Clinton & Palin - Hillary Mocks 'President Sarah Palin' with Laughter read more>>
Clinton Terrified by Palin?
This website is dedicated to the count down of the next US presidential eletion 2012.
The big question is: "Will Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin go head to head in the 1012 presidential race?"
If you would like to advertise on this website please email us at info@mercy-designs.com
Hillary Clinton Speeches:
Hillary's Remarks at the "Change We Need" Rally in Scranton, PA
Thank you all so much.
It is great being back in Scranton and I thank my husband and I am thrilled he could be here with us. He is on his way to Virginia but we wanted to be here together with Joe and Jill to make a very simple message abundantly clear: We must elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden on November 4.
It’s great that Joe has roots here in Scranton as do I - and we will make sure that those roots and those values are carried into the White House after Joe wins. Isn’t it going to be wonderful to have a Vice President you’re proud of and excited about?
It’s great being here with Senator Bob Casey and his family, with Congressman Kanjorski and his family. I just want to reiterate what Bill said. We need as many Democrats in the Congress as we can get and we need to send Paul Kanjorski back to the House of Representatives. And I want to thank Mayor Doherty and everybody associated with not only the city and the county and this region - there are a lot of good things happening here in Scranton. And I know you are going to keep working hard to make sure that this great city, county and region have as positive a future as you have a storied past. You can count on me Chris to be your partner.
As Bill said - I’ve been crisscrossing the country campaigning for Barack and Joe. Why? Because this election is too important to sit on the sidelines of history. I haven’t spent 35 years in the trenches fighting for universal health care, for children, for families, for women, for middle class people to see another Republican in the White House squander the promise of our nation and the hopes of our people.
We are here today having a great time - lots of excitement and speeches and applause and rallying - but we are in a financial crisis in America. And it is a crisis born and bred by failed Republican policies championed by George Bush, John McCain, and the Washington Republicans.
You know what they have said and done - gut regulations, cut taxes for corporations and billionaires. When you try to talk about the home mortgage crisis, which I did throughout my campaign, they sort of shrug and say ‘what home mortgage crisis?’ For two years, I and others have said that people are losing their houses. They have been victimized by predatory lending. Families can’t pay their mortgage bills. And that this mortgage crisis would mushroom out of control and become a full blown economic crisis.
But to President Bush and John McCain, middle class families sinking into debt are invisible. We can help Americans losing their houses. But we can only do it by if we make sure the Republicans lose the White House come November. Now when this crisis finally hit Wall Street and big financial firms came calling, well suddenly, oh my goodness, President Bush and John McCain and the Republican base snapped to attention. A big bank is going to fail - well bail it out. A big financial firm is going to fail - well, bail it out. A big insurance company is going to fail – why, bail it out.
What about the millions of people losing their homes and their jobs every single day? Where is their bailout? If stocks to continue to plummet, homeowners fall further and further into default and many face foreclosures. People are afraid to open up their 401K statement, aren’t they? Retirees’ nest eggs are starting to crack. Businesses can’t find credit. Students can’t find college loans. The global credit crisis is shaking the foundation of the 21st century economy.
And in this election, failure is not an option. We must commit ourselves to making sure we elect leaders who will put people first, remember who built this country, who sacrificed and made us what we are today.
That’s why this week I am barnstorming across Pennsylvania, Ohio, and on to other battleground states that we can and must win because we cannot afford 4 more years of the last 8 years and that’s all the Republicans offer.
The Republicans’ answer to jobs being outsourced: continue tax incentives to companies that outsource jobs, of course. The Republican answer to a broken health care system: throw everybody to the mercy of insurance companies with no tax incentive for employers to keep providing coverage and to offer real protection to people with pre-existing conditions. The Republican answer to rising economic insecurity: John McCain still wants to privatize Social Security. Can you image if your Social Security had been in the stock market the last 3 weeks? The Republican answer to 8 years of stagnant wages and 9 straight months of job losses is just more of the same.
According to the Republicans in this new global economy, America can’t win unless most Americans lose. It makes absolutely no sense, but that is truly what they believe. That’s why they ignored the home mortgage crisis until it became a financial crisis.
