DNCC 2008: Barack Obama’s Speech

by Christy Hardin Smith [courtesy of Firedoglake]

Photo via JoeCrimmingsPhotography. Great shot!

Thank you so much. [Lots of applause.] Thank you everybody.

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 to run for the presidency of the United States.

Let me express my thanks to the historic candidates who accompanied me on this journey, and an inspiration to my daughters and yours, Hillary Rodham Clinton. To President Bill Clinton, who made last night 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 greatest statesment of our time, who is at eas with world leaders and the Amtrak train conductor.

And to the love of my life, Michelle Obama. And to Malia and Sasha, I am so proud 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.

It is 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 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 is 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 on the brink of retirement finds herself on the edge of disaster and is one illness away from losing everything....We are more compassionate than one where verterans sleep on our streets and sits on its hands as families slide into poverty, that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.

I say to America -- 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 just like the last eight. 

On November 4th, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough."

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 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 differencew in your lives on health care, education the economy, John McCain has been anything but independent....He said one of the fundamentals of the economcy are strong.  And when oneof his chief advisors who wrote his economic plan said we were just suffereing from a mental recession and had become a "nation of whiners."  Tell that to the proud auto workers who, after they found out their plant was closing, kept showing up for work for weeks because folks depended ont he breaks they made.

Tell that to soldiers and families who say goodbye to them for another tour of duty, who serve without complaining, that they are a nation of whiners.

How else could Sen. McCain define middle class as someone who makes under $5 million a year....Or an educaiton plan that doesn't educate, or a retirement plan that privatizes social security.

It's not that john McCain doesn't care -- he just doesn't get it.  He subscribes to that old GOP philosophy -- give to the rich and hope it trickles down.  The market will take care of everything.  They call this "the ownership society" -- what it really means is "you are on your own."  Pull yourself up by your boots -- even if you don't have any boots, you are on your own.

It's time for us to change this.  And that's why I'm running for President of the United States.

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 away a little extra

money at the end of each month so that you can someday watch your child receive her 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 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.