Watch President Clinton Accept the Democratic Nomination (Full Speech)

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] Governor Richards chairman Brown mayor denin our great host my fellow delegates and my fellow Americans I am so proud of Al Gore he said he came here tonight because he always wanted to do the warmup for Elvis well I ran for president this year for one reason and one reason only I wanted to come back to this convention and finished that speech I started four years ago well last night Mario Cuomo taught us how a real nominating speech should be given he also made it clear why we have to steer our ship of State on a new course tonight I want to talk with you about my hope for the future my faith in the American people and my vision of the kind of country we can build together together I salute the good men who were my campaign companions on the campaign Trail Tom Parkin Bob carry Doug Wilder Jerry Brown and Paul SAS one sentence in the platform we built says it all the most important family policy Urban policy labor policy minority policy and foreign policy America can have is an expanding entrepreneurial economy of high wage high skill jobs and so in the name of all those who do the work pay the taxes raise the kids and play the rules in the name of the hardworking Americans who make up our forgotten middle class I proudly accept your nomination for president of the United States I am a product of that middle class and when I am president you will be forgotten no more we meet at a special moment in history you and I the Cold War is Over Soviet communism has collapsed and our values Freedom democracy individual rights free enterprise they have triumphed all around the world and yet just as we have won the Cold War abroad we are losing losing the battles for Economic Opportunity and social justice here at home now that we have changed the world it's time to change America I have news for the forces of greed and the Defenders of the status quo your time has come and gone it's time for a change in America tonight 10 million of our fellow Americans are out of work tens of millions more work harder for lower pay the incumbent President says unemployment always goes up a little before a recovery begins but unemployment only has to go up by one more person before a real recovery can begin and Mr President you are that man this election is about putting power back in your hands and putting the government back on your side it's about putting people first you know I've said that all across the country and whenever I do someone always comes back at me as a young man did just this week at a town meeting at the Henry Street settlement on the Lower East Side of Manhattan he said that sounds good bill but you're a politician why should I trust you tonight as plainly as I can I want to tell you who I am what I believe and where I want to lead America I never met my father he was killed in a car wreck on a rainy Road 3 months before I was born driving from Chicago to Arkansas to see my mother after that my mother had to support us so we lived with my grandparents while she went back to Louisiana to study nursing I can still see her clearly tonight Through The Eyes of a three-year-old kneeling at the railroad station and weeping as she put me back on the train to Arkansas with my grandmother she endured that pain because she knew her sacrifice was the only way she could support me and give me a better life my mother taught me she taught me about family and hard work and sacrifice she held steady through tragedy after tragedy and she held our family my brother and I together through tough times as a child I watched her go off to work each day at a time when it wasn't always easy to be a working mother as adult I've watched her fight off breast cancer and again she has taught me a lesson in Courage and always always she taught me to fight that's why I'll fight to create highp paying jobs so that parents can afford to raise their children today that's why I'm so committed to make sure every American gets the health care that saved my mother's life and that Women's Health Care gets the same attention as men's that's why I'll fight to make sure women in this country receive respect and dignity whether they work in the home out of the home or both you want to know where I get my fighting Spirit it all started with my mother thank you mother I love you when I think about opportunity for all Americans I think about my grandfather he ran a country store and our little town of Hope there were no food stamps back then so when his customers whether they were white or black who worked hard and did the best they could came in with no money well he gave them food anyway just made a note of it so did I before I was big enough to see over the counter I learned from him to look up to people other folks look down on my grandfather just had a high school education a grade school education but in that Country Store he taught me more about equality in the eyes of the Lord than all my professors at Georgetown more about the intrinsic worth of every individual than all the philosophers at Oxford more about the need for Equal justice under the law than all the jurist at Yale law law school if you want to know where I come by the passionate commitment I have to Bringing people together without regard to race it all started with my grandfather I learned a lot from another person too a person who for more than 20 years has worked hard to help our children paying the price of time to make sure our schools don't fail them someone who traveled our state for a year studying learning listening going to PTA meetings school board meetings Town Hall meetings putting together a package of school reforms recognized around the nation doing it all while building a distinguished legal career and being a wonderful loving mother that person is my wife [Applause] Hillary taught me she taught me that all children can learn and that each of us has a duty to help them do it so if you want to know why I care