Tonight you voted for action, not politics as usual.

You elected us to focus on your jobs, not ours. And in the coming weeks and months, I am looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties to meet the challenges we can only solve together. Reducing our deficit. Reforming our tax code. Fixing our immigration system. Freeing ourselves from foreign oil. We've got more work to do.

But that doesn't mean your work is done. The role of citizens in our Democracy does not end with your vote. America's never been about what can be done for us. It's about what can be done by us together through the hard and frustrating, but necessary work of self-government. That's the principle we were founded on.

This country has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what makes us rich. We have the most powerful military in history, but that's not what makes us strong. Our university, our culture are all the envy of the world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores.

What makes America exceptional are the bonds that hold together the most diverse nation on earth.

The belief that our destiny is shared; that this country only works when we accept certain obligations to one another and to future generations. The freedom which so many Americans have fought for and died for come with responsibilities as well as rights. And among those are love and charity and duty and patriotism. That's what makes America great.

I am hopeful tonight because I've seen the spirit at work in America. I've seen it in the family business whose owners would rather cut their own pay than lay off their neighbors, and in the workers who would rather cut back their hours than see a friend lose a job.

I've seen it in the soldiers who reenlist after losing a limb and in those SEALs who charged up the stairs into darkness and danger because they knew there was a buddy behind them watching their back.

I've seen it on the shores of New Jersey and New York, where leaders from every party and level of government have swept aside their differences to help a community rebuild from the wreckage of a terrible storm.

And I saw just the other day, in Mentor, Ohio, where a father told the story of his 8-year-old daughter, whose long battle with leukemia nearly cost their family everything had it not been for health care reform passing just a few months before the insurance company was about to stop paying for her care.

I had an opportunity to not just talk to the father, but meet this incredible daughter of his. And when he spoke to the crowd listening to that father's story, every parent in that room had tears in their eyes, because we knew that little girl could be our own.

And I know that every American wants her future to be just as bright. That's who we are. That's the country I'm so proud to lead as your president.

And tonight, despite all the hardship we've been through, despite all the frustrations of Washington, I've never been more hopeful about our future.

I have never been more hopeful about America. And I ask you to sustain that hope. I'm not talking about blind optimism, the kind of hope that just ignores the enormity of the tasks ahead or the roadblocks that stand in our path. I'm not talking about the wishful idealism that allows us to just sit on the sidelines or shirk from a fight.

I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.

America, I believe we can build on the progress we've made and continue to fight for new jobs and new opportunity and new security for the middle class. I believe we can keep the promise of our founders, the idea that if you're willing to work hard, it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn't matter whether you're black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in America if you're willing to try.

I believe we can seize this future together because we are not as divided as our politics suggests. We're not as cynical as the pundits believe. We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America.

And together with your help and God's grace we will continue our journey forward and remind the world just why it is that we live in the greatest nation on Earth.

Thank you, America. God bless you. God bless these United States.

今晚，你们投票换来的将会是积极的行动，而不是以往那样的政治游戏。

你们选择了我们，是让我们关注你们的就业，而非我们自己的官位。在今后的几周，我将会与两党领袖会面应对我们的挑战，我们只能够共同应对挑战，减少我们的赤字，改善我们的移民体系，减少对外国石油的依赖，我们有很多工作要做。

但是这不意味着你们的工作就结束了。公民在我们的民主体系中所扮演的角色，并不止于投票。美利坚的意义，并不在于别人能为我们做什么，而是在于我们能一起做什么，而这依靠的就是公民自治。这虽然困难而又往往令人灰心，却是不可或缺的。这是我们的建国理念。

美国是全球拥有最多财富的国家，可我们的富有并不源于此；我们有史上最强的军事力量，可这并非我们力量的源头；我们拥有最优秀的高等教育和文化成果，为全世界所钦羡，但这并不是吸引世界各国人民涌向美国的真正原因。

美国卓尔不群的根源，在于将全球最为多元化的国家团结起来的纽带。

我们相信，我们的命运紧密相连；我们相信，只有当我们对彼此、对下几代人负起一定责任时，我们国家才有希望。在无数美国人为之奋斗与献身的自由背后，既有义务也有权利，还有仁爱、慈善、责任和爱国。美国的伟大，就是靠这些精神铸就而成。

我今晚充满希望，因为我目睹了美国上下洋溢着的精神：我看到家族企业的所有者们宁愿扣自己的薪水，也不愿裁掉邻里员工；我看到工人们宁愿自己少干些，也不愿让朋友失业；

我看到手脚伤残的士兵仍然延长服役年限；我看到海军陆战队员无畏地冲上浮动平台，冲进黑暗与危险，只因心知有人会照看他们的后背。

我还看到新泽西纽约每个政党的领导人，都开始抛开他们的歧见，来探讨怎样从桑迪风暴留下的废墟中重建我们的家园。

前些天，我在俄亥俄州的曼图尔市见到了一位父亲，他跟我讲了他8岁女儿的故事。女儿与白血病的斗争差点使他们倾家荡产，幸好在保险公司停止支付其医疗费用之前的几个月，医保改革方案得以通过。

我不仅与这位父亲进行了交谈，也见到了他坚强的女儿。当他向听众发言时，在场的每一位父母都眼含热泪。因为我们知道，这个小女孩的遭遇也可能发生在我们的孩子身上。

我知道每一位美国同胞，都希望她有着同样光明的未来。这就是我们，这就是我非常自豪地以总统身份领导的国家。

今晚，纵使我们经历诸多磨难，纵有华盛顿诸般挫折，我从未对我们的未来如此充满希望。

我从未对美利坚如此充满希望。我请求你们，保持这份希望。我不是指盲目乐观，无视眼前艰巨任务与障碍的那种希望，我也不是指让我们袖手旁观或逃避斗争的那种一厢情愿的理想主义。

我一直坚信，希望是我们心中顽强不屈的那样东西；虽有各种不利证据，却仍坚持有更好的未来等待着我们。只要我们有勇气去不断争取、不断努力、不断奋斗。

美利坚，我相信，我们能百尺竿头更进一步，继续奋斗，为中产阶级创造就业、创造机会、创造保障。我相信，我们能继续履行国父们的承诺———只要你踏实肯干，你是谁、从哪儿来、什么种族、爱哪里，都不重要。无论你是黑人、白人、西班牙裔、亚裔，还是印第安居民，无论你年轻与否、富有与否、健全与否、性向如何，你都能在美国有所成就，只要你愿意努力。

我相信，我们可以共同把握这一未来。因为有别于政坛所表现的，我们其实并没有那么分裂，我们并不像评论员们所认为的那样愤世嫉俗。我们的伟大，胜于我们个人野心的总和；我们不仅仅是红蓝州的集合；我们现在是，也将永远是，美利坚合众国。

在你们的帮助和上帝的眷顾下，我们将继续前进，向全世界昭示，我们的家园为何是地球上最伟大的国家。

感谢你们，美利坚的人民们！上帝保佑你们，上帝保佑美国！