"Its just stunning. Its a stirring sight. But its incomprehensible ... even a year ago, I wouldn't have thought this possible, that an African American man could be elected President of the United States. And when I think of it from a historical point of view, and you go back and you think of people, you know you go back, and you realize that black people didn't even have the right to vote in this country ...
In 1870 black men got the right to vote. And of course, it didn't mean much going forward ... (starting to choke up) until 1965 when the Voting Rights Act ... (voice starting to crack) ... and at that point Lyndon Johnson said the Democratic Party had lost the South forever, and that there was no possibility ever of full enfranchisement. That would say a that black person could somehow be the leader of the United States of America.
This is truly (beginning to tear up) an incredible moment of American history. I can't think of another country in the world where you would have a significant (chokes up again) minority that was once so maligned, and so oppressed, have one of its sons rise to this level. I ...
(really getting choked up)
This is uuh ... you know, I don't care how you feel about him politically, on some level, you have to say this is America at its grandest, the potential, the possibility. And what it says for our children! Black and white, the image of Barack Obama and those little girls in the Rose Garden, in these years to come, I think, is just stunning (and the stun shows on his face ...)"
-- Juan Williams last night on FOX News, after Senator Obama clinched the Presidency ...
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I have rewatched the first 1:58 of this clip at least 20 times already this morning. Plus a few times last night when it aired live. (You can access it at foxnews.com, click on the video link, and once the new window with the video player opens, choose Obama Elected President, currently in the middle of the 3rd row).
I fully expected to be angry, bitter, depressed. Frustrated, upset. Ready to move to Mexico.
The only thing I feel today is pride.
I know some partisan hacks are, uuh, hacked, that Juan Williams let his emotions overcome him last night. I am not one of them. I thought Juan Williams just perfectly nailed what last night, what this moment, truly means.
Rewatching this thing time, and time, and time again, I find myself choking up with Mr. Williams. Just watch him attempt to explain to those of us who have never endured discrimination, who have never been denied access to restaurants, to water fountains, to equal education, to simply the voting booth ...
Only in America could a night like yesterday have happened.
"I don't care how you feel about him politically ... you have to say this is America at its grandest". Yes. Yes it is.
Congratulations, Mr. President-Elect. Now go justify the pride I feel in your accomplishment ...
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