National Conventions Word Usage

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ho={l:"r",r:"l"};d3.geom.delaunay=function(e){var t=e.map(function(){return[]}),n=[];return oi(e,function(n){t[n.region.l.index].push(e[n.region.r.index])}),t.forEach(function(t,r){var i=e[r],s=i[0],o=i[1];t.forEach(function(e){e.angle=Math.atan2(e[0]-s,e[1]-o)}),t.sort(function(e,t){return e.angle-t.angle});for(var u=0,a=t.length-1;u<a;u++)n.push([i,t[u],t[u+1]])}),n},d3.geom.quadtree=function(e,t,n,r,i){function s(e,t,n,r,i,s){if(isNaN(t.x)||isNaN(t.y))return;if(e.leaf){var u=e.point;u?Math.abs(u.x-t.x)+Math.abs(u.y-t.y)<.01?o(e,t,n,r,i,s):(e.point=null,o(e,u,n,r,i,s),o(e,t,n,r,i,s)):e.point=t}else o(e,t,n,r,i,s)}function o(e,t,n,r,i,o){var u=(n+i)*.5,a=(r+o)*.5,f=t.x>=u,l=t.y>=a,c=(l<<1)+f;e.leaf=!1,e=e.nodes[c]||(e.nodes[c]=ui()),f?n=u:i=u,l?r=a:o=a,s(e,t,n,r,i,o)}var u,a=-1,f=e.length;f&&isNaN(e[0].x)&&(e=e.map(fi));if(arguments.length<5)if(arguments.length===3)i=r=n,n=t;else{t=n=Infinity,r=i=-Infinity;while(++a<f)u=e[a],u.x<t&&(t=u.x),u.y<n&&(n=u.y),u.x>r&&(r=u.x),u.y>i&&(i=u.y);var l=r-t,c=i-n;l>c?i=n+l:r=t+c}var h=ui();return h.add=function(e){s(h,e,t,n,r,i)},h.visit=function(e){ai(e,h,t,n,r,i)},e.forEach(h.add),h},d3.time={};var po=Date,vo=["Sunday","Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday","Saturday"];li.prototype={getDate:function(){return this._.getUTCDate()},getDay:function(){return this._.getUTCDay()},getFullYear:function(){return this._.getUTCFullYear()},getHours:function(){return this._.getUTCHours()},getMilliseconds:function(){return this._.getUTCMilliseconds()},getMinutes:function(){return this._.getUTCMinutes()},getMonth:function(){return this._.getUTCMonth()},getSeconds:function(){return this._.getUTCSeconds()},getTime:function(){return this._.getTime()},getTimezoneOffset:function(){return 0},valueOf:function(){return this._.valueOf()},setDate:function(){mo.setUTCDate.apply(this._,arguments)},setDay:function(){mo.setUTCDay.apply(this._,arguments)},setFullYear:function(){mo.setUTCFullYear.apply(this._,arguments)},setHours:function(){mo.setUTCHours.apply(this._,arguments)},setMilliseconds:function(){mo.setUTCMilliseconds.apply(this._,arguments)},setMinutes:function(){mo.setUTCMinutes.apply(this._,arguments)},setMonth:function(){mo.setUTCMonth.apply(this._,arguments)},setSeconds:function(){mo.setUTCSeconds.apply(this._,arguments)},setTime:function(){mo.setTime.apply(this._,arguments)}};var mo=Date.prototype,go="%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Y",yo="%m/%d/%y",bo="%H:%M:%S",wo=vo,Eo=wo.map(ci),So=["January","February","March","April","May","June","July","August","September","October","November","December"],xo=So.map(ci);d3.time.format=function(e){function t(t){var r=[],i=-1,s=0,o,u;while(++i<n)e.charCodeAt(i)==37&&(r.push(e.substring(s,i),(u=Po[o=e.charAt(++i)])?u(t):o),s=i+1);return r.push(e.substring(s,i)),r.join("")}var n=e.length;return t.parse=function(t){var n={y:1900,m:0,d:1,H:0,M:0,S:0,L:0},r=hi(n,e,t,0);if(r!=t.length)return null;"p"in n&&(n.H=n.H%12+n.p*12);var i=new po;return i.setFullYear(n.y,n.m,n.d),i.setHours(n.H,n.M,n.S,n.L),i},t.toString=function(){return e},t};var To=d3.format("02d"),No=d3.format("03d"),Co=d3.format("04d"),ko=d3.format("2d"),Lo=pi(wo),Ao=pi(Eo),Oo=pi(So),Mo=di(So),_o=pi(xo),Do=di(xo),Po={a:function(e){return Eo[e.getDay()]},A:function(e){return wo[e.getDay()]},b:function(e){return xo[e.getMonth()]},B:function(e){return So[e.getMonth()]},c:d3.time.format(go),d:function(e){return To(e.getDate())},e:function(e){return ko(e.getDate())},H:function(e){return To(e.getHours())},I:function(e){return To(e.getHours()%12||12)},j:function(e){return No(1+d3.time.dayOfYear(e))},L:function(e){return No(e.getMilliseconds())},m:function(e){return To(e.getMonth()+1)},M:function(e){return To(e.getMinutes())},p:function(e){return e.getHours()>=12?"PM":"AM"},S:function(e){return To(e.getSeconds())},U:function(e){return To(d3.time.sundayOfYear(e))},w:function(e){return e.getDay()},W:function(e){return To(d3.time.mondayOfYear(e))},x:d3.time.format(yo),X:d3.time.format(bo),y:function(e){return To(e.getFullYear()%100)},Y:function(e){return Co(e.getFullYear()%1e4)},Z:_i,"%":function(e){return"%"}},Ho={a:vi,A:mi,b:gi,B:yi,c:bi,d:Ci,e:Ci,H:ki,I:ki,L:Oi,m:Ni,M:Li,p:Mi,S:Ai,x:wi,X:Ei,y:xi,Y:Si},Bo=/^\s*\d+/,jo=d3.map({am:0,pm:1});d3.time.format.utc=function(e){function t(e){try{po=li;var t=new po;return t._=e,n(t)}finally{po=Date}}var n=d3.time.format(e);return t.parse=function(e){try{po=li;var t=n.parse(e);return t&&t._}finally{po=Date}},t.toString=n.toString,t};var Fo=d3.time.format.utc("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%LZ");d3.time.format.iso=Date.prototype.toISOString?Di:Fo,Di.parse=function(e){var t=new Date(e);return isNaN(t)?null:t},Di.toString=Fo.toString,d3.time.second=Pi(function(e){return new po(Math.floor(e/1e3)*1e3)},function(e,t){e.setTime(e.getTime()+Math.floor(t)*1e3)},function(e){return e.getSeconds()}),d3.time.seconds=d3.time.second.range,d3.time.seconds.utc=d3.time.second.utc.range,d3.time.minute=Pi(function(e){return new po(Math.floor(e/6e4)*6e4)},function(e,t){e.setTime(e.getTime()+Math.floor(t)*6e4)},function(e){return e.getMinutes()}),d3.time.minutes=d3.time.minute.range,d3.time.minutes.utc=d3.time.minute.utc.range,d3.time.hour=Pi(function(e){var t=e.getTimezoneOffset()/60;return new po((Math.floor(e/36e5-t)+t)*36e5)},function(e,t){e.setTime(e.getTime()+Math.floor(t)*36e5)},function(e){return e.getHours()}),d3.time.hours=d3.time.hour.range,d3.time.hours.utc=d3.time.hour.utc.range,d3.time.day=Pi(function(e){var t=new po(1970,0);return t.setFullYear(e.getFullYear(),e.getMonth(),e.getDate()),t},function(e,t){e.setDate(e.getDate()+t)},function(e){return e.getDate()-1}),d3.time.days=d3.time.day.range,d3.time.days.utc=d3.time.day.utc.range,d3.time.dayOfYear=function(e){var t=d3.time.year(e);return Math.floor((e-t-(e.getTimezoneOffset()-t.getTimezoneOffset())*6e4)/864e5)},vo.forEach(function(e,t){e=e.toLowerCase(),t=7-t;var n=d3.time[e]=Pi(function(e){return(e=d3.time.day(e)).setDate(e.getDate()-(e.getDay()+t)%7),e},function(e,t){e.setDate(e.getDate()+Math.floor(t)*7)},function(e){var n=d3.time.year(e).getDay();return Math.floor((d3.time.dayOfYear(e)+(n+t)%7)/7)-(n!==t)});d3.time[e+"s"]=n.range,d3.time[e+"s"].utc=n.utc.range,d3.time[e+"OfYear"]=function(e){var n=d3.time.year(e).getDay();return Math.floor((d3.time.dayOfYear(e)+(n+t)%7)/7)}}),d3.time.week=d3.time.sunday,d3.time.weeks=d3.time.sunday.range,d3.time.weeks.utc=d3.time.sunday.utc.range,d3.time.weekOfYear=d3.time.sundayOfYear,d3.time.month=Pi(function(e){return e=d3.time.day(e),e.setDate(1),e},function(e,t){e.setMonth(e.getMonth()+t)},function(e){return e.getMonth()}),d3.time.months=d3.time.month.range,d3.time.months.utc=d3.time.month.utc.range,d3.time.year=Pi(function(e){return e=d3.time.day(e),e.setMonth(0,1),e},function(e,t){e.setFullYear(e.getFullYear()+t)},function(e){return e.getFullYear()}),d3.time.years=d3.time.year.range,d3.time.years.utc=d3.time.year.utc.range;var Io=[1e3,5e3,15e3,3e4,6e4,3e5,9e5,18e5,36e5,108e5,216e5,432e5,864e5,1728e5,6048e5,2592e6,7776e6,31536e6],qo=[[d3.time.second,1],[d3.time.second,5],[d3.time.second,15],[d3.time.second,30],[d3.time.minute,1],[d3.time.minute,5],[d3.time.minute,15],[d3.time.minute,30],[d3.time.hour,1],[d3.time.hour,3],[d3.time.hour,6],[d3.time.hour,12],[d3.time.day,1],[d3.time.day,2],[d3.time.week,1],[d3.time.month,1],[d3.time.month,3],[d3.time.year,1]],Ro=[[d3.time.format("%Y"),function(e){return!0}],[d3.time.format("%B"),function(e){return e.getMonth()}],[d3.time.format("%b %d"),function(e){return e.getDate()!=1}],[d3.time.format("%a %d"),function(e){return e.getDay()&&e.getDate()!=1}],[d3.time.format("%I %p"),function(e){return e.getHours()}],[d3.time.format("%I:%M"),function(e){return e.getMinutes()}],[d3.time.format(":%S"),function(e){return e.getSeconds()}],[d3.time.format(".%L"),function(e){return e.getMilliseconds()}]],Uo=d3.scale.linear(),zo=Ii(Ro);qo.year=function(e,t){return Uo.domain(e.map(Ri)).ticks(t).map(qi)},d3.time.scale=function(){return Bi(d3.scale.linear(),qo,zo)};var Wo=qo.map(function(e){return[e[0].utc,e[1]]}),Xo=[[d3.time.format.utc("%Y"),function(e){return!0}],[d3.time.format.utc("%B"),function(e){return e.getUTCMonth()}],[d3.time.format.utc("%b %d"),function(e){return e.getUTCDate()!=1}],[d3.time.format.utc("%a %d"),function(e){return e.getUTCDay()&&e.getUTCDate()!=1}],[d3.time.format.utc("%I %p"),function(e){return e.getUTCHours()}],[d3.time.format.utc("%I:%M"),function(e){return e.getUTCMinutes()}],[d3.time.format.utc(":%S"),function(e){return e.getUTCSeconds()}],[d3.time.format.utc(".%L"),function(e){return e.getUTCMilliseconds()}]],Vo=Ii(Xo);Wo.year=function(e,t){return Uo.domain(e.map(zi)).ticks(t).map(Ui)},d3.time.scale.utc=function(){return Bi(d3.scale.linear(),Wo,Vo)}})();

index.css

#g-chart {
  overflow: hidden;
  position: relative;
}

#g-form {
  font: 16px sans-serif;
  text-align: center;
}

#g-form input {
  border-right: none;
  border-radius: 3px 0 0 3px;
  border: solid 1px #ccc;
  font: inherit;
  padding: 4px 8px;
  width: 223px;
  vertical-align: middle;
}

#g-form button {
  background: #004276;
  border: none;
  border-radius: 0 3px 3px 0;
  color: #fff;
  font: inherit;
  font-weight: bold;
  padding: 5px 8px;
  position: relative;
  top: 1px;
  width: 30px;
}

.g-legend {
  color: #999;
  font: 11px/1.3em sans-serif;
  height: 30px;
  margin-top: 15px;
  position: relative;
  text-align: center;
}

.g-arrow {
  position: absolute;
  width: 100px;
}

.word-count {
  width: 130px;
  margin-top: -8px;
}

.word-count.g-democrat {
  text-align: right;
}

.word-count.g-republican {
  text-align: left;
}

.g-arrow:before {
  position: absolute;
  font-size: 15px;
  font-style: normal;
  top: 7px;
}

.g-democrat.g-arrow {
  left: 170px;
  padding-left: 40px;
}

.g-arrow.g-democrat:before {
  content: "←";
  right: 100px;
}

.g-republican.g-arrow {
  right: 170px;
  padding-right: 40px;
}

.g-arrow.g-republican:before {
  content: "→";
  left: 100px;
}

.word-count.g-arrow:before {
  content: "";
  right: 0;
  left: 0;
}


.g-legend .g-pointer {
  width: 150px;
}

.g-overview {
  position: absolute;
  left: 360px;
  text-align: center;
  width: 250px;
}

.g-legend .g-democrat.g-pointer {
  position: absolute;
  left: 314px;
  text-align: right;
  padding-right: 20px;
}

.g-swatch {
  width: 6px;
  height: 8px;
  display: inline-block;
  position: relative;
  top: 1px;
  margin: 0 3px;
}

.g-republican.g-swatch {
  background-color: #f9caca;
  border-radius: 0 4px 4px 0;
}

.g-democrat.g-swatch {
  background-color: #c5d7ea;
  border-radius: 4px 0 0 4px;
}

.g-republican.g-swatch {
  background-color: #f9caca;
}

.g-notes {
  font: 11px/1.3em sans-serif;
  height: 100px;
  position: absolute;
  top: 430px;
}

.g-note {
  color: #999;
  position: absolute;
  width: 212px;
}

.g-note b {
  color: #333;
  text-transform: uppercase;
}

.g-note-arrow {
  fill: none;
  stroke: #aaa;
  stroke-dasharray: 2,2;
  stroke-width: 1.5px;
  -webkit-transition: stroke-opacity 250ms ease;
  -moz-transition: stroke-opacity 250ms ease;
  -ms-transition: stroke-opacity 250ms ease;
  -o-transition: stroke-opacity 250ms ease;
  transition: stroke-opacity 250ms ease;
}

.g-error {
  background: #ffa;
  border: solid 1px #ccc;
  font-size: 16px;
  line-height: 1.2em;
  margin: 10px;
  padding: 10px;
}

.g-node .g-democrat {
  fill: #c5d7ea;
}

.g-node.g-hover .g-democrat {
  fill: #acbed1; /* darker(.5) */
}

.g-node.g-selected .g-democrat {
  fill: #99c0e5; /* c *= 2, darker(.5) */
  stroke: #6081a3; /* c *= 2, darker(2) */
  stroke-width: 1.5px;
}

.g-node .g-republican {
  fill: #f9caca;
}

.g-node.g-hover .g-republican {
  fill: #dfb1b1; /* darker(.5) */
}

.g-node.g-selected .g-republican {
  fill: #fda4a7; /* c *= 2, darker(.5) */
  stroke: #af5e61; /* c *= 2, darker(2) */
  stroke-width: 1.5px;
}

.g-node .g-split {
  stroke: #000;
  stroke-opacity: .18;
  shape-rendering: crispEdges;
}

a.g-label {
  color: inherit;
  cursor: pointer;
  display: block;
  text-align: center;
  text-decoration: none;
  line-height: 1em;
  position: absolute;
}

.g-label .g-value {
  font: 11px sans-serif;
  white-space: nowrap;
}

.g-overlay,
.g-node,
.g-label {
  -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;
}

.g-overlay {
  fill: none;
  pointer-events: all;
}

.g-body {
  min-height: 700px;
}

.g-has-topic .g-isnt-topic,
.g-hasnt-topic .g-is-topic {
  display: none;
}

.g-body h3 {
  font-size: 18px;
  line-height: 1.4em;
  font-family: Georgia;
  font-weight: normal;
  margin-bottom: 0.9em;
}

.g-mentions {
  width: 445px;
}

.g-mentions h3 {
  text-align: center;
}

.g-mentions.g-democrat h3 {
  margin-left: 140px;
}

.g-mentions.g-republican h3 {
  margin-right: 140px;
}

.g-divider,
.g-mention,
.g-truncated {
  border-top: solid 1px #ccc;
}

.g-mentions.g-democrat {
  margin: 0 0 0 20px;
  float: left;
}

.g-mentions.g-republican {
  margin: 0 20px 0 0;
  float: right;
}

.g-head a {
  border-radius: 3px;
  padding: 3px 3px;
  white-space: nowrap;
}

.g-mention {
  clear: both;
  margin: -1px 0 1.5em 0;
}

.g-mention p {
  color: #444;
  font-family: Georgia;
  font-size: 1.3em;
  line-height: 1.40em;
}

.g-democrat .g-mention p {
  margin: 1.5em 0 1.5em 160px;
}

.g-republican .g-mention p {
  margin: 1.5em 140px 1.5em 20px;
}

.g-mention a {
  border-radius: 3px;
  padding: 1px 3px;
  text-decoration: none;
}

.g-democrat a {
  background-color: #c5d7ea;
  color: #4a5783;
}

.g-republican a {
  background-color: #fbdedf;
  color: #734143;
}

.g-mention p:before,
.g-mention p:after {
  color: #ddd;
  font-family: sans-serif;
  font-size: 36px;
  position: absolute;
}

.g-mention p::before {
  content: "“";
  margin: 0.25em 0 0 -20px;
}

.g-mention p::after {
  content: "”";
  margin: 0.25em 0 0 0.1em;
}

.g-speaker {
  font: bold 13px sans-serif;
  margin: 1.5em 0 0.15em 0;
  text-transform: uppercase;
  width: 125px;
}

.g-speaker-title {
  clear: both;
  color: #aaa;
  font: 11px sans-serif;
  margin-bottom: 1em;
  width: 125px;
}

.g-democrat .g-speaker,
.g-democrat .g-speaker-title {
  float: left;
  text-align: left;
}

.g-republican .g-speaker,
.g-republican .g-speaker-title {
  float: right;
  text-align: right;
}

.g-truncated {
  border-top-style: dashed;
  color: #aaa;
  display: none;
  font: 11px sans-serif;
  padding-top: 1em;
  text-align: center;
}

/* Scoop Fixes */

.storySummary,
.storyHeader h1 {
  display: block;
  margin: 5px auto;
  padding: 0;
  text-align: center;
  width: 640px;
}

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  <title>At the National Conventions, the Words They Used</title>
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<h1>At the National Conventions, the Words They Used</h1>
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<span class="summary">A comparison of how often speakers at the two presidential nominating conventions used different words and phrases, based on an analysis of transcripts from the Federal News Service.</span>
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<div title="democrat mentions" class="word-count g-arrow g-democrat"></div>
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<div class="g-democrat g-arrow">Words favored<br>by Democrats</div>
<div class="g-republican g-arrow">Words favored<br>by Republicans</div>
<div class="g-overview">Number of mentions per 25,000 spoken words<br>by <span class="g-swatch g-democrat"></span>Democrats and <span class="g-swatch g-republican"></span>Republicans</div>
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<b>Auto</b>
Democrats credited President Obama with the recovery of the auto industry after the 2009 bailout, while Republicans left the topic unmentioned.
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<b>Women</b>
Democrats used the word much more frequently, primarily in reference to women's health and equal pay.
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<b>Business</b>
Republicans were more likely to talk about businesses, emphasizing Mr. Romney's private-sector experience and plans to improve the economy.
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<b>Unemployment</b>
Many Republican speakers brought up the still-high unemployment rate and the number of Americans who remain jobless, while Democrats largely avoided the topic.
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<span class="g-isnt-topic"><br>Excerpts from Democrats</span>
<span class="g-is-topic"><span style="padding-left: 0.76em;">Democrats</span> mentioned <a>&hellip;</a><br><span class="g-count"></span> times per 25,000 words</span>
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<div class="g-truncated">Due to a large number of mentions, only a sampling of excerpts are shown.</div>
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<h3 class="g-head g-hasnt-topic">
<span class="g-isnt-topic"><br>Excerpts from Republicans</span>
<span class="g-is-topic">Republicans mentioned <a>&hellip;</a><br><span class="g-count"></span> times per 25,000 words</span>
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<div class="g-truncated">Due to a large number of mentions, only a sampling of excerpts are shown.</div>
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<span class="byline">By MIKE BOSTOCK, SHAN CARTER and MATTHEW ERICSON</span>
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<p class="credit">Source: Federal News Service</p>
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index.js

var data;

