Mr. Chairman, none of us will forget the fuse you ignited with your speech at this meeting four years ago. Under your leadership, the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party is now being felt in all 50 states of this great nation.
About a year ago, President Bush’s approval rating stood at 40 percent, his Party was in revolt, and the Vice President had just shot somebody. Thanks to you, President Bush is now referring to that time as the good old days.
Thanks to your energy, diligence, leadership – and the efforts of great candidates and millions of volunteers who contributed, worked phone banks, knocked on doors, and stood out in the cold to get people to vote – the Democratic Party had great victories in state houses, governors races, and we now are the majority party in the House and Senate.
Thanks to the hard work, last week it wasn’t Dennis Hastert sitting next to Dick Cheney and behind George Bush – but Nancy D’Ellasandro Pelosi, the first female speaker in American history.
There were a number of issues that ignited the passions of the American people, but none as much as the war in Iraq.
Because we Democrats are the majority party in both houses of Congress, we’ll finally have a debate about ending the war.
Now, it’s time to do for the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue what we did for the House and Senate in 2006.
The last time I stood at this podium was to accept your nomination as the General Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, along with my great friend Don Fowler of South Carolina.
It had been almost 60 years since we Democrats had re-elected someone to the White House.
In 1996, with your help, Bill Clinton was the first Democrat to be re-elected as President since Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1936.
On January 20th, 2009, we will gather at the West Front of the Capitol to inaugurate the 44th President of the United States.
I predict with certainty that if we listen to the American people; pay attention to the dreams and aspirations they have for their children and our country; and we propose bold solutions for the world we must lead – the 44th President will be a Democrat.
Today and over the coming 12 months I hope you will give me the chance to make a case for my candidacy for the Presidency in 2008;
Just as they did this past fall, Americans, I believe, will vote for change in 2008.
No matter where you go in our country, people are tired and fed up with the Bush Administration, their enablers in Congress, and the greedy few who have enriched themselves – while millions of hardworking, middle class families have fallen further behind.
They are tired and fed up with the deceptions and incompetence of the Bush-Cheney Administration;
They are tired and fed up with a Bush-Cheney Administration who, in a 6,000 word State of the Union Address, couldn’t bring itself to utter the words “Katrina” or “New Orleans.”
They are tired and fed up with a Bush-Cheney Administration that has presided over a crumbling primary and secondary education system;
skyrocketing higher education costs;
a health care system that today is more expensive and less available for millions of Americans than it was 6 years ago;
and an energy and environmental policy that is shameful.
And they are tired and fed up with a Bush-Cheney Administration, which in the face of 3,000 American lives lost in Iraq, 22,000 Americans injured;
thousands more Iraqi dead, disfigured or permanently displaced,
and an America that is isolated from our allies with diminishing influence in the world, has the temerity to say “full speed ahead.”
And they are tired of a Bush-Cheney Administration that tries to scare Americans into supporting policies that undermine our history, our values, and our Constitution.
They’ve put a new twist on an old saying: scare me once, shame on you. Scare me twice, shame on me.
In 2008, the American people are going to have an answer for the election-defrauding,
wire-tapping,
Abu-Graihbing,
debt-exploding,
Exxon-loving,
Brownie-you’re-doing-a-heckuva-job crowd that has driven American into a ditch: we are NOT going to take fear for an answer ever again.
We won in 2006 largely because of what the other crowd has failed to do. In 2008, that’s not going to be enough.
This is a moment of great urgency for America. We’ve had leadership the past six years that has squandered so much of what has made our nation great.
The more I travel around the country, the more I sense a hunger in America;
A hunger for our leaders to stand up for the values of equal justice, and equal opportunity.
A hunger for leadership that will keep us strong and safe.
A hunger for national leadership that will work harder for working families then they have for the Halliburtons and Exxon/Mobils of this world.
Let me tell who I am: I am a Democrat. In the words of Sam Rayburn, I am a Democrat without suffix, prefix, or apology.
Now I believe it is important for there to be bipartisanship in this country.
We cannot continue to survive as a nation divided as we are.
But unlike some, I believe that before you can have bipartisanship, you must have leadership.
Let me be very blunt.
Bipartisanship to me does not mean getting Democrats to agree with Republican principles; it means getting Republicans to agree with Democratic principles.
Leadership insists on holding to a core set of values, a core set of principles, and a demonstrated ability to bring people together around those values and principles. That’s what I did on the Family Medical Leave Act, childcare, in Central America, the FIRE Act, and that’s what I’ll do as President.
If we Democrats just spend the next 22 months of the Presidential campaign reciting a litany of what the Bush Administration and their Republican friends have done wrong, our national audience will grow smaller.
As a candidate for the Presidency, I will remind people of the damage that Republican leaders have done to our country at home and around the world, but I intend to spend more time telling people what I want us to do together to make America great again.
I am an optimist. I have great confidence in America. As great and urgent as our problems are – I believe firmly that our capabilities are greater.
Let me share with you a few of the issues I care deeply and passionately about.
People may not have paid much attention last fall to that vote in Congress to abandon habeus corpus and walk away from the Geneva Conventions.
This issue has a personal dimension for me. Six decades ago, my father was the number two prosecutor for the United States at the trial of Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg.
The moral authority America earned at that trial set a high standard – of human rights and rule of law – every President from Truman to Reagan to Clinton honored and abided by them.
It was the soft power of our moral authority that contributed to victory in the Cold War – and it will be the soft power of our moral authority that will contribute to winning the war on terror.
I will make this promise to you today:
One of the very first things I will do as President is send a bill to Congress that overturns that horrible torture bill the President signed into law last fall – to begin to restore America’s moral authority.
Here’s another thing I will do: I will bring our troops out of Iraq.
