DENVER, Aug. 28 DNCC-Obama-rmks
DENVER, Aug. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is a transcript
of a speech, as prepared for delivery, by Barack Obama at the Democratic
National Convention on Thursday, August 28, 2008:
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080331/DNCCLOGO )
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama
"The American Promise"
Democratic Convention
Thursday, August 28th, 2008
Denver, Colorado
As Prepared for Delivery
To Chairman Dean and my great friend Dick Durbin; and to all my fellow
citizens of this great nation;
With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for
the presidency of the United States.
Let me express my thanks to the historic slate of candidates who
accompanied me on this journey, and especially the one who traveled the
farthest -- a champion for working Americans and an inspiration to my
daughters and to yours -- Hillary Rodham Clinton. To President Clinton, who
last night made the case for change as only he can make it; to Ted Kennedy,
who embodies the spirit of service; and to the next Vice President of the
United States, Joe Biden, I thank you. I am grateful to finish this journey
with one of the finest statesmen of our time, a man at ease with everyone from
world leaders to the conductors on the Amtrak train he still takes home every
night.
To the love of my life, our next First Lady, Michelle Obama, and to Sasha
and Malia -- I love you so much, and I'm so proud of all of you.
Four years ago, I stood before you and told you my story - of the brief
union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't
well-off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could
achieve whatever he put his mind to.
It is that promise that has always set this country apart - that through
hard work and sacrifice, each of us can pursue our individual dreams but still
come together as one American family, to ensure that the next generation can
pursue their dreams as well.
That's why I stand here tonight. Because for two hundred and thirty two
years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and
women - students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors --
found the courage to keep it alive.
We meet at one of those defining moments - a moment when our nation is at
war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened
once more.
Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for
less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home
values plummet. More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card
bills you can't afford to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach.
These challenges are not all of government's making. But the failure to
respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed
policies of George W. Bush.
America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better
country than this.
This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink
of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime
of hard work.
This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack
up the equipment he's worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to
China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he
went home to tell his family the news.
We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on
our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a
major American city drowns before our eyes.
Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and
Independents across this great land - enough! This moment - this election -
is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive.
Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of
George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are
here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look
like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: "Eight is
enough."
Now let there be no doubt. The Republican nominee, John McCain, has worn
the uniform of our country with bravery and distinction, and for that we owe
him our gratitude and respect. And next week, we'll also hear about those
occasions when he's broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the
change that we need.
But the record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety
percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really,
what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right
more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not
ready to take a ten percent chance on change.
The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your
lives - on health care and education and the economy - Senator McCain has been
anything but independent. He said that our economy has made "great progress"
under this President. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are
strong. And when one of his chief advisors - the man who wrote his economic
plan - was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we
were just suffering from a "mental recession," and that we've become, and I
quote, "a nation of whiners."
A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud auto workers at a Michigan
plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and
working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on
the brakes that they made. Tell that to the military families who shoulder
their burdens silently as they watch their loved ones leave for their third or
fourth or fifth tour of duty. These are not whiners. They work hard and give
back and keep going without complaint. These are the Americans that I know.
Now, I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in
the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn't know. Why else would he
define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? How
else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations
and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred
million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would
actually tax people's benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to
help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security
and gamble your retirement?
It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain
doesn't get it.
For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican
philosophy - give more and more to those with the most and hope that
prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the
Ownership Society, but what it really means is - you're on your own. Out of
work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into
poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don't have
boots. You're on your own.
Well it's time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change
America.
You see, we Democrats have a very different measure of what constitutes
progress in this country.
We measure progress by how many people can find a job that pays the
mortgage; whether you can put a little extra money away at the end of each
month so you can someday watch your child receive her college diploma. We
measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill
Clinton was President - when the average American family saw its income go up
$7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush.
We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires
we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good
idea can take a risk and start a new business, or whether the waitress who
lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her
job - an economy that honors the dignity of work.
The fundamentals we use to measure economic strength are whether we are
living up to that fundamental promise that has made this country great - a
promise that is the only reason I am standing here tonight.
Because in the faces of those young veterans who come back from Iraq and
Afghanistan, I see my grandfather, who signed up after Pearl Harbor, marched
in Patton's Army, and was rewarded by a grateful nation with the chance to go
to college on the GI Bill.