so much about our children and our future it all started with Hillary I love you frankly I'm fed up with politicians in Washington lecturing the rest of us about family values our families have values but our government doesn't I want an America where family values live in our actions not just in our speeches an America that includes every family every traditional family and every extended family every two parent family every single parent family and every Foster family every family I do want to say something to the fathers in this country who have chosen to abandon their children by neglecting their child support take responsibility for your children or we will force you to do so because governments don't raise children parents do and you should and I want to say something to every child in America tonight who's out there trying to grow up without a father or a mother I know how you feel you're special too you matter to America and don't you ever let anybody tell you you can't become whatever you want to be and if other politicians make you feel like you're not a part of their family come on and be part of ours [Applause] [Applause] the thing that makes me angriest about what's gone wrong in the last 12 years is that our government has has lost touch with our values while our politicians continue to shout about them I'm tired of it I was raised to believe the American dream was built on rewarding hard work but we have seen the folks in Washington turn the American ethic on its head for too long those who play by rules and keep the faith have gotten the shaft and those who cut corners and cut deals have been rewarded people are working harder than ever spending less time with their children working nights and weekends at their jobs instead of going to PTA and little league or Scouts and their incomes are still going down their taxes are still going going up and the cost of Health Care housing and education are going through the roof meanwhile more and more of our best people are falling into poverty even though they work 40 hours a week our people are pleading for change but government is in the way it's been hijacked by privileged private interests it's forgotten who really pays the bills around here it's taken more of your money and giving you less in return we have got to go beyond the brain dead politics in Washington and give our people the kind of government they deserve a government that works for them a president a president ought to be a powerful force for progress but right now I know how President Lincoln felt when General mclen wouldn't attack in the Civil War he asked him if you're not going to use your army may I borrow it and so I say George Bush if you won't use your power to help America step aside I will [Applause] our [Applause] country our country is falling behind the president is caught in the grip of a failed economic theory we have gone from 1 to 13th in the world in wages since Reagan and Bush have been in office four years ago candidate Bush said America is a special place not just another Pleasant Country somewhere on the UN roll call between Albania and Zimbabwe now under President Bush America has an unpleasant economy stuck somewhere between Germany and Sri Lanka and for most Americans Mr President Life's a lot less kind and a lot less gentle than it was before your Administration took office [Applause] listen do it some more [Applause] our country has fallen so far so fast that just a few months ago the Japanese prime minister actually said he felt Sympathy for the United States sympathy when I am your president the rest the rest of the world will not look down on us with pity but up to us with respect again what is George Bush doing about our economic problems now four years ago he promised 15 million new jobs by this time and he's over 14 million short Al Gore and I can do better he has raised taxes on the people driving pickup trucks and lower taxes on the people riding in limousines we can do better he promised to balance the budget but he hasn't even tried in fact the budget he has submitted to Congress nearly double the debt even worse he wasted billions and reduced our investments in education and jobs we can do better so if you are sick and tired of a government that doesn't work to create jobs if you're sick and tired of a tax system that's stacked against you if you're sick and tired of exploding debt and reduced investments in our future or if like the great civil rights Pioneer Fanny L Hammer you're just plain old sick and tired of being sick and tired then join us work with us win with us and we can make our country the country it was meant to be now George Bush talks a good game but he has no game plan to rebuild America from the cities to the suburbs to the countryside so that we can compete and win again in the global economy I do he won't take on the big insurance companies and the bureaucracies to control Health cost and give us affordable health care for all Americans but I will he won't even implement the recommendations of his own Commission on AIDS but I will he won't streamline the federal government and change the way it works cut a 100,000 bureaucrats and put a 100,000 new police officers on the streets of American cities but I will he's never balanced a government budget but I have 11 times he won't break the strangle hold the special interests have on our elections and the lobbyists have on our government but I will he won't give mothers and fathers the simple chance to take some time off from work when a baby is born or a parent is sick but I will we're losing our farms at a rid rate and he has no commitment to keep Family Farms in the family but I [Applause] do he's talked a lot about drugs but he hasn't helped people on the front line to wage that War on Drugs and crime but I will he won't take the lead in protecting the environment and creating new jobs and environmental Technologies for the 21st century but I will and you know what else he doesn't have Al Gore and I do just in case just in case you didn't