[via Brooklynite’s place.]

Descriptions and lyrics:

The Obama video was made by singers and actors who endorse Barack Obama. Opening with the Black-Eyed Peas, the song has a soundtrack built on a series of soundbites from Obama’s “Yes We Can” speech. The celebs sing or speak along with Obama’s words. The overlapping voices, building to chanting “Yes We Can”, recall the line in his speech about “the power of millions of voices calling for change.”

Lyrics:
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality.

Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.

Yes we can heal this nation.

Yes we can repair this world.

Yes we can.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics…they will only grow louder and more dissonant ……….. We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea —

Yes. We. Can.

The McCain spoof video is made in the same style, but the singers and speakers are, hrm, rather less enthusiastic. They re-read their lines incredulously, looking uncomfortable, and say “What?”, appeal doubtfully at off-screen people, throw their hands up in exasperation, and breathe into a paper bag.

Lyrics: [ALLCAPS ARE WORDS FLASHED ON SCREEN]

[A CANDIDATE INSPIRES
A NATION WITH
JUST THREE WORDS]

The work that we face in our time is great
in a time of war
and the terrible sacrifices it entails

the promise of a better future is not always clear

there’s gonna be other wars
I’m sorry to tell you there’s gonna be other wars
[GONNA BE WARS]

there’s gonna be a lot of combat wounds

and my friends it’s gonna be tough
and we’re gonna have a lot to do

That old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran?
(Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Iran…)
[BOMB, BOMB IRAN]

I’m still convinced that withdrawal means chaos
and if you think that things are bad now
[US CASUALTIES 3957]
if we withdraw–you ain’t seen nothing yet
(B-b-b-baby, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet)
[SEEN NOTHIN’ YET]

was the war a good idea, worth the price in blood and treasure?
It was a good idea

President Bush talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years
Maybe a hundred,
[MAYBE A HUNDRED]
that’s fine with me
[FINE WITH ME]

I don’t think Americans are concerned if we’re there for a hundred years, or a thousand years, or ten thousand years. (ten thousand, ten thousand, ten thousand years)
[IRAQ WITHDRAWAL DATE 12,008]
[G00D LUCK WITH THAT IN NOVEMBER.]

[MCCAIN: LIKE HOPE, BUT DIFFERENT]

Categories: Politics, violence

Tags: hope, mccain, obama, president, social change