In the face of that young student who sleeps just three hours before
working the night shift, I think about my mom, who raised my sister and me on
her own while she worked and earned her degree; who once turned to food stamps
but was still able to send us to the best schools in the country with the help
of student loans and scholarships.
When I listen to another worker tell me that his factory has shut down, I
remember all those men and women on the South Side of Chicago who I stood by
and fought for two decades ago after the local steel plant closed.
And when I hear a woman talk about the difficulties of starting her own
business, I think about my grandmother, who worked her way up from the
secretarial pool to middle-management, despite years of being passed over for
promotions because she was a woman. She's the one who taught me about hard
work. She's the one who put off buying a new car or a new dress for herself
so that I could have a better life. She poured everything she had into me.
And although she can no longer travel, I know that she's watching tonight, and
that tonight is her night as well.
I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead,
but this has been mine. These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that
shaped me. And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and
keep our promise alive as President of the United States.
What is that promise?
It's a promise that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own
lives what we will, but that we also have the obligation to treat each other
with dignity and respect.
It's a promise that says the market should reward drive and innovation and
generate growth, but that businesses should live up to their responsibilities
to create American jobs, look out for American workers, and play by the rules
of the road.
Ours is a promise that says government cannot solve all our problems, but
what it should do is that which we cannot do for ourselves - protect us from
harm and provide every child a decent education; keep our water clean and our
toys safe; invest in new schools and new roads and new science and technology.
Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not
hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money
and influence, but for every American who's willing to work.
That's the promise of America - the idea that we are responsible for
ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief
that I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper.
That's the promise we need to keep. That's the change we need right now.
So let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am President.
Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it,
but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.
Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that
ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good
jobs right here in America.
I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the
start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.
I will cut taxes - cut taxes - for 95% of all working families. Because
in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the
middle-class.
And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our
planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally
end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty
years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time,
he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments
in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the
amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.
Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is
a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.
As President, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal
technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I'll help our auto
companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built
right here in America. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford
these new cars. And I'll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in
affordable, renewable sources of energy - wind power and solar power and the
next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries
and five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced.
America, now is not the time for small plans.
Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every
child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in
the global economy. Michelle and I are only here tonight because we were
given a chance at an education. And I will not settle for an America where
some kids don't have that chance. I'll invest in early childhood education.
I'll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give
them more support. And in exchange, I'll ask for higher standards and more
accountability. And we will keep our promise to every young American - if you
commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can
afford a college education.
Now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible
health care for every single American. If you have health care, my plan will
lower your premiums. If you don't, you'll be able to get the same kind of
coverage that members of Congress give themselves. And as someone who watched
my mother argue with insurance companies while she lay in bed dying of cancer,
I will make certain those companies stop discriminating against those who are
sick and need care the most.
Now is the time to help families with paid sick days and better family
leave, because nobody in America should have to choose between keeping their
jobs and caring for a sick child or ailing parent.
Now is the time to change our bankruptcy laws, so that your pensions are
protected ahead of CEO bonuses; and the time to protect Social Security for
future generations.
And now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day's
work, because I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as
your sons.
Now, many of these plans will cost money, which is why I've laid out how
I'll pay for every dime - by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens that
don't help America grow. But I will also go through the federal budget, line
by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do
need work better and cost less - because we cannot meet twenty-first century
challenges with a twentieth century bureaucracy.
And Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America's promise will
require more than just money. It will require a renewed sense of
responsibility from each of us to recover what John F. Kennedy called our
"intellectual and moral strength." Yes, government must lead on energy
independence, but each of us must do our part to make our homes and businesses
more efficient. Yes, we must provide more ladders to success for young men who
fall into lives of crime and despair. But we must also admit that programs
alone can't replace parents; that government can't turn off the television and
make a child do her homework; that fathers must take more responsibility for
providing the love and guidance their children need.
Individual responsibility and mutual responsibility - that's the essence
of America's promise.
And just as we keep our keep our promise to the next generation here at
home, so must we keep America's promise abroad. If John McCain wants to have
a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next
Commander-in-Chief, that's a debate I'm ready to have.
For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after
9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from
the real threats we face. When John McCain said we could just "muddle
through" in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish
the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made
clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have
them in our sights. John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to
the Gates of Hell - but he won't even go to the cave where he lives.
And today, as my call for a time frame to remove our troops from Iraq has
been echoed by the Iraqi government and even the Bush Administration, even
after we learned that Iraq has a $79 billion surplus while we're wallowing in
deficits, John McCain stands alone in his stubborn refusal to end a misguided
war.