(function(data) {

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function countWords(text) {
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{ parties:
  [ { name: "democrat"
    , speeches:
      [ "BARACK OBAMA: Thank you. (Sustained cheers, applause.) Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!\nBARACK OBAMA: Thank you.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!\nBARACK OBAMA: Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you.\nMichelle, I love you so much. (Cheers, applause.)\nA few nights ago, everybody was reminded just what a lucky man I am. (Cheers, applause.)\nMalia and Sasha, we are so proud of you. (Cheers, applause.) And yes, you do have to go to school in the morning. (Chuckles.) (Laughter, applause.)\nAnd Joe Biden, thank you for being the very best vice president I could have ever hoped for — (cheers, applause) — and being a strong and loyal friend.\nMadam Chairwoman, delegates, I accept your nomination for president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!\nBARACK OBAMA: Now, the first time I addressed this convention, in 2004, I was a younger man — (laughter) — 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.\nEight 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.\nTrivial things become big distractions. Serious issues become sound bites. The truth gets buried under an avalanche of money and advertising. And if you're sick of hearing me approve this message, believe me, so am I. (Laughter, cheers, applause.)\nBut 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. (Cheers.) 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.\nAnd 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 — (cheers, 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 turn out the world's best products, and everyone shared in that pride and success from the corner office to the factory floor.\nMy grandparents were given the chance to go to college and buy their home — 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. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd 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't, 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.\nNow, 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. (Cheers, 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.\nFeel a cold coming on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations, and call us in the morning. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, I've cut taxes for those who need it — (cheers, applause) — 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 — (cheers, applause) — or help us compete with the scientists and engineers coming out of China. 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.\nWe have been there, we've tried that, and we're not going back. We are moving forward, America. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, 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. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd the truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades. It'll require common effort, shared responsibility, and the kind of bold, persistent experimentation that Franklin Roosevelt pursued during the only crisis worse than this one. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd 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.\nBut know this, America: Our problems can be solved. (Cheers, applause.) Our challenges can be met. (Applause.) The path we offer may be harder, but it leads to a better place, and I'm asking you to choose that future. (Applause.)\nI'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 am running for a second term as president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe 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's always done best. We are making things again. (Applause.) I've met workers in Detroit and Toledo who feared — (cheers, applause) — 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. (Cheers, applause.) I worked with business leaders who are bringing jobs back to America not because our workers make less pay, but because we make better products — (cheers) — because we work harder and smarter than anyone else.\n(Cheers, 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.\" (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!\nBARACK OBAMA: And after a decade of decline, this country created over half a million manufacturing jobs in the last 2 1/2 years. (Cheers.) And now you have a choice. We can give more tax breaks to corporations that shift jobs overseas —\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: No!\nBARACK OBAMA: — 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. (Cheers, 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. (Cheers, applause.) You can choose that future.\nYou 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. (Cheers, applause.) We have doubled our use of renewable energy, and thousands of Americans have jobs today building wind turbines and long-lasting batteries. (Cheers, applause.) In the last year alone, we cut oil imports by 1 million barrels a day, more than any administration in recent history. (Cheers, applause.) And today the United States of America is less dependent on foreign oil than at any time in the last two decades. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo now you have a choice between a strategy that reverses this progress or one that builds on it.\nWe'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. (Cheers, applause.) We're offering a better path.\nWe'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 — 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. (Cheers, applause.\nAnd 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. (Cheers, applause.) They are a threat to our children's future.\nAnd in this election, you can do something about it. (Cheers, 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.\nEducation was the gateway to opportunity for me. (Cheers.) It was the gateway for Michelle. It was — it was the gateway for most of you. And now more than ever it is the gateway to a middle-class life.\nFor the first time in a generation, nearly every state has answered our call to raise their standards for teaching and learning. (Cheers, applause.) 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. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd 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. No family should have to set aside a college acceptance letter because they don't have the money. (Cheers, applause.) No company should have to look for workers overseas because they couldn't find any with the right skills here at home. (Cheers, applause.) That's not our future. That is not our future. (Cheers, applause.)\nA 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. (Cheers, applause.) And together, I promise you we can outeducate and outcompete any nation on earth. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo help me. Help me recruit a hundred thousand math and science teachers within 10 years and improve early childhood education. (Cheers, applause.) Help give 2 million workers the chance to learn skills at their community college that will lead directly to a job. Help us work with colleges and universities to cut in half the growth of tuition costs over the next 10 years.\nWe can meet that goal together. (Cheers, applause.) You can choose that future for America. (Cheers, applause.) That's our future.\nYou know, 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. (Cheers, applause.) I promised to refocus on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and we have. (Cheers, applause.) We've blunted the Taliban's momentum in Afghanistan and in 2014, our longest war will be over. (Cheers, applause.) A new tower rises above the New York skyline, al- Qaida is on the path to defeat and Osama bin Laden is dead. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd 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. (Cheers, 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 head or the care that they need when they come home.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nAround 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 — (cheers) — men and women; Christians and Muslims and Jews. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut 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. (Cheers, 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. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo now we have a choice. My opponent and his running mate are new to foreign policy. (Laughter, applause.)\nBut 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.\nAfter all, you don't call Russia our number one enemy — not al- Qaida, Russia — (laughter) — unless you're still stuck in a Cold War mind warp. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou might not be ready for diplomacy with Beijing if you can't visit the Olympics without insulting our closest ally.\n(Laughter, cheers, applause.)\nMy opponent — 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. (Cheers, 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 — (extended cheers, applause) — rebuilding roads and bridges and schools and runways, because after two wars that have cost us thousands of lives and over a trillion dollars, it's time to do some nation building right here at home. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou can choose a future where we reduce our deficit without sticking it to the middle class. (Cheers, applause.) Independent experts say that my plan would cut our deficit by $4 trillion. (Cheers.) And last summer I worked with Republicans in Congress to cut a billion 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. (Cheers, applause.)\nI 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 — (cheers, applause) — the same rate we had when Bill Clinton was president, the same rate we had when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest surplus in history and a whole lot of millionaires to boot.\n(Applause.)\nNow, 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.\nBut 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 — (boos) — what'd Bill Clinton call it? You do the arithmetic. (Laughter, cheers, applause.) You do the math.\nI refuse to go along with that, and as long as I'm president, I never will. (Cheers, 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. (Cheers, applause.) I refuse to ask students to pay more for college or kick children out of Head Start programs to 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. (Continued cheers, applause.)\nAnd I will never — I will never turn Medicare into a voucher. (Cheers, 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.\n(Cheers, 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. (Cheers, applause.)\nThis 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. (Murmurs of disapproval.) 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, mixed cheers and boos, applause.)\nYou know what, that's not who we are. That's not what this country is 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.\nBut we also believe in something called citizenship — (cheers, 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.\nWe believe that when a CEO pays his autoworkers enough to buy the cars that they build, the whole company does better. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe believe that when a family can no longer be tricked into signing a mortgage they can't afford, that family's protected, but so is the value of other people's homes — (cheers, applause) — and so is the entire economy. (Applause.)\nWe 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 — (cheers, applause) — and it is in our power to give her that chance. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe 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. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe don't think the government can solve all of our problems, but we don't think the government is the source of all of our problems — (cheers, applause) — any more than our welfare recipients or corporations or unions or immigrants or gays or any other group we're told to blame for our troubles — (cheers, applause) — because — because America, we understand that this democracy is ours.\nWe, the people — (cheers) — 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 a 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. (Cheers, applause.)\nAs citizens, we understand that America is not about what can be done for us. It's about what can be done by us, together — (cheers, applause) — through the hard and frustrating but necessary work of self-government. That's what we believe.\nSo you see, the election four years ago wasn't about me. It was about you. (Cheers, applause.) My fellow citizens — you were the change. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou're the reason there's a little girl with a heart disorder in Phoenix who'll get the surgery she needs because an insurance company can't limit her coverage. You did that. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou'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. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou'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 — (cheers, 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. (Cheers, applause.) Welcome home. You did that. You did that. (Cheers, applause.) You did that.\nIf you turn away now — 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 trying to make 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. (Cheers, applause.) Only you can make sure that doesn't happen. Only you have the power to move us forward.\nYou know, I recognize that times have changed since I first spoke to this convention. Times have changed, and so have I. I'm no longer just a candidate. I'm the president. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd — (applause) — and that's —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Four more years! Four more years!\nBARACK OBAMA: And that — and that means I know what it means to send young Americans into battle, for I've held in my arms the mothers and fathers of those who didn't return.\nI'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.)\nAnd while I'm proud of what we've achieved together — (cheers) — 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.\" , 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. And while I'm 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.\" (Cheers, applause.)\nBut as I stand here tonight, I have never been more hopeful about America. (Cheers, applause.) Not because I think I have all the answers. Not because I'm naive about the magnitude of our challenges.\nI'm hopeful because of you.\nThe 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. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe auto worker 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.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nThe family business in Warroad, Minnesota, that didn't lay off a single one of their 4,000 employees when the recession hit — (cheers, applause) — 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. (Cheers, applause.)\nI 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. And six months ago we would watch him walk into a White House dinner honoring those who served in Iran (sic; 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. (Cheers, applause.) He gives me hope.\nI 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. (Cheers.) And if you share that faith with me, if you share that hope with me, I ask you tonight for your vote.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nIf you reject the notion that this nation's promise is reserved for the few, your voice must be heard in this election. (Cheers, applause.)\nIf you reject the notion that our government is forever beholden to the highest bidder, you need to stand up in this election. (Cheers, applause.)\nIf 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. (Cheers, applause.)\nAmerica, 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. (Cheers.) Yes, our road is longer, but we travel it together. (Cheers.)\nWe don't turn back. We leave no one behind. (Cheers.) We pull each other up. (Cheers, applause.) We draw strength from our victories. (Cheers, applause.) 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.\nThank you, God bless you and God bless these United States. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nMICHELLE OBAMA: Thank you so much. Tonight, I am so thrilled and so honored and so proud to introduce the love of my life — (cheers) — the father of our two girls and the president of the United States of America, Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nRICHARD DURBIN: Thank you. It is a singular honor to be here tonight. Eight years ago in Boston, I introduced you to a state senator from Illinois. (Cheers, applause.) He had a name that was hard to pronounce, and Loretta and Michelle and I stood on the side of the stage in Boston and wondered if you would accept his message about the future of this party, and you did. (Cheers, applause.) Four years later — four years later in Denver, I asked you to give this man our party's nomination for president. (Cheers, applause.) And tonight in Charlotte I ask you to join me in giving President Barack Obama four more years to finish the job he started. (Extended cheers, applause.)\nI was there — I was there —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) Four more years! Four more years!\nRICHARD DURBIN: Four more years! Now, I was there —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!\nRICHARD DURBIN: Many of you were with me. It was a cold, cold January afternoon when Barack Obama lifted his hand from Abraham Lincoln's Bible and looked out on an America facing an economic collapse. These last four years have been hard. Too many families are still struggling. But today our economy is beginning to recover. Jobs are returning; businesses are expanding. America is coming back. (Cheers, applause.)\nOur friends — our friends in the other party gathered in Tampa and gave us a message last week.\nThey said, just remember, we're all in this alone. (Laughter.) Yeah.\nThey told us, the real winners — the real builders — never need a helping hand.\nDemocrats know better; America knows better. History and this president have shown us we are stronger when we are all in this together. (Cheers, applause.)\nI invite them: Come to Belvidere, Illinois. Meet 5,000 proud Chrysler UAW workers. (Cheers, applause.) One business leader — one business leader who has been referenced a few times tonight said, let them go bankrupt. Barack Obama said, let them go back to work. And they did. (Cheers, applause.)\nCome and meet the working families all across America who now have a chance for affordable health care. At one time, a governor thought that was a good idea in Massachusetts. Well, President Obama and millions of American families think it's a great idea for America.\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah! (Cheers, applause.)\nRICHARD DURBIN: But this president is focused on more than just opportunity. He is focused on justice. I am proud to have been there when he signed his first bill as president of the United States to end discrimination against women in the workplace in honor of Lilly Ledbetter. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd I will tell you, I cannot remember a more touching ceremony than when this president gathers together to finally eliminate the discrimination of \"don't ask, don't tell\" in our military. (Cheers, applause.)\nIt was 11 years ago. (Cheers, applause.)\nEleven years ago I introduced a little bill known as the DREAM Act. (Cheers, applause.) And I will tell you my life has been changed by the inspiration of these young men and women who simply want to earn their way into America. (Cheers.) We have fought — we have fought the filibusters in the Senate, but we are lucky. It took President Obama to finally bring these young people out of the shadows, into the America that they have always called home. (Cheers, applause.)\nIt was 150 years ago — 150 years ago that another president from Illinois brought justice to his day with the Emancipation Proclamation. Now, his critics told him he had gone way too far and he should undo what he'd done. But here's what Abraham Lincoln said: \"I hope to stand firm enough not to go backwards.\" (Cheers, applause.)\nWe cannot — we cannot build a better, stronger, fairer America by going backwards. We must walk forward together. And with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in the White House, we will. President Obama, your values, your vision, your commitment to justice are still worth fighting for.\nThank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJOSEPH BIDEN: Hey, Delaware. (Cheers, applause.) Hello, my fellow Democrats. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd my favorite Democrat, Jilly, I want you to know that Beau and Hunt and Ashley and I — we're so incredibly proud of you, kid. You know, we admire the way — they way that when every single solitary young person — and they're not all young — walk into your classroom, you not only teach them, you give them confidence.\nYou give me confidence. And the passion — the passion she brings to trying to ease the burden on the families of our warriers. Jilly, they know you understand them. And that makes a gigantic difference. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd folks, I tell you what, it was worth the trip to hear my wife say what I've never heard her say before: She's always loved me. (Laughter, cheers, applause.) If that's the case, why in the heck did it take five times of asking you? And that's true. Five times. I don't know what I would have done, kiddo, had you on that fifth time said no. (Laughter.) I love you. You're the love of my life and the life of my love. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe've got three incredible kids. And Beau, I want to thank you for putting my name in nomination to be vice president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.) I accept. (Sustained cheers, applause.) I accept. With great honor and pleasure, I accept. Thank you. Thank you, my fellow Democrats. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you, my fellow Democrats. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd I say to my fellow Americans: My fellow Americans, four years ago a battered nation turned away from the failed policies of the past and turned to a leader who they knew would lift our nation out of the crisis — a journey — a journey we haven't finished yet. We know we still have more to do. But today I say to my fellow citizens: In the face of the deepest economic crisis in our lifetime, this generation of Americans has proven itself as worthy as any generation before us. (Cheers, applause.) For we present that same grit, that same determination, that same courage that has always defined what it means to be an American, has always defined all of you. Together we're on a mission. We're on a mission to move this nation forward from doubt and downturn to promise and prosperity, a mission I guarantee you we will complete — (cheers, applause) — a mission we will complete.\nFolks, tonight what I really want to do is tell you about my friend Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.) No one could tell it as well or as eloquently as Michelle — as you did last night, Michelle — Monday night. (Cheers, applause.) But I know him, to state the obvious, from a different perspective.\nI know him, and I want to show you — I want to show you the character of a leader who had what it took when the American people literally stood on the brink of a new depression, a leader who has what it takes to lead us over the next four years to a future as great as our people. I want to take you inside the White House to see the president as I see him every day, because I don't see him in soundbites. I walk 30 paces down the hall into the Oval Office, and I see him, I watch him in action.\nFour years ago the middle class was already losing ground, and then the bottom fell out. The financial crisis hit like a sledgehammer on all the people I grew up with. You remember the headlines. You saw some of them in the previews. Highlight: Highest job losses in 60 years. Headlines: Economy on the brink; markets plummet worldwide.\nFrom the very moment President Obama sat behind the desk, resolute, in the Oval Office, he knew — he knew he had not only to restore the confidence of a nation, but he had to restore the confidence of the whole world. (Cheers, applause.) And he also knew — he also knew that one, one false move could bring a run on the banks or a credit collapse to put another several million people out of work. America and the world needed a strong president with a steady hand and with the judgment and vision to see us through.\nDay after day, night after night I sat beside him as he made one gutsy decision after the other to stop the slide and reverse it. I watched him. (Applause.) I watched him stand up. I watched him stand up to intense pressure and stare down enormous, enormous challenges, the consequences of which were awesome.\nBut most of all, I got to see firsthand what drove this man: his profound concern for the average American. He knew — he knew that no matter how tough the decisions he had to make were in that Oval Office, he knew that families all over America sitting at their kitchen tables were literally making decisions for their family that were equally as consequential.\nYou know, Barack and I, we've been through a lot together these four years, and we learned about one another, a lot about one another. And one of the things I learned about Barack is the enormity of his heart. And I think he learned about me the depth of my loyalty to him. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd there's another thing, another thing that has bound us together these past four years. We had a pretty good idea what all those families, all you Americans in trouble were going through, in part because our own families had gone through similar struggles.\nBarack as a young man had to sit at the end of his mother's hospital bed and watch her fight with her insurance company at the very same time she was fighting for her life.\nWhen I was a young kid in third grade, I remember my dad coming up the stairs in my grandpop's house where we were living, sitting at the end of my bed, and saying, Joey, I'm going to have to leave for a while. Gone — go down to Wilmington, Delaware, with Uncle Franks. They're good jobs down there, honey. And in a little while — a little while, I'll be able to send for you and mom and Jimmy and Val, and everything's going to be fine.\nFor the rest of our life, my sister and my brothers, for the rest of our life, dad never failed to remind us that a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It's about — (applause) — it's about your dignity. (Cheers, applause.) It's about respect. It's about your place in the community. It's about being able to look your child in the eye and say, honey, it's going to be OK, and mean it, and know it's true. (Cheers, applause.)\nWhen Barack and I — when Barack and I were growing up, there was an implicit understanding in America that if you took responsibility, you'd get a fair shot at a better life. And the values — the values behind that bargain were the values that shaped both of us, and many, many of you. And today those same values are Barack's guiding star. Folks, I've watched him. He has never wavered.\nHe never, never backs down. He always steps up, and he always asks in every one of those critical meetings the same fundamental question: How is this going to affect the average American? How is this going to affect people's lives? (Cheers, applause.) That's what's inside this man. That's what makes him tick. That's who he is.\nAnd folks, because of the decisions he has made, and the incredible strength of the American people, America has turned a corner. The worst job loss since the Great Depression, we've since created 4.5 million private sector jobs in the past 25 — 29 months. (Cheers, applause.)\nLook, folks. President Obama and Governor Romney, they're both — they're both loving husbands. They're both devoted fathers. But let's be straight. They bring a vastly different vision and a vastly different values set to the job. (Applause.)\nAnd tonight — tonight, although you've heard people talk about it, I want to talk about two things from a slightly different perspective, from my perspective. I'd like to focus on two crises and show you — show you the character of leadership that each man will bring to this job, because as I said, I've had a ringside seat. The first of these a lot's been talked about.\nAnd God love Jennifer Granholm. Wasn't she great? (Cheers, applause.) Wasn't she great? I love Jennifer. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut the first story I want to talk to you about is the rescue of the automobile industry. And let me tell you — let me tell you — from this man's ringside seat, let me tell you about how Barack Obama saved more than a million American jobs. In the first — in the first days, literally the first days that we took office, General Motors and Chrysler were literally on the verge of liquidation. If the president didn't act, if he didn't act immediately, there wouldn't be any industry left to save.\nSo we sat hour after hour in the Oval Office. Michelle remembers how it must have — what he must have thought when she — he came back upstairs. We sat. We sat hour after hour. We listened to senators, congressmen, outside advisers, even some of our own adviser (sic), and we listened to them to say some of the following things. They said, well, we shouldn't step up. The risk — the risk was too high. The outcome was too uncertain.\nAnd the president, he patiently sat there and he listened. But he didn't see it the way they did. He understood something they didn't get. And one of the reasons I love him, he understood that this wasn't just about cars. It was about the people who built and made those cars — (cheers, applause) — and about the America those people build. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn those meetings — (cheers, applause) — in those meetings — in those meetings, I often thought about my dad. My dad was an automobile man. He would have been one of those guys all the way down the line, not on the factory floor, not along the supply chain, but one of those guys who were selling American cars to American people.\nI thought about — I thought about what this crisis would have meant for the mechanics and the secretaries and the salespeople who my dad managed for over 35 years. And I know for certain — I know for certain that my dad, were he here today, he'd be fighting like heck for the president, because the president fought to save the jobs of those people my dad cared so much about. (Applause.) Ladies and gentlemen, my dad — (applause) — my dad respected Barack Obama — would have respected Barack Obama, had he been around, for having had the guts to stand up for the automobile industry when so many others just were prepared to walk away.\nYou know, when I look back — (applause) — when I look back now, when I look back on the president's decision, I think of another son of another automobile man, Mitt Romney. Mitt — no, no — Mitt Romney — Mitt Romney grew up in Detroit. My dad managed, his dad owned — well, his dad ran an entire automobile company, American Motors. Yes, what I don't understand is in spite of that, he was willing to let the — Detroit go bankrupt.\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: Boo!\nJOSEPH BIDEN: No, don't. I don't think he's a bad guy. No, no. I don't think he's a bad guy. I'm sure he grew up loving cars as much as I did. But what I don't understand, what I don't think he understood, I don't think he understood that saving the automobile worker, saving the industry, what it meant to all of America, not just autoworkers. I think he saw it the Bain way. Now, I mean this sincerely. I think he saw it in terms of balance sheets and write-offs.\nFolks, the Bain way may bring your firm the highest profits. But it's not the way to lead our country from the highest office. (Extended cheers, applause.)\nWhen things — when things — when things hung in the balance — when things hung in the balance — I mean, literally hung in the balance — the president understood this was about a lot more than the automobile industry. This was about restoring America's pride. He understood — he understood in his gut what it would mean to leave a million people without hope or work if he didn't act. And he also knew — he also knew — he intuitively understood the message it would have sent around the world if the United States gave up on an industry that helped put America on the map in the first place. (Cheers, applause.) Conviction, resolve, Barack Obama — that's what saved the automobile industry. (Cheers, applause.) Conviction, resolve, Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nLook, you heard my friend John Kerry. This president — this president has shown the same resolve, the same steady hand in his role as commander in chief. (Applause.) Look — which brings me to the next illustration I want to tell you about, the next crisis he had to face. In 2008 — 2008, before he was president — Barack Obama made a promise to the American people.\nHe said, if I have bin — if we have bin Laden in our sights, we will — we will take him out. (Cheers, applause.)\nHe went on to say — he went on to say, that has to be our biggest national security priority.\nLook, Barack understood that the search for bin Laden was about a lot more than taking a monstrous leader off the battlefield. It was about so much more than that. It was about righting an unspeakable wrong. It was about — literally, it was about — it was about healing an unbearable wound, a nearly unbearable wound in America's heart.\nAnd he also knew — he also knew the message we had to send around the world: If you attack innocent Americans, we will follow you to the end of the earth. (Cheers, applause.)\nLook —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!\nJOSEPH BIDEN: Most of all — most of all, President Obama had an unyielding faith in the capacity and the capability of our special forces, literally the finest warriors in the history of the world. (Cheers, applause.) The finest warriors in the history of the world.\nSo we sat. (Cheers, applause.) We sat originally — only five of us — we sat in the Situation Room beginning in the fall of the year before. We listened, we talked, we heard, and he listened to the risks and reservations about the raid. He asked again the tough questions. He listened to the doubts that were expressed.\nBut when Admiral McRaven looked him in the eye and said, sir, we can get this job done, I sat next to him and looked at your husband, and I knew at that moment he had made his decision. And his response was decisive. He said, do it — and justice was done! (Cheers, applause.)\nFolks, folks —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!\nJOSEPH BIDEN: Folks, Governor Romney didn't see things that way. When he was asked about bin Laden in 2007, here's what he said. He said, it's not worth moving heaven and earth and spending billions of dollars just to catch one person. (Boos.)\nBut he was wrong. He was wrong. Because if you understood that America's heart had to be healed, you would have done exactly what the president did and you would move heaven and earth to hunt him down and to bring him to justice. (Cheers, applause.)\nLook, four years ago — four years ago — the only thing missing at this convention this year is my mom. Four years ago my mom was still with us, sitting up in the stadium in Denver. I quoted her.\n(Cheers, applause.) I quoted her, one of her favorite expressions. She used to say to all her children — she said, Joey, bravery resides in every heart, and the time will come when it must be summoned.\nLadies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you what I think you already know. But I watch it up close. Bravery resides in the heart of Barack Obama, and time and time again I witnessed him summon it. (Applause.) This man has courage in his soul, compassion in his heart and a spine of steel. (Cheers, applause.) And — and because — because of all the actions he took, because of the calls he made, because of the determination of American workers and the unparalleled bravery of our special forces, we can now proudly say what you've heard me say the last six months: Osama bin Laden is dead, and General Motors is alive. (Cheers, applause.) That's right. One man.\nFolks, we know — we know we have more work to do. We know we're not there yet. But not a day has gone by in the last four years when I haven't been grateful as an American that Barack Obama is our president because he always has the courage to make the tough decisions. (Cheers, applause.)\nSpeaking of tough decisions — speaking of tough calls — (chuckles) — last week we heard at the Republican convention — we heard our opponents — we heard them pledge that they too — they too heard the courage to make the tough calls.\nThat's what they said. (Laughter.)\nBut folks, in case you didn't notice — (laughter) — and I say to my fellow Americans, in case you didn't notice, they didn't have the courage to tell you what calls they'd make. (Laughter, applause.) They never mentioned any of that. (Applause.)\nThey — Mrs. Robinson, you — you watched from home, I guess, from the White House. You heard them talk so much about how they cared so much about Medicare, how much they wanted to preserve it. That's what they told you.\nBut let's look at what they didn't tell you. What they didn't tell you is that the plan they have already put down on paper would immediately cut benefits for more than 30 million seniors already on Medicare. What they didn't tell you — what they didn't tell you is the plan they're proposing would cause Medicare to go bankrupt by 2016. And what they really didn't tell you is they — if you want to know — if you want to know — they're not for preserving Medicare at all. They're for a new plan. It's called \"Vouchercare.\" (Boos.)\nLook, folks. That's not courage. That's not even truthful. That's not even truthful. In Tampa, they talk with great urgency about the nation's debt and the need to act, to act now. But not once, not one single time, did they tell you that they rejected every plan put forward by us, by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission they referenced — (applause) — or by any other respected group to reduce the national debt.\nThey are not for any of them. Why? Because they're not prepared to do anything about the debt if it contained even one dollar — I'm not exaggerating — even one dollar or one cent in new taxes for millionaires.\nFolks, that's not courage and that's not fair. (Applause.)\nLook — look. In a sense, this can be reduced to a single notion. The two men seeking to lead this country over the next four years, as I said at the outset, have fundamentally different visions and a completely different value set.\nGovernor Romney believes in this global economy — it doesn't matter much where American companies invest and put their money or where they create jobs. As a matter of fact, in his budget proposal, in his tax proposal, he calls for a new tax. It's called a territorial tax, which the experts have looked at, and they acknowledge it will create 800,000 new jobs — all of them overseas, all of them. (Boos.)\nAnd what I've found — what I found fascinating, the most fascinating thing I found last week was when Governor Romney said that as president, he would take a jobs tour. Well, with his support for outsourcing, it's going to have to be a foreign trip. (Cheers, applause.) It will.\nLook, President Obama knows that creating jobs in America, keeping jobs in America, bringing jobs back to America is what the president's job was all about.\nThat's what presidents do, or at least supposed to do. (Applause.)\nFolks, Governor Romney believes it's OK to raise taxes on middle classes by $2,000 in order to pay for another — literally another trillion-dollar tax cut for the very wealthy. President Obama knows that there's nothing decent or fair about asking people with more to do less and with less to do more. (Scattered cheers.)\nGovernor Romney believes — he believes that kids, kids like our \"DREAMers\" — those immigrant children — (cheers, applause) — those immigrant children who were brought to America's shores through no fault of their own — he thinks they're a drag on the American economy. President Obama believes that even though those \"DREAMers,\" those kids, didn't choose to come here, they have chosen to do right by America. And it's time for us to do right by them. (Extended cheers, applause.)\nGovernor Romney — Governor Romney — Governor Romney — Governor Romney looks at the notion of equal pay in terms of a company's bottom line. President Obama — he knows that making sure our daughters get the same pay for the same jobs as our son is every father's bottom line. (Cheers, applause.)\nLook, I kind of expected all that from him. But one thing truly perplexed me at their convention. The thing that perplexed me most was this idea they kept talking about about the culture of dependency. They seem to think you create a culture of dependency when you provide a bright, young, qualified kid from a working-class family a loan to get to college or when you provide a job training program in a new industry for a dad who lost his job because it was outsourced.\nFolks — folks, that's not how we look at it. That's not how America's ever looked at it. (Applause.) What he doesn't understand is all these men and women are looking for is a chance, just a chance to acquire the skills to be able to provide for their families so they can once again hold their heads high and lead independent lives with dignity. That's all they're looking for. (Cheers, applause.)\nLook — and it literally amazes me they don't understand that. You know, I told you the outset the choice is stark, two different visions, two different value sets. But at its core, the difference is able to reduced (sic) to be a fundamental difference. You see, you, we, most Americans have incredible faith in the decency and hard work of the American people. And we know what has made this country. It's the American people. (Cheers, applause.)\nAs I mentioned at the outset, four years ago we were hit hard. You saw — you saw your retirement accounts drain, the equity in your homes vanish, jobs lost around the line. But what did you do as Americans? What you've always done. You didn't lose faith. You fought back. You didn't give up; you got up. (Cheers, applause.) You're the ones, the American people, you're the ones. You're the reason why we are still better-positioned than any country in the world to lead the 21st century. (Cheers, applause.) You never quit on America. And you deserve a president who will never quit on you. (Cheers, applause.)\nFolks, there's one more thing, one more thing our Republican opponents are just dead wrong about. America is not in decline. America is not in decline. (Applause.) I've got news for Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan: Gentlemen, never ever — it never makes sense, it's never been a good bet to bet against the American people. (Cheers, applause.) Never!\nMy fellow Americans, America is coming back. And we're not going back. And we have no intention of downsizing the American dream. (Extended cheers, applause.) Never. Never a good bet.\nLadies and gentlemen, in a moment — in a moment we're going to hear from a man whose whole life is a testament to the power of that dream and whose presidency is the best hope to secure that dream for our children. For you see — you see, we see a future — we really honest to God do — we see a future where everyone, rich and poor, does their part and has a part, a future where we depend more on clean energy from home and less on oil from abroad, a future where we're number one in the world again in college graduation, a future where we promote the private sector, not the privileged sector — (cheers, applause) — and a future — and a future where women once again control their own choices, their destiny and their own health care. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd ladies and gentlemen, Barack and I see a future — it's in our DNA — where no one, no one is forced to live in the shadows of intolerance. (Cheers, applause.)\nFolks, we see a future where American — where America leads not only by the power of our — the example of our power, but by the power of example, where we bring our troops home from Afghanistan just as we proudly did from Iraq — (cheers, applause) — a future — a future where we fulfill the only truly sacred obligation we have as a nation. The only truly sacred obligation we have is to prepare those who we send to war and care for them when they come home from war.\nAnd tonight — (applause) — and tonight — tonight I want to acknowledge — I want to acknowledge, as we should every night, the incredible debt we owe to the families of those 6,473 fallen angels and those 49,746 wounded, thousands critically, thousands who will need our help for the rest of their lives.\nFolks, we never — we must never, ever forget their sacrifice and always keep them in our care and in our prayers.\nMy fellow Americans, we now — we now — and we now find ourselves at the hinge of history. And the direction we turn is not figuratively, is literally in your hands. It has been a truly great honor to serve you and to serve with Barack, who has always stood up with you for the past four years. I've seen him tested. I know his strength, his command, his faith. And I also know the incredible confidence he has in all of you. I know this man. Yes, the work of recovery is not yet — not yet complete. But we are on our way. The journey of hope is not yet finished, but we are on our way. (Applause.) And the cause of change is not fully accomplished, but we are on our way. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo I say to you tonight with absolute confidence, America's best days are ahead, and yes, we are on our way. (Cheers, applause.) And in light — in light of that horizon, for the values that define us, for the ideals that inspire us, there is only one choice. That choice is to move forward, boldly forward, and finish the job and re-elect President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nGod bless you all, and may God protect our troops. (Cheers, applause.) God bless you. Thank you. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJILL BIDEN: Hello. (Cheers, applause.) What a night! What a crowd! (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you, Angie. I'm so proud of how far you've come.\nI'm so proud to stand before you tonight not only as the wife of our vice president but as a full-time teacher and a military mom. (Cheers, applause.) I'm here for our son Beau and for all of our troops, veterans and military families. (Applause.)\nFour years ago Beau stood on this stage to introduce his father, and soon afterwards he deployed to Iraq for a year with the Delaware Army National Guard. (Cheers, applause.) Tonight, thanks to the leadership of President Obama and my husband, Joe, the war in Iraq is over.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nI'm also — I'm also here tonight for my students, students like Angie (sp), who work so hard to create a better life for themselves and their families. I've been a teacher for more than 30 years, and to this day, I continue to teach full time at a community college in northern Virginia. (Cheers, applause.)\nNot long — not long after Joe was elected vice president, people started questioning whether I could keep teaching. Not Joe. He was there standing by my side saying, of course you should; it's who you are, Jill. For me, being a teacher isn't just what I do; it's who I am. (Applause.) These issues are personal to me, and for the more than 37 years that I've known Joe, I've seen firsthand just how personal they are to him too.\nJoe often tells people that I didn't agree to marry him until the fifth time he asked me. (Laughter.) The truth is, I loved him from the start. I saw in him then the same character that I see in him today. I've seen Joe's character in his optimism. For families who have lost a loved one, kids struggling to find their way, workers out of a job, Joe always works to give people a sense of hope.\n(Applause.)\nI've also seen Joe's character in his determination. Two decades ago when Joe started working on the Violence Against Women Act — (cheers, applause) — domestic violence was often treated as a private family matter rather than the crime it is. But Joe knew that he had to bring this issue out into the open. And in the years since that bill has passed, I've had women tell me that their sisters or their friends wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for Joe. (Cheers, applause.)\nFinally, I've seen Joe's character in his heart. When I first met him, Joe had already seen just how fragile life could be. When he was 29 years old, Joe lost his first wife and baby daughter in a tragic car accident while they were out getting their Christmas tree. And their boys were critically injured. Joe's life was shattered. But through his strong Catholic faith and his fierce love for our boys, Joe found the strength to get back up. That's Joe. (Cheers, applause.)\nThat optimism, that determination, that big strong heart that drives him forward every day — it's what he learned as a young boy growing up with two hardworking parents in Scranton, Pennsylvania. (Cheers, applause.) It's what makes him such a loving and supportive father of our three children, Beau, Hunter and Ashley, and it's what drives him today as he and President Obama fight to strengthen the middle class they grew up in.\nFor as long as I've known him, Joe has never given up, never failed to see the possibilities and never had any doubt about who he's fighting for. And as long as he has the privilege of serving this nation, I know from the bottom of my heart that he will continue to fight for you every day. Thank you. God bless our troops, and God bless our military families. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you!"
      , "ANGIE FLORES: My name is Angie Flores and I am a student at Miami-Dade College. (Cheers, applause.)\nWhen you grow up in a family where getting by is a struggle, college can seem like a dream for someone else, even if, like me, you love learning. Out of 3.2 million young people ages 16 to 24, 2.2 million do not go to college. More than a million don't even graduate from high school.\nThe statistics say that I shouldn't be here; that the most someone like me should hope for is to get by, not to get ahead.\nBut I am not a statistic. (Cheers, applause.) I am a young woman with a bright future.\nPresident Obama and Vice President Biden know this. They don't want any American student to accept that education is only a luxury or that opportunity is simply for someone else. They ask us to work hard and dream big. And they work alongside us to make sure that those dreams come true. We all aspire to live that ideal middle-class lifestyle with the picket fence and the lemonade on the porch. And President Obama and Vice President Biden are helping kids like me build that dream. We all celebrate success. President Obama and Vice President Biden help us achieve it. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe all know that education leads to opportunity and that education begins with a great teacher in every classroom. Tonight I have the honor of introducing an extraordinary educator. A lot of people know Dr. Jill Biden as our nation's second lady. (Cheers, applause.) But she has an even more important title: She's a teacher. Even when her husband — (cheers, applause) — even when her husband got a pretty big promotion — (laughter) — she continued to educate. That's how strong her commitment is to her students. This amazing woman grades papers in the White House. (Applause.)\nLast year I had the distinct pleasure to meet Dr. Biden. I am fortunate to have teachers like her at Miami Dade College. She is full of warmth, compassion and dedication. And that's how she makes a difference for students like me.\nA teacher like Dr. Biden can make the difference between being a statistic and being a success, between getting by and getting ahead. (Applause.) And that is why — and that is why I am studying to work with children. When I look at Dr. Jill Biden, I see someone making the kinds of impact that I want to make.\nSo please join me in welcoming my role model, Dr. Jill Biden. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJOHN NATHMAN: Today and every day, our military men and women serve our country with their actions and their deeds. The veterans standing with me — all veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan — are part of a proud legacy.\nFor those who defended us in the earliest days of our country to the greatest generation of World War II, for those who served and sacrificed in Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, the Balkans, anywhere they've been needed, today's servicemen and women have been called \"the next great generation,\" and they live up to that calling in everything they do. They've gone beyond the call of duty in every way one can imagine.\nI served the United States Navy for 37 years as a fighter pilot, as commander of Naval Air Forces and as vice chief of the Navy. I've heard plenty of folks thank us for our service. We appreciate that gratitude. And since the day he took office, the president has demonstrate that he respects and understands the challenges for those who wear a uniform.\nFor every branch of the service, for those in civilian clothes or the uniform, President Obama gives us a foreign policy worthy of the men and women on this stage — (cheers, applause) — to ensure — to ensure that wherever they serve, their uniform and dedication is respected and that their service makes a difference for America.\nFor every veteran who comes home wounded, the president invested in the VA and expanded care to more than a half-million returning troops who deserve that care. (Applause.) For every family waiting at home, anxious every time the phone rings, the president, the first lady and Dr. Jill Biden are engaging whole communities to support those families. For every man and woman coming back to an uncertain future, the president strives to help veterans apply their talents, expand their skills and get good jobs.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nLast year he challenged American businesses to hire 100,000 veterans and military spouses. He and the first lady got businesses across the private sector to sign on, supported by tax credits for hiring our veterans and wounded warriors. Last month these same participating businesses reported that they exceeded that goal by 25 percent, ahead of schedule by almost a year — (cheers, applause) — and they're committing to bring on a quarter-million more new veteran jobs. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd it's just — and it's not just about finding new jobs. It's about giving these men and women the chance to learn the skills for the jobs tomorrow. That's why I'm proud that the president is offering veterans the best education benefits since the original GI Bill. (Cheers, applause.) This education is something that can and will change their lives. And it guarantees American progress, vitality and growth. (Applause.)\nMy parents — my parents were members of the greatest generation. My dad joined the Army Air Corps in 1940 as an enlisted man fixing bombers in World War II. He served a career in the Strategic Air Command. My mother was a volunteer for the USO, and later, as a widow, she raised five children.\nIn the years since, I've been privileged to lead and serve with members of this next great generation. I see in them tough, bright, courageous, inspiring men and women. I see this country's future leaders. These service members have been to some of the bleakest corners of the globe. They know how good this country is. They know firsthand what America means to — world — they're — and they're going to bring to us the next great moment in our nation's history because the president is standing with them. (Cheers, applause.)\nTonight we are standing here with you. We are standing with our president. The men and women on this stage are only a small sample of this amazing generation — Americans from Texas — (cheers, applause) — from Virginia, from Florida, from Oregon, Maine, New York, Hawaii, North Carolina, all across this great country. And so for them — and so for them, they — and what they represent, please stand with me in saying thank you. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) USA! USA! USA! USA!"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJOHN KERRY: Thank you. Thank you.\nIn this — in this campaign, we have a fundamental choice. Will we protect our country and our allies, advance our interests and ideals, do battle where we must and make peace where we can, or will we entrust our place in the world to someone who just hasn't learned the lessons of the last decade?\nWe've all learned Mitt Romney doesn't know much about foreign policy, but he has all these neocon advisers who know all the wrong things about foreign policy. He would rely on them. After all, he's the great outsourcer. (Laughter.)\nBut I say to you, this is not the time to outsource the job of commander in chief. (Cheers, applause.) Our opponents — our opponents like to talk about American exceptionalism, but all they do is talk.\nThey forget that we are exceptional not because we say we are but because we do exceptional things. (Cheers, applause.) We break out of the Great Depression, win two world wars, save lives fighting AIDS, pull people out of poverty, defend freedom, go to the moon and produce exceptional people who even give their lives for civil rights and for human rights. (Cheers, applause.)\nDespite — and despite — and despite what you heard in Tampa, an exceptional country does care about the rise of the oceans and the future of the planet. (Cheers, applause.) That is a responsibility — that is a responsibility from the Scriptures. And that too is a responsibility of the leader of the free world.\nThe only thing exceptional about today's Republicans is that almost without exception, they oppose everything that has made America exceptional in the first place. An exceptional nation demands exceptional leadership. It demands the leadership of an exceptional president. And my fellow Americans, that president is Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, just measure the disaster and disarray that he inherited. A war of choice in Iraq had become a war without end, and a war of necessity in Afghanistan had become a war of neglect. Our alliances were shredded. Our moral authority was in tatters. America was isolated in the world. Our military was stretched to the breaking point, Iran marching towards a nuclear weapon unchecked, and Osama bin Laden was still plotting.\nIt took President Obama to make America lead like America again.\n(Cheers, applause.) It took President Obama to restore our moral authority. It took President Obama to ban torture. The president understands that our values don't limit our power; they magnify it. He showed that global leadership is a strategic imperative for America, not a favor that we do to other countries.\nAnd President Obama kept his promises. He promised to end the war in Iraq, and he has, and our heroes have come home. (Cheers, applause.) He promised to end the war in Afghanistan responsibly, and he is, and our heroes are coming home. (Cheers, applause.) He promised to focus like a laser on al-Qaida, and he has. And our forces have eliminated more of its leadership in the last three years than in all the eight years that came before. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd after more than — after more than 10 years without justice for thousands of Americans murdered on 9/11, after Mitt Romney said it would be naive to go into Pakistan to pursue the terrorists, it took President Obama, against the advice of many, to give that order and finally rid this earth of Osama bin Laden. (Cheers, applause.) Ask Osama bin Laden if he is better off now than he was four years ago. (Cheers, applause.)\nBarack Obama — Barack Obama promised always to stand with Israel, to tighten sanctions on Iran and take nothing off the table.\nAgain and again, the other side has lied about where this president stands and what this president has done. But Prime Minister Netanyahu set the record straight. He said, our two countries have exactly the same policy; our security cooperation is unprecedented. And when it comes to Israel, my friends, I'll take the word of Israel's prime minister over Mitt Romney any day. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama promised to work with Russia to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons and signed an historic treaty that does just that. He promised to lock down nuclear materials around the world, and he has done just that. He refused to accept the false choice between force without diplomacy and diplomacy without force. When a brutal dictator promised to hunt down and kill his own people like rats, President Obama enlisted our allies, built the coalition, shared the burden so that today, without a single American casualty, Moammar Gadhafi is gone, and the people of Libya are free. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo on one side — so on one side of this campaign, we have a president who has made America lead like America again. And what is there on the other side? An extreme and expedient candidate who lacks the judgment and the vision so vital to the Oval Office, the most inexperienced foreign policy twosome to run for president and vice president in decades.\n(Cheers, applause.) You know, it isn't — it isn't fair to say that Mitt Romney doesn't have a position on Afghanistan. He has every position. (Laughter.)\nHe was against setting a date for withdrawal. Then he said it was right. And then he left the impression that maybe it was wrong to leave this soon. He said it was tragic to leave Iraq. And then he said it was fine. He said we should have intervened in Libya sooner. Then he ran down a hallway to run away from the reporters who were asking questions. Then he said the intervention was too aggressive. And then he said the world was a better place because the intervention succeeded.\nTalk about being for it before you were against it! (Cheers, applause.)\nMr. Romney — Mr. Romney — Mr. Romney, here's a little advice. Before you debate Barack Obama on foreign policy, you better finish the debate with yourself. (Sustained cheers, applause.)\nNow with President Mitt Romney — President Mitt Romney — (boos) — three very hypothetical words that mystified and alienated our allies this summer. (Laughter.) For Mitt Romney, an overseas trip is what you call it when you trip all over yourself overseas. (Laughter, cheers, applause.)\nYou know, it wasn't — it wasn't a goodwill mission, it was a blooper reel. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut a Romney-Ryan foreign policy would be anything but funny.\nEvery president of both parties for 60 years has worked for nuclear arms control, but not Mitt Romney. Republican secretaries of state, from Kissinger to Baker, Powell to Rice, President Bush, 71 United States senators all supported President Obama's New START treaty, but not Mitt Romney.\nHe's even blurted out the preposterous notion that Russia is our number-one political — geopolitical foe. Folks, Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from Alaska. (Laughter.) Mitt Romney talks like he's only seen Russia by watching \"Rocky IV\"!\nI'll tell you, so here's the choice — here's the choice in 2012. Mitt Romney, out of touch at home, out of his depth abroad and out of the mainstream, or Barack Obama, a president who is giving new life and truth to America's indispensable role in the world — a commander in chief who gives our troops the tools and training they need in war, the honor and help they have earned when they come home, a man — (cheers, applause) — a man — a man who will never ask other men and women to fight a war without a plan to win the peace. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd let me say — let me say something else. Let me say something else. No nominee for president should ever fail in the midst of a war to pay tribute to our troops overseas in his acceptance speech. (Cheers, applause.) Mitt Romney — Mitt Romney was talking about America.\nThey are on the front lines every day defending America, and they deserve our thanks. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) USA! USA! USA! USA!\nJOHN KERRY: Some of us — some of us — some of us from a prior war remember coming home was not always easy. President Obama has made it his mission that we welcome our troops home with care and concern and the respect they deserve. That is how an exceptional nation says thank you to its most exceptional men and women. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt Romney says he believes in America and that he will restore American exceptionalism. I have news for him: We already have an exceptional American as president, and we believe in Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you, and God bless America. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "CHARLIE CRIST: Good evening. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. (Cheers, applause.) What an incredible night. Optimism is in the air, and what an honor to be here with you to stand with President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nHalf a century ago, Ronald Reagan, the man whose optimism was inspiring to me to enter politics — he famously said at one time that he did not leave the Democratic Party, but the party left him. Well, listen, I can relate. (Laughter.) I didn't leave the Republican Party; it left me. (Cheers, applause.) Then again, my friend Jeb Bush recently noted, Reagan himself would have been too moderate, too reasonable for today's GOP.\nWe face serious challenges in our country. We must create good middle-class jobs so we can have an economy that is built to last. We must rebuild our roads and bridges and improve our public schools. And particularly important to me and my state of Florida is the challenge of saving Medicare and Social Security so we can keep our promise to our seniors. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut there are common-sense solutions within our reach, if we only have leaders who are willing and enthusiastic to find common ground.\nNo political party has the monopoly on that kind of leadership, but as a former lifelong Republican, it pains me to tell you that today's Republicans and their standard-bearers Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan just aren't up to the task. (Cheers, applause.) They're beholden to the \"my way or the highway\" bullies, indebted to billionaires who bankroll their ads, and allergic to the very idea of compromise. (Applause.) Ronald Reagan would not have stood for that. Barack Obama does not stand for that. You and I will not stand for that. (Cheers, applause.)\nI'll be honest with you. I don't agree with President Obama about everything, but I've gotten to know him, and I've worked with him. And the choice is crystal clear. When he took office, the economic crisis had already put my state of Florida on the edge of disaster. The foreclosure crisis was consuming homeowners, the tourists we depend on couldn't visit and our vital construction industry had come to a standstill. President Obama saw what I saw — a catastrophe in the making — and he took action. (Cheers, applause.)\nOne of his first trips in office brought him to Fort Myers, Florida, where I was proud to embrace him and his plan to keep our teachers, police and firefighters on the job. (Cheers, applause.) Well, that hug caused me more grief from my party than you can ever imagine. But even as the Republican Party fought tooth and nail to stop him, this president showed his courage, invested in America and saved our Florida.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nTwo years later Florida and the Gulf Coast faced the worst environmental disaster in our nation's history, this time when a ruptured well spilled nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. President Obama came to our rescue again, leading a massive cleanup effort and demanding accountability from those responsible. (Cheers, applause.) My friends, he didn't see a red state. He didn't see a blue state. He simply saw Americans who needed help. And once again — once again I saw the leader our country needs. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou know, I used to play quarterback just down the road from here at Wake Forest University. And my dad always — (cheers) — go Deacons! And my dad always told me, he said, Charlie, it takes a cool head to win a hot game. My friends, our country is in the middle of a hot game. And we face serious challenges both at home and abroad. Meanwhile, our politics are defined by discord and discontent. Never has it been harder for a president to keep a cool head, and never has it been more important.\nI look around Florida. I see a state bursting with diversity and opportunity, a state that looks like America's future. When I look at the Republican ticket today, I see two candidates who would break the fundamental promise of Medicare and Social Security and cut investments on our middle class that are so important to our recovery.\nAnd then I look at Barack Obama. I see a leader with a cool head, a caring heart and an open mind, a president who has demonstrated through his demeanor, his grace and his deeds that he is uniquely qualified to heal our divisions, rebuild our nation and lead us to a brighter future.\nThat's the leader Florida needs. That's the leader America needs. That's the reason I'm here tonight, not as a Republican, not as a Democrat, simply as an American who understands that we must come together behind the one man who can lead the way forward in these challenging times, my president, your president, Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nGod bless you, and God bless America. Thank you so much. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "BRIAN SCHWEITZER: Settle down. (Cheers, applause.) Settle down, Montana, settle down! We got work to do! (Cheers, applause.) Settle down.\nI know Mitt Romney. We were governors at the same time. Both elected straight from the business world. We traveled together to Iraq and Afghanistan. Spend a week in a war zone with a guy, and you really get to know him. (Laughter.)\nWe traded stories about our early years: his as a missionary in France, and mine as a soil scientist in Libya and Saudi Arabia. (Scattered applause.)\nWe talked about family, religion, business, energy, war and peace and the future of America.\nAnd I'll tell you this: Mitt's a good man, a good family man and a loyal American. (Applause.)\nBut — (laughter) — and you knew there was a \"but\" — he brought the wrong agenda to Massachusetts, and he is the wrong guy to be president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, Governor Mitt Romney saddled Massachusetts taxpayers with an additional 2.6 billion (dollars) in debt and left them with the most debt per capita of any state in America. In Montana, that dog don't hunt. (Cheers, applause.) Now, remember those words. I might ask you to say them.\nGovernor Mitt Romney cut higher education by 14 percent in his first year, which meant that college education skyrocketed for students in Massachusetts. Now, I guess that's OK if you can afford it, but for the rest of us: That dog don't hunt.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) That dog don't hunt.\nBRIAN SCHWEITZER: Now, Governor Mitt Romney raised taxes and fees by $750 million a year. Now, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. When a politician doesn't want to be honest about a tax hike, he calls it a fee. Now, Mitt raised taxes — I mean fees — on driver's licenses, on school bus rides, on mental health services and even on milk.\n(Boos.) But here's the one that got the burr under my saddle. He quadrupled the fee for a gun license. Well — (audience shouting, applause) — now, maybe just maybe that's OK for a guy who hunts varmints. But for the rest of us, that dog don't hunt.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) That dog don't hunt!\nBRIAN SCHWEITZER: Now, Mitt, you can't just Etch A Sketch away your record. (Cheers, applause.) Taxes up, cost of college up, debt up — now, help me out here. New business starts down.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) Down.\nBRIAN SCHWEITZER: Manufacturing down.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) Down.\nBRIAN SCHWEITZER: Medium (sic) household income down.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) Down.\nBRIAN SCHWEITZER: Economic growth down.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) Down.\nBRIAN SCHWEITZER: You know, if private equity Mitt Romney met Governor Mitt Romney, he'd do what he says he likes to do. He'd fire him and outsource his job. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow — (applause) — let me tell you how we get 'er done in Montana. (Cheers, applause.) Clinton arithmetic. Clinton arithmetic. (Cheers, applause.) Yeah. (Cheers, applause.) Clinton arithmetic.\nWe've had record budget surpluses every year I've been governor, averaging more than $400 million in surpluses, even during the Great Recession. We invested more new money in education than ever before, frozen tuition at our colleges for the longest period ever, and get this, we increased the percentage of adults with college degrees faster than any other state.\n(Cheers, applause.) Well, we cut more taxes for more people than any governor in Montana history, and we vetoed Republican tax increases. (Cheers.) And our bond rating was upgraded.\nNow, Montana is moving in the right direction, and so is America. (Applause.) When President Obama took office, the economy was in free fall, losing more than 800,000 jobs a month. Since then he's helped create 4 1/2 million private sector jobs and 29 straight months of job growth. Stock market has doubled, energy production is up, imports from foreign country are down. And the number of rigs drilling for oil in the United States has more than quadrupled. Manufacturing jobs are coming back, and not just because we're producing a record amount of natural gas that's lowering electricity prices but because we have the best-trained, hardest-working labor force in the history of the world. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe are demanding more from our schools, but we're backing up that demand by investing more in teachers, increasing financial aid and doubling funding for Pell Grants. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, while he was doing all of that, President Obama cut our taxes. He cut taxes 18 times for small businesses. He cut taxes by $3,600 for the typical middle-class family.\nNow, that dog does hunt.\nNow, Governor Romney, he said that finding Osama bin Laden was — and I'll quote him — \"not worth moving heaven and earth.\" (Boos.)\nWell, tonight, bin Laden isn't on earth. Sure isn't in heaven. (Laughter.) And thanks to the courage of American special forces and the bold leadership of our president, Osama bin Laden's at the bottom of the ocean. (Cheers, applause.)\nAll four — all four of my grandparents were immigrants. They homesteaded the Montana prairie with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and faith in God, and the hope in their hearts that their kids and grandkids would have a better future. They delivered on that hope, and so has President Obama. (Cheers, applause.) Now it's our turn to deliver. Not just for the president's but for our kids, for our grandkids. This election is about their education, their health care, their freedom, their dignity, their hope and their future.\nAre we going to deliver?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Yes!\nBRIAN SCHWEITZER: Are we going to keep America moving forward?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Yes!\nBRIAN SCHWEITZER: Are we going to hire the right guy to finish the job for four more years?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Yes!\nBRIAN SCHWEITZER: How many years?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Four more years!\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Yes!\nBRIAN SCHWEITZER: How many years?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Four more years! Four more years!\nBRIAN SCHWEITZER: You got it. Let's get to work, America. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "EVA LONGORIA: Hello, Charlotte! (Cheers, applause.) I have to say hello to Texas. (Cheers, applause.) I've got to tell you, I have been on a lot of stages in my life, but none as important as this one.\nI am honored to be here as co-chair of President Obama's re- election campaign. (Cheers, applause.) I feel fortunate to be standing on this stage tonight, and I never could have imagined it growing up.\nI was born in Corpus Christi, Texas. (Cheers, applause.) (Chuckles.) I'm the youngest of four girls, including my oldest sister, Lisa, who has special needs. My mom was a special education teacher, and my dad worked on the Army base. We weren't wealthy, but we were determined to succeed, because in my family, there was one cardinal priority: education. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou see, for me, college was not an option; it was mandatory. So even though we didn't have a lot of money, we made it work. I signed up for financial aid, Pell Grants, work-study, anything I could. And just like our president and first lady, I took out loans to pay for school. I changed oil in a mechanic shop, I flipped burgers at Wendy's, I taught aerobics and I worked on campus to pay those loans back. And like a lot of you, I did whatever it took, and four years later, I got my degree. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut more importantly, I got a key to American opportunity, because that's who we are, a nation that rewards ambition with opportunity, where hard work can lead to success no matter where you start. As I travel the country for the president, I see Americans of every background fighting to succeed. They're optimistic, they're ambitious, they're hardworking, but they also want to know that their hard work will pay off.\nAnd we're lucky that our president understands the value of American opportunity, because he's lived it. (Cheers, applause.) And he's fighting to help others achieve it. He's fighting to make college more affordable. He's cut taxes for every working American.\nHe's helping small businesses get loans and has cut their taxes 18 times --(cheers, applause) — 18 times. And that's important, and I'll tell you why: because small businesses create 2 out of every 3 new jobs in America. It's the suburban dad who realizes his neighborhood needs a dry cleaner. It's the Latina nurse whose block needs a health clinic, and she's the one that's going to open it. Or it's the high school sophomore who's building Facebook's competitor. They are the entrepreneurs driving the American economy, not Mitt Romney's outsourcing pioneers. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt Romney would raise taxes on middle-class families to cut his own and mine. And that's not who we are as a nation. And let me tell you why: because the Eva Longoria who worked at Wendy's flipping burgers, she needed a tax break. But the Eva Longoria who works on movie sets does not. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama, he is fighting for changes that grow the economy from the middle out and help all Americans succeed: jobs, education, health reform, the DREAM Act — (cheers) — equal pay for women. President Obama is moving us forward with opportunity today for prosperity tomorrow. Mitt Romney wants to take us back to yesterday.\nAnd that's not what's going to work because America was built by optimists, optimists like my friend Amanda who recently started a small business. And she went to buy her website address, her first and last name, and she found out somebody already owned it but wasn't using it. So my friend emailed the owner of the site, and she asked if she could buy it. Well, the owner wrote back. She's a 13-year-old girl who shares Amanda's name.\nAnd she politely explained that she could not give up the website. Why? Because the younger Amanda plans to be president of the United States one day — (cheers, applause) — and she's going to need the website for her campaign. (Laughter, applause.)\nSo, here's a little girl, 13 years old, who believes that she can build her American dream, and here's a president who's building an America where that dream is possible. (Cheers, applause.) So let's fight for the American dream — Amanda's, yours, mine, all of ours. And we know how to do that. Let's re-elect President Obama. Si se puede. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJENNIFER GRANHOLM: Good evening. I'm Jennifer Granholm from the great state of Michigan — (cheers, applause) — where the trees are just the right height.\nAnd let me tell you a story about the dark days in my home state. So toward the end of my time as governor, Ford closed one of its biggest factories, a factory in Wixom, Michigan. And the plant had employed over the years thousands of middle-class men and women in neighborhoods near and worlds away from the place where Mitt Romney was raised.\nAnd when Ford's decision to close the factory hit, I went down to the local union hall, and it was actually almost empty. A few workers were milling about, really in a state of shock and grief. And I talked to a 45-year-old guy who told me, this is the only place I've ever worked. I've been loyal, I've done everything they've ever asked and just like that, it's gone. And he looked around the hall and he said, so, governor, is it over for us? Is the American auto industry dead? And honestly, at that moment, I just didn't know.\nBut that was just the beginning. When the financial crisis hit, things got worse and fast. The entire auto industry and the lives of over 1 million hardworking Americans teetered on the edge of collapse, and with it, the entire manufacturing sector of this country, and we looked everywhere for help.\nAlmost nobody had the guts to help us. Not the banks, not the private investors, and not Bain Capital. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut in 2009, the cavalry arrived, and our new president, Barack Obama, came in. (Cheers, applause.) He organized a rescue. He made the tough calls. And he saved the American auto industry. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow you know, you know, Mitt Romney, he saw the same crisis. And you know what he said: Let Detroit go bankrupt. Now, sure, sure, Mitt Romney loves our lakes and our trees. (Laughter.) He loves our cars so much, they even have their own elevator. (Laughter.) But the people who design and build and sell those cars? Well, in Romney's world, the cars get the elevator and the workers get the shaft! (Cheers, applause.)\nYou know what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying. Mitt Romney, he says — he says that his business experience qualifies him to be president. Sure, he's (made ?) a lot of money. Good for him. Good for him. Or maybe I should say, good for HIM.\nBut how did he make that fortune? And at whose expense?\n(Cheers.) You know too often he made it at the expense of middle- class Americans year after year. It was profit before people.\nBut President Obama, with the auto rescue — you know, he saved more than 1 million American jobs. (Cheers, applause.) But it wasn't just Michigan. Hey, hey, hey! It wasn't just Michigan, my friends. In Colorado — (cheers, applause) — the auto rescue saved more than 9,000 jobs; in Virginia — (cheers, applause) — more than 19,000 jobs; in North Carolina — (cheers, applause) — 25,000 jobs — (extended cheers, applause) — in Wisconsin, 28,000 jobs; in Pennsylvania, 34,000 jobs; in Florida, 35,000 jobs; in Ohio, 150,000 jobs; and in the great state of Michigan, 211,000 good-paying American jobs. (Cheers, applause.) All across America — (inaudible) — manufacturing is rebounding. (Cheers, applause.) Why? (Cheers, applause.) (Inaudible.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!\nJENNIFER GRANHOLM: USA! Because — all right now — because when Mitt Romney did say, let Detroit go bankrupt, who took the wheel? Barack Obama! (Cheers, applause.) When America was losing 750,000 jobs per month, who gave us a lift?\nBarack Obama.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) Barack Obama!\nJENNIFER GRANHOLM: When American markets broke down, who jump-started our engine? Barack Obama.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) Barack Obama!\nJENNIFER GRANHOLM: And when America needed it most, who got us rolling again on the road to recovery?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Barack Obama!\nJENNIFER GRANHOLM: America, we need to rev up our engines in your car and on your ballot. The \"D\" is for drive forward; the \"R\" is for reverse. (Cheers, applause.) In this election, we are driving forward, not back. (Cheers, applause.) Let's re-elect our great president, Barack Obama! (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nXAVIER BECERRA: You all having a good time? (Cheers, applause.) You ready to work? (Cheers, applause.) Time out. We're talking about the American dream. It's built not with words or speeches but from the sweat and tears of Americans. It's the heart and soul, and it resides not in the boardroom on Wall Street but in the shops and factories on Main Street. Its promise is very simple: Work hard, play by the rules, and you could make it in America. (Applause.)\nThat's Barack and Michelle Obama's story. And like so many of you, that's my parents' story too. My father was a construction worker who dug the ditches and laid the pipe and concrete to build our highways. My mother arrived in this country as a newlywed with no money, no English and no family of her own.\nTogether, they realized the dream of sending their four children where no man or woman in our family in America had ever gone before: college. El sueno americano. The American dream. (Cheers, applause.) In any language, that's what this election is about. We need President Obama for four more years to keep that dream alive.\nWhen President Obama was elected, the American dream was on life support. The middle class was being hollowed out. We cannot afford to go back to the failed policies of the past. (Applause.)\nNow, maybe Governor Romney has forgotten how we got into the mess that President Obama faced, but we haven't — two wars, tax breaks for the wealthiest, the Wall Street bailout, Katrina. Nearly 9 million Americans lost their jobs because of the Great Recession. Our neighbors lost their homes, our teachers, firefighters and police officers were laid off and our small businesses couldn't get the bailed out banks to offer them any credit. How many construction workers like my father do you think could dream of reaching the middle class under those conditions?\nWe've all heard the saying put your money where your mouth is. Well, Governor Romney, ante up. (Cheers, applause.) Show us how your economic policies differ from President Bush's. If you believe in America, you invest in America. We don't need someone who will be a poster child for the Cayman Islands sitting in the Oval Office.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nSo I ask you: Is it courageous to cut funding for college loans or to vow to veto the dream for immigrant children?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nXAVIER BECERRA: Is it responsible to reward companies that ship American jobs overseas with more tax loopholes?'\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nXAVIER BECERRA: Is it bold to say our country is broke and then hand out yet another deficit-busting tax break to millionaires and billionaires?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nXAVIER BECERRA: And is it right to pull the rug out from under older Americans after a lifetime of hard work and turn Medicare into a voucher system, \"Couponcare\"?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nXAVIER BECERRA: \"Couponcare.\" Really, Mr. Romney, \"Couponcare\"? If you want to save the middle class, you don't outsource it; you strengthen it. (Cheers, applause.) If you want to get America back to work, you don't fire cops, teachers, nurses and firefighters; you invest in them. (Applause.)\nPresident Obama is fighting for the middle class. He's fighting to put Americans back to work and our country back on track. And President Obama believes in the promise of America. And President Obama believes in you. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe American dream, el sueno americano. Dr. King marched for it. Cesar Chavez organized for it. And this fall we will vote for it. Together, we're going to re-elect Barack Obama president of the United States.\nAdelante! (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nCAROLINE KENNEDY: It's an honor to join you tonight for the most important reason I can imagine: to make sure that Barack Obama is re- elected president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nFour years ago I was inspired by the way Senator Obama had lived his life, fighting for jobs, giving hope to the hopeless and working day in and day out for the America he believes in. I was inspired by Barack Obama's vision for America, an America where we look out for one another, where we take responsibility for our sisters and brothers, and most of all, for our children.\nBack then, I was inspired by the promise of Barack Obama's presidency. Today I'm inspired by his record. (Cheers, applause.)\nOver the past four years, we have had a president who has committed himself and his administration to the values that made America great: economic fairness, equal opportunity and the belief that if each of us gives back to this country we love, and all of us work together, there is no challenge we cannot overcome.\n(Applause.) Those are the ideals that my father and my uncles fought for. Those are the ideals I believe in. And this election is about whether we will advance those ideals or let them be swept away. Like my father's election in 1960, this is one of those elections where the future of our country is at stake.\nAnd — (applause) — (chuckles) — and women and children have the most on the line. The president has been a champion for women's rights. The first bill he signed was to make sure women can fight for equal pay for equal work. (Cheers, applause.) His commitment to women is about even more than economic rights. It's about health care, reproductive rights and our ability to make our own decisions about ourselves, our families and our future. (Cheers, applause.) When it comes to what's best for women, there is only one candidate in this race who is on our side, Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nAs a Catholic woman, I take reproductive health seriously, and today it is under attack. This year alone, more than a dozen states have passed more than 40 restrictions on women's access to reproductive health care. That's not the kind of future I want for my daughters or your daughters. (Applause.) Now isn't the time to roll back the rights we were winning when my father was president. Now is the time to move this country forward. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama has shown the same commitment when it comes to our children. He has put our ideals into action for the next generation. He has inspired them to get involved, he has listened to their ideas and he has committed us all to building a better future for them.\nHe's challenged states to raise standards for teaching and learning, and almost all of them have. He has fought for early childhood education, putting outstanding teachers in every classroom and making college accessible to all young dreamers. (Cheers, applause.)\nI know Barack Obama will fight for women and children and all Americans because he has proven it. He has the quality my father most admired in public life: courage. (Cheers, applause.) Despite critics who said it wasn't good politics, President Obama listened to my uncle Teddy and staked his presidency on making health care accessible to all Americans. (Cheers, applause.) Despite an opponent who wanted to let Detroit go bankrupt, this president saved the auto industry, and now it's coming back strong. (Cheers, applause.) He not only demonstrated the courage to oppose the war in Iraq, as president, he showed the determination to bring our troops back home. (Cheers, applause.)\nBarack Obama is the kind of leader my father wrote about in \"Profiles in Courage.\" He doesn't just do what's easy. He does what's hard. He does what's right. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy father couldn't run for a second term. It was left to his brothers, our family and the generation they inspired to fight for the America he believed in. Now it's up to a new generation, our children's generation, to carry America forward.\nSo let me say to the young and the young at heart: Barack Obama is only president because you worked for him, because you believed in him, because you convinced your parents to vote for him. (Cheers, applause.)