Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Denver. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Denver. You know, this looks like a Democratic convention crowd. Except you don't have the funny hats yet. We're going to get you some funny hats. What an amazing crowd. What an amazing day.
First of all, I want to give a shout out to all the folks who are still outside on the lacrosse field. Thank you everybody for being here. I want to thank everybody who is in the overflow crowd in the other room. And I want to thank those who got here early that are inside, thank you.
I've got some friends that I need to acknowledge. First of all somebody who has been a stalwart in the cause of change. Somebody who has as an exemplary record of public service as anybody in the country. He has been part of this campaign from the start he is one of my national co-chairs. You know him here in Denver because he helped to build this city and break down barriers. I am so proud to have the support of Federico Pena.
I want to thank Crisanta Duran, President of the Colorado Young Democrats who is representative of what the future of America holds: young people like her who are fighting on behalf of justice, fighting on behalf of workers. Trying to make this country better. Whenever I see young people like her, and the young people here today, it inspires me. Thank you, Crisanta. Crisanta, thank you.
I want to thank Ron Smith for getting up here. You know, I'm a Bears fan, but I recognize a Hall of Famer when I see one. Ron Smith has been a great athlete and a great friend of mine and I am grateful for him to take the time to come up here.
And finally, I have to say something about Caroline Kennedy who...[applause]... I am almost speechless, because when I think about what she has meant to the country, what her family has meant to the country (and frankly, I'll tell you a secret: she actually doesn't like talking in front of all these people) and for her to take time out away from her family, away from her work to lend her name, her support, her enthusiasm to this campaign is meaningful beyond measure. She continues to inspire Americans of all ages, and all walks of life, and I just want to thank her. Please give a big round of applause to Caroline Kennedy.
One last bit of thanks. We have supporters here, so many wonderful folks that I couldn't name them all individually; elected officials, precinct captains, people who have volunteered for this campaign who have been putting in countless hours building up what we see here today. But one thing I always want to do... Many of you know that I am from Chicago now, but I didn't grow up in Chicago. I moved there after college to work as an organizer with a group of churches that were trying to deal with the devastation of steel plants that had been closed. Over three years I worked on the streets of Chicago, trying to set up job training programs for the unemployed, after school programs for youth, and bring economic development into the area, and it was the best education that I ever had because it taught me that ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they are given the opportunity.
But what I also learned is that organizing is hard work. It is long hours, low pay. You have to deal with rejection sometimes. So whenever I come to any community I want to give a special thanks to the young people who are organizers right here in Colorado. They are putting their heart and soul into this campaign and I want all of you to give them a huge round of applause because this is about them, not about me. Give them a big round of applause.
Finally, let me say a few words about another American who has called us to a common purpose. John Edwards is making the announcement today that he is stepping down from the race. John has spent a lifetime fighting to give a voice to the voiceless and hope to the struggling. And at a time when our politics is too focused on who is up and who is down he consistently has made us focus on who matters; the New Orleans child without a home, the West Virginia miner without a job, the families that live in that other America that is not seen or heard or talked about in Washington. John and Elizabeth Edwards believe that the two Americas can become one. Their campaign has ended, but this cause lives on for all of us who believe that we can achieve one America. I am grateful to John Edwards for his service of his country. I am grateful to Elizabeth Edwards for her courage and inspiration. They are going to transform America and transform the world, and I want everyone to give them a resounding round of applause for...[applause drowns out end of line]
Seven months from now, the Democratic Party will gather here in Denver to nominate our candidate for President of the United States of America. We will come together after a long and hard fought primary campaign; and that's a good thing. First of all it is a good that we have had such outstanding candidates. We had class acts across the board when you think of people like Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Dennis Kucinich, Bill Richardson, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton. An all-star cast. An all-star cast. People who have done outstanding work throughout their lives. It is a testimony to the excitement, and the talent, and the passion, and the commitment of the Democratic Party. So it is a good thing that we had this hard fought contest because each of us has inspired the others to do better, to communicate more clearly our vision for the future. It is through campaigns that we hear directly from the American people. We set our goals and debate our differences. It is through campaigns that we bring new people into the process, we build new coalitions and we renew who we are and what we stand for as a party. It is fate that the journey leads to Denver; a city that is younger than the Democratic Party itself, but a city filled with the promise that the Democratic Party has always fought for, always stood for. This city, built at the foot of the Rocky Mountains stands as a monument to a uniquely American belief in things unseen. Here in Denver fur trappers, traders, gold rushers, ranchers came in search of opportunity and made the future their own, carved out a new America where nobody else saw what was possible.
