration but my idealism about Obama has not diminished… I still believe that he can shift things and with the political capital of a second term, I would expect bigger shifts in policy than what we have seen so far.”
Follow Perry Bacon, Jr. on Twitter at @perrybaconjr