That’s why John McCain and has even proposed more tax cuts for the oil companies and the drug companies. That’s why John McCain has said repeatedly that the fundamentals of our economy are strong. Because to John McCain and George Bush the middle class isn’t fundamental, it’s ornamental. They don’t understand that we are at the core of whether this country goes up or down.
That’s why my friends sending the Republicans to solve this economic crisis is like sending the bull to clean up the china closet. They broke it and we’re not buying it anymore. Barack Obama and Joe Biden will be leaders who will lead us out of this economic crisis. They will once again clean up this economic mess that Republicans have left behind.
In case anybody doubts we can do this - I want you to think back. By the close of the Clinton Administration, America had created 22 million new jobs. Our nation had built an economy with the lowest child poverty rate in 20 years. Wages were rising and prosperity was shared. We produced a balanced budget and a budget surplus.
Now, 8 years later we have to add a digit to the national debt clock. It took a Democratic President to clean up after the last President Bush. It’s going to take a Democratic President to clean up after this President.
Make no mistake about it and we’ve done it before and we’ll do it again. America will once again rise from the ashes of the Bushes.
For 2 years on the campaign trail - in fact, for my entire adult life - I have been fighting for families left out and left behind, for the chance of every child to reach his or her God-given potential. That’s why I respect Dr. Jill Biden so much because she has worked for 27 years to help our young people realize their potential. I have fought for the people of this country who have felt invisible to their own President - like he just doesn’t even see them. And that’s who I am fighting for today.
That’s why there is only one choice in this election. Wherever I go around the country campaigning for Barack and Joe - I hear people asking each other: Well, who are you for? That’s not the right question. More importantly, the question is: Who is for you?
Just look at what Barack and Joe have proposed - a thousand dollar tax cut for hard working families covering 95% of Americans who would be eligible. They’ll end the tax breaks for oil companies and drug companies and insurance companies. They’d invest millions more in clean energy jobs, manufacturing, and infrastructure instead.
And Barack and Joe will fight for health care for all Americans. That is my passion. I’m going to work as hard as I can with President Obama and Vice President Biden until we achieve quality, affordable health care for every American and I am looking forward to being on the back lawn of the White House on a beautiful day like this when President Obama signs into law quality, affordable health care for you and you and you.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden are for you and that’s why I am for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
My friends, this is an all-hands-on-deck moment for America. We’ve got to work hard and we’ve got to work together. This is a fight for the future and it is a fight we must win.
It starts right here in Scranton where my father was raised and where he’s buried My grandfather worked in the Scranton lace mills all of his life, starting when he was 11 years old until he retired at the age of 65. My family spent summers in a cabin on Lake Winola. We went swimming and fishing and played a lot of pinochle.
My grandfather built that cabin nearly 100 years ago and it’s still standing because here in Scranton, people are built tough. Here in northeastern Pennsylvania, we don’t go down without a fight.
And I remember how proud my father and his brothers were that they could build a good life with good jobs - jobs that supported the family that gave my grandfather, who didn’t even finish elementary school, the chance to send 3 sons to college. The people in Scranton and northeastern Pennsylvania are like people I’ve met across America. The kind of people who get up every single day and work hard. You don’t ask for much. You never give up. You soldier on for your families and your communities.
And you deserve a President who will get up every day thinking about you.
And we are so lucky that by the side of our next President will be a man who really understands - who has been fighting his whole life for what he believes in, the values he was raised with. Joe Biden is a good friend and a great man. Joe has never forgotten where he came from. He’s never forgotten how his family had to struggle and his parents even had to move so his dad could find work. He has been a leader on national security. A leader for women, and children and families and the author of the landmark Violence Against Women Act.
Joe has been a voice for the hardworking middle class of this country because it’s not to him about politics. It’s not theoretical or abstract. It’s in the gut. I could not ask for a better partner in the Senate and America could not ask for a better Vice President.
It really comes down to how much each of us is willing to do in the next 23 days. Sure, the polls show Barack and Joe ahead now and that’s good news. But I don’t pay much attention to polls. Nobody should be lulled into any false sense of security.
Bill was talking about how he and I have been involved in presidential politics since 1968 - 10 presidential elections and Democ
rats have only won 3 of them. And of course Bill won 2 out of the 3.