\nYoung people have always led America towards a brighter future. It happened in 1960; it happened in 2008. And if you show the same spirit in this election as you did in the last, I know that we'll make history again on November 6th.\nThank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nSCARLETT JOHANSSON: Thank you. Thank you. It is an honor, an honor to be here tonight. I speak to you not as a representative of young Hollywood but as a representative of the many millions of young Americans, particularly young women, who depend on public and nonprofit programs to help them survive. (Cheers, applause.)\nI grew up in New York City. (Cheers, applause.) I grew up with four siblings. My father barely made enough to get by. We moved every year, and we finally settled in a housing development for lower- middle-income families. We went to public schools and depended on programs for school transport and lunches, as did most of my friends. My girlfriends from high school to this day still depend on Planned Parenthood, and often Medicaid, for important health care services. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn 2008, less than half of all eligible voters between the ages of 18 and 24 voted — less than half. Young America, why are we only speaking with half our voice when so many issues at stake here directly affect us? (Cheers, applause.)\nYou know who I am voting for. I'm not going to tell you who to vote for. I'm here to ask you to commit to vote. It's never been easier than now. You can go to commit.barackobama.com (sic) to register, find your polling location, any other information that you need. It's that easy.\nYou know, earlier this week Chelsea Clinton reminded us that we are the generation who feel our voices haven't been heard.\nSo vote so that your voice is heard. (Cheers, applause.)\nOver the last two days we've been reminded of something that perhaps we forgot: what has been accomplished and what is at stake, whether we can get health care, afford college, be guaranteed equal pay. All of these things are at great, great risk. And that's why I'm here today, to use whatever attention I'm fortunate enough to receive to shed the spotlight on what's at stake for all of us. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou know, when I was a little girl, my mother — she's a registered Democrat — (cheers, applause) — (chuckles) — she would take me into the polling booth and tell me which buttons to press and when to pull the lever. Is that even legal? I don't know. I don't think so. (Laughter.) Anyway, I remember that excitement I felt in that secret box. And I felt like my mom's vote wasn't just about the candidate; it was about our family and all the families in our community just like ours.\nThis last election, I finally got to punch those buttons for real, for me. (Cheers, applause.) (Chuckles.) Man, I was so excited I wore my \"I Voted\" pin the whole day. It was my finest accessory. And this year, on November 6th, I am filled with that same pride, that same enthusiasm to press the button to re-elect President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo get out there. Exercise your right to vote. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "KERRY WASHINGTON: I am so grateful to be here with you tonight. I'm here not just as an actress but as a woman, an African-American, a granddaughter of immigrants who came through Ellis Island, a person who could not have afforded college without the help of student loans and as one of millions of volunteers working to re-elect President Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo many people have struggled so that you and I, all of us, could have a voice in this great democracy and live up to those first three words of our Constitution: We, the people. I love that phrase, I really do, so much, because throughout our country's history, we've expanded the meaning of that phrase to include more and more of us. And that's what it means to move forward. And that is what this election is about. And it's why we cannot sit on the sidelines.\nLook, I get it, right? Whether it's school, work, family, we've all got a lot on our minds. People say — we've all heard people say, I'm just too busy to think about politics. But here's the thing: you may not be thinking about politics, but politics is thinking about you. (Cheers, applause.)\nToday there are people out there trying to take away rights that our mothers, our grandmothers and our great-grandmothers fought for — (applause) — rights that we fought for, our right to vote — (applause) — our right to choose, our right to affordable, quality education, equal pay, access to health care.\n(Cheers, applause.) And we the people cannot let that happen. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe want you to know that tonight, even as this convention is coming to a close, a movement is building around our country. The other side wants to take our voices away and render us invisible. But we are not invisible. (Cheers, applause.)\nFrom a home in Iowa — (cheers) — to a yogurt shop in Colorado — (cheers, applause) — friends and neighbors have gathered for 5,000 watch parties. They are committed to this campaign. All of us together, we will re-elect President Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut none of us can be silent. We need all of us in this network. And we will win this election because we are the people. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJAMES CLYBURN: Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, and hello, South Carolina. (Cheers, applause.)\nFifty-two years ago President Kennedy accepted our party's nomination, saying: \"We are not here to curse the darkness; we are here to light a candle.\" This is the fundamental difference between the party of Barack Obama and the party of Romney-Ryan. President Obama has lit candle after candle, bringing our country out from the darkness of recession, only to see Republicans douse the flames and amuse themselves cursing the darkness.\nThe Romney-Ryan Republicans, however, have walked away from bipartisan efforts to responsible approaches to move this country forward, bringing only more darkness. The architect of the Republicans' backwards blueprint is none other than vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan. The Romney-Ryan plan will cut taxes for the wealthiest 1 percent, end the guarantee of Medicare, and it will try to balance the budget on the backs of hardworking Americans.\nWhen too many of our senior citizens were living their golden years in the darkness of economic insecurity, Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt and the Democratic Congress created Social Security, lighting a candle, while the Republicans cursed the darkness.\nWhen too many of our elderly found their lives darkened by unaffordable and inaccessible health care, Lyndon Johnson and a Democratic Congress lit the candles of Medicare and Medicaid while Republicans stood on the sidelines and cursed the darkness.\nWhen the economy of our country languished in uncertainty, William Jefferson Clinton and a Democratic Congress lit the candles that illuminated the pathway to prosperity, reducing the deficit — (cheers) — and creating 20 million jobs. (Cheers, applause.) And we did it with — that's right — every Republican in the Congress cursing the darkness.\nWhen President Obama was sworn into office, our economy was losing over 700,000 jobs per month. Affordable, quality care for all Americans was an unfulfilled, century-old pursuit. Bin Laden was plotting attacks while our troops were bogged down in Iraq. So President Obama went to work lighting candles. He promised to bring Osama bin Laden to justice — done. (Cheers, applause.) He promised to end the war in Iraq — done. (Cheers, applause.) He promised to make membership in al-Qaida a high-risk occupation and begin winding down the war in Afghanistan — done. (Cheers, applause.) And he championed a Veterans Job Corps to put our returning veterans back to work.\nPresident Obama's actions saved jobs throughout the automobile industry. One point (sic) million jobs overall. Now — (applause) — Ford and Chrysler are making record profits again, and General Motors has regained its position as number one. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd President Obama's courage made affordable, accessible, quality health care a right, not a privilege. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe should not run from the term \"Obamacare.\" I am glad Obama cares. (Cheers, applause.) Because Obama cares, children born with diabetes can no longer be denied coverage on their parents' insurance policies. (Cheers.) Because Obama cares, people with catastrophic illnesses can no longer be dropped from coverage when they get sick. Families will no longer have their benefits capped.\nThis preacher's kid is told by Romans 13, verse 12: The night is far spent, the day is at hand: Let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.\nLet us go from this place, lighting candles all across this great country, and re-elect President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden so they can continue lighting candles and moving this country forward. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nBEAU BIDEN: My dad is Joe Biden. A few years ago he wrote a memoir. For his title, he quoted the line from Robert Frost's famous poem. He called it \"Promises to Keep.\" In the last four years, you've seen my father partner with President Obama to keep the promises they made and the sacred promises we made: the promises we made to our elderly, who have had — who have a — earned a dignified retirement; the promises we make to our children, who deserve a chance to succeed; the promises we make that if you play by the rules and work hard, things will work out.\nOne of those promises is to a group of people close to my heart, my brothers and sisters in uniform. (Cheers, applause.) You guys. Ladies and gentlemen, the stakes are high for our country. There will be and should be a debate about two very different paths. But there should be no debate about our sacred, our shared commitment to take care of our veterans. (Cheers, applause.)\nFour years ago — four years ago I told you that my father has always been there for me, for my sister, and as vice president, he would be there for you. And he has. I've seen it. (Applause.) I've seen it up close and personal. I've watched him use more than three decades of experience, respect and good will on both sides of the aisle to move vital legislation, just like he did with the Violence Against Women Act. (Cheers, applause.)\nI've watched him strengthen relationships with our allies and stare down our adversaries. I've seen him make quiet visits to veterans' hospitals and private phone calls to the families of first responders killed in the line of duty. I've seen him salute the workers in factories that are only open because of the decisions that he and the president had the courage to make. I've seen him shake the hand of every single high school student in a graduating class of 900 because he wants those kids to remember the day they got their diplomas and to do something big with them. (Cheers, applause.)\nFor me — for me, the most memorable moment of the past four years was not something most Americans saw. In fact, it wasn't even on American soil. It took place in Iraq, at Camp Victory, where I was stationed.\nIt was the 4th of July in 2009. My father was there on one of his many trips to the region, as part of his work, I might add, to bring that war to an end. (Cheers, applause.)\nI had the privilege — I had the privilege to watch him lead a naturalization ceremony in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces for a couple hundred men and women from all the branches of our military. As he led those new Americans through the oaths of citizenship, this celebration of democracy in a land of a deposed dictator, I was struck by the strength and diversity of our country. I was reminded why we as a nation are stronger when everybody has a chance to do their part. And I was reminded of everything President Obama and my father have done to guarantee that chance.\nWe do have promises to keep. And my dad and Barack Obama are keeping them. (Cheers, applause.) And yes — and yes, we have miles to go before we sleep. But Barack Obama and Joe Biden are leading the way forward.\nFour years ago, because I was going to Iraq, I asked you to be there for my dad, and you were. And for the last four years, I can say with certainty he has been there for us. (Cheers, applause.) In moments — in moments — in moments both public and private, he's the father I've always known, the grandfather my children love and adore and the vice president our nation needs.\nSo tonight, Mr. Chairman, it's my great honor to place into nomination for the office of vice president of the United States my father, my hero, Joe Biden. (Cheers, applause.)\nI move to suspend the rules and nominate by acclamation Joe Biden as the Democratic vice presidential candidate. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nKENYETTA JONES: Good evening. I'm Kenyetta Jones from Toledo, Ohio. (Cheers, applause.)\nAfter I was laid off from General Motors' transmission assembly plant in 2009, I didn't sit around feeling sorry for myself. Instead I started training people with basic skills so when the jobs came back, they would be ready. Thanks to President Obama, these jobs did come back. (Cheers, applause.) He knows that America needs our jobs, because what happens to the auto industry happens to America. President Obama saved our community. He saved working America. He's my hero. (Cheers, applause.)\nThere are heroes all across America. Joining me on stage are some of those heroes who the president met on his road to Charlotte, people who display the quiet heroism we see so often in this country.\nEd Meagher is a Vietnam war veteran who for nine years has been placing a welcoming arm around the soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. (Cheers, applause.) He has helped them to readjust to civilian life, prepare for jobs and simply come home again.\nLucas Beenken is an Iraq war veteran so committed to his Iowa community that when he ran from (sic) office — (applause) — from abroad and was elected as the only Democrat on the Wright County Board of Supervisors. (Applause.)\nRob Hach and his wife Tara are entrepreneurs who worked hard building their clean energy businesses in Alta, Iowa.\n(Cheers, applause.) After 10 years of hard work, that business now employs 27 people. (Cheers, applause.)\nMartha Figueroa is a third-grade teacher at Saint (sic) Joseph Gallagher School in Cleveland, Ohio. (Cheers, applause.) On her time, she teaches English to students who come from more than a half dozen countries. (Cheers, applause.)\nRyan Case overcame personal tragedy and committed himself to his future by going back to school, thanks to President Obama's support of Pell Grants. (Cheers, applause.)\nToday he is committed to expanding the opportunity for other young people by encouraging them to re-elect President Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nThese are the people who make our communities stronger and make us all proud. Please join me in acknowledging these American heroes. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "JIM MESSINA: I'm so proud to represent the millions of volunteers who make up the vast grassroots organization in the history of American politics. Let's hear it for our neighborhood team leaders! (Cheers, applause.) The heart and soul of our grassroots army. I was disappointed that we could not have the tens of thousands of people who planned to be with us tonight in the stadium. But I am so happy that there are over 5,000 watch parties happening all over America. (Cheers, applause.) Here's a few of them. (Cheers, applause.) We're going to talk to one right now.\nHey, New Mexico, can you hear me? (Cheers, applause.)\nAll right! Are you fired up? (Sustained cheers, applause.)\nAll right. Every morning, the first thing I read are the numbers from the day before. Not poll numbers or money; the numbers that mean something: door knocks, conversations, registered voters. Our volunteers have made 44 million calls and knocked on 3.8 million doors.(Cheers, applause.) We've registered more than a million voters already more than we did in 2008. (Cheers, applause.) And no state has registered more people than the great blue state of North Carolina. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe're doing exactly what the Republicans don't want us to do: getting more people involved in our democracy; giving more Americans a voice in their future. Here's how the greatest grassroots organization in the history of American campaigns is going to do just that:\nFirst, register to vote right now. Go to GottaRegister.com. That's G-O-T-T-A, register.com. Second, if you're already registered, go to commit.barackobama.com.\nWe need each and every one of you to commit to vote for Barack Obama today. Third, take out your phone. For the first time in political history, you can donate by texting. Just text \"give\" to 62262 to donate $10 right now. That's 62262.\nYou know, voting in Iowa starts in just three weeks from today. (Cheers, applause.) There's no time to lose. If you want to protect health reform, hit some doors. If you want a clean energy future where new jobs are more important than giveaways to oil companies, make some phone calls. If you think our kids should have more teachers and millionaires should have fewer tax breaks, spread the word online. (Cheers, applause.)\nThis election isn't about Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. It's about you. The other guys write $10 million checks and make $10,000 bets. But we've made this campaign bet on you. I'd make that bet every day and twice on Tuesday, especially when that Tuesday is Election Day. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nZACH WAHLS: Thank you, Charlotte. (Applause.) My name is Zach Wahls. (Cheers, applause.) My name is Zach Wahls. I'm a sixth- generation Iowan, an Eagle Scout and I was raised by my two moms, Jackie and Terry. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, people always want to know what it's like having lesbian parents, so let you in on a little secret: I'm awesome at putting the seat down. (Laughter.) Otherwise, we're like any other family. We eat dinner, we go to church, we have chores.\nBut some people don't see it that way. When I was 12, watching the 2004 Republican Convention, I remember politicians talking about protecting marriage from families like mine. Now, supporting a view of marriage as between a man and woman isn't radical. For many people, it's a matter of faith. We respect that.\nWatching that convention on TV, though, I felt confused, frustrated. Why didn't they think my family was a real family? Governor Romney says he's against same-sex marriage because every child deserves a mother and a father. I think every child deserves a family as loving and committed as mine — (cheers, applause) — because the sense of family comes from the commitment we make to each other to work through the hard times so we can enjoy the good ones.\nIt comes from the love that binds us. That's what makes a family. (Cheers, applause.)\nMr. Romney, my family is just as real as yours. (Cheers, applause.) President Obama understands that. He supports my moms' marriage. President Obama put his political future on the line to do what was right. (Applause.) Without his leadership, we wouldn't be here.\nPresident Obama is fighting for our families, all our families. (Cheers, applause.) He has our backs. And ladies and gentlemen, we have his. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you, Charlotte, and thank you, President Obama. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nMICHAEL NUTTER: I'm honored to serve as mayor of my hometown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Cheers, applause.) And when our founders started America with three simple words, \"We the people\" — and when they said \"people,\" they didn't mean corporations. (Cheers, applause.)\nI'm most honored to be the father of Christian and Olivia and a proud parent of a current high school student. My wife, Lisa, and I know that Olivia's education is central to everything that she and everyone in our city wants to achieve. In Philadelphia our public education, poverty reduction, health and economic development all start with education. We can't grow the middle class if we don't give our kids the tools they need to innovate and invent.\nBut first we have to invest in them. That's what President Barack Obama did, saving 400,000 educators' jobs and giving states the flexibility to shape their schools. Mitt Romney doesn't get it. He recently visited a school in West Philly and told teachers that he knows more than they do about what works for their students. He said class size doesn't matter. (Boos.)\nDoesn't matter? If our teachers can't give our children the attention they need, that doesn't matter? If our students spend the day on their feet or the floor because there aren't enough desks in a crowded classroom, that doesn't matter? Well, let me tell you who it does matter to. It matters to Olivia. It matters to her classmates. It matters to all of our public school students in Philadelphia. And that's what matters. (Cheers, applause.)\nTo Mitt Romney, education is a luxury. As governor, he vetoed universal pre-K. In his first year, K-12 schools saw dramatic cuts that led to teacher layoffs. He failed his students.\nWhat has he learned from all this? All the wrong lessons. He failed the education test and now wants a promotion. His budget would mean fewer teachers and bigger class sizes. It would mean fewer Pell Grants, costing our country millions of college graduates. And he wants to put big banks back in the student loan business. And just ask him about affording college, like one high schooler did in Ohio. Romney's answer? Shop around.\nWell, here are some wiser words from a great Philadelphian, Ben Franklin. He said: An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.\nSounds like Mitt Romney could stand to learn a thing or two about investing. Our economy grows from the middle out, not the top down. We're all in this together.\nI learned that lesson growing up in West Philly. When I shoveled the sidewalk, my parents didn't let me stop with our house. They told me to keep shoveling all the way to the corner. I had a responsibility to my community, and that's what being mayor is all about. We take care of our own. We keep our neighbors safe, clear the snow from their streets, educate their kids. We get stuff done.\nAnd for Barack Obama, that's what being president is all about. He knows coming together as a nation starts by coming together as neighbors. That's why, after graduating, Barack Obama went to a Chicago neighborhood to help jobless workers in the shadow of a closed down steel mill.\nAfter Mitt Romney graduated, he became a corporate buyout specialist who closed down steel mills.\nWhose values do you want in the Oval Office? Well, I know who I want, and I know who Philly wants, and I know who Pennsylvania wants, and I know who you want, and I know who the middle class needs: President Barack Obama! (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nTAMMY BALDWIN: On behalf of the great state of Wisconsin and our proud progressive tradition, thank you. I know you've heard a lot about Wisconsin lately. You've heard about Paul Ryan, who wants to end Medicare as we know it. You've heard about Scott Walker — (boos) — who took basic rights away from teachers, nurses and public employees. Maybe you've even heard about Tommy Thompson, our former governor who went to Washington, cashed in on his special interest connections and never really came back.\nWell, I'm here to tell you that they don't speak for all of Wisconsin. (Cheers, applause.) And I want you to hear about the Wisconsin I know, the place where my grandparents raised me, the place where generations of families have worked hard to get ahead, the place where our state motto might sound familiar to you.\nIt's just one word: \"Forward.\" (Cheers, applause.)\nWe believe that if we're going to prosper, everyone has to have a fair shot, and everyone has to do their fair share. That's why I'm proud to lead the charge for the Buffett rule, which makes sure that millionaires and billionaires don't get to pay a lower tax rate than hardworking middle-class families. (Cheers, applause.) And President Obama is standing with me. But Mitt Romney wants to pass even more tax cuts for those at the very top. The Wisconsin I know knows that their plan will only bust our budget, not boost our economy. We believe in a level playing field.\nMore than a decade ago the big Wall Street banks came to Congress and asked us to repeal an important law called Glass-Steagall, allowing them to gamble like hedge funds. Too many in Washington said yes. Russ Feingold and I said no. And after — (cheers, applause) — and after those risky schemes brought our economy to its knees, I fought to make Wall Street play by the same rules as Main Street. (Cheers, applause.) President Obama fought for that reform. Mitt Romney wants to repeal it. But the Wisconsin I know knows that having two sets of rules makes no kind of sense.\nIn Wisconsin, we believe in hard work. (Cheers, applause.) For decades we've worked to make things: paper, engines, tools, ships, and yes, cheese, brats and beer. (Cheers, applause.) Give our workers a fair shot, and we'll compete against anyone. And that's why I'm taking on China's cheating and betting on Wisconsin workers.\n(Cheers, applause.) President Obama believes in our manufacturers. That's why he's standing with me to support companies creating jobs here, and not shipping them overseas.\nMitt Romney wants to give up on our manufacturing sector. But the Wisconsin I know knows that an economy built to last says \"Made in America\" on the label. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd we believe that American history moves in one direction — forward. (Cheers.) Our president has made historic progress towards equality. He repealed \"don't ask, don't tell\" — (cheers) — so that no American ever again has to lie about who they are in order to serve the country we love.\nRepublicans want to write discrimination into our Constitution. But the Wisconsin I know believes that with each passing year and each generation, our country must become more equal, not less. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Scott Walker, Tommy Thompson — they think they're the only ones who speak for Wisconsin. (Boos.) But come November, the Wisconsin I know, the America I love, will speak out loud and clear and keep us moving forward. Forward with a strong middle class; forward on a path to prosperity; and forward with President Obama. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA: Good evening. To the California delegation, I see you — (cheers, applause) — and I love you.\nTo my children, who've been here all week, my family, I love you most of all.\nTo the folks from North Carolina and Charlotte — (cheers, applause) — who've been such wonderful hosts, there's no hospitality quite like southern hospitality. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou know, I'm proud to be the mayor of the great city of Los Angeles, the city of America's hope and promise and the entertainment capital of the world. But I have to say, when it comes to entertainment, to great stories and tall tales, the Republican Convention gave Hollywood a run for their money. (Applause.)\nYou know, it's been the privilege of a lifetime to hold the gavel at this historic convention, where tonight Barack Obama will accept our party's nomination for a second term as president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nLook around you, everyone. This has been the most diverse, most inclusive convention ever held anywhere in the United States of America — (cheers, applause) — a convention not just of symbolism but of substance. This is the first time that a major party platform recognizes marriage equality as a basic human right. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd this is a reflection of who we are as a party and who we can be as a nation. Because as Democrats, as Americans, whenever we've opened up our party and our country, whenever we've opened up our doors for more of our people, whenever we've deepened our democracy and renewed our commitment to equal justice under the law, we've grown stronger as a nation. (Applause.)\nLast week in Tampa, we were promised hard truths. And they were right about one thing. The truth was hard to find. (Cheers, applause.) That's why they didn't talk about their plan to cut taxes for millionaires by raising taxes on middle-class families with kids — on your family — by $2,000.\nThey didn't talk about their plan to replace the guarantee of Medicare with a coupon, with a voucher that might not cover the cost of care and could force seniors to pay up to $6,400 more a year.\nThey didn't talk about their plan to deny a woman control over the basic decisions that affect her health.\nNo. The Romney campaign bragged that it wouldn't be dictated by fact-checkers. What they meant is, their campaign wouldn't be dictated by facts. (Cheers, applause.)\nThey said they have a plan, but they didn't share it because they know it's not a plan that the American people want. Americans don't want to go backwards; they want to go forward.\n(Cheers, applause.) That's what President Obama's plan will do — applause) — now by investing in education and manufacturing, bringing clean-energy jobs to our shores, ending wars abroad and doing some nation building here at home. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe know that some of our Republican friends may not have agreed with everything they've heard here in Charlotte. But at least they heard the facts. They heard solutions. They heard an honest description of the choice we face. And tonight they'll hear from a president who's fighting for all of us. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn his first term, he fought for the student who's trying to pay for college. He fought for the small-business owner striving for a piece of the American dream. He fought for the men and women in uniform who are fighting for us. (Applause.) He fought for the woman who deserves health care — (cheers) — that's there for her when she needs it. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd he fought for the \"DREAMers\" — (cheers, applause) — young people brought here as children through no fault of their own. And instead of supporting their dream, Governor Romney wants to make life so miserable, so oppressive, so intolerable for them that they would leave the life they built behind, leave their children behind and self-deport.\nHow about that for family values? (Boos.)\nBut you know, we believe we're a better country than that. And thanks to President Obama, as we keep on fighting for the DREAM Act, they can remain in the country they love. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou know, in LA we know that communities are stronger for their diversity, from Westwood to Wilmington, from Silver Lake to Sherman Oaks. We may come from different backgrounds. We may speak different languages. We may even worship in different ways. But all of us, no matter our accent or our ancestry, are pursuing the same American dream.\nIt's the dream that brought my grandfather here from Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico, to Los Angeles a century ago with no money, even less English, but an unshakable faith in the relationship between work and reward. It's the dream that allowed his grandson, the son of a single mom, a child of Boyle Heights, to graduate from UCLA.\nAnd you know, some people — I got there on an affirmative action program, and some people would say I came in through the backdoor. But one thing's for sure: I got out the front. (Cheers, applause.) That's the open, inclusive America we love. I went to work for farmworkers in teachers. I went on to become the speaker of the California State Assembly, and now I'm mayor of the city of Los Angeles. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou know, I know how I got here. I worked hard. And I grew up in an America where hard work paid off.\nThat's the promise of this great country. And this week we came to Charlotte to restore that promise.\nAnd while this convention ends tonight, our work is not done. In the days and weeks ahead, we're going to register more voters, knock on more doors, get out more votes for this party and this president. (Cheers, applause.) We're going to send Barack Obama back to the White House! (Cheers, applause.)\nGod bless you. Thank you, and God bless America. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nDEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm — thank you. (Sustained cheers, applause.) I'm so proud to represent the people of South Florida. (Cheers, applause.) I was so honored when President Obama asked me to serve as chair of the Democratic Party. Thank you. Thank you.\nBut there's one job I'm even more proud of, and that's being a mom to my three kids, Rebecca, Jake and Shelby. (Cheers, applause.) (Chuckles.) In 2008 I could see what eight years of top-down economics were doing to their future. And like so many of you, I worked day in and day out. Together, we elected President Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nWhen I addressed our convention that year, I spoke about what the stakes were for our country. What I didn't tell you was how high the stakes were for my family. In 2007 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2008, right before the convention, I had one of seven surgeries I'd have that year.\nI was fortunate, though. I had good insurance and great doctors. And today I stand before you as a survivor. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut like every breast cancer survivor, I now have a pre-existing condition. I know what it's like to sit in that waiting room wondering how many more anniversaries you'll get with your husband, how many more birthdays you'll celebrate with your kids. I don't care how strong a woman you are; that moment is terrifying. And in America, no one should have to go through it without health insurance. (Cheers, applause.) No family should go broke just because a mom gets sick.\nSo when President Obama passed health care reform, it was personal. And when Governor Romney says he would repeal \"Obamacare\" and put insurance companies back in charge of a woman's health, that's personal too. (Cheers, applause.) When he strives to take us back to the days when insurers could try to charge us more just for being a woman or deny coverage to breast cancer survivors like me, that's personal. (Applause.) When he tries to take away a woman's control over a decision that affect her health and reproductive choices and family, that's personal. (Cheers, applause.)\nThis election is personal for every American — (applause) — for the middle-class families in Hollywood, Florida — (cheers) — for the dreamers in Miami Beach — (cheers, applause.) — for the senior citizens that I meet across South Florida from Century Village to Sunrise Lakes to Aventura.\nNow, one woman told me, Debbie, thanks to the new law, I don't have to cut my pills in half each month. That's because President Obama is closing the prescription drug doughnut hole. (Cheers, applause.) He strengthened Medicare. He extended the life of the program by eight years. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd what Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan won't admit is that their plan would require current seniors to pay on average $600 more each year for prescription drugs. Unacceptable. And the Romney-Ryan plan would replace the guarantee of Medicare with a voucher that wouldn't even keep up with costs.\nNow, Congressman Ryan said that he wants Medicare to be around for his grandkids. Well, if that's the case, he had better vote for Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nI am — I am a proud Democrat. (Cheers, applause.) And I know you are, too. But the choice in this election has nothing to do with parties and everything to do with people — people who believe that a senior needs Medicare more than a millionaire needs a tax cut — (cheers, applause) — and people who believe our president's message to the middle class should be: We're on your side, not: You're on your own. (Cheers, applause.)\nThese are President Obama's priorities. They are our priorities. This fall we will fight for them harder than ever. (Cheers, applause.) Over the next two months no one will outwork us. That's my promise to you. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut my friends, I can't keep that promise on my own. I need you to help me keep it. So when you feel too drained to register one more voter, when you feel too tired to make one more phone call or too exhausted to knock on one more door, I want you to dig just a little bit deeper. I want you to work just a little bit harder and make sure you don't get weary. (Cheers, applause.) Remember this is personal.\nLet's finish what we started and re-elect President Barack Obama! On to victory on November 6th! (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you so much. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJASON CROW: Thank you. I'm not a delegate, and I'm not a politician. I'm a veteran. I was an Army Ranger captain — (applause) — and fought alongside of this country's bravest soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. And like all veterans, I swore an oath and promised to defend this great country. (Applause.) And our country made a promise, too: a promise to support us overseas and to fight for us when we came home. And I'm here tonight to say that President Obama has kept that promise. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, sir! Yes, sir! He's kept that promise! Yes, sir!\nJASON CROW: I now live with my wife and son in the great state of Colorado. (Cheers, applause.) But many of the men and women with whom I served never returned home. And others came home bearing visible and invisible scars of battle. When they and their families needed help, our commander in chief was there for them.\nFrom expanding veterans' benefits to strengthening the VA health system, President Obama knows that the miltiary is the standard bearer for American values. And it was wrong that men and women that I served with could be told that they weren't good enough just because of their sexual orientation. (Cheers, applause.) Soldiers that I trusted with my life and fought alongside with could be discharged simply because of who they loved. President Obama did the right thing by ending \"don't ask, don't tell.\"\n(Cheers, applause.)\nThe choice is clear.\nIn the biggest speech of his life, Governor Romney didn't mention our troops in Afghanistan even once. (Boos.) President Obama is thinking about members — thinking about service members, their families and veterans every single day. (Applause.) All our service members and veterans deserve four more years of a president who has their back. And that is why, right now, I am asking you to join me in supporting our president, our commander in chief, Barack Obama.\nThank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "ALEJANDRA SALINAS: Buenas noches, democratas. (Cheers, applause.) My name is Alejandra Salinas, a native of Laredo, a proud recent graduate of the University of Texas — (cheers, applause) — and on my way to law school at Boston College.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nFour years ago, on campuses all across this country, young people rose up to change the course of American history. In record numbers, we came together and finally elected a president who understands our struggles, shares our dreams and believes in our future. Some people say young people aren't excited about this election — (boos) — that it isn't about us. But the decisions made over the next four years will affect us more than anyone. (Applause.) And on November 6th, we're going to send Barack Obama back to the White House. (Cheers, applause.)\nBecause of the president's Affordable Care Act, 3.1 million young Americans who were previously uninsured can stay on their parents' health insurance. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan want to repeal health reform and take that coverage away. President Obama doubled funding for Pell Grants. (Cheers, applause.) Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would cut scholarships that are so critical to creating opportunities for those that need them most.\nThis president, on so many issues — immigration, LGBT rights — (cheers, applause) — women's health — has proven that he cares about all of us and that he'll keep on expanding opportunities. And as a young, LGBT Latina — (cheers, applause) — it seems to me that Mitt Romney only cares about an elite few.\nMitt Romney recently called my generation a lost generation. He's wrong. We know exactly where we're going: forward, not backward. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe're going to register voters, knock on doors, turn out the vote, and on November 6th, re-elect our true champion, President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJOHN LEWIS: Hello, Georgia. Hello, America.\nI first came to this city in 1961, the year Barack Obama was born. I was one of the 13 original Freedom Riders. (Cheers, applause.) We were on a bus ride from Washington to New Orleans trying to test a recent Supreme Court ruling that banned racial discrimination on buses across the state line.\nWe tested the waiting rooms, restroom facilities, but here in Charlotte, North Carolina, a young African-American tried to get a shoe shine at the Greyhound bus station. He was arrested and taken to jail.\nOn that same day we traveled to Rock Hill, South Carolina, about 25 miles from here. When my seatmate Albert Bigelow and I tried to enter a white waiting room, we were met by an angry mob that beat us and left us lying in a pool of blood. Some police officers came up and asked us whether we wanted to press charges. We said no, we come in peace, love and nonviolence. (Applause.) We said our struggle was not against individuals, but against unjust laws and customs. Our goal was a true freedom for every American.\nSince then, America has made a lot of progress. We are a different society than we were in 1961. And in 2008 we showed the world the true promise of America when we elected President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nA few years ago a man from Rock Hill inspired by President Obama's election decided to come forward. He came to my office in Washington and said, I am one of the people who beat you. I want to apologize. Will you forgive me?\nI said, I accept your apology. He started crying. (Applause.) He gave me a hug. I hugged him back, and we both started crying. This man and I don't want to go back. We don't want to go back. (Cheers, applause.)\nBrothers and sisters, do you want to go back?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nJOHN LEWIS: Or do you want to keep America moving forward? (Cheers.) My dear friends, your vote is precious, almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect union.\nNot too long ago people stood in (unmovable ?) lines. They had to pass a so-called literacy test, pay a poll tax. On one occasion, a man was asked to count the number of bubbles in a bar of soap. On another occasion, one was asked to count the jelly beans in a jar, all to keep them from casting their ballot.\nToday it is unbelievable that there are Republican officials are trying to stop some people from voting. (Boos.) They are changing — they are changing the rules, cutting polling hours and imposing requirement intended to suppress the vote.\nThe Republican leader in the Pennsylvania House even bragged that his state's new voter ID law is going to allow Governor Romney to win the state. That's not right, that's not fair and that is not just. (Cheers, applause.) And similar efforts have been made in Texas, Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia and South Carolina.\nI've seen this before. I lived this before. Too many people struggled, suffered and died to make that possible for every American to exercise their right to vote. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd we have come too far together to ever turn back. So, Democrats, we must not be silent. We must stand up, speak up and speak out. (Cheers, applause.) We must march to the polls like never, ever before. We must come together and exercise our sacred right. And together, on November 6th, we will re-elect the man who will lead America forward, President Barack Obama! (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "BARNEY FRANK: How are you? (Cheers, applause.) Hi. (Sustained cheers, applause.) Hello.\nNice of them to leave a gavel out for me to make me feel nostalgic. (Laughter.)\nI have the problem we all have when we speak here. There are a lot of issues to talk about. So the question is, which ones do you pick? There are a number that interest me, like why it is that so many Republicans are afraid that my marriage will threaten theirs. (Cheers, applause.)\nOr why Mitt Romney thinks it's a bad thing that the president ended the war in Iraq.\nBut let's stick to the central themes of the economy.\nWe need to do more to get the economy back. Now, we inherited from the Republicans the worst economy in 80 years. And we are — been improving it over their objection and over their obstruction. But we'd like to move quicker.\nWell, one argument we get is that the Republican nominee, Mr. Romney, because of his private business experience, is a superior job creator and that if we elect him president, he will use those great private-sector skills as the chief executive to bring many more jobs. We've had an experiment in that. He was governor of the state I lived in, in Massachusetts. So if, in fact, Mitt Romney's private-sector experience makes him the superhero of job creation, we would have seen that in Massachusetts.\nIn fact, the record is that during his term, our job growth was only about 1.4 percent, which was a quarter of the national average. We were, under Mitt Romney, 47th in job growth. In fact, I represented an area of Massachusetts, proudly, places — New Bedford and Fall River — that have been hurt by national, international economic trends. And we wanted help to get commuter rail to the source of the jobs in the northern part of our state. We wanted to get a wind energy node projected. We wanted all these things. Under Mitt Romney we got no help. Under Mitt Romney we got no jobs.\nNow, I was puzzled. And I hear about this, and I wonder: How come, as I now hear about the great ability of this wizard of private- sector financial engineering to create jobs, that we didn't get any? And I realized, here is the problem. And this is a hard one for me because of my diction, so please listen carefully. It turns out our governor was Mitt Romney. What we should have had as governor was \"Myth\" Romney.\n(Cheers, applause.) \"Myth\" Romney is a wonderful private sector executive who, when he moved into the public sector kind of transformed. I wish \"Myth\" Romney had been governor of the state I lived in. If it had been \"Myth\" Romney, I'd probably be riding the commuter train from New Bedford to Boston right now. (Cheers, applause.) But we had Mitt Romney, and so we had to wait for the Deval Patrick to get that started. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, maybe as a Democrat I should be grateful that we got Mitt and not \"Myth\" because if \"Myth\" Romney had ever been governor and done all the things we're told we could do, he would have been re- elected overwhelmingly. Now, that might not have been good for the Democrats, but not following the Mitch McConnell view that your party's advantage is less important — is more important that the economic well-being of your constituents, I would have taken that.\nBut we didn't have \"Myth\" Romney. We had Mitt Romney, and he did the Democrats a favor, not the state. After four consecutive Republican elections when Mitt Romney ran for re-election — when his term was up he was afraid to run for re-election. He gallantly let his lieutenant governor take the fall and the Republicans haven't won any major elections in statewide office since — (cheers, applause) — for state office.\nWell, if we didn't get that job experience and we can't look to the past to be reassured, let's look to the future. What will any Romney — and you know, there're a lot of Romneys. There's the Romney who was going to be better on gay rights than Ted Kennedy. Now there's the Romney who checks with Rick Santroum on that issue. (Boos.) There was the Romney who was for climate change and now there's the Romney who believes that it's a myth, to coin a phrase.\nBut what — let's look at what we have from the Mitt Romney who's running for president. He has now basically committed himself to repeat every failed and mistaken policy that the Republican Party employed to bring our country into the greatest recession in years, and which they have followed to try to retard its recovery.\nAnd there's a reason for it. For all of the talk about how Mitt Romney understands the private sector — and that clearly is a little bit iffy — he has no understanding whatsoever of the public sector.\nOf course we want a private sector that is prosperous, that creates jobs. This hall is full of people I know who have been successful in the private sector, and do that, and are entrepreneurs and businesspeople. (Applause.)\nBut sensible people also know with a civilized society, you need a public sector to do those things that the private sector isn't meant to do, to deal with the quality of life. There are things that a civilized society needs that we can only do if we do them together. And we do them together, that's called government. So that's why Mitt — (cheers, applause) — that's why Mitt Romney opposed, opposed the successful effort to keep the automobile industry going, because he failed to see the importance of a private sector-public sector cooperation. That's why he belittled President Obama's concern for fired and laid-off public employees and the services they provide, when he said, oh, he just wants more teachers and firefighters and cops. Because we have had millions of private sector jobs created, but our unemployment has been higher than it should be, in part because hundreds and hundreds of thousands of hard-working public employees have been let go by Republican policies.\nAnd then finally — (cheers, applause) — finally, there is the sector on which I've worked hardest, the financial sector. The single biggest cause of our economic collapse was the failure of the Republican right wing — unfortunately, some Democrats joined in — to allow the public sector appropriately to regulate the private sector.\nI want a strong financial community. But I don't want subprime loans being given to people who can't pay them back. I don't want derivatives being engaged in by companies that can't back up when they get in trouble like AIG. I want an independent consumer engine that will protect the individual saver and borrower from abuse. I don't want municipalities to be advised by unscrupulous people who get them into trouble and they lose money.\nWe began in 2009 to put in place a set of rules to prevent the kind of abuse that led to the economic disaster. \"Myth\" Romney — and for all I know, Mitt Romney — opposes all of that. He has called for the repeal of financial reform, for allowing an unregulated financial community to go back to where they were. Every mistake the Republicans made to bring us into trouble, to resist our getting out of trouble and to keep us from getting into trouble again, Mitt Romney supports.\nAnd he reminds of an important historical statement. When the kings of France came back into power after the French Revolution, brought back by the excesses of that revolution, they began to make all the same mistakes they'd made before. And someone said, they appear to have forgotten everything. And someone said, no, they couldn't forget anything, because they never learned anything.\nThe current right-wing, tea party-dominated Republican not only hasn't learned from the mistakes of the past; they are determined to repeat them. We will not let that happen. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nHARVEY GANTT: Good evening, fellow Democrats.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Harvey! Harvey! Harvey! Harvey! Harvey!\nHARVEY GANTT: Since we were together in 2008, we have lost some of our leaders and our friends. First, one of Charlotte's own, Susan Burgess. (Applause.) Susan spent three decades in community and public service on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board and the Charlotte City Council. She served on the Democratic National Committee and helped lead Charlotte's effort to bring this convention here tonight. (Applause.) She fought for what she believed in, and she fought her own battle with cancer.\nSadly, she did not get the chance to see this convention convene. But I know she'd be very proud, and she is tonight with us in spirit. (Applause.)\nThis brief film will highlight many other leaders who have passed in the last four years. Their work and their ideals inspire us every day. Tonight we salute their contributions."
      , "DONNA EDWARDS: Hello, Maryland. (Cheers, applause.) I was born in Yanceyville, North Carolina — (cheers, applause) — and my grandparents were farmers and West Virginia coal miners. I grew up in a military family — I'm a military brat. And I know what it's like to be a single mom. And that's why I'm proud to support President Barack Obama, because he's fighting for people like me. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, I come from a military family — six kids. My dad served three decades in the Air Force. My mom was right behind him and us. So the president and first lady's commitment to our service people, to our veterans and their families, it's personal to me. Let me tell you about my American story.\nGrowing up on military bases I learned like most families that they were just like mine, no matter what their background.\nI went to a lot of different schools and many different places. I had great teachers who loved learning and great parents who made me do my homework.\nI'm a first-generation graduate of Wake Forest University. (Cheers, applause.) My parents paid for my education on a patchwork of grants and loans and savings. And it's the same way we financed my son's college education. It's the same way middle-class parents everywhere do it. Education is the key to a strong middle class and a successful future. And that's why I support President Barack Obama because he's made the single largest investment in higher education ever. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow look. After graduating college, I struggled, I struggled as a single mom. I had a toddler. I was working every day just to pay the bills. But I didn't have health insurance. And then days after days with what I thought was a cold, I ended up in an emergency room with pneumonia. The hospital bills were overwhelming. And as a result, I almost lost my home to foreclosure. On many days I found myself at a local food bank.\nI'll tell you, I support President Barack Obama because he gets it. He knows that no one, no one should end up in an emergency room facing financial ruin and the loss of middle-class life, my middle- class life, just because they can't afford a doctor's visit and a $20 batch of antibiotics.\nAnd so President Obama changed that. We know he changed that. He changed that with the Affordable Care Act. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo here's the bottom line. We've got a lot of challenges ahead of us — tremendous challenges ahead of us. But President Obama is solving them in a way that protects and helps families like mine. And that's why I'm fighting for him, just like he's been fighting for us. Are you ready to fight for him? (Cheers, applause.) Thank you very much. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nCAROL BERMAN: I am so proud to be at the Democratic National Convention from Florida. (Cheers, applause.)\nI'm one of the seniors who retired to this piece of heaven on earth, and I'm as happy as a clam. But it's not just the sunshine; it's \"Obamacare.\" (Cheers, applause.) I'm getting preventive care for free and my prescription drugs for less.\nBut the Romney-Ryan plan has me terrified, not just for me but for my three married daughters, who are in their 50s. If Mitt Romney gets into office, the Medicare that they've earned will return (sic) into \"Vouchercare.\" Seniors will get a voucher to purchase health insurance, but the vouchers won't keep up with the cost, which could push people into private insurance plans, and even though many seniors who are on fixed incomes would have to pay up to an additional $6,400 more a year for out-of-pocket costs. And on top of that, he's threatened to repeal \"Obamacare\" on day one.\nThousands of dollars might be pocket change to Mitt Romney, but it's a lot of money in my family. (Applause.) It's birthday presents for my grandkids and a flight — airline flight to visit them. Republicans are trying to end Medicare as we know it, but we are not going to let them. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe have worked for our Medicare, we have paid for our Medicare and we have earned our Medicare. (Cheers, applause.)\nI'm proud to have been born the same year that Social Security was. It was the most important law of my lifetime. And Medicare was pretty great, too. But now we have \"Obamacare,\" which preserves the promise of Medicare and a secure retirement. So like I tell my daughters, let's vote like our lives depend on it, because they do. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Applause.)\nJAMES ROGERS: Let me start by welcoming you to Charlotte and to North Carolina. (Cheers, applause.) I hope you're having a great time at this convention. (Cheers, applause.) I hope you got a good sense of southern hospitality. (Cheers, applause.)\nIt's been my honor to serve with Mayor Anthony Foxx as co-chair of the Charlotte Host Committee. I want to thank all of the people and local businesses who have worked tirelessly to make this a wonderful convention so far. And we haven't even got to the main event.\nNow, I'm not here tonight as a Democrat or a Republican, a policy pundit or an energy CEO. I'm here simply as a grandfather. I have eight grandkids, and my oldest grandson, Alex, is here with me today. Many of you have children and grandchildren. And we want to do all we can for their happiness, their health and for their future. We want to pass what I call the grandchildren's test.\nThat is, decades from now when our grandchildren look back at the decisions we made as a country, will they think that we did the right thing? We want their answer to be yes. (Cheers, applause.)\nOne way we can make this world a better place for our grandkids is to lay the groundwork for a cleaner, more sustainable future. Among other things, that means taking a long-term approach toward energy policy because these decisions should not be made in four-year election cycles. (Cheers, applause.) That's why an all-of-the-above energy strategy is a good place to start.\nBut we must be more innovative. We need to work even harder toward a future of affordable, reliable and even cleaner energy. That means we need to invest heavily in new zero-emissions power sources like new nuclear, wind and solar projects as well as new technologies like electric vehicles. And we cannot lose sight of energy efficiency, because the cleanest, most efficient power plant is the one we never have to build. (Cheers, applause.)\nHere in Charlotte, we're committed to energy efficiency and a more sustainable future. One of our first steps is to reduce our energy use by 20 percent in Charlotte's central business district.\nAnd we're thinking beyond energy. We're also increasing water conservation, reducing waste and improving our air. This is all part of a model that can be reproduced in cities across the country and even around the world because energy is more than a partisan issue, it's an American issue and a global issue.\nI know that we, the American people, have the ability to lead the world, to meet today's energy challenges, to cross the bridge to a cleaner, more secure world and, most importantly, to leave our grandchildren with a place where they can thrive. Thank y'all very much. Thank you for coming to Charlotte. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "KAY HAGAN: It is my honor to welcome everyone to North Carolina. (Cheers, applause.) I hope those of you who are visiting us have had a chance to experience our beautiful state. Mostly, I hope you've had a chance to visit with the wonderful people of North Carolina. (Cheers, applause.) North Carolina is strong because our people are strong. They define our state by their hard work, commitment to their families and neighbors, their willingness to sacrifice so that their children can have a chance to forge their own path.\nI've seen those values in every corner of our state — from our small towns to our big cities, from the beaches to the mountains, from our farms and mills to clean energy and advanced biotech companies. We call North Carolina the place where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great. We've always prided ourselves on the fact that anyone, no matter who they are or where they are from, can work hard to make whatever they want of their life.\nBut we didn't get there by accident. We got there because we were blessed with leaders from all walks of life who were willing to do what was right, make difficult not easy choices and invest in our future generations. We got there because a group of civic leaders had the vision to look over thousands of acres of empty land and see the potential for the Research Triangle Park, which today is a hub of innovation and job creation that employs thousands of people.\nWe got there because four young men were brave enough to sit down at a lunch counter in Greensboro in 1960. (Cheers, applause.) A lunch counter where they were not welcome simply because of the color of their skin. We got there because those young men sparked a movement that demanded equal opportunity for every one of our state's citizens.\nWe got there because in 1795, North Carolina opened the first public university in the United States, which grew into the best public university system in the country — (cheers, applause) — educating a workforce that fuels our economy.\nOur country needs that same forward-looking leadership now more than ever. The solutions of yesterday won't get us where we need to go. We can't get there by slashing education or cutting back on research and development. That's what the other side wants to do, but they've tried every one of their proposals before, and they've left us with a shrinking middle class and the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression.\nPresident Obama has a different plan. And you can find the whole thing online at barackobama.com/plan. And when you go there, you'll see a plan to keep building an economy that grows from the middle out, not the top down. That's what we need. That's how we'll keep moving forward together.\nThe eyes of the nation are on North Carolina tonight. And that's fitting because the same values that made North Carolina great — hard work, community, commitment to a vibrant middle class — are the values that are going to keep our country on the right track for generations to come.\nAnd I know that the energy that we see here tonight is going to carry us on through November and carry us to a better and brighter future.\nGod bless North Carolina, and God bless the United States. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "DAVID PRICE: Hello. I'm David Price, and I represent North Carolina's Research Triangle area in Congress. (Cheers, applause.) North Carolina's experience is proof that President Obama has the right plan to invest in education, infrastructure, research, innovation and entrepreneurship so that we have an economy built to last. Already, even in the face of rule-or- ruin opposition, President Obama reformed health care, wrote new rules for Wall Street, reformed student aid and led a recovery that's created 4 1/2 million private-sector jobs. (Applause.)\nWe're going to protect these achievements. And we're going to move the country in just one direction: forward. We're Democrats, and we believe in all the American people, not just the wealthy few.\nWe believe in supporting the middle class, not selling them out. We believe in President Barack Obama. Thank you and let's get to work. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "MEL WATT: Let me start by welcoming you to the 12th Congressional District of North Carolina and to Charlotte, the little country town that I was born and raised in and that grew up with me as the big, great city that has hosted you this week. (Cheers, applause.)\nGrowing up, I learned from my mama and my neighbors and my church members a certain set of values: Respect your elders; help your neighbors; honor your commitments; stand up for education. Today, Barack Obama is carrying those exact same values forward as president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nThis election is about standing up for those values. It's about fighting for what you believe in. So let's get out there. Call your friends, knock on doors. Let's re-elect Barack Obama. Have a great convention. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "G.K. BUTTERFIELD: We all know the road to recovery has not been easy. Republicans have thrown up every conceivable roadblock. So this fall we need to send them a message: Stop playing games with our future. (Cheers.)\nWhen we re-elect President Barack Obama, it won't just be a victory for Democrats but a victory for the entire middle class, because we'll put a jobs bill on the table, and we will pass it.\nWe will demand a balanced approach, a balanced approach to deficit reduction that requires millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share of taxes.\nThe choice could not be clearer. Democrats, go home. Roll up your sleeves. Register voters and make sure that every vote in your community is cast for our Democratic team. Let's keep North Carolina blue and keep President Barack Obama in the White House. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "WALTER DALTON: Greetings, and welcome to the great state of North Carolina — (cheers) — a state that went blue in 2008 and a state that will go blue again in 2012! (Cheers, applause.)\nThis election is a choice between two directions: forward and back. That's the choice before this country and this state where I am proud to be our party's nominee for governor. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy father, who served in our state senate, taught me that the right policies can lift lives. He died when I was eight. But he believed, as I believe, that we must fight for the middle class; that education creates opportunity. Those are my values, and I know they're the values of President Obama too.\nSo if you share these values, go to DaltonforNC.com. Get involved. Vote for Walter Dalton and our president, and together we'll move this country forward. Thank you."
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nBILL CLINTON: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. (Sustained cheers, applause.) Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.\nNow, Mr. Mayor, fellow Democrats, we are here to nominate a president. (Cheers, applause.) And I've got one in mind. (Cheers, applause.)\nI want to nominate a man whose own life has known its fair share of adversity and uncertainty. I want to nominate a man who ran for president to change the course of an already weak economy and then just six weeks before his election, saw it suffer the biggest collapse since the Great Depression; a man who stopped the slide into depression and put us on the long road to recovery, knowing all the while that no matter how many jobs that he saved or created, there'd still be millions more waiting, worried about feeding their own kids, trying to keep their hopes alive.\nI want to nominate a man who's cool on the outside — (cheers, applause) — but who burns for America on the inside. (Cheers, applause.)\nI want — I want a man who believes with no doubt that we can build a new American Dream economy, driven by innovation and creativity, but education and — yes — by cooperation. (Cheers.)\nAnd by the way, after last night, I want a man who had the good sense to marry Michelle Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou know — (cheers, applause). I — (cheers, applause).\nI want — I want Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.) And I proudly nominate him to be the standard-bearer of the Democratic Party.\nNow, folks, in Tampa a few days ago, we heard a lot of talk — (laughter) — all about how the president and the Democrats don't really believe in free enterprise and individual initiative, how we want everybody to be dependent on the government, how bad we are for the economy.\nThis Republican narrative — this alternative universe — (laughter, applause) — says that every one of us in this room who amounts to anything, we're all completely self-made. One of the greatest chairmen the Democratic Party ever had, Bob Strauss — (cheers, applause) — used to say that ever politician wants every voter to believe he was born in a log cabin he built himself. (Laughter, applause.) But, as Strauss then admitted, it ain't so. (Laughter.)\nWe Democrats — we think the country works better with a strong middle class, with real opportunities for poor folks to work their way into it — (cheers, applause) — with a relentless focus on the future, with business and government actually working together to promote growth and broadly share prosperity. You see, we believe that \"we're all in this together\" is a far better philosophy than \"you're on your own.\" (Cheers, applause.) It is.\nSo who's right? (Cheers.) Well, since 1961, for 52 years now, the Republicans have held the White House 28 years, the Democrats, 24. In those 52 years, our private economy has produced 66 million private sector jobs.\nSo what's the job score? Republicans, 24 million; Democrats, 42 (million). (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, there's — (cheers, applause) — there's a reason for this. It turns out that advancing equal opportunity and economic empowerment is both morally right and good economics. (Cheers, applause.) Why? Because poverty, discrimination and ignorance restrict growth. (Cheers, applause.) When you stifle human potential, when you don't invest in new ideas, it doesn't just cut off the people who are affected; it hurts us all. (Cheers, applause.) We know that investments in education and infrastructure and scientific and technological research increase growth. They increase good jobs, and they create new wealth for all the rest of us. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, there's something I've noticed lately. You probably have too. And it's this. Maybe just because I grew up in a different time, but though I often disagree with Republicans, I actually never learned to hate them the way the far right that now controls their party seems to hate our president and a lot of other Democrats. I — (cheers, applause) — that would be impossible for me because President Eisenhower sent federal troops to my home state to integrate Little Rock Central High School. (Cheers, applause.) President Eisenhower built the interstate highway system.\nWhen I was a governor, I worked with President Reagan and his White House on the first round of welfare reform and with President George H.W. Bush on national education goals.\n(Cheers, applause.) I'm actually very grateful to — if you saw from the film what I do today, I have to be grateful, and you should be, too — that President George W. Bush supported PEPFAR. It saved the lives of millions of people in poor countries. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd I have been honored to work with both Presidents Bush on natural disasters in the aftermath of the South Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the horrible earthquake in Haiti. Through my foundation, both in America and around the world, I'm working all the time with Democrats, Republicans and independents. Sometimes I couldn't tell you for the life who I'm working with because we focus on solving problems and seizing opportunities and not fighting all the time. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd so here's what I want to say to you, and here's what I want the people at home to think about. When times are tough and people are frustrated and angry and hurting and uncertain, the politics of constant conflict may be good. But what is good politics does not necessarily work in the real world. What works in the real world is cooperation. (Cheers, applause.) What works in the real world is cooperation, business and government, foundations and universities.\nAsk the mayors who are here. (Cheers, applause.) Los Angeles is getting green and Chicago is getting an infrastructure bank because Republicans and Democrats are working together to get it. (Cheers, applause.) They didn't check their brains at the door. They didn't stop disagreeing, but their purpose was to get something done.\nNow, why is this true? Why does cooperation work better than constant conflict?\nBecause nobody's right all the time, and a broken clock is right twice a day. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd every one of us — every one of us and every one of them, we're compelled to spend our fleeting lives between those two extremes, knowing we're never going to be right all the time and hoping we're right more than twice a day. (Laughter.)\nUnfortunately, the faction that now dominates the Republican Party doesn't see it that way. They think government is always the enemy, they're always right, and compromise is weakness. (Boos.) Just in the last couple of elections, they defeated two distinguished Republican senators because they dared to cooperate with Democrats on issues important to the future of the country, even national security. (Applause.)\nThey beat a Republican congressman with almost a hundred percent voting record on every conservative score, because he said he realized he did not have to hate the president to disagree with him. Boy, that was a nonstarter, and they threw him out. (Laughter, applause.)\nOne of the main reasons we ought to re-elect President Obama is that he is still committed to constructive cooperation. (Cheers, applause.) Look at his record. Look at his record. (Cheers, applause.) Look at his record. He appointed Republican secretaries of defense, the Army and transportation. He appointed a vice president who ran against him in 2008. (Laughter, applause.) And he trusted that vice president to oversee the successful end of the war in Iraq and the implementation of the recovery act. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd Joe Biden — Joe Biden did a great job with both. (Sustained cheers, applause.)\nHe — (sustained cheers, applause) — President Obama — President Obama appointed several members of his Cabinet even though they supported Hillary in the primary. (Applause.) Heck, he even appointed Hillary. (Cheers, applause.)\nWait a minute. I am — (sustained cheers, applause) — I am very proud of her. I am proud of the job she and the national security team have done for America. (Cheers, applause.) I am grateful that they have worked together to make us safer and stronger, to build a world with more partners and fewer enemies. I'm grateful for the relationship of respect and partnership she and the president have enjoyed and the signal that sends to the rest of the world, that democracy does not have a blood — have to be a blood sport, it can be an honorable enterprise that advances the public interest. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow — (sustained cheers, applause) — besides the national security team, I am very grateful to the men and women who've served our country in uniform through these perilous times. (Cheers, applause.) And I am especially grateful to Michelle Obama and to Joe Biden for supporting those military families while their loved ones were overseas — (cheers, applause) — and for supporting our veterans when they came home, when they came home bearing the wounds of war or needing help to find education or jobs or housing.\nPresident Obama's whole record on national security is a tribute to his strength, to his judgment and to his preference for inclusion and partnership over partisanship. We need more if it in Washington, D.C. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, we all know that he also tried to work with congressional Republicans on health care, debt reduction and new jobs. And that didn't work out so well. (Laughter.) But it could have been because, as the Senate Republican leader said in a remarkable moment of candor two full years before the election, their number one priority was not to put America back to work; it was to put the president out of work. (Mixed cheers and boos, applause.) (Chuckles.) Well, wait a minute. Senator, I hate to break it to you, but we're going to keep President Obama on the job. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, are you ready for that? (Cheers, applause.) Are you willing to work for it. Oh, wait a minute.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!\nBILL CLINTON: In Tampa —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) Four more years! Four more years!\nBILL CLINTON: In Tampa — in Tampa — did y'all watch their convention?\nI did. (Laughter.) In Tampa, the Republican argument against the president's re-election was actually pretty simple — pretty snappy. It went something like this: We left him a total mess. He hasn't cleaned it up fast enough. So fire him and put us back in. (Laughter, applause.)\nNow — (cheers, applause) — but they did it well. They looked good; the sounded good. They convinced me that — (laughter) — they all love their families and their children and were grateful they'd been born in America and all that — (laughter, applause) — really, I'm not being — they did. (Laughter, applause.)\nAnd this is important, they convinced me they were honorable people who believed what they said and they're going to keep every commitment they've made. We just got to make sure the American people know what those commitments are — (cheers, applause) — because in order to look like an acceptable, reasonable, moderate alternative to President Obama, they just didn't say very much about the ideas they've offered over the last two years.\nThey couldn't because they want to the same old policies that got us in trouble in the first place. They want to cut taxes for high- income Americans, even more than President Bush did. They want to get rid of those pesky financial regulations designed to prevent another crash and prohibit future bailouts. They want to actually increase defense spending over a decade $2 trillion more than the Pentagon has requested without saying what they'll spend it on. And they want to make enormous cuts in the rest of the budget, especially programs that help the middle class and poor children.\nAs another president once said, there they go again.\n(Laughter, cheers, applause.)\nNow, I like — I like — I like the argument for President Obama's re-election a lot better. Here it is. He inherited a deeply damaged economy. He put a floor under the crash. He began the long, hard road to recovery and laid the foundation for a modern, more well- balanced economy that will produce millions of good new jobs, vibrant new businesses and lots of new wealth for innovators. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, are we where we want to be today? No.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nBILL CLINTON: Is the president satisfied? Of course not.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nBILL CLINTON: But are we better off than we were when he took office? (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd listen to this. Listen to this. Everybody — (inaudible) — when President Barack Obama took office, the economy was in free fall. It had just shrunk 9 full percent of GDP. We were losing 750,000 jobs a month.\nAre we doing better than that today?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Yes! (Applause.)\nBILL CLINTON: The answer is yes.\nNow, look. Here's the challenge he faces and the challenge all of you who support him face. I get it. I know it. I've been there. A lot of Americans are still angry and frustrated about this economy. If you look at the numbers, you know employment is growing, banks are beginning to lend again. And in a lot of places, housing prices are even beginning to pick up.\nBut too many people do not feel it yet.\nI had the same thing happen in 1994 and early '95. We could see that the policies were working, that the economy was growing. But most people didn't feel it yet. Thankfully, by 1996 the economy was roaring, everybody felt it, and we were halfway through the longest peacetime expansion in the history of the United States. But — (cheers, applause) — wait, wait. The difference this time is purely in the circumstances. President Obama started with a much weaker economy than I did. Listen to me, now. No president — no president, not me, not any of my predecessors, no one could have fully repaired all the damage that he found in just four years. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow — but — (cheers, applause) — he has — he has laid the foundation for a new, modern, successful economy of shared prosperity. And if you will renew the president's contract, you will feel it. You will feel it. (Cheers, applause.)\nFolks, whether the American people believe what I just said or not may be the whole election. I just want you to know that I believe it. With all my heart, I believe it. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, why do I believe it?\nI'm fixing to tell you why. I believe it because President Obama's approach embodies the values, the ideas and the direction America has to take to build the 21st-century version of the American Dream: a nation of shared opportunities, shared responsibilities, shared prosperity, a shared sense of community.\nSo let's get back to the story. In 2010, as the president's recovery program kicked in, the job losses stopped and things began to turn around. The recovery act saved or created millions of jobs and cut taxes — let me say this again — cut taxes for 95 percent of the American people. (Cheers, applause.) And, in the last 29 months, our economy has produced about 4 1/2 million private sector jobs. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe could have done better, but last year the Republicans blocked the president's job plan, costing the economy more than a million new jobs.\nSo here's another job score. President Obama: plus 4 1/2 million. Congressional Republicans: zero. (Cheers, applause.)\nDuring this period — (cheers, applause) — during this period, more than 500,000 manufacturing jobs have been created under President Obama. That's the first time manufacturing jobs have increased since the 1990s. (Cheers, applause.) And I'll tell you something else. The auto industry restructuring worked. (Cheers, applause.) It saved — it saved more than a million jobs, and not just at GM, Chrysler and their dealerships but in auto parts manufacturing all over the country.\nThat's why even the automakers who weren't part of the deal supported it. They needed to save those parts suppliers too. Like I said, we're all in this together. (Applause.)\nSo what's happened? There are now 250,000 more people working in the auto industry than on the day the companies were restructured. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo — now, we all know that Governor Romney opposed the plan to save GM and Chrysler. (Boos.) So here's another job score. (Laughter.) Are you listening in Michigan and Ohio and across the country? (Cheers.) Here — (cheers, applause) — here's another job score: Obama, 250,000; Romney, zero.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) Zero. (Cheers, applause.)\nBILL CLINTON: Now, the agreement the administration made with the management, labor and environmental groups to double car mileage, that was a good deal too. It will cut your gas prices in half, your gas bill. No matter what the price is, if you double the mileage of your car, your bill will be half what it would have been. It will make us more energy independent. It will cut greenhouse gas emissions. And according to several analyses, over the next 20 years, it'll bring us another half a million good new jobs into the American economy. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe president's energy strategy, which he calls \"all of the above,\" is helping too. The boom in oil and gas production, combined with greater energy efficiency, has driven oil imports to a near-20- year low and natural gas production to an all-time high. And renewable energy production has doubled.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nOf course, we need a lot more new jobs. But there are already more than 3 million jobs open and unfilled in America, mostly because the people who apply for them don't yet have the required skills to do them. So even as we get Americans more jobs, we have to prepare more Americans for the new jobs that are actually going to be created. The old economy is not coming back. We've got to build a new one and educate people to do those jobs. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe president — the president and his education secretary have supported community colleges and employers in working together to train people for jobs that are actually open in their communities — and even more important after a decade in which exploding college costs have increased the dropout rate so much that the percentage of our young people with four-year college degrees has gone down so much that we have dropped to 16th in the world in the percentage of young people with college degrees.\nSo the president's student loan is more important than ever. Here's what it does — (cheers, applause) — here's what it does. You need to tell every voter where you live about this. It lowers the cost of federal student loans. And even more important, it give students the right to repay those loans as a clear, fixed, low percentage of their income for up to 20 years. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow what does this mean? What does this mean? Think of it. It means no one will ever have to drop out of college again for fear they can't repay their debt.\nAnd it means — (cheers, applause) — it means that if someone wants to take a job with a modest income, a teacher, a police officer, if they want to be a small-town doctor in a little rural area, they won't have to turn those jobs down because they don't pay enough to repay they debt. Their debt obligation will be determined by their salary. This will change the future for young America. (Cheers, applause.)\nI don't know about you — (cheers, applause) — but on all these issues, I know we're better off because President Obama made the decisions he did.\nNow, that brings me to health care. (Cheers, applause.) And the Republicans call it, derisively, \"Obamacare.\" They say it's a government takeover, a disaster, and that if we'll just elect them, they'll repeal it. Well, are they right?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nBILL CLINTON: Let's take a look at what's actually happened so far.\nFirst, individuals and businesses have already gotten more than a billion dollars in refunds from insurance companies because the new law requires 80 (percent) to 85 percent of your premium to go to your health care, not profits or promotion. (Cheers, applause.) And the gains are even greater than that because a bunch of insurance companies have applied to lower their rates to comply with the requirement.\nSecond, more than 3 million young people between 19 and 25 are insured for the first time because their parents' policies can cover them.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nMillions of seniors are receiving preventive care, all the way from breast cancer screenings to tests for heart problems and scores of other things. And younger people are getting them, too.\nFourth, soon the insurance companies — not the government, the insurance companies — will have millions of new customers, many of them middle-class people with pre-existing conditions who never could get insurance before. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, finally, listen to this. For the last two years — after going up at three times the rate of inflation for a decade, for the last two years health care costs have been under 4 percent in both years for the first time in 50 years. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo let me ask you something. Are we better off because President Obama fought for health care reform? (Cheers, applause.) You bet we are.\nNow, there were two other attacks on the president in Tampa I think deserve an answer. First, both Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan attacked the president for allegedly robbing Medicare of $716 billion. That's the same attack they leveled against the Congress in 2010, and they got a lot of votes on it. But it's not true. (Applause.)\nLook, here's what really happened. You be the judge. Here's what really happened. There were no cuts to benefits at all. None. What the president did was to save money by taking the recommendations of a commission of professionals to cut unwarranted subsidies to providers and insurance companies that were not making people healthier and were not necessary to get the providers to provide the service.\nAnd instead of raiding Medicare, he used the savings to close the doughnut hole in the Medicare drug program — (cheers, applause) — and — you all got to listen carefully to this; this is really important — and to add eight years to the life of the Medicare trust fund so it is solvent till 2024. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo — (chuckles) — so President Obama and the Democrats didn't weaken Medicare; they strengthened Medicare. Now, when Congressman Ryan looked into that TV camera and attacked President Obama's Medicare savings as, quote, the biggest, coldest power play, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry — (laughter) — because that $716 billion is exactly, to the dollar, the same amount of Medicare savings that he has in his own budget. (Cheers, applause.) You got to get one thing — it takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did. (Laughter, cheers, applause.)\nSo — (inaudible) — (sustained cheers, applause) — now, you're having a good time, but this is getting serious, and I want you to listen.\n(Laughter.) It's important, because a lot of people believe this stuff.\nNow, at least on this issue, on this one issue, Governor Romney has been consistent. (Laughter.) He attacked President Obama too, but he actually wants to repeal those savings and give the money back to the insurance company. (Laughter, boos.)\nHe wants to go back to the old system, which means we'll reopen the doughnut hole and force seniors to pay more for drugs, and we'll reduce the life of the Medicare trust fund by eight full years. (Boos.)\nSo if he's elected, and if he does what he promised to do, Medicare will now grow (sic/go) broke in 2016. (Boos.) Think about that. That means, after all, we won't have to wait until their voucher program kicks in 2023 — (laughter) — to see the end of Medicare as we know it. (Applause.) They're going to do it to us sooner than we thought. (Applause.)\nNow, folks, this is serious, because it gets worse. (Laughter.) And you won't be laughing when I finish telling you this. They also want to block-grant Medicaid, and cut it by a third over the coming 10 years.\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: No!\nBILL CLINTON: Of course, that's going to really hurt a lot of poor kids. But that's not all. Lot of folks don't know it, but nearly two-thirds of Medicaid is spent on nursing home care for Medicare seniors — (applause) — who are eligible for Medicaid.\n(Cheers, applause.) It's going to end Medicare as we know it. And a lot of that money is also spent to help people with disabilities, including — (cheers, applause) — a lot of middle-class families whose kids have Down's syndrome or autism or other severe conditions. (Applause.) And honestly, let's think about it, if that happens, I don't know what those families are going to do.\nSo I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to do everything I can to see that it doesn't happen. We can't let it happen. (Cheers, applause.) We can't. (Cheers, applause.) Now — wait a minute. (Cheers, applause.) Let's look —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!\nBILL CLINTON: Let's look at the other big charge the Republicans made. It's a real doozy. (Laughter.) They actually have charged and run ads saying that President Obama wants to weaken the work requirements in the welfare reform bill I signed that moved millions of people from welfare to work. (Jeers.) Wait, you need to know, here's what happened. (Laughter.) Nobody ever tells you what really happened — here's what happened.