Let me tell you a story: about a month ago, once again, I was in Baghdad, where I met a bright young Army Captain, West Point graduate, named Brian Freeman.
He said to me, “Senator, it’s nuts over here. Soldiers are being asked to do work we’re not trained to do. I’m doing work that the State Department people are far more trained to do in fostering diplomacy, but they’re not allowed to come off the bases because it’s too dangerous here. It doesn’t make any sense.”
When I came home, I spoke about Captain Brian Freeman in public forums. We started an e-mail conversation, but then, I received a frantic call in our office from Brian’s wife. A military vehicle had stopped by her home when she wasn’t there, and she was desperate to know why.
We found out the awful news: two weeks ago tomorrow, Brian Freeman was killed in Iraq.
If you want to see the human face of this war – the cost of this war – imagine the life of Brian Freeman’s widow, Charlotte, their two year old son, and 14 month old daughter.
It is time for the government of Iraq and the people of Iraq to take responsibility for their own future.
Next week we will debate in the Senate a non-binding resolution on the war in Iraq.
Frankly, I am disappointed that we can’t find a way to do more than send a meaningless message to the White House – a White House that has said it will ignore anything we say about the war in Iraq.
The American people sent a message to us in November.
The voters were clear – change our policy in Iraq.
When over 60% of the Iraqi people think it is appropriate to attack our service men and women, then it’s time to get our troops out. And I don’t believe spending a week debating non-binding resolutions is the change America voted for. Last week, I proposed we send President Bush a real bill, with real teeth, and real accountability. With all due respect, my colleagues, that’s not what we’re considering in the Senate.
It is time to say enough is enough.
America’s security – economic and otherwise – must not, cannot depend on the most politically fragile corner of the globe.
As President, I will lead America toward an energy policy that within a decade will eliminate our dependency on a line of tankers trying to squeeze through the 34 mile choke point at the Straights of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.
I will lead America to an economic policy that recognizes that America gets stronger when the middle class gets stronger and I will be a national leader that is as optimistic about their hopes and dreams for their children as they are.
We Democrats won elections in the past because we were the party that kicked down doors and knocked over barriers to opportunity.
We must show America we haven’t forgotten how to do that.
As President, I will commit that no one who finishes high school, who’s qualified to go on, and who is admitted to higher education, is denied that opportunity because of financial need.
As President, I will fight to rebuild our manufacturing base.
It is a dangerous notion that manufacturing should no longer be part of the American economy in the 21st century.
We must not give up our industrial base – we have lost 3 million manufacturing jobs in the past 6 years.
This hemorrhaging must stop.
I understand the value of trade, but it will be fair trade.
In my Administration, we are going to make it at least as attractive for business to stay in America as this Administration has made it for them to leave America.
And as President, I am going to finish a job that Harry Truman started in 1948.
When I raise my hand on January 20, 2009 to take that oath, I will also make an oath that by the time my Administration is over, we are going to bring health care to every man, woman, and child in America.
I believe that kind of America is possible, with the right kind of leadership.
I believe the times demand leadership that knows how to build relationships, come up with answers, and deliver a vision that is realistic in the 21st Century.
In 2008, I believe experience will matter more than ever.
The last thing we need is four more years of on the job training in the Oval Office. We need a candidate who is ready to lead from day one.
In 2008, some say we need experience, others say we need idealism. I say we need both. And as your nominee, I will bring both.
Let me tell you a story about why I’m doing this.
GRACE STORY – WHAT KIND OF LIFE AM I GOING TO HAVE?
Now, the answer to that question becomes our responsibility. Elections are not just about those of us in this room – they are even more about the people who are not in this room.
They are about the people who don’t wake up wondering if they are Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal, red state or blue state. They don’t have time for that – they are too worried about holding their jobs, concerned with their kids’ education and well-being, and anxious that an accident or illness could financially ruin them.
Theses people are less interested in our resumes than we think. Yes, they want to know who we are – but far more importantly they want to know if we know who they are.
They want to know if we are listening to them – do we have any idea what their lives are like, what they worry about, what are their dreams and hopes?
When I first ran for Congress, someone told me a story about FDR that I have never forgotten.
FDR STORY
If people say that about me at the end of my career, I will consider my public service a noble one.
So, I ask you today: give me a chance to be heard. Give me a chance to make my case.
The last thing Democrats across this country want is to be told who their nominee is going to be a year before the first primary or caucus.
I am hopeful and optimistic about our future.
I believe America can lead again, as we have in the past, if we have the right kind of leadership
Forty-five years ago last month, I stood on the East Front of the Capitol and heard John Kennedy’s inaugural address.
I heard that call, and I took it to the rural hills of the Dominican Republic, where I worked as a Peace Corps volunteer.
When people wonder why I joined the Peace Corps, I have a simple answer: because someone asked me to.
At a difficult moment in our nation’s history, somebody asked me and thousands of others in our generation to become part of something larger than ourselves.
I stand before you to make my case because I believe we need this kind of leadership again – a leadership that will call all Americans to be part of something larger than themselves.
It is now our watch – our turn.
We have but one brief moment in time, you and I, to get this right.
We are going to be judged, and very quickly, by a jury that’s coming along.
They are going to be my children and yours. They’re going to want to know what you and I did to keep America strong and secure.
They will want to know what we did to reverse global warming, to preserve our freedoms, to create a world with more friends than enemies – when we had the chance.
Let them one day say of us that at the beginning of the 21st Century, after an uncertain start, America returned to her heritage.
Let them say that America preserved freedom and lived up to her highest ideals.
And let them say that in a broken time, we dedicated ourselves to the cause of an America that stands confident and proud once again.
We started the job in 2006. Now, let’s finish it in 2008. I ask for your support. Thank you.
###