President Barack Obama
Democratic National
Convention
Time Warner
Cable Arena
Charlotte,
North Carolina
September 6,
2012
[White House Transcript]
10:24 P.M. EDT
MRS. OBAMA: I am so
thrilled and so honored and so proud to introduce the love of my life,
the father of our two girls, and the President of the United States of
America -- Barack Obama. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank
you. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you so much.
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more
years! Four more years! Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much. Thank you.
(Applause.) Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
Michelle, I love you
so much. A few nights ago, everybody was reminded just what a
lucky
man I am. (Applause.) Malia and Sasha, we are so proud of
you. And,
yes, you do have to go to school in the morning.
(Laughter.)
And, Joe Biden, thank
you for being the very best Vice President I could have ever hoped for,
and being a strong and loyal friend. (Applause.)
Madam Chairwoman, delegates, I accept your nomination for President of
the United States. (Applause.)
Now, the first time I
addressed this convention in 2004, I was a younger man, a Senate
candidate from Illinois, who spoke about hope -- not blind optimism,
not wishful thinking, but hope in the face of difficulty;
hope in the face of uncertainty; that dogged faith in the future which
has pushed this nation forward, even when the odds are great, even when
the road is long.
Eight years later,
that hope has been tested by the cost of war, by one of the worst
economic crises in history, and by political gridlock that’s left us
wondering whether it’s still even possible to tackle the
challenges of our time.
I know campaigns can
seem small, even silly sometimes. Trivial things become big
distractions. Serious issues become sound bites. The truth
gets
buried under an avalanche of money and advertising. If you’re
sick of hearing me approve this message, believe me, so am I.
(Laughter and applause.)
But when all is said
and done -- when you pick up that ballot to vote -- you will face the
clearest choice of any time in a generation. Over the next few
years,
big decisions will be made in Washington on jobs,
the economy, taxes and deficits, energy, education, war and peace --
decisions that will have a huge impact on our lives and on our
children’s lives for decades to come.
And on every issue,
the choice you face won’t just be between two candidates or two
parties. It will be a choice between two different paths for
America,
a choice between two fundamentally different visions for
the future.
Ours is a fight to
restore the values that built the largest middle class and the
strongest economy the world has ever known -- (applause) -- the
values
my grandfather defended as a soldier in Patton’s Army, the
values that drove my grandmother to work on a bomber assembly line
while he was gone.
They knew they were
part of something larger -- a nation that triumphed over fascism and
depression; a nation where the most innovative businesses turned out
the world’s best products. And everyone shared in that
pride and success, from the corner office to the factory floor.
My grandparents were
given the chance to go to college, buy their own home, and fulfill the
basic bargain at the heart of America’s story -- the promise that hard
work will pay off, that responsibility will be rewarded,
that everyone gets a fair shot and everyone does their fair share and
everyone plays by the same rules from Main Street to Wall Street to
Washington, D.C. (Applause.)
And I ran for
President because I saw that basic bargain slipping away. I began
my
career helping people in the shadow of a shuttered steel mill at a time
when too many good jobs were starting to move overseas.
And by 2008, we had seen nearly a decade in which families struggled
with costs that kept rising but paychecks that didn’the; folks racking
up more and more debt just to make the mortgage or pay tuition, put gas
in the car or food on the table. And when the
house of cards collapsed in the Great Recession, millions of innocent
Americans lost their jobs, their homes, their life savings -- a tragedy
from which we’re still fighting to recover.
Now, our friends down
in Tampa at the Republican Convention were more than happy to talk
about everything they think is wrong with America. But they
didn’t
have much to say about how they’d make it right.
(Applause.)
They want your vote, but they don’t want you to know their plan.
And
that’s because all they have to offer is the same prescriptions they’ve
had for the last 30 years -- Have a surplus? Try a tax cut.
Deficit
too high? Try another. Feel a cold coming
on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations and call us in
the
morning. (Applause.)
Now, I’ve cut taxes
for those who need it -- middle-class families, small businesses.
But
I don’t believe that another round of tax breaks for millionaires will
bring good jobs to our shores or pay down our deficit.
I don’t believe that firing teachers or kicking students off financial
aid will grow the economy, or help us compete with the scientists and
engineers coming out of China. (Applause.)
After all we’ve been
through, I don’t believe that rolling back regulations on Wall Street
will help the small businesswoman expand or the laid-off construction
worker keep his home.
We have been there. We’ve tried that and we’re not going
back. We are moving forward, America. (Applause.)