\nWhen some Republican governors asked if they could have waivers to try new ways to put people on welfare back to work, the Obama administration listened because we all know it's hard for even people with good work histories to get jobs today. So moving folks from welfare to work is a real challenge.\nAnd the administration agreed to give waivers to those governors and others only if they had a credible plan to increase employment by 20 percent, and they could keep the waivers only if they did increase employment. Now, did I make myself clear? The requirement was for more work, not less. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo this is personal to me. We moved millions of people off welfare. It was one of the reasons that in the eight years I was president, we had a hundred times as many people move out of poverty into the middle class than happened under the previous 12 years, a hundred times as many. (Cheers, applause.) It's a big deal. But I am telling you the claim that President Obama weakened welfare reform's work requirement is just not true. (Applause.)\nBut they keep on running the ads claiming it. You want to know why? Their campaign pollster said, we are not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers. (Jeers, applause.) Now, finally I can say, that is true. (Laughter, cheers, applause.) I — (chuckles) — I couldn't have said it better myself. (Laughter.)\nAnd I hope you and every American within the sound of my voice remembers it every time they see one of those ads, and it turns into an ad to re-elect Barack Obama and keep the fundamental principles of personal empowerment and moving everybody who can get a job into work as soon as we can. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, let's talk about the debt. Today, interest rates are low, lower than the rate of inflation. People are practically paying us to borrow money, to hold their money for them.\nBut it will become a big problem when the economy grows and interest rates start to rise. We've got to deal with this big long- term debt problem or it will deal with us. It will gobble up a bigger and bigger percentage of the federal budget we'd rather spend on education and health care and science and technology. It — we've got to deal with it.\nNow, what has the president done? He has offered a reasonable plan of $4 trillion in debt reduction over a decade, with 2 1/2 trillion (dollars) coming from — for every $2 1/2 trillion in spending cuts, he raises a dollar in new revenues — 2 1/2-to-1. And he has tight controls on future spending. That's the kind of balanced approach proposed by the Simpson-Bowles Commission, a bipartisan commission.\nNow, I think this plan is way better than Governor Romney's plan. First, the Romney plan failed the first test of fiscal responsibility. The numbers just don't add up. (Laughter, applause.)\nI mean, consider this. What would you do if you had this problem? Somebody says, oh, we've got a big debt problem. We've got to reduce the debt. So what's the first thing you say we're going to do? Well, to reduce the debt, we're going to have another $5 trillion in tax cuts heavily weighted to upper-income people. So we'll make the debt hole bigger before we start to get out of it.\nNow, when you say, what are you going to do about this $5 trillion you just added on? They say, oh, we'll make it up by eliminating loopholes in the tax code.\nSo then you ask, well, which loopholes, and how much?\nYou know what they say? See me about that after the election. (Laughter.)\nI'm not making it up. That's their position. See me about that after the election.\nNow, people ask me all the time how we got four surplus budgets in a row. What new ideas did we bring to Washington? I always give a one-word answer: Arithmetic. (Sustained cheers, applause.)\nIf — arithmetic! If — (applause) — if they stay with their $5 trillion tax cut plan — in a debt reduction plan? — the arithmetic tells us, no matter what they say, one of three things is about to happen. One, assuming they try to do what they say they'll do, get rid of — pay — cover it by deductions, cutting those deductions, one, they'll have to eliminate so many deductions, like the ones for home mortgages and charitable giving, that middle-class families will see their tax bills go up an average of $2,000 while anybody who makes $3 million or more will see their tax bill go down $250,000. (Boos.)\nOr, two, they'll have to cut so much spending that they'll obliterate the budget for the national parks, for ensuring clean air, clean water, safe food, safe air travel. They'll cut way back on Pell Grants, college loans, early childhood education, child nutrition programs, all the programs that help to empower middle-class families and help poor kids. Oh, they'll cut back on investments in roads and bridges and science and technology and biomedical research.\nThat's what they'll do. They'll hurt the middle class and the poor and put the future on hold to give tax cuts to upper-income people who've been getting it all along.\nOr three, in spite of all the rhetoric, they'll just do what they've been doing for more than 30 years. They'll go in and cut the taxes way more than they cut spending, especially with that big defense increase, and they'll just explode the debt and weaken the economy. And they'll destroy the federal government's ability to help you by letting interest gobble up all your tax payments.\nDon't you ever forget when you hear them talking about this that Republican economic policies quadrupled the national debt before I took office, in the 12 years before I took office — (applause) — and doubled the debt in the eight years after I left, because it defied arithmetic. (Laughter, applause.) It was a highly inconvenient thing for them in our debates that I was just a country boy from Arkansas, and I came from a place where people still thought two and two was four. (Laughter, applause.) It's arithmetic.\nWe simply cannot afford to give the reins of government to someone who will double down on trickle down. (Cheers, applause.) Really. Think about this: President Obama — President Obama's plan cuts the debt, honors our values, brightens the future of our children, our families and our nation. It's a heck of a lot better.\nIt passes the arithmetic test, and far more important, it passes the values test. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy fellow Americans, all of us in this grand hall and everybody watching at home, when we vote in this election, we'll be deciding what kind of country we want to live in. If you want a winner-take- all, you're-on-your-own society, you should support the Republican ticket. But if you want a country of shared opportunities and shared responsibility, a we're-all-in-this-together society, you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. (Cheers, applause.) If you — if you want —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) Four more years! Four more years!\nBILL CLINTON: If you want America — if you want every American to vote and you think it is wrong to change voting procedures — (jeers) — just to reduce the turnout of younger, poorer, minority and disabled voters — (jeers) — you should support Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd if you think — if you think the president was right to open the doors of American opportunity to all those young immigrants brought here when they were young so they can serve in the military or go to college, you must vote for Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.) If you want a future of shared prosperity, where the middle class is growing and poverty is declining, where the American dream is really alive and well again and where the United States maintains its leadership as a force for peace and justice and prosperity in this highly competitive world, you have to vote for Barack Obama.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nLook, I love our country so much. And I know we're coming back. For more than 200 years, through every crisis, we've always come back. (Cheers.) People have predicted our demise ever since George Washington was criticized for being a mediocre surveyor with a bad set of wooden false teeth. (Laughter.) And so far, every single person that's bet against America has lost money because we always come back. (Cheers, applause.) We come through ever fire a little stronger and a little better.\nAnd we do it because in the end we decide to champion the cause for which our founders pledged their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor — the cause of forming a more perfect union. (Cheers, applause.) My fellow Americans, if that is what you want, if that is what you believe, you must vote and you must re-elect President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.) God bless you and God bless America. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nELIZABETH WARREN: Thank you. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. Thank you. I'm Elizabeth Warren. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. I'm Elizabeth Warren, and this is my first Democratic convention.\n(Cheers, applause.) I —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) Warren! Warren! Warren! Warren!\nELIZABETH WARREN: OK, now, enough. (Chuckles.) I never thought I'd run for the Senate, and I sure never dreamed that I'd be the warm-up act for President Bill Clinton. (Cheers, applause.) He's an amazing man who had the good sense to marry one of the coolest women on this planet. (Cheers, applause.)\nI want to give a special shoutout to the Massachusetts delegation. (Cheers, applause.) I'm counting on you to help me win and to help President Obama win.\nI'm here tonight to talk about hardworking people, people who get up early, stay up late, cook dinner and help out with homework, people who can be counted on to help their kids, their parents, their neighbors and the lady down the street whose car broke down, people who work their hearts out but are up against a hard truth: The game is rigged against them.\nIt wasn't always this way. Like a lot of you, I grew up in a family on the ragged edge of the middle class. My daddy sold carpeting and ended up as a maintenance man. After he had a heart attack, my mom worked the phones at Sears so we could hang onto our house. All three of my brothers served in the military. One was career — (cheers, applause) — the second a good union job in construction — (cheers, applause) — and the third started a small business.\nMe, I was waiting tables at 13 and married at 19. I graduated from public schools and taught elementary school. (Cheers, applause.) I have a wonderful husband, two great children and three beautiful grandchildren. And I'm grateful down to my toes for every opportunity that America gave me. This is a great country. (Cheers, applause.)\nI grew up in an America that invested in its kids and built a strong middle class, that allowed millions of children to rise from poverty and establish secure lives, an America that created Social Security and Medicare so that seniors could live with dignity — (cheers, applause) — an American in which each generation built something solid so that the next generation could build something better. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut now for many years, our middle class has been chipped, squeezed and hammered. Talk to the construction worker I met from Malden, Massachusetts, who went nine months without finding work. Talk to the head of a manufacturing company in Franklin trying to protect jobs, but worried about rising costs. Talk to the student in Worcester who worked hard to finish his degree, and now he's drowning in debt. Their fight is my fight. And it's Barack Obama's fight too. (Cheers, applause.)\nThat's right. Yes. (Cheers, applause.)\nPeople feel like the system is rigged against them. And here's the painful part. They're right. The system is rigged.\nLook around. Oil companies guzzle down billions in profits. Billionaires pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. And Wall Street CEOs — the same ones who wrecked our economy and destroyed millions of jobs — still strut around Congress, no shame, demanding favors and acting like we should thank them. (Boos.) Does anyone here have a problem with that?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Yes! (Cheers, applause.)\nELIZABETH WARREN: Well, I do too. I do too.\nI talk to small-business owners all across Massachusetts, and not one of them, not one made big bucks from the risky bets that brought down our economy. I talk to nurses and programmers, salespeople and firefighters, people who bust their tails every day, and not one of them — not one — stashes their money in the Cayman Islands to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. (Cheers, applause.)\nThese folks don't — (inaudible) — that someone else made more money. We're Americans. We celebrate success. We just don't want the game to be rigged. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe've fought to level the playing field before. About a century ago, when corrosive greed threatened our economy and our way of life, the American people came together, under the leadership of Teddy Roosevelt and other progressives, to bring our nation back from the brink. We started to take children out of factories and put them in schools.\n(Cheers, applause.) We began to give meaning to the words \"consumer protection\" by making food and medicine safe. And we gave the little guys a better chance to compete by preventing the big guys from rigging the markets. We turned adversity into progress because that's what we do. (Cheers, applause.)\nAmericans are fighters. We're tough, resourceful and creative. And if we have the chance to fight on a level playing field where everyone pays a fair share and everyone has a real shot, then no one, no one can stop us. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama gets it because he's spent his life fighting for the middle class. And now he's fighting to level that playing field because we know the economy doesn't grow from the top down but from the middle class out and the bottom up. That's how we create jobs and reduce the debt. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd Mitt Romney — (chuckles) — he wants to give tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires, but for middle-class families who are hanging on by their fingernails, his plan will hammer them with a new tax hike of up to $2,000. (Boos.) Mitt Romney wants to give billions in breaks to big corporations, but he and Paul Ryan would pulverize financial reform, voucherize Medicare and vaporize \"Obamacare.\" (Boos.)\nThe Republican vision is clear: I got mine; the rest of you are on your own. (Cheers, applause.)\nRepublicans say they don't believe in government. Sure they do. They believe in government to help themselves and their powerful friends. (Cheers, applause.)\nAfter all, Mitt Romney's the guy who said corporations are people. (Boos.) No, Governor Romney, corporations are not people. (Cheers, applause.) People have hearts. They have kids. They get jobs. They get sick. They strive. They (dance ?). They live, they love and they die. And that matters. (Cheers, applause.) That matters. (Cheers, applause.) That matters because we don't run this country for corporations. We run it for people. And that's why we need Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nAfter the financial crisis, President Obama knew that we had to clean up Wall Street. For years, families had been tricked by credit cards, fooled by student loans and cheated on mortgages.\nI had an idea for a consumer financial protection agency to stop the rip-off. (Cheers, applause.) Now, the big banks sure didn't like it. And they marshalled one of the biggest lobbying forces on earth to destroy the agency before it ever saw the light of day.\nAmerican families didn't have an army of lobbyists on our side.\nWhat we had was a president — (cheers, applause) — President Obama leading the way. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd when the lobbyists were closing in for the kill, Barack Obama squared his shoulders, planted his feet and stood firm. And that's how we won. (Cheers, applause.) By the way, just a few weeks ago that little agency caught one of the biggest credit card companies cheating its customers and made it give people back every penny it took plus millions of dollars in fines. (Cheers, applause.) That's what happens when you have a president on the side of the middle class. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama believes in a level playing field. He believes in a country where nobody gets a free ride or a golden parachute, a country where anyone who has a great idea and rolls up their sleeves has a chance to build a business and anyone who works had can build some security and raise a family. President Obama believes in a country where billionaires pay their taxes just like their secretaries did — (cheers, applause) — and I can't believe I have to say this in 2012 — a country where women get equal pay for equal work. (Cheers, applause.) He believes in a country where everyone is held accountable, where no one can steal your purse on Main Street our your pension on Wall Street.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama believes in a country where we invest in education, in roads and bridges, in science and in the future, so we can create new opportunities so the next kid can make it big, and the kid after that, and the kid after that. (Cheers, applause.) That's what President Obama believes. And that's how we build the economy of the future, an economy with more jobs and less debt. We root it in fairness, we grow it with opportunity, and we build it together. (Cheers, applause.)\nI grew up — I grew up in the Methodist church and taught Sunday school. And one of my favorite passages of scripture is, \"In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me,\" Matthew 25:40. (Cheers, applause.) The passage teaches about God in each of us, that we are bound to each other and we are called to act — not to sit, not to wait, but to act — all of us together.\nSenator Ted Kennedy understood that call. (Cheers, applause.) Four years ago, he addressed our convention for the last time. He said, we have never lost our beliefs that we are all called to a better country and a newer world. Generation after generation, Americans have answered that call. And now we are called again.\nWe are called to restore opportunity for every American. We are called to give America's working families a fighting chance. We are called to build something solid so the next generation can build something better. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo let me ask you — let me ask you, America: Are you ready to answer this call? (Cheers, applause.) Are you ready to fight for good jobs and a strong middle class? Are you ready to work for a level playing field? Are you ready to prove to another generation of Americans that we can build a better country and a newer world? (Continued cheers, applause.) Joe Biden is ready. Barack Obama is ready. I'm ready. You're ready. Thank you. God bless America. (Cheers, extended applause.)"
      , "JIM SINEGAL: Good evening, everyone. My name's Jim Sinegal, and I'm here tonight to share my story with you. I grew up in Pittsburgh, where my father worked in a steel mill. (Cheers, applause.)\nI graduated from a public high school, attended a community college and a state university. My first job was as (sic) a retail warehouse.\nAnd then three decades ago, a friend and I had a big idea for a small business, one that we would start in Seattle, Washington. (Cheers, applause.) A warehouse store that would provide our members with great products and low prices while treating our employees fairly.\nToday, our small company has been blessed with success — huge success. I might say, bulk success. (Laughter.) Costco is the fifth largest retailer in the U.S. and the seventh largest in the — in the world. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn Tampa last week, we heard all about job creators. But at our company, we recognize that job creation requires time and investment and commitment to the long term. It requires companies that plant, then grow; not executives who reap and run. (Cheers, applause.) That's how we do our part to build an economy that lasts.\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah!\nJIM SINEGAL: At Costco, we've created over 116,000 American jobs. (Cheers, applause.) And during the next 12 months, we expect to add another 7,000. (Cheers, applause.) We're proud that Costco pays the highest wages among our peers, that we provide — (cheers, applause) — benefit and health care packages that are second to none.\n(Cheers, applause.) And just as importantly, that we've grown our business by promoting from within, so that we're not just giving Costco people jobs, we're empowering them to build careers and support middle-class families. (Cheers, applause.)\nAt Costco, we know a thing or two about what it takes for business to succeed, for a company to do well by its shareholders and do the right thing for its employees at the same time. (Cheers, applause.) We don't want one set of rules for ourselves and another for our employees. We remember back when it was — what it was like to be an employee. And that's why we want to be part of an economy built to last. (Cheers, applause.)\nSome of my friends in corporate America say that they need a government that gets off the backs of businesses. And that's why many of them are supporting the opposition with donations of hundreds of thousands of dollars. (Boos.) But I think they've got it all wrong. Business needs a president who has covered the backs of businesses, a president who understands what the private sector needs to succeed, a president who takes the long view and makes the tough decisions. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd that's why I'm here tonight supporting President Obama, a — (cheers, applause) — a president making an economy built to last. See, in order for companies like Costco to invest, grow, hire, and flourish, the conditions have to be right.\nThat requires something from all of us.\nAnd if you ask the innovative growth companies across the country, they'll tell you exactly what that something is. They'll tell you America needs to be a nation with the best education system so that workers — (applause) — so that workers can get the training they need to join or stay in the middle class.\nAmerica also needs to be a nation that spurs research and innovation so that our products and industries of tomorrow are invented here at home.\nAmerica needs to be a nation with an affordable energy of all kinds so companies can keep their costs down and their production lines humming and their products moving. America also needs to be a nation with the safest, most efficient transportation systems — (cheers) — so people can — and goods can connect with opportunities and markets.\nAmerica needs to be a nation that pays down its debt in a balanced way so businesses have a predictable environment in which to plan, invest and to trade.\nAmerica needs to be a nation with a sensible immigration laws — (cheers, applause) — laws that are humane and practical, laws that help businesses retain qualified employees.\nAnd America needs to be a nation where everyone follows the same set of rules of the road — (cheers, applause) — so that small businesses can compete with the big and so that small businesses can become big, so that breakthrough ideas and hard work are rewarded more than speculation, so that more startups succeed and fewer bubbles burst. These are the investments that business wants.\nThese are the building blocks of President Obama's plan for the future, and that's why I'm proud to stand with him. (Cheers, applause.)\nThree decades ago, my business partner and I started a company. We sacrificed, we struggled, we risked our own money, we relied on ourselves. Our initiative, our enterprise — this, in part, is why our company succeeded.\nBut here's the thing about the Costco story. We did not build our company in a vacuum. We built it in the greatest country on earth. (Cheers, applause.) We built our company in a place where anyone can make it with hard work, a little luck and a little help from their neighbors and their country.\nI'm here tonight because Costco's story is the American story, because it's the story that President Obama is helping millions of dreamers and doers to write anew for themselves. And I'm here tonight because I believe he deserves four more years to help us write the next chapter. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you very much."
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nSANDRA FLUKE: Some of you — (cheers, applause) — some of you may remember that earlier this year, Republicans shut me out of a hearing on contraception. In fact, on that panel, they didn't hear from a single woman — (boos) — even though they were debating an issue that affects nearly every woman. Because it happened in Congress, people noticed. But it happens all the time. Too many women are shut out and silenced. So while I'm honored to be standing at this podium, it easily could have been any one of you.\nI'm here because I spoke out. (Cheers, applause.) And this November, each of us must speak out.\nDuring this campaign, we've heard about two profoundly different futures that could await women in this country and how one of those futures looks like an offensive, obsolete relic of our past. Warnings of that future are not distractions. They are not imagined. That future could become real.\nIn that America, your new president could be a man who stands by when a public figure tries to silence a private citizen with hateful slurs — (cheers, applause) — a man who won't stand up to those slurs or to any of the extreme, bigoted voices in his own party. (Applause.)\nIt would be an America in which you have a new vice president who co-sponsored a bill that would allow pregnant women to die preventable deaths in our emergency rooms — (boos) — an America in which states humiliate women by forcing us to endure invasive ultrasounds that we don't want and our doctors say that we don't need; an America in which access to birth control is controlled by people who will never use it — (boos, applause) — an America in which politicians redefine rape and victims are victimized all over again — (boos) — in which someone decides which domestic violence victim deserves access to services and which don't.\nWe know what this America would look like. And in a few short months that's the America that we could be. But that's not the America that we should be, and it's not who we are. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe've also seen another America that we could choose. In that America, we'd have the right to choose. (Cheers, applause.) It's an America in which no one can charge us more than men for the exact same health insurance — (cheers, applause.) — in which no one can deny us affordable access to the cancer screenings that could save our lives — (cheers, applause) — in which we decide when to start our families — (cheers, applause) — an America in which our president, when he hears that a young woman has been verbally attacked, thinks of his daughters, not his delegates or his donors — (cheers, applause) — and in which our president stands with all women, and strangers come together and reach out and lift her up, and then instead of trying to silence her, you invite me here — (cheers, applause) — and you give me this microphone to amplify our voice.\n(Cheers, applause.) That's the difference.\nOver the last six months, I've seen what these two futures look like. And six months from now, we're all going to be living in one future or the other — but only one: a country where our president either has our backs or turns his back — (cheers, applause) — a country that honors our foremothers by moving us forward or one that forces our generation to refight battles that they already won — (cheers, applause) — a country where we mean it when we talk about personal freedom — (cheers, applause) — or one where that freedom doesn't apply to our bodies or to our voices.\nWe talk often about choice. Well, ladies and gentlemen — (cheers, applause) — it's now time to choose. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nCHRISTOPHER VAN HOLLEN: Four more years.\nA week ago today, Paul Ryan accepted his party's nomination for vice president. He's the chairman of the House Budget Committee. I lead the Democrats on the committee. We have sharp differences over policy, but we get along well.\nAnd I'll admit, I was glad Paul was picked. I hoped it would result in a serious debate about the choice before us. Then I heard his acceptance speech. It kept the fact-checkers up all night. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou remember the Republicans had this gigantic clock in the arena showing the size of the national debt. And Paul told America, if you elect Republicans, we can fix that. But if Paul Ryan was being honest, he would have pointed to that debt clock and said, we built that. (Cheers, applause.)\nBecause — because here are the facts. When President Clinton left office, America had a projected surplus of trillions of dollars over the next decade.\nThen came two wars, two tax cuts tilted to the wealthy and a new entitlement. Republicans didn't pay for any of it. Paul Ryan voted for all of it. (Boos.)\nOn top of that, they left behind an economy in free fall. So when President Obama took office, the Republicans handed him the bill: projected deficits of trillions of dollars. Congressman Ryan, America is literally in your debt. (Mixed cheers and boos, applause.)\nSo President Obama went to work. He established a bipartisan commission to get smart folks from both parties together to develop a plan to reduce the deficit and to grow jobs. And guess what? It worked. They produced a balanced, bipartisan plan that would cut 4 trillion (dollars) from the deficit. You know, lots of Republicans voted for it, including Senator Coburn from Oklahoma. And Paul Ryan — Paul Ryan — Paul Ryan was on that commission. He voted against the plan. And last week Paul Ryan criticized the president for not acting on the bipartisan plan that he himself opposed.\nThen he said President Obama doesn't have a plan to reduce the deficit.\nBut the president does have a plan. Here it is, right here in my hand. The president submitted this plan to the Congress. It's on the Internet. President Obama's plan uses the bipartisan commission's balanced approach. It reduces the deficit by more than $4 trillion, cutting spending and asking those at the top to pay the same rates they did under President Clinton — when we created nearly 23 million jobs and balanced the budget. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo when Paul Ryan told America that President Obama didn't have a plan, that was false. The truth is he and Mitt Romney just don't like the president's plan. (Cheers, applause.) They both pledged — they pledged that they would never — never — ask millionaires to pay one more dime to reduce our deficit. Mitt Romney even said he would reject a budget with $10 in spending cuts for every $1 in new revenue.\nAnd now a third grader can do the math. If you refuse to ask the wealthiest to pitch in, then you hit everybody else much harder. And that's exactly what the Romney-Ryan plan does. You know, they call their plan brave, bold, courageous. I ask all of you, is it bold to give millionaires another tax cut while forcing seniors to pay more for Medicare?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nCHRISTOPHER VAN HOLLEN: Is it brave to reward companies that ship jobs overseas while cutting education here at home?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nCHRISTOPHER VAN HOLLEN: And is it courageous to raise taxes on middle- class families while giving tax cuts to people with Swiss bank accounts?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nCHRISTOPHER VAN HOLLEN: Look, Mitt Romney's and Paul Ryan's obsession with tax breaks for the wealthy is part of a rigid ideology: Give people like Mitt Romney a break and hope something will trickle down and lift others up.\nBut this theory crashed in the real world. We all lived through the recession, when jobs went down and the deficit went up. So when they say they'll turn around the economy, beware. They mean a U-turn back to the failed theory that lifted the yachts while the other boats ran aground. (Mixed cheers and boos, applause.)\nAnd don't buy the lie that asking the wealthy to contribute more is about punishing success. It's about asking them to share responsibility for reducing the deficit. (Cheers, applause.) It's about growing the economy not from the top down but from the middle out and the bottom up, making success possible for all Americans. (Cheers, applause.)\nThis election is a choice. That choice will determine whether America is a place where people climb the ladder of opportunity and pull it up behind them or whether America is a place where people who reach the top help the next person up.\nWhich America do you believe in? You know the facts, you know the choice and you know what we have to do: re-elect Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "RANDY JOHNSON: We just heard from Bob King about President Obama's record of creating jobs. I want to tell you about Mitt Romney's record of cutting jobs. (Boos.) Mitt Romney once said: I like being able to fire people. Well, I can tell you from personal experience, he does. On July 5th, 1994, Mitt Romney and his partners at Bain Capital fired me and more than 350 of my co-workers. (Boos.)\nIt came without any warning. They rushed in the security guards to walk us out of our plant. We weren't even allowed to take our personal items. They handed us job applications and told us: If we want you, we'll let you know. Now, the truth is, some folks were hired back — lower wages, fewer benefits, no retirement — (boos) — but many others weren't. And seven months later, they closed our plant for good. (Boos.)\nWhat affected me most was having guys the age I am now come to my desk and cry — guys who had nothing to fall back on. I don't think Mitt Romney's a bad man. I don't fault him for the fact that some companies win and some companies lose. That's a fact of life. What I fault him for is making money without a moral compass. (Cheers, applause.)\nI fault him for putting profit before people like me.\n(Cheers, applause.) But that's just Romney economics. America cannot afford Romney economics. Mitt Romney will stick it to working people. (Boos.) Barack Obama, sticking up for working people — it's simple as that. (Cheers, applause.) That's why I'm supporting him for a second term as president. (Cheers, applause.)\nCINDY HEWITT: When Mitt Romney first announced he was running for president, I had no idea who he was. But then I learned he was the CEO of Bain Capital, and that sure got my attention real fast.\nI used to work at a plant in Miami that Governor Romney bought with his partners from Bain. I say \"used to\" because not long after they bought it, Romney and his partners shut our plant down and ultimately drove our company into bankruptcy. Our — (boos) — our company, Dade Behring, was a big part of our community. There were folks who'd been at the plant for 15 to 20 years. But by the time Romney and his partners were done with us, we'd lost 850 jobs in Florida. (Boos.)\nIt was a really difficult time for me and for my co-workers but not for Governor Romney and his partners. While we watched our jobs disappear, they ultimately walked away with more than $240 million. (Boos.) Of course, I understand. Some companies are successful; others are not. That's the way our economy works. But it is wrong when dedicated, productive employees feel the pain while folks like Mitt Romney make profits.\nSo when Mitt Romney talks about his business experience, remember — it is not experience creating good-paying jobs. It is experience cutting jobs. It is experience shutting plants. It is experience making millions of dollars by making life tougher for hard-working Americans.\nThat is not the kind of experience we need in the White House. We need a president who will create good-paying jobs and make sure everyone has a fair chance. We need President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nDAVID FOSTER: Good evening. (Cheers, applause.) Good evening, and a special greeting to my fellow Minnesotans and to the hard- working Missourians that I was privileged to represent for so many years.\nI'm David Foster, and I was a steelworker for 31 years. For 15 years I laid brick and tapped the furnaces and did all that hard, dirty work to turn molten metal into the cars and bridges and buildings that make America what it is today. (Cheers, applause.) And I — and I also led the steelworkers in a 13-state region, including GST Steel in Kansas City, a 100-year-old company that was bought by Mitt Romney and his partners at Bain Capital in 1993.\nNow, it's a story that I wish I didn't have to tell, but America needs to know the truth. When Romney and Bain took over the mill, they loaded it up with millions in debt, and within months they used some of that borrowed money to pay themselves millions. Within a decade, the debt kept growing and was so large the company was forced into bankruptcy. They fired 750 steelworkers while they pocketed $12 million in profits. (Boos.) A steelworker at GST would have had to work 240 years to make $12 million.\nSo in 2001, with GST bankrupt and Romney still CEO of Bain, I had to stand in a rented auditorium in front of hundreds of steelworkers in their 50s and 60s, retirees and widows in their 70s and 80s, and tell them Romney and Bain had broken their promises. Jobs, vacation pay, severance, health insurance, pension benefits that were promised — they were all gone.\nNow, some companies succeed — some companies succeed, others fail. I know that. But I also know this. We don't need a president who fires steelworkers, or says let Detroit go bankrupt. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe need the leadership — we need the leadership of a man who, during the darkest hours for America's auto industry, rolled up his sleeves, risked his presidency and saved over 1 million good auto jobs. (Cheers, applause.) We need — we need Barack Obama.\nThank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nBOB KING: The first woman to serve in both houses of the Congress was Margaret Chase Smith — (cheers) — and she said, \"The right way is not always the popular and the easy way.\" Standing for right when it's unpopular is a true test of moral character. Margaret Chase Smith was a Republican, but a very different kind than those Republicans trying to overtake our country now.\nIn some of America's darkest economic days since the Great Depression and in the face of tremendous political venom, President Obama met the test of moral character. He stood up for what — not for what was popular and easy, but for what was right. (Cheers, applause.) He stood for and with American workers, not just autoworkers but a million workers in towns all across America — (cheers, applause) — who, if the — who, if the industry went under, would not be able to put food on the table.\nWe all remember what those days were like when President Obama took office — workers waiting anxiously as their companies announced layoffs, banks refusing to loan, car sales were collapsing.\nIt wasn't just auto companies that were struggling to survive, so were those companies making parts and selling cars. Small businesses that relied on auto workers as customers, like diners and barber shops, had to close down. Unfortunately, most Republicans advocated doing nothing. And what did Mitt Romney say? You all know this. He said: Let Detroit go bankrupt. (Boos.)\nIn strong — in strong contrast, President Obama took action, putting together a rescue team demanding real change and real sacrifice from everyone involved — from management, from labor, from suppliers, from debt holders, from dealers — everybody involved. It was not universally popular but it was absolutely right. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama's strong leadership saved a million jobs. Since June of 2009, this industry has added a quarter of a million jobs. And the auto industry is thriving again. (Cheers, applause.) These are good middle-class jobs in glass, in plastics, in steel — jobs making things for an economy built to last.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nAnd Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital — the corporate buy-out firm he founded too often has made their money not by building companies up but by taking them apart. (Boos.) And too often, the workers ended up in the streets even as Romney and his partners made millions of dollars.\nEarlier this week, we celebrated Labor Day. Many people forget what this holiday — and why it was created. What this holiday is. It was about safe workplaces, health care, the 40-hour work week, middle-class jobs. Standards that all of us believe in. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut these standards did not just happen. They happened because generations of working people fought for — and in some cases, died for — the right to organize — (cheers, applause) — and the right to collectively bargain. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama strongly supports these basic human rights, because these rights are good for all Americans. Strong unions and collective bargaining — (cheers, applause) — strong unions and collective bargaining have lifted millions of people out of poverty and built the great American middle class.\n(Cheers, applause.) And it's the middle class that keeps America's democracy and economy strong. The Republicans — just look at Wisconsin. (Cheers, applause.) The Republicans want to take us back, back to a time when workers could not stand up for themselves, when workers couldn't speak with one voice, when workers couldn't speak out for fairness, justice and middle-class opportunity. That's why unions matter. (Cheers, applause.)\nI am so proud to be a union member. (Cheers, applause.) And I am so proud — I am so proud to represent the men and women of the UAW. (Cheers, applause.) Because of President Obama's moral courage and leadership, America's auto industry is roaring again, leading the American economic recovery. An industry we once called the arsenal of democracy is driving us to new prosperity. This November, America faces a clear choice about what kind of country we want to be. The choice for working families is clear. We must re-elect President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "CRISTINA SARALEGUI: Hello there! Wow. (Cheers, applause.) Oh my god. Wasn't that something?\nMuchas gracias, Benita, and muchas gracias to all the dreamers, all the young kids that study and do their homework. (Cheers, applause.) Bueno.\nLike most Latinas, you know that I'm not afraid to speak my mind. (Cheers.) Through the years I've ask very tough people some very tough questions. I have tackled big issues on live TV. But one thing I have never done — until now — was get involved in politics. No, dios mio. (Cheers, applause.)\nAh, but this year is very different. If 2008 was an important election, it's nothing compared to 2012. Nothing. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you.\nLike Benita, I know what it's like to come to this country at a young age. I was 12 years old when, like so many Cubans, my parents fled the Castro regime.\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: Viva Cuba!\nCRISTINA SARALEGUI: Viva Cuba.\nFor us, America meant freedom. America was the place that said it doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter what your last name is, it doesn't matter if you drink cortaditos or latte or cafe con leche, coffee with milk. (Cheers, applause.) Here, if you work very hard, anything is possible. And that's what I did.\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: (Off mic.)\nCRISTINA SARALEGUI: Si se puede.\nEven though I could not afford to finish college, I got an internship job in Vanidades magazine, and I turned that internship into a job, and that job into a business and a television show, \"El Show de Cristina,\" that ended up with a hundred million viewers in 40 different countries.\n(Cheers, applause.) Thank you. Si se puede. Si se puede. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Si se puede! Si se puede!\nCRISTINA SARALEGUI: For me — muchas gracias. For me — que si se puede, se puede — (inaudible).\nFor me, the American promise — because it's not just a dream; it's a promise — isn't just an idea. It's not a theory. It's my life story and of many \"DREAMers.\" I want to pass that promise on to my grandchildren, Dominic (sp) and Cristina Maria (sp). I want them to grow up in the kind of country I grew up in. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd that is what this election is about, mi gente, mi gente. For the first time in my life — the first time in my life, the promise of America is in danger. Nearly every part of Governor Romney's plan would put that American dream further out of reach.\nIn order to cut taxes for those at the very top, he would raise taxes for middle-class families, slash education and cut student aid. Governor Romney will turn Medicare from a guarantee into una libreta de coupones, a book of coupons. (Applause.) He would repeal health care reform, forcing millions of Hispanics to lose insurance. Governor Romney's plan is really just one word, pa' atras, backward. We need to move forward, para adelante, para adelante. (Applause.)\nWe need to re-elect our President Obama. (Cheers, applause.) Our president is an incredible man.\nHe fights for us every single day. He helped prevent a second Great Depression. He cut taxes for middle-class families and small businesses. He fought for health care reform, which is already helping millions of Americans afford insurance. (Cheers, applause.)\nHis education policies mean Hispanics will receive an estimated 150,000 more college scholarships. (Applause.) He is on our side. (Cheers, applause.)\nYes. And he knows we still have a lot of work to do. President Obama has a detailed plan. You can find his plan right on his website. It's a plan to grow our economy from the middle class out and the bottom up, not from the top down. A plan to invent — invest in education, a plan to invest in manufacturing and a plan to pass comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you.\nOn immigration, Governor Romney's views — this really freaked me out — his views could not be more extreme. He says that we should make life so unbearable for 11 million people that they simply self- deport. (Boos.) What is that? He said that Arizona's immigration law should be a model for our country. (Boos.)\nDon't boo — vote. (Cheers, applause.) OK.\nHe even — he even made the architect of that horrible law an immigration adviser for his campaign.\nThat was really smart. No protesting, voting — vote. (Cheers, applause.) And of course, he has promised to repeal the DREAM Act.\nThis election is about many things, but if you want to understand the values of the two candidates, all you have to do is think about Benita — the beautiful lady that introduced me tonight. Governor Romney calls young people like her, at 27, illegal aliens. President Obama calls them dreamers. (Cheers, applause.) And that is the difference in this election.\nSo in closing, I'm asking to all mi gente, toda mi gente, all of my people to please join me. Many of us come from countries where votes are not counted properly. In fact, they're not counted at all. (Laughter.) Here, we Latinos have a very powerful voice, but only if we use it. (Cheers, applause.) That begins with making sure you are registered to vote.\nSo I want you to go to gottavote.com — and in Spanish that's votemostodos.com. They have everything you need to get registered. Make sure your friends and family are registered too. And, Charlotte, let me ask you a question, girlfriend, esta con nosotros, Charlotte? (Cheers, applause.)\nAre you in? Will you register voters? Will you talk to your family and friends? Will you fight for that dream we all believe in? Will you keep the promise of this country alive? Estamos unidos. Let's do this together.\n(Cheers, applause.) (In Spanish.) Muchas gracias. Thank you very much. (Cheers, applause.) (In Spanish.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nKAREN EUSANIO: For almost 20 years I've been a proud member of the UAW Local 1112 — (cheers, applause) — and a second-generation autoworker. And I'm proud that thanks to President Obama, I still am. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy mom retired from GM after 30 years, and my brother worked there too.\nBut really, everyone there is like family. We look out for each other not just because we're GM or because we're Ohioans, but we're Americans. (Cheers, applause.)\nWhen the auto industry was on its last legs, I was laid off, and I was terrified. How was I going to provide for my daughter and my two boys or pay my mortgage? How was the Mahoning Valley going to survive when so many of us were out of work, when so many could lose what they worked so hard for?\nThe answer wasn't obvious, and the solution wasn't popular. But President Obama didn't think about the polls or the politics. He thought about the people. (Cheers, applause.) And because he put himself in our shoes, we're back on our feet.\nSome said we shouldn't rescue the auto industry. (Boos.) President Obama knew he had to save it to move our country forward. (Cheers, applause.)\nToday I'm back at work. (Cheers.) We have three shifts building cars of the future, like the Chevy Cruze. (Cheers, applause.) GM just didn't pay back all their outstanding loans; they paid them back ahead of schedule. And the valley is thriving again. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama has the same work ethic and values as my co- workers at GM, my neighbors in Ohio. (Cheers.) And he knows we're all in this together. He believed in us. He stood up for us. And I am proud and honored to stand here tonight for him.\nThank you very much. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you."
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nAUSTIN LIGON: When we first started CarMax 19 years ago, we had a simple idea to make buying a used car transparent, easy and an honest process. And today CarMax has grown to be America's largest auto retailer, employing 17,000 people in 30 states, and it's also one of Fortune's top 100 companies to work for.\nWe worked hard to build and conceive an idea for CarMax, but we didn't do it alone. We succeeded because we had intensely committed associates, healthy and flexible capital markets, good roads and bridges that let us move products rapidly and cooperative federal, state and local governments that helped us have clear rules of the road and plan and grow our business.\nAs a businessman, I know President Obama understands what it takes to spark economic growth because I've seen him in action. When he took office, he inherited a massive structural deficit from his Republican predecessor, an economy in free fall and, most importantly for me personally, an auto industry on the verge of collapse.\nThe president's decisive action led to rapid and successful restructuring of two of America's largest corporations, GM and Chrysler.\nThat didn't just save the car companies; it helped prevent a domino effect that would have taken down everything in the auto industry, from factories that manufactured auto parts to the dealers who sold the cars.\nHe also launched targeted efforts that helped ordinary people buy cars again. All together, these actions prevented over a million job losses and laid the groundwork for what's now a robust recovery of the American auto industry. (Cheers, applause.) The president deserves credit for this extraordinary success, and I'm determined to see that he gets it. (Cheers, applause.)\nAs a — as a businessman who focuses on facts, not political rhetoric, I think the choice in this election is clear. President Obama has shown he has the vision to support average consumers and taxpayers. He understands that the consumer is the engine of economic growth, that businesses can't prosper without them. That's why he has a plan to reduce the deficit, to invest in infrastructure and education, to give tax relief and benefits to average consumers, not the millionaires — because that's what works. That's how we grow the economy from the middle out, not from the top down.\nAs a businessman, I'll tell you, Mitt Romney just doesn't get it. (Cheers, applause.) That's why I'm voting to extend Barack Obama's management contract for four more years. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you."
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nBENITA VELIZ: My name is Benita Veliz, and I'm from San Antonio, Texas. (Cheers, applause.) Like so many Americans of all races and backgrounds, I was brought here as a child. I've been here ever since. I graduated as valedictorian of my high school class at the age of 16. (Cheers, applause.) I went on to earn a double major at the age of 20.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nI know I have something to contribute to my economy and my country. I feel just as American as any of my friends or neighbors. (Cheers, applause.) But I've had to live almost my entire life knowing I could be deported just because of the way I came here.\nPresident Obama fought for the DREAM Act to help people like me — (cheers, applause) — and when Congress refused to pass it, he didn't give up. Instead, he took action so that people like me can apply to stay in our country and contribute. We will keep fighting for reform, but while we do, we are able to work, study and pursue the American Dream. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama has fought for my community. Now, it's my honor to introduce one of the leaders in my community who is fighting for him. From her televised show to her magazines to her radio network, she is truly an icon.\nLadies and gentlemen, Cristina Saralegui. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "KAMALA HARRIS: On behalf of the great state of California — (cheers, applause) — I thank you for the honor and privilege to be here. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo let's get right down to business. We are here because we love our country. And we firmly believe in the American ideal that our country should work for everyone. That ideal is written into our laws, the rules of the road that create a level playing field in this country. Those are the rules I became attorney general to uphold. And those are the rules Mitt Romney would have us roll back.\nHe would roll back the rules that protect the air we breathe and the water we drink, roll back the rules that protect the health and safety of women and families, roll back the rules that prevent the kind of recklessness that got our economy into this mess in the first place.\nWell, I've seen all that happens when you roll back those rules. What happens are rows of foreclosure signs. What happens are mountains of family debt. What happens is a middle class that's hurting. That's what we've seen in towns across California and across this country.\nWhen it comes to the housing crisis, the choice between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is clear. The fact is, we don't have to guess what Miss Romney — Mitt Romney would have done if he were president, because he told us. He said we should let foreclosures, and I quote, hit the bottom — (boos) — so the market could, I quote, run its course. (Boos.) Run its course.\nThat's not leadership. Doing nothing while the middle class is hurting — that's not leadership. Loose regulations and lax enforcement — that's not leadership. That's abandoning our middle class.\nHere's what President Obama did. President Obama won Wall Street reform to prevent any more tax-funded bailouts. President Obama won credit card reform so you don't get stuck with hidden fees and sudden rate hikes.\n(Cheers, applause.) President Obama stood with me and 48 other attorneys general in taking on the banks and winning $25 billion for struggling homeowners. (Cheers, applause.) That's leadership. That's what President Obama did. And that's why we need to give him another four years. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe need to move forward. President Obama will fight for working families. He will fight to level the economic playing field and fight to give every American the same fair shot my family had.\nI remember when my mother, Shyamala Harris, bought our first home. I was 13. She was so proud. And my sister and I were so excited. Millions of families and millions of Americans know that feeling of walking through the front door of their own home for the first time, the feeling of reaching for opportunity and finding it. (Cheers, applause.)\nThat's the choice in this election. It's a choice between an America where opportunity is open to everyone, where everyone plays by the same set of rules, or a philosophy that tilts the playing field to help the wealthiest few, a choice between holding Wall Street accountable or letting it write its own rules. Mitt Romney subscribes to the cynical logic that says the American dream belongs to some of us and not all of us.\nWell, I'll tell you who the American dream belongs to.\nIt belongs to the student in Sacramento who doesn't have much money but who goes to bed each night dreaming big dreams. It belongs to the men and women across this country who know it shouldn't be against the law to marry the person you love. (Cheers, applause.) It belongs to the immigrants, young and old, who come to this country in search of a better life. (Cheers, applause.) And it belongs to little girls who have the joy of watching their mother, like I did, buy her first home. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe American dream belongs to all of us. And if we can work together and stand together and vote together on November 6th for President Barack Obama, that's a dream we will put within reach of all our people. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nBILL BUTCHER: I know what you're thinking, and I'm sorry. I'm not here to give out free beer. (Laughter.)\nYou know, I don't have time to pay much attention to politics because I'm too busy running my business. I think a lot of small- business owners feel the same way. We don't care about the daily back-and-forth of campaigns. We just want leaders in Washington who believe in us and make it a little easier for us to succeed. Our president is that kind of leader. (Cheers, applause.)\nThere were moments when my wife, Karen, and I wondered if we would ever get our business off the ground. I remember what it was like to go to bank after bank after bank hearing no. We may not have ever gotten to yes if it wasn't for President Obama and the SBA loan program that he started. (Cheers, applause.) For these last four years I've had a president who's on my side. He cut small business taxes 18 times. He kept middle-class taxes low, which meant more customers for my product.\nHe knows that growing the middle class helps businesses create jobs. And I know that if he gets a second term, entrepreneurs like me will have the best possible chance to succeed. (Cheers, applause.)\nI hear — I hear President Obama has been brewing some beer in the White House recently — (cheers) — and I know you're not supposed to endorse a competitor. But in this case, I'm going to make an exception. (Cheers, applause.)\nOur president has fought for small-business owners, and now it's time to fight for him. Thank you, everybody. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "KAREN MILLS: Hello, delegates, especially those from my home state, the great state of Maine. (Cheers, applause.) And hello to all the small business owners out there. (Cheers, applause.)\nFrom day one, President Obama has made small business a top priority in his White House, giving them the tools they need to turn their dreams into small businesses and their small businesses into world-class companies, giving them help and then getting out of their way.\nYou know, President Obama understand that small businesses is the backbone of the economy. After all, half of all Americans who work own or work for a small business. They create two-thirds of all new jobs. Small businesses are a big part of who we are.\nYou know, when President Obama took office, the economy was in free fall. Credit was frozen. Small businesses weren't thinking about expansion, they were thinking about survival. The president knew that one of the most important things he could do was give small businesses a fighting chance.\nSo he took action. Right away, President Obama cut small business taxes, not once or twice, but 18 times. (Cheers, applause.) He put a record volume of guaranteed loans into the hands of America's small businesses. He eliminated pages of burdensome forms and regulations so small businesses could focus on profits instead of paperwork. And he made the federal government pay small-business contractors not in 30 days but in 15 to help entrepreneurs make their payrolls and buy new equipment. He even gave small business a seat at the table in his Cabinet.\nToday small-business owners are having very different conversations than they were three and a half years ago. Today they're talking about strategies to fill larger orders, blueprints for bigger factories and plans to hire more workers, like Raleigh Denim, a husband-and-wife team making blue jeans right here in North Carolina — (cheers) — and exporting them to eight countries on three continents.\nAmerica's entrepreneurs, like Raleigh Denim, are our greatest asset, and President Obama has delivered for them. He understands that Washington doesn't create jobs, small businesses do. The government's role is to put the wind at their backs. And after the worst storm in generations, that's exactly what President Obama is doing, expanding access and opportunity in every corner of all 50 states.\n(Cheers, applause.) And when the American people re-elect President Obama, he will finish the work that he started, because across this country, we know when small businesses succeed, America succeeds. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJACK MARKELL: I am privileged to be the governor of Delaware — (cheers, applause) — home to America's vice president and our favorite son, Joe Biden. (Cheers, applause.) Joe has never forgotten his middle-class roots or the lessons he learned. And you know what? Mitt Romney hasn't forgotten his roots or the lessons he's learned either. And that's what worries me about Mitt Romney.\nMitt Romney says that he should be president because he was a business executive. Now, I've got nothing against business executives running for office. After all, I am one. Before I entered public life, I earned my MBA at night while working during the day. I helped lead the wireless revolution at Nextel and grew with it from 13 to 3,000 employees. I am a proud, card-carrying capitalist. (Cheers, applause.) And make no mistake, I believe in private equity, which helped back Nextel.\nBut as someone who has been a businessman and a governor, let me level with you.\nJust because Mitt Romney was a successful private equity executive, that does not mean he deserves to be president. (Cheers, applause.) Because when you move from business to government, what matters are the lessons you learn, and what those lessons say about your priorities. And Mitt Romney learned all the wrong lessons. (Cheers, applause.)\nAs an executive in private equity, Mitt Romney's focus was on the bottom line. And that makes sense. His constituents were his financial shareholders. When he closed factories and sent jobs overseas, it was to benefit his shareholders. That was his job, and he was good at it.\nBut when you're a governor, or the president, it's different. Your shareholders are teachers, construction workers and hardware store owners. (Cheers, applause.) And your bottom line is not what goes into your pocket, but what goes into theirs, and that's the difference. (Cheers, applause.)\nWhen your constituents are your financial shareholders, perhaps it makes sense to take control of the company, to suffocate it with debt and get rid of the workers' pensions. That kind of thing worked for Mitt Romney when he sat in his corporate office, but it won't work for the country if Mitt Romney is sitting in the Oval Office. (Applause.)\nMitt Romney saw the death of Detroit as good for investors.\n(Boos.) He couldn't see what the auto industry meant for the millions of middle-class families who depend on those jobs.\nAnd Barack Obama, he immediately understood what was at stake. He saw saving the auto industry as good for his shareholders, the American people. (Cheers, applause.) President Obama made the tough call and saved the auto industry. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, luckily, we have a choice, a clear choice, in this election. President Obama understands that while government alone cannot create jobs, it sure can create an environment for companies to grow and invest and hire. And that's why President Obama has a plan to create jobs and build a strong economy to last. And you can read it for yourself at barackobama.com/plan.\nNow, every day, President Obama is working for the men and women of the middle class who do the hard work of this great nation, investing in you, your education, your job skills and the roads and the bridges we all depend on.\nNow, when I began as governor, I received a phone call no governor wants to get. One of our top employers, a refinery, was planning to shut down and lay off all the workers.\nIn fact, they did just that. And days after the plant closed, I visited the workers. And I could see in their eyes that they were not ready to quit, and I promised that I would fight for them. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo I worked with labor, with investors, with the talented new management all committed to keeping the refinery running, and we saved those jobs. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou see, my shareholders were those refinery workers. And I had to deliver for them.\nNow let me ask you. What do you think Mitt Romney would have done if that call came in?\nWell, Mitt Romney already told us what he would do. Mitt Romney says he likes to fire people. (Boos.) And Barack Obama? He likes to see people hired. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou know, from the moment he took office, President Obama has delivered for the middle class. He believes that we need to grow our economy from the middle out and not from the top down. That we — that we need to keep America a land of middle-class opportunity. And to keep faith with that promise, the promise of America, it is up to us. We must work for it. We must fight for it. And we must re-elect President Obama one more time. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "SIMONE CAMPBELL: Good evening. I'm Sister Simone Campbell, and I'm one of the Nuns on the Bus. (Cheers, applause.) So — yeah — (chuckles) — we have nuns on the bus. (Cheers, applause.) And a nun on the podium. (Cheers, applause.)\nLet me explain why I'm here tonight. In June I joined other Catholic sisters on a 2700-mile bus journey through nine states about the — to tell Americans about the budget that Congressman Paul Ryan wrote and Governor Romney endorsed. Paul Ryan claims this budget reflects the principles of our shared faith. But the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops stated that the Ryan budget failed a basic moral test because it would harm families living in poverty.\nWe agree with our bishops. And that's why we went on the road, to stand with struggling families and to lift up our Catholic sisters who serve them. Their work to alleviate suffering would be seriously harmed by the Romney-Ryan budget. And that is wrong. (Cheers, applause.)\nDuring our — during our journey, I rediscovered a few truths. First, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are correct when they say that each individual should be responsible. But their budget goes astray in not acknowledging that we are responsible not only for ourselves and our immediate family; rather, our faith strongly affirms that we are all responsible for one another. (Cheers, applause.) I am my sister's keeper. (Cheers, applause.) I am my brother's keeper. (Cheers, applause.)\nWhile we were in Toledo — in Toledo, I met 10-year-old twins Matt and Mark (sp), who had gotten into trouble at school for fighting. Sister Virginia and the staff at the Padua Center took them in when they were suspended and discovered on a home visit that these 10-year-olds were trying to care for their bedridden mother, who has MS and diabetes. They were her only caregivers. The sisters got her medical help and are giving the boys some stability. Now the boys are free to claim much of their childhood that they were losing. Clearly, we all share responsibility for the Matts and Marks (sp) in our nation.\n(Cheers, applause.) In Milwaukee I met Billy and his wife and two boys at St. Benedict's dining room. Billy's work hours were cut back in the recession. And Billy is taking responsibility for himself and his family, but right now, without food stamps, he and his wife could not put food on the — their family table.\nWe share responsibly for creating an economy where parents with jobs earn enough to care for their families. (Cheers, applause.) In order to cut taxes for the wealthy, the Romney-Ryan budget would make it even tougher on hardworking Americans, like Billy, to feed their families. Paul Ryan says this budget is in keeping with the moral values of our shared faith. I disagree. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn Cincinnati — in Cincinnati I met Ginny (sp) who had just come from her sister's memorial service. When Ginny's (sp) sister Margaret (sp) lost her job, she lost her health insurance. She developed cancer and had no access to diagnosis or treatment. She died unnecessarily, and that is tragic and it is wrong. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe Affordable Care Act will cover people like Margaret (sp). We all share responsibility to ensure that this vital health care reform law is properly implemented — (cheers, applause) — and that all governors — all governors expand Medicaid coverage so no more Margarets (sp) die from lack of care. (Cheers, applause.) This is part of my pro-life stance and the right thing to do. (Cheers, applause.)\nI have so many other stories to tell, but I'll only tell you one more.\nIn Hershey, Pennsylvania, a woman in her late 30s came to me, approached us. She asked for the names of some people she could talk to because she felt alone and isolated. Her neighbors have been polarized by politics masquerading as values. She cares about the well-being of her people in her community. She wishes the rest of the nation would listen to one another with kindness and compassion, listen to one another rather than yell at each other. (Cheers, applause.) I told her then, and I tell her now, that she is not alone.\nLooking out at you tonight, I feel your presence, combined with that of the thousands of caring people we met on our journey. Together, we understand an immoral budget that hurts already struggling families does not reflect the — our nation's values. We are better than that.\nSo I urge you — (cheers, applause) — I urge you, join us on the bus. Join us together as we stand with Matt and Mark, Billy and his family and the woman in Hershey and the Margarets of our nation. This is what Nuns on the Bus are all about. (Cheers.) We care for the 100 percent, and that will secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our nation. (Cheers, applause.) So join us. Join us as we Nuns on the Bus, all of us, drive for faith, family and fairness.\nThank you so much. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "JOHN HICKENLOOPER: As many of you know, we had a challenging summer in Colorado. Wildfires that devastated homes and businesses, took livelihoods and lives. Then, a few weeks later, terrible shootings in a darkened theater. So on behalf of everyone in Colorado, let me start tonight by saying thank you.\n(Applause.) Thank you — thank you for your thoughts and your prayers, thank you for your generosity to families who lost so much.\nThe president came to Colorado. He walked the charred landscape, met with firefighters and also with those who lost homes or businesses. He and Michelle visited hospitals to comfort families of loved ones killed and injured. They shared in our grief and brought a message of support on behalf of the entire country. We weren't Democrats or Republicans in that moment. We were simply Americans trying to help one another. (Cheers, applause.)\nThese tragedies remind us not to waste time bickering. We have the power to come together, and we need to do this as a nation. It will take a spirit of generosity and collaboration to meet the difficult challenges that we face.\nWe recognize this in Colorado, where we've been able to pass vital legislation with strong bipartisan majorities. (Chuckles.) I'm luckier than President Obama. After my inauguration, Colorado's Republican legislators didn't immediately start planning my defeat. We worked together. Some even complimented me for releasing my tax returns in the campaign, 22 years of them. (Cheers, applause.) We don't always agree, but when push comes to shove, Colorado's elected leaders cooperate for the good of our state.\nAnd consequently, we are moving forward. And we need to keep moving forward with President Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe president's policies are helping. He set a goal of doubling exports in five years, and so far they are up by almost 40 percent. In Colorado, agricultural exports jumped 59 percent. (Cheers.) Overseas tourism is up by nearly 30 percent in Colorado. The president's \"all of the above\" energy strategy means thousands of jobs. And using wind, solar, vast new reserves of natural gas, we are closer to true energy independence than we have been in recent history. (Cheers, applause.) And as the first governor since Sam Adams to get his start brewing beer, I'm happy to announce — (cheers, applause) — that even craft beer production is up 35 percent. (Cheers, applause.)\nYes, Colorado —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) (Inaudible.)\nJOHN HICKENLOOPER: Now, we've still got a lot of ground to cover as a country, but we are coming back, not as fast as we want or need, but unlike four years ago, we are finally moving in the right direction.\nNow, I know it's hard right now for a lot of people, and I've been there. Like too many Americans today, I was laid off and out of work for two years during the last really bad recession in 1986. So we started a brewpub. We were turned down by 32 banks and scores of investors. My own mother wouldn't invest. (Laughter.) But we got there because like so many other things, our business was not just me; it was we.\nAll right? (Cheers, applause.) We worked 70 hours a week. We drafted the business plan with a librarian from the Denver Public Library. We secured a development loan from the city. My landlord invested — (chuckles) — even my Little League baseball coach invested. It was we, not just me. (Applause.)\nIn Colorado, we know that Western history is not just about rugged individuals. It's about communities coming together to raise barns and build schools and, yes, to help one another. (Cheers, applause.)\nColorado and the United States are places that will be defined more by their future than by their past. The president knows this. He knows that to move this country forward, it takes we and not me. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy mother, the lone Democrat in a family of Republicans, was widowed twice and raised four kids on her own. She always used to say: You can't always control what life gives you, but you can control how you respond. President Obama inherited many crises, among the worst any president has faced, and in every case he has responded with optimism, with compassion, with courage. (Cheers, applause.)\nHe provided hope — he provided hope when there was none, and he has transformed that hope into a plan rooted in reality. And it takes — it takes hard work. It takes time. But it's working.\nHe understands that America is indeed a collection of talented, self-motivated individuals competing in a marketplace, but it's more than that.\nIt's also a community that believes in the common good. As another skinny Democrat with a funny last name, I was proud to host the convention in Denver that nominated Barack Obama four years ago. (Cheers, applause.) And I am proud to support his re-election. I ask that you join me — well, we — in moving Colorado and America forward. We need to finish what we started. Thank you and God bless you."
      , "ERIC SHINSEKI: Aloha to the Hawaii delegation. (Cheers.) Good evening, everyone, especially all of the veterans in the audience. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy name is Ric Shinseki, and I'm a soldier. I spent 38 years in uniform, and as a veteran, I'm here to speak about a president whose devotion to veterans is sincere, it is steadfast, it is strong. I know this firsthand. I first met Barack Obama in November, 2008. I soon realized we were both shaped and inspired by family members who had served in World War II. Three of my uncles helped liberate Europe.\nWhen they returned home, they helped to raise me. (Applause.) They used the original GI Bill to open small businesses. They worked hard, played by the rules and loved this country. I learned those values from them. And President Obama learned the same values from the veterans in his family.\nDuring our first meeting nearly four years ago, the president's commitment to veterans was clear. He understands that we have the finest military in the world, and we have a commitment to keep our faith with our men and women in uniform. Today our Iraq and Afghanistan warriors have displayed enormous discipline and love of country. (Cheers, applause.) We have a moral obligation to care for them when they come home — health care, education, jobs. But above all, we owe veterans dignity and respect. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama gets it. He listens. He wants the facts. And the results of his leadership are clear. Since President Obama took office, nearly 800,000 veterans, including a growing population of women veterans, have gained access to VA health care. (Cheers, applause.) There's been a historic expansion of treatment for PTSD and traumatic brain injury.\nPresident Obama has expanded job training to prepare veterans for the jobs of the future. And we're on track to end veterans' homelessness by 2015. (Cheers, applause.)\nNo president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has done more for veterans. We could not ask for a stronger advocate. We've made tremendous progress under this president's leadership, but there is much more to be done for the men and women who guarantee our way of life. They have served selflessly with unmatched valor, sacrifice and distinction. And President Obama is determined that we will repay our debt to them. (Cheers, applause.)\nGod bless our veterans. (Cheers, applause.) God bless our president. (Cheers, applause.) And may God continue to bless this wonderful country of ours. Thank you, good evening. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nED MEAGHER: Good evening. My name's Ed Meagher.\nCan you imagine how it feels to return from war emotionally, psychologically and physically mangled, and the country you've been fighting for does not welcome you home? As a veteran of the Vietnam War, I know exactly how that feels. Nine years ago I decided I would do what I can to give the soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan a better welcome home than I had.\nAlong with two of my fellow Vietnam vets, I work with some of our most seriously injured warriors and their families to prepare them for jobs, to help them find their way through the medical system and to lift their spirits. Alive Days help amputees to realize that even though they've lost limbs, they have their lives. Operation Jump- Start helps them strategically think about the next phase of their lives. We help punch up resumes to reflect skills they possess that they don't know were marketable. We've coached them and provided fresh business outfits and computers to help them with job searches.\nSupporting our effort is President Obama's actions, increasing the VA budget to $140 billion in 2013 — (cheers, applause) — fully funding the new GI Bill, allowing over 800,000 veterans and their families to pursue an education and begin their post-military service to our country.\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, sir.\nED MEAGHER: The Obama administration has hired more than 3,500 mental health professionals, and they will hire 1,600 more over the next year to help veterans to cope with post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injuries, and to strengthen suicide prevention efforts. (Cheers, applause.)\nLast Memorial Day, President Obama declared the treatment of Vietnam veterans a national shame. And he spoke two sweet words my generation of returning veterans have yearned to hear: Welcome home. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "STENY HOYER: Good evening my fellow delegates. (Cheers, applause.) Hello, Maryland. (Cheers, applause.) I am proud to be here to support President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for a second term. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy fellow delegates, President Obama has spent the last four years seeking the solutions we need to meet our challenges. He has finished first term focused on building a strong economy and growing the middle class. Thanks to his leadership, America's autoworkers are back on the job. (Cheers, applause.) And manufacturers are hiring at levels not seen since the 1990s. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut we all know that we need to do more. That's why President Obama wants to revitalize the manufacturing sector that made our nation great. House Democrats share that vision, which is why we have a plan called \"Make it in America.\" (Cheers, applause.) Make it to invest in outeducating, outinnovating and outbuilding our competitors overseas. A strong America depends on a successful and growing middle class. And this election is a moment of truth for middle-class families.\nThe choices (sic) we have to make this fall is a critical one. But I don't believe it's a difficult one. Last week Mr. Romney said he wished President Obama had succeeded when he took office. If so, he was alone in his party. (Cheers.)\nLet's review the history. Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, said the Republicans' number one priority was the defeat of President Obama — (boos) — not the defeat of terrorism, not the creation of jobs, not the reduction of our debt and deficit, not ensuring access to health care, not educating our children, not tending to the needs of Americans with disabilities but simply to defeat our president.\n(Boos.) As the Reverend Jesse Jackson describes it, they want to drown the captain, and are prepared to sink the ship to do so.\nFor four years Republicans in Congress have pursued a strategy of confrontation, obstruction and a refusal to compromise. That's why not a single House Republican voted for the law that brought our economy back from the brink. That's why President Obama's jobs plan was not even put on the House floor. Instead of trying to fix the problem, the Republicans, unfortunately, played politics.\nBut despite historic levels of obstruction, President Obama was able to bring the economy back from the verge of a second Great Depression. (Cheers, applause.) Hear me, delegates and my fellow Americans. In January 2009, when the president took office, our economy lost more than 800,000 jobs in January. This past July, the economy added 172,000 jobs — the 29th consecutive month of private sector job gains.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nNow, ladies and gentlemen — ladies and gentlemen, we know that is not enough, but it's a turnaround of nearly 1 million jobs from when President Obama took office. Surely even Mr. Romney thinks we're better off today than we were then. (Cheers, applause.)\nThese past four years — these past four years while President Obama was fighting for the middle class, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and their tea party allies cared more about tearing down the president than building up America. They're hoping — they're hoping we'll forget that.\nThey're also hoping that we'll forget their role in piling up a mountain of debt being left to our children and to our grandchildren. My friend Paul Ryan talks about fiscal responsibility but voted to put two wars on the credit card. He voted to spend trillions of dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. He voted for a prescription drug benefit with no plan to pay for it. He abandoned the bipartisan principle that we must pay for what we buy. And he voted against the balanced deficit reduction plan produced by a bipartisan commission, a fact, by the way, that he didn't tell us last week.\nHe also didn't tell you that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan want to end the Medicare guarantee and turn it into a voucher, which would leave seniors with the increased costs.\nHe also didn't tell you that President Obama has strengthened Medicare by taking away big subsidies to insurance companies and by tackling waste, fraud and abuse. (Cheers, applause.) He didn't tell you that President Obama has saved seniors more than $4 billion on prescription drugs by closing the doughnut hole and that President Obama added years to the life of Medicare.\nMitt Romney and Paul Ryan promise hard truths, but they don't deliver hard answers or real solutions. President Obama and Democrats are working tirelessly to move our country to over a near-unanimous opposition of Republican leaders and Republican members of Congress.\nLadies and gentlemen, the decision we have to make this November is simple. Do we keep moving forward or do we join the Romney-Ryan retreat? (Boos.) Barack Obama and Joe Biden have been working hard to help middle-class Americans make it in America. Let's send them back to the White House and keep on moving forward. (Cheers, applause.)\nGod bless America. God bless every American. And God bless all of you. Thank you very much. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nCECILE RICHARDS: Good evening. Good evening. On behalf of the millions of mothers, daughters, wives, sisters and friends, Republicans and Democrats, who have counted on Planned Parenthood for health care and in honor of the thousands of doctors and staff at Planned Parenthood health centers all across America, I am proud tonight to support the re-election of President Barack Obama.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nTwo years ago, when Paul Ryan and John Boehner and Todd Akin and the Tea Party took over the House of Representatives, they promised us they were going to create jobs and jump-start the economy. But instead, on day one, they came after women's health, and they haven't let up since. Right? So first, they voted to end cancer screenings and well women visits for 5 million women. They voted to end funding for birth control with Planned Parenthood. And for good measure, they even tried to redefine rape. (Boos.)\nAnd now Mitt Romney is campaigning to get rid of Planned Parenthood and overturn Roe vs. Wade. (Boos.) And we won't let him. (Cheers, applause.)\nThis past year, women learned that when we aren't at the table, we're on the menu. (Cheers.) So this November, women are organizing, we're mobilizing and we're voting for the leaders who fight for us. (Cheers, applause.)\nNearly 100 years ago, when Planned Parenthood was founded, birth control was illegal. And as a result, few women had the opportunity to finish school, and we really weren't even expected to live much past the age of 50. But times have changed. Today we are mothers, and we are teachers and scientists and accountants and members of the armed forces. (Cheers, applause.) And because of President Barack Obama, more women than ever are serving in the U.S. Cabinet and on the United States Supreme Court.\nWe've come so far. We've come so far. So why are we having to fight in 2012 against politicians who went to end access to birth control? It's like we woke up on a bad episode of \"Mad Men\" — (laughter) — because when Mitt Romney says he'll get rid of Planned Parenthood and turn the clock back on a century of progress, it has real consequences for the 3 million patients who depend on Planned Parenthood each year, women like Libby Bruce, who you just heard from, or women like Brandy McKay (sp), a 27-year-old woman whose stage 2 breast cancer was caught at a Planned Parenthood health center, and thank God, she's now cancer-free — (cheers, applause) — or the woman who went on Facebook after Paul Ryan voted to defund Planned Parenthood and posted: \"Well, I guess I don't understand that us military wives go to Planned Parenthood when the doctor on base can't see us.\" (Cheers, applause.)\nSo Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan are campaigning for women's votes by saying that women need their help.\nOK, this is coming from two men who are committed to ending insurance coverage for birth control, who would turn women's health care decisions over to our bosses, and who won't even stand up for equal pay for women.\nOK. Well, as my grandmother back in Texas would have said, any more help from Mitt Romney, and I'm going to have to take in ironing. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah!\nCECILE RICHARDS: But here's the good news. We already have a president who's on our side. President Obama — (cheers, applause) — President Obama understands women. He trusts women. And on every single issue that matters to us, he stands with women. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama ensured that women's preventive care, including birth control too, will be covered by all health care plans with no co-pay, no matter where we work. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd because of President Obama, soon women won't be denied insurance coverage because we've had breast cancer or survived sexual assault. And we're no longer going to pay more than men for the exact same health insurance. (Cheers, applause.)\nThanks to President Obama, being a woman is no longer a pre- existing condition in America. (Cheers, applause.) That's right. That's right.\nYou know, back in Texas — (cheers, applause). Yay, Texas.\nBack in Texas, we'd say that you dance with them what brung you, OK? Well, President Obama brought women to this dance, and we're staying with him all the way through November. (Cheers, applause.)\nTwenty-four years ago, my mother, former Texas governor Ann Richards — (cheers, applause) — spoke to this convention. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. (Sustained cheers, applause.) Thank you. (Sustained cheers, applause.) She reminded us — she reminded us how far we've come and that there was a time when folks had to drink from separate water fountains, when kids were punished for speaking Spanish in the school, when her grandmother couldn't even vote.\nMy mom spent her entire life working to make things more fair. (Cheers, applause.) She believed — she believed that the American dream wasn't meant for just a few; it promised opportunity for everyone. (Applause.)\nWell, just a couple of years before she passed, mom had the chance to become friends with a young senator named Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.) And she saw in him — she saw in him the promise of the future and the promise of America — (applause) — the promise of an America that always moved forward. That's the America we believe in; that's the future we'll be voting for this November. (Cheers, applause.) That' right. Because as women — as women, we've come way too far to turn back, and we won't. (Cheers, applause.) Because, you know, mom wouldn't have stood for it, and neither will we. (Cheers, applause.) So this November, we're going to keep moving forward, and we're going to re-elect President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. Thank you."
