n a t b s

MICHELLE BERNARD, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST:  This is—I think the most important thing I can say is that I‘m so glad that I‘m alive and old enough in a point in history to fully absorb what was happening.  I actually went away and sat in the green room by myself so that I could just absorb it and actually weep alone.

This is the most amazing evening of my entire life.  I kept looking at Barack Obama the entire evening and I kept thinking that one day that could be my son or my daughter.  Barack Obama, I think, in being elected as the Democratic Party‘s nominee has demonstrated to the entire world that in America anything is possible.

Joe Biden said it last night and you kept hearing Barack Obama say it again tonight, America‘s promise, America‘s promise, America‘s promise.  And you can‘t help but look at him and say America has finally realized its promise.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

MATTHEWS:  F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that—others have said it before that we‘re not an ethnic group, America.  Britain is an island and the French are a people.  He once said that we‘re harder to utter, something harder to utter, a willingness of the heart.  Is this nomination of Barack Obama a willingness of the heart, of the mind?  Is this a real change?  Is this a hope?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:  Yes, it is!

MATTHEWS:  A prospect or a reality, where are we?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BERNARD:  It is all of the above, as they are telling us.

(LAUGHTER)

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BERNARD:  We are looking tonight behind us at a sea of beautiful black, white, Asian faces.  It tells me that the era of identity politics in the United States is over.  I will be very happy on election night if we can get to a point where we don‘t have to talk about how women are voting, how African-Americans are voting, how people in Appalachia are voting.

Iowa did it first.  Iowa demonstrated that in this country white people will vote for a black man.  It‘s the greatest day in our nation‘s history.

…

America is a fundamentally different country today.  It will be even more different if he wins this election.  But regardless of the outcome of the election, our country will never be the same again.

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