The story of America leads West. It is a story of ideals that know no boundaries. It is the story of immigrants that set off from distant shores, and pioneers who persevered, the people of all races, religions and ethnic groups who put aside their doubts to seek a new frontier.
My own family's journey moved West. I was in Eldora, Kansas the other day where my grandfather was born, nearby Augusta where my grandmother was born, but my grandparents they moved West. They were born in Kansas, my mother was born in Kansas, but they went West to the Pacific coast after World War Two, and then across an ocean to Hawaii. You couldn't go any further West than that. Their journey like so many others speaks to a simple truth written into the story of America, the truth at the foundation of the Democratic Party's purpose, Denver's progress and our nation's prophecy: In America the future is not what someone else tells us it is. It is not some artificial barrier that has been constructed. Instead, the future is what we decide it is going to be. That is what America is all about.
As candidates we must give new meaning to that promise and seven months from now one of us will stand before that convention hall, and give voice to the hopes and dreams and determination - not just of Democrats but all Americans all across our country. In six days in Colorado you will have the chance to choose who that voice will be. You get to choose. You get to choose. You get to choose who will be able to build a new majority, not just Democrats but Independents and Republicans, to win in November but also to transform our country for decades to come.
If you put your trust in me, I will stand up at that convention and say that our divisions are behind us, our hope is in the future, and our time for change has come.
This has been an amazing race, and there are a lot of twists and turns yet to be had, but there is one thing we know for certain about the election in November. What ever else happens the name George W. Bush will not be on the ballot. The name of my cousin, Dick Cheney, will not be on the ballot. The era of Scooter Libby injustice and Brownie incompetence and Karl Rove politics will finally be over. That's not why you're here today. It is easy to be against something. The choice before you is about what comes next. We need to do more than turn the page on the failed Bush/Cheney policies. We have to turn the page on the politics that helped make those policies possible: lobbyists setting an agenda in Washington that feeds the inequality, insecurity and instability in our economy; defend from the distractions that keep us from coming together to deal with challenges like health care, and clean energy and crumbling schools, year after year after year after year; croneyism that gave us Katrina instead of competent government, secrecy that made torture permissible and illegal wiretaps possible, the politics that uses nine eleven to scare up votes instead of bring us together around a common purpose, a politics that uses fear and falsehoods to lead us into a war in Iraq that should have never been authorized and never been waged.
Each candidate running for the Democratic nomination shares the combined desire to end the disastrous policies of the current administration. Each candidate who has been in this race on the Democratic side wants to bring an end to the Bush/Cheney policies. Hillary Clinton wants to bring an end to them. John Edwards wants to bring an end to them. Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, Bill Richardson, all of them want to bring an end to these policies, but we must decide in the debate that leads to Denver just what kind of party we want to be and what lessons we have learned from the bitter partisanship of the last two decades. We can be a party that tries to beat the other side by practicing the same "do anything, say anything" divisive politics that has stood in the way of progress, or we can be a party that puts an end to the two.
I am running for President because I believe that we don't just need small change, we need monumental change in America. Not just a change of party in the White House, but change in Washington the American people can believe in; unity instead of division, hope instead of fear, a politics that leaves behind the fights of the past so that we can finally take hold of our future.
We began this campaign one year ago on the steps of the old state house in Springfield, Illinois, a place where Abraham Lincoln served so many years before he went to Washington, a city I served for many years before I became a United States Senator. At the time when I made that announcement I was making a bet on the American people. It was a simple bet that we weren't going to change anything by relying on the same Washington games, instead we were betting on the American people's hunger for change. Your ability to make change happen, not from the top down, but from the bottom up. And over the last several months we have been showing America what change looks like, from the snows of Iowa to the sunshine of South Carolina, we have built a movement of young and old, rich and poor, black, white, Latino, Asian, native American, gay, straight... we have reached Americans of all political stripes.