That’s why you have to leave here committed and ready to go to work. You have to talk to your friends and neighbors. I know you have friends and neighbors who aren’t decided yet. I know you have friends and neighbors, and maybe even some family members who are not decided yet. You might even have a few leaning the wrong direction.
So I am deputizing every one of you to go out and make the case because Barack and Joe are not asking you to marry them. They are asking you to vote for them - and vote for yourselves.
If we can pull a big vote out of northeastern Pennsylvania for Barack and Joe, there isn’t any way they lose Pennsylvania. And if they win Pennsylvania, there is no way they lose the White House.
So let’s work for the next 23 days and let’s elect Barack Obama and the next Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden.
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
CLINTON, Hillary Rodham, (wife of President William Jefferson Clinton), a Senator from New York; born on October 26, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois; attended public school in Park Ridge, Illinois; graduated Wellesley College, BA 1969; graduated Yale Law School, JD 1973; attorney; counsel, impeachment inquiry staff, House Judiciary Committee 1974; First Lady of Arkansas 1979-1981, 1983-1993; First Lady of the United States 1993-2001; elected to the United States Senate for term commencing January 3, 2001; reelected in 2006 for the term ending January 3, 2013. (Source.)
More coverage of Hillary Clinton on washingtonpost.com
ROLES IN CONGRESS
· 110th Congress: Senator, New York, Democratic. Jan. 4, 2007, to Jan. 3, 2011.
· 109th Congress: Senator, New York, Democratic. Jan. 3, 2005, to Jan. 3, 2007.
· 108th Congress: Senator, New York, Democratic. Jan. 3, 2003, to Jan. 3, 2005.
· 107th Congress: Senator, New York, Democratic. Jan. 3, 2001, to Jan. 3, 2003.
KEY VOTES
See how Hillary Clinton voted on key votes -- the most important bills, nominations and resolutions that have come before Congress, as determined by washingtonpost.com.
MISSED VOTES
Hillary Clinton has missed 208 votes (31.7%) during the current Congress. See a list of her missed votes since 1991 or see a full list of vote missers.
VOTING WITH PARTY
Hillary Clinton has voted with a majority of her Democratic colleagues 97.3% of the time during the current Congress. This percentage does not include votes in which Clinton did not vote. See a list of her votes against her party since 1991, a list of all Senators in the 110th Congress with a similar score, or a full list of party voters.
STATE INFORMATION
New York demographic profile (2000 Census)
FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE
View Hillary Clinton's official financial disclosure statements, which describe the sources, types and amounts of income earned in a given year. (See more disclosure reports.)
2006
2005
LATEST VOTES
Get notified via RSS whenever Hillary Clinton votes: (Help, and more feeds)
Date Vote Position GOP opinion DEM opinion
11/20/08 Vote 214: On the Cloture Motion: Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to H.R. 6867; Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2008 Yes Yes Yes
10/1/08 Vote 213: H R 1424: H. R. 1424 As Amended; Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007 Yes Yes Yes
10/1/08 Vote 212: H R 1424: Dodd Amdt. No. 5685; In the nature of a substitute. Yes Yes Yes
10/1/08 Vote 211: H R 7081: H.R. 7081; United States-India Nuclear Cooperation Approval and Nonproliferation Enhancement Act Yes Yes Yes
10/1/08 Vote 210: On the Motion: Motion to Concur in the House Amdt. To the Senate Amdt. to H.R. 2095; Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2007 Yes Yes Yes
9/29/08 Vote 209: On the Cloture Motion: Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Concur in the House Amdt. to the Senate Amdt. to H.R. 2095; Federal Railroad Safety Improvement Act of 2007 Yes Yes Yes
9/27/08 Vote 208: On the Motion: Motion to Concur in the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R.2638; Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2008 Not Voting Yes Yes
9/27/08 Vote 207: On the Cloture Motion: Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Concur in the House Amdt. to the Senate Amdt. to H.R.2638; Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2008 Yes Yes Yes
9/26/08 Vote 206: On the Motion to Proceed: Motion to Proceed to Consider S.3604; A bill making emergency supplemental appropriations for economic recovery for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008, and for other purposes. Yes No Yes
9/23/08 Vote 205: H R 6049: H.R.6049 As Amended; Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008 Yes Yes Yes
