This was part of what first drew me to Obama: he turned grandiosity on its head. For as he told the Knox College graduates, throughout most of human history, your destiny was certain. Your fate was sealed the moment you were born. America changed that. What made us special—what made us exceptional—was the promise that ordinary people could shape the national life. In fact, they were expected to. For 229 years it was our audiences, not our speakers, who made our country great.