We have reached Americans of all political stripes who are more interested in turning the page than in turning up the heat on our opponents. That's how Democrats will win in November and build a majority in Congress, not by nominating a candidate that will unite the other party against us, but by choosing one that can unite this country around a movement for change.
If you choose change, you will have a nominee who doesn't take a dime from Washington lobbyists, doesn't take a dime from Washington PACs. We don't need a candidate who agrees with the Republicans that lobbyists are a part of the system in Washington. They are part of the problem, and when I am President their days of setting the agenda in Washington will be over. They have not funded my campaign, they will not run my White House, and they will not drown out the voice of the American people when I am President of the United States of America.
If you choose change you will have a nominee who doesn't just tell the American people what they want to hear. Poll tested positions, calculated answers, that might be how Washington confronts challenges, but it is not how you overcome those challenges, it is not how inspire our nation to come together behind a common purpose, and it is not what America needs right now. You need a candidate that will tell you the truth, that will be honest about the choices we have to make in order to insure our future for the next generations.
If you choose change you will have a nominee who isn't just playing on the same electoral map where 47% of the country is on one side, 47% of the country is on the other, 5% are in the middle and they all live in Ohio and Florida apparently. I don't want to start off with half of the country against us. You will have a nominee who has already brought in more Independents, Republicans, young people, and new voters than we have seen in a generation. We will change those political maps.
I know it is tempting after another president named George Bush (this is our second one now...) So, I know it is tempting to simply turn back the clock, look backwards and try to build a bridge to the twentieth century, and there are those that will tell us that our party should nominate someone who is more practiced in the art of power, that it is not yet our turn or our time. But, there was also a time when Caroline Kennedy's father was counciled by a former president, a Democrat and great president, to be patient and to step aside for someone with greater experience, but John Kennedy responded to Harry Truman by saying, "The world is changing. The old ways will not do. It is time for a new generation of leadership." That time is now.
It is time for a new generation of leadership because the old politics just won't do. I am running for president right now because I have met Americans all across this country that cannot afford to wait another day. They understand what Dr. King meant when he said that we had to recognize the "fierce urgency of now." That is why the real choice in this campaign is not between regions, or religions, or genders. It is not about rich versus poor, young versus old, it's certainly not about black versus white. It is about the past versus the future.
And when I'm the nominee the Republican won't be able to make this election about the past. That's what the Republicans are going to want to do. They're going to want to throw us backwards, but they won't be able to do that with me because you will have already chosen the future.
It's time for new leadership for an economy where families are being forced to foreclose on their dreams and workers are seeing their pensions disappear. In the short term we need what I have consistently called for, a stimulus plan that gives the American people a tax rebate, that puts more money in their pockets and also extends relief to seniors and expands unemployment insurance, but in the long term we need to put the American dream on a firmer foundation. We're not going to offer the American people the choice they need by nominating a candidate who voted to put banks and big business ahead of hard working Americans . I've been fighting for working people my entire public life, and when I am President, I will make sure the CEOs can't dump your pension with one hand and collect a bonus with the other. I will pass bankruptcy laws that will protect workers instead of banks. I'll crack down on fraudulent mortgage lenders and credit card companies that change the rates to push you further into debt. It is time for new leadership for those workers that are now competing with their teenage kids for seven dollar an hour jobs at the local fast food joint because the factory they gave their lives to shut their doors.
We are not going to give the American people the choice they need by nominating a candidate that argues year after year for trade that isn't fair, but calls for a time out when they want to run for president. I will stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship our jobs over seas and start putting them in the pockets of hard working Americans. I will stop giving the wealthiest Americans tax cuts that they don't need [applause covering words] and restore fairness [applause covering words]. I want to give tax cuts to working Americans, provide relief to homeowners, eliminate income tax on seniors making under $50,000 so they can retire with the dignity and security they have earned.
When I think of the need for new leadership, I think of a woman I met who can't get Medicaid to cover the needs of her child with cerebral palsy. She can't afford to wait another four years or another fifteen years to get health care or to take the leap forward to somebody who can bring Democrats and Republicans together to get it done. I know the reason Americans can't get health care is not because nobody is forcing them to buy it, its because they can't afford it, and thats why my plan cuts costs by $2500 for a typical family, and makes health care affordable and available for every single American; a plan that will be just as good as the plan I have as a member of Congress and I won't wait twenty years from now to do it, or ten years from now to do it. We will do it by the end of my first term as President of the United States of America.