Now, I won’t pretend
the path I’m offering is quick or easy. I never have. You didn’t
elect
me to tell you what you wanted to hear. You elected me to tell
you the
truth. (Applause.)
And the truth is it
will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have
built up over decades. It will require common effort and shared
responsibility, and the kind of bold, persistent experimentation
that Franklin Roosevelt pursued during the only crisis worse than this
one. (Applause.) And, by the way, those of us who carry on
his
party’s legacy should remember that not every problem can be remedied
with another government program or dictate from Washington.
But know this, America
-- our problems can be solved. (Applause.) Our challenges
can be
met. The path we offer may be harder, but it leads to a better
place.
And I’m asking you to choose that future. (Applause.)
I’m asking you to
rally around a set of goals for your country -- goals in manufacturing,
energy, education, national security, and the deficit -- real,
achievable plans that will lead to new jobs, more opportunity
and rebuild this economy on a stronger foundation. That’s
what we can
do in the next four years -- and that is why I’m running for a second
term as President of the United States. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years!
THE PRESIDENT: We can
choose a future where we export more products and outsource fewer
jobs. After a decade that was defined by what we bought and
borrowed,
we’re getting back to basics, and doing what America
has always done best: We are making things again.
(Applause.)
I’ve met workers in
Detroit and Toledo -- (applause) -- who feared they’d never build
another American car. And today, they can’t build them fast
enough,
because we reinvented a dying auto industry that’s back
on the top of the world. (Applause.)
I’ve worked with
business leaders who are bringing jobs back to America -- not because
our workers make less pay, but because we make better products.
Because we work harder and smarter than anyone else.
(Applause.)
I’ve signed trade
agreements that are helping our companies sell more goods to millions
of new customers -- goods that are stamped with three proud
words:
Made in America. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: U.S.A! U.S.A.!
U.S.A.!
THE PRESIDENT: And after a decade of
decline, this country created over half a million manufacturing jobs in
the last two and a half years.
And now you have a
choice: We can give more tax breaks to corporations that ship
jobs
overseas, or we can start rewarding companies that open new plants and
train new workers and create new jobs here, in the United
States of America. (Applause.) We can help big factories
and small
businesses double their exports, and if we choose this path, we can
create a million new manufacturing jobs in the next four years.
You
can make that happen. You can choose that future.
You can choose the
path where we control more of our own energy. After 30 years of
inaction, we raised fuel standards so that by the middle of the next
decade, cars and trucks will go twice as far on a gallon of
gas. (Applause.) We have doubled our use of renewable
energy, and
thousands of Americans have jobs today building wind turbines and
long-lasting batteries. In the last year alone, we cut oil
imports by
1 million barrels a day -- more than any administration
in recent history. And today, the United States of America is
less
dependent on foreign oil than at any time in the last two
decades.
(Applause.)
So now you have a
choice -- between a strategy that reverses this progress, or one that
builds on it. We’ve opened millions of new acres for oil and gas
exploration in the last three years, and we’ll open more.
But unlike my opponent, I will not let oil companies write this
country’s energy plan, or endanger our coastlines, or collect another
$4 billion in corporate welfare from our taxpayers. We’re
offering a
better path. (Applause.)
We’re offering a
better path, where we -- a future where we keep investing in wind and
solar and clean coal; where farmers and scientists harness new biofuels
to power our cars and trucks; where construction workers
build homes and factories that waste less energy; where we develop a
hundred-year supply of natural gas that’s right beneath our feet.
If
you choose this path, we can cut our oil imports in half by 2020 and
support more than 600,000 new jobs in natural gas
alone. (Applause.)
And, yes, my plan will
continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet --
because climate change is not a hoax. More droughts and floods
and
wildfires are not a joke. They are a threat to our
children’s future. And in this election, you can do something
about
it. (Applause.)
You can choose a
future where more Americans have the chance to gain the skills they
need to compete, no matter how old they are or how much money they
have. Education was the gateway to opportunity for me. It
was the gateway for Michelle. It was the gateway for most of
you. And
now more than ever, it is the gateway to a middle-class life.
For the first time in
a generation, nearly every state has answered our call to raise their
standards for teaching and learning. Some of the worst schools in
the
country have made real gains in math and reading.
Millions of students are paying less for college today because we
finally took on a system that wasted billions of taxpayer dollars on
banks and lenders. (Applause.)
And now you have a
choice -- we can gut education, or we can decide that in the United
States of America, no child should have her dreams deferred because of
a crowded classroom or a crumbling school. (Applause.)