      , "LIBBY BRUCE: Nine weeks ago today, on the Fourth of July, my daughter Ruby was born. Ruby is a perfect, healthy little girl. And because I have endometriosis, I feel particularly lucky to have her.\nWhen I was 18, I began experiencing severe pelvic and abdominal pain. I went to so many doctors, but nobody had any answers. Several doctors outright dismissed me, treating my pain as the product of a dumb kid's dramatic imagination.\nFinally, I went to Planned Parenthood. (Cheers, applause.) They listened to me as no one else has.\nThey answered my questions. A caring nurse practitioner told me she thought I had endometriosis. She connected me with an excellent, respectful surgeon who removed the excess endometrial growth in my pelvis and finally I got better. (Cheers, applause.)\nTwelve years later, I am still so grateful for the excellent, affordable, respectful care I received from Planned Parenthood. (Cheers, applause.) I am especially grateful because endometriosis is the leading cause of infertility. Without Planned Parenthood, my pain would have continued and I might not have my daughter today. (Cheers, applause.)\nWhen Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan make threats about getting rid of Planned Parenthood funding, it is clear that they have not given a thought to women like me — women with limited resources who are sick and scared. They haven't thought about planned and wanted babies like Ruby who are able to be here only because their mothers received the health care they needed. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama understands and he cares. And that's why I'm here. I'm here tonight for my daughter — to stand up for her so that when she grows up, Planned Parenthood will be there for her too. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJIM HUNT: Thank you.\nMy fellow Democrats, I want to welcome you all to North Carolina — (cheers, applause) — and tell you a story about our state. You've seen the skyscrapers and all that Charlotte has to offer. Maybe you've heard about our Research Triangle Park. Maybe your children attended one of our great universities. We're proud of all that because we made that possible in North Carolina. And let me tell you how.\nFifty years ago this was a poor state, poor, rural and rigidly segregated. But we had a governor named Terry Sanford, a hero of mine. (Cheers.) He was courageous. He broke with most southerners in 1960 and endorsed John F. Kennedy. (Cheers, applause.) When other southern governors stood in the schoolhouse door, Terry Sanford stood up for civil rights. (Cheers, applause.) He worked with business leaders, political and education leaders to build our great universities, our 58 community colleges and our public schools.\nThe result? Our high-tech, thriving economy that you see today. Together, we in North Carolina did that, and we're proud of it.\nTwenty years ago — 20 years ago I ran for a third term as governor. I'd retired from politics, but I came back because I knew that economic growth and good jobs depend on a good education. (Cheers, applause.) And I wanted — I wanted to make sure that a good education was available to every child in this state.\nWe did extraordinary things in the next eight years. We built one of the best early childhood education programs in America called Smart Start. (Cheers, applause.) We raised standards for what students need to know. We raised professional standards for teachers and raised teacher pay by 35 percent in just four years. (Cheers, applause.)\nTeachers have the hardest and most important job in America. (Cheers, applause.) They are building our nation. And, folks, we should appreciate them, respect them and we should pay them well. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo let me tell you what's happened here. Last year, students born nearly 20 years ago in 1993, finished high school with the highest graduation rate in our history.\nThey'd gone through Smart Start. They'd had great teachers. And companies want to come here to North Carolina to hire them. That's what we did in North Carolina. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe are doers in this state. We build for the future. We want leaders who are doers. And in Barack Obama, we have a great education president who is rebuilding America. (Cheers, applause.) His Race to the Top program is doing more to spur us to improve our public schools than anything we've ever done as a nation.\nIn the depth of the near-depression that he faced when he came in, Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress provided recovery funds that literally kept our classrooms open. Two years ago — two years ago these funds saved nearly 20,000 teacher and education jobs just here in North Carolina. (Cheers, applause.) That's an average — an average of nearly 200 per county. (Cheers, applause.)\nHe has a huge focus on improving early childhood education so that every child starts to school healthy and ready to learn — I like to say, ready to fly. (Cheers, applause.) He's doubled funding for Pell Grants. He beat back forces in Congress that wanted to double interest rates on college loans.\nHe's investing $115 million new dollars in historically black colleges and universities just here in North Carolina. (Cheers, applause.) And he has focused more on community colleges than any president in history. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Barack Obama is a doer. And we in America will do big things with him. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, the other crowd doesn't get it. They say just cut taxes for the wealthiest, get rid of regulations, and job growth — job growth will happen like magic. Folks, magic didn't do it in North Carolina. This is not a time for America to believe in Magic.\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: That's right, Jim!\nJIM HUNT: This is a time to drive education forward. This is a time to drive the economy forward. This is a time to drive America forward. We must do it together, and we must re-elect Barack Obama as president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you, and let's work our hands off. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "JOHANNY ADAMES: My name is Johanny Adames, and I'm very excited to be here. But not nearly as excited as my mom Aloa (ph). Gracias, mommy, por todo. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy mom taught me to work hard. Today, I'm a student at Miami- Dade College, working hard toward my degree. This could only happen in America. But it only happened for me because of a Pell Grant. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama knows that education is how kids like me can follow a path — opportunity and work their way into the middle class. He fought to expand the Pell Grants so nearly 10 million young Americans can have that opportunity.\nEven better, he doubled the (size ?) of Pell Grants so that someone like me can afford tuition and pay for books too.\nWhen you're trying to pay for college, every dollar makes a difference. And President Obama has made a huge difference for us. Everybody says that young people like me are America's future. But Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan want to cut the Pell Grants that made my future possible. (Boos.) If they don't invest in my future, do they really believe in America?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (No ?)!\nJOHANNY ADAMES: I was proud to get my U.S. citizenship this year. (Cheers, applause.) And on November 6th, I'll be proud to cast my first vote. I want a president who believes in me, and my mom is not running this year. But President Obama believes in every kid, no matter who they are or where they come from. He doesn't just believe in my future. He's building America's future. And I can't wait to vote for him.\nThank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "ARNE DUNCAN: I'm here tonight as a parent with two young children who attend a wonderful public school. And no one — no one has more at stake in this election than our nation's children, and that's why collectively we need to re-elect President Obama. (Cheers, applause.) President Obama knows education is about jobs. It's about giving every child a shot at a secure middle-class life. And right now, we're in a race for jobs and industries of the future. If countries like China outeducate us today, they will outcompete us tomorrow.\nThe president knows that education begins at home, with parents who step up and take responsibility. But he also believes that teachers matter. In his first two years of office, he helped save the jobs of 400,000 educators. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd the president didn't just invest resources, he demanded reform. And 46 states responded courageously by raising education standards. The president also believes that teachers must be respected and paid like the true professionals they are.\n(Cheers, applause.) No teacher should have to teach to the test, and great teachers must be recognized and rewarded.\nPresident Obama also knows that higher education is an economic necessity. He fought to keep student loan interest rates from going up. He fought for Pell Grants. He took the big banks out of the federal student loan program and passed the billions of dollars in savings on to our nation's young people. (Applause.) And this year alone he helped nearly 10 million students afford a college education. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe president knows that the path to the middle class goes right through America's classrooms. That was his path, and that's America's path. However, his opponent believes very differently. Under the Romney-Ryan budget, education would be cut, cut by as much as 20 percent. (Boos.) Now, take a minute and think about what that would really mean: 200,000 fewer children in Head Start, fewer teachers in the classroom, fewer resources for poor kids and students with disabilities, fewer after-school programs, and 10 million students could see their Pell Grants reduced, putting higher education further out of reach.\nAnd these cuts wouldn't somehow create jobs or pay down the deficit. Instead, they would go towards a huge new tax cut for those at the very top. In order to cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires, Governor Romney will cut education for our nation's children. That's the choice. That's the choice in this election.\nThey see education as an expense. President Obama sees it as an investment. And that's why our president needs four more years. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you so much, and God bless. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you."
      , "(Applause.)\nBARBARA MIKULSKI: Good evening. I'm Senator Barb Mikulski from the great state of Maryland. (Cheers, applause.)\nTwenty-six years ago I became the first Democratic woman elected to the Senate in her own right. I was the first, but I made sure I wasn't the only. (Cheers, applause.) Today we're proud that there are more women serving in the United States Senate right this minute than had served in all of American history when I arrive.\nBut we want more. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, we Democratic women of the Senate are like the Olympic team. As you can see, we come in different sizes — (laughter) — but we sure are united in our determination to do the best for our country. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe build families, businesses and communities. We're Sunday School teachers and former governors; prosecutors and moms in tennis shoes. I was a — (cheers, applause) — I was a social worker for Baltimore families. Now I'm a social worker building opportunities for families throughout America. (Cheers, applause.)\nFriends, we work on macro issues and we work on the macaroni and cheese issues. (Cheers, applause.) When women are in the halls of power, our national debate reflects the needs and dreams of American families. Women leading means that Congress is working to create jobs, make quality child care more affordable, and strengthen the middle class — because we understand the America we love grows the economy and opportunity from the middle out, not the top down. (Cheers, applause.)\nThese are our priorities. These are President Obama's priorities. We know that every issue is a woman's issue. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd equal pay for equal work is an all-American issue. (Cheers, applause.) The 77 cents that women make for every dollar men earn makes a real difference to our families — families stretching to make every dollar count.\nWe are so proud that the first law signed by President Barack Obama was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. (Cheers, applause.) The first bill was about America's first principles — equality, opportunity and prosperity. Now, those Republicans in the Senate tried to block our efforts to go further and end pay discrimination once and for all. But hey, we the women of the Senate, with President Obama by our side, we're going to keep fighting — our shoulders square, our lipstick on — because you deserve equal pay for your hard work. (Cheers, applause.)\nNothing has done more — nothing has done more to improve the day-to-day lives of American women and our families than health care reform. Before health care reform, women — can you believe this — women would be charged 50 percent more for their health insurance than men. In nine states — (boos) — listen to this, in nine states victims of domestic violence were denied coverage simply because of those victims.\nWell, anyway, you know what was happening. We — our mammograms and our cancer test straining the family budgets. Often we had to go without to be able to pay for those services. And we've tried to change that. Millions of American families know that we're just one medical catastrophe away from financial disaster.\nNow, we Democrats believe in family responsibility, not family bankruptcy. (Cheers, applause.)\nWith health care reform, we're making gender discrimination by those insurance companies illegal. We ensured lifesaving preventive services and the full range of reproductive services are now covered. (Cheers, applause.) Because of President Obama's leadership, being a woman is truly no longer a pre-existing condition. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe, the Democratic women of the Senate, have worked with our president to do a lot to strengthen families and restore security in the middle class. And like the first family, we stand with our military families. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow we are ready to do more. And for that, we need reinforcements. Take a look at the women running this year, those who can help us and the president get the job done for you. (Cheers, applause.)\nGod bless you, and God bless America. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "TOM VILSACK: Good evening, fellow Democrats, especially those from Iowa. (Cheers.)\nYou know, rural Americans are a special people. Their labor puts food on our table and fuel in our gas tanks.\nTheir service in our military sets a powerful example of leadership, honor and sacrifice. Their spirit of community inspires us all.\nPresident Obama's fight for rural America is personal. He was raised by a single mom and grandparents from Kansas. (Cheers.) He hails from a farming state, Illinois. He understand the challenges that rural communities and families face protecting their middle class way of life, preserving their heartland values.\nLast week, we heard folks at the other convention say they wanted to take our country back. But here's what I noticed, they didn't say back to what. Well, we know what backwards looks like. We know what happened to middle-class families after two tax cuts for people who didn't need them, after deregulation of banking and housing sectors and the historic recession that followed. And we know how far we've come.\nToday President Obama is helping farmers sell their products in new markets here and abroad, spurring economic opportunity and development in rural areas. Today President Obama is infusing new capital into rural communities, providing a record number of loans to farmers and small business owners, revitalizing aging infrastructure and boosting job creation.\nAnd today President Obama is making smart investments in clean energy, in wind, solar and biofuels — all as part of an all-of-the- above energy strategy that supports thousands of jobs — not in the Middle East, but in the Midwest of our great country. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd in this season of severe drought, President Obama has acted to help while calling on Congress to act as well because he understands that in tough times, Americans pull together.\nFrom here, we have more to do, much more. And President Obama has a detailed plan for a new rural economy — more support for small businesses making, creating and innovating; more investment in the production of biofuels and other biomaterials; and more trade and more markets.\nRural Americans want leaders who help the middle-class communities to plant and prosper over the long term, not opportunists who reap the rewards for themselves, leaving nothing for the people who do the sowing. They deserve leaders who appreciate their contributions, who believe in their potential and who care enough to invest in their communities and their families. And that's what they have, ladies and gentlemen, in President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. (Applause.)\nNow, last week we heard from the party that wants to take the country back. Well, in America's heartland, we're voting for President Obama, the president who will keep our country and rural America moving forward.\nGod bless you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nNANCY PELOSI: Good evening. Good evening. Good evening, fellow Democrats. (Cheers, applause.) Good evening. Isn't that American dream story the story of America? (Cheers, applause.) We are all here to reignite the American dream. That is why I'm so pleased to see so many young people, the future of our party, the hope of America. (Cheers, applause.)\nI stand before you as the first mother and first grandmother to serve as Democratic leader and first speaker of the House of Representatives. (Cheers, applause.) For 25 years it has been my privilege to represent the city of San Francisco and the great state of California — (cheers, applause) — to work to strengthen our vibrant middle class and to secure opportunity and equality. We all stand together in our \"Drive for 25,\" 25 seats to win back the House for the Democrats — (cheers, applause) — as we re-elect President Barack Obama president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nDemocrats believe in reigniting the American dream by removing barriers to success and building ladders of opportunity for all so that everyone can succeed. Jobs are central to the American dream, and President Obama has focused on jobs from day one. (Cheers, applause.) Under President Obama, we've gone from losing 800,000 jobs a month to adding 4.5 million private sector jobs over the last 29 months. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe American dream is about freedom. Jobs means freedom for workers to support their families. Working with President Obama, Democrats passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to strengthen the rights of women in the workplace. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe repealed \"don't ask, don't tell\" so our troops can serve the country they love regardless of whom they love. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe made college more affordable. House Democrats passed the DREAM Act — (cheers) — but Senate Republicans blocked it. (Boos.)\nWith President Obama, Democrats enacted the toughest consumer safeguards in history to protect Main Street from recklessness of some on Wall Street. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe — Democrats passed health care reform to allow Americans the freedom to pursue their passions, to make health care a right, not a privilege and to ensure that being a woman is no longer a pre-existing medical condition. (Cheers, applause.)\nOur freedom is ensured every day by our men and women in uniform. We must build a future worthy of their sacrifice. We thank them for keeping America the land of the free and the home of the brave. (Cheers, applause.)\nThis year we are determined to re-elect an extraordinary president who in no ordinary time led America back from the brink of depression while Republicans tried to block him at every turn. This election offers the clearest choice of our time. Many names are on the ballot. So, too, on the ballot is the character of our country. Why is that? Medicare is on the ballot.\nDemocrats will preserve and strengthen Medicare. Republicans will end the Medicare guarantee. (Boos.) It's just plain wrong.\nWhen you go to the vote — polls, vote for Medicare. Vote for President Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nSocial Security is on the ballot. Democrats enacted it; Democrats will fight to preserve it. Some Republicans want to replace the guarantee of Social Security with a gamble of private accounts. It's just plain wrong. When you go to the polls, vote for Social Security. Vote for President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd the hard-fought rights of women are on the ballot. Democrats trust the judgment of women. We reject the Republican assault on women's reproductive health. It's just plain wrong.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) Just plain wrong!\nNANCY PELOSI: When you go to the polls, vote for women's rights. Vote for President Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd our democracy is on the ballot. Democrats believe we must curb the influence of special interests on our political institutions. Democrats believe we must create jobs, not protect the special interests. We must build the economy from the middle out, not the top down. To change policy for the middle class, we must change politics. Democrats will work to overturn Citizens United — (cheers, applause) — while Republicans support opening the floodgates to special interest money and suppressing the right to vote.\nIt's just plain wrong.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) Just plain wrong!\nNANCY PELOSI: We believe in the government of the many, not the privileged few. When you go to the polls, vote for democracy. Vote for President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd the American dream is on the ballot. We have work to do to reignite the American dream, to build ladders of opportunity for our middle class and remove barriers to success. When you go to the polls, vote for the American dream. Vote for strong Democratic majorities in the United States Senate, in the House of Representatives. Vote for Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nGod bless you. God bless the United States of America. Thank you all very much. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "DENISE JUNEAU: Wow. It looks great from up here. And it is such an honor to be here tonight, all the way from big sky country. (Cheers, applause.) I am proud to be here as a Montanan, as an educator, as a Democrat and as a member of the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes.\n(Cheers, applause.) And I'm proud to be the first Native American woman in history to win a statewide election. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy parents told me that education was the path to success. And they showed me by taking me to Head Start in Billings, Montana, while they were pursuing their own college degrees. My mom is here tonight, Carol Juneau, as a Montana delegate. Thank you for all of your support. (Cheers, applause.)\nEssential to my success were the teachers who invested their time and talent in me so I could go from high school on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation to Montana State University — go Cats — to Harvard Graduate School, and finally, law school at the University of Montana — go Grizz. (Cheers.)\nTeachers do the noble work of educating our children. Teachers do the work that matters. And we cannot thank them enough for the hard work they put in every day to ensure a bright future for all of us. (Cheers.) Thank you, educators who are in the room and out there. (Cheers, applause.)\nAs a teacher, I was an advocate for my students and their success. Now, as superintendent of public instruction in Montana, I have the honor to be the top advocate for the education of all of our state's children. (Cheers.) As Democrats — as Democrats, we believe that every child, regardless of background or ability, is entitled to an excellent education.\nOur determination to strengthen our schools, provide a 21st-century education for every child, compels us to work to re-elect President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nOur commitment to create jobs for the American people and to grow our economy from the middle out drives our determination to re-elect the president.\nPresident Obama knows that education is the best investment an individual can make in themselves, that a family can make in its children and that a nation can make in its people. That's why he made historic investments in higher education, making college more affordable from community colleges to Pell Grant scholarships and student loans. (Cheers.)\nPresident Obama knows that the value of education is not just in the equations our students memorize or the books they read. For some students, school is the only place where they get a hot meal and a warm hug. (Cheers, applause.)\nTeachers are sometimes the only ones who tell our children they can go from an Indian reservation to the Ivy League; from the home of a struggling single mom to the White House. Our schools are where we pass down our stories and our history. And in my family, that American history goes back centuries, back to the first residents — Native Americans. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama understands that the Native American story includes both painful chapters and hopeful ones. He knows that the Native American story is part of America's story, and that we deserve to be part of the American dream.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nThat's why he welcomed the tribal nations to the White House and joined them at the table. He signed the Cobell Settlement to correct the long-standing injustice — (cheers, applause) — that the late Elouise Cobell, who was a warrior woman, spent 15 long years fighting for. He's made investments to prevent violence against women in native communities and to increase opportunities for our youth and our veterans. (Cheers, applause.) When he brought health care to all Americans, he helped build hospitals, train nurses and ensure healthy moms and healthy babies in tribal communities.\nIt was a proud day in Montana when President Obama visited the Crow Nation and became an adopted Crow tribal member. (Cheers, applause.) In fact, I think there are a few of his Apsaalooke relatives here tonight. (Cheers, applause.) He was given a Crow name that day. It translates to — it translates to: one who helps people throughout the land. That is more than an adopted name, that is at the core of who he is. That is his mission. And that's why this November, we will re-elect President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you very much."
      , "RICHARD TRUMKA: Good evening, brothers and sisters. (Cheers, applause.) I'm Rich Trumka. I'm the president of the AFL-CIO. (Cheers, applause.) And I'm a third-generation coal miner from Nemacolin, Pennsylvania.\n(Cheers, applause.) And I'm here on behalf of millions of people who do the work of America.\nRemember last week Mitt Romney told us that he and his friends built America without any help from the rest of us. (Boos.) Well, let me tell you, Mitt Romney doesn't know a thing about hard work or responsibility. (Cheers, applause.) You see, we're the ones who build America. We're the ones who build it every single day because it's our work that connects us.\nSo I want you to look around this convention at all the hardworking men and women who make this place run, the ones keeping us safe, serving our food, driving our buses and cleaning up after the party's over. (Cheers, applause.) And when we go home tonight, the workers will be mopping and vacuuming and picking up our trash. So when you have a chance, thank a worker. It'll make you feel good all day. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo we know that every worker here in Carolina — North Carolina, just like every other state in this country and every country in the world, deserves the right to organize and to bargain collectively. (Cheers, applause.) And the Democratic platform, unlike its counterpart in Tampa, makes crystal clear that Barack Obama and the Democratic Party will fight to protect and strengthen this fundamental human right.\n(Cheers, applause.) You see, my friends, our country has a big job to do. We have to rebuild the middle class together. Our economy works best when it works for everyone, not just a select few. And our history teaches us that shared prosperity is the only kind that lasts. And we will have that under Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn the 21st century global economy, prosperity requires leaders committed to creating good jobs by investing in our future: in our ports, roads, bridges, airports; in energy and telecommunications; and in our public schools. (Cheers, applause.) Leaders who are serious about rebuilding our manufacturing economy. Leaders like Barack Obama and Joe Biden. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd we know that the wealthiest and most powerful among us, those who have benefitted most in recent years, must do their part to help rebuild America. See, prosperity requires economic security. And we will stand with leaders who strengthen and protect Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, not those who plan to cut benefits the working people paid for, earned and are counting on. (Cheers, applause.)\nProsperity requires democracy, starting with the essential right of everyone in this great country to a voice, both at the ballot box and at the workplace — (cheers) — the right to solve problems together and to climb the ladder to the middle class the old-fashioned way: through hard work fairly rewarded.\nNow, President Obama and Vice President Biden have put the country on the right path towards jobs and shared prosperity, despite the obstruction they faced from a dishonest, politically motivated, economically challenged republic (sic; Republican) majority in Congress. (Cheers, applause.) We face a choice in November between division and decline, between unity and growth. We love our country. We built it, we defend it, we wake it up each morning, we make it run all day, we fix it when it's broke, we put it to bed at night. Our country needs unity. Our country needs leadership. Our country needs Barack Obama! (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "DAN MALLOY: Good evening, everyone. Good evening, Connecticut, and thank you very much. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn politics, you don't want to follow the person who sings the Star-Spangled Banner or a great icon like that. That was a wonderful, wonderful speech. God bless him. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut I'm here to talk about America's choice in this election. So let me get right to the point. Mitt Romney has said that if he was president and Paul Ryan's budget passed, he would sign it into law. That's what he said. So let's talk about what it would mean.\nMedicare would become a voucher program, effectively ending the guarantee of health coverage for millions of senior citizens. (Boos.)\nMedicaid would be slashed, jeopardizing coverage for millions of children, people with disabilities and family members in long-term care.\nEducation would be slashed 20 percent, from Head Start through college and everywhere in between. (Boos.)\nAnd all of these cuts, all of these cuts are being done so Romney can give a tax cut of $265,000 to your average millionaire.\nAnd he would continue — (boos) — and he would continue billions of dollars of subsidies for Big Oil. (Boos.)\nWe Democrats have nothing against people who've earned their wealth. We salute their hard work and their good fortune. But slashing what we invest in schools, in roads, in research, in development, in clean energy and in the things that protect our most vulnerable just to cut taxes for those at the top is ridiculous. It's wrong. But that's the Romney-Ryan budget. It isn't conservative. It's harsh. It's radical. And it is wrong. (Cheers, applause.)\nLet's be clear. Let's be clear: It would shred the safety net that protects the middle class and those striving to be in the middle class. It would undermine FDR's New Deal, unravel Harry Truman's Fair Deal and leave us with Mitt Romney's raw deal. (Mixed cheers and boos, applause.)\nPresident Obama and we Democratic governors believe something very different. We believe that a budget is more than just a bunch of numbers; it is a document that reflects our values. We believe we can and should make government leaner, cheaper and more effective, cutting waste and trimming fat where we can. That's why President Obama signed into law 2 trillion (dollars) in spending cuts, bringing annual domestic spending to its lowest level as a share of the economy since President Eisenhower.\nBut we can — but we can and should ask every American to shoulder their fair share, not just the squeezed middle class but also those at the very top, who have done so very, very well these past few years.\nWe can and should invest in what will strengthen and grow the middle class: good schools, affordable health care, medical research, clean energy, modern roads and high-speed trains. That's what President Obama believes, that's what Democratic governors believe and that's what we've done in state after state after state. (Applause.)\nSo let's talk about jobs. President Obama has helped create 4.5 million private-sector jobs in our country since he took office. Mitt Romney says he'll create jobs, but in what country where he has money on deposit will that actually be done?\nIn Connecticut — well, let's look at some other issues. Let's look at voting rights. In Connecticut, we're expanding them and making it easier for people to register to vote and to vote. (Cheers, applause.) The Republican governors — the Republican governors, in states that they control, have taken 19 states. They've engaged in a systemic effort to disenfranchise millions of African-Americans, Hispanics and senior citizens as they — as they try to undermine the fairness of this election.\nNow let's talk about women's rights. And this is personal. My wife ran a rape crisis center for 11 years. (Cheers, applause.) The Republicans want to take away a woman's right to choose even if she is a rape victim. That's in their platform. That is what they believe. (Boos.) Put it this way — that's why there are three reasons that everyone should vote for Barack Obama over Mitt Romney: your sister, your mother and your daughter.\nLet's stand for them. (Cheers, applause.) Let's stand for the women of America.\nAs Democrats — as Democrats, we have a deep and abiding belief — a belief that America is full of people from all walks of life, people who are good and decent and work hard, people who are respectful to others and who do not discriminate based on gender, on age, on race, on religion on ethnicity, on disability or sexual orientation. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe need to fight for our children, fight for our senior citizens, fight for women's rights, fight for the middle class and fight for our country's future. That's why we need to fight for Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. God bless you. God bless the United States of America. Thank you very much. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nKAREN BASS: Hello, California. California is in the house. (Cheers, applause.) Hello, Democrats. (Cheers, applause.)\nI stand before you today — I stand before you today as a proud member of the Congressional Black Caucus and former speaker of the California State Assembly. (Cheers, applause.)\nForty-seven years ago, in the face of opposition from those who said states should have the right to discriminate, America passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965. (Cheers, applause.) People of all races, religions and backgrounds joined together and fought for that law because every one of us deserves a fair shake and a fair chance at achieving our version of the American dream. The right to vote gives us the power to take our future into our own hands. We must use that power today so that we do not lose it tomorrow.\nToday one of the darkest shadows of the past century is creeping into this one. One of our most basic rights, the right to vote, a right that we fought for and won, is under attack. Throughout the union, governors and legislators have proposed or passed laws to make it more difficult for individuals to cast their ballots. We must build and be part of a nation where justice isn't just a catchphrase but embodies the equality and fairness that our nation's founders envisioned. (Cheers, applause.)\nMore than 41 years ago when the Congressional Black Caucus was founded, that was our charge, and it still is — (cheers, applause) — a vote and a voice in choosing our leaders, passing our laws and setting the course for our nation. And for the future we seek, a generation of greater opportunity for all of us, we stand with President Obama in setting that path that moves us forward.\nAL GREEN: Friends, let me take just one moment to say — (cheers, applause) — I am proud to live in the USA! U-S-A! U-S-A!\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!\nAL GREEN: I am proud, proud to live in this great country.\nBut friends, I must tell you: America, it is up to us right now. It is up to us to make the decision on the type of country we will have. Either we will move forward towards securing economic future to be built to last, with a strong middle class, or we will go back to a place where America's promise is only fulfilled for a select few. America, this we will not do! (Cheers, applause.)\nIn the '60s we marched because it was the right thing for our country. And it made us stronger. Fortified by our faiths and endowed by our creator, we helped our country to overcome obstacles once thought insurmountable. In our nation's laws, they were thought to be insurmountable. In our hearts, we thought they were insurmountable.\nAnd once again, it's our time to uphold justice. It's our time to protect the rights that we have won. And it's our time to stand up for the country we love, the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)\nOur faith tells us we have a moral obligation to better our community, to accept responsibility and to care for each other. But these values are not just unique to believers. They are American values, and this is the American way.\nAmerica, it is up to us. It's up to us to wake up. It's up to us to sit up. It's up to us to stand up. It's up to us to get up. It's up to us to show up at the polls and re-elect the honorable Barack Obama president of the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.) U-S-A! U-S-A!\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!\nEMANUEL CLEAVER: America, I'm a strong believer that how we treat each other matters. As public servants, it's our job to work in the spirit of comity to move this nation forward. But we also need all of you working with us to assure America's strong future.\nTonight, I cannot speak to you without acknowledging that the bickering and brinksmanship we see too often in our politics is advantaging no political party.\nIt weakens our nation. We can be fervent in our disagreements without being factitious with our beliefs. We can be tough without being toxic.\nTo my colleagues in Congress, we will never be better off without being better. (Cheers, applause.) Congress is unable to do the work of the American people because too many politicians believe that compromise means capitulation. This has got to change, because just as bees cannot sting and make honey at the same time, members of Congress cannot simultaneously make passionate enemies and expect political progress. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn my 5th Congressional District of Missouri — (cheers) — Republicans and Democrats tell me that they would like to look at their political leaders and see more warm hearts and fewer hot heads, more facts and fewer falsehoods. Many of us want the same thing.\nNow, I greatly respect my Republican colleagues and their ideas. But make no mistake: I am proud to be a Democrat. (Cheers, applause.) I am proud to be a member of this great party.\nAnd we have, in many instances, been hit. You know, they are a liberal, they are progressive. Look, if being liberal and progressive means that I care for children and whether they go hungry, color me liberal.\nColor me — (cheers, applause) — color me a Democrat. If being a Democrat means that I'm concerned about our seniors in the sunset of life, color me Democrat. Color me liberal. (Cheers, applause.) After all, we are the ones who protected Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, who fought for fair wages and who ended \"don't ask, don't tell.\" We are Democrats. (Cheers, applause.) And don't you ever forget it.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!\nEMANUEL CLEAVER: We are the party that is deeply committed to diversity. We consider every individual a valuable asset to our democracy. This is a great nation. We may be a nation of Democrats, independents and Republicans, but first and foremost we are all human beings and Americans. (Cheers, applause.)\nThere is something essential in the human spirit that always searches for hope. We are driven by hope. President Barack Obama has been lampooned for speaking of hope — hope for a better America. I want to encourage our president and all of us to continue to hope for an America that remembers, recognizes and fervently protects its greatness.\nYes, Mr. President, hope on. (Cheers, applause.) Continue to hope, Mr. President. (Cheers, applause.) No matter what, Mr. President, you keep on hoping. (Cheers, applause.) When everything is gone, you continue to hope. As long as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — (cheers, applause) — sits on the throne of grace, Mr. President, hope on! Hope on! Hope on! (Cheers, applause.)\nWe are people of — Mr. President, hope on! Hope on! (Cheers, applause.) When everything else is gone, hope on! (Cheers, applause.)\nMr. President — Mr. President, we want you to speak of hope to the American people, because it is impossible for hope to overdraw its account in God's bank. (Cheers, applause.) The tough days our nation faced may have caused us great pain. But they must not and will not cause us to lose our hope. (Cheers, applause.)\nHope fills the holes of my frustration in my heart. Hope inspires me to believe that any day now, we will catch up to the ideals put forth by our nation's founding fathers. Hope is the motivation that empowers the unemployed, enabling them to get out of bed every single morning with unbounded enthusiasm as they look for work. It is our hope and faith that moves us to action.\n(Cheers, applause.) It is our hope and faith that reminds us to pray and also affirms that we must move our feet. (Cheers, applause.) It is our hope that tells us latter day will be better than our former. (Cheers, applause.) It is our hope that instructs us to march on. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd march on — and march on means marching through our communities to make sure everyone is registered and ready to vote. (Cheers, applause.) It means — it means on Election Day, November 6th, 2012, we will stand in long lines together just as we did four years ago. (Cheers, applause.) This time — this time it is to re- elect Barack Obama as president of these United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, before I sit down, let me erase some confusion. Let me tell you something. There are people who poke fun at us Democrats. They say we go too far with this inclusion stuff. They say that we have a caucus for tall people and a caucus for short people and a caucus for people who don't fit into any other caucus. But let me just tell you God did not burden the United States with a diversity of backgrounds, ideals and religions. He blessed America with them. (Cheers, applause.) And as such, we, the United States of America, is best able to demonstrate to the rest of the world what God intended when he created us.\nAnd we, in our diversity and our differences, are all in this together. (Cheers, applause.)\nLet me be clear. Let me be clear. I'm not just talking about black people. When I say we, I'm not just talking about people of color. When I say we, I'm not just talking about Democrats. When I say we, I'm not talking about anything except all of America. (Cheers, applause.) I'm talking about Americans who can barely makes end meet, Americans who employ thousands and create jobs, Americans who are in k-12, college, grad school and professional school; Americans of all walks of life. We means us — proud Americans. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd together, we must move the United States of America forward. There is more power — more power in — (inaudible). Let's do more than just say the pledge of allegiance. Let us live it. (Cheers, applause.) Let us — let us embody one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. (Cheers, applause.) And that means every one of us. (Continued cheers, applause.)\nTogether, together, we will heal the country when we live up to our nation's motto: E pluribus unum — out of many, one. Yes, yes, we are one. We are one. We might be black, brown, yellow. It doesn't matter. We are one.\nWe may be poor, we may be rich, but we are one. We might be up, or we might be down, but we are one. We may be up, we may be down. We are one. (Off mic.) (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nCHARLES SCHUMER: Thank you. (Cheers, applause.) Tonight we welcome a New Yorker, President Bill Clinton, as our prime- time speaker. (Cheers, applause.) It's no accident that Democrats celebrate our past presidents while Republicans virtually banished theirs. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, I stand here tonight as a proud son of the great state of New York.\n(Cheers, applause.) I'm also a proud product of the middle class. My father, Abe, was a small-business man. For 32 years he ran an exterminating company. That may explain why our family always associated the smell of roach spray with love. (Laughter.)\nBut Dad's job brought stress. On Sunday nights I'd lay in bed and hear him pacing the floor, restless about returning to work Monday morning. But what drove him were his big hopes for his kids' future. He believed that if you worked hard, played by the rules, you could pass on a better life to your children. Today families like the one I grew up in still believe in that American dream. But as President Obama says, it's a make-or-break moment for the middle class.\nNow, Mitt Romney's plans would make things worse. We've tried trickle-down tax cuts for the wealthy and anything goes for big corporations. We tried it under a president who billed himself as a compassionate conservative. It didn't work, and now we have Mitt Romney calling himself a severe conservative. The last Republican president gave huge tax cuts to millionaires that exploded our deficits. Mitt Romney not only wants to make those tax cuts permanent, he wants to add more tax breaks for the wealthy that would make our deficit even bigger.\nThe last Republican president tried to privatize Social Security. The Romney-Ryan ticket says, why stop with Social Security when you can also privatize Medicare?\n(Boos.)\nThe last Republican president gave us an ultra-conservative Supreme Court. Mitt Romney would move the court even further to the right, putting landmark decisions like Roe v. Wade at risk.\nYou know, some say Romney would repeat the past. I disagree. He'd be worse. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, take taxes. When Mitt Romney says he wants to reform the tax code, hold onto your wallets. We know Mitt Romney never met a tax haven he didn't like. But his new favorite tax haven is not the Cayman Islands. It's Paul Ryan's budget. Under this plan, under the Ryan budget, Mitt Romney's own taxes would drop almost to zero.\nBut for the middle class, the Ryan budget's a rip-off. Families with children whose household income is less than $200,000 would see their taxes go up $2,000 on average. That's not trickle-down — that's a dirty truck. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt Romney's only bottom line is the one at the end of his own bank statements. (Cheers, applause.) What's the problem? The problem is that Mitt Romney confuses his own narrow self-interests and that of people like him with the national interest. He thinks as long as we do right by the Mitt Romneys of the world, America will be just fine.\nWe can't afford a president with so narrow a perspective. We certainly want those at the top to do well, but if you base your entire presidency and your entire economic platform on helping them do even better, you're missing what makes the economy tick.\nBecause not everyone has been as fortunate as Mitt Romney, you cannot base your whole approach on a life experience as rarefied as his. If your focus is only on those like Mitt Romney, it's not going to help the economy or do enough for the middle class. Now, there are so many reasons why Mitt Romney should not become president, but perhaps the most of all is the insidious narrowness of his experience, perspective and vision. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, Barack Obama has different priorities. He knows America does best when the middle class succeeds, not just those at the top. On foreign policy, President Obama has kept our nation safe from terrorism. He's restored our standing in the world. When it comes to one of our closest allies, Israel, President Obama has been resolute. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe two biggest threats to Israel are the threat of nuclear weapons from Iran and the launching of Hezbollah rockets from Lebanon. No president in history has done more to confront these threats. The president has imposed the toughest sanctions ever on Iran, and provided record amounts of security to aid Israel. (Cheers, applause.)\nRepublicans always try to paint Democrats as weak on defense.\nThis time, they can't. After all, Mitt Romney's idea of an overseas accomplishment is sending U.S. jobs there. (Applause.)\nNow, Barack Obama knows that to create an economy built to last, we need to focus on middle-class families — families who stay up on Sunday nights pacing the floor, like my dad did, while their children, tucked in bed, dream big dreams; families who aren't sure what Monday morning will bring, but who believe our nation's best days are still ahead. President Obama hasn't stopped fighting for those families, and now we need to fight for him. (Cheers, applause.)\nTo those like Mitt Romney who want to take us backward, let us send a strong, strong message in November. As we say in Brooklyn, fugetaboutit. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nTOM STEYER: Hello, California, hello, delegates and hello, everyone else in the United States. I'm Tom Steyer. I'm a businessman, a professional investor and a proud Democrat.\nI think Mitt Romney and I share an income bracket, although I guess we're never going to know for sure. (Laughter.) But the reason I'm here tonight is that Mitt Romney and I don't share the same vision for the future, especially when it comes to energy. You see, this election is a choice, a choice about whether to go backward or forward. And that choice is especially stark when it comes to energy.\nTake Mitt Romney's approach. Governor Romney would do nothing to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and much to increase it. He would gut President Obama's investments in clean energy. He wants to keep giving 4 billion taxpayer dollars to oil companies every year, the very same companies pouring millions into the outside groups backing his campaign.\nOr we could follow President Obama's long-term plan for the future — for an economy fueled by a safe, secure, sustainable energy supply. (Cheers, applause.)\nDuring the last several years, we've seen tremendous progress on new technologies that can make us energy independent and create thousands of jobs. This is about investing for the long haul, not for a quick and dirty buck. This is about taking control of our destiny by doing what Americans do best: out-innovating, out-hustling and out-thinking our competitors.\nAnd President Obama has put us on track to do just that, making investments for the long term. Last week in Tampa, you didn't hear any plans that would create jobs now or a long-term plan for energy security. You also didn't hear very many facts. So here are a few:\nAmerica's dependence on foreign oil is the lowest in two decades. (Cheers, applause.) Even as we've tightened our belts elsewhere, America has made record investments in clean energy technologies, from wind to solar to biofuels. We're modernizing our electrical grid to harness more renewable power sources. We're doubling fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks. And domestic production of natural gas is at an all-time high — natural gas, which, if developed safely and responsibly, could help bridge our energy present to our energy future.\nBig things are happening. Thanks to President Obama, America is laying the foundation for the way we power tomorrow. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo here's my question for you. Should we go back to the boom and bust, \"drill, baby, drill,\" polluting energy policies of yesterday?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nTOM STEYER: Or should we embrace an advanced energy economy that meets opportunity with innovation?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Yeah!\nTOM STEYER: Should we settle for an economy built on shifting and uncertain sands?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nTOM STEYER: Or should we keep building an economy made to last?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Yes!\nTOM STEYER: Governor Romney's road to the future will lead to dirty air and increasing climate volatility, uncertainty over energy prices and less security, not more.\nPresident Obama's road to the future will lead us to energy independence, true energy security, a safer and cleaner environment and countless new jobs that can never be outsourced. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, I say this not as the head of Greenpeace or the Sierra Club. I say it as the head of an investment firm that has spent the last quarter century crunching numbers and making tough calls. President Obama knows that advanced energy is America's future, and my bet as a business man is that he's exactly right. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou know, last week we heard a lot about Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan's philosophy, their idea that if government was dismantled into tax breaks and vouchers, if government just got out of their way, then all of our problems would be solved.\nHere's what we believe. We do better together than on our own. Our country succeeds when everyone does their fair share and everyone gets a fair shot.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama knows that only by coming together, only by embracing our shared responsibilities can we meet the tough challenges ahead, challenges like mobilizing an advanced energy revolution and creating jobs, like making America an energy leader. So let's embrace a vision of a clean, healthy planet, the one that God gave us, and not a scorched earth that can't sustain future generations. (Cheers, applause.)\nAll day long I make decisions about smart investments and risky gambles. So does the president. President Obama is making the smart investments we need, and my vote for him is an investment in jobs today, energy security tomorrow and a stronger country for all of our kids.\nThank you very much, and God bless America. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Patty! Patty! Patty! Patty! Patty! Patty! Patty! Patty! Patty!\nPATTY MURRAY: (Chuckles.) As a daughter, a mother, a grandmother and a senator from the great state of Washington — (cheers) — I am proud to be here standing with President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.) For me, as it is for so many Americans, this election is personal. When I look at the middle-class tradition President Obama is fighting to save, the one Mitt Romney's policies would destroy, I see the very reason I am able to stand here tonight.\nWhen I was a teenager, my father, one of the first soldiers on the beaches of Okinawa, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Our family relied on veterans benefits to help provide his care, and we relied on my mom to provide for all seven of us kids. She had the chance to participate in a worker training program, and she seized the opportunity.\nBut it wasn't easy for us to make it. For a while we were on food stamps. And without federal student loans, my brothers and sisters and I would never have had a shot at a college degree.\nStruggle and sacrifice, relentless perseverance and investment in our children's potential, that's the story of millions of American families. (Cheers, applause.) It's a story that President Obama understands because it's a story he has lived. That's why President Obama's fighting for an economy in which every family gets a chance to be a part of a secure middle class, an economy built to last — that's built from the middle out, not the top down. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt Romney and Paul Ryan have a very different vision for our economy and it would mean a very different future for our middle class and everyone working to get into it. To them, every problem is a nail and the only hammer they have is cutting taxes for millionaires and billionaires. (Boos.) They believe in this failed approach so deeply that they will cut anything, from student loans to health care for seniors, to give the wealthiest Americans an even bigger break. (Boos.)\nTheir plan would cut away at the foundation of our great nation. It would mean throwing in the towel on our middle class. And we are not going to let them do it — (cheers, applause) — not with President Obama in the White House and not with the a strong Democratic majority having his back in the Senate.\n(Cheers, applause.) As chairman of the DSCC, it is my job to keep the Senate in Democratic hands. (Cheers, applause.) Why is that important? Well, listen to what a Republican Congress would do with a Republican president.\nThey would end Medicare's guaranteed benefits — (boos) — and repeal health care reform so on day one, millions of young people on their parents' policies would lose their coverage. They would take away a woman's right to make decisions about her own pregnancy and decimate Planned Parenthood, where millions of women get basic health care services. (Boos.) They would sell out our middle class to tax cuts for millionaires, billionaires and big corporations. (Boos.) Simply, with a Republican Congress sitting shotgun, Mitt Romney will put the middle class on the roof and take us for a long, painful ride. (Mixed cheers and boos, applause.) That's why, with your help, we're going to keep our majority and keep our country moving forward. Give this president a Democratic Senate, and he can get results. (Cheers, applause.)\nHe took the reins of our economy when we were losing 800,000 jobs a month and pulled us back from the edge. He brought affordable and acceptable health care to millions of Americans not because it was easy or popular but because it was the right thing to do. He made historic investments in our nation's veterans at a time when they are too often forgotten. (Cheers, applause.) He stood shoulder to shoulder against Republican attacks on women's health.\nSo the choice in this election and the charge for our party is clear: Re-elect this president, keep the Senate Democratic, and we can make sure every American family has the opportunities mine did. (Cheers, applause.)\nRepublicans may have given up on our country's middle class, but President Obama never has, Senate Democrats never have, and together, we never will. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you so much. Thank you."
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nSTEVE ISRAEL: Thank you very much.\nA few months ago I received a letter from an Arizona man. Tucked into an envelope, faded and folded, was a war bond. At the top were these words: \"Purchased on the island of Guam\" — (cheers) — \"30 June 1945.\"\nNearly 70 years ago, while war raged across the globe, his father bought that bond. He placed his bet on America, and now his son donated it to elect a Democratic majority in the United States Congress. (Cheers, applause.)\nHe knew what many Americans know today: the dream that war bond was intended to protect is at risk. Well, let me tell you something: House Democrats and President Obama will bet on America's middle class. We will protect that dream.\n(Cheers, applause.) That's the choice in this election.\nRemember who we fought for with the Democratic majority in the House and President Obama in the White House. At the start we sent the president the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act — (cheers, applause) — because we believe a woman should be paid the same as a man for equal work. (Cheers, applause.) Paul Ryan and Republicans in Congress, they voted no. (Boos.)\nFirst responders at Ground Zero in my home state finally got the health care they deserve. Paul Ryan and 160 Republicans, they voted no. (Boos.)\nWe expanded veterans' health care. We cut middle-class taxes. We protected consumers from credit card company abuses. And today no parent has to worry that their children won't have health care because of a pre-existing condition. (Cheers, applause.) That's how you strengthen the middle class. And that's what the American people can expect from President Obama and a Democratic Congress. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut that's not what America is getting from these Romney-Ryan Republicans. Instead of fighting for middle-class jobs here at home, they fought for tax breaks for big corporations sending jobs overseas. Instead of protecting consumers from health insurance abuses, they tried 33 times to repeal those protections even as they kept congressional health care for themselves. Instead of reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, they try to redefine rape. (Boos.) Instead of standing up for small businesses, they spent all of their time trying to shut down Planned Parenthood.\nAnd Mitt Romney, he sure liked what he saw.\nHe picked the architect of this assault on the middle class to be his running mate.\nPaul Ryan wrote the budget that turns Medicare into voucher care and could charge seniors $6,400 more every year, while funding tax breaks for millionaires. (Boos.)\nHere's their economic plan, ladies and gentlemen. If you're a millionaire, you win the lottery. If you're a senior, you lose your Medicare guarantee.\nThey have had two years to put the middle class first. Time is up. Folks, we're not going to convince them. We're going to have to replace them. (Cheers, applause.) And let me tell you how we're going to do it. We're going to do it with Democratic candidates who are problem solvers. They're small-business owners who created jobs. Mayors who balanced budgets. Police chiefs who lowered crime. Veterans who defended our nation. Even an astronaut.\nThey'll put the middle class first because they share those values that drive our party and our president. They're the values I grew up with on Long Island. Before World War II, my community was mostly potato peels and pumpkin farms. Faced with war, that generation turned farmland into factories and became the backbone of America's middle class. They crossed oceans, stormed beaches, liberated Europe, raced to the Pacific, won the war. And when they got home, they looked at the moon across the vast expanse of space and said, we can go there too. And they went. (Cheers, applause.)\nGiven the chance, nothing can stop America's middle class except the wrong priorities. That's what this election is about.\nDemocrats are fighting for an economy that is built to last, an economy where prosperity comes not from the top down but from the middle class out. That war bond from Guam, it was a bet on America's future and we won. Now it's important to America's future that we win again. And ladies and gentlemen, in 62 days we will win.\nGod bless America. (Cheers, applause.) God bless our veterans. Thank you very much. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "PEDRO PIERLUISI: Good evening. Buenas noches. (Cheers, applause.) I am Pedro Pierluisi. In Congress I represent the nearly 4 million American citizens of Puerto Rico, including over 100,000 military brethren. And I support the re-election of President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nThere are 50 million Hispanics living in the United States. And today, we have a president who's made sure we have a seat at the table. Today, we have to stand up, speak up and fight for what is right. The choice we confront could not be clearer. We can move forward with the president or backward with his opponents.\nPresident Obama understands that our economy prospers when it is built from the middle out, not the top down, and when every American has the opportunity to join the middle class. That's why — (cheers, applause) — that's why he has a plan to keep creating jobs, invest in our future and reduce the deficit in a balanced way. His opponents would trade everything that keeps the middle class strong just so they can cut taxes for the wealthy. Well, that's not fair, and it makes no sense.\nPresident Obama also understands the obligation we owe our most vulnerable citizens. His opponents might pay lip service to that principle, but their policies would devastate the programs so many American families depend on.\nSo there's a choice in this election between two divergent paths for this country and two fundamentally different sets of values. The president is a champion of comprehensive immigration reform and is preventing the deportation of thousands of young men and women who were brought here as kids, have played by the rules and have done nothing wrong. (Cheers, applause.) Indeed, they're doing everything right by getting an education or serving in the military.\nBut if Mitt Romney gets into office, he has vowed to overturn that action, and veto the DREAM Act if it ever passes Congress. (Boos.)\nThe president has also told the people of Puerto Rico that when they express a clear desire to change their status, he will work to implement their will. (Cheers, applause.) And I know that Barack Obama will stand with my people the day they choose to have the same rights and responsibilities as their fellow American citizens.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nThis November, we're faced with the choice between moving forward or going backward. Let's fight for President Obama, because he has fought for us. Para atras, ni para coger impulso. Para adelante con Obama.\nGod bless America. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJOHN LARSON: Hello, Connecticut. (Cheers.) Hello, everyone back home at Augie & Ray's. Hello, America. Thank you, North Carolina.\nI'm Chairman John Larson, chairman of the Democratic Caucus, America's caucus. (Cheers, applause.) But first and foremost and always, I'm the eldest son of Ray and Pauline and one of eight kids. I grew up in Mayberry Village, a federal housing project in East Hartford, Connecticut.\nMy dad worked as a fireman at Pratt Whitney aircraft, where Connecticut skilled workers and the best machinists in the world build the arsenal for our nation's democracy. When I'd ask my dad why he worked so hard every day, he'd say, got to keep the eagle flying.\nKeeping the eagle flying was more than a metaphor for building the most dependable aircraft engines in the world. It was about pride, the pride of a people who make things here in America; about the dignity of a fair wage for a hard day's work; about being able to send your kids to college; about getting good medical care and a secure retirement; about building a better future, not just for yourself but for your country.\nIt's what FDR called the warm courage of national unity.\nNow, for more than 40 years my mother has faced multiple sclerosis and, more recently, congestive heart failure, always with courage, a warm heart and a congenial spirit. Dad worried a lot about my mom's health, but he knew his pension from Pratt was steadily growing and that Social Security and Medicare guarantee that he and my mother could retire with dignity and security. For years, paycheck after paycheck, my dad did his part. Through Social Security and Medicare contributions, he paid it forward. Sadly, Dad didn't live long enough to benefit from it. Now my mother, facing dementia, requires round-the-clock care. Every cent, though, of my father's pension, every penny from those Social Security benefits goes to help pay her bills. Don't ever tell me or any American that's a handout. It's the insurance they paid for. (Cheers, applause.)\nWhenever we gather by Mom's bedside, she says to us she doesn't want to be a burden. Mom, you're not a burden. You're an inspiration. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy family's not alone. Millions of Americans rely on Social Security and Medicare.\nIn fact, for half our nation's seniors, it's the only thing standing between them and poverty.\nWhat Republicans don't get is that for so many people, like my family, this is personal — personal. (Cheers, applause.) Democrats get it. Together with President Obama, we passed health care reform to guarantee that every American has access to affordable care. And by cutting waste, fraud and abuse, we've added years to Medicare's life. Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and the Republicans derisively call that \"Obamacare.\" News flash to the Republicans, Obama does care. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt Romney, Paul Ryan have a different vision. Look at the details. The biggest problem with the Ryan-Romney plan for Medicare is obvious. They take away the Medicare. They end the guarantee, hand out vouchers, limit benefits and force seniors to pay the difference — you ready for this — of up to $6,400 out of their own pockets. Why? You know the answer, so they can cut taxes for the richest 1 percent. (Boos.)\nLook, everyone back home Augie & Ray's Drive In knows that ain't right. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: That ain't — no, that ain't right!\nJOHN LARSON: Are we going to let them take us backwards?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nJOHN LARSON: Back to an American where winners take all the middle class picks up the tab?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nJOHN LARSON: Are we going to let them destroy the safety net of Medicare just so the Romneys of this world can wire even more money into their Swiss and Cayman Island bank accounts?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nJOHN LARSON: I know I'm preaching to the choir here tonight, but as the Sisters of Notre Dame would remind us, it's the choir that leads the singing.\nSo rise up! (Cheers, applause.) Rise up and elect the leader who understands the dignity of work. Rise up and re-elect the leader who'll yank Americans forward, not back. Rise up to re-elect the leader who will fight to strengthen Medicare. Rise up for President Barack Obama! (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd as we stand together with President Obama, not only will the eagle keep flying, it will soar! God bless you. God bless America. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "KEN MYERS: My name is Ken Myers. I'm a father, a teamster and a deputy sheriff from Carroll County, Iowa — (cheers, applause) — God's country. I'm lucky to walk a pretty quiet beat, as they say. But one evening last spring, two other officers and I answered a routine call to check in on an individual. One of my partners knocked on the front door of the house; I went around back. That's when, through a window, I saw a man with a gun, and he saw us. He started firing. We took cover, backup arrived, and we spent the night trying to convince the suspect to surrender. By morning, he walked out the door with his hands in the air. Thankfully, no one was hurt.\nFirst responders like me put our lives on the line. (Cheers, applause.) We're proud to do it. It's the job we signed up for: to protect and serve.\nBut we need a leader who will do the same for us. And that leader is President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nGovernor Romney has said it's time for us to cut back on public employees like teachers, firefighters and cops. And that's exactly what his plan would do. When the Republican governor of Ohio attacked the collective bargaining rights of police officers, Romney supported him. (Boos.) The Romney-Ryan budget could cut federal funding for first responders by nearly 20 percent. That funding — it helps pay for the officers who heeded my call for backup last spring and for their training. It also helps pay for the fire and EMS vehicles that responded to the scene. And it helps pay for the bulletproof vests that if, God forbid, I was shot that night, could have saved my life.\nBut this isn't just about me or about my partners in the sheriff's office. It's about all Americans. In his big speech last week, Mitt Romney talked about helping families. We help families every day. (Cheers, applause.) And let me tell you, what Mitt Romney doesn't understand is that there's nothing helpful about undermining public safety. When you cut funding for first responders, that means there will be fewer of them, and that means help may take longer to get there or may get there far too late.\nPresident Obama understands that. That's why he has helped tens of thousands of cops on the job and helped create hundreds of new law enforcement positions across the country. He's made sure we're outfitted with the best equipment and the most advanced technology to keep us safe.\nIn New York City on 9/11 and on the Gulf Coast after Katrina, first responders saw our communications network break down, making it harder to get to the people we were trying to help.\nPresident Obama working to create a national safety communications system so that never happens again. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn places like Carrol County, we do things for ourselves. We're not strangers to hard work, but part of that work is looking out for our neighbors. That's why we need police, that's why we need firefighters and teachers and that's why we need a president who fights for us — (cheers, applause) — a president who stands up for the middle-class jobs and the middle-class communities.\nPresident Obama has our backs, and in this election, we have his. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "STEVE WESTLY: Good evening, fellow Democrats. (Cheers, applause.) I'm proud to be from Silicon Valley, California — (cheers, applause) — a place built on ideas, innovation and daring, home to Oracle and Apple, Google and Facebook and a small online flea market I helped to build called eBay. (Cheers, applause.) EBay is the perfect place for vintage items, heirlooms, historical relics — you know, like the Republican Party platform. (Laughter, cheers, applause.)\nWhere I'm from, we dream big. We think different. And we invest in a future filled with possibility. President Obama understands that future. He knows this election is about creating jobs today. And that's why he's created 4.5 million of them, growing the economy from the middle out, not from the top down. But he also knows that it's about supporting the jobs of tomorrow. It's about making sure that kids in Charlotte can compete with kids in Shanghai. As a businessperson from the most dynamic and entrepreneurial place in the world, I can tell you this: No one has done more to help America with that competition than President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nHe understands that creating the jobs of the future is about making education, and especially math and science, a top priority.\nThat means setting higher standards, providing more support to teachers and schools, and challenging states to innovate, because when it comes to education, we should be beating the rest of the world, not beating up on teachers. (Cheers, applause.)\nIt's about investing in research and development, so that from the dorm room to the boardroom, America can lead the world in developing new technologies. That's why the president has committed to accelerating research and proposed making the R&D tax credit permanent. It's about championing the exports of our entrepreneurs, because good jobs at home come from selling more goods abroad.\nYou know, four years ago, President Obama pledged to double American exports by 2015. Today we're more than 60 percent of the way there. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn Olney, Texas, a small company that sells firefighting and crop dusting airplanes has increased their exports by 50 percent. And as their CFO said, if we can do it in a small town that has three stoplights and one Dairy Queen, we can do it anywhere. (Cheers, applause.) And I promise you, thanks to this president, we will.\nAnd creating good jobs means training and retraining workers to succeed in a new century. That's why the president has proposed supporting partnerships between community colleges and businesses, to expand training for workers in high-growth sectors.\nMitt Romney and his Republican friends don't understand this 21st century. We open-source. They outsource. We welcome the immigrants who build our businesses. Romney wants them to self-deport. We're building an economy to last. They're chasing the last bubble.\nToday 300,000 Americans earn a living designing computer and smartphone applications. Once upon a time, if you'd suggested designing a game where you sling birds at pigs, they might have put you in an institution. (Laughter.) Now you might become successful enough to endow an institution.\nSo in the public school, where my two children go to school, we wanted to offer a great school course in designing computer applications. But none of the teachers knew how. So two seventh- graders created their own class, and they've been oversubscribed ever since. Our kids are leading the way. It's up to us to match their creativity with our commitment.\nWe need a president who understands how to make their dreams a reality and build a brighter future for us all. That's why America needs Barack Obama.\nThank you, Democrats. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJUDY CHU: Many years ago my grandfather came to this country with nothing, nothing more than a willingness to work hard.\nTwo generations later his granddaughter became the first Chinese- American woman elected to Congress in history. (Cheers, applause.) And tonight I address the convention that will re-elect Barack Obama the president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.) That's the American dream.\nNo one ever said that achieving the American dream was easy. And it wasn't. From the moment my grandfather came here, he faced the discriminatory laws of the time, laws that stopped Chinese-Americans from becoming naturalized citizens, from voting, from owning land and even from being hired in any corporation.\nBut he decided to make something of himself anyway. He opened up a small Chinese restaurant. He worked night and day and day and night. He used that very expensive labor, his sons. And though there were moments when it seemed hard to make ends meet, he still supported his family. It was my grandfather's dream for his family, his children and grandchildren that kept him working for 15 hours a day, seven days a week for decades. It was the American dream that kept him going to lift up our family.\nToday President Obama wants to ensure that same opportunity to achieve the American dream is available for all families.\nThe American dream is why President Obama made the largest investment in college affordability in our nation's history. (Cheers, applause.) The American dream is why President Obama has enacted 18 small- business tax cuts and numerous measures to help these businesses access the credit they need to invest, hire and grow. The American dream is why President Obama did what no president before has been able to do: ensure health care for all Americans. (Cheers, applause.)\nDespite all the good that President Obama has done, Republicans have attacked him at every step. They even turned health care reform into what they thought was a bad word, \"Obamacare.\" At first, I resented that term. But then I realized that this was the perfect phrase. \"Obamacare\" is perfect because President Obama cares. (Cheers, applause.)\nObama cares about the education of our children and the security of our seniors. Obama cares about our diverse communities. Obama cares about the middle class that makes America great. Obama cares about small business and big values: justice, equality and opportunity.\nAnd Romney? Well, when the American auto industry and its workers faced hard times, Mitt Romney said, let Detroit go bankrupt.\n(Boos.) President Obama saved that industry and the more than 1 million jobs it supports. (Cheers, applause.)\nWhen young people came to our country as children and turned to the DREAM Act as a way to participate in our nation's future, Mitt Romney said that he would veto it. President Obama gave these patriotic young people a real chance to be a part of America's success. (Applause.)\nWhen seniors facing serious illnesses like cancer need Medicare, Mitt Romney said he would turn it into a voucher system, breaking the guarantee of coverage and costing seniors more than $6,000 out of pocket. President Obama invested in Medicare and added years to its life. (Applause.)\nLet me ask you, who do you think cares about you, cares about the middle class? The answer is clear: Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.) President Obama cares about all Americans, regardless of where we came from, when our families got here, what we look like, what our last names are and whether we're middle class or working hard to get there.\nThe strength of the American dream is that we all have the opportunity to climb up the ladder, just like my grandfather did. The strength of President Obama is that he will make sure that ladder is sturdy, the steps are close together and that we all have a shot at the American dream. To strengthen the American dream, let's re-elect President Obama! (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nTHOMAS MENINO: Good evening, Charlotte. (Cheers, applause.) My fellow delegates from Massachusetts back there — (cheers, applause) — up front here — well, Massachusetts takes over everything, let me just tell you. (Cheers.) Good evening, fellow Democrats — (cheers, applause) — and fellow Americans. I come from Boston — (cheers, applause) — where we launched our revolution, where we first sent John Kennedy to Congress and where millions of students have come to study, including a great American name, Martin Luther King, Jr. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo it's an honor to be here tonight with so many people determined to move our country forward.\nI know all Americans are proud to carry the torch of progress. And in Boston, we take that job very seriously.\nMitt Romney, he may come from Boston, but his campaign values aren't Boston values — (cheers, applause) — because in Boston we know this country didn't become great by excluding folks, by leaving each other on their own. In Boston, you know what we call immigrants? Mom and Dad. (Cheers, applause.) You know what we call same-sex couples? Our friends, our brothers and our sisters. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn Boston, we know government isn't the answer or the enemy — it's our partner. And in Boston, like many cities across this country, we're seeing progress all around us today. In large part it's because this president, this administration gave ordinary people a leg up: construction jobs afforded by recovery act dollars, better schools pushed by the president's education reform, growing hospitals and health centers and booming life science companies born from national research support.\nSo today we stand with President Obama and his plan to lead us forward.\nNow, Mitt Romney might be a nice guy. As the mayor of Boston, I worked with him when he was governor. Much of the time we worked sometimes together pretty well. But he made a lot of decisions that were bad for our state, and now he wants to carry those wrongheaded policies to the rest of our country.\nMitt Romney — Romney spends a lot of time in this campaign talking about the business experience, about how, if elected, he'll create lots of jobs. I've been thinking about this pitch; it sounds so familiar. You know why? Because it's the same thing he said when he ran for governor of Massachusetts. He promised to bring business to the state, but when he was in office, Massachusetts was 47th out of all 50 states in our country in job creation. (Boos.)\nThere's a reason for that, folks, because Governor Romney cut education. He cut workforce training. He disguised his tax hikes as fees. He still (exploded ?) our long-term debt by $2.6 billion.\nMitt likes the business speech. Think of me as a reference check. In Massachusetts, Mitt Romney had the one job in his life that's close to being president, and he wasn't all that good at that. (Cheers.) Mitt Romney talked last week about broken promises.\nWell, he would know. Even worse, Governor Romney is now running away from major accomplishments — a health care reform that he called immortal (sic; immoral) for our country. I like Mitt Romney, but he's learned all the wrong lessons, and now he's doubling down on the — all the wrong plans. His campaign is based in Boston, a city moving forward, but his ideas would set our country back.\nUp in Boston, we have a plaque that says: Paul Revere started a ride, which in a way has never ended. That's true about our country, too. In every generation, the American people have taken up that ride, pushing the United States forward. We're never going back.\nSo, today we have a clear choice to make. Will we move forward together, or we'll go back to the tricks — trickle-down philosophies that Mitt Romney believes in?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nTHOMAS MENINO: The choice is clear. It's time to keep moving forward. It's time to re-elect Barack Obama as president of the United States. Thank you, Charlotte, and have a great night. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJOHN PEREZ: Good evening, Demorats. I'm so honored to join here tonight.\nCertainly this close to election, much of our attention and focus is on the nuts and bolts to victory: how we'll prevail in the swing districts and the battleground states.\nBut this convention gives us a chance to discuss something much more important than how or where we fight. It gives us a chance to reflect on the question of why we fight. And the answer to that fundamental question is summed up in one word: opportunity.\nOpportunity is why we fight. Across the country, there are parents who want nothing more than the opportunity to have a job and the ability to put food on the family table. We fight for them.\nIn too many states, even some folks who have jobs wake up every morning worrying that they may lose their job simply because they're gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. We fight for them. (Cheers, applause.)\nOn our nation's campuses — on our nation's campuses, students are seeking the opportunity to go to college, earn a degree and find a career that will unleash their full potential. We fight for them.\nWomen across our country are fighting for the opportunity that comes with equal pay for equal work and the respect that comes with having control of their medical decisions. We fight for them.\nInmigrantes de todo el mundo llegan a los Estados Unidos buscando una oportunidad para darles a sus hijos una mejor vida. Nosotros luchamos por ellos. Yes, we fight for them. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd we fight — we fight for President Obama, and we know he fights for us. President Obama has fought to renew the opportunity for Americans every moment of his time in office, to protect opportunities that already exist and create new opportunities for all Americans.\nWhen the jobs of auto workers were threatened in 2009, some said: Let Detroit fail. But President Obama said that failure was not an option. And today, American auto workers can sleep securely, knowing their jobs and the opportunities for a brighter future exist because President Obama fought for them. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama has reformed student loans — cut out the big banks and lowered the cost of education for millions of students. And he's fighting for new investments to extend that opportunity for millions more.\nHe helped repeal \"don't ask, don't tell,\" giving LGBT Americans the opportunity to openly and proudly serve our nation in uniform. And he's standing up for the right of those of us in the LGBT community — (cheers) — to say, \"I do.\" (Cheers, applause.)\nHe's fought — he's fought for policies that unleash the opportunities that come with 21st century jobs that will remake our economy and restore prosperity for the middle class.\nPresident Obama is leading us through a challenging era by recognizing that the strength of America is measured in the opportunity everyone has to work hard and succeed. That's the spirit of our party and the guiding principle of our president. This election is our opportunity to rededicate ourselves to that commitment. Our pathway to victory is to fight for everyone to have the opportunity to live their American Dream; to fight for our proud national tradition of ensuring that our children always enjoy more opportunities than their parents had; to fight to ensure that every person has the opportunities that come with being treated with dignity, respect and equality in the eyes of the law.\nWe fight to restore opportunity across this country, because as Democrats, we understand the poignancy, the power and the truth of Ralph Waldo Emerson's observation that America is another name for opportunity. Opportunity is why we fight for our country, opportunity is what our president fights for and in 61 days, opportunity is why President Barack Obama will win a second term in office. (Applause.)\nBut we have a lot of work to do between now and then, so let's get to work. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nDIANA DEGETTE: Friends and fellow delegates, my husband and I have raised two accomplished daughters who we taught what my parents and grandparents taught me and my three sisters. My sisters and I were encouraged to choose the direction of our lives.\nWe became a congresswoman, a stay-at-home mom, a filmmaker and a journalist.\nAnd Lino and I taught our children that they could rise to even greater heights. They could become surgeons, CEOs, Supreme Court justices, secretary of state and even president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe didn't teach our daughters that they were second-class citizens. With proposal after proposal, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan want to make women second-class citizens again. (Boos.) We will not let that happen. (Cheers, applause.)\nAs a fourth-generation Coloradoan, I believe that our Western spirit is an inspiration for what makes America great. Westerners stand strong in our defense of individual rights and women's equality. (Cheers, applause.) In 2013, Colorado will celebrate its 120th anniversary of granting women the right to vote, the very first state in the nation to do so. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe achievements we've achieved did not come easily. Many opposed the advance of women into new roles and responsibilities. They even opposed our right to vote. But working together, we have established our rightful place in our American republic. Even today, though, there are still many battles to be won. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would have us fighting to defend old gains all over again.\nMore and more in this economy, the women are the family breadwinners.\nWe are managing our family by just struggling to pay health care bills and facing the challenge of saving for college. We feel it in our paychecks when we receive only 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. President Obama understands how unfair this is. That's why the very first bill he signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Act to strengthen a woman's right to demand equal pay for doing the exact same job. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut look what — look what the Romney-Ryan ticket would do: cut Pell Grants which make college affordable; repeal the Affordable Care Act that finally prohibits discrimination by insurance companies when they charge women more than men for health insurance. The Romney-Ryan ticket promises to slash Planned Parenthood funding that helps women get affordable cancer screening and family planning services. Romney and Ryan support the so-called personhood amendment that would ban many forms of birth control, would ban all abortions, even in the cases of rape, incest or to save a mother's life — (boos) — ban invitro fertilization, which helps families have children of their own, and it would even ban embryonic stem cell research, which holds the promise to cure so many diseases.