9/23/08 Vote 204: On the Motion: Motion to Waive C.B.A. Baucus Amdt. No.5635; To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend certain expiring provisions, and for other purposes. Yes Yes Yes
9/23/08 Vote 203: H R 6049: Conrad Amdt No. 5634; To provide alternative minimum tax relief, and for other purposes. Yes No Yes
9/23/08 Vote 202: H R 6049: Baucus Amdt. No. 5633; In the nature of a substitute. Yes Yes Yes
9/17/08 Vote 201: S 3001: S. 3001 As Amended; National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 Yes Yes Yes
9/16/08 Vote 200: On the Cloture Motion: Motion to Invoke Cloture on S. 3001; National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 Yes No Yes
9/10/08 Vote 199: S 3001: Nelson (FL) Amdt. No. 4979; To repeal the requirement for reduction of survivor annuities under the Survivor Benefit Plan by veterans' dependency and indemnity compensation. Yes Yes Yes
9/10/08 Vote 198: S 3001: Vitter Amdt. No. 5280; To authorize, with an offset, an additional $100,000,000 for Procurement, Defense-wide, and an additional $171,000,000 for Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation, Defense-wide, for near-term missile defense programs and activities. No Yes No
9/8/08 Vote 197: On the Cloture Motion: Upon Reconsideration, Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to Consider S. 3001; National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 Not Voting Yes Yes
7/31/08 Vote 196: H CON RES 398: H. Con. Res. 398; A concurrent resolution providing for an adjournment or recess of the two Houses. Not Voting No Yes
7/31/08 Vote 195: On Cloture on the Motion to Proceed: Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to Consider S. 3001; National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 Not Voting No Yes
Mr. Chairman, delegates, and fellow citizens: I am honored to be considered for the nomination for Vice President of the United States...
I accept the call to help our nominee for president to serve and defend America.
I accept the challenge of a tough fight in this election... against confident opponents ... at a crucial hour for our country.
Story continues below
And I accept the privilege of serving with a man who has come through much harder missions ... and met far graver challenges ... and knows how tough fights are won - the next president of the United States, John S. McCain.
It was just a year ago when all the experts in Washington counted out our nominee because he refused to hedge his commitment to the security of the country he loves.
With their usual certitude, they told us that all was lost - there was no hope for this candidate who said that he would rather lose an election than see his country lose a war.
But the pollsters and pundits overlooked just one thing when they wrote him off.
They overlooked the caliber of the man himself - the determination, resolve, and sheer guts of Senator John McCain. The voters knew better.
And maybe that's because they realize there is a time for politics and a time for leadership ... a time to campaign and a time to put our country first.
Our nominee for president is a true profile in courage, and people like that are hard to come by.
He's a man who wore the uniform of this country for 22 years, and refused to break faith with those troops in Iraq who have now brought victory within sight.
And as the mother of one of those troops, that is exactly the kind of man I want as commander in chief. I'm just one of many moms who'll say an extra prayer each night for our sons and daughters going into harm's way.
Our son Track is 19.
And one week from tomorrow - September 11th - he'll deploy to Iraq with the Army infantry in the service of his country.
My nephew Kasey also enlisted, and serves on a carrier in the Persian Gulf.
My family is proud of both of them and of all the fine men and women serving the country in uniform. Track is the eldest of our five children.
In our family, it's two boys and three girls in between - my strong and kind-hearted daughters Bristol, Willow, and Piper.
And in April, my husband Todd and I welcomed our littlest one into the world, a perfectly beautiful baby boy named Trig. From the inside, no family ever seems typical.
That's how it is with us.
Our family has the same ups and downs as any other ... the same challenges and the same joys.
Sometimes even the greatest joys bring challenge.
And children with special needs inspire a special love.
To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message: For years, you sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters.
I pledge to you that if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House. Todd is a story all by himself.
He's a lifelong commercial fisherman ... a production operator in the oil fields of Alaska's North Slope ... a proud member of the United Steel Workers' Union ... and world champion snow machine racer.
