Listen to Barrack's speech 4 years ago and know what promises were kept and weren't
Listen to Barrack's speech 4 years ago and know what promises were kept and weren't
OBAMA: Thank you so much.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you very much.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you, everybody.
To
-- 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 presidency of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
Let
me -- let me express -- 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.
(APPLAUSE)
To President Clinton, to President Bill Clinton, who made last night the case for change as only he can make it...
(APPLAUSE)
... to Ted Kennedy, who embodies the spirit of service...
(APPLAUSE)
... and to the next vice president of the United States, Joe Biden, I thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
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...
(APPLAUSE)
... and to Malia and Sasha, I love you so much, and I am so proud of you.
(APPLAUSE)
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's 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 232 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 cards, 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.
(APPLAUSE)
America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.
(APPLAUSE)
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.
We're a better country than one where a man
in Indiana has to pack up the equipment that he's worked on for 20
years and watch as it's 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...
(APPLAUSE)
... that sits...
(APPLAUSE)
... that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.
(APPLAUSE)
Tonight,
tonight, I say to the people of America, to Democrats and Republicans
and independents across this great land: Enough. This moment...
(APPLAUSE)
This moment, 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.
(AUDIENCE BOOS)
And we are here -- we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look just like the last eight.
(APPLAUSE)
On November 4th, on November 4th, we must stand up and say: Eight is enough.
(APPLAUSE)
Now,
now, let me -- 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 our respect.
(APPLAUSE)
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 90 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
90 percent of the time?
(APPLAUSE)
I don't know about you, but I am not ready to take a 10 percent chance on change.
(APPLAUSE)
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 advisers, the man who wrote his economic plan,
was talking about the anxieties that 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."
(AUDIENCE BOOS) 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 they give back, and they keep going without
complaint. These are the Americans I know.
(APPLAUSE)
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.
(LAUGHTER)
Why
else would he define middle-class as someone making under $5 million 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 100 million Americans?
OBAMA: 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?
(AUDIENCE BOOS)
It's not because John McCain doesn't care; it's because John McCain doesn't get it.
(APPLAUSE)
For
over two decades -- 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 that you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck, you're on
your own. No health care? The market will fix it. You're on your own.
Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, even if you
don't have boots. You are on your own.
(APPLAUSE)
Well, it's
time for them to own their failure. It's time for us to change America.
And that's why I'm running for president of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
You see, 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...
(APPLAUSE)
...
when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of
go down $2,000, like it has under George Bush. (APPLAUSE)
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 and 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 G.I. 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.
(APPLAUSE)
When I
-- 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 or making her way in the world, 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.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine.
(APPLAUSE)
These
are my heroes; theirs are the stories that shaped my life. And it is on
behalf of them that I intend to win this election and keep our promise
alive as president of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
What --
what is that American 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
obligations 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, to look out for American
workers, and play by the rules of the road.
Ours -- 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 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.
(APPLAUSE)
So -- so let me -- let me spell out exactly what that change would mean if I am president.
(APPLAUSE)
Change
means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but
the American workers and small businesses who deserve it.
(APPLAUSE)
You
know, unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to companies
that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that
create good jobs right here in America.
(APPLAUSE)
I'll
eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and start-ups
that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.
(APPLAUSE)
I
will -- listen now -- I will cut taxes -- cut taxes -- for 95 percent
of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last
thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class.
(APPLAUSE)
And
for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our
planet, I will set a clear goal as president: In 10 years, we will
finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
(APPLAUSE)
We
will do this. Washington -- Washington has been talking about our oil
addiction for the last 30 years. And, by the way, John McCain has been
there for 26 of them.
(LAUGHTER)
And in that time, he has
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 than we had on 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.
(APPLAUSE)
As president, 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.
(APPLAUSE)
I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars.
OBAMA:
And I'll invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable,
renewable sources of energy -- wind power, and solar power (OTCBB:SOPW) ,
and the next generation of biofuels -- an investment that will lead to
new industries and 5 million new jobs that pay well and can't be
outsourced.
(APPLAUSE)
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.
You know, 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.
(APPLAUSE)
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 our country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.
(APPLAUSE)
Now -- now is the time to finally keep the promise of affordable, accessible health care for every single American.
(APPLAUSE)
If
you have health care -- 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.
(APPLAUSE)
And
-- 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.
(APPLAUSE)
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 job and caring for a sick child or
an 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 the exact same opportunities as your sons.
(APPLAUSE)
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 21st-century challenges with a 20th-century bureaucracy.
(APPLAUSE)
And,
Democrats, 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.
(APPLAUSE)
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 to
provide love and guidance to their children.
Individual
responsibility and mutual responsibility, that's the essence of
America's promise. And just as we 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.
(APPLAUSE)
For -- for while -- 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 that 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.
You know, John McCain
likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the gates of Hell, but he
won't even follow him to the cave where he lives.
(APPLAUSE)
And
today, today, as my call for a timeframe 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 $79 billion in
surplus while we are wallowing in deficit, 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.
(APPLAUSE)
You don't defeat -- you don't defeat a
terrorist network that operates in 80 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 that is not the
change that America needs.
(APPLAUSE)
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.
(APPLAUSE)
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.
(APPLAUSE)
I
will end this war in Iraq responsibly and finish the fight against Al
Qaida 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.
(APPLAUSE)
These -- 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 each other's patriotism.
(APPLAUSE)
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.
(APPLAUSE)
So I've got news for you, John McCain: We all put our country first.
(APPLAUSE)
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, 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.
(APPLAUSE)
The
-- the reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural
Ohio than they are 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.
(APPLAUSE)
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 a hospital and to live lives free of discrimination.
(APPLAUSE)
You
know, passions may 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.
But 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 voters.
(APPLAUSE)
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
naysayers don't understand is that this election has never been about
me; it's about you.
(APPLAUSE)
It's about you.
(APPLAUSE)
For
18 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.
(APPLAUSE)
Change
happens -- 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.
Because 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, where 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 the hands of terrorists.
And
I've seen it in this campaign, in the young people who voted for the
first time and the young at heart, 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.
(APPLAUSE)
I've seen it -- I've
seen it in the workers who would rather cut their hours back a day, even
though they can't afford it, 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.
You know, 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.
(APPLAUSE)
And it is that promise that, 45 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.
(APPLAUSE)
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
frustrations 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...
(APPLAUSE)
...
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.
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