\nBut, although these restrictions on women's rights are all Republican ideas, and even in their platform, my friends across the aisle now try to change the subject. It's the economy, they cry. And you know what? They're right. When they break the guarantee of Medicare, it will hurt women and families right in the pocketbook. When they — (cheers, applause) — when they allow insurance companies to deny coverage based solely on the pre-existing condition of being a woman, it hurts women and families right in the pocketbook.\nWhen they take away the guarantee of coverage for mammograms, for cervical cancer screenings in the Affordable Care Act, it will hurt women and families right in the pocketbook. (Applause.) And when they deny women access to birth control so that we can plan to have our children, it hits women and families right in the pocketbook. (Cheers, applause.) Reproductive freedom means economic freedom. (Cheers, applause.) And that's what this debate is all about.\nIn short, the Romney-Ryan ticket would reverse more than a century of hard-fought progress for women. Mr. Romney, Mr. Ryan, the women of America have a message for you: We're not going back. (Cheers, applause.) We're going forward — (cheers, applause) — forward with a president who understands and defends the rights and interests of American women; forward with a president who believes in economic opportunity, equal pay for equal work; forward with our president, Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nLUIS GUTIERREZ: Tonight I want to celebrate a fundamental reason we are Democrats. We believe that America is never greater than when we protect the rights we have won and strive to make real the call of our founders to create a more perfect union. We are never more American than when we demand that all people are treated with dignity and respect. And we are never more patriotic than when we see a group of people being cast aside and say stop. In America, we do not tolerate anyone being treated unfairly.\nWe are truly American when we live up to our original promise of liberty and celebrate those who — quintessentially American words, \"All men are created equal.\" (Cheers, applause.)\nMy friends, on June 15th, President Obama made those words real. (Applause.) That day he took steps to lift the shadow of deportation from young, deserving people — (cheers, applause) — young people, youths brought here as children. We call them \"DREAMers\" because they are young people who want their shot at the American dream. (Cheers, applause.) They are students and volunteers and leaders. Many want to join the armed forces. They are true Americans. They are American in every way except on paper.\nPresident Obama stood up for people like my friend Jessica from Chicago. Jessica had a 3.8 GPA in high school. She has a scholarship to the great University of North Carolina. (Cheers, applause.) But because she didn't come to America until she was 7 years old, her future was in doubt until Barack Obama took bold action to stand up for Jessica and immigrants just like her. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow America faces a stark choice. The future of a generation will be decided in this election. We cannot deny them justice. President Obama is protecting immigrants; Mitt Romney wants undocumented immigrants to self-deport. This election will determine whether high school valedictorians, football team captains and student council presidents will be treated with respect or treated like suspects, whether they reach their dreams or whether Mitt Romney turns their dreams into nightmares.\nThis belief separates our parties. Democrats have always been the party of expanding the embrace of our democracy and our humanity. It's not just \"DREAMers.\" Democrats value all immigrants. Republicans blame undocumented immigrants for many of our problems. Democrats will fight for comprehensive immigration reform, and keep America secure and keep our immigrant families united. (Cheers, applause.)\nImmigration reform stops the finger-pointing and allows immigrants to make America stronger. Here's what immigration reform means for Hector Nunez. Hector is a U.S. citizen born here in this country, and he's a soldier, a combat engineer in the U.S. Army. You know what Hector's job is? He locates and eliminates roadside bombs in Afghanistan. Hector risks his life so that we can be safe. Hector and his wife Rosa, they have a beautiful citizen son, Jason. Rosa's an immigrant. To finalize her citizenship, Rosa was told to return to Mexico. But when the family went, Rosa was told she couldn't come back to America. She was told to stay behind as our government sent her proud and courageous husband Hector back to deploy in Afghanistan. That's not the America of Barack Obama, and that's the America we're going to change. (Cheers, applause.)\nOur immigration system creates stories like this everyday, good people torn apart, kept from working, paying taxes, serving in the armed forces, keeping us safe. In any language, the choice is clear. En esa eleccion, hay una decision clara, alternativas claras. Barack Obama dice, voy a proteger los inmigrantes y permitir que los jovenes se queden aqui en este pais.\n(Cheers, applause.) Y Mitt Romney dice que se autodeporten y — (inaudible) — de Janet Brewer, su mejor amiga. Ese no es la America de Barack Obama y del partido democrata. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe obstruction of the Republican Party and Mitt Romney is not new. Every time we've expanded civil rights in America, someone tried to stop us. From marriage equality to voting rights, someone will fight against expanding the rights enjoyed by some Americans to all Americans. There is always someone who says: These rights, these liberties and this equality is just for me; it's not for you.\nThis election, please join me in standing by Barack Obama. Help our president show that in America, freedom, equality are for all of us all of the time. Thank you so much. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nMICHELLE OBAMA: Thank you. Thank you so much.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!\nMICHELLE OBAMA: With your help. With your help. (Chuckles.)\nLet me — let me start. I want — I want to — want to start by thanking Elaine. Elaine, thank you so much. We are so grateful — (cheers, applause) — for your family's service and sacrifice, and we will always have your back. (Cheers, applause.)\nOver the past few years as first lady I have had the extraordinary privilege of traveling all across this country. And everywhere I've gone and the people I've met and the stories I've heard, I have seen the very best of the American spirit.\nI have seen it in the incredible kindness and warmth that people have shown me and my family, especially our girls. I've seen it in teachers in a near-bankrupt school district who vowed to keep teaching without pay. I've seen in people who become heroes at a moment's notice, diving into harm's way to save others, flying across the country to put out a fire, driving for hours to bail out a flooded town. And I've seen it in our men and women in uniform and our proud military families — (cheers, applause) — in wounded warriors who tell me they're not just going to walk again, they're going to run and they're going to run marathons — (cheers, applause) — in the young man blinded by a bomb in Afghanistan who said simply, I'd give my eyes 100 times again to have the chance to do what I have done and what I can still do. (Applause.)\nEvery day the people I meet inspire me. Every day they make me proud. Every day they remind me how blessed we are to live in the greatest nation on earth. (Cheers, applause.)\nServing as your first lady is an honor and a privilege. But back when we first came together four years ago, I still had some concerns about this journey we'd begun. While I believed deeply in my husband's vision for this country and I was certain he would make an extraordinary president — (cheers) — like any mother I would worried about what it would mean for our girls if he got that chance.\nYou know, how will we keep them grounded under the glare of the national spotlight? How would they feel being uprooted from their school, their friends and the only home they'd ever known?\nSee, our life before moving to Washington was filled with simple joys: Saturdays at soccer games, Sundays at Grandma's house, and a date night for Barack and me was either dinner or a movie, because as an exhausted mom, I couldn't stay awake for both. (Laughter.)\nAnd the truth is, I loved the life we had built for our girls. And I deeply loved the man I had built that life with. And I didn't want that to change if he became president. (Cheers, applause.)\nI loved Barack just the way he was. You see, even back then when Barack was a senator and a presidential candidate, he was still the guy who picked me up for our dates in a car that was so rusted out — (laughter) — I could actually see the pavement going by in a hole in the passenger side door.\nHe was the guy whose proudest possession was a coffee table he'd found in a dumpster — (laughter) — and whose only pair of decent shoes was a half-size too small. (Laughter.)\nBut see, when Barack started telling me about his family, see, now, that's when I knew I had found a kindred spirit, someone whose values and upbringing were so much like mine.\nYou see, Barack and I were both raised by families who didn't have much in the way of money or material possessions but who had given us something far more valuable: their unconditional love, their unflinching sacrifice — (cheers, applause) — and the chance to go places they had never imagined for themselves.\nMy father was a pump operator at the city water plant, and he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when my brother and I were young. And even as a kid, I knew there were plenty of days when he was in pain, and I knew there were plenty of mornings when it was a struggle for him to simply get out of bed. But every morning I watched my father wake up with a smile, grab his walker, prop himself up against the bathroom sink and slowly shave and button his uniform. And when he returned home after a long day's work, my brother and I would stand at the top of the stairs of our little apartment patiently waiting to greet him, watching as he reached down to lift one leg and then the other to slowly climb his way into our arms.\nBut despite these challenges, my dad hardly ever missed a day of work. He and my mom were determined to give me the kind of education they could only dream of. (Cheers, applause.) And when my brother and I finally made it to college, nearly all of our tuition came from student loans and grants, but my dad still had to pay a tiny portion of that tuition himself. And every semester, he was determined to pay that bill right on time, even taking out loans when he fell short.\nHe was so proud to be sending his kids to college, and he made sure we never missed a registration deadline because his check was late.\nYou see, for my dad, that's what it meant to be a man. (Cheers, applause.) Like — like so many of us, that was the measure of his success in life, being able to earn a decent living that allowed him to support his family.\nAnd — and as I got to know Barack, I realized that even though he had grown up all the way across the country, he'd been brought up just like me. Barack was raised by a single mom who struggled to pay the bills and by grandparents who stepped in when she needed help. Barack's grandmother started out as a secretary at a community bank, and she moved quickly up the ranks. But like so many women, she hit a glass ceiling. And for years, men no more qualified than she was, men she had actually trained, were promoted up the ladder ahead of her, earning more and more money while Barack's family continued to scrape by. But day after day, she kept on waking up at dawn to catch the bus, arriving at work before anyone else, giving her best without complaint or regret. And — and she would often tell Barack, so long as you kids do well, Bar (ph), that's all that really matters.\nLike — like so many American families, our families weren't asking for much. They didn't begrudge anyone else's success or care that others had much more than they did. In fact, they admired it. They — they simply believed in that fundamental American promise, that even if you don't start out with much, if you work hard and do what you're supposed to do, you should be able to build a decent life for yourself and an even better life for your kids and grandkids.\n(Cheers, applause.) That's how they raised us. That's what we learned from their example.\nWe learned about dignity and decency, that how hard you work matters more than how much you make, that helping others means more than just getting ahead yourself. (Applause.) We learned about honesty and integrity, that the truth matters, that you don't take shortcuts — (cheers, applause) — or play by your own set of rules, and success doesn't count unless you earn it fair and square.\nWe learned about gratitude and humility, that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school clean. (Cheers, applause.) And we were taught to value everyone's contribution and treat everyone with respect.\nThose are the values that Barack and I and so many of you are trying to pass on to our own children. That's who we are. And standing before you four years ago, I knew that I didn't want any of that to change if Barack became president. Well, today, after so many struggles and triumphs and moments that have tested my husband in ways I never could have imagined, I have seen firsthand that being president doesn't change who you are. No, it reveals who you are. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou see, I've gotten to see up close and personal what being president really looks like. And I've seen how the issues that come across the president's desk are always the hard ones. You know, the problems where no amount of data or numbers will get you to the right answer. The judgment calls where the stakes are so high and there is no margin for error.\nAnd as president, you're going to get all kinds of advice from all kinds of people. But at the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision as president, all you have to guide you are your values and your vision and the life experiences that make you who you are. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo when it — when it comes to rebuilding our economy, Barack is thinking about folks like my dad and like his grandmother. He's thinking about the pride that comes from a hard day's work. That's why he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, to help women get equal pay for equal work. (Cheers, applause.)\nThat's why he cut taxes for working families and small businesses and fought to get the auto industry back on its feet. (Cheers, applause.)\nThat's how he brought our economy from the brink of collapse to creating jobs again, jobs you can raise a family on, good jobs, right here in the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)\nWhen it comes to the health of our families, Barack refused to listen to all those folks who told him to leave health reform for another day, another president. (Applause.) He didn't care whether it was the easy thing to do politically. No, that's not how he was raised. He cared that it was the right thing to do. (Cheers, applause.)\nHe did it because he believes that here in America, our grandparents should be able to afford their medicine, our kids should be able to see a doctor when they're sick, and no one in this country should ever go broke because of an accident or an illness. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd he believes that women are more than capable of making our own choices about our bodies and our health care. (Cheers, applause.) That's what my husband stands for.\nWhen it comes to giving our kids the education they deserve, Barack knows that, like me and like so many of you, he never could have attended college without financial aid. And believe it or not, when we were first married, our combined monthly student loan bill was actually higher than our mortgage. (Laughter.) Yeah, we were so young, so in love and so in debt. (Laughter.) And that's why Barack has fought so hard to increase student aid and keep interest rates down — (cheers, applause) — because he wants every young person to fulfill their promise and be able to attend college without a mountain of debt.\nSo in the end, for Barack, these issues aren't political; they're personal, because Barack knows what it means when a family struggles. He knows what it means to want something more for your kids and grandkids. Barack knows the American dream because he's lived it. And he wants everyone — (cheers, applause) — in this country, everyone, to have the same opportunity no matter who we are or where we're from or what we look like or who we love. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd he believes that when you've worked hard and done well and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you. No, you reach back — (cheers, applause) — and you give other folks the same chances that helped your succeed.\nSo when people ask me whether being in the White House has changed my husband, I can honestly say that when it comes to his character and his convictions and his heart, Barack Obama is still the same man I fell in love with all those years ago. Yeah. (Cheers, applause.) He's the same man who started his career by turning down high-paying jobs and instead working in struggling neighborhoods where a steel plant had shut down, fighting to rebuild those communities and get folks back to work — because for Barack, success isn't about how much money you make. It's about the difference you make in people's lives. (Cheers, applause.)\nHe's the same man — he's the same man, when our girls were first born, would anxiously check their cribs every few minutes to ensure that they were still breathing — (laughter) — proudly showing them off to everyone we knew.\nYou see, that's the man who sits down with me and our girls for dinner nearly every night, patiently answering questions about issues in the news, strategizing about middle school friendships. (Laughter.) That's the man I see in those quiet moments late at night, hunched over his desk, poring over the letters people have sent him, the letter from the father struggling to pay his bills, from the woman dying of cancer whose insurance company won't cover her care, from the young people with so much promise but so few opportunities.\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: I love you, Michelle! (Cheers.)\nMICHELLE OBAMA: And I see the concern in his eyes, and I hear the determination in his voice as he tells me, you won't believe what these folks are going through, Michelle; it's not right; we've got to keep working to fix this; we've got so much more to do. (Cheers, applause.)\nI see —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!\nMICHELLE OBAMA: I see how those stories —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!\nMICHELLE OBAMA: I see how those stories, our collection of struggles and hopes and dreams — I see how that's what drives Barack Obama every single day. And I didn't think that it was possible, but let me tell you today I love my husband even more than I did four years ago, even more than I did 23 years ago when we first met. (Cheers, applause.)\nLet me tell you why.\nSee, I love that he has never forgotten how he started. I love that we can trust Barack to do what he says he's going to do even when it's hard, especially when it's hard.\nYou know, I love that for Barack, there is no such thing as us and them. He doesn't care whether you're a Democrat, a Republican or none of the above. He knows that we all love our country, and he is always ready to listen to a good idea. He's always looking for the very best in everyone he meets.\nAnd I love that even in the toughest moments, when we're all sweating it — (chuckles) — when we're worried that the bill won't pass, and it seems like all is lost, see, Barack never lets himself get distracted by the chatter and the noise. No. Just like his grandmother, he just keeps getting up and moving forward, with patience and wisdom and courage and grace. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd he reminds me — he reminds me that we are playing a long game here, and that change is hard, and change is slow, and it never happens all at once, but eventually we get there. We always do. We get there because of folks like my dad, folks like Barack's grandmother, men and women who said to themselves, I may not have a chance to fulfill my dreams, but maybe my children will, maybe my grandchildren will. (Applause.) See, so many of us stand here tonight because of their sacrifice and longing and steadfast love, because time and again, they swallowed their fears and doubts and did what was hard.\n(Applause.)\nSo today when the challenges we face start to seem overwhelming or even impossible, let us never forget that doing the impossible is the history of this nation. (Cheers, applause.) It is who we are as Americans. It is how this country was built. (Sustained cheers, applause.)\nAnd if our parents and grandparents could toil and struggle for us, you know, if they could raise beams of steel to the sky, send a man to the Moon, connect the world with a touch of a button, then surely we can keep on sacrificing and building for our own kids and grandkids, right? (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd if so many great men and women could wear our country's uniform and sacrifice their lives for our most fundamental rights, then surely we can do our part as citizens of this great democracy to exercise those rights. Surely we can get to the polls on Election Day and make our voices heard. (Cheers, applause.)\nIf farmers and blacksmiths could win independence from an empire, if immigrants could leave behind everything they knew for a better life on our shores, if women could be dragged to jail for seeking to vote, if a generation could defeat a depression and define greatness for all time, if a young preacher could lift us to the mountaintop with his righteous dream — (cheers, applause) — and if proud Americans can be who they are and boldly stand at the altar with who they love — (cheers, applause) — then surely, surely we can give everyone in this country a fair chance at that great American dream.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can!\nMICHELLE OBAMA: Because in the end — in the end, more than anything else, that is the story of this country, the story of unwavering hope grounded in unyielding struggle. That is what has made my story and Barack's story and so many other American stories possible.\nAnd let me tell you something, I say all of this tonight not just as first lady, no, not just as a wife. You see, at the end of the day, my most important title is still mom in chief. (Cheers, applause.) My daughters are still the heart of my heart and the center of my world. But let me tell you, today I have none of those worries from four years ago, no, not about whether Barack and I were doing what was best for our girls, because today I know from experience that if I truly want to leave a better world for my daughters and for all of our sons and daughters, if we want to give all of our children a foundation for their dreams and opportunities worthy of their promise, if we want to give them that sense of limitless possibility — (cheers) — that belief that here in America, there is always something better out there if you're willing to work for it, then we must work like never before.\n(Cheers, applause.) And we must once again come together and stand together for the man we can trust to keep moving this great country forward. My husband, our president, Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you. God bless you. God bless America.\n(Cheers, applause."
      , "ELAINE BRYE: Wow. What's a mom like me doing in a place like this?\nI'm not even a political person, but what I am is a military mom. (Cheers, applause.) My husband and I are so proud of our five kids, one each in the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Marines. (Cheers, applause.) Our youngest in still in high school. And yes, we are hoping he will join the Coast Guard. (Laughter.)\nThey are a mom's most precious treasures. And I don't know when I'm going to get them together again because one of them is always deploying. But because of Dr. Biden and the first lady, our lives are a little bit easier. Along with President Obama, they have made helping military families a top priority. They've brought together the American people, including thousands of businesses, to become part of a nationwide support network. It is honor and respect in action, and it warms this mother's heart. (Cheers, applause.)\nLast December I wrote Michelle Obama a Christmas card, just a mom-to-mom note to say thank you for caring. The first lady not only read my letter, she invited my husband and I to the White House. (Cheers, applause.) It was an amazing experience. But what's even more amazing is knowing that our commander in chief and first lady are thinking about families like mine every single day.\nSo — (cheers, applause) — like I said, I'm not a political person, but I'm a mom. And if someone is there for my family and families like mine, then I'll be there for them. (Cheers, applause.)\nThat's why I am so proud to introduce my fellow mom and our first lady, Michelle Obama. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJULIAN CASTRO: Thank you. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you.\nMy fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, my fellow Texans — (cheers) — I stand before you tonight as a young American, a proud American of a generation born as the Cold War receded, shaped by the tragedy of 9/11, connected by the digital revolution, and determined to reelect the man who will make the 21st century another American century, President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe unlikely journey that brought me here tonight began many miles from this podium. My brother Joaquin and I grew up with my mother, Rosie, and my grandmother, Victoria. My grandmother was an orphan. As a young girl, she had to leave her home in Mexico and move to San Antonio, where some relatives had agreed to take her in. She never made it past the fourth grade; she had to drop out and start working to help her family.\nMy grandmother spent her whole life working as a maid, a cook and a baby sitter, barely scraping by but still working hard to give my mother, her only child, a chance in life so that my mother could give my brother and me an even better one. (Cheers, applause.)\nAs my grandmother got older, she begged my mother to give her grandchildren. She prayed to God for just one grandbaby before she died. You can imagine her excitement when she found out her prayers would be answered twice over. She was so excited that the day before Joaquin and I were born, she entered a menudo cook-off, and she won $300. (Cheers, applause.) That's how she paid our hospital bill.\nBy the time Joaquin and I came along, this incredible woman had taught herself to read and write in both Spanish and English. I can still see her in the room that Joaquin and I shared with her, reading her Agatha Christie novels late in to the night. And I can still remember her every morning, as Joaquin and I walked out the front door to school, making the sign of the cross behind us saying, que dios los bendiga — may God bless you. (Applause.)\nMy grandmother didn't live to see us begin our lives in public service, but she probably would have thought it extraordinary that just two generations after she arrived in San Antonio, one grandson would be the mayor and the other would be on his way, the good people of San Antonio willing, to the United States Congress. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy family story isn't special. What's special is the America that makes our story possible. Ours is a nation like no other, a place where great journeys can be made in a single generation.\nNo matter who you are or where you come from, the path is always forward. (Cheers, applause.)\nAmerica didn't become the land of opportunity by accident. My grandmother's generation and generations before always saw beyond the horizons of their own lives and their own circumstances. They believed that opportunity created today would lead to prosperity tomorrow. That's the country they envisioned, and that's the country they helped build. The roads and bridges they built, the schools and universities they created, the rights they fought for and won, these open the doors to a decent job, a secure retirement, the chance for your children to do better than you did. And that's the middle class, the engine of our economic growth. (Cheers, applause.) With hard work, everybody ought to be able to get there. And with hard work, everybody ought to be able to stay there and go beyond. (Applause.)\nThe dream of raising a family in a place where hard work is rewarded is not unique to Americans. It's a human dream, one that calls across oceans and borders. The dream is universal. But America makes it possible. And our investment in opportunity makes it a reality. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, in Texas — (cheers, applause) — we believe in the rugged individual. (Cheers, applause.) Texas may be the one place where people actually still have bootstraps. (Cheers, applause.) And we expect folks to pull themselves up by them. But we also recognize that there are some things we can't do alone.\nWe have to come together and invest in opportunity today for prosperity tomorrow. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd it starts with education. (Cheers, applause.) Twenty years ago, Joaquin and I left home for college and then for law school. In those classrooms, we met some of the brightest folks in the world. But at the end of our days there, I couldn't help but to think back to my classmates at Thomas Jefferson High School in San Antonio. (Cheers, applause.)\nThey had the same talent, the same brains, the same dreams as the folks we sat with at Stanford and Harvard. I realized the difference wasn't one of intelligence or drive. The difference was opportunity. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn my city of San Antonio, we get that. So we're working to ensure that more four-year-olds have access to pre-K. (Cheers, applause.) We opened Cafe College, where students get help with everything from college test prep to financial aid paperwork. We know that you can't be pro-business unless you're pro-education. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe know that pre-K and student loans aren't charity; they're a smart investment in a workforce that can fill and create the jobs of tomorrow. We're investing in young minds today to be competitive in the global economy tomorrow. And it's paying off. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, it is!\nJULIAN CASTRO: Last year, the Milken Institute ranked San Antonio as the nation's top-performing local economy, and we're only getting started. (Cheers, applause.)\nOpportunity today, prosperity tomorrow. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, like many of you, I watched last week's Republican convention. (Boos.) And they told a few stories of individual success. We all celebrate individual success. But the question is: How do we multiply that success? The answer is President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt Romney quite simply doesn't get it. A few months ago, he visited a university in Ohio and gave students there a little entrepreneurial advice. start a business, he said. But how? Borrow money, if you have to, from your parents, he told them. (Laughter.) Gee. Why didn't I think of that? (Laughter, cheers, applause.) Some people are lucky enough to borrow money from their parents, but that shouldn't determine whether you can pursue your dreams — not in America, not here, not in the 21st century.\nI don't think Governor Romney meant any harm. I think he's a good guy. He just has no idea how good he's had it. (Cheers, applause.) We know that in our free market economy, some will prosper more than others. What we don't accept is the idea that some folks won't even get a chance. And the thing is, Mitt Romney and the Republican Party are perfectly comfortable with that America.\nIn fact, that's exactly what they're promising us. The Romney-Ryan budget doesn't just cut public education, cut Medicare, cut transportation and cut job training. It doesn't just pummel the middle class; it dismantles it. It dismantles what generations before have built to ensure that everybody can enter and stay in the middle class. When it comes to getting the middle class back to work, Mitt Romney says no.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) No.\nJULIAN CASTRO: When it comes to respecting women's rights, Mitt Romney says no.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) Says no.\nJULIAN CASTRO: When it comes to letting people love who they love and marry who they want to marry, Mitt Romney says no.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) Mitt Romney says no.\nJULIAN CASTRO: When it comes to expanding access to good health care, Mitt Romney —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Mitt Romney says no.\nJULIAN CASTRO: Actually — (laughter, applause) — actually — (cheers, applause) — actually — (cheers, applause) — actually, Mitt Romney said yes, and now he says no.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) No.\nJULIAN CASTRO: Governor Romney has undergone an extreme makeover. (Laughter.) And it ain't pretty. (Laughter.) So here's what we're going to say to Mitt Romney in November: We're going to say no.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) No.\nJULIAN CASTRO: Of all the fictions we heard last week in Tampa, the one I find most troubling is this: if we all just go our own way, our nation will be stronger for it, because if we sever the threads that connect us, the only people who will go far are those who are already ahead. We all understand that freedom isn't free. What Romney and Ryan don't understand is that neither is opportunity. We have to invest in it. (Cheers, applause.)\nRepublicans tell us that if the most prosperous among us do even better that somehow the rest of us will too. (Chuckles.) Folks, we've heard that before. First they called it \"trickle-down.\" Then they called it \"supply-side.\" Now it's Ryan — Romney-Ryan, or is it Ryan-Romney? Either way, their theory's been tested. It failed. Our economy failed. The middle class paid the price. Your family paid the price. Mitt Romney just doesn't get it. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut Barack Obama gets it. (Cheers, applause.) He understands that when we invest in people, we're investing in our shared prosperity, and when we neglect that responsibility, we risk our promise as a nation. Just a few years ago families that had never asked for anything found themselves at risk of losing everything, and the dream my grandmother held that work would be rewarded, that the middle class would be there, if not for her, then for her children — that dream was being crushed.\nBut then President Obama took office, and he took action. When Detroit was in trouble, President Obama saved the auto industry and saved a million jobs. (Cheers, applause.) Seven presidents before him, Republicans and Democrats, tried to expand health care to all Americans. President Obama got it done. (Cheers, applause.) He made a historic investment to lift our nation's public schools and expanded Pell Grants so that more young people can afford college. And because he knows that we don't have an ounce of talent to waste, the president took action to lift the shadow of deportation from a generation of young law-abiding immigrants called \"DREAMers.\"\n(Cheers, applause.) Now it's time for Congress to enshrine in law their right to pursue their dreams in the only place they have ever called home, America. (Cheers, applause.)\nFour years ago, America stood on the brink of a depression. Despite incredible odds and united Republican opposition, our president took action. And now we've seen 4.5 million new jobs. He knows better than anyone that there is more hard work to do. But we're making progress.\nAnd now we need to make a choice. It's a choice between a country where the middle class pays more so that millionaires can pay less, or a country where everybody pays their fair share so we can reduce the deficit and create the jobs of the future. (Cheers, applause.)\nIt's a choice between a nation that slashes funding for our schools and guts Pell Grants, or a nation that invests more in education. And it's a choice between a politician who rewards companies that ship American jobs overseas or a leader who brings jobs back home. (Cheers, applause.) This is the choice before us.\nAnd to me, to my generation and for all the generations to come, our choice is clear. Our choice is a man who's always chosen us, a man who already is our president: Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!\nJULIAN CASTRO: In the end, the American dream — the American dream is not a sprint, or even a marathon, but a relay. Our families don't always cross the finish line in the span of one generation, but each generation passes on to the next the fruits of their labor.\nMy grandmother never owned a house. She cleaned other people's houses so she could afford to rent her own. But she saw her daughter become the first in her family to graduate from college. (Cheers, applause.) And my mother fought hard for civil rights, so that instead of a mop, I could hold this microphone. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd while she may — while she may be proud of me tonight, I got to tell you: Mom, I'm even more proud of you. (Cheers, extended applause.) Thank you. Today — today my beautiful wife, Erica, and I are the proud parents of a 3-year-old little girl, Carina Victoria — (cheers) — named after my grandmother. A couple of Mondays ago — (applause) — a couple of Mondays ago was her first day of pre-K, and as we dropped her off, we walked out of the classroom and I found myself whispering to her as was once whispered to me: \"Que Dios te bendiga\" — may God bless you.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nShe's still young, and her dreams are far off yet. But I hope she'll reach them. (Cheers.)\nAs a dad, I'm going to do my part, and I know she'll do hers. But our responsibility as a nation is to come together and do our part as one community, one United States of America, to ensure opportunity for all of our children.\nThe days we live in are not easy ones. But we have seen days like this before, and America prevailed. With the wisdom of our founders and the values of our families, America prevailed. With each generation going further than the last, America prevailed, and with the opportunity we build today for a shared prosperity tomorrow, America will prevail.\nIt begins with re-electing Barack Obama. It begins with you. It begins now. Que Dios los bendiga. May God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJOAQUIN CASTRO: Thank you. Thank you. Tonight I have the honor of introducing you to our keynote speaker, my twin brother, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro. (Cheers, applause.)\nAs you can imagine, this is a very special moment for our family. For each of us, the places that we call home shape our character, inform how we see the world and inspire our imagination. Julian is a proud Texan. For 18 years — (cheers, applause) — for 18 years we shared a small room and big dreams in our neighborhood on the west side of San Antonio. Our hometown is a beautiful place, a place of hardworking, humble folks who grind out a living by day and go home and say prayers of thanks to God at night.\nSince becoming mayor in 2009, Julian has worked tirelessly to pursue policies that honor the aspirations of the people he represents. I'm proud that my brother has archived his dreams, but I'm even more proud of the work he's done to help others achieve theirs. Today, San Antonio is our nation's seventh-largest city — a city on the rise that looks like America tomorrow. Julian's also a dedicated husband to his wife, Erica, a public school teacher, and a wonderful father to his 3-year-old daughter Carina.\nSo it's with much love and pride that I present to you my best friend, my twin brother, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nMARTIN O'MALLEY: Greetings from Maryland — (cheers, applause) — home of the number one public school system in America for four years in a row. (Cheers, applause.)\nSince the first days of the American Revolution, Maryland has been called the Old Line State. And that's because of this true story of a group of soldiers called the Maryland Line. They were immigrants and native-born, black and white, volunteers all.\nIt is August 27th, 1776, two months since our declaration of independence. Outnumbered and surrounded, Washington's army is about to be crushed forever at Brooklyn Heights. The British are closing in. With America's future hanging in the balance, word is passed up and down the Maryland line: Fix bayonets; we're moving forward. And they do, into the breach. They hold off the British just long enough for Washington's army to escape and fight another day. Today there is a plaque by the mass graves of those citizen soldiers, and it reads, \"In honor of the Maryland 400, who on this battlefield saved the American army.\"\nIn times of adversity, you see, for our country, for the country we love, Maryland always chooses to move forward. We understand that progress is a choice, job creation is a choice. Whether we move forward or back, this too is a choice, and that is what this election is all about.\nDemocratic governors, with the support of our president, are leading their states forward, putting job creation first, balancing budgets, protecting priorities and making the tough decisions right now to create jobs and expand opportunity. Together with President Obama, we are moving America forward, not back.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) Forward, not back.\nMARTIN O'MALLEY: With 29 months in a row of private-sector job growth, President Obama is moving America forward, not back.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) Forward, not back.\nMARTIN O'MALLEY: By making college more affordable for millions of middle-class families, President Obama is moving America forward, not back.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) Forward, not back.\nMARTIN O'MALLEY: By securing the guarantee of Medicare for our seniors, President Obama is moving America forward, not back.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) Forward, not back.\nMARTIN O'MALLEY: By putting forward a concrete plan to cut waste, ask those of us at the top to pay a little more and reduce our deficit, President Obama is moving America forward, not back.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) Forward, not back.\nMARTIN O'MALLEY: And by adding American manufacturing jobs for the first time since the 1990s, President Obama is moving America forward, not back.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) Forward, not back.\nMARTIN O'MALLEY: That's our facts. No president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the Great Depression inherited a worse economy, bigger job losses or deeper problems from his predecessor. But President Obama is moving America forward, not back.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) Forward, not back.\nMARTIN O'MALLEY: And yes, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan now say they want to take America back. (Boos.) And we have to ask: back to what? Back to the failed policies that drove us into this deep recession? Back to the days of record job losses? Back to the days when insurance companies called being a woman a pre-existing condition?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nMARTIN O'MALLEY: No thank you. I don't want to go back. Do you?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nMARTIN O'MALLEY: Instead of a balanced, achievable plan to create jobs and reduce the deficit, Mitt Romney says — puts forward a plan that would cut taxes for millionaires while raising them on the middle class. (Boos.) Instead of improving public safety and public education like President Obama, Mitt Romney says we need less firefighters, teachers and police. (Boos.) Instead of safeguarding our seniors, Romney and Ryan would end the guarantee of Medicare and replace it with a voucher in order to give bigger tax breaks to billionaires.\n(Boos.)\nInstead of investing in America, they hide their money in Swiss bank accounts and ship our jobs to China. (Boos.) Swiss bank accounts never built an American bridge. Swiss bank accounts never put cops on the streets or teachers in our classrooms. Swiss bank accounts never created American jobs. Governor Romney, just because you bank against the United States of America doesn't mean the rest of us are willing to sell her out. (Cheers, applause.) We are Americans. We must act like Americans. We must move forward, not back. (Murmurs.)\nMy parents, Tom and Barbara O'Malley, like so many of yours, were part of that great generation that won the second world war. Dad flew 33 missions over Japan in a B-24 Liberator. He was able to go to college only because of the GI Bill. Our parents taught us to love God, love our family and love our country. Their own grandparents were immigrants. Their first language may not have been English, but the hopes and dreams they had for their children were purely American.\nYou see, there is a powerful truth at the heart of the American dream. The stronger we make our country, the more she gives back to us, to our children and our grandchildren. Our parents and grandparents understood this truth deeply.\nThey believed, as we do, that to create jobs, a modern economy requires modern investments: educating, innovating and rebuilding for our children's future. Building an economy to last, from the middle class up, not from the billionaires down. Yes, we live in changing times. The question is, what type of change will we make of it?\nAs we search for common ground and the way forward together, let's ask one another; let's ask the leaders in the Republican Party without any anger, meanness or fear: How much less do you really think would be good for our country? How much less education would be good for our children? How many hungry American kids can we no longer afford to feed?\nGovernor Romney, how many fewer college degrees would make us more competitive as a nation?\nThe future we seek is not a future of less opportunity. It is a future of more opportunity. More opportunity for all Americans. (Cheers, applause.)\nClose your eyes. See the faces of your parents and your great- grandparents. They did not cross an ocean, settle a continent, do hard, back-breaking work so their children and grandchildren could live in a country of less. They came here because the United States of America is the greatest job-generating, opportunity-expanding country ever created by a free people in the history of civilization. And she still is. (Cheers, applause.)\nLet us not be the first generation of Americans to give our children a country of less. Let us return to the urgent work of creating more jobs, more security and more opportunity for our people. And together, let us move forward, not back, by re-electing Barack Obama president of the United States. God bless you all. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nDEVAL PATRICK: Good evening, Democrats. Are you fired up? (Cheers, applause.) Are you ready to go? (Cheers, applause.)\nWell, I hope so.\nThis is the election of a lifetime because more than any one candidate or party, what's at stake is the American dream. That dream, the ability to imagine a better way for ourselves and our families and then to reach for it, that dream is central to who we are and what we stand for as a nation. Whether that dream endures for another generation depends on you and me. And it also depends on who leads us.\nIn Massachusetts, we know Mitt Romney. By the time he left office, Massachusetts was 47th in the nation in job creation during better economic times, and household income in our state was declining. He cut education deeper than anywhere else in America. Roads and bridges were crumbling. Business taxes were up, and business confidence was down. Our clean energy potential was stalled, and we had a structural budget deficit. Mitt Romney talks a lot about all the things he's fixed. I can tell you Massachusetts was not one of them. (Cheers, applause.)\nHe's a fine fellow and a great salesman. But as governor, he was a lot more interested in having the job than doing the job. (Cheers, applause.) So when I came to office, we set out on a different course: investing in ourselves and our future. And today Massachusetts leads the nation in economic competitiveness, student achievement, health care coverage, life sciences and biotech, energy efficiency and veterans services. (Cheers, applause.) Today, with the help of the Obama administration, we are rebuilding our roads and our bridges and expanding broadband access.\nToday, we're out of the deficit hole Mr. Romney left, and we've achieved the highest bond rating in our history. (Cheers, applause.) Today — today, with labor at the table, we've made the reforms in our pension and benefit system, our schools, our transportation system and more, that Mr. Romney only talked about.\nAnd today in Massachusetts, you can marry whomever you love. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe still have more to do — much, much more to do. But we are on a better track because we placed our faith not in trickle-down fantasies and divisive rhetoric, but in our values and our common sense.\nThe same choice faces the nation today. All that Republicans are saying is that if we just shrink government, cut taxes, crush unions and wait — all will be well.\nNever mind that those are the very policies that got us into recession to begin with. (Applause.) Never mind that not one of the governors who preached that gospel in Tampa last week has the results to show for it. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut we Democrats, we owe America more than a strong argument for what we are against. We need to be just as strong about what it is we are for. (Cheers, applause.) The question is — the question is, what do we believe?\nWell, we believe in an economy that grows opportunity out to the middle class and the disenfranchised, not just up to the well- connected.\nWe believe that freedom means keeping government out of our most private affairs, including out of a woman's decision whether to keep an unwanted pregnancy, and everybody's decision about whom to marry. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe believe that we owe the next generation a better country than we found and that every American has a stake in that. We believe that in times like these, we should turn to each other, not on each other. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd we believe that government has a role to play, not in solving every problem in everybody's life, but in helping people help themselves to the American dream.\nThat's what Democrats believe. That's what Americans believe. And if we want to win elections in November and keep our country moving forward, if we want to earn the privilege to lead, my message is this: it's time for Democrats to grow a backbone and stand up for what we believe. (Cheers, applause.)\nQuit waiting. (Cheers, applause.) Quit waiting for — (cheers, applause) — quit waiting for pundits or polls or super PACs to tell us who the next president or senator or congressman is going to be. We're Americans. We shape our own future. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd let's all start by standing up for President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.) This is the president — this is the president who delivered the security of affordable health care to every single American in every corner of this country after 90 years of trying.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nThis is the president who brought Osama bin Laden to justice, who ended the war in Iraq and is ending the war in Afghanistan. (Cheers, applause.)\nThis is the president who ended \"don't ask, don't tell\" so that love of country, not love of another, determines fitness for service, who made equal pay for equal work the law of the land. (Sustained cheers, applause.)\nThis is the president who saved the American auto industry from extinction — (cheers, applause) — the American financial industry from self-destruction, the American economy from full-blown depression, who added 4.5 million private-sector jobs in the last 2 1/2 years, more than in George Bush's eight years in office. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy friends, the list of accomplishments is long, impressive and barely told, and even more impressive when you consider that congressional Republicans have made obstruction itself the centerpiece of their governing strategy. (Jeers, applause.)\nWith a record like that and a vision that hopeful and powerful, I, for one, will not stand by and let him be bullied out of office, and neither should you. (Cheers, applause.)\nI want you to be clear. What's at stake is real. It's real.\nThe Orchard Gardens elementary school in Boston was in trouble. (Scattered cheers.) Its record was poor, its spirit was broken and its reputation was a wreck.\nNo matter how bad things were in other urban schools in the city, people would say, well, at least we're not Orchard Gardens.\nToday, thanks to a host of new tools — many enacted with the help of the Obama administration — (cheers, applause) — Orchard Gardens is turning itself around. Teaching standards and accountabilities are higher. The school day is longer and filled with experiential learning, art, exercise and music. The head of pediatric psychology from a local hospital comes to consult with faculty and parents on the toughest personal issues in students' home lives. Attendance is up, thanks to a mentoring initiative. In less than a year — (cheers) — Orchard Gardens went from one of the worst schools in the district to one of the best in the state. The whole school community is engaged and proud. So am I.\nAt the end of my visit about a year and a half ago, the first grade, led by a veteran teacher, gathered to recite Dr. King's \"I Have a Dream\" speech. And when I started to applaud, the teacher said: Not yet, Governor. Then she began to ask those 6- and 7-year-olds questions. What, she asked, does creed mean? What does nullification mean? Where is Stone Mountain? And as the hands of those 6- and 7- year-olds shot up, I realized that she had taught the children not just to memorize that speech but to understand it. (Cheers, applause.)\nSee, today's Republicans — today's Republicans and their nominee for president tell us that those first-graders are on their own — on their own to deal with their poverty, with ill-prepared young parents, maybe who speak English as a second language, with an underfunded school, with neighborhood crime and blight, with no access to nutritious food and no place for their mom to cash a paycheck, with a job market that needs skills they don't have, with no way to pay for college.\nBut those Orchard Gardens kids should not be left on their own. Those children are America's children too! Yours and mine. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd among them — among them are the future scientists and entrepreneurs, teachers, artists, engineers, laborers and civic leaders we desperately need. For this country to rise, they must rise. And they and their cause must have a champion in the White House. That champion is Barack Obama. That cause is the American Dream. Let's fight for that. Let's canvas, and phone bank, and get out the vote for that. Let's go tell everyone we meet that when the American Dream is on the line, we want Barack Obama in charge. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you so much. God bless you, and God bless the United States. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nLILLY LEDBETTER: Thank you. Good evening. My name is Lilly Ledbetter, and I'm here tonight to say what a difference four years makes. (Cheers, applause.) Some of you may know my story, how for 19 years I worked as the manager at a tire plant in Alabama.\n(Cheers.) And some of you may have lived a similar story.\nAfter nearly two decades of hard, proud work, I found out that I was making significantly less money than the men who were doing the same work as me. I went home, talked to my husband, and we decided to fight. We decided to fight for our family and for your family too. We sought — (cheers, applause) — justice because equal pay for equal work is an American value.\nThat fight took me 10 years. It took me all the way to the Supreme Court. And in a 5-to-4 decision, they stood on the side of those who shortchanged my pay, my overtime and my retirement just because I'm a woman. The Supreme Court told me that I should have filed a complaint within six months of the company's first decision to pay me less, even though I didn't know about it for nearly two decades.\nAnd if we hadn't elected President Barack Obama, the Supreme Court's wrongheaded interpretation would have been the law of the land. (Cheers, applause.) And that would have been the end of my story.\nBut with President Obama on our side, even though I lost before the Supreme Court, we won. (Cheers, applause.) The first bill that President Obama signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. (Cheers, applause.) I think it says something — (cheers, applause) — it says something about his priorities.\nThe first bill he would put his name on has my name on it too. (Sustained cheers, applause.) As he said that day with me by his side, making our economy work means making sure it works for everybody. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe president signed the bill for his grandmother, whose dreams hit the glass ceiling, and for his daughters so that theirs never will. Because of his leadership, women who faced pay discrimination like I did now can get their day in court.\nThat was the first step, but it can't be the last because women still earn just 77 cents for every dollar men make. Those pennies add up to real money. It's real money for the little things like being able to take your kids to the movies and for the big things like sending them to college. It's paying your rent this month and the mortgage and the future. It's having savings for the bill you didn't expect and savings for the dignified retirement you have earned.\nMaybe 23 cents doesn't sound like a lot to someone with a Swiss bank account, a Cayman Island investment — (cheers) — an IRA worth tens of millions of dollars. But Governor Romney, when we lose 23 cents every hour, every day, every paycheck, every job over the entire lives, we lose just cannot be measured in dollars.\nThree years ago, the House passed the Paycheck Fairness Act to level the playing field for women in America. The Senate Republicans blocked it. Mitt Romney won't even say if he supports it. President Obama does. (Applause.)\nIn the end, I didn't get a dime of money. I was shortchanged. But this fight became bigger than Lilly Ledbetter. Today, it's about my daughter, it's about my granddaughter, it's about women and men. (Cheers, applause.) It's about families, it's about each one — (cheers, extended applause) — it's about equality and justice. This cause which bears my name is bigger than me. It's as big as all of you. Which began as my own is now our fight, a fight for the fundamental American values that make our country great. And with President Barack Obama, we're going to win. Thank you very much, and God bless America! (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nMR. : All right, Maya. Hey.\nMAYA SOETORO-NG: Greetings and aloha from the great state of Hawaii. (Cheers, applause.) I'm Maya Soetoro-ng, an educator, mother of two and proud to be Barack Obama's little sister.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nCRAIG ROBINSON: I'm Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama's big brother, father of four and head coach of Oregon State University's men's basketball team. (Cheers, applause.)\nAny 7-footers out there, give me a call.\nMAYA SOETORO-NG: Craig and I come from different states, we've had different upbringings and, as you can see, we have different perspectives on the world. (Laughter.)\nCRAIG ROBINSON: But no matter how different we may seem, we share a set of values our parents gave us, values the same in Chicago as they are in Honolulu, a willingness to work hard, a commitment to education and the responsibility to look out for each other. They're the values at the core of how Barack and Michelle have lived their lives, raised our nieces and led this country as president and first lady of the United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nMAYA SOETORO-NG: Four years ago at this convention I spoke with you all about how Barack and I didn't grow up with much in the way of wealth, but we were blessed with a mother who taught us that education is the surest path from limited means to limitless opportunity. She inspired me to become a teacher, and she inspired Barack's deep commitment to giving all our young people the opportunities our education gave us. He's made sure more of our youngest children have the stable foundation that Head Start provides, he's saved the jobs of teachers in our schools and he's helped more of our students afford a higher education.\nOur mother also taught us that everyone has worth, regardless of who they are or what they believe. That's what inspired Barack's vision for a more inclusive and compassionate America, where everyone has a part to play in our shared story. He's made sure women can fight for equal pay for equal work and stood up for the freedom to make our own decisions about our health. He named two brilliant women who understand our lives to the Supreme Court. (Cheers, applause.) And I'll say it again: He ended \"don't ask, don't tell\" so no one would ever have to hide who they love to serve. (Cheers, applause.)\nMaking sure everyone in America has a chance to make it like he did — that's what my wonderful big brother is all about, and that's what he'll do for four more years. (Cheers, applause.)\nCRAIG ROBINSON: Four years ago I told you how when she was a young girl, Michelle used to talk to me about which kids at school were having a tough time at home and didn't have anybody to stick up for them.\nAnd what inspired her most as she traveled this country on that campaign were the stories of brave Americans who juggle everything at home while their husbands and wives are off at war. You see, America's military spouses and families make profound sacrifices too, and Michelle promised that if she had the privilege to serve as first lady, she'd do everything she could to make sure America was there to honor, recognize and support their unique service. (Cheers, applause.) I've been so proud to watch her rally Americans to give millions of hours of their time in service to our military families.\nShe's working with schools that educate military children to add better courses. When Barack challenged businesses to hire 100,000 veterans and military spouses, Michelle and Jill Biden rallied CEOs to the cause. And last month, they stood with CEOs to announce that they've hired 125,000 veterans and military spouses — (cheers, applause) — surpassing the goal more than a year ahead of schedule.\nShe's still the kind little sister she always was. Now she's just sticking up for those who stand up for us. And I'm proud of her work to give our children a healthier start in life. And let's face it, Maya, I could use the recruits. (Laughter.)\nMAYA SOETORO-NG: Barack and Michelle have always been there for us. Tonight, we are here for them. And with your help, we can fill the White House with their brand of warmth, compassion and commitment to all our people for four more years. Thank you so much. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "KAL PENN: Hello. Thank you. Thank you, guys. (Cheers, applause.) Nice. See, I like that. Thank you very much.\nI am honored to accept your nomination for president of the United States. (Laughter, cheers.)\nWait. This is not my speech. (Laughter.) Prompter guy, can we pull up my speech, please? This is awkward.\nSo while we're waiting, I guess I should have a message, a special message for those of you at home who recently turned 18. Good news. I can now legally register you to vote. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, I've worked on a lot of fun movies, but my favorite job was having a boss who gave the order to take out bin Laden and who's cool with all of us getting gay married. (Cheers, applause.) So thank you, invisible man in the chair for that — (laughter, cheers, applause) — and for giving my friends access to affordable health insurance and doubling funding for the Pell grants.\nNow, I started volunteering for Barack Obama back in 2007, but nothing really compares to what I saw behind the scenes at the White House when I had the honor to serve for two years as President Obama's liaison to young Americans. (Applause.) I saw how hard he fights for us.\nAnd one of the most special days was a Saturday in 2012. The Senate had repealed \"don't ask, don't tell\" — (cheers, applause) — so that anyone can serve the country they love regardless of whom they love.\nBut the same day, the Dream Act was blocked. That bill would give immigrant children who've never pledged allegiance to any flag but ours the chance to earn their citizenship. (Cheers.) Simple. Important. (Applause.)\nAnd I was in a small office on the second floor of the West Wing with about eight other staffers, and we had worked our hearts out — cared very deeply about what this would mean for other young people. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. Tears of joy for the history that was made, but also tears of sadness because some American dreams would still be deferred.\nAnd about five minutes later, President Obama walked in, sleeves rolled up, and he said to us: This is not over. We're going to keep fighting. I'm going to keep fighting. I need young people to keep fighting. That's why we're here. (Cheers, applause.)\nA few months later, President Obama fought to keep taxes from going up on middle-class families. And our Republican friends said, sure, you can do that. But one of the things they were willing to trade is a little item called the college tax credit, which today is saving students up to $10,000 over the course of four years of school. (Applause.)\nPresident Obama paid off his own student loans not too long ago. So he remembers what that's like. And he said that making it easier to go to college and get technical training is exactly how we grow our economy and create jobs, and outcompete the entire world. (Cheers, applause.) So he stood firm. And that tuition tax credit is still there. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut here's the thing. Here's the thing. If we don't register, if we don't vote, it won't be. I volunteered in Iowa in 2007 because, like you — (cheers) — I had friends serving in Iraq. I had friends who were looking for jobs. Others who couldn't go to the doctor because they couldn't afford it.\nI felt that had to change. So I knocked on some doors, I registered voters and I'm volunteering again because my friend Matt got a job at a Detroit car company that still exists. And Lauren (sp) can get the prescriptions that she needs. (Cheers, applause.) I'm volunteering because Josiah (sp) is back from Iraq, Chris (sp) is finishing college on the GI Bill, and three weeks ago, my buddy Kevin's boyfriend was able to watch him graduate from Marine Corps training. That's change. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd we can't turn back now. So before I close — and as I wonder which Twitter hashtags you'll start using when I'm done talking — hashtag sexy face — (laughter) — I ask all of you young people to join me. You don't even have to put pants on. (Laughter.) Go to commit.barackobama.com (sic) and register right there. And you know what? The oldies out there, you guys can do it too, OK? (Laughter.) Let's keep fighting for a president who has never stopped fighting for us. Go online, find your local campaign office, call your friends, call some strangers, volunteer. That's how we're going to win this thing. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, I really, really enjoyed listening to Rahm's speech, but he's the mayor now so he can't use four-letter words. (Laughter.) But I'm no mayor. (Laughter.) So I've got one for you. Vote. Thank you very much. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nRAHM EMANUEL: Good evening.\nFrom President Obama's hometown of Chicago — (cheers, applause) — it's my honor to speak to you about the president I served. I want to tell you what I saw up close while serving our president in a time of crisis, about the values he leans on and the voices he listens to.\nWhen President Obama entered the White House, the economy was in a free fall, the auto industry on its back, the banks frozen up. More than 4 million Americans had already lost their jobs. And America's bravest, our men and women in uniform, where fighting for what — what soon would be the longest war in our history. You remember the uncertainty and the fear that seized our country.\nOn that first day, I said, Mr. President, which crisis do you want to tackle first? He looked me in the eye with that look he usually reserved just for his chief of staff — (laughter) — \"Rahm, we were sent here to tackle all of them, not choose between them.\" (Applause.)\nThere was no — there was no blueprint or how-to manual for fixing a global financial meltdown, an auto crisis, two wars and a Great Recession all at the same time.\nBelieve me, if it existed, I would have found it.\nEach crisis was so deep and so dangerous, any one of them would have defined another presidency. We faced a once-in-a-generation moment in American history. And fortunately for all of us, we have a once-in-a-generation president. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd in those uncharted waters, I saw where the president finds his North Star. Every night President Obama reads 10 letters from everyday Americans. When I met with the president at the end of each day, he made sure he had their letters to read at his residence, letters from people just hoping for someone in power to understand their struggles. I can't tell you how many times, whether we were discussing the economy, health care or energy prices, the president would walk to his desk, take out one of the letters and read them to us and say, this is who we are fighting for, parents working hard to save for their child's education — (applause) — middle-class Americans fighting tooth and nail to hold onto their jobs, their homes or their life savings. It is their voices that President Obama brings to the Oval Office. It is their values I saw him fight for every day.\nIn the first month in office, he fought for the American recovery act, to cut taxes for the middle class, to put people to work building America's roads, rails and runways. And today our economy has gone from losing 800,000 jobs a month to adding 4 1/2 million private sector jobs in the last 29 months.\n(Cheers, applause.) They are slowly but surely lending again, and never again will taxpayers pay — foot the bill for Wall Street's excesses. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn case we forgot, that was the change we believed in, that was the change we fought for, that was the change President Obama delivered.\nPresident Obama took office knowing full well that for the last century, presidents had tried to reform our health care system. Today, because of President Obama's courage, kids can stay on their parents' plan until they're 26. (Applause.) Insurers can't kick you off your policy because you have a pre-existing limit — because you've hit the pre-existing limit. They won't be able to deny you because you have a pre-existing condition. Because of President Obama's leadership, every American will have access to affordable, quality health care. (Cheers, applause.)\nThat was the change we believed in. That was the change we fought for. That was the change President Obama delivered.\nI saw the president make the tough calls in the Situation Room. And today, our troops in Iraq have finally come home so America can do some nation-building here at home.\nThat was the change we believed in. That was the change we fought for. That was the change President Obama delivered.\nI remember when the president received the report that the auto industry had a few weeks before its collapse. We met in the Roosevelt Room late into the night. Some of the president's advisers said that in order to save General Motors, you had to let Chrysler go under. Others said, it's like throwing good money after bad.\nAmong all the experts, there were only guesses and nobody put it at better than a one-in-four shot.\nOnly the president suggested going all in to save the industry and the jobs. (Cheers, applause.) Rising above all the voices in Washington, President Obama listened to the voices that mattered to him most, the voices of the auto workers in the communities that depended on them, just like the voices of the steelworkers and the communities on the South Side of Chicago where he worked earlier in his career. President Obama — to President Obama, they weren't just companies that needed a loan; they were communities that needed a leader to stand up for them. (Applause.)\nAnd because President Obama made the right choice, over 1 million Americans are still working today. The American auto industry is not just surviving; it's thriving. (Applause.) Where Mitt Romney was willing to turn his back on Akron, Dayton and Toledo, Ohio, the president said, I've got your backs. That was the change we believed in. That was the change we fought for. That was the change President Obama delivered.\nAnd in those first few months the president worked to put accountability into our children's schools with Race to the Top so that every child has an education that measures up to their full potential. He was willing to demand change and embrace reform. The president never changed his views to suit the moment or the audience, and that is also a measure of leadership. (Applause.) Every challenge was different. Every choice was difficult. But every time, the leadership was steady.\nNow, the one thing I know with absolute certainty, having served two great presidents, is that in the next four years, an unforeseen crisis, challenge or conflict is going to show up and seize this country.\nWhose leadership, whose judgment, whose values do you want in the White House when that crisis lands like a thud on the Oval Office desk? A — that's right, a person who said, in four words, let Detroit go bankrupt, or a president who had another four words: Not on my watch? (Cheers, applause.) A person who believes in giving tax cuts to the most fortunate, or a president who believes in making college affordable for all Americans? (Cheers, applause.) A person who wanted to keep \"don't ask, don't tell,\" or a president who believes that who you love should not keep you from serving the country you love? (Cheers, applause.)\nBelieve me, having served two great presidents, when the fog of uncertainty that surrounds a crisis storms into the White House and all the advisers and chiefs of staff have only guesses and hedges to offer the president, it will be the president's leadership that determines how we as a nation meet the challenges that face the middle class. It is the president's values that shape the future in which the middle class has hope. The person who takes the oath of office in the next four months will shape not just the next four years but the next 40 years of this great nation. In these next four years we need proven leadership, proven judgment and proven values. America needs four more years of Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you, and God bless you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nKATHLEEN SEBELIUS: From 1965 to 1967 my dad, Jack Gilligan, served in Congress and helped pass landmark laws like the Voting Rights Act. Dad later became another great governor of Ohio. (Cheers.)\nBut one of his proudest accomplishments was when, as a congressman, he helped to draft and pass Medicare. Today Dad's 91, and he's a happy beneficiary of that effort to bring quality health care to every senior citizen. And President Obama is building on that legacy by building quality and secure health care to every American.\nI was governor of Kansas — (cheers, applause) — when Mitt Romney was governor of Massachusetts. Now, many of us watched in amazement, envy even, as he passed a universal health care law in his state. Well, Republicans may see \"Romneycare\" as a scarlet letter. But for us Democrats, \"Obamacare\" is a badge of honor — (cheers, applause) — because no matter who you are, what stage of life you're in, this law is a good thing.\nFirst, if you already have insurance you like, you can keep it. Insurance companies can no longer refuse to cover Americans with pre- existing conditions. That's what change looks like. (Cheers, applause.) More than 5 million seniors have already saved money on their prescription drugs, and almost 33 million have benefited from free preventive services.\nThe president has cracked down hard on Medicare and health care fraud, recovering a record-breaking $10.7 billion over the last three years, protecting our senior citizens. That's what change looks like. (Applause.)\nThis law gives tax credits to 360 small businesses so they can give their employees health coverage, and an array of affordable private insurance plans to choose from. That's what change looks like.\nIf you're self-employed, between jobs or can't get insurance through work, you'll have access to affordable health insurance, as good as Congressman Paul Ryan's. That's what change looks like. (Cheers, applause.)\nIf you're under 26, you can stay on your parents' plan. You can go back to school or get extra training without fear of a health catastrophe bankrupting your entire family. Over 3 million previously uninsured young adults are now on their parents' plans. That's what change looks like. (Cheers, applause.)\nUnder \"Obamacare,\" insurance companies can no longer discriminate against women. (Applause.) Now before, some wouldn't even cover women's most basic health needs, like contraception and maternity care, but still charged us up to 50 percent more than men for a worse plan. They said women who had c-sections or survived breast cancer or even domestic violence had a pre-existing condition, and would deny them coverage.\nBut this president made it illegal to discriminate against women. And — (cheers, applause) — and ended the practice of insurance companies charging women higher premiums than men for the same coverage. The president ensured women's free access to preventive services like breast cancer screenings.\nSo the good news is, being a mother is no longer a liability and being a woman is no longer a pre-existing condition. (Cheers, applause.) Now that's what change looks like.\nToday, nearly 13 million Americans, including some of you in this hall, are experiencing something remarkable. Instead of sending your checks to your insurance companies, your insurance companies are sending a check to you — over a billion dollars out this year alone. Because if insurers don't spend at least 50 percent of your premium dollars on your health care, you get a refund. That's what change looks like. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, I've spent my career fighting the worst practices of insurance companies. I know how tough it is to stand up to powerful forces that prey on consumers. Governor Romney and Paul Ryan know how tough it is, too. That's why they won't do it. They'll let insurance companies continue to cherry-pick who gets coverage and who gets left out, priced out or locked out of the market.\nPresident Obama is making sure that everyone, from cancer survivors to children with asthma, get the care they need.\nWhat's missing from the Romney-Ryan plan for Medicare is Medicare. (Cheers, applause.) So instead of the Medicare guarantee, Republicans would give seniors a voucher that limits what's covered, costing seniors as much as $6,400 more a year.\nPresident Obama extended the program's life by eight years while improving seniors' benefits and strengthening the Medicare guarantee. The president agrees there should be no vouchers. (Cheers, applause.)\nRomney and Ryan will take away women's basic health services and turn a blind eye to insurance discrimination. President Obama stands up for women, giving us control over our own health care. Romney and Ryan would put insurance companies back in control.\nNow, Barack Obama was raised by Kansas women. (Cheers, applause.) I know Kansas women. They taught him the values of hard work and responsibility and fairness. That's why President Obama believes that if you work and play by the rules, you deserve the security of health care. Governor Romney, Congressman Ryan and their Republican colleagues say it's everyone for themselves.\nAnd that, fundamentally, is the choice in this election, between Republicans who only fight for the favored few or a president who fights for the middle class, between a nation whose politics play on the worst of our fears and a nation whose law reflects the best of our values.\nForty-seven years ago my dad proudly watched President Johnson sign Medicare into law. That day President Johnson said few people have the courage to stake reputation and position and the effort of a lifetime on such a cause when there are so few that share it.\nPresident Obama is one of those people. A leader with uncommon compassion and uncommon courage, he's earned more than our gratitude. He has earned four more years. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "TED STRICKLAND: Hello. I'm Ted Strickland, and I come from Duck Run, Ohio! (Cheers, applause.) And let me tell you, folks in Ohio knows what happens when you have a president who stands up for average working people.\nEina Sidney (ph) is a grandmother who lost her ability to provide for her family when they closed down the auto plant in Perrysburg, Ohio. Eina (ph) says thanks to Barack Obama for having the courage to back an industry that others had given up on. (Cheers, applause.) She's an autoworker and a breadwinner once again.\nAs he celebrated the birth of his newborn baby boy, Brian Slagel (ph) lost his job at the moment he needed it most. But today he's back making auto batteries in a factory in Springfield Township, Ohio. (Cheers, applause.) And he says there is only one reason that he has a steady paycheck again: Barack Obama refused to let the American auto industry die. (Cheers, applause.)\nJames Facin (ph) felt like there was no tomorrow when he was laid off. I believe in working every day, he said, and that was taken from me. But today James is working 60 hours a week on the Jeep Liberty line in Toledo, Ohio. (Cheers, applause.) He's thrilled to say that his life right now is eat, sleep and Jeep.\n(Cheers, applause.) He's back, he said, because Barack Obama gave us a chance for a comeback. The auto industry supports 1 out of every 8 jobs in Ohio, and it's alive and growing in America again. (Cheers, applause.)\nLate last year Chrysler announced they were hiring 1,100 new autoworkers in Toledo. (Cheers, applause.) Just last month GM announced a plan to invest $200 million in Lordstown, keeping 5,000 jobs in Ohio and building the next generation of the Chevy Cruze, a car we are proud to say is made entirely in Ohio. (Cheers, applause.) And just today — just today the Big Three automakers all announced that their auto sales are up by double digits since last year. (Cheers, applause.) It's been a long slog back, and we've still got a long way to go. But all over America, all over Ohio, men and women are going back to work with the pride of building something stamped \"Made in America.\" (Cheers, applause.)\nBefore Barack Obama took office, it looked like that pride could have vanished forever. But today, from the staggering depths of the Great Recession, the nation has had 29 straight months of job growth. (Cheers, applause.)\nWorkers across my state and across the country are getting back to work — the dignity of having a good job and a good salary.\nYou know, Vince Lombardi was right when he said: It's not whether you get knocked down. It's whether you get back up. (Cheers, applause.) And my friends — my friends Eina Sidney (ph), Brian Schlegel (ph) and James Faison (ph) were all knocked down. But Eina (ph), Brian (sp) and James (ph) are all standing today. (Cheers, applause.) The auto industry is standing today. The middle class is standing today. Ohio is standing today. America is standing strong today. (Chuckles.) (Cheers, applause.) That's what happens. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: Whoo!\nTED STRICKLAND: That's what happens when you have a president who stands up for average working people. (Cheers, applause.) Barack Obama has stood up for us, and now, by God, we will stand up for him! (Cheers, applause.)\nQuite frankly — quite frankly, Barack Obama knows what it's like to pay a mortgage and student loans. And he knows what it's like to watch a beloved family member in a medical crisis, and worry that treatment may be out of reach. Barack Obama knows our struggles, and my friends, he shares our values. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, Mitt Romney, he lives by a different code. To him, American workers are just numbers on a spreadsheet. To him, all profits are created equal whether made on our shores or off.\nThat's why companies that Romney invested in were dubbed \"outsourcing pioneers.\" Now, you know our nation was built by pioneers, pioneers who accepted untold risks in pursuit of freedom, not by pioneers seeking offshore profits at the expense of American workers here at home. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt Romney proudly wrote an op-ed entitled, let Detroit go — Detroit go bankrupt. (Boos.) You know, if he had had his way, devastation would have cascaded from Michigan to Ohio and across the nation. Mitt Romney never saw the point of building something when he could profit by tearing it down. (Applause.) If Mitt was Santa Claus, he would fire the reindeer and outsource the elves. (Laughter, cheers, applause.)\nMitt has so little economic patriotism that even his money needs a passport. It's summers on the beaches of the Cayman Islands and winters on the slopes of the Swiss Alps. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn Matthew — in Matthew, Chapter 6, Verse 21, the Scriptures teach us that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Cheers, applause.) And my friends, my friends, any man who aspires to be our president should keep both his treasure and his heart in the United States of America.\n(Cheers, applause.) And you know — (cheers, applause) — and you know, it's well past time — (cheers, applause) — it's well past time for Mitt Romney to come clean with the American people —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!\nTED STRICKLAND: — on what he's saying about the president's policies for welfare to work. He's lying, as simple as that. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd on his tax returns, he's hiding. (Cheers, applause.) You know, you have to wonder just what is so embarrassing that he's going to such great lengths to bury the truth. But whatever he's doing to avoid taxes, can it possibly be worse than the Ryan-Romney tax plan that would have sliced Mitt's total tax rate to less than 1 percent? (Boos.)\nAnd so, my friends, there is a true choice in this election. Barack Obama is betting on the American worker. Mitt Romney is betting on a Bermuda shell corporation. (Cheers, applause.) Barack Obama saved the American auto industry. Mitt Romney saved on his taxes. (Cheers, applause.) Barack Obama is an economic patriot. (Cheers.) Mitt Romney is an outsourcing pioneer. (Cheers.)\nMy friends, the stakes are too high, the differences too stark to sit this one out.\nSo let us stand as one on November the 6th and move this country forward by re-electing President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nSTACEY LIHN: Governor Romney says people like me were the most excited about President Obama the day we voted for him. But that's not true, not even close.\nFor me, there was the day the Affordable Care Act passed and I no longer had to worry about getting Zoe the care she needed. (Cheers, applause.) There was the day the letter arrived from the insurance company saying that our daughter's lifetime caps had been lifted. (Cheers, applause.) There was the day the Supreme Court upheld \"Obamacare.\" (Cheers, applause.) Like so many moms with sick children, I shed tears, and I could breathe easier.\nKnowing we have that net below us to catch us if we fall or if, God forbid, Zoe needs a heart transplant, \"Obamacare\" provides my family security and relief.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nBut we're also scared. Governor Romney repealing health care reform is something we worry about literally every single day. Zoe's (sp) third open-heart surgery will happen either next year or the year after. If Mitt Romney becomes president and \"Obamacare\" is repealed, there is a good chance she'll hit her lifetime cap. There is no way we could afford to pay for all the care she needs to survive. When you have a sick child, it's always in the back of your mind and sometimes in the front of your mind. On top of that, worrying that people would let an insurance company take away her health care just because of politics.\nOne-in-100 children are born with a congenital heart defect. President Obama is fighting for them. (Cheers, applause.) He's fighting for families like mine, and we need to fight for him. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nLINCOLN CHAFEE: Good evening, and thank you for having me here to celebrate with all of you.\nAs the nation's only independent governor, I'm here tonight to join with my Democratic friends — (cheers, applause) — on the eve of an election critical to the future of our children and their country.\nAs a former Republican, I represent a group of Americans who all too often have no one to speak for them.\nThis group doesn't necessarily have a name. We've been called \"moderates.\" But that term can be misleading. There's nothing moderate about our love of country or our passion for America's future. (Applause.) There's nothing moderate about our desire to work together within the broad political center in which most Americans live.\nNo matter what you call us, though, this is certain: There are a lot of us, and all over the country, and in November we will once again help elect Barack Obama president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe are, at our core, conservatives, in the best sense of the word: thoughtful, responsible with public resources and respectful of personal freedom. And we are liberal in the best sense of the word. We believe that government can and should be an instrument for the greater good. And although my former party has hijacked the term, there's really nothing conservative about today's Republican Party. (Cheers, applause.) No, in fact, there is no room there for traditional conservatives like us. But I am proud to say that in my friend President Barack Obama, we have found a champion for the principles we hold dear. (Applause.)\nFirst, we love this land, literally. We believe in environmental stewardship, protecting our air and our water — (cheers, applause) — because despite what big business and this Republican Party would have you believe, destroying these precious resources will cost us far more in the future than preserving them now.\n(Applause.)\nSecond, we believe in personal freedom. We do not want the government controlling our personal lives or our most personal decisions. Believing in freedom as we do, we don't think it's the role of government to pass judgment on a relationship between two consenting adults regardless of their orientation. (Cheers, applause.) That's freedom. And believing in freedom, we believe a woman should make her own reproductive decisions. (Cheers, applause.)\nThird, we take seriously the decision to enter into foreign entanglements. During the last administration, then-Senator Obama and I served together on the Foreign Relations Committee. There we shared a mutual desire to end the prevailing attitude of arrogance and recklessness on matters of war and peace that characterized those years. President Obama, he knows that wars are not to be entered into lightly. He knows that overseas conflict don't only do damage in the land in which they are fought, but in the land of those who fight them as well.