Throw in his Yup'ik Eskimo ancestry, and it all makes for quite a package.
We met in high school, and two decades and five children later he's still my guy. My Mom and Dad both worked at the elementary school in our small town.
And among the many things I owe them is one simple lesson: that this is America, and every woman can walk through every door of opportunity.
My parents are here tonight, and I am so proud to be the daughter of Chuck and Sally Heath. Long ago, a young farmer and habber-dasher from Missouri followed an unlikely path to the vice presidency.
A writer observed: "We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty, sincerity, and dignity." I know just the kind of people that writer had in mind when he praised Harry Truman.
I grew up with those people.
They are the ones who do some of the hardest work in America ... who grow our food, run our factories, and fight our wars.
They love their country, in good times and bad, and they're always proud of America. I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town.
I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids' public education better.
When I ran for city council, I didn't need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too.
Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.
And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.
I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening.
We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.
As for my running mate, you can be certain that wherever he goes, and whoever is listening, John McCain is the same man. I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment.< br>
And I've learned quickly, these past few days, that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.
But here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion - I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country. Americans expect us to go to Washington for the right reasons, and not just to mingle with the right people.
Politics isn't just a game of clashing parties and competing interests.
The right reason is to challenge the status quo, to serve the common good, and to leave this nation better than we found it.
No one expects us to agree on everything.
But we are expected to govern with integrity, good will, clear convictions, and ... a servant's heart.
I pledge to all Americans that I will carry myself in this spirit as vice president of the United States. This was the spirit that brought me to the governor's office, when I took on the old politics as usual in Juneau ... when I stood up to the special interests, the lobbyists, big oil companies, and the good-ol' boys network.
Sudden and relentless reform never sits well with entrenched interests and power brokers. That's why true reform is so hard to achieve.
But with the support of the citizens of Alaska, we shook things up.
And in short order we put the government of our state back on the side of the people.
I came to office promising major ethics reform, to end the culture of self-dealing. And today, that ethics reform is the law.
While I was at it, I got rid of a few things in the governor's office that I didn't believe our citizens should have to pay for.
That luxury jet was over the top. I put it on eBay.
I also drive myself to work.
And I thought we could muddle through without the governor's personal chef - although I've got to admit that sometimes my kids sure miss her. I came to office promising to control spending - by request if possible and by veto if necessary.
Senator McCain also promises to use the power of veto in defense of the public interest - and as a chief executive, I can assure you it works.
Our state budget is under control.
We have a surplus.
And I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending: nearly half a billion dollars in vetoes.
I suspended the state fuel tax, and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress.
I told the Congress "thanks, but no thanks," for that Bridge to Nowhere.
If our state wanted a bridge, we'd build it ourselves. When oil and gas prices went up dramatically, and filled up the state treasury, I sent a large share of that revenue back where it belonged - directly to the people of Alaska.
And despite fierce opposition from oil company lobbyists, who kind of liked things the way they were, we broke their monopoly on power and resources.
As governor, I insisted on competition and basic fairness to end their control of our state and return it to the people.
I fought to bring about the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history.
And when that deal was struck, we began a nearly forty billion dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence.
That pipeline, when the last section is laid and its valves are opened, will lead America one step farther away from dependence on dangerous foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart.
The stakes for our nation could not be higher.
When a hurricane strikes in the Gulf of Mexico, this country should not be so dependent on imported oil that we are forced to draw from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
And families cannot throw away more and more of their paychecks on gas and heating oil.
With Russia wanting to control a vital pipeline in the Caucasus, and to divide and intimidate our European allies by using energy as a weapon, we cannot leave ourselves at the mercy of foreign suppliers.
To confront the threat that Iran might seek to cut off nearly a fifth of world energy supplies ... or that terrorists might strike again at the Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia ... or that Venezuela might shut off its oil deliveries ... we Americans need to produce more of our own oil and gas.
And take it from a gal who knows the North Slope of Alaska: we've got lots of both.
Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America's energy problems - as if we all didn't know that already.
But the fact that drilling won't solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all.
Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we're going to lay more pipelines ... build more new-clear plants ... create jobs with clean coal ... and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources.
