Alice Germond (?), intro to Barack Obama: Stirring call for a more unified, more hopeful America during 2004 Dem. convention. Grew up seeing America from varied places and viewpoints. Community organizer with church-based groups. Barack soon came to realize that to truly improve peoples' lives, it would take a change in our laws and our politics. First African Amreican president of Harvard Law Review. Practiced as civil rights lawyer, turning down big offers. Served for 7 years in Illinois legislature. Ethics reform death penalty reform in Illinois 2003, ran for US Senate. Opposed Iraq war. Spoken out on issues that will define America in this century. Must come together around our common concerns as Americans.We're gonna compete everywhere and win elections with that message. Sometimes you feel like you're part of a reality TV show or Survivor. Going to go to Hollywood or get voted off the island. But that's not why I'm here. Decisions made by this Pres. have brought this country to a sobering place, raised the stakes to where decisions we make in the next decade will determine the future of our children and our grandchildren. THis isnot a game, but a serious moment for America. Americans are in a sober mood.
Every Democratic who speaks today will have something valuable to offer. Figure how we can all do some good for this precious country of ours. That's our mission.
Our rivals won't be one another. Won't even be the other party. It's going to be cynicism we'll be fighting against. Decades of disappointment, amplified by talk radio, negative ads - staple of modern politics. Opponents not just wrong but they're bad. Motives in politics can never be pure, only driven by power and greed. Challenges we face today aren't just daunting they're impossible. If this is true, then politics is not a noble calling, it's a game, it's a bloodsport, with folks keeping score of who's up and who's down. At best it's a diversion. With such cycnicsm, govt is not a force for good, just an obstacle for people to get rid of.
Too often this cynicism makes us fearful, we don't trust the truth. Caused our politics to become small and timid, calculating and cautiou. Spend our time thinking about tactics, insteadof addressing isssues with boldness - could leead to our defeat. If you oppose the war, you're not a patriot If you oppose tax cuts, you're nengaging in class warfare. Censor ourselves. Can't do, won't do style of politics. Americans anxious about the future, we've been asked to narrow our hopes, diminish our dreams, consensus on any issue no longer possible, we should settle for tinkering around the edges year after year.
Along the way, we've lost faith in the political process. We don't really think we can transform this country. Times are too serious to let the cynics win this time. Health care costs, worker insecurity, pensions, oil dependence threaning our pocketbooks and safety of our plaent. Americans fighting a war that should never have been waged. This is not a game. This can't be about who digs up more skeletons on who. We owe it to the American people to do more than that. We owe Americans an election where voters are inspired. Nnt where voters are holding their noses and choosing the lesser of two evils. We gotta rise up out of the cynicism and ask for people all over America to start believing again. Reach for what others say is unreachable.
Let's have a discussion on health care. Status quo is unsustainable. Let's agree right here right now that we can pass health care for all by end of next term of next President. This is our job. Everybody's going to have good ideas about energy independence. We can have a vigorous, robust debate. Dependence is a threat to our economy, environment, we can pledge to wean ourselves off of foreign oil. End this war in Iraq. I was opposed to this invasion publicly, freqauently before it began.
We all have a responsibilty now that offers best chance of ending the bloodshed and bringingthe troops home. It was enough to run against Bush in the past COngressional election, will not be enough in 2008. Every candidate should put forward in clear, unambiguous terms how we're going to get out of Iraq. New foreign policy. Renew America's image as last best hope on earth. American people have reason to doubt. We have to remember what's at stake. Another family that's gone bankrupt. Child somewhere that's trapped in a failing school.
For every attack ad, there are real patriots fighting and dying in Iraq whose families deserve to know how we're going to bring them up. Time for us to free ourselves from constraints, start imaging world as it can be. Sense of possibility in America looms larger. Faith is more powerful than despair. Hope over cynicism. There are those who don't believe in talking about hope. We've had plans, we've had a shortage of hope. I can't do it on my own. We can hope. I'm calling on you to hope. 10:42 ends