notice that's Gore with an e on the end and George Bush George Bush won't guarantee a woman's right to choose I will hear me now I am not pro-abortion I am pro- Choice strong I believe this difficult and painful decision should be left to the women of America I hope the right to privacy can be protected and we will never again have to discuss this issue on political platforms but I am old enough to remember what it was like before Ro v Wade and I do not want to return to the time when we make criminals of women and their doctors jobs education Health Care these are not just commitments from my lips they are the work of my life our priorities must be clear we will put our people first again but priorities without a clear plan of action are just empty words to turn our rhetoric into reality we've got to change the way government does business fundamentally until we do we'll continue to pour billions of dollars down the drain the Republicans have campaigned against big government for a generation but have you noticed they've run this big government for a gener ation and they haven't changed a thing they don't want to fix government they still want to campaign against it and that's all but my fellow Democrats it's time for us to realize that we've got some changing to do too there is not a program in government for every problem and if we want to use government to to help people we have got to make it work again because we are committed in this convention and in this platform to making these changes we are as Democrats in the words that Ross perau himself spoke today a revitalized Democratic Party I am well aware that all those millions of people who rallied to Ross pero cause wanted to be in an army of Patriots for for change tonight I say to them join us and together we will Revitalize America now I don't have all the answers but I do know the old ways don't work Trickle down economics has sure failed and big bureaucracies both private and public they fail too that's why we need a new approach to government a government that offers more empowerment and less entitlement more choices for young people in the schools they attend in the public schools they attend and more choices for the elderly and for people with disabilities and the long-term care they receive a government that is leaner not meaner a government that expands opportunity not bureaucracy a government that understands that jobs must come from growth in a vibrant and vital system of free enterprise I call this approach a new Covenant a solemn agreement between people and their government based not simply on what each of us can take but what all of us must give to our nation we offer our people a new Choice based on Old values we offer opportunity we we demand responsibility we will build an American Community again the choice we offer is not conservative or liberal in many ways it's not even Republican or Democratic it's different it's new and it will work it will work because it is rooted in the vision and the values of the American people of all the things George Bush has ever said that I disagree with perhaps the thing that bothers me most is how he derides and degrades the American tradition of seeing and seeking a better future he mocks it as the vision [Applause] thing but just remember what the scripture says where there is no vision the people perish I hope I hope nobody in this great hall tonight or in our Beloved Country has to go through tomorrow without a Vision I hope no one ever tries to raise a child without a vision I hope nobody ever starts a business or plants a crop in the ground without a vision for where there is no vision the people perish one of the reasons we have so many children in so much trouble in so many places in this nation is because because they have seen so little opportunity so little responsibility so little loving caring community that they literally cannot imagine the life we are calling them to lead and so I say again where there is no vision America will perish what is the vision of our New Covenant an America with millions of new jobs and dozens of new Industries moving confidently toward the 21st century an America that says to entrepreneurs and business people we will give you more incentives and more opportunity than ever before to develop the skills of your workers and to create American jobs and American Wealth in the new global economy me but you must do your part you must be responsible American companies must act like American companies again exporting products not jobs that's what this new covenant's all about an America in which the doors of college are thrown open once again to the Sons and Daughters of stenographers and Steel Workers we'll say everybody can borrow the money to go to college but you must do your part you must pay it back from your paychecks are better yet by going back home and serving your communities just think of it think of it millions of energetic young men and women serving their country by policing the streets or teaching the children or caring for the sick or working with the elderly and people with disabilities are helping help young people to stay off drugs and out of gangs giving us all a sense of New Hope and Limitless possibilities that's what this new covenant is all about an America in which Health Care is a right not a privilege in which we say to all of our people your government has the courage finally to take on the health care profiteers and make Health Care affordable for every family but you must do your part preventive care prenatal care childhood immunization saving lives saving money saving families from heartbreak that's what the New Covenant is all about an America in which middle class incomes not middle class taxes are going up an America yes in which the wealthiest few those making over $200,000 a year are asked to pay their fair share an America in which the rich are not soaked but the middle class is not drowned either responsibility starts at the top that's what the New Covenant is all about an America where