That's not the judgment we need. That won't keep America safe. We need a
President who can face the threats of the future, not keep grasping at the
ideas of the past.
You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in eighty countries by
occupying Iraq. You don't protect Israel and deter Iran just by talking tough
in Washington. You can't truly stand up for Georgia when you've strained our
oldest alliances. If John McCain wants to follow George Bush with more tough
talk and bad strategy, that is his choice - but it is not the change we need.
We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't
tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that
Democrats won't keep us safe. The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered
the legacy that generations of Americans -- Democrats and Republicans - have
built, and we are here to restore that legacy.
As Commander-in-Chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I
will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred
commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and
benefits they deserve when they come home.
I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al
Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet
future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can
prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I
will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century:
terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and
disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again
that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long
for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.
These are the policies I will pursue. And in the weeks ahead, I look
forward to debating them with John McCain.
But what I will not do is suggest that the Senator takes his positions for
political purposes. Because one of the things that we have to change in our
politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each
other's character and patriotism.
The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan
playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country,
and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our
battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have
fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud
flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America - they have served
the United States of America.
So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.
America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough
choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-
out ideas and politics of the past. For part of what has been lost these past
eight years can't just be measured by lost wages or bigger trade deficits.
What has also been lost is our sense of common purpose - our sense of higher
purpose. And that's what we have to restore.
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the
number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership
may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-
violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment
while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are
differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and
lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the
hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on
immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated
from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring
illegal workers. This too is part of America's promise - the promise of a
democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite
in common effort.
I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim
that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in
our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of
traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any
fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't
have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should
run from.
You make a big election about small things.
And you know what - it's worked before. Because it feeds into the
cynicism we all have about government. When Washington doesn't work, all its
promises seem empty. If your hopes have been dashed again and again, then
it's best to stop hoping, and settle for what you already know.
I get it. I realize that I am not the likeliest candidate for this
office. I don't fit the typical pedigree, and I haven't spent my career in
the halls of Washington.
But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is
stirring. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has
never been about me. It's been about you.
For eighteen long months, you have stood up, one by one, and said enough
to the politics of the past. You understand that in this election, the
greatest risk we can take is to try the same old politics with the same old
players and expect a different result. You have shown what history teaches us
- that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from
Washington. Change comes to Washington. Change happens because the American
people demand it - because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new
leadership, a new politics for a new time.
America, this is one of those moments.
I believe that as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming.
Because I've seen it. Because I've lived it. I've seen it in Illinois, when
we provided health care to more children and moved more families from welfare
to work. I've seen it in Washington, when we worked across party lines to
open up government and hold lobbyists more accountable, to give better care
for our veterans and keep nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands.
And I've seen it in this campaign. In the young people who voted for the
first time, and in those who got involved again after a very long time. In
the Republicans who never thought they'd pick up a Democratic ballot, but did.
I've seen it in the workers who would rather cut their hours back a day than
see their friends lose their jobs, in the soldiers who re-enlist after losing
a limb, in the good neighbors who take a stranger in when a hurricane strikes
and the floodwaters rise.
This country of ours has more wealth than any nation, but that's not what
makes us rich. We have the most powerful military on Earth, but that's not
what makes us strong. Our universities and our culture are the envy of the
world, but that's not what keeps the world coming to our shores.
Instead, it is that American spirit - that American promise - that pushes
us forward even when the path is uncertain; that binds us together in spite of
our differences; that makes us fix our eye not on what is seen, but what is
unseen, that better place around the bend.
That promise is our greatest inheritance. It's a promise I make to my
daughters when I tuck them in at night, and a promise that you make to yours -
a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west;
a promise that led workers to picket lines, and women to reach for the ballot.
And it is that promise that forty five years ago today, brought Americans
from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington,
before Lincoln's Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his
dream.
The men and women who gathered there could've heard many things. They
could've heard words of anger and discord. They could've been told to succumb
to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred.
But what the people heard instead - people of every creed and color, from
every walk of life - is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked.
That together, our dreams can be one.
"We cannot walk alone," the preacher cried. "And as we walk, we must make
the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back."
America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with
so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an
economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many
families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back.
We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once
more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise - that American
promise - and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the
hope that we confess.
Thank you, God Bless you, and God Bless the United States of America.
SOURCE 2008 Democratic National Convention Committee