\nFourth, we believe in using the tools of government to help Americans help themselves. For instance, programs such as Head Start and Pell Grants have brightened the futures of countless American young people — (applause) — and given them a hand up into the middle class. Now Mitt Romney and the Republicans are proposing a budget that would squeeze the life out of Head Start and Pell Grants. Let me ask you, should only the children of the wealthy have access to early education?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nLINCOLN CHAFEE: Should only the children of the wealthy have access to a college degree?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nLINCOLN CHAFEE: No. The answer is absolutely no. American education is still the wonder of the world, and we must open the schoolhouse doors, not close them. A strong educated middle class — (applause) — is what made America the greatest country in the world. (Applause.) Students of America, working families of America, President Obama will not turn his back on you. (Cheers, applause.)\nFinally, we believe in fiscal responsibility. We think it's reasonable to pay for a valuable service that the people want by asking everyone to do their part. The lack of fiscal responsibility is one of the main reasons I finally left my old party. In — (cheers, applause) — that's right. That's right.\nIn 2001 President Bill Clinton handed the Republicans a surplus, and they went on to squander that surplus by launching two wars, expanding the cost of Medicare and giving tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, and failing to pay for any of these.\nMitt Romney and Paul Ryan want to return us to the fantasy land of never having to pay for things we buy, such as education, medical research, good roads and clean energy. That's not conservative, that's not responsible, and that's not what this country needs. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe values I have spoken of tonight aren't Republican or Democratic values. They're American values. They're the values of Abraham Lincoln, who affirmed the fundamental dignity of all Americans regardless of the color of their skin.\nThey're the values of Theodore Roosevelt, who protected millions of acres from development and exploitation so that future Americans, today's Americans, could enjoy them as fully as he did.\nThese are the values of Dwight Eisenhower, who presided over an era of peace and prosperity, because he knew that those two conditions go together. These are American values. But because they have no place in today's Republican Party, neither do I, and neither do millions like me. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut my — (cheers, applause) — but, my fellow traditional conservatives, my fellow moderates, my fellow independents, there is a candidate who shares our values, a candidate who shares our belief in environmental protection, personal liberties, smart and responsible American leadership, growing the middle class and fiscal discipline. That candidate is our president, Barack Obama. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nTAMMY DUCKWORTH: Hi, everyone. My name is Tammy Duckworth. I'm running to serve Illinois' 8th Congressional District. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy father — my father served in the Army and the Marine Corps. Ooh-rah.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Ooh-rah!\nTAMMY DUCKWORTH: A Vietnam vet, his family has worn our nation's uniform since the American Revolution.\nMy husband is an Army officer, and my brother saved lives in the Coast Guard. My mom is Thai and Chinese, and she proudly became a citizen in her 50s. (Cheers, applause.)\nDad's work — Dad's work took us all over the world until he lost his job. It was a tough time. We used up our savings, moved into a studio apartment. But our family did the responsible thing, and we rolled up our sleeves. Mom took in sewing. My 55-year-old dad kept looking for work. But at 15 years old, I was the only one with a job, after school, for minimum wage. Thank God for the food stamps, public education and Pell Grants that helped me finish high school and college. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn time, we pulled through. With this start, I was able to earn my own commission as an Army officer, and I became an Assault Helicopter pilot, working my way up to command a Black Hawk helicopter company. (Cheers, applause.) In 2003 my National Guard unit was mobilized, and I became one of the first Army women to fly combat missions in Iraq. And almost — (cheers, applause) — almost a year into my tour, I was wounded and recovered at Walter Reed with other wounded warriors. Some of us had obvious injuries; others had scars on the inside that were less visible but no less real.\nAt the hospital, I realized my new responsibility: to honor the buddies who saved me by serving our military men and women. And I became the director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe led the nation — we led the nation in screening for traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress, and we created a tax credit for Illinois businesses that hire veterans.\nThen, President Obama asked me to help keep our sacred trust with veterans of all eras at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. We work to end the outrage of veterans having to sleep on the same streets they once defended. (Applause.) We improved services for female veterans, and I reached out to young vets by creating the Office of Online Communications.\nBarack Obama has also lived up to his responsibilities as commander in chief: ending the war in Iraq, refocusing on Afghanistan and eradicating terrorist leaders, including bin Laden. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama pushed for fairness in the military, listening to commanders as we ended \"don't ask, don't tell\" — (cheers) — and on — and on how to allow women to officially serve in more combat jobs. Don't you think — don't you think it's time that we stopped being surprised that America's daughters are just as capable of doing their jobs and defending liberty as her sons? (Cheers, applause.)\nWhen it comes to our men and women in harm's way, we have a clear choice on November 6th.\nLast week Mitt Romney had a chance to show his support for the brave men and women he is seeking to command. But he chose to criticize President Obama instead of even uttering the word \"Afghanistan.\" Barack Obama will never ignore our troops. He will fight for them. That's why he is my choice on November 6th.\nMy choice — (cheers, applause) — my choice is to do what my family did when times were hard: roll up our sleeves and get to work. My choice is to do what my crew did for me in a dusty field in Iraq. On November 12th, 2004, I was co-piloting my Black Hawk north of Baghdad when we started taking enemy fire. A rocket-propelled grenade hit our helicopter, exploding in my lap, ripping off one leg, crushing the other and tearing my right arm apart. But I kept trying to fly until I passed out. And in that moment, my survival and the survival of my entire crew depended on all of us pulling together. And even though they were wounded themselves and insurgents were nearby, they simply refused to leave a fallen comrade behind. Their heroism is why I'm alive today.\nAnd ultimately — (cheers, applause) — ultimately, that is what this election is about. Yes, it's about the issues that matter to me, building — (cheers, applause) —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) USA! USA! USA! USA!\nTAMMY DUCKWORTH: — building an economy that will create jobs here at home, that will — and outcompete countries around the world.\nBut it's also about something else. It's about whether we do for our fellow Americans what my crew did for me, whether we'll look out for the hardest-hit and the disabled, whether we'll pull together in a time of need, whether we'll refuse to give up until the job is done.\nSo let's finish what we started. Let's keep moving forward with Barack Obama. Let's do what this country has always done — (applause) — look adversity in the eye and work together to overcome it. God bless our military men and women who are in harm's way today, God bless their families, and always, God bless the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nNATE DAVIS: I'm not here tonight as a Democrat or as a Republican, but as a man of Christian faith, proud of the progress this president has made. If you're from Ohio — (cheers) — you know Neil Armstrong grew up in our state. When he passed away, I was thinking about what he said about how every step can also be a giant leap.\nThat's how I feel about what this president's doing. With every step, he's had a huge impact on veterans. Not only did he get us what we needed overseas, he's been there for us at home. He's helped us get jobs, got us help for PTSDs, stood strong for military families.\nAnd for me, the most important step was the post-9/11 GI Bill. (Cheers, applause.) Because of the new GI Bill, I was able to attend an amazing university, Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Cheers, applause.) While I was there, I got to intern with Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown. (Cheers, applause.) And now that I have graduated, I have a job as director of veterans affairs at Xavier.\nThe GI Bill keeps opening doors for me.\nEight hundred thousand vets have gone back to school on the new GI bill, a law that Barack Obama championed in the Senate and expanded as president. They've all earned it, and the president has their backs.\nLast year, a guy told me thanks to the GI bill benefits, he had a chance to go to college. He had always told his daughters how important education was, but now he was showing them with his example. And now he's happy to sit at the kitchen table and do his homework right next to his two daughters.\nSo thank you, President Obama — (cheers, applause) — and to all the veterans out there, even if you're having a hard time, don't give up. Believe in God, and keep going forward. Thank you. God bless you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nNANCY KEENAN: Hello, delegates. (Cheers, applause.) On behalf of NARAL Pro-Choice America — (cheers) — and our 1 million member activists, I am honored to be here to talk to you about what is at stake for women in 2012.\nI am proud to say that the Democratic Party believes that women have the right to choose a safe, legal abortion with dignity and with privacy. (Cheers, applause.) We believe in family planning because it helps to prevent unintended pregnancy. We believe that a woman considering an abortion should not be forced to have an ultrasound against her will. (Cheers, applause.) We believe — we believe that rape is rape. (Cheers, applause.) We believe — we believe that a woman should make health care decisions with her family, her doctor and her God. (Cheers, applause.) And we believe that there is no room for politicians, especially those politicians who don't know how women's bodies work. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe are proud — we are so proud to have a president who stands with women and who trusts women — (cheers, applause) — a president who signed into law one of the greatest advancements for women's health in a generation, a president who believes in a woman's right to make her own decisions. (Cheers, applause.)\nI know this president, and I can tell you that he cares deeply about the next generation of young women in this country, his daughters, all of our daughters.\nPresident Obama had the courage to stand with Sandra Fluke. (Cheers, applause.) Without hesitation, he defended her right to tell her story. Mitt Romney did not. (Boos, applause.) That moment — that moment illustrates what is at stake in this election. Put simply, women in America cannot trust Mitt Romney. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe cannot trust Mitt Romney to protect our health. He would repeal \"Obamacare,\" taking away our access to better maternity and prenatal care and the law's near-universal coverage of birth control.\nWe cannot trust Mitt Romney to respect our rights. He would overturn Roe versus Wade and sign into law a wave of outrageous restrictions on a woman's ability to make decisions about her pregnancy.\nMitt Romney would take away our power to make decisions about our lives and our future.\nBut there is one decision that he cannot take away — (cheers) — and that's the one women will make on November 6th. (Cheers, applause.)\nI want to leave you with a story tonight, one that serves as my inspiration. I grew up in Anaconda, Montana. (Cheers, applause.) It is in the heart of the state's mining country. My dad worked at the copper smelter. It was a tough and dangerous place where copper would boil at 1,200 degrees. He had a brass peg and on it was his number — 720. Workers like my dad would throw their number in a bucket as they arrived for their shift, and at the end of the day they would hang it on a pegboard so their buddies would know they made it out safely.\nEvery day my dad threw that peg in that bucket, he did it for his family. He did it for his (car ?) workers. He did it for his community. He did it for his country. (Cheers, applause.)\nHe passed away — he passed away when I was in my 20s, before I decided to run for public office. (Cheers.) I carried that brass peg with me during every campaign in Montana. (Cheers, applause.) This number symbolizes the value of hard work and opportunity and the importance of sticking together.\nWe are ready to do the hard work. We are ready to work together. We are ready to re-elect President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.) We must — we must do it because women deserve to make their own choices and deserve to determine the course of their own lives.\nNow, I got to tell you, don't assume that every voter knows what Barack Obama has done for the women in this country, and don't assume that they know the truth about Mitt Romney.\nTonight I'm asking you to talk with your friends, your neighbors, your relatives, even the ones you have never talked to, about reproductive rights. That's how you can throw your (tag ?) into the bucket and stand with a president that has stood with us. (Cheers, applause.) Conversation by conversation, vote by vote, door by door, we will re-elect President Barack Obama.\n(Cheers, applause.) I will see you on the campaign trail.\nThank you very much. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nMARIA CIANO: My name is Maria Ciano. I grew up in a conservative Republican family in Aurora, Colorado. Many of my relatives can't believe I'm doing this. I guess I can't either. (Chuckles.) (Cheers, applause.)\nI still believe in small government, but I no longer believe in the Republican Party. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt Romney and Paul Ryan want the government to have a say in my family planning. They want employers to decide what kind of birth control coverage I have or if I can have it at all. They want to put insurance companies in charge of my health care. They want to deny me the power to make the most personal decisions about my life. That's not small government. That's not the America I love. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe America I love respects the dignity of women. The America I love is a place where when we say freedom, we mean my freedom to make decisions about my life, not someone else's freedom to make them for me. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd that's the America President Obama is fighting for. When women's rights are threatened, President Obama doesn't hide. He stands up not just for women but with women — (cheers, applause) — amplifying our voices and defending our rights.\nGive him four more years, and our right to make our own most personal decisions will be safe for another generation. (Cheers, applause.) Give him four more years, and he will protect the freedoms in America we all love.\nThank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJARED POLIS: My name is Jared Polis. My great-grandparents were immigrants to this country. I'm Jewish, I'm gay, I'm a father, I'm a son, I'm an entrepreneur, and I'm a congressman from the great state of Colorado. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut first and foremost, first and foremost, I'm an American. And the America that I believe in is the America Barack Obama believes in. It's the America you believe in, one where if you play by the rules and work hard, you can get ahead and succeed and live the American dream, one in which loving families of all forms are respected and celebrated as the backbone of society, one in which today's divisions become tomorrow's unity, in which we transcend partisan bickering and work together to forge a better future for ourselves and our families.\nDiversity is America's strength, and only by working together as one nation can we form a more perfect union. That's why President Obama brought to Washington a vision for one America — an America in which we can overcome divisions of red and blue to make our country better.\nIt's why he's fighting to make citizenship a reality for young immigrants who go to college and serve in our military. (Cheers, applause.)\nIt's why he repealed \"don't ask, don't tell\" so that no person is prevented from serving the country they love because of who they love. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd it's why Barack Obama because the first sitting president in American history to show his personal support for same-sex marriage. (Cheers, applause.)\nConsistently over the last four years, as our nation has struggled through the worst depression since the — worst recession since the Great Depression, Barack Obama has shown strong leadership. And he's taken on politics as usual. He's challenged our nation to come together.\nBarack Obama is the first presidential candidate to refuse contributions from lobbyists. He set the strictest ethics rules in the history of the executive branch. His vision for one America, one in which we can overcome our divisions to make our country greater, continues to be an enormous challenge to Washington, D.C., a town professional pundits and polls, whose entire livelihood is never-ended partisan bickering.\nBut ladies and gentlemen, now is our chance to tell the dividers no. To tell the special interests and cynical Washington insiders no, to tell the lobbyists and PACs no. And to tell our fellow countrymen and countrywomen, gay and straight, Christians, Jews, Mormons, Muslims and nonbelievers, rich and poor, black and white, Latino and Asian, east and west, north and south — it's time to tell them yes.\n(Cheers, applause.) Together, together we are stronger. Together, we are better. Together, we are America. And that's why we must continue bringing America together.\nSo tonight I don't just ask my fellow Americans to respect my relationship with my partner, Marlon, and my role as a father to our son. I also ask my fellow Americans to respect a Christian family concerned about decaying moral values and crass commercialism. I ask my fellow Americans to respect the very difficult decision of a single mother to bring a child into this world because of her heartfelt beliefs. And that's why we must help that courageous mother have the support she needs after her child is born. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe celebrate Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs, even Republicans, because it's their future too. Republicans might have mocked our desire to heal the planet, but we will heal it for Republicans too, and we'll create jobs and improve our schools for Republicans too. We're a diverse country, but we are one country, and we're at our best when we come together as Americans not despite our differences but in celebration of them. From our newest arrivals to our Native American brothers and sisters, we are one America.\nBarack Obama understands that together, we can take on any challenge, and together, we can move our country forward. Out of many, we are one. God bless America. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "R.T. RYBAK: Hello, Minnesota! (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: R.T.! R.T.! R.T.!\nR.T. RYBAK: Thank you —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: R.T.! R.T.! R.T.!\nR.T. RYBAK: Thank you.\nHey, it's cold, we got to cheer about something, right?\nIt was a cold December morning four and a half years ago when we pulled our van full of college students into the town of Buffalo Center, Iowa, population 905. (Cheers, applause.)\nWell, we went door to door for this guy named Barack Obama. And almost nobody in town had heard of him. And like you Iowans do, they asked him pretty tough questions. Would he stand up for the middle class, for people like them, not just for those at the very top? They asked us, would he get us out of this mess in Iraq? And they asked, did he have the guts to take on the insurance companies and reform health care?\nWell, conversations like this were taking place all over Iowa. And Iowans can be tough, but Iowans know the real deal when you see it. (Cheers.) They took a measure of this man. They looked him in the eye. And you sent him on to be president of the United States. Thank you, Iowa, for that. (Cheers, applause.)\nWell, a lot has happened since then, and we still have a long, long way to go. But today we can go back to Buffalo Center and towns across America and say that in the toughest of times, this president delivered for the middle class. He walked into a Washington that was paralyzed. After the greatest economic catastrophe since the Great Depression, he took over. The auto industry was on the brink of collapse. He faced two wars. Bin Laden was at large, and so much more.\nBarack Obama got to work. Our president delivered a recovery act that's one of the reasons why we've had 29 straight months of private sector job growth. (Cheers, applause.) He put 400,000 teachers and education workers in our schools and thousands of police officers and firefighters on the streets of our cities.\nHe ignored the skeptics like Mitt Romney and took bold action to save the auto industry. Romney was wrong; Obama was right. One million more people work in the auto industry today. Romney was wrong; Obama was right.\nHe added years to Medicare's life by cutting waste and fraud and abuse while preserving services for seniors. He got us out of Iraq. He got bin Laden. There are thousands more college students who can pay for school because our president got middlemen out of college loans. College graduates have one less bill to pay because they can stay on their parents' health care until they are 26.\nIn Minneapolis, President Obama's leadership has helped us train 500 unemployed workers in clean energy jobs, and in Denver, hundreds more are working on the commuter line. In Minneapolis, where we know the human tragedy of a bridge collapse, thank you, President Obama, for delivering the resources to rebuild the Camden Bridge and that bridge in Louisville and bridges and infrastructure across this country. Thank you, President Obama.\nNow, President Obama did all this and much, much more in spite of a Republican Party that said its number one goal wasn't to solve any of these problems. They said their number one goal was to stop Barack Obama. Think about this, ladies and gentlemen. In the middle of one of the greatest crises in American history, they sat on their hands and played politics.\nLook, I was raised a Republican, but I don't recognize a once- proud party that's been hijacked by extremists who've driven it off the flat earth they pretend we're living on. They spent eight years — (cheers, applause) — they've spent eight years creating a colossal mess and the last four doing almost nothing except, of course, trying to blame it on President Obama.\nHey, pyromaniacs shouldn't blame the firefighter. (Cheers, applause.)\nOK. Now, Mitt Romney wants to go back to the bad old days that got us into this mess. He'd give up everything that creates opportunity for the middle class just to pay for those massive tax breaks for those who are already very, very comfortable. Romney's message is clear. In tough times, folks, you are on your own.\nNow, President Obama knows something different. He knows that America became great because in tough times, we come together. My pioneer relatives didn't cross the plains alone. They did it in a wagon train. And my immigrant relatives who settled the tiny town of New Prague, Minnesota, could succeed in their general store on Main Street because they needed the farmers and the farmers needed them. There were native people who survived the incredibly harsh winters in Minnesota because they hunted together and they cooked together. And when it snows in Minnesota today, all over town, people look in on their elderly neighbor and shovel their walk.\nWhen my dad died, it left my mom with three kids and a drug store in the inner city. She picked up the pieces, and I owe everything to her, but my mom would be the first to tell you she didn't do it alone. We were surrounded by a community of support.\nIn tough times, we come together. It's the most basic American value. It's the value that built the Midwest. President Obama learned that value from his Kansan family, and that's why he believes that an America where women get equal pay for equal work — (cheers, applause) — where every person, in the words of that great Minneapolis mayor, Hubert Humphrey, said, can walk out of the shadows and into the bright sunlight of equal rights, where you can serve the country you love without hiding who you love and where, in the country of the Statue of Liberty, every child — every child can live the American dream.\n(Cheers, applause.) We come together in tough times.\nYou know, back on that cold day in Buffalo Center, I was so incredibly proud to support a man named Barack Obama. I am so much more proud today. Back then I hoped he would be a great leader, and today I know it. (Applause.)\nThey've tried to stop Barack Obama, but they couldn't because they underestimated President Obama, and more important, they underestimated you. President Obama has earned every gray hair on his head fighting for the middle class and every American. (Cheers, applause.) Now it's time to stand up, America, and fight for this man as hard as he has fought for you. (Cheers, applause.) And if you do that, we've come a long way, but the best is yet to come. (Cheers, applause.)\nLet's go get them! (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nROBERT WEXLER: Thank you, Florida. Four years ago I stood at the convention podium in Denver, affirming Barack Obama's heartfelt, steadfast commitment to the state of Israel.\nOver the past four years the president has proven this commitment time and again in both word and deed. And the Democratic Party platform reflects the president's unflinching commitment to Israel's security and future as a Jewish state. (Cheers, applause.)\nTo strengthen Israel's qualitative military advantage, the president has increased security assistance to Israel to record levels, more than any other president. When he visited Sderot in 2008, an Israeli town along the Gaza border besieged by constant rocket attacks, President Obama saw for himself the terrible toll terrorism takes on Israelis. And that's why he secured the funds to deploy the Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system, which has already saved countless Israeli lives.\nAnd under President Obama, the U.S. and Israel are firmly committed to stopping one of the gravest threats to international security, Iran's quest for nuclear weapons. The president has explicitly stated that an Iranian nuclear weapon is unacceptable and that he will mobilize all instruments of U.S. power, economic, diplomatic, intelligence and military to prevent, not contain, a nuclear Iran.\nDue to the president's strong leadership, Iran is more isolated than ever. He has marshaled the international community to impose the most crippling sanctions in history. Iran's oil exports have plummeted, and its currency value has been slashed in half.\nNot only has he stood up to Iran, President Obama has also bravely stood up for Israel in the international community. (Cheers, applause.) When the anti-Israel Goldstone Report was released, questioning Israel's right to self-defense, President Obama challenged it. When the U.N. held the Israel-bashing Durban Conference, President Obama led an international boycott of it. When a violent Egyptian mob stormed the Israeli embassy in Cairo, it was President Obama who intervened to ensure the safety of the Israelis trapped inside. (Cheers, applause.) In the wake of the Gaza flotilla, President Obama's support for Israel never waned.\nNow the president's opponents have been busy distorting his record. Last week Mitt Romney claimed that the president has thrown Israel under the bus. Perhaps Mr. Romney should listen to those who know best, Israel's leaders. Listen to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who thanked President Obama for unprecedented security cooperation and for wearing his support for the Jewish state as a badge of honor. Listen to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who has repeatedly declared that President Obama has done more for Israeli security than any U.S. president he can remember. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd listen to Israel's beloved president, Shimon Peres, who recently said: Mr. President, you have pledged a lasting friendship for Israel. You stated that Israel's security is sacrosanct for you. So you pledged, so you act, so you are acting as a great leader, as a genuine friend.\nNow is the time — now is the time to continue the strong U.S.- Israel relationship. Now is the time to stand with Israel as it works towards peace and security, toward two states, a secure Israel living side by side with an independent, nonmilitarized Palestinian state. Now is the time to support Israel as a thriving, democratic and secure homeland for the Jewish people by re-electing Barack Obama as president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you very much."
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJOE KENNEDY III: Thank you. Good evening, delegates.\nThis is the first convention since 1956 that we meet without Senator Kennedy. But make no mistake: He is here with us this evening. (Cheers, applause.) I see him in the passion of our delegates, the character of our candidates and the causes that unite us.\nFor my uncle Teddy, politics was always about people. He was from a big family, and he understood that lives are measured not by line items and a budget but by first days of school, last days of summer, by promotions won and jobs lost, new homes, broken hearts, baptisms, funerals and every precious moment in between.\n(Chuckles.) I remember campaigning with him once in Texas for then-Senator Barack Obama. We showed up at a hall in a small border town with only a handful of voters to greet us.\nHe didn't care. They were working folks who had come out to support our candidate. Uncle Teddy got up, raised his hands and belted out \"Ay, Jalisco, no te rajes!\" in a strong Boston accent. (Cheers, applause.) The crowd went crazy for the old ranchero song and the Massachusetts mariachi who sang it.\nIt was Uncle Teddy at his best. And he gave his best to everyone he met, whether a sick child, and injured soldier, an unemployed worker. That idea guided him through the bigger battles: to guarantee the right to organize, to end apartheid, bring peace to Northern Ireland and health care to all. (Cheers, applause.)\nIt guides us — and it guides us in the tough campaign ahead as we fight for our middle class and an economy that's built to last, defend a woman's right to choose, keep a college education affordable, protect our seniors' retirement security and ask every American to do their part to safeguard the promise of this country.\nFour years ago Uncle Teddy marveled at the grit and grace of a young senator who embodied the change our country sorely needed. As we pause today to remember Senator Kennedy, we recommit ourselves to the leader he entrusted to carry on our cause.\nThank you very much. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nKEN SALAZAR: Good evening. I'm Ken Salazar — (cheers, applause) — former United States senator and attorney general for the great state of Colorado. (Cheers, applause.) I'm proud that Colorado delivered a victory to Barack Obama in 2008, and we will do so again in 2012. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy support for Barack Obama is deeply rooted in the American dream. We have both been blessed by this great nation. I'm a 12th- generation Mexican-American. (Cheers.) My family has farmed the lands and the soils along the Rio Grande in Colorado and New Mexico for more than 400 years. I grew up on a ranch without electricity or telephone. My parents were civil servants and soldiers, part of World War II's greatest generation. And though we were poor, my parents so believed in the American dream that all eight of their children became first-generation college graduates. (Cheers, applause.)\nLikewise, Barack Obama's grandparents were from the neighboring state, the Great Plains of the state of Kansas. (Cheers.) His grandfather marched for the cause of freedom in Patton's army. And his grandmother worked in the factories during the war. And he was raised by those grandparents and a courageous mother, who instilled their values in him and taught him that there were no limits to what he could achieve.\nBarack Obama was not born into wealth or privilege, yet today he is president of these United States of America. (Cheers, applause.) Barack Obama has lived the American dream. He has walked in our shoes. Until just a few years ago, Barack and Michelle lived lives like we all do — commuting to work, paying off student loans, picking up kids and balancing the checkbook. These experiences are why President Obama has fought so hard for all of us these past four years. He believes the American Dream should belong to every single American — to every single American. (Applause.)\nNow, on the other side, Mitt Romney, he just doesn't get it. He hasn't walked in the shoes of most Americans, and he doesn't understand that we should focus on helping those around America's kitchen tables, not just those around the boardrooms of America. (Cheers, applause.) We — we need a president who is on our side.\nMy father used to tell me, \"Dime con quien andas, y te dire quien eres\" — tell me who you are — who you walk with, and I'll tell you who you are.\nBarack Obama walks with us. (Applause.) I've watched President Obama protect America's land, water and wildlife. To honor all our cultures; to uphold our commitments to tribal nations and to secure America's energy future.\nIn an era when America's working so hard to achieve energy independence, the president's mission has never been more important. It was President Nixon who first talked about the term \"energy independence.\" Yet, until President Obama took charge, no president had been so successful in helping America make real strides towards a secure and independent energy future. (Cheers, applause.)\nWhat did the old \"drill, baby, drill\" of the last Republican administration get us? And now where would the same Ramen (sic)-Ryan \"drill, baby, drill\" approach take us?\nFour years ago, America imported nearly 60 percent of its oil. President Obama recognized that that path was unsustainable and dangerous. Under President Obama's leadership, the United States moved forward with an all-of-the-above energy strategy. Oil and gas, nuclear, hydro, biofuels, wind, geothermal, solar — all of it. All of it. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd today, for the first time in more than a decade — for the first time in more than a decade — we import less than half our oil. U.S. natural gas production is at an all-time high, and oil production at a 14-year high.\nRenewable energy from solar and wind has more than doubled under the president's leadership. (Cheers, applause.) And on public lands alone, the largest solar, wind and geothermal plants in the world are sprouting up across our public lands, enough electricity to power more than 3 million American homes. And we are creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, good middle-class jobs as we move forward with a clean energy economy. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd thanks to President Obama's leadership, the auto industry is making cars that Americans want to buy, that get better gas mileage, that save money at the pump and reduce emissions. (Applause.)\nToday, America's dependence on foreign oil is at its lowest point in two decades. (Cheers, applause.) The Romney-Ryan plan calls this success imaginary. They say renewable energy is a fad. They even had the gall last week, as the hurricane lashed our coast, to mock our sacred responsibility as stewards of God's earth. Their attitude isn't just sad, it's reckless and it's backwards. And yes, they're still locked in an ideological embrace with the failed policies of the past.\nPresident Obama's energy program is the real deal. It moves us forward, not backward, forward to fuel-efficient cars, a healthy auto industry and good middle-class jobs, forward to a healthier planet and forward to the new energy frontier and American energy independence.\nOn November 6th, America faces a choice: return to the Romney- Ryan ticket of failed policies of the past, or move ahead with a smart, focused and determined president who understands that America always does best when it harnesses the winds of innovation and change.\nFor the sake of every American family, for the sake of American energy independence, for the sake of America's best future, let's go forward, not backward. Let's walk with the president who walks with us — who walks with us, our great president, Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "JIMMY CARTER: (From video.) Fellow Democrats, good evening. (Cheers, applause.) Thirty-six years ago, on our nation's bicentennial, I accepted your nomination as president of the United States. I said then that America needed a president who shares your dreams and takes his strength and wisdom from you, the American people.\nLadies and gentlemen, both now and for the next four years we have just such a leader in the White House.\nSomething you realize quickly in the Oval Office is that the easy decisions are not the ones that make their way to your desk. Whether they are issues of war and peace or great economic matters, be they popular or unpopular, only a president can make those most difficult choices. In those moments, it takes more than a grasp of policy. It takes integrity and an understanding of why and whom you serve. From President Obama's first day in office, I've watched him, as I know you have, face these tough decisions and always put the interest of middle-class Americans above those who, often with a larger wallet, have an ever-louder voice. I've admired him for that.\nBecause President Obama sits behind that desk, everyday people from Plains, Georgia, to Pittsburgh, have someone who's on their side, thinking about them, working to give them an equal chance in life. In just four short years, he has worked to avert economic calamity, brought a dignified end to the ill-conceived war in Iraq and signed into law historic health care reform — a dream that was already decades overdue when I called for it at this convention 36 years ago. And he has done it all in the face of bitter, unyielding, in fact unprecedented partisan opposition.\nOverseas, President Obama has restored the reputation of the United States within the world community. Dialogue and collaboration are once again possible, with the return of a spirit of trust and goodwill to our foreign policy.\nOf course, there remains much to do. In communities across America and in countries around the world, life is too hard for too many people. We see their struggles, and our hearts go out to them. And in the coming years our hands must continue to reach out to them.\nYet for all that remains to be done, at home and abroad, the evidence is overwhelming: President Obama is a leader for America as we face the onslaught of some of the most complicated domestic and international challenges to confront any U.S. president in modern times.\nIt's up to all of us to make sure that the American people understand exactly what is at stake and at risk in this election. With President Obama in the Oval Office, we can make good progress toward becoming a fairer, stronger, more prosperous and inclusive America, a nation adjusted to changing and challenging times while holding true to unchanging principles, a leader among the community of nations.\nNext month, God willing, I will enter the 88th year of my life. And one month later Rosalynn and I will enter a voting booth in our hometown of Plains and cast another vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden. We will do so with the confidence and conviction that they understand the challenges and difficult choices that face our nation and our people — in fact, all peoples of the world in the years ahead.\nOne thing I have learned over my lifetime as a submarine officer, as president and as a leader of the Carter Center is that the biggest challenges and problems that we face don't lend themselves to quick fixes nor to the snappy rhetoric of a television commercial. Solutions are complex and difficult, requiring the judgment, skill and patience to pursue the right policies for the right reasons.\nThere's a clear choice facing voters this November. And I am confident that when the facts and policies have been examined and the record of performances have been reviewed, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will once again be elected to lead our beloved country to a better future.\nThank you. (Video ends.) (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nNANCY PELOSI: Good evening. Good evening. I'm Nancy Pelosi, but my — (cheers, applause) — but my grandchildren call me Mimi.\nFor me, politics is an extension of my role as a mother and as a grandmother.\nFor the Democratic women of the House, our work is not about the next election but rather the next generation. (Cheers, applause.) Working with President Barack Obama, we are committed to reigniting the American dream, the ideal that if you're willing to work hard, play by the rules and take responsibility, you will have the opportunity to climb the ladder of success.\nThe Democratic women of the House are ready to join President Barack Obama to move America forward. (Cheers, applause.)\nROSA DELAURO: I'm Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut. (Cheers, applause.) And we have work to do.\nAmerica's women still make just 77 cents for every dollar men earn. And it is even tougher for women of color. Those pennies add up to a real difference to middle-class families who are trying to pay their bills, trying to get ahead and trying to achieve the American dream.\nAnd we are making progress. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, to give — (cheers, applause) — yes! Yes! (Cheers, applause.) The Fair Pay Act, to give victims of pay discrimination their day in court, was the first bill that President Barack Obama signed into law. (Cheers, applause.) Now we want to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act — (cheers, applause) — real protection to ensure equal pay for equal work.\nThe Democratic women of the House are committed to closing the wage gap for America's families and to move America forward.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nCAROLYN MALONEY: I'm Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney from the great, great state of New York. (Laughs.) (Cheers, applause.)\nWhen President Obama made health care a right, not a privilege for all Americans, that was the change that brought hope to millions. Now, women are beginning to get the preventive services that they deserve — including birth control. (Cheers, applause.)\nIf they get sick or become pregnant, they will not lose their health insurance. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd soon, for the very first time, no longer will being a woman be a pre-existing medical condition. (Cheers, applause.)\nHealthy moms mean healthy families. When my Republican colleagues held a hearing about birth control and refused — refused — to include one single woman on the first panel as a witness to speak for the concerns of women, I asked: Where are the women?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Here ?)! (Cheers, applause.)\nCAROLYN MALONEY: Where are the women? Where are the women?\n(Cheers, applause.)\nWhere are the women? Where are they? (Cheers, applause.)\nWe're here!\n(Cheers, applause.)\nNow the women of America are here, and we are on our way to re-elect our president, President Barack Obama! Yeah! (Inaudible) — our president!\nThe Democratic women of the House are committed to women's health and to moving America forward with President Obama. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)\nALLYSON SCHWARTZ: I'm Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz of the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania! (Cheers, applause.)\nMoving America forward means never going backward on America's great promise of health care for our seniors, Medicare. As a daughter who cared for an elderly parent, I know medical care is not optional for our seniors. And we will not let the Republicans end the guarantee of Medicare, which will cost seniors thousands of dollars and endanger the health and retirement security of millions of Americans.\nAmericans have worked for their Medicare. They've paid for their Medicare. And whether you are 65 or 55 or 45 or 35, you have earned your Medicare. (Cheers, applause.)\nAmericans deserve the security Medicare provides. President Obama will strengthen and protect Medicare. He already has. (Cheers, applause.) And Democrats will make the tough choices, the right choices, to reduce the deficit and preserve Medicare for this generation and for the next.\nThe Democratic women of the House know that a secure retirement moves America forward. (Cheers, applause.)\nGWEN MOORE: I'm Congresswoman Gwen Moore of Wisconsin. (Cheers, applause.) I'm the mother of three and the grandmother of three granddaughters.\nFor our daughters and our granddaughters, I'm working hard to end violence against women. (Cheers, applause.) No victims of domestic violence or bullying, man or woman, should feel unprotected in America. Yet when Democrats acted to strengthen the Violence Against Women Act, Republicans in the House moved to weaken it. (Boos.) In other legislation, they have even tried to change the definition of rape. (Boos.)\nVice President Biden wrote the Violence Against Women Act, and he and President Obama and Democrats are standing strong to prevent violence for all, whether you were born on a reservation or in another country and whether you love a man or a woman. (Cheers, applause.) The Democratic women of the House will fight violence against all Americans to move America forward.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nNYDIA VELAZQUEZ: I'm Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez from the great state of New York. (Cheers, applause.)\nWomen in business are helping lead the way for America's economic recovery. Nearly 8 million American women own small businesses, the engines of job creation and the backbone of the American economy. And in these tough economic times, they need a level playing field and a fair shot to get ahead.\nSupporting small businesses means expanding access to credit and supporting investment that will help them grow. Working with President Barack Obama, House Democrats gave entrepreneurial Americans the freedom to pursue their passions, success and the American dream.\nThe Democratic women of the House know that when women succeed in our economy, we move America forward. (Cheers, applause.)\nTULSI GABBARD: Aloha! (Cheers, applause.) I'm Tulsi Gabbard, candidate for Congress in Hawaii and a captain in the Army National Guard. (Cheers, applause.)\nWhen I stepped down from the state legislature where I served and headed to a war zone, I joined a long, proud line of Americans who sacrifice to make us the land of the free and the home of the brave. (Cheers, applause.) As a combat veteran, I know the cost of war. The sacrifices made by our troops and military families are immeasurable.\nThese days it's often women in uniform: moms, wives, even grandmothers who deploy and leave their families behind. Such heroes and patriots need and deserve leaders who truly understand and care about their hardships and will fight for them. Leaders like President and Michelle Obama and Vice President and Dr. Biden, the strongest advocates our military families could ever have. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe Democratic women of the House standing here will honor the service and sacrifice of our troops to move America forward. Aloha; mahalo. (Cheers, applause.)\nJOYCE BEATTY: I'm Joyce Beatty, and I'm running for Congress from the great state of Ohio to move America forward. (Cheers, applause.)\nMoving America forward means higher education that's affordable and prepares our young people to lead in the 21st century economy.\nMoving America forward means affordable health care and equal pay for equal work. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd to unleash the power of moms in the economy, it means affordable, quality child care. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe will move America forward on behalf of you, your families and communities, your aspirations. Your hopes for your children. That's because America's success is dependent on the success of women: women in education; women in business; women in military and public service.\nWomen will lead us to victory for strong Democratic majorities in Congress — (cheers, applause) — and to re-elect Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe Democratic women of the House are ready to move forward. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nHARRY REID: I'm majority leader of the United States Senate and a senator from Searchlight, Nevada. (Cheers, applause.) It's been my honor to support and work with President Barack Obama, a man who has brought courage and character to the presidency. (Applause.) President Obama's strength of character leads him to do the right thing even when it isn't the easy thing. (Applause.)\nSome said he shouldn't save Detroit, but President Obama made the tough and right call to save more than a million American jobs in an important, iconic industry. (Cheers, applause.) Some said he shouldn't move heaven and earth to get bin Laden, but President Obama made the tough and right call to bring the worst terrorist in the world to justice.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nSome even said he couldn't take on the big banks that brought our economy to its knees. But President Obama made the tough and right call so taxpayers will never again be on the hook for Wall Street's risky bets. (Applause.)\nSome said he couldn't take on the insurance companies that were ripping us off. But President Obama made the tough and right call to save lives, save Medicare and ensure that no one goes broke just because they get sick. (Cheers, applause.)\nHis whole life, there have been so many who told him what he shouldn't or couldn't do. But America has a president who knows what we must do.\nPresident Obama has also faced down another group of naysayers. In addition to the crowd of the \"couldn'ts\" and \"shouldn'ts\", the Republican Party has become the party of the \"wouldn'ts\" and the \"won'ts.\" (Cheers, applause.) They pledged on day one they wouldn't lift a finger to help, and they haven't. In the depth of the Great Recession, as millions of Americans were struggling to find work, the Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said Republicans' number one goal was to make Barack Obama a one-term president. (Boos.) They wouldn't cooperate to create jobs. They wouldn't try to turn around the economy. They wouldn't do anything but stand in the way of President Obama.\nNow, I've had a front row seat to watch the tea party take over the Republican Party. (Boos.) For three and a half years, they wouldn't govern, they couldn't lead, and we shouldn't let them take over the Senate and the White House. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe must stop the tea party before the United States Senate falls into the hands of extremists and ideologues who leave no room for reason or compromise; who don't recognize common ground even when they're standing it. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd if they won't stand up to Rush Limbaugh or Grover Norquist, what would make anyone think they would stand up for you? (Cheers, applause.)\nYou see, today's Republican Party believes in two sets of rules: one for millionaires and billionaires, and another for the middle class. And this year, they've nominated the strongest proponent and clearest beneficiary of this rigged game: Mitt Romney. (Boos.)\nNever in modern American history tried so hard to hide himself from the people he hopes to serve. When you look at the one tax return he has released, it's obvious why. It's obvious why there's only been one. We learned that he pays a lower tax rate than middle- class families. We learned he chose Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island tax shelters over American institutions. (Boos.)\nAnd we can only imagine what new secrets would be revealed if he showed the American people a dozen years of tax returns, like his father did. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt Romney says we should take his word that he paid his fair share. His word? His word? Trust comes from transparency, and Mitt Romney comes up short on both. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou see, this is about more than just a piece of paper. It isn't personal. This is about leveling with the American people and creating a level playing field for them. If we don't know how Mitt Romney would benefit from the policies he proposes, how can we know if he's looking out for us or just himself?\nThe American people are still asking, who is Mitt Romney? But the American people know Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.) He is the leader who says we should, we can, we will. (Cheers, applause.) You see, he is the leader who doesn't search for the easy path for himself, but takes the right one for us. (Applause.)\nThis nation has been through hard times, but those hard times have hardened our resolve. I'm ready to do the difficult work that's ahead, but I want to do that work with Barack Obama and not a tea party ideologue. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe can move America forward, but we can only do it together. We can move America forward with a strong middle class. We can move America forward with a strong Democratic majority in the Senate. And together, we can move America forward with Barack Obama in the White House. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nANTHONY FOXX: Welcome. Welcome to the Democratic National Convention in 2012 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Cheers, applause.) Our city is a hub of energy and commerce, a place where business and government work together and make great things happen. In this election, we are also a city where Americans have come together to move our country forward and make great things happen. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe have always been that kind of city. Nearly half a century ago, when cities across the South struggled to desegregate schools, Charlotteans came together. Across kitchen tables, black and white families met and decided together to break down barriers that had so long divided their children. And because they did, they gave a generation of kids a chance to go to school together, to learn together, to recognize that there is no wall too high or too strong to be broken down if we do it together. (Cheers, applause.)\nI was one of those children. I learned what it truly meant to be judged by the content of one's character.\nI was born to a single mom and raised by her and my grandparents. They taught me to take pride in hard work, to take responsibility for my actions, to understand that an education could expand my mind and transform my life. And so from West Charlotte High School to Davidson College, where I was the first black student body president, from NYU Law School to practicing law in the public and private sectors, from the Charlotte City Council to becoming the first Democratic mayor in Charlotte in 22 years to this stage tonight — (cheers, applause) — I live by my values. I live by the values my family and my community taught me. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd you know what? You know what? I've seen President Obama at work, and these are his values too. This is a man who pulled our economy back from the brink. This is a president who plans to give every child an opportunity to succeed. This is a leader who believes all Americans have a fair shot to go as far as their talents can take them. And so Charlotte, North Carolina, America — (cheers) — when this convention ends on Thursday, our work does not. Over the next 62 days, from this night until election night, we will come together as we have so many times before. We will knock on doors. We will register voters. We will stand up for a leader who will move this country forward, and together, we will re-elect President Barack Obama.\nThank you, and God bless you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nTIM KAINE: Good evening. It is so great to be here tonight. Charlotte's doing a great job, and I especially want to give thanks to my friends from Virginia. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou know, a few years ago very few imagined that Virginia would be a battleground state. Virginia had last voted for a Democrat for president in 1964. But in 2008 we proudly cast our electoral votes for President Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn 2006 and in 2008 we elected two outstanding senators, Jim Webb and Mark Warner. And if I have anything to do with it, we'll win again in 2012.\nHow did Virginia go from red to purple? We did with grassroots excitement and hard work, and we showed Virginians that Democrats get results. (Cheers, applause.) When I was governor during the worst recession since the Great Depression, Virginia maintained one of the lowest unemployment rates in America.\nWe kept our AAA bond rating. We were named the most business-friendly state, best-managed state, best state to raise a child. (Cheers, applause.) In Virginia, we cut billions from the state government while making critical investments in schools, roads and bridges. We worked together with Democrats, Republicans and independents to get results.\nNow, over the last four years, the GOP pushed ideology and wedge issues. Just last week, they passed a platform demanding privacy for super PACs and denying privacy to women making health care decisions. (Boos.)\nMeanwhile, Democrats fought for the middle class. We cut taxes for 95 percent of American families. (Applause.) We went from 25 months of job loss to 28 straight months of private sector job growth. The auto industry is back, and manufacturers are hiring again. (Applause.)\nBut we know we've got more to do. And this fall, there is a real choice. The other side fights to protect subsidies for Big Oil, but we want to invest in America's small businesses. They want bigger tax cuts for those who need it the least. We want to invest in our communities, roads, bridges, infrastructure that will make us more competitive. They want to slash education and training. We want to invest in our future. (Applause.)\nNow, there's just as stark a choice when it comes to fixing America's budget. Remember the last time they were in charge, the other side turned a record surplus into a massive deficit with two wars, trillions in tax breaks, loopholes and entitlements, none of which they would pay for.\nAnd today, well, you see what they're pushing. They're pushing budget-busting tax cuts and economy-busting spending cuts. To pay for the plan, they'd raise taxes on the middle class. They'd turn Medicare into a voucher system. And rather than raise taxes on the wealthy by even one penny, they'd put thousands of defense jobs at risk. So let's be clear: that's not fiscally responsible, that's fiscally reckless, and we can't afford to try it again. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe've got to move forward, because while we've made progress, we still have a long way to go. And we'll only get there if we elect leaders who put results over ideology. I support President Obama because he's that kind of a leader. (Cheers, applause.) He said he'd end the war in Iraq, and he has. (Cheers, applause.) He said he'd draw down troops in Afghanistan, and today every single Virginia National Guard unit is home for the first time in a decade, and we're so happy. (Cheers, applause.) He said he'd go after al-Qaida and he'd take out bin Laden, and with our great SEAL team, that exactly what he did.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nHe said — he said he'd try something that Teddy Roosevelt first talked about, reforming health care system, and he did. (Cheers, applause.)\nHe promised — he promised to fight for equal pay for women, college affordability for students, fair treatment for LGBT Americans, and he's kept his word. (Cheers, applause.)\nOur president, President Obama, is a tough leader who gets results for the American public. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, next week — next week we commemorate the 11th anniversary of 9/11. Many Virginians — too many Virginians — lost their lives at the Pentagon on 9/11 and in the wars that we've fought since. When I was governor, I went to the funerals of our Virginia Guard members. I know people who lost their kids, and I know service members who returned with their lives changed forever.\nTheir sacrifice reminds us, we're not Democrats or Republicans first. We're Americans first. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo we've been through tough times.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!\nTIM KAINE: We've been through tough times as a nation, but we are tough people. And remember, folks, tough times don't last but tough people do last. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo let's come together. Let's come together and show how tough Americans are, and prove that our best days will always, always be ahead of us.\nThanks, and have a great night. Appreciate it. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "DOUG STERN: Hello. My name is Doug Stern. I'm an Ohio fireman, and an unlikely choice to be addressing you this evening because for the vast majority of my voting life, I've been a Republican. (Boos, cheers.) Yeah, thanks. (Laughter, applause.)\nSo why am I here?\nWell, something's happened recently. The Republican Party left people like me. As a member of the middle class, they left me, and they've certainly left me as a public employee. Somewhere — (cheers, applause). Somewhere along the way, being a public employee, someone who works for my community, made me a scapegoat for the GOP.\nVice President Biden and President Obama still believe public service is an honorable calling. (Cheers, applause.)\nWhen I go to work — when there is an emergency — I want someone on my crew that has my back. Someone who helps me get the job done. Someone who's willing to go through hell with me. And I expect the same out of my elected leaders. And that's what we get with Joe Biden and Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nFrom maintaining grant programs so fire departments nationwide have the safe staffing and equipment to support our people, that — President Obama and Vice President Biden have our backs. Supporting my voice to have collective bargaining on the job, President Obama has my back. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama has kept thousands of first responders on the job. And he's sent plans to Congress to keep even more of us working. The Republicans must stop obstructing progress and do the right thing for the middle class. (Cheers, applause.) They must pass the president's jobs plan.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nFor me, this election is about who respects middle-class workers like me and my family. I saw firsthand what the Republicans thought of me and my fellow public employees last year when Ohio legislators passed Senate Bill 5 in an attempt to silence us. We all know how that ended up. (Boos.)\nWhile they were not successful cutting our collective bargaining rights, they were successful in cutting funding for cities and towns all across Ohio. We've watched these so-called leaders claim that they didn't raise taxes, all the while knowing full well that they are forcing the local governments to raise those taxes or cut essential services, including police and fire. (Applause.) We feel their disdain for the very right to voice our concerns about safety matters, not just for ourselves but for the general public that we protect as well, when right-wing extremists threaten to take away the ability to negotiate with so-called right-to-work laws.\nBut let me — let me tell you what else we feel. We feel unified, and we feel stronger than ever. We've seen that the people of Ohio are onto their parlor tricks. Last year 63 percent of Ohio voters took a stand with public employees. They rejected Governor Kasich's Senate Bill 5. (Cheers, applause.) They said, enough. And voters this year have the opportunity to do the same all across the country. Enough of the vilification of the people who work for a living. Enough of the disrespect of the middle class. Enough of their far-right agenda.\nWe have a clear choice this campaign. The people I work with, the firemen that I hang out with, we have a simple statement. We support those who support us. (Cheers, applause.) That's why this Republican — I'm sorry, former Republican fireman stands here with you today. (Cheers, applause.) And that's why firefighters support President Obama and Vice President Biden, because they have our backs, and it's our turn to have theirs. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nPAT QUINN: Delegates and fellow Americans, it is an honor to be with you this evening, and it's an honor to represent the great state of Illinois, the home of President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nTonight I want to talk to you about a scary subject for many, many Republicans. I want to talk about facts. (Cheers, applause.) You know, I watched the Republican National Convention last week, and I heard a lot of things that are simply not true.\nAnd one of our Founding Fathers, President John Adams of Massachusetts, once said that facts are stubborn things.\nBut last week as they nominated a very different man from Massachusetts, Republicans stubbornly smeared President Obama's excellent record of reforming welfare. They went on and on pretending that our president weakened its work requirement. Now, everyone knows that that is a ridiculous charge. Even the Republican author of welfare reform says Romney is wrong. Factcheckers have called this Republican talking point blatantly false, a drastic distortion, wildly debunked and a mind-boggling act of untruthtelling.\nNow, in Illinois, we know President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.) We know his record, and we know that President Obama has made sure that work is always part of welfare reform. And as an Illinois state senator, President Obama spearheaded welfare reform in the land of Lincoln. And the fact is under President Obama, states can only get flexibility if they move 20 percent more people to work. Let me repeat that for our Republican friends: more people working, not less. (Cheers, applause.)\nThen there's Medicare. Mitt Romney and Congressman Ryan want to take away the promise that makes Medicare Medicare. They want to give seniors a voucher that caps what Medicare will cover and then tell our seniors they're on their own for what's left.\nThat would cost our seniors thousands dollars every year. And if they don't have the money, it could cost our seniors their lives. But that didn't stop Romney and Ryan from telling the American people that their plan won't hurt seniors. The fact is, it will. And President Obama's plan will protect Medicare and protect our seniors. Facts are stubborn things. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, when Congressman Ryan got his turn, he blamed President Obama for an auto plant that closed under President George W. Bush. Remember him? (Boos.) Here is the fact, Congressman Ryan: When President Obama took office in January of 2009, the Chrysler plant in Belvidere, Illinois, employed just 200 people. And today, because of President Obama saved the auto industry, that same Chrysler plant is employing more than 4,000 American workers. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, there is something else. There is something else the Republicans left out of their convention: Any explanation of why they call Mitt Romney Governor Romney. We already know that this extreme conservative man takes some pretty liberal deductions.\nEvidently that includes writing off all four years he served as governor of Massachusetts. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd if you want to know how someone's going to govern the country, look at how he governed his state. Mitt Romney promised Massachusetts three things: more jobs, less debt, smaller government. Then he left his state 47th out of 50 states in job growth, he added $2.6 billion in debt, and on his watch government jobs grew six times faster than private sector jobs. What does Romney promise today? More jobs, less debt, smaller government. But he didn't do it then, and he won't do it now! (Cheers, applause.)\nFrom day one, President Obama has told you where he stands, what he believes and what he is doing to make our middle class strong again. America's moving forward under President Obama's leadership, and that's a fact. It's now our job in the next nine weeks to make sure the American people know the facts. Your vote is a valuable thing. Entrust it to someone who respects you enough to tell you the truth. So join — all of us should join together in voting for President Obama, and together let's make the will of the people the law of the land. Thank you very much. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nCHARLIE GONZALEZ: Thank you. Hello, Democrats! (Cheers, applause.) Hello, Texas Democrats! (Cheers, applause.)\nI'm proud to speak to you tonight as chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Under President Barack Obama, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has been invited into the White House and given a seat at the table. Hispanics are serving in unprecedented numbers in this administration at the very highest levels, including the Cabinet. We made history when President Obama appointed Sonia Sotomayor — (cheers, applause) — a proud Latina — (cheers, applause) — the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. (Cheers, applause.) And as the president likes to say, every single one that he appointed wasn't just the best Latino for the job but the best person for the job. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama understands that for more than 50 million Hispanic Americans, their dream is the American dream, that we derive inspiration from our country's most enduring motto, \"E Pluribus Unum\" — out of many, one — and that we are an indispensable and indivisible part of this country.\nPresident Obama has led with principles, with vision and with values. And one of the most important values of Barack Obama is that he will always level with the American people. (Applause.)\nAnd then there's Mitt Romney. (Boos.)\nAdlai Stevenson famously said to Richard Nixon: If you stop telling lies about me, I'll stop telling the truth about you. (Chuckles.) (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd that's where we are today. When it comes to Medicare, the truth is that Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan want to break the fundamental guarantee of Medicare and turn it into a voucher program and ship the cost to our seniors.\nWhen it comes to our country's immigration policies, the truth is that Mitt Romney has embraced the racial profiling policies of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and Sheriff Joe Arpaio. (Boos.)\nThe truth is that he would separate families that have been here for generations. The truth is that he has embraced distrust and division at the expense of our American values.\nWhen it comes to America's economy, the truth is that Mitt Romney believes that the key to our country's economic future lies in the failed policies of the past. The same policy that put banks before people, Wall Street before Main Street, plunging us into a recession and devastating the middle class.\nThe truth is that Republicans in Congress were prepared to have America default on its debt just to forward their own narrow political agenda.\n(Boos.) That's because perhaps the biggest lie the Republicans have told us is that they want to work with President Obama. But the truth is what they really want to do is undermine the president at the cost of our American values like justice, fairness and opportunity.\nNo matter the color of your skin or where you come from, we are all members of the American community, right? (Cheers, applause.) And America prospers, we prosper, when our neighbors are empowered, when they're equipped to give back to this country. And that is not measured by the size of one's bank account. It is measured by dedication and hard work. Justice, fairness and opportunity do not go to the highest bidder. They belong to the American who is willing to invest his or her energy to better themselves, to provide for their families and to build a brighter future.\nPresident Obama believes in an America where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded, where everyone gets a fair shot, does their fair share and plays by the same rules. (Applause.) President Obama knows that it is the middle class that makes America great, and that's why we have to grow our economy and create jobs.\nOver the past four years, President Obama's commitment to this vision has led to the rescue and has re-energized the American automobile industry and the more than 1 million jobs that depend on that industry, to pass health care reform, to make health care a right, not just a privilege, and to strengthen and to protect Medicare and to help young people to afford college and jump-start an American economy run on homegrown American energy sources.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nThe work that President Obama has undertaken has been opposed by congressional Republicans every step of the way. Nydia and I have been there. We have witnessed it. But he has kept moving America forward. President Obama holds true to the values and to the vision of which this country was founded.\nBut his work is not yet done. As part of this great country, Hispanics have and will continue to work for the best this country has to offer. Ready to do our part, we will work for policies that empower all Americans to be responsible and contributing members of the greatest country in the history of this world, the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe've worked — we have worked for the American dream. Now we have to vote for the American dream. And when we do, we will re-elect Barack Obama as president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd now it is my great pleasure to introduce my good friend and a proud Latina from the great state of New York, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nNYDIA VELAZQUEZ: Thank you, Congressman Gonzalez. Tonight I am proud to speak to you as a patriotic Hispanic- American, as a proud Latina and as a Puerto Rican. (Cheers, applause.) From being the first in my family to attend college to becoming the first Latina to chair a full congressional committee in Congress, my story has been the American dream. (Cheers, applause.) And as Democrats, we want to (strength ?) the American dream for all. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn Spanish, there is a saying that many mothers tell their children. (In Spanish.) (Cheers, applause.) Tell me with whom you walk, and I will tell you who you are. Tonight I want to talk about who I have seen President Obama walk with. President Obama has walked with our small businesses, our job creators. He knows small businesses are the backbone of our economy. That is why he has signed 18 tax cuts into law to help our entrepreneurs succeed.\nPresident Obama has walked with seniors. President Obama's health care law won the support of the AARP because it strengthened Medicare without cutting benefits and helped millions of seniors with free preventive care and more affordable prescription drugs.\n(Applause.)\nPresident Obama has walked with our young people, America's future. (Cheers.) He has made investment in the future that pays enormous dividends for our nation. From doubling funding for Pell Grant scholarships to make college more affordable — (cheers) — to Head Start, to community college, to job training.\nPresident Obama has walked with America's women. (Cheers, applause.) President Obama is helping women access preventive health services like cancer screening, contraceptions, and well women exams.\nMeanwhile, Mitt Romney and Republicans in Congress would like to roll back a woman's access to important preventive care, turn over women's health decisions to their bosses and defund Planned Parenthood. (Boos.)\nAnd President Obama has walked with the Hispanic community. (Cheers.) Because of President Obama's work, more Hispanics have access to health care. More Hispanic students can afford a college education. And now, dreamers who are American in every way except on paper — (cheers) — no longer live under the shadow of deportation. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt Romney, on the other hand — Mitt Romney, on the other hand, is walking away from us.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama has worked with us for the last four years, in good times and in tough times. And now we are going to work with the president. (Cheers, applause.)\n(To the post ?) and onward to victory! Thank you, Democrats! (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nCORY BOOKER: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.\nOur platform is crafted by Democrats, but it is not about partisanship; it's about pragmatism.\nIt's not about left or right but about moving America and our economy forward. (Cheers, applause.)\nOur platform and our president stand firm in the conviction that America must continue to outbuild, outinnovate and outeducate the world. (Cheers, applause.) You see, this platform is a clear choice between economic pathways: forward or back; inclusion or exclusion; grow together as a nation or be a country of savage disparities that favor the fortunate few over the greatest driving force of any economy, a large and robust middle class. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe must choose forward. We must choose inclusion. We must choose growing together. We choose American might and American muscle, standing strong on the bedrock of the American ideal, a strong and empowered and ever-expanding and ever-growing middle class. (Cheers, applause.)\nOur platform emphasizes that a vibrant, free and fair market is essential to economic growth. We also must pull from our highest ideals of justice and fairness to protect against those ills that destabilized our economy in recent years, like predatory lending, overleveraged financial institutions and the unchecked avarice of the past that trumped fairness and common sense.\nOur platform calls for significant cuts in federal spending. Our platform calls for a balanced deficit reduction plan, where everyone — everyone, from elected officials to the wealthy and the super- wealthy, pay their fair share. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd please listen to this, because when your country is in a costly war with our soldiers sacrificing abroad and our nation is facing a debt crisis at home, being asked to pay your fair share isn't class warfare. It's patriotism. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe all know —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: U - S - A! U - S - A! U - S - A!\nCORY BOOKER: Now, we all know — we all know that it's common sense that for economy built to last, we must invest in what will fuel our economy for generations to come. This is our history. From the transcontinental railroad to the Hoover Dam; from the dredging of ports to the building of our most historic bridges, our American ancestors prioritized growth and investment in our nation's infrastructure.\nAnd today — and today our businesses, industries, entrepreneurs and economy realize a return on those investments.\nLet us not fall prey to the rhetoric that seeks to gut investment and starve our nation of critical, common-sense building for our future. And investment must include the real engine of job growth in America, the American small business. (Cheers, applause.)\nThat's why this platform committee is proud that our president has made a profound difference for people and businesses in Newark, in New Jersey and in our nation as a whole by cutting taxes for all working families and giving small businesses 18 different tax cuts. (Applause.)\nFor our president, \"home of the brave\" are not just the last words of our national anthem but also a call to action. This is why the president's policies and our platform include incentives to train and hire our troops returning home, not only — not only because it's our moral responsibility but because it makes for a stronger, more secure American economy. (Applause.)\nBut investing in people does not stop with our troops. Our platform and our president make it clear that the most critical investment we can make in a 21st-century knowledge-based economy is education.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nAnd so our president has already doubled Pell Grants, raised education standards, invested in research and development at our universities and early childhood education in our neighborhoods. (Cheers, applause.) This is because our platform and our president state it clearly: Our nation cannot continue to be the world's number one economy if we aren't committed to being the world's number one educator. (Cheers, applause.)\nIt is plain that our platform and our president are not interested in petty political arguments. Instead, this platform of big and practical ideas sets forth an emboldened pathway towards the historic hope which has driven generation after generation of Americans forward. It is our fundamental national aspiration that no matter who you are, no matter what color or creed, how you choose to pray or who you choose to love, that if — (cheers, applause) — that if you are a citizen of the United States of America, if you are an American, first generation or 15th, one who is willing to work hard, play by the rules and apply your God-given talents that you should be able to find a job that pays the bills.\nYou should be able to afford health care for your family. You should be able — (cheers, applause) — to retire with dignity and respect. (Cheers, applause.) And you should be able to give your children the kind of education that allows them to dream even bigger, to go even further and accomplish more than you could ever imagine. (Sustained cheers, applause.)\nThis is our platform. This is our platform. This is our platform. This — (cheers, applause) — this is our American mission. These are the dreams of our fathers and mothers. This is the demand from the next generation who call to our conscience in a chorus of conviction in classrooms from sea to shining sea, from north to south when our children proudly proclaim those sacred words from our most profound pledge, that we are a nation with liberty and justice for all. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd so — and so — God bless America. God bless America. (Sustained cheers, applause.)\nAnd so — and so this November, with the re-election of President Barack Obama — (cheers, applause) — this generation of Americans will expand upon the hope, the dream, the truth and the promise of America. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd so, Mr. Chairman, on behalf of every single member from every single state in these United States, we are pleased to move for the adoption of the 2012 Democratic National Platform. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "BEV PERDUE: Do we know how to have a party?\n(Cheers, applause.) Go, Democrats! (Cheers, applause.)\nIt's my privilege, on behalf of the people of North Carolina, to welcome you all to the Queen City, Charlotte, in the great great state of North Carolina. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, it's always an honor for me as the governor to welcome a distinguished group of national leaders to North Carolina. But it's particularly exciting today because of why we're here: to make sure that Barack Obama is re-elected president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Four more years! Four more years!\nBEV PERDUE: Four more years! Four more years!\nWe must —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Four more years! Four more years!\nBEV PERDUE: We must re-elect the president — listen up, we must re-elect the president because he's standing up for middle-class families and growing our economy — an economy that is built to last. And he's doing it all over the country and right here in North Carolina.\nMy friends, it starts with education. (Cheers, applause.) The president has made schools a top priority. He actually understands that all parents want their children to have even better opportunities than they had as a child. This president's education initiatives are helping North Carolina schools and schools across America soar. These investments are moving education reform and innovation and strengthening our nationally recognized early childhood education program.\nThis president, my friend, simply gets it on education. And that's a good thing for America. (Cheers, applause.) He knows — President Obama knows that education is the difference-maker for every child and it's the pathway for this country to succeed in a global economy.\nSo from education to broadband, from building roads and bridges to supporting the military, Barack Obama is delivering for North Carolina, and he is delivering for America. (Cheers, applause.) A growing middle class is simply the foundation for a strong America.\nAnd President Obama is also standing up for women in North Carolina and in America. He has helped women across this country fight for equal pay for equal work. He understands that women must be guaranteed access to quality, affordable health care and make sure that their insurance coverage pays for those costs with no out-of- pocket costs.\nAnd unlike Mitt Romney — unlike Mitt Romney, President Obama is standing up for Planned Parenthood. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, this election — this election that we're all working so hard to make happen — this election is about the future.\nWe each have a choice in this country. We can go back to the same old failed economic policies that brought about the worst recession since the Great Depression, or we can go back to economic plans that are designed to benefit only the wealthiest among us, like Mitt Romney — (boos) — or we can keep moving America forward with President Obama's vision for a middle class that works for the people of America. (Cheers, applause.)\nFor me — for me and for North Carolina and for the people in America, it's an easy choice. Join with me as we take North Carolina. We will win this state. We will return Barack Obama to the White House. (Cheers, applause.) We will keep America moving forward. We will elect Barack Obama president of the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nMARY KAY HENRY: Hello, delegates. Hello to my sisters and brothers in the American labor movement. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy name is Mary Kay Henry, and I'm here tonight on behalf of millions of Americans who work hard for a living. The home-care worker in Columbus, the janitor in Denver, the correctional officer in Raleigh: These are the men and women who make America strong. And these are the men and women who President Obama is fighting for each and every day. (Cheers, applause.)\nI grew up in southeast Michigan, just a few — (cheers, applause) — just a few miles from Mitt Romney, a few miles away but a world apart. And here is the thing: Even though Mitt Romney and I both call Detroit home, it seems like he learned a very different set of values.\nWhen Mitt started out in business, he invested in the companies who were pioneering outsourcing. He loaded up companies with debt, and when they went bankrupt, he walked away with profits. And he left workers who lost their health care, their pensions and even their jobs. (Shouts.)\nWe've just learned that his company, when it found itself in trouble, asked for a government bailout. But when more than 1 million auto workers from Michigan to Wisconsin to Ohio saw their companies fall on hard times, you know what Mitt Romney said?\nLet Detroit go bankrupt. (Boos.)\nTime after time — time after time, working families have paid the price for Mitt Romney's success. Those are his values. And make no mistake: Those are the values he would bring to the White House. As president, Mitt Romney, would raise taxes on the middle-class Americans by an average of $2,000 a year — (boos) — while at the same time, someone earning $3 million a year would get a quarter- million dollar tax cut. (Boos.)\nThe Romney-Ryan budget would cut education up to 20 percent while protecting tax loopholes for companies who send jobs overseas.\nGovernor Romney would replace the guarantee of Medicare with a voucher system. (Boos.) A voucher system that would cost the average senior $6,400 a year out of their own pockets. (Boos.)\nBut when it comes to subsidies for oil companies, well, Mitt Romney thinks that that's something worth protecting.\nMiddle-class Americans cannot afford four years of Romney economics. (Applause.) We need a president who fights for us and that's what we have in President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe have a president who fights for women like Maria. Maria is a custodian from California, and thanks to health care reform, her daughter is covered under health insurance, and Maria's mother will never have to worry about losing her Medicare benefits.\nWe have a president who has fought for hardworking immigrants like Brenda, who came to this country when she was just 3 years old. And thanks to executive action by the president, Brenda can pursue a college career without fear of deportation. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe have a president who has fought for the right to collectively bargain. We have a president who wants workers to earn a decent wage, for the principle that all work has value and that every worker deserves respect.\nSo for millions of middle-class families across this country, the choice is clear. We cannot move backward with Mitt Romney. We must keep America moving forward, and that's why we need to re-elect President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nRYAN CASE: I wish you all could have met my parents. They were amazing people, and I miss them every day. They'd be so happy to see how far I've come. In fact, the last thing my dad said to me was that he was proud I was taking school seriously for the first time in a long time.\nBoth of my parents were scientists, and they wanted me to be a scientist. But I've always been more interested in how we pick our leaders and how they help us, so I'm making a compromise. I'm studying political science. (Cheers, applause.)\nAt 28, I'm two semesters away from graduating the University of Colorado. (Cheers, applause.) I've worked so long and so hard to get here, and it feels great. And it wouldn't have been possible if President Obama hadn't fought for students like me. There's just no way I'd be able to pay for school without the Pell Grant funding President Obama doubled. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd while I'm determined to get my degree, I also can't sit on the sidelines. That's why I'm knocking on doors for President Obama.\nHe believes no child should use his parents — should see his parents suffer like I did and that all of us deserve the education we need to get the jobs our country needs.\nBut Governor Romney's plan could reduce Pell Grants for 10 million young people like me. (Boos.) We'd still work as hard; we just wouldn't see that hard work pay off. That's the difference in this election. President Obama believed in me. He fought for me. This fall, let's fight for him. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Applause.)\nCLAUDIA KENNEDY: I am proud to be here, I'm proud to be an American and I am proud to be a Democrat.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nThese speeches are great, but the most important thing we can do is create policy that improves the lives of everyday Americans. Sometimes that gets lost in the rhetoric and the commentary. But the fact is, Democratic policies are tough and smart and have improved our lives all over the country.\nLook, I know something about what it takes to keep this country safe. And I watched this president as he helped make America stronger. President Obama has brought our troops home and taken care of them upon their return. (Cheers, applause.)\nHe has taken the fight to our enemy and restored our alliances and improved our standing in the world. (Applause.)\nHe has ended \"don't ask, don't tell.\" (Cheers, applause.)\nIf President Obama is re-elected, America will continue to go forward.\nAnd now we have a chance to meet some of the people whose lives are better, thanks to President Obama, and to hear their stories."