No family should have to set aside a college acceptance letter because
they don’t have the money. No company should have to look for
workers
overseas because they couldn’t find any with the right skills here at
home. That’s not our future. That is not our
future. (Applause.)
And government has a
role in this. But teachers must inspire; principals must lead;
parents
must instill a thirst for learning. And, students, you’ve got to
do
the work. (Applause.) And together, I promise you,
we can out-educate and out-compete any nation on Earth.
(Applause.)
So help me. Help me
recruit 100,000 math and science teachers within 10 years and improve
early-childhood education. Help give 2 million workers the chance
to
learn skills at their community college that will
lead directly to a job. (Applause.) Help us work with colleges
and
universities to cut in half the growth of tuition costs over the next
10 years. We can meet that goal together. You can choose
that future
for America. (Applause.) That’s our future.
In a world of new
threats and new challenges, you can choose leadership that has been
tested and proven. Four years ago, I promised to end the war in
Iraq.
We did. (Applause.) I promised to refocus on the terrorists
who actually attacked us on 9/11. And we have.
(Applause.) We’ve
blunted the Taliban’s momentum in Afghanistan, and in 2014, our longest
war will be over. (Applause.)
A new tower rises above the New York skyline; al Qaeda is on the path
to defeat; and Osama bin Laden is dead. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
THE PRESIDENT:
Tonight, we pay tribute to the Americans who still serve in harm’s
way. We are forever in debt to a generation whose sacrifice has
made
this country safer and more respected. We will never forget
you. And so long as I’m Commander-in-Chief, we will sustain the
strongest military the world has ever known. (Applause.)
When you
take off the uniform, we will serve you as well as you’ve served us --
because no one who fights for this country should have
to fight for a job, or a roof over their heads, or the care that they
need when they come home. (Applause.)
Around the world,
we’ve strengthened old alliances and forged new coalitions to stop the
spread of nuclear weapons. We’ve reasserted our power across the
Pacific and stood up to China on behalf of our workers.
From Burma to Libya to South Sudan, we have advanced the rights and
dignity of all human beings -- men and women; Christians and Muslims
and Jews. (Applause.)
But for all the
progress that we’ve made, challenges remain. Terrorist plots must be
disrupted. Europe’s crisis must be contained. Our
commitment to
Israel’s security must not waver, and neither must our pursuit
of peace. (Applause.) The Iranian government must face a
world that
stays united against its nuclear ambitions. The historic change
sweeping across the Arab world must be defined not by the iron fist of
a dictator or the hate of extremists, but by the hopes
and aspirations of ordinary people who are reaching for the same rights
that we celebrate here today. (Applause.)
So now we have a
choice. My opponent and his running mate are new to foreign
policy --
(laughter and applause) -- but from all that we’ve seen and heard, they
want to take us back to an era of blustering and blundering
that cost America so dearly.
After all, you don’t call Russia our number-one
enemy -- not al Qaeda -- Russia -- unless you’re still stuck in a Cold
War mind warp. (Applause.) You might not be ready for
diplomacy with
Beijing if you can’t visit the Olympics without
insulting our closest ally. (Applause.)
My opponent said that
it was "tragic" to end the war in Iraq. And he won’t tell us how
he’ll
end the war in Afghanistan. Well, I have -- and I will.
(Applause.)
And while my opponent would spend more money
on military hardware that our Joint Chiefs don’t even want, I will use
the money we’re no longer spending on war to pay down our debt and put
more people back to work rebuilding roads and
bridges and schools and runways. Because after two wars that have
cost
us thousands of live and over a trillion dollars, it’s time to do some
nation-building right here at home. (Applause.)
You can choose a future where we reduce our
deficit without sticking it to the middle class. Independent
experts
say that my plan would cut our deficit by $4 trillion. And last
summer
I worked with Republicans in Congress to cut
a billion [trillion] dollars in spending -- because those of us who
believe government can be a force for good should work harder than
anyone to reform it so that it’s leaner and more efficient and more
responsive to the American people. (Applause.)
I want to reform the tax code so that it’s
simple, fair, and asks the wealthiest households to pay higher taxes on
incomes over $250,000 -- the same rate we had when Bill Clinton was
President; the same rate when our economy created
nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest surplus in history and a whole
lot of millionaires to boot. (Applause.)
Now, I’m still eager to reach an agreement
based on the principles of my bipartisan debt commission. No
party has
a monopoly on wisdom. No democracy works without
compromise. I want
to get this done, and we can get it done. But
when Governor Romney and his friends in Congress tell us we can somehow
lower our deficits by spending trillions more on new tax breaks for the
wealthy, well, what did Bill Clinton call it -- you do the
arithmetic.