It is time for new leadership for children going to overcrowded schools in East L.A., for the teacher at night working at the donut shop after class has let out to make ends meet, for all the teachers that are digging into their own pockets to buy school supplies, for young people in South Carolina going to school where they have to learn in a trailer park next to a rail road track - every time a train goes by the teacher has to stop teaching, for the young people who got the grades, the will, the determination to go to college they just don't have the money and if they get loans they have thirty to forty to fifty thousand dollars in debt when they get out. That's not the America that I want.
When I am President we will rally this county to the cause of world class education. That means putting our kids on a pathway to success with universal, quality, affordable, early childhood education that can close the achievement gap and ensure every child is fully prepared when they start school. I won't just talk about how great teachers are. I will reward them for their greatness by sending them more money and giving them more support. I want the highest standards at our schools, but I don't want our standards just measured by a single solitary standardized test. I want our teachers to be teaching art and music and [applause]..science...[applause]...for the next generation.
I intend to give young people an annual four thousand dollar tuition credit for college, every student, every year, but you will have to give something back in return. You will have to serve your community. We're going to expand Americorps to 250,000 plus. We're going to issue a call to service for a new generation of Americans. You will work and we will invest in you. You will...[applause]...in America and together we will carry America forward into this next century.
We want to call on everybody to take responsibility. It means calling on parents to do their part, to turn of the television set, to read to our children, because responsibility for education starts at home, and every home in all of our communities. We want to nurture our children. We want to send them a message, that they're important. Its time for new leadership so that my daughters, and your children, don't grow up in a new century where our economy is weighed down by our addiction to oil, our foreign policy is held hostage to the whims of dictators and our planet passes a moment of no return. When I am President, we won't wait any longer to start doing something about global warming. It is a [33:44]
We will cap green house gases that are polluting our atmosphere, and we will charge polluters, generating millions of dollars to invest in solar and wind and bio-diesel. We will raise full efficiency standards on cars. When I called, by the way, for higher efficiency standards on cars I didn't do it in front of an environmental group in California or Boulder. That would've been easy. I did it in front of the auto makers in Detroit. And I have to say, the room was really quiet. I got no applause, but that's ok because remember what I said, "We need a president who will not just tell you what you want to hear, but will tell you what you need to hear, will tell you the truth, what you need to know." Because if the American people are enlisted in this project of self-government they make the right decision, they have the right instincts. Together we can solve the issue of climate change. We can not wait to invest in the next generation of bio-fuels. We can not wait to invest in the next generation of wind and solar. IF Caroline's father could inspire a nation to set a man on the moon in less than a decade then we can meet this great challenge of our generation right here, and right now. The American people are ready. They need leadership in the White House to help them get there, and that's the leadership I want to provide.
We can set the goal of 80% reductions of global emissions by 2050. We can lead the world. We can export technology developed here in the United States to developing nations.
This is why we came here. This is why our moment is now. It is time for new leadership for that woman who told me she hasn't been able to breathe since her nephew left for Iraq. For that soldier that doesn't know his own child because he is on his third our forth tour of duty in the...[applause]
My job as Commander in Chief will be to keep you safe. I will not hesitate to strike against those who would do us harm. But part of the wisdom, but part of the task of the Commander in Chief is training our troops properly, equipping them properly, putting them on proper rotations, and treating them with dignity and respect when they come home. Our veterans have earned their benefits. They shouldn't have to beg for disability. They shouldn't have to beg to get in to the VA. That is part of the job of Commander in Chief, but we also have to have a Commander in Chief who will deploy our troops wisely, and we have not done that over the last several years.
I want to end the mindset that says the only way for Democrats to look tough on national security is by talking and acting and voting like a George Bush Republican. It is time to reject the council that says that the American people would rather have someone who is strong and wrong, then someone who is weak and right. It is time to say that we are the party that is going to be strong and that is going to be right.
It is time for new leadership. Understand that the way to win the debate with John McCain or any Republican who is nominated is not by having the Democrats nominate someone who agrees with them on voting for the war in Iraq, who agrees with them on voting to give George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran, who agrees with him on embracing the Bush/Cheney policy of not talking with leaders we don't like, who actually differ with John McCain by arguing for acceptance for torture before changing positions when the politics of the moment change. We need to offer the American people a clear contrast on national security, and when I am the nominee of the Democratic party, that is exactly what I will do.