We need American energy resources, brought to you by American ingenuity, and produced by American workers. I've noticed a pattern with our opponent.
Maybe you have, too.
We've all heard his dramatic speeches before devoted followers.
And there is much to like and admire about our opponent.
But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform - not even in the state senate.
This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word "victory" except when he's talking about his own campaign. But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed ... when the roar of the crowd fades away ... when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot - what exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make government bigger ... take more of your money ... give you more orders from Washington ... and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world. America needs more energy ... our opponent is against producing it.
Victory in Iraq is finally in sight ... he wants to forfeit.
Terrorist states are seeking new-clear weapons without delay ... he wants to meet them without preconditions.
Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America ... he's worried that someone won't read them their rights? Government is too big ... he wants to grow it.
Congress spends too much ... he promises more.
Taxes are too high ... he wants to raise them. His tax increases are the fine print in his economic plan, and let me be specific.
The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes ... raise payroll taxes ... raise investment income taxes ... raise the death tax ... raise business taxes ... and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars. My sister Heather and her husband have just built a service station that's now opened for business - like millions of others who run small businesses.
How are they going to be any better off if taxes go up? Or maybe you're trying to keep your job at a plant in Michigan or Ohio ... or create jobs with clean coal from Pennsylvania or West Virginia ... or keep a small farm in the family right here in Minnesota.
How are you going to be better off if our opponent adds a massive tax burden to the American economy? Here's how I look at the choice Americans face in this election.
In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers.
And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.
They're the ones whose names appear on laws and landmark reforms, not just on buttons and banners, or on self-designed presidential seals.
Among politicians, there is the idealism of high-flown speechmaking, in which crowds are stirringly summoned to support great things.
And then there is the idealism of those leaders, like John McCain, who actually do great things. They're the ones who are good for more than talk ... the ones we have always been able to count on to serve and defend America. Senator McCain's record of actual achievement and reform helps explain why so many special interests, lobbyists, and comfortable committee chairmen in Congress have fought the prospect of a McCain presidency - from the primary election of 2000 to this very day.
Our nominee doesn't run with the Washington herd.
He's a man who's there to serve his country, and not just his party.
A leader who's not looking for a fight, but is not afraid of one either. Harry Reid, the Majority Leader of the current do-nothing Senate, not long ago summed up his feelings about our nominee.
He said, quote, "I can't stand John McCain." Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps no accolade we hear this week is better proof that we've chosen the right man. Clearly what the Majority Leader was driving at is that he can't stand up to John McCain. That is only one more reason to take the maverick of the Senate and put him in the White House. My fellow citizens, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of "personal discovery." This world of threats and dangers is not just a community, and it doesn't just need an organizer.
And though both Senator Obama and Senator Biden have been going on lately about how they are always, quote, "fighting for you," let us face the matter squarely.
There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you ... in places where winning means survival and defeat means death ... and that man is John McCain. In our day, politicians have readily shared much lesser tales of adversity than the nightmare world in which this man, and others equally brave, served and suffered for their country.
It's a long way from the fear and pain and squalor of a six-by-four cell in Hanoi to the Oval Office.
But if Senator McCain is elected president, that is the journey he will have made.
It's the journey of an upright and honorable man - the kind of fellow whose name you will find on war memorials in small towns across this country, only he was among those who came home.
To the most powerful office on earth, he would bring the compassion that comes from having once been powerless ... the wisdom that comes even to the captives, by the grace of God ... the special confidence of those who have seen evil, and seen how evil is overcome. A fellow prisoner of war, a man named Tom Moe of Lancaster, Ohio, recalls looking through a pin-hole in his cell door as Lieutenant Commander John McCain was led down the hallway, by the guards, day after day.
As the story is told, "When McCain shuffled back from torturous interrogations, he would turn toward Moe's door and flash a grin and thumbs up" - as if to say, "We're going to pull through this." My fellow Americans, that is the kind of man America needs to see us through these next four years.
For a season, a gifted speaker can inspire with his words.
For a lifetime, John McCain has inspired with his deeds.
If character is the measure in this election ... and hope the theme ... and change the goal we share, then I ask you to join our cause. Join our cause and help America elect a great man as the next president of the United States.