(Applause.) You do the math. (Applause.)
I refuse to go along with that and as long as
I’m President, I never will. (Applause.) I refuse to ask
middle-class
families to give up their deductions for owning a home or raising their
kids just to pay for another millionaire’s
tax cut. (Applause.)
I refuse to ask students to pay more for college,
or kick children out of Head Start programs, or eliminate health
insurance for millions of Americans who are poor and elderly or
disabled -- all so those with the most can pay less. I’m
not going along with that. (Applause.)
And I will never -- I will never -- turn
Medicare into a voucher. (Applause.) No American should
ever have to
spend their golden years at the mercy of insurance companies.
They
should retire with the care and the dignity that they
have earned. Yes, we will reform and strengthen Medicare for the
long
haul, but we’ll do it by reducing the cost of health care -- not by
asking seniors to pay thousands of dollars more. (Applause.)
And we will keep the promise of Social
Security by taking the responsible steps to strengthen it, not by
turning it over to Wall Street. (Applause.)
This is the choice we now face. This is
what
the election comes down to. Over and over, we’ve been told by our
opponents that bigger tax cuts and fewer regulations are the only way
-- that since government can’t do everything, it
should do almost nothing. If you can’t afford health insurance,
hope
that you don’t get sick. If a company releases toxic pollution
into
the air your children breathe, well, that’s the price of
progress. If
you can’t afford to start a business or go to
college, take my opponent’s advice and borrow money from your
parents.
(Laughter and applause.)
You know what, that’s not who we are.
That’s
not what this country’s about. As Americans, we believe we are
endowed
by our Creator with certain, inalienable rights -- rights that no man
or government can take away. We insist on
personal responsibility and we celebrate individual initiative.
We’re
not entitled to success -- we have to earn it. We honor the
strivers,
the dreamers, the risk-takers, the entrepreneurs who have always been
the driving force behind our free enterprise
system, the greatest engine of growth and prosperity that the world’s
ever known.
But we also believe in something called
citizenship. (Applause.) Citizenship: a word at the
very heart of
our founding; a word at the very essence of our democracy; the idea
that this country only works when we accept certain obligations
to one another and to future generations.
We believe that when a CEO pays his
autoworkers enough to buy the cars that they build, the whole company
does better. (Applause.) We believe that when a family can
no longer
be tricked into signing a mortgage they can’t afford,
that family is protected, but so is the value of other people’s homes
and so is the entire economy. (Applause.) We believe the
little girl
who’s offered an escape from poverty by a great teacher or a grant for
college could become the next Steve Jobs or
the scientist who cures cancer or the President of the United States,
and it is in our power to give her that chance. (Applause.)
We know that churches and charities can often
make more of a difference than a poverty program alone. We don’t
want
handouts for people who refuse to help themselves and we certainly
don’t want bailouts for banks that break the rules.
(Applause.) We don’t think that government can solve all of our
problems, but we don’t think that government is the source of all of
our problems -- any more than are welfare recipients, or corporations,
or unions, or immigrants, or gays, or any other group
we’re told to blame for our troubles. (Applause.)
Because, America, we understand that this
democracy is ours. We, the people, recognize that we have
responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound
together; that a freedom which asks only "what’s in it for me," a
freedom without commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity
or duty or patriotism is unworthy of our founding ideals and those who
died in their defense. (Applause.)
As citizens, we understand that America is
not about what can be done for us; it’s about what can be done by us,
together, through the hard and frustrating, but necessary work of
self-government. That’s what we believe. (Applause.)
So, you see, the election four years ago
wasn’t about me. It was about you. (Applause.) My
fellow citizens,
you were the change. (Applause.) You’re the reason there’s
a little
girl with a heart disorder in Phoenix who will get
the surgery she needs because an insurance company can’t limit her
coverage. You did that. (Applause.)
You’re the reason a young man in Colorado who
never thought he’d be able to afford his dream of earning a medical
degree is about to get that chance. You made that possible.
(Applause.)
You’re the reason a young immigrant who grew
up here and went to school here and pledged allegiance to our flag will
no
longer be deported from the only country she’s ever
called home
-- (applause) -- why selfless
soldiers won’t be kicked out of the military because of who they are or
who they love; why thousands of families have finally been able to say
to the loved ones who served us so bravely:
“Welcome home." "Welcome home.” You did that. You did
that. You did
that. (Applause.)