Talking tough. Tallying up years in Washington. That's no substitute for justice and courage and clear plans. It is not enough to say you will be ready from day one. You have to be right from day one.
I opposed this war in Iraq from the start and I have never ever wavered in that opposition. I warned about taking our eye off of Osama Bin Laden, and over stretching our troops and their families we see in communities across this country. When I am President I will immediately begin to remove our troops. I will finally put meaningful pressure on Iraq's leaders to reconcile. I will end this war. And I will do what we should have done back in 2002: increase our commitment to Afghanistan, press Pakistan to take action against terror, and finish the fight against Al Qaida, they're the ones who killed three thousand Americans.
I will challenge the conventional thinking that says we can't conduct diplomacy with leaders we don't like. I recall what John F. Kennedy said. He said we should never negotiate out of fear, but we should never fear to negotiate. Strong countries and strong Presidents talk to their adversaries. [applause]...try to resolve our differences without resort to war, and that is what I will do as President of the United States of America.
And when I am President, we will keep nuclear weapons from terrorists by securing all nuclear materials around the world during my first term in office. We will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons and we will pursue it.
It is time for new leadership that reaches out. As President Kennedy did to so many millions around the world, to my own father, to people in the huts and villages across the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery. It is time to restore our moral leadership by rejecting torture without equivocation, by closing Guantanamo, by restoring Habeas Corpus, by guaranteeing the light of justice to prisoners in prison camps around the world.
I want to go before the world community and say, "America is back." America is back, and we are ready to lead the world against the common threats of the twenty first century; terrorism and nuclear weapons, but also climate change and poverty, genocide and disease. I will run forth with a message to those yearning faces beyond our shores that says, "You matter to us. Your future is our future, and our moment is now."
Our motto: Our moment is now. This is what the moment demands of us: to cast off our doubts to reach once more for what America can be if we have the courage to make the future our own. We have been warned in the past few weeks that this kind of change is not possible, that we have been peddling false hopes, that we need a reality check, that we face forces that are not the fault of any one campaign - forces that continually open America's wounds. There are habits we have become ingrained in, that politics becomes a toxic sport. Politics that uses religion as a wedge, patriotism as a bludgeon. A politics that tells us what we have to think and even vote within the confines of categories that supposedly define us; the assumption that young people are apathetic, or the assumption that Republicans won't cross over or the assumption that the wealthy care nothing for the poor or the poor don't vote, the assumption that African Americans can't support a white candidate or a white candidate can't support the African American candidate, or blacks and Latinos can't serve together. There are all these assumptions that trap us. They are fed to us, but they are also inside us.
Our party, the magic of the Democratic Party has always been when we rose above these divisions, when we cast away our suspicions, when we called Americans to a common purpose, a higher purpose, when we stood up and said that we will write our own future and the future will be what we want it to be.
We followed a Knig to the mountain top. We followed a Kennedy to reject the menace of violence. We are the party of a young president who asked what we could do for our country and put us on a path to the moon. Were the party of a man who overcame his own disability who told us the only thing we had to fear was fear itself, who faced down fascism and liberated a continent from tyranny. We are the party of Jackson who took back the White House for the people of this country. We're the party of Jefferson who wrote the words we are still trying to heed, that all of us were created equal, and he sent us West to blaze new trails, to make new discoveries and to realize the promise of our highest ideas.
That is who we are. That is the party we need to be. Not just a Party that focuses on how to win an election but on why we should. That is the party we need to be. That is the party we can be. We can stop our doubts and leave behind our fears, and choose the America that we know is possible. There is a moment in the life of every generation, if it is to make its mark on history, when its spirit has to come through. When it must choose the future over the past. When it must make its own change from the bottom up. This is our moment. This is our time. This is our message. The same message when we were up. The same message when we were down. The same message that we will carry all the way to the convention, and in seven month's time, right here in Denver, we can realize this promise, we can claim this legacy, we can choose new leadership, because there is nothing that we cannot do if the American people decide that it is time. We will embrace the spirit of the new century and proclaim to everyone from sea to shining sea, "Yes we can!"
Thank you everybody. God bless you.
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