we end welfare as we know it we will say to those on welfare you will have and you deserve the opportunity through training and education through child care and medical coverage to liberate yourself but then when you can you must work because welfare should be a che Second Chance not a way of life that's what the New Covenant is all about an America with the world's strongest defense ready and willing to use Force when necessary and America at the Forefront of the global effort to preserve and protect our common environment and promoting Global growth an America that will not cuddle tyrants from Baghdad to Beijing an America that Champions the cause of freedom and democracy from Eastern Europe to Southern Africa and in our own hemisphere in Haiti and Cuba the end of the Cold War permits us to reduce defense spending while still maintaining the strongest defense in the world but we must plow back every dollar of Defense cuts into building American jobs right here at home I know well that the world needs a strong America but we have learned that strength begins at home but the New Covenant is about more than opportunities and responsibilities for you and your families it's also about our common Community tonight every one of you knows deep in your heart that we are too divided it is time to heal America and so we must say to every American look beyond the stereotypes that blind us we need each other all of us we need each other we don't have a person to waste and yet for too long politicians have told the most of us that are doing all right that what's really wrong with America is the rest of us them them the minorities them the Liberals them the poor them the homeless them the people with disabilities them the gays we've gotten to where we've nearly themed ourselves to death them and them and them but this is America there is no them there is only Us One Nation Under God indivisible with liberty and justice for [Applause] all that is our Pledge of Allegiance and that's what the New Covenant is all about how do I know we can come together and make change happen because I have seen it in my own state in Arkansas we're working together and we're making progress no there's no Arkansas Miracle but there are a lot of miraculous people and because of them our schools are better our wages are higher our factories are busier our water is cleaner and our budget is balanced we're moving ahead I wish I wish I could say the same thing about America under the incumbent president he took the richest country in the world and brought it [Music] down we took one of the poorest states in America and lifted it up and so I say all to all of those in this campaign season who would criticize Arkansas come on down especially especially if you're from Washington come on down sure you'll see us struggling against some of the problem problems we haven't solved yet but you will also see a lot of great people doing amazing things and you might even learn a thing or two in the end my fellow Americans This New Covenant simply asks us all to be Americans again oldfashioned Americans for a new time opportunity responsibility Community when we pull together America will pull ahead throughout the whole history of these country we have seen time and time and time again when we are united we are unstoppable we can seize this moment make get exciting and energizing and heroic to be American again we can renew our faith in each other and in ourselves we can restore our sense of unity and Community as the scripture says our eyes have not yet seen nor our ears heard nor our minds imagined what we can build but I I can't do this alone no president can we must do it together it won't be easy and it won't be quick we didn't get into this mess overnight and we won't get out of it overnight but we can do it with commitment creativity diversity and dve we can do it we can do it we can do it we can do it we can do it we can do it we can do [Applause] it I want every person in this Hall and every person in this land to reach out and join us in a great new adventure to chart a bold new future as a teenager I heard John Kennedy's summons to citizenship and then as a student at Georgetown I heard that call clarified by a professor named Carol Quigley who said to us that America was the greatest nation in history because our people people had always believed in two things that tomorrow can be better than today and that every one of us has a personal moral responsibility to make it so that that kind of future entered my life the night our daughter Chelsea was born as I stood in the delivery room I was overcome with the thought that God had given me a blessing my own father never knew the chance to hold my child in my arms somewhere at this very moment a child is being born in America Let It Be Our cause to give that child a h a happy home a healthy family and a hopeful future Let It Be Our cause to see that that child has a chance to live to the fullest of her god-given capacities let it let it be our cause to see that child grow up strong and secure braced by her challenges but never struggling alone with family and friends and a faith that in America no one is left out no one is Left Behind let it be let it be our cause that when this child is able she gives something back to her children her community and her country Let It Be Our cause that we give this child a country that is coming together not coming apart a country of boundless hopes and endless dreams a country that once again lifts its people and inspires the world let that be our cause our commitment and our new covenant my fellow Americans I end tonight where it all began for me I still believe in a place called hope God bless you and God bless America [Music] [Applause] [Music] you wake [Music] upile

Channel: Clinton Foundation

Views: 174,416

Keywords: democratic, national, convention, president, clinton, acceptance, accept, nomination, 1992, presidency

Id: 8EXNrdzwB4M

Length: 53min 53sec (3233 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 16 2009