If you
turn away now -- if you buy into the cynicism that the change we fought
for isn’t possible, well, change will not happen. If you give up
on
the idea that your voice can make a difference,
then other voices will fill the void -- the lobbyists and special
interests; the people with the $10 million checks who are trying to buy
this election and those who are making it harder for you to vote;
Washington politicians who want to decide who you can
marry, or control health care choices that women should be making for
themselves. (Applause.)
Only you can make sure that doesn’t happen. Only
you have the power to move us forward.
(Applause.)
I recognize that times
have changed since I first spoke to this convention. The times
have
changed, and so have I. I’m no longer just a candidate. I’m
the
President. (Applause.)
And that means I know
what it means to send young Americans into battle, for I have held in
my arms the mothers and fathers of those who didn’t return. I’ve
shared the pain of families who’ve lost their homes,
and the frustration of workers who’ve lost their jobs.
If the critics are
right that I’ve made all my decisions based on polls, then I must not
be very good at reading them. (Laughter.) And while I’m
very proud of
what we’ve achieved together, I’m far more mindful
of my own failings, knowing exactly what Lincoln meant when he said, "I
have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction
that I had no place else to go." (Applause.)
But as
I stand here tonight, I have never been more hopeful about
America.
Not because I think I have all the answers. Not because I’m
naïve
about the magnitude of our challenges. I’m
hopeful because of you.
The
young woman I met at a science fair who won national recognition for
her biology research while living with her family at a homeless shelter
-- she gives me hope. (Applause.)
The
autoworker who won the lottery after his plant almost closed, but kept
coming to work every day, and bought flags for his whole town, and one
of the cars that he built to surprise his
wife -- he gives me hope. (Applause.)
The
family business in Warroad, Minnesota, that didn’t lay off a single one
of their 4,000 employees when the recession hit, even when their
competitors shut down dozens of plants, even
when it meant the owner gave up some perks and some pay because they
understood that their biggest asset was the community and the workers
who had helped build that business -- they give me hope.
(Applause.)
I think
about the young sailor I met at Walter Reed hospital, still recovering
from a grenade attack that would cause him to have his leg amputated
above the knee. Six months ago, we would
watch him walk into a White House dinner honoring those who served in
Iraq, tall and 20 pounds heavier, dashing in his uniform, with a big
grin on his face, sturdy on his new leg. And I remember how a few
months after that I would watch him on a bicycle,
racing with his fellow wounded warriors on a sparkling spring day,
inspiring other heroes who had just begun the hard path he had traveled
-- he gives me hope. He gives me hope.
(Applause.)
I don’t
know what party these men and women belong to. I don’t know if
they’ll
vote for me. But I know that their spirit defines us. They
remind me,
in the words of Scripture, that ours
is a "future filled with hope."
And if
you share that faith with me -- if you share that hope with me -- I ask
you tonight for your vote. (Applause.) If you reject the
notion that
this nation’s promise is reserved for
the few, your voice must be heard in this election. If you reject
the
notion that our government is forever beholden to the highest bidder,
you need to stand up in this election. (Applause.)
If you
believe that new plants and factories can dot our landscape, that new
energy can power our future, that new schools can provide ladders of
opportunity to this nation of dreamers;
if you believe in a country where everyone gets a fair shot, and
everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules --
then I need you to vote this November. (Applause.)
America,
I never said this journey would be easy, and I won’t promise that
now.
Yes, our path is harder, but it leads to a better place. Yes, our
road
is longer, but we travel it together.
We don’t turn back. We leave no one behind. We pull each
other up.
We draw strength from our victories, and we learn from our mistakes,
but we keep our eyes fixed on that distant horizon, knowing that
Providence is with us, and that we are surely blessed
to be citizens of the greatest nation on Earth.
Thank you. God bless you. (Applause.)
And God bless these United States. (Applause.)
END
11:04
P.M. EDT
Romney for President Issues Statement on
President Obama’s Speech To The Democratic National Convention
BOSTON, MA
– Romney for President Campaign Manager Matt Rhoades released the
following statement in response to President Obama’s speech to the
Democratic National Convention:
“Tonight
President Obama laid out the choice in this election, making the case
for more of the same policies that haven't worked for the past four
years. He offered more promises, but he hasn’t kept the promises he
made four years ago. Americans will hold President Obama accountable
for his record – they know they’re not better off and that it’s time to
change direction. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will restore America’s
promise and deliver a better future for our country.”
###