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nBARBARA LEE: I am so pleased that I had a role in drafting this remarkable document. It embodies the values we hold dear as Democrats and as Americans, and it sets forth our great president's vision for our future where, together, we will reignite the American dream for all — (scattered applause) — because the reality is — the reality is, four years ago, the American dream had slipped out of reach for too many, and it had turned into a nightmare for millions.\nPresident Obama changed our course. (Applause.) He changed our course. He invested in our future and put men and women back to work rebuilding our roads and bridges. He raised educational standards, invested in early childhood education and worked hard to make higher education more affordable for everyone. (Cheers, applause.) He invested in clean energy, and enacted the broadest tax cut in history, reducing taxes on the middle class to near historic lows.\n(Applause.) And he saved the American auto industry. (Cheers, applause.) He saved it. He produced historic health reforms. (Cheers, applause.) And he put forward a balanced deficit reduction plan that will put us on sound fiscal footing. (Cheers, applause.)\nToday our economy is growing again. Our platform states that America faces a clear choice: Move forward as a nation where everyone has a chance to get ahead or go back to the same failed ideas that created the crisis in the first place — in the first place. (Cheers, applause.) We will move forward, not backward — forward. (Cheers, applause.)\nRepublicans will raise taxes on low income and the middle class to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. (Boos.) They'll end the fundamental guarantee of Medicare that people have earned. (Boos.) They'll let Wall Street write its own rules again. (Boos.) They'll allow the secret and unlimited special interest money in campaigns to advance its dangerous assault on our democracy. (Boos.) And they'll shred the safety net and gut vital investments in education, innovation and infrastructure in order to help the wealthiest avoid doing their fair share. (Boos.)\nAnd they'll allow insurance companies to once again deny health care to working families and interfere with women's health care decisions. (Boos.)\nPresident Obama and Democrats will not let this happen. (Cheers.) We will not. We will move forward, not backward.\nWe believe we are bound together by a shared set of ideals and values rooted in the notion that together, we can overcome the greatest challenges that come our way. We stand for an economy that's built not from the top down but from the middle out and that provides opportunity for those aspiring to join the middle class. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd yes, we make ending poverty a national priority. (Cheers, applause.) We are a big-tent party of inclusion, and our party speaks to the aspirations of all. Our platforms ensure that the opportunity to live the American dream not only survives but thrives for generations to come. We can't afford to go back or abandon the change we fought so hard for. We will not turn the clock back. We can move forward. We must move forward. And under the leadership of President Obama, we will move forward. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you. Thank you, Democrats. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers.)\nSTENY HOYER: Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and good afternoon, delegates. (Cheers, applause.)\nFirst I want to thank my dear friend Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the distinguished, energetic chair of our Democratic National Committee. (Cheers, applause.) What a wonderful leader of our party she is. (Applause.) In addition to the great job that she does as our party's chair, she is a close friend, a dynamic and effective member of Congress. Thank you, Florida. I am honored to — ladies and gentlemen, to work closely with her.\nLadies and gentlemen, I appreciate the opportunity to serve as the sixth convention as parliamentarian of the national committee.\nIt's my honor to be joined in the duties of parliamentarian by five outstanding Americans: Helen McFadden of South Carolina, who in 1996 became the first woman to serve as a convention parliamentarian; Michael Coleman, mayor of the great city of Columbus — (cheers, applause); Cassandra Butts, a noted domestic policy adviser; John Perez, the speaker of the California senate — Assembly — (cheers, applause) — a leader in the labor movement; and Smita Shah, vice chair of the Chicago Plan Commission and the first person of Asian Indian descent to serve as a convention parliamentarian. (Cheers, applause.)\nLadies and gentlemen, it is our responsibility to help the chair apply and enforce the rules of this convention. To that extent, I would advise the delegations that proxy voting is prohibited. If a pledged delegate is absent the time of a vote, he or she must be replaced by an alternate. During the convention, the parliamentarians will be available to respond to any of your questions about the order of proceedings, the methods of voting and the nature of the proceedings. Each delegation can call our office at any time, and a parliamentarian will always be on the podium and available for advice and counsel.\nLadies and gentlemen, we know that this will be a well-run, orderly and successful convention — (cheers, applause) — and that we will nominate the next president and vice president of the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.) Let's get on with a wonderful convention. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you very much. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA: (Off mic.) Thank you. Si se puede. (Cheers, applause.) That's right. Si se puede.\nThank you.\nThank you, Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz. I love you. Thank you for your leadership of this great party and your role in planning this convention.\nI'm honored to serve as the chair of this historic 2012 Democratic National Convention, where we will renominate President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd as I introduce the — as the permanent chair of the 2012 convention, as I introduce the first official to act here, Congressman Steny Hoyer, to give remarks on behalf of the convention parliamentarians. Thank you. (Applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nDEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Thank you so much. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. (Cheers, applause.) The 46th quadrennial national convention of the Democratic Party will now come to order. (Sounds gavel.)\n(Cheers, applause.) Welcome. Welcome, delegates, alternates, standing committee members, special guests, friends, members of the news media, guests from around the world and fellow Americans, to our deliberations.\nOver the next three days we will hold the most open and accessible political convention in history. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. Viewers from across the country and around the world can watch the entire convention, gavel to gavel, live streamed on the Democratic convention's website and through our mobile app. In addition, the entire program is also being streamed simultaneously in Spanish. (Cheers, applause.)\nDuring our national convention, we will clearly demonstrate why we need to keep Barack Obama and Joe Biden in the White House. (Cheers, applause.) But this convention is about more than renominating President Obama. It's about Americans coming together to build one economy, not from the top down but from the middle class out and the bottom up.\n(Cheers, applause.) This convention's success will be based on engaging the American spirit and involving people who want to put their shoulders to the wheel and change our country for the better. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe have — we're so proud that we have the largest number of delegates ever assembled at a Democratic National Convention. (Cheers, applause.) And as I look out — as I look out from this podium, I see a diverse assembly of Democrats who represent the strength and unity of our party. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe Democratic Party is the oldest continuing party in the world, and your participation in this convention is a testament to the fact that we are also the most vibrant, inclusive and energized political party, aren't we? (Cheers, applause.)\nSo now for some housekeeping. At this time let me remind delegates that presidential nominating petitions must be submitted to the Office of the Secretary no later than 6:00 p.m. today. Vice presidential nominating petitions must be submitted to the Office of the Secretary no later than 9:00 a.m. Wednesday. Petitions should be delivered to the secretary's office, which is located on the floor level concourse.\nDelegates, alternates and guests, please give a round of applause for the DJ for the convention, DJ Cassidy. (Cheers, applause.) Let's also express our appreciation to the dedicated men and women who have worked tirelessly to get the arena and the stadium ready for our convention. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd now I am pleased to introduce His Eminence Metropolitan Nicholas of Detroit to lead the invocation. (Applause.)"
      ]
    }
  , { name: "republican"
    , speeches:
      [ "(Extended cheers, applause.)\nMITT ROMNEY: Thank you. (Cheers, applause.) Mr. Chairman — Mr. Chairman and delegates — (cheers, applause) — Mr. Chairman and delegates, I accept your nomination for president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt!\nMITT ROMNEY: I do so with humility, deeply moved by the trust you've placed in me. It's a great honor. It's an even greater responsibility. And tonight I'm asking you to join me to walk together to a better future.\nAnd by my side, I've chosen a man with a big heart from a small town. (Cheers, applause.) He represents the best of America, a man who will always make us very proud — my friend and America's next vice president, Paul Ryan. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn the days ahead, you're going to get to know Paul and Janna better. But last night America got to see what I saw in Paul Ryan — a strong and caring leader who's down to earth and confident in the challenge this moment demands, and I love the way he lights up around his kids, and how he's not embarrassed to show the world how much he loves his mom.\n(Cheers, applause.) But Paul, I still like the playlist on my iPod better than yours. (Laughter, applause.)\nFour years ago I know that many Americans felt a fresh excitement about the possibilities of a new president. That choice was not the choice of our party, but Americans always come together after elections. We're a good and generous people, and we're united by so much more than what divides us. When that election was over, when the yard signs came down and the television commercials finally came off the air, Americans were eager to go back to work, to live our lives the way Americans always have, optimistic and positive and confident in the future.\nThat very optimism is uniquely American. It's what brought us to America. We're a nation of immigrants. We're the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the ones who wanted a better life, the driven ones, the ones who woke up at night hearing that voice telling them that life in the place called America could be better. They came not just in pursuit of the riches of this world, but for the richness of this life, freedom, freedom of religion — (applause) — freedom to speak their mind — (applause) — freedom to build a life and yes, freedom to build a business with their own hands. (Cheers, applause.)\nThis is the essence of the American experience. We Americans have always felt a special kinship with the future.\nWhen every new wave of immigrants looked up and saw the Statue of Liberty or knelt down and kissed the shores of freedom just 90 miles from Castro's tyranny, these new Americans surely had many questions. But none doubted that here in America, they could build a better life, that in America, their children would be blessed more than they.\nBut today, four years from the excitement of that last election, for the first time, the majority of Americans now doubt that our children will have a better future. It's not what we were promised. Every family in America wanted this to be a time when they could get a little ahead, put aside a little more for college, do more for the elderly mom that's now living alone or give a little more to their church or their charity. Every small business wanted these to be their best years ever, when they could hire more, do more for those who had stuck with them through the hard times, open a new store or sponsor that Little League team. And every new college graduate thought they'd have a good job by now, a place of their own, they could start paying back some of their loans and build for the future.\nThis is when our nation was supposed to start paying down the national debt and rolling back those massive deficits. This was the hope and change America voted for. It's not just what we wanted. It's not just what we expected. It's what Americans deserve. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) USA! USA! USA!\nMITT ROMNEY: You deserved it because during these years you worked harder than ever before. You deserved it because when it cost more to fill up your car, you could out — cut out movie nights and put in longer hours. Or when you lost that job that paid 22.50 (dollars) an hour with benefits, you took two jobs at 9 bucks an hour. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt!\nMITT ROMNEY: You deserve it because your family depended on you, and you did it because you're an American, and you don't quit. You did it because it was what you had to do. But driving home late from that second job or standing there watching the gas pump hit $50 and still going, when the realtor told you that to sell your house, you'd have to take a big loss, in those moments you knew that this just wasn't right.\nBut what could you do except work harder, do with less, try to stay optimistic, hug your kids a little longer, maybe spend a little more time praying that tomorrow would be a better day?\nI wish President Obama had succeeded because I want America to succeed. (Cheers, applause.) But his promises gave way to disappointment and division.\nThis isn't something we have to accept. Now is the moment when we can do something. And with your help, we will do something. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow is the moment when we can stand up and say, I'm an American, I make my destiny, we deserve better, my children deserve better, my family deserves better, my country deserves better. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo here we stand. Americans have a choice, a decision. To make that choice, you need to know more about me and where I'd lead our country.\nI was born in the middle of the century in the middle of the country, a classic baby boomer. It was a time when Americans were returning from war and eager to work. To be an American was to assume that all things were possible. When President Kennedy challenged Americans to go to the moon, the question wasn't whether we'd get there, it was only when we'd get there. (Cheers, applause.) The soles of Neil Armstrong's boots on the moon made permanent impressions on our souls. Ann and I watched those steps together on her parents' sofa. Like all Americans, we went to bed that night knowing we lived in the greatest country in the history of the world. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!\nMITT ROMNEY: God bless Neil Armstrong. (Cheers, applause.)\nTonight that American flag is still there on the moon, and I don't doubt for a second that Neil Armstrong's spirit is still with us, that unique blend of optimism, humility and the utter confidence that when the world needs someone to do the really big stuff, you need an American. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy dad had been born in Mexico, and his family had to leave during the Mexican Revolution. I grew up with stories of his family being fed by the U.S. government as war refugees. My dad never made it through college, and he apprenticed as a lath and plaster carpenter.\nHe had big dreams. He convinced my mom, a beautiful young actress, to give up Hollywood to marry him and move to Detroit. He led a great — (cheers, applause) — he led a great automobile company and became governor of the great state of Michigan. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe were — we were Mormons, and growing up in Michigan, that might have seemed unusual or out of place, but I really don't remember it that way. My friends cared more about what sports teams we followed than what church we went to.\nMy mom and dad gave their kids the — the greatest gift of all — the gift of unconditional love. They cared deeply about who we would be and much less about what we would do. Unconditional love is a gift that Ann and I have tried to pass on to our sons and now to our grandchildren. All the laws and legislation in the world will never heal this world like the loving hearts and arms of mothers and fathers. (Cheers, applause.) You know, if every children could drift asleep feeling wrapped in the love of their family, and God's love, this world would be a far more gentle and better place.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nMy mom and dad were married for 64 years. And if you wondered what their secret was, you could have asked the local florist — (laughter) — because every day Dad gave Mom a rose, which he put on her bedside table. That's how she found out what happened on the day my father died. She went looking for him because that morning there was no rose.\nMy mom and dad were true partners, a life lesson that shaped my by everyday example. When my mom ran for the Senate, my dad was there for her every step of the way. I can still see her saying, in her beautiful voice, why should women have any less say than men about the great decisions facing our nation? (Cheers, applause.)\nDon't you wish she could have been here at this convention — (cheers) — and heard leaders like Governor Mary Fallin, Governor Nikki Haley, Governor Susana Martinez, Senator Kelly Ayotte and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice? (Cheers, applause.) As governor of Massachusetts, I chose a woman lieutenant governor, a woman chief of staff. Half of my Cabinet and senior officials were women. And in business, I mentored and supported great women leaders who went on to run great companies.\nI grew up in Detroit in love with cars and wanted to be a car guy like my dad. But by the time I was out of school, I realized that I had to go out on my own, that if I stayed around in the same business, I'd never really know if I was getting a break because of my dad. I wanted to go someplace new and prove myself.\nThose weren't the easiest of days, many long hours and weekends working, five young sons who seemed to have this need to re-enact a different world war every night. (Laughter.) But if you asked Ann and I what we'd give to break up just one more fight between the boys or wake up in the morning and discover a pile of kids asleep in our room — well, every mom and dad knows the answer to that.\nThose days were the — (cheers, applause) — these were tough days, on Ann particularly. She was heroic through it all. Five boys, with our families a long way away. I had to travel a lot for my job then, and I'd call and try to offer support. But every mom knows that doesn't help get the homework done or get the kids out the door to school. And I knew that her job as a mom was harder than mine, and I knew without question that her job as a mom was a lot more important than mine. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd as America saw Tuesday night, Ann would have succeeded at anything she wanted to do. (Cheers, applause.)\nLike a lot of families in a new place with no family, we — we found kinship with a wide circle of friends through our church. When we were new to the community, it was welcoming. And as the years went by, it was a joy to help others who had just moved into town or just joined our church.\nWe had remarkably vibrant and diverse congregations from all walks of life, and many who were new to America. We prayed together. Our kids played together. And we always stood ready to help each other out in different ways.\nThat's how it is in America. We look to our communities, our faiths, our families for our joy, our support in good times and bad. It's both how we live our lives and why we live our lives. The strength and power and goodness of America has always been based on the strength and power and goodness of our communities, our families and our faiths. (Cheers, applause.)\nThat's the bedrock of what makes America America. In our best days we can feel the vibrancy of America's communities, large and small. It's when we see that new business opening up downtown. It's when we go to work in the morning and see everybody else on the block doing the same thing. It's when our son or daughter calls from college to talk about which job they — offer they should take, and you try not to choke up when you hear that the one they like best is not too far from home. It's that good feeling when you have more time to volunteer to coach your kids' soccer team or help out on school trips.\nBut for too many Americans, those kind of good days are harder to come by. How many days have you woken up feeling that something really special was happening in America?\nMany of you felt that way on Election Day four years ago. Hope and change had a powerful appeal.\nBut tonight I'd ask a simple question.\nIf you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn't you feel that way now that he's President Obama? (Applause.) You know there's something wrong with the kind of job he's done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him. (Laughter, cheers, applause.)\nThe president hasn't disappointed you because he wanted to. The president has disappointed America because he hasn't led America in the right direction. He took office with — without the basic qualification that most Americans have, and one that was essential to the task at hand: He had almost no experience working in a business. Jobs, to him, are about government. (Cheers, applause.)\nI learned the real lessons about how America works from experience. When I was 37, I helped start a small company. My partners and I had been working for a company that was in the business of helping other businesses. So some of us had this idea that if we really believed our advice was helping companies, we should invest in companies; we should bet on ourselves and our — on our advice. So we started a new business called Bain Capital.\nThe only problem was, while — while we believed in ourselves, not many other people did. (Laughter.) We were young and had never done this before, and we almost didn't get off the ground. In those days, sometimes I wondered if I had made a really big mistake.\nBy the way, I'd thought about asking my church's pension fund to invest, but I didn't. (Laughter.) I figured it was bad enough that I might lose my investors' money, but I didn't want to go to hell, too.\n(Laughter, applause.) Shows what I know. Another of my partners got the Episcopal Church Pension Fund to invest — (laughter) — and today there are a lot of happy retired priests who should thank him. (Laughter, applause.)\nThat business we started with 10 people has now grown into a great American success story. Some of the companies we helped start are names you — you know and you've heard from tonight: an office company called Staples, where I'm pleased to see the Obama campaign's been shopping — (laughter, applause) — the Sports Authority, which of course became a favorite of my boys; we helped start an early childhood learning company called Bright Horizons that First Lady Michelle Obama rightly praised; and at a time when nobody thought we'd ever see a new steel mill built in America, we took a chance and built one in a cornfield in Indiana, that today — (cheers, applause) — today Steel Dynamics is one of the largest steel producers in the United States.\nThese — (applause) — these are American success stories. (Applause.) And yet the centerpiece of the president's entire re- election campaign is attacking success. Is it any wonder that someone who attacks success has led the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression? (Cheers, applause.) In America, we celebrate success; we don't apologize for success. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow — now, we weren't always successful at Bain, but no one ever is in the real world of business. That's what this president doesn't seem to understand. Business and growing jobs is about taking risk, sometimes failing, sometimes succeeding, but always striving. It's about dreams. Usually, it doesn't work out exactly as you might have imagined. Steve Jobs was fired at Apple, and then he came back and changed the world.\nIt's the genius of the American free enterprise system to harness the extraordinary creativity and talent and industry of the American people with a system that's dedicated to creating tomorrow's prosperity, not trying to redistribute today's. (Extended cheers, applause.)\nThat's why — that's why every president since the Great Depression who came before the American people asking for a second term could look back at the last four years and say with satisfaction: You're better off than you were four years ago. Except Jimmy Carter. (Laughter.) And except this president. (Cheers, applause.)\nThis president can ask us to be patient. This president can tell us it was someone else's fault. This president can tell us that the next four years he'll get it right. But this president cannot tell us that you're better off today than when he took office.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nAmerica's been patient. Americans have supported this president in good faith. But today the time has come to turn the page. Today the time has come for us to put the disappointments of the last four years behind us, to put aside the divisiveness and the recriminations, to forget about what might have been and to look ahead to what can be. Now is a time to restore the promise of America. (Cheers, applause.)\nMany Americans have given up on this president, but they haven't ever thought about giving up, not on themselves, not on each other and not on America. What is needed in our country today is not complicated or profound. Doesn't take a special government commission to tell us what America needs. What America needs is jobs, lots of jobs. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn the richest country in the history of the world, this Obama economy has crushed the middle class. Family income has fallen by $4,000, but health insurance premiums are higher. Food prices are higher. Utility bills are higher. And gasoline prices, they've doubled. Today more Americans wake up in poverty than ever before. Nearly 1-out-of-6 Americans is living in poverty. Look around you. These aren't strangers. These are our brothers and sisters, our fellow Americans. His policies have not helped create jobs. They've depressed them.\nAnd this I can tell you about where President Obama would take America.\nHis plan to raise taxes on small business won't add jobs: It would eliminate them. (Cheers, applause.) His assault on coal and gas and oil will send energy and manufacturing jobs to China. (Mixed boos, cheers, applause.) His trillion-dollar cuts to our military will eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs and also put our security at greater risk. (Boos.) His $716 billion cut to Medicare to finance \"Obamacare\" will both hurt today's seniors and oppress innovation and jobs in medicine. (Boos.) And his trillion-dollar deficits, they slow our economy, restrain employment and cause wages to stall.\nTo the majority of Americans who now believe that the future will not be better than the past, I can guarantee you this: If Barack Obama is re-elected, you'll be right. (Applause.)\nI'm running for president to help create a better future — a future where everyone who wants a job can find a job — (cheers, applause) — where no senior feels for the — fears for the security of their retirement, an America where every parent knows that their child will get an education that leads them to a good job and a bright horizon.\nAnd unlike the president, I have a plan to create 12 million new jobs. (Cheers, applause.) Paul Ryan and I have five steps. First, by 2020, North America will be energy-independent by taking full advantage of our oil, our coal, our gas, our nuclear and our renewables. (Cheers, applause.)\nSecond, we'll give our fellow citizens the skills they need for the jobs of today and the careers of tomorrow. When it comes to the school your child will attend, every parent should have a choice and every child should have a chance. (Cheers, applause.)\nThird, we'll make trade work for America by forging new trade agreements. And when nations cheat in trade, there will be unmistakable consequences. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd fourth, to assure every entrepreneur and every job creator that their investments in America will not vanish as have those in Greece, we will cut the deficit and put America on track to a balanced budget. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd fifth, we will champion small businesses, America's engine of job growth. That means reducing taxes on business, not raising them. It means simplifying and modernizing the regulations that hurt small business the most. (Cheers, applause.) And it means that we must rein in the skyrocketing cost of health care by repealing and replacing \"Obamacare.\" (Cheers, applause.)\nToday women are more likely than men to start a business. They need a president who respects and understands what they do.\nAnd let me make this very clear: unlike President Obama, I will not raise taxes on the middle class of America. (Cheers, applause.)\nAs president, I'll protect the sanctity of life. I'll honor the institution of marriage. (Cheers, applause.) And I will guarantee America's first liberty, the freedom of religion. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans — (laughter) — and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family. (Cheers, applause.)\nI will begin my presidency with a jobs tour. President Obama began his presidency with an apology tour. America, he said, had dictated to other nations. No, Mr. President, America has freed other nations from dictators. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) We want Mitt! We want Mitt! We want Mitt! We want Mitt!\nMITT ROMNEY: Every American —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) We want Mitt! We want Mitt! We want Mitt! We want Mitt!\nMITT ROMNEY: Every American was relieved the day President Obama gave the order and Seal Team 6 took out Osama bin Laden. (Cheers, applause.)\nOn another front, every American is less secure today because he has failed to slow Iran's nuclear threat. In his first TV interview as president, he said we should talk to Iran. We're still talking, and Iran's centrifuges are still spinning.\nPresident Obama has thrown allies like Israel under the bus — (boos) — even has he as relaxed sanctions on Castro's Cuba. He abandoned our friends in Poland by walking away from our missile defense commitments. (Boos.) But he's eager to give Russia's president, Putin, the flexibility he desires after the election. (Boos.) Under my administration, our friends will see more loyalty, and Mr. Putin will see a little less flexibility and more backbone. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe will honor America's democratic ideals, because a free world is a more peaceful world. This is the bipartisan foreign policy legacy of Truman and Reagan, and under my presidency, we will return to it once again. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou might have asked yourself if these last years are really the America we want —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nMITT ROMNEY: — the America that was won for us by \"the greatest generation.\"\nDoes the America we want borrow a trillion dollars from China?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nMITT ROMNEY: Does it fail to find the jobs that are needed for 23 million people and for half the kids graduating from college?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nMITT ROMNEY: Are those schools lagging behind the rest of the developed world?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nMITT ROMNEY: And does America that we want succumb to resentment and division among Americans?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nMITT ROMNEY: The America we all know has been a story of the many becoming one, uniting to preserve liberty, uniting to build the greatest economy in the world, uniting to save the world from unspeakable darkness. Everywhere I go in America, there are monuments that list those who have given their lives for America. There's no mention of their race, their party affiliation or what they did for a living. (Cheers, applause.) They lived and died under a single flag, fighting for a single purpose.\nThey pledged allegiance to the United States of America. That America, that united America, can unleash an economy that will put Americans back to work, that will once again lead the world with innovation and productivity and that will restore every father and mother's confidence that their children's future is brighter even than the past.\nThat America, that united America, will preserve a military that's so strong no nation would ever dare to test it. (Cheers, applause.)\nThat America — that America, that united America, will uphold the constellation of rights that were endowed by our creator and codified in our Constitution. (Cheers, applause.)\nThat united America will care for the poor and the sick, will honor and respect the elderly and will give a helping hand to those in need.\nThat America is the best within each of us. That America we want for our children. If I'm elected president of these United States, I will work with all my energy and soul to restore that America, to lift our eyes to a better future. That future is our destiny. That future is out there. It is waiting for us. Our children deserve it. Our nation depends on it. The peace and freedom of the world require it, and with your help, we will deliver it. (Cheers, applause.) Let us begin that future for America tonight. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you so very much. May God bless you, may God bless the American people and may God bless the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nMARCO RUBIO: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think I just drank Clint Eastwood's water. Thank you. (Laughter.) Boy, thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me here today, and thank you so much for doing this convention here in Florida.\nYou know, before I begin this — thank you. Before I begin, this is such an important night for our country. I want to take just — with your permission, just a few seconds to talk about another country, a country located just a few hundred miles away from this city, the country of my parents' birth. There is no freedom or liberty in Cuba. And tonight, I ask for your prayers that soon freedom and liberty will be theirs as well. (Cheers, applause.)\nIt — you know, this is a big honor for me. Just not so long ago I was just a deep underdog candidate. The only people that thought I could win all lived in my house. (Laughter.) Four of them were under the age of 10. (Laughter.) But this is incredible. When I was asked to introduce Governor Romney — who we'll hear from in just a moment. I promise you, he's backstage, ready to go. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd — so I called a few people and asked them, what should I say? And they had a lot of different opinions, but the one thing they all said is, don't mess it up. (Laughter.)\nSo I thought the best way to introduce Mitt Romney tonight, the next president of the United States — (cheers, applause) — is to talk — is to talk about what this election is about. And I'm so honored to be able to do it here in Florida at the Republican National Convention in front of all you patriots. (Cheers, applause.)\nI watched my first convention in 1980 with my grandfather. My grandfather was born to a farming family in rural Cuba. Childhood polio left him permanently disabled. Because he couldn't work the farm, his family sent him to school. He was the only one in his family that knew how to read. He was a huge influence on me growing up. As a boy, I used to sit on the porch of our house and listen to his stories about history and politics and baseball as he would puff on one of his three daily Padron cigars.\nNow, I don't remember — it's been three decades since we last sat on that porch, and I don't remember all the things he talked to me about. But the one thing I remember is the one thing he wanted me never to forget, that the dreams he had when he was young became impossible to achieve. But there was no limit how far I could go, because I was an American. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, for those of us — here's why I say that. Here's why I say that, because for those of us who were born and raised in this country, sometimes it becomes easy to forget how special America is. But my grandfather understood how different America was from the rest of the world because he knew life outside America.\nTonight you will hear from another man who understands what makes America exceptional.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nMitt Romney knows America's prosperity didn't happen because our government simply spent more money. It happened because our people used their own money to open a business. And when they succeed, they hire more people who invest or spend their money in the economy, helping others start a business or create jobs.\nNow tonight you have heard for a long time now about Mitt Romney's success in business. It's well-known. But we've also learned that he's so much more than that. Mitt Romney is a devoted husband, a father, a grandfather, a generous member of his community and church, a role model for younger Americans like myself. Everywhere he's been, he's volunteered his time and talent to make things better for those around him. And we are blessed that a man like this will soon be the president of these United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, let me be clear so no one misunderstands. Our problem with President Obama isn't that he's a bad person, OK? By all accounts, he, too, is a good husband and a good father and, thanks to lots of practice, a good golfer. (Laughter.) Our problem is not that he's a bad person. Our program is that he's a bad president. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou think he's watching tonight? (Laughter.) Because his new slogan for his campaign is the word \"forward.\" Forward?\nA government that spends $1 trillion more than it takes in? An $800 billion stimulus that created more debt than jobs? A government intervention into health care paid for with higher taxes and cuts to Medicare, scores of new rules and regulations — these ideas don't move us forward. These ideas move us backwards. (Cheers, applause.)\nThese are tired and old big-government ideas that have failed every time and everywhere they've been tried. These are ideas that people come to America to get away from. (Cheers, applause.) These are ideas that threaten to make a more — America more like the rest of the world instead of helping the rest of the world become more like America. (Cheers, applause.)\nAs for his old slogan, under Barack Obama, the only change is that hope is hard to find. (Laughter.)\nNow, sadly, millions of Americans are insecure about their future. But instead of inspiring us, by reminding us of what makes us special, he divides us against each other. He tells Americans that they're worse off because others are better off, that rich people got rich by making other people poor. Hope and change has become divide and conquer. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut in the end, this election — it doesn't matter how you feel about President Obama because this election is about your future, not about his. And — (cheers, applause) — and this election is not simply a choice between a Democrat and a Republican.\nIt's a choice about what kind of country we want America to be. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd as we prepare to make this choice, we should remember what made us special. You see, for most of human history, almost everybody was poor. Power and wealth only belonged to a few. Your rights were whatever your rulers allowed you to have. Your future was determined by your past. If you parents were poor, so would you be. If you were born without opportunities, so were your children.\nBut America was founded on the principle that every person has God-given rights — (cheers, applause) — founded on the belief that power belongs to the people, that government exists to protect our rights and serve our interests and that no one should be trapped in the circumstances of their birth. We should be free to go as far as our talent and our work can take us. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd we're special — we're special because we're united — we're united not as a common race or a common ethnicity, we're bound together by common values, that family's the most important institution in society — (cheers, applause) — and that Almighty God is the source of all we have. (Cheers, extended applause.)\nWe're special — we're special because we've never made the mistake of believing that we are so smart that we can rely solely on our leaders or on our government — our national motto, \"In God we trust,\" reminding us that faith in our creator is the most important American value of them all.\n(Cheers, applause.) And we're special — we're special because we've always understood the scriptural admonition that for everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required. (Applause.)\nWell, my fellow Americans, we are a uniquely blessed people. And we have honored those blessings with the enduring example of an exceptional America. (Applause.)\nI know for many of you watching at home tonight, the last few years have tested your faith in the promise of America. Maybe you're at an age when you thought you would be entering retirement, but now because your savings and investments are wiped out, your future is uncertain. Maybe after years of hard work, this was the time you expected to be your prime earning years, but instead you've been laid off, and your house is worth less than your mortgage. Maybe you did everything you were told you needed to do to get ahead, you studied hard and finished school, but now you owe thousands of dollars in student loans, you can't find a job in your field and you've had to move back in with your parents. You want to believe that we're still that special place where anything is possible, but you just don't seem — things just don't seem to be getting any better. And you wonder if things will ever be the same again.\nYes, we live in a troubled time, but the story of those who came before us reminds us that America has always been about new beginnings, and Mitt Romney is running for president because he knows that if we are willing to do for our children what our parents did for us, life in America can be better than it has ever been.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nMy mother was one of seven girls whose parents often went to bed hungry so their children wouldn't. My father lost his mother when he was 9. He had to leave school and go to work, and he would work for the next 70 years of his life. They immigrated to America with little more than the hope of a better life. My dad was a bartender. My mom was a cashier, a hotel maid, a stock clerk at Kmart. They never made it big. They were never rich. And yet they were successful, because just a few decades removed from hopelessness, they made possible for us all the things that had been impossible for them.\nMany nights growing up, I would hear my father's keys jingling at the door as he came home after another 16-hour day. Many mornings I woke up just as my mother got home from the overnight shift at Kmart. When you're young and you're in a hurry, the meaning of moments like this escape you. But now as my children get older, I understand it better.\nMy dad used to tell us, en ese pais, ustedes van a poder lograr todas las cosas que nosotros no pudimos — (cheers, applause) — in this country — in this country, you're going to be able to accomplish all the things we never could. A few years ago during a speech, I noticed a bartender behind a portable bar in the back of the ballroom. And I remembered my father, who worked for many years as a banquet bartender. He was grateful for the work he had. But that's not the life he wanted for us.\nYou see, he stood behind a bar and — in the back of the room all those years so one day I could stand behind a podium in the front of a room. (Cheers, applause.)\nThat journey, that journey from behind that bar to behind this podium goes to the essence of the American miracle, that we're exceptional not because we have more rich people here; we're special because dreams that are impossible anywhere else, they come true here.\nBut — (cheers, applause) — but that's not just my story. That's your story. That's our story. That's the story of your mothers who struggled to give you what they never had. That's the story of your fathers who worked two jobs so that the doors that had been closed for them would be open for you. That's the story of that teacher or that coach that taught you the lessons that made you who you are today.\nAnd it's the story of a man who was born into an uncertain future in a foreign country. His family came to America to escape revolution. They struggled through poverty and the Great Depression. And yet he rose to be an admired businessman and public servant. And in November his son Mitt Romney will be elected president of these United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn America —\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! Mitt!\nMARCO RUBIO: In America, we are all just a generation or two removed from someone who made our future the purpose of their lives. America is the story of everyday people who did extraordinary things, a story woven deep into the fabric of our society. Their stories may never be famous, but in the lives they live, you will find the essence of America's greatness. And to make sure that America is still a place where tomorrow is always better than yesterday, that is what our politics should be about, and that is what we are deciding this election. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe decide, do we want our children to inherit our hopes and dreams, or do we want them to inherit our problems? Because Mitt Romney believes that if we succeed in changing the direction of our country, our children and grandchildren will be the most prosperous generation ever, and their achievements will astonish the world. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe story of our time will be written by Americans who haven't yet even been born. Let us make sure they write that we did our part, that in the early years of this new century, we lived in an uncertain time, but we did not allow fear to cause us to abandon what made us special. We chose more government instead of more freedom (sic). We chose the principles of our founding to solve the challenges of our time.\nWe chose a special man to lead us in a special time. We chose Mitt Romney to lead our nation. And because we did, the American miracle lives on for another generation to inherit. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy fellow Republicans, my fellow Americans, I am proud to introduce to you the next president of the United States of America, Mitt Romney! (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nCLINT EASTWOOD: Thank you very much. (Sustained cheers, applause.) Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: (Chanting.) We want (Clint/Mitt ?)! We want (Clint/Mitt ?)! We want (Clint/Mitt ?)!\nCLINT EASTWOOD: (Chuckles.) Save a little for Mitt. (Laughter.)\nNow, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, what's a movie tradesman doing out here? You know, they're all left-wingers out there, left of Lenin. (Laughter.) At least that's what people think, but that's not really the case. There is a lot of conservative people, a lot of moderate people, Republicans, Democrats in Hollywood. It's just that conservative people, by the nature of the word itself, are — play it a little more close to vest. They don't go around hot- dogging it.\nSo — (cheers, applause) — but they are there. Believe me, they are there. And I just — I think, in fact, there's some of them around town. I saw Jon Voight. There's a lot of people around here — (inaudible). (Cheers, applause.) Jon's here, an Academy Award winner, terrific guy. And these people are all like-minded, like all of us.\nSo I've got — I've got Mr. Obama sitting here. (Laughter.) And he's — I just was going to ask him a couple questions. But — you know, about — I remember 3 1/2 years ago when Mr. Obama won the election. And though I wasn't a big supporter, I was watching that night when he was having that thing and they were talking about hope and change, and they were talking about \"Yes, we can.\" And it was dark and — outdoors. And it was nice. And people were lighting candles, and they were saying, you know — and I just thought, this is great. I mean, everybody's crying. Oprah was crying. And — (laughter) — I was even crying. (Laughter.)\nAnd then finally — I haven't cried that hard since I found out that there's 23 million unemployed people in this country. (Cheers, applause.) And now that is something to cry for because that is a disgrace, a national disgrace. And we haven't done enough, obviously. This administration hasn't done enough to cure that. And whatever interest they have is not strong enough. And I think possibly now it may be time for somebody else to come along and solve the problem. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo, Mr. President, how do you — how do you handle — or how do you handle promises that you've made when you're running for election, and how do you handle — how do you handle it? I mean, what do you say to people? Do you — do you just — (laughter) — you know, I know people were wondering, you don't — (inaudible) — OK.\nWell, I know even some of the people in your own party who were very disappointed when you didn't close Gitmo. And I thought — well, I think closing Gitmo, why close that? We spent so much money on it.\nBut I thought maybe it's an excuse — you know, what do you mean shut up? (Laughter.) (Inaudible.) OK. It just — I thought it was just because somebody had the stupid idea of trying terrorists in downtown New York City. Maybe that was it. (Laughter, applause.)\nI've got a — I've got to hand it to you. I've got to give credit where credit's due. You did overrule that finally, and that's — so now we're moving onward.\nAnd I know in the — I know you were against the war in Iraq, and that's OK. But you thought the war in Afghanistan was OK. You know, I mean, you thought that was something that was worth doing. We didn't check with the Russians to see how they did there for the 10 years. (Laughter, applause.) But we did it. And it was — you know, it's something to be thought about. And I think that when we get to maybe — I think you mentioned something about having a target date for bringing everybody home.\nAnd you give that target date, and I think Mr. Romney asked the only sensible question on it. He said, why are you giving the date out now? Why don't you just bring them home tomorrow morning? (Laughter, cheers, applause.) And I thought — I thought, yeah, there's a — I'm not going to — shut up. It's my turn. (Laughter.) So anyway, we got — we're going to have — we're going to have to have a little chat about that.\nAnd then I just wondered, these — all these promises. And then I wondered about, you know, when the — what? What do you want me to tell Romney? I can't tell him to do that. Can't do that to himself. (Laughter.) You're crazy. You're absolutely crazy. (Laughter, cheers, applause.) You're getting as bad as Biden. (Laughter, cheers, applause.) Of course, we all know Biden is — Biden is the intellect of the Democratic Party, so — (inaudible) — (laughter, cheers, applause) — we have a — just a kind of a — kind of a grin with a body behind it, you know — (inaudible) — (laughter).\nSo anyway — but I just — I just think that there's so much to be done. And I think that Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan are two guys that can come along. I — see, I never thought that it was a good idea for attorneys to be president anyway, because it's — (laughter, cheers, applause) — yeah.\nI think — I think attorneys are so busy — you know, they're always taught to argue everything and always weigh everything and weigh both sides, and they're always — you know, they're always — Mr. Devil's advocating this and bifurcating this and bifurcating that — you know, all of that stuff. But I think it's maybe time — what do you think — for maybe a businessman. How about that? (Cheers, applause.)\nA stellar businessman, quote-unquote, a stellar businessman. And I think it's that time. And I think if you just kind of stepped aside and Mr. Romney can kind of take over — you can still use the plane — (laughter) — though maybe a smaller one, not that big gas guzzler that you're driving around when you're going around to colleges and talking about student loans and stuff like that. I think — (laughter) — you're an ecological man. Now, why would you want to drive that truck around? (Laughter.) OK.\nWell, anyway — all right, I'm sorry. I can't do that to myself, either. (Laughter, applause.) Anyway, OK.\nBut I'd just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen, something that I think is very important. It is that you — we own this country. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. Thank you. Yes, we own it. And it's not you owning it and not politicians owning it — politicians are employees of ours, and — (cheers, applause) — so they're just going to come around and beg for votes every few years.\nIt's their same old deal. But I just think that it's important that you realize that — and — that you're the best in the world. And whether you're Democrat or whether you're Republican or whether you're libertarian or whatever, you're the best, and we should not ever forget that. And we — when somebody does not do the job, we've got to let them go. (Cheers, applause.) Let them go. (Cheers, applause.) (Inaudible.)\nOK. Yeah. OK. Just remember that. And I'm speaking out for everybody out there. It doesn't hurt we don't have to be —\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible.) (Audience murmurs.)\nCLINT EASTWOOD: I don't say that word anymore. (Laughter.) Well, maybe one last time. (Audience shouting.) We don't have to be — what I'm saying is we don't have to be (mental ?) masochists and vote for somebody that we don't even really want in the — in the — in office. We — just because they seem to be nice guys or maybe not so nice guys, if you look at some of the recent ads going out there. I don't know. (Audience shouting, applause.)\nOK. You want to make my day, eh? All right. (Laughter, cheers, applause.) I — all right. I'll start it. You finish it.\nGo ahead.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (We want Mitt ?)!\nCLINT EASTWOOD: Thank you. Thank you very much. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nKIM RHODE: Thank you.\nI have had the good fortune, the amazing blessing to represent this great country as a proud member of Team U.S.A. at the last five Olympic Games in doubles trap skeet shooting competitions.\n(Cheers, applause.) I won my first gold medal in Atlanta in the summer of 1996, and I just — (cheers, applause) — returned from the Olympics in London a few weeks ago with another gold medal. This — (cheers, applause) — this was one of a record-setting hundred and four medals won by Team USA — (cheers) — including 58 by women, which is the most ever. I think it's safe to say we showed the world that women of America are a force to be reckoned with. (Cheers, applause.)\nI am honored to share the stage tonight with a handful of Olympic champions. Allow me to introduce them to you: Dan Jansen, an American favorite throughout four Olympiads and gold medalist. (Cheers, applause.) Andy Gabel, a four-time short track speedskating Olympian and a silver medal-winner. (Cheers, applause.) Rowdy Gaines, an Olympic Hall of Famer and three-time Olympic gold medal- winner. (Cheers, applause.) Lea Ann Parsley, a silver medalist in the women's skeleton in 2002. (Cheers, applause.) Noelle Pikus-Pace, the 2007 skeleton world champion and 2010 Olympian. (Cheers, applause.) Bill Schuffenhauer, a three-time Olympic and Olympic bobsled silver medalist in 2002. (Cheers, applause.) Jimmy Shea, the only third-generation Olympian winning the gold medal in skeleton in 2002. (Cheers, applause.) Jean Racine-Prahm, a two-time World Cup champion bobsledder and two-time Olympian. (Cheers, applause.)\nScott Hamilton, an American icon, 1984 Gold Medalist known for his back flip(s). (Cheers, applause.) Christopher Delvin-Young, an American Paralympic alpine skier who won two Gold Medals and two Silver Medals. (Cheers, applause.) Derek Parra, a Gold and Silver Medalist speed skater in 2002. (Cheers, applause.) Mike Eruzione, captain of the 1980 Winter Olympics U.S. hockey team that defeated the Soviet Union in the famous \"Miracle on Ice.\" (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!\nKIM RHODE: From the time when I walked into the Olympic Games in Atlanta as a wide-eyed 16-year-old, to the moment a few weeks ago when I heard our national anthem played in London as a seasoned veteran, I've seen our country both prosper, and more recently, falter. Not unlike my athletic career, there were many times when things were going very well, and times when they were not. It was in those times when things were difficult that I learned to rely on strong leadership to get me, as they would say in my world, back on target — the strong leadership of a more experienced teammate, of my coaches, and of course, most importantly, the strong leadership of my mom and dad. (Cheers, applause.)\nI came here tonight because I believe that today our country is off-target. We need the leadership of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to turn our country around — (cheers, applause) — so that millions of Americans who have taken aim at their own dreams, whatever they may be, have the opportunity for those dreams to come true, just like our Olympic dreams did. We need strong leadership, we need new leadership and we need it now. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe are here on stage because we know Americans need the leadership of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Thank you all so much, and good night. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) USA! USA! USA! USA!\nMIKE ERUZIONE: OK. Thank you. Thank you.\nGood evening. I'm Mike Eruzione. (Cheers, applause.) And I am honored to have this opportunity tonight to talk with you about the global significance of the Olympic movement, its ideals and its meaning, and how it was rescued by Mitt Romney. (Cheers, applause.)\nIt has been over 10 years so many of you may have forgotten, but in 2002, due to bribery scandals and mismanagement, the Olympics, not just those games, but the Olympics as an institution were threatened.\nThankfully, Mitt Romney was there to salvage a desperate situation.\nMitt's leadership not only turned around those games by solving the operational and financing problems, but he did something deeper. He drew a line in the sand and said that the 2002 games would have the highest standards of ethics and integrity.\n(Cheers, applause.) He put Olympians, the athletes, and the ideals of the Olympics back at the center of the games. He focused on restoring the Olympics to the top pedestal of sports, and he preserved the opportunity and idealism of the Olympics for future generations. I was fortunate to compete in the Olympics as captain of the 1980 U.S. \"Miracle on Ice\" hockey team. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) USA! USA! USA!\nMIKE ERUZIONE: And that team — and that team was proud and honored to light the cauldron for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. That action of passing along the flame of the Olympic spirit symbolizes something grander than all of us. It is the single greatest movement that brings all humans across the world together. We are all fortunate that Mitt Romney kept that fire burning. (Cheers, applause.)\nAs a result of the 2002 Olympics, I had the opportunity to get to know Mitt and Ann Romney and to see what they have accomplished. Mitt is a brilliant leader who is committed to the highest ideals, and he is a wonderful and caring family man. Just like the Olympics needed Mitt's leadership 10 years ago, America desperately needs Mitt Romney's leadership today. (Cheers, applause.)\nPlease join me in making him the next president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you.\nDEREK PARRA: I'm Derek Parra. I'm a 5-foot-4 Mexican-American from Southern California. (Cheers, applause.) Now, those are just three reasons it didn't add up for me to have ever become Winter Olympic champion. (Laughter.)\nBut somehow, from inside a roller rink as a teenager, a dream grew within my heart that someday, maybe, I could represent my country at the Olympic Games. And I chased that dream for over 20 years, and eventually it led me to Salt Lake City. (Cheers, applause.) With great effort and the help of some amazing people along the way, I had become one of the top speed skaters in the world, and the finish line was in sight. But as the Olympics appeared on the horizon, that dream was almost derailed.\nThe Olympics were mired in scandal and budget deficit — and even worse, the national tragedy of September 11th that shook our entire nation to its very core. It was a time of uncertainty.\nBut in my Olympic world, Mitt Romney was at the helm. (Cheers, applause.) His vision and commitment got the games back on track and gave me the opportunity to realize my athletic dreams. Not only did Mitt facilitate my dream in 2002, he facilitated the dreams of all athletes from around the world. (Cheers, applause.)\nAt that time, I had only met Mitt briefly. But after the Olympics, I got to know him, and for a period of time I lived with him and his family.\nI know Mitt, and I know him well. I know him as a businessman and as a leader. I know him as a father and as a very, very busy grandfather. And I'm proud to say that I know him as a friend. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, you might think my greatest Olympic moment came when I stood on the podium for the first time with a gold medal wrapped around my neck. But you'd be wrong. In fact, the — my most powerful Olympic memory came before the Olympics even started. It's a story I've heard Mitt reference a number of times on the campaign trail, so I'd like to share with you firsthand what it was like for me.\nFebruary 8th, 2002, was a cold but clear night in Salt Lake City. It was the night of the opening ceremony. I was competing the very next morning, so I was planning not to attend. But that all changed the second I got the call from the U.S. Olympic Committee just hours before the ceremony asking me if I would be able to be one of the eight athletes selected to carry the World trade Center flag into the opening ceremonies. (Cheers, applause.)\nI was floored. Instantly I knew it was something I had to do, something I wanted to do. It was an honor beyond anything I could have ever imagined. And while it's now just over 10 years later, at that time our country was still reeling from the wounds, the trauma and the pain of September 11th.\nAs the opening ceremonies got under way and the flag-bearing athletes and I gathered backstage, we were standing with the Port Authority officers whose job it was to oversee the flag.\nThey began telling us how proud they were of us, that the families of the victims were proud of us, that all the people who lost their lives were proud of us.\nWhen it came time to begin the procession, I touched the flag for the first time, and I remember a physical sensation unlike anything I'd ever experienced. (Applause.) If it's possible — if it's possible to feel your soul being touched, then that's what I felt.\nAs we carried the flag out before a capacity crowd and a worldwide television audience, the silence was deafening. That flag, which has flown over so much pain and loss, still stood for life, love and the hope of a nation. (Cheers, applause.)\nThere are few times in any life when the emotion of a moment is all that exists. That night time stood still. As our national anthem rang out like never before, I stood there holding that flag, the symbol of everything our country had ever been through, with tears streaming down my face.\nThat moment came under the leadership of Mitt Romney. (Applause.) And it not only inspired me, but it inspired all of Team USA, and we went on to win a record number of medals.\nToday our country is struggling, but the right leaders can inspire us to push on, overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges and to accomplish great things.\nMitt Romney is that kind of leader. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you, and God bless. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Applause.)\nJANE EDMONDS: Thank you for the warm welcome. I am honored to be here with you tonight to share my feelings about Mitt Romney. By way of background, my politics is as a liberal Democrat. My passion is about education, workforce training and leadership.\nWhen I first met Governor Romney, I was struck by his humanity, his grace, his kind manner.\nIt was just the two of us in his office when I met him as a finalist for a Cabinet position in his administration. I could tell immediately just by our interaction that he is the real thing, authentic. (Cheers, applause.)\nHe struck me then and now as honest, transparent and inclusive. I somehow knew during that meeting that he is demanding of himself, and — (chuckles) — he'd be demanding of anyone who is part of his administration. I wanted to be around him and in that kind of environment, where my energy, skills and talents could be channeled along with others toward the public good.\nI could tell by our conversation that the governor was in office not for himself or to promote himself but for the people. (Cheers, applause.) My initial size-up of the man held true. During the four years I served in his Cabinet, I saw him up close and personal many times. And he always drove us in his administration to make government better for the people.\nOne area where he made a positive difference is in improving the representation of women in senior positions in Massachusetts state government. (Cheers, applause.)\nBefore Governor Romney took office in 2003, women were significantly underrepresented among top roles in government, with 52 percent of the population but just 30 percent of the jobs. Over the next 2 1/2 years 42 percent of the new appointments made by Governor Romney were women. (Cheers, applause.) In fact, based on a survey by the State University of New York, Massachusetts was ranked first in percentage of women holding top state positions. (Cheers, applause.)\nThis led the Boston Globe to note, women fill 10 of 20 top positions in Governor Mitt Romney's administration, making the Commonwealth one of five states that come close to matching the percentage of top women appointees to the proportion of women in the overall population. This achievement happened because Mitt Romney cared about the issue, he took action to fix it, and he delivered results. (Cheers, applause.)\nHe is unquestionably an amazing steward and leader, a servant leader and someone whom I respect very much. That's the kind of leadership that has always inspired me: unselfish leadership. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe late Stephen Covey writes about two kinds of people.\nOne type is all about themselves and their success, and the other type works as hard as they can — and certainly succeeds — but their success is motivated by doing good for others. That's how I see Governor Romney. He is authentic.\nHe is open to good ideas, wherever they come from. It doesn't matter if they're from a liberal Democrat like me. He'll listen, and he's inclusive. As a great leader, he brought out the best in me. And I know, as president, he will bring out the best in our country. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nKERRY HEALEY: Ten years ago, as chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party — (cheers, applause) — I flew to Salt Lake City not to see the Olympics but to meet the man who had saved them. I had a message from the grass roots: Come back to Massachusetts; our state needs you. Mitt Romney had turned around companies and turned around the Olympics. Now Massachusetts needed Mitt Romney to turn us around.\nMassachusetts was in deep trouble. We had a massive budget gap and soaring unemployment. People in my state were losing hope for themselves, their families and their children, sadly, very much like our country finds itself today.\nMitt Romney answered the call of service and accepted the challenge.\nHow did he fix our state? Well, he quickly assembled a Cabinet of the best and the brightest, drawing on both parties, Republicans and Democrats, half women, half men, to give him the full spectrum of ideas and advice. He respected different opinions. He valued open debate. And when it was all said and done, Mitt Romney knew how to make a decision. (Cheers, applause.)\nGovernor Romney did what many thought was impossible. He turned around a $3 billion budget gap and created a $2 billion rainy day fund. He even worked to streamline government but at the same time made certain to safeguard protections for the elderly, children and the homeless.\nIn education, Governor Romney gave parents more choices, insisted on tough standards for both teachers and students, and Massachusetts schools became the best in the nation. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe cleared out regulations on small businesses, and we cut taxes 19 times. (Cheers, applause.) And as a result, unemployment dropped to only 4.7 percent. And unlike President Obama, Governor Romney's economic policies were rewarded with a credit upgrade. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, those are the facts and figures, but when people find out that I served as Mitt Romney's lieutenant governor, they always ask me the same question: What's he like?\nFirst and foremost, Mitt Romney is a good and honorable man — (cheers, applause) — committed to public service and his country. (Cheers, applause.) On the morning he took the oath of office, his first act was to focus public attention on those in need. We served breakfast to homeless veterans, encouraging voluntarism and acknowledging the special debt we owe to those who sacrifice for our country. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou know, you may not know this, but Mitt Romney never took a salary as governor. (Cheers, applause.) But he worked harder than anyone I know. Every morning, very early, before the rest of us arrived, Mitt would meet with his economic secretary. They worked tirelessly because for Mitt, creating jobs was his top priority. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt was always a hands-on leader. When one of Boston's tunnels collapsed, tragically killing a passenger in her car, Mitt didn't blame others. He dove in and fixed the problem. (Cheers, applause.) Mitt immersed himself in the engineering challenges, personally oversaw safety inspections, abolished cronyism and corruption and restored public confidence. (Cheers, applause.) That's the Mitt Romney I know. And he is ready to bring that same work ethic, vision and integrity to the White House. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt Romney will never let our children's education be second- best or allow their future prosperity to be mortgaged by today's political cowardice.\nHe will respect those who build things with their own minds and their own hands. (Cheers, applause.) And Mitt Romney won't just talk about family values, he will live them every day. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd I'll tell you another thing. Mitt Romney understands that the world is safer when our country leads, and he will never apologize for America. (Cheers, applause.) Mitt Romney will lead us back to an America we can be proud of and ahead to a future where the American dream is alive again, and within every man and woman's reach.\nThank you, Mitt Romney, for believing in America. And America, you can believe in Mitt Romney. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nRAY FERNANDEZ: Thank you. Thank you.\nThese last few months I've heard a lot of false information about Bain Capital and private equity. I'm proud to stand here and tell you what I saw when Bain Capital bought the company where I worked. The experience improved my job, and it gave me opportunities that I always believed were part of the American dream.\nIn 1996 I became a sales rep at a contact lens business called Wesley Jessen. My sales region was right here in Florida, where my parents immigrated from Cuba when I was 13 years old — (cheers, applause) — from a country where government owns everything, but nothing works. (Cheers, applause.)\nWesley Jessen had been struggling, losing over 50 million (dollars) a year under the previous owner. Then Mitt Romney and Bain Capital came in. Bain Capital saw something others didn't see. They invested money in marketing. They brought in a charismatic and dynamic CEO, Kevin Ryan. They did everything to make the company succeed. This is the real Bain Capital — the story the Obama campaign doesn't want you to hear.\nBecause of Bain Capital's attention to management, Wesley Jessen roared back, and workers like me were inspired by what we saw, and our careers thrived.\nAnd when the company went public a few years later, I was well- rewarded. With that money, my wife, Sylvia, who's a pharmacist, and I, started our own business in Hialeah, Florida, Vida Pharmacy. (Cheers, applause.) None of this would have been possible without Bain Capital's investment (that brought ambition ?) and commitment to a struggling company. As a result, we're doing what we love: serving our community. We are building our future.\nStories like this need to be told. My life today is better because of Bain Capital. Mitt Romney helped turn around my company. I can't imagine anyone better-prepared to turn around this country. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you."
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nTOM STEMBERG: Twenty-five years ago I had a crazy idea for a new business.\nI wanted to do to office supplies what Home Depot had done with home improvement. I pictured an office superstore for regular customers and small businesses. The business would be called Staples.\nIt wasn't easy at first. I had a vision and a business plan. Then I met Mitt Romney. He helped make it come alive.\nNow, Mitt was an unusual guy. He had already enjoyed great success in Bain & Company. But he knew the value of a dollar. When I told him about Staples, he got really excited at the idea of saving a few cents on paper clips. (Laughter.)\nFunny thing. But I ask you, who would make a better president? Someone who knows how to save a dollar on pens and paper, or someone who knows how to waste $535 million on Solyndra? (Cheers, applause.)\nThe truth — the truth is Mitt was not a typical investor. He was a true partner. Where some saw an unproven new business, he saw a store that could save people money. He recognized that efficiency creates consumer value.\nAnd he never looked at Staples merely as a financial investment. He saw the engine of prosperity it would become. Today Staples employs nearly 90,000 people. It has over 2,000 stores, over 50 distribution centers. (Applause.) It is a competitive — and it is part of a competitive industry that helps entrepreneurs and small businesses get started on their own. (Cheers, applause.) For me — for me, as a founder, it was the realization of a dream.\nSo you can imagine my dismay when I see this White House and their campaign demonizing Mitt Romney, demonizing Bain Capital and demonizing the private equity industry that has created so many new jobs. (Cheers, applause.) Over and over again, fiction, half-truths and downright lies. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, you have to ask yourself, why would an administration that can't create any jobs demonize someone who did? (Laughter, applause.) I've got a theory. I think when it comes to jobs, new businesses and economic growth, they just don't get it. (Cheers, applause.) You know, they say Mitt Romney is out of touch with ordinary Americans. They just don't get it. The night before we opened the first store, I asked our people to do back-to-back all-nighters. That's when I got a phone call from Mitt. He wanted to come over and talk with the team and spend some time with them, and he told me in very clear terms: Tom, this business is all about the people.\nBut this Obama-Biden campaign, they just don't get it. They will tell you that private equity is focused only on the short term. Tell that to the founders of Bright Horizons day care, a company that has transformed corporate day care. Most people didn't give the business a chance. It went five straight years without making a profit, but Mitt and Bain Capital stood by them.\nMitt and Bain Capital believed in the vision, and they understood how important it was for women to join the workforce and have on-site day care for their children. (Cheers, applause.) It was an overdue revolution in the American workplace. Today that company employs over 19,000 people. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut President Obama and his friends, they just don't get it.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) They just don't get it.\nTOM STEMBERG: The Obama campaign will tell you that Bain Capital was a form of \"vampire capitalism,\" draining the blood from a company and move on. They just don't get it.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) They just don't get it.\nTOM STEMBERG: You know, where were they when Mitt stayed with Staples for 15 years, long after Bain Capital had sold its stock? Where were they when Bain Capital helped start Steel Dynamics when most people had given up on the American steel industry? Eighteen years later, that company employs 6,000 people. (Cheers, applause.) But this administration, they just don't get it.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) They just don't get it.\nTOM STEMBERG: You know, they've got a job council that never meets, a Democratic Senate that doesn't act, a president who doesn't believe and a vice president who just can't stop talking. (Laughter, applause.) They just don't get it.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (With speaker.) They just don't get it.\nTOM STEMBERG: And you know, they don't get it because they don't believe in the spirit of the entrepreneur. They don't understand what it means to risk money to create something new.\nAnd they don't understand the hard work it takes to get a business off the ground, the sacrifices you make, the Little League games you miss. They don't see this as a country of opportunity where someone like myself, the son of immigrants, born in Newark, New Jersey — and proud of that, Governor Christie — (cheers, applause) — can live the American dream.\nWell, let me tell you, my friend Mitt Romney gets it. (Cheers, applause.) And I could not be more confident in saying the American people get it. That's why this November they will elect Mitt Romney as the next president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Applause.)\nBOB WHITE: Thank you, thank you. I have a question. I have a question for you. Wasn't Ann Romney spectacular on Tuesday night? (Cheers, applause.) I agree, and Ann had some really great stories about Mitt. And so do I.\nFor 30 years I have been at Mitt Romney's side when he did extraordinary things. As Mitt says, I'm his wingman. I was there when Mitt turned around desperate situations, fixed big, broken things and had a profoundly positive impact on people's lives.\nOur journey began when Mitt asked a small group of us to help him start an investment firm called Bain Capital. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. Mitt was absolutely clear what he expected from each of us. We would act with absolute integrity, mutual respect, true teammates and we would recognize the profound responsibility we owed to those who placed their trust in us. (Cheers, applause.) Integrity, respect, responsibility, trust — these are not just words to Mitt Romney.\nThese are principles he lives by. (Cheers, applause.)\nHe also applied them to the way we worked. First, he built a team. He recruited the best people he could find, reached out for ideas, encouraged dissent and fostered real cooperation.\nNext, he gave us a clarity of purpose. Our investors included pension funds, colleges and charities with noble missions. We would invest wisely, and we would treat their money as carefully as we treated our own. We would support entrepreneurs, and we would invest in troubled situations. We would help them grow and try to make their companies better. And we would be held accountable for our performance. And when things went wrong, we would not blame others. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd finally, he took decisive action. Mitt never hesitated. He made tough decisions, coalesced a team and moved forward. Time and time again I have seen this decisive leadership. When our old consulting firm was on the verge of collapse, they asked Mitt to come back and help. He answered the call. When many thought the situation was hopeless, Mitt was not deterred. I'll never forget when he said, Bob, a thousand employees and their family depend on us, and we cannot let them down.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nWhen the obstacles seemed insurmountable and others panicked, Mitt was the calm in the storm, and he never lost hope. His confidence gave us confidence. And that company not only survived, it thrived. And today Bain & Company is recognized as one of the best places to work in America. (Cheers, applause.)\nI saw something similar when Mitt was asked to help save the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. When we first realized the magnitude of the financial and management challenges, I was skeptical whether they could be saved. Mitt never doubted what could be done. He applied the same principles of leadership, and the Olympics became a story that made America proud. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd when Mitt was elected governor of Massachusetts, he asked that I help him assemble a team that would serve the public trust and be loyal to the principles he held dear. That team accomplished so much because they got Republicans and Democrats to focus on the real problems and achieve real results. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo why has Mitt taken so many challenges? It's because he runs towards problems, believes it's important to make a difference and is determined to always give something back.\nIn every pursuit, he feels a sense of responsibility and a commitment to serve.\nEven though we worked endless hours at Bain Capital, Mitt found time to serve his church and counsel people in need. And if someone needed help, Mitt was there.\nWhen our partner's daughter went missing in New York, Mitt said, we can't just stand by and do nothing; we have to go find her. He closed down our entire office, took all of us to Boston, mobilized the search efforts. (cheers, applause) — and within days, we found her, and a mom and a dad and a daughter were reunited. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt wanted us to give something back too. He inspired the formation of Bain Capital Children's Charity. It not only donated money to worthy children's causes, it got Bain Capital employees actively involved in their communities.\nGo back and look at every pursuit in Mitt's life. Surrounding him are people who have worked with him over and over again. They trust him, they respect him, they want to be part of his team, and they want to be part of the change. And today we need urgent change in Washington. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd we need — we need a proven leader with passion and compassion. I have seen Mitt Romney be that leader. He is the right man at the right time to be the next president of the United States.\nThank you very much. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Applause.)\nTED OPAROWSKY: Evening, folks.\nMy wife and I are people of modest means. I made my living as a professional firefighter for 27 years. (Cheers, applause.) Prior to moving to Randolph, Vermont, we lived in Medford, Massachusetts. (Cheers, applause.) It was there we met Mitt Romney and his family.\nIt's been over 30 years since we have lost our son David. The memories are still vivid and painful. But we wanted to share them with you because David's story is a part of Mitt's story, and America deserves to hear it.\nBack in the early 1970s, Mitt visited our home numerous times, with his oldest son Tagg tagging along. He was in the vanguard of our support system when we received the news that no parent is prepared to confront. You cannot measure a man's character based on the words he utters before adoring crowds during times that are happy. The true measure of a man is revealed in his actions during times of trouble, the quiet hospital room of a dying boy, with no cameras and no reporters.\nThis is the time to make that assessment.\nIn 1979 a tragedy struck our family when our youngest son, David, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, a — it was a cancer.\nPAT OPAROWSKY: Over a period of seven months he was in and out of Children's Hospital in Boston for treatment. Throughout that agonizing period, Mitt took time from his busy schedule to visit David. They developed a loving friendship. On one of his visits, Mitt discovered that David was very fond of fireworks. He went out and bought a box full of big-time fireworks that had to sit on the closet shelf because they couldn't be set off in the city. We waited until we were able to go to Ogunquit, Maine, where we set them off on the sand dunes, with permission from the fire and police departments. (Laughter.)\nThrough that simple but thoughtful gift, Mitt brought joy to a young boy who had experienced any — had not experienced any for too long. He also gave the rest of us a welcome relief. On another visit, David, knowing Mitt had gone to law school at Harvard, asked Mitt if he would help him write a will. He had some prized possessions he wanted to make sure were given to his closest friends and family.\nThe next time Mitt went to the hospital, he was equipped with his yellow legal pad and pen. Together, they made David's will. That is a task that no child should ever have to do, but it gave David peace of mind.\nSo after David's death, we were able to give his skateboard, his model rockets and his fishing gear to his best friends. He also made it clear that his brother Peter should get his Ruger 22 rifle.\nHow many men do you know would take the time out of their busy lives to visit a terminally ill 14-year-old and help him settle his affairs?\nDavid also helped us plan his funeral. He wanted to be buried in his Boy Scout uniform. He wanted Mitt to pronounce his eulogy, and Mitt was there to honor that request.\nWe will be ever grateful to Mitt for his love and concern. (Cheers, applause.)\nTED OPAROWSKY: We humbly wish that God will continue to bless Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in their efforts. In doing so, he will bless the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)\nPAM FINLAYSON: In 1982, my husband, Grant, and I moved from California to Massachusetts with our newborn son. Being a church- going family, we looked for the nearest chapel and soon found ourselves in a congregation led by a clearly bright and capable man named Mitt Romney.\nI knew Mitt was special from the start.\nAt the time, we didn't own a dryer, and the day he stopped by to welcome us, I was embarrassed to have laundry hanging all over the house. But Mitt wasn't fazed. In fact, as we spoke, without a word, he joined me and actually started helping, helpfully plucking clothes from around the house and folding them. By the time Mitt left, not only did I feel welcome, my laundry was done. (Laughing.)\nAs Grant and I juggled school, jobs, church and family, we grew to love the Romneys. They became role models and friends, and we were honored when Mitt and Ann regularly trusted us to stay with their five rambunctious but very loving sons when they traveled. It was when our daughter Kate was born three and a half months early, however, that I fully came to appreciate what a great treasure of friendship we had in Mitt and Ann.\nKate was so tiny and very sick, her lungs not yet ready to breathe, her heart unstable. And after suffering a severe brain hemorrhage at three days old, she was teetering on the very edge of life.\nAs I sat with her in intensive care, consumed with a mother's worry and fear, dear Mitt came to visit and pray with me. As our clergy, he was one of very few visitors allowed. And I will never forget how when he looked down tenderly at my daughter, his eyes filled with tears and he reached out and gently stroked her tiny back.\nI could tell immediately that he didn't just see a tangle of plastic in tubes and wires. He saw our beautiful little girl. And he was clearly overcome with compassion for her.\nDuring the many months that our Kate was hospitalized, the Romneys often cared for our 2-year-old son Peter. They treated him like one of their own, like a sick son. They gave him a nickname and even welcomed him to stay the night when needed.\nWhen Thanksgiving rolled around, Kate was still struggling for life. Brain surgery was scheduled, and the holiday was the furthest thing from our minds. But that morning I opened my door to find Mitt and his boys, arms loaded down with a Thanksgiving feast. Of course, we were overcome. When I called to thank Ann later, she sweetly confessed it had been Mitt's idea that most of the shopping and cooking and chopping had been done by him. She and the boys had just happily pitched in.\nEventually we moved from Boston. Our daughter Kate grew into an amazing girl of faith and love. (Cheers, applause.) But complications of her birth remained with her. And after 26 years of both miracles and struggle, she passed away just a year and a half ago.\nIn the midst of making the final decision to run for president, which had to be the most difficult of their lives, when they heard of Kate's passing, both Mitt and Ann paused to personally reach out to us and extend us sympathy and express their love. It seems to me when it comes to loving our neighbor, we can talk about it, or we can live it.\nThe Romneys live it every single day. (Cheers, applause.)\nWhen the world looks at Mitt Romney, they may see him as the founder of a successful business, the leader of the Olympic Games or a governor. But when I see Mitt Romney, I know him to be a loving father, a man of faith and a caring and compassionate friend. It is with great excitement and renewed hope that I think of how our country will be blessed as it is led by a man who is not only so very accomplished and capable, but who has devoted his entire life quietly serving others. That man is Mitt Romney. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nGRANT BENNETT: I have been blessed to spend thousands of hours over many years with a dear friend and remarkable man named Mitt Romney. These wonderful, even glorious, hours together were spent in serving our fellow men and women. They were spent in service in our church. (Cheers, applause.) We embraced Christ's admonition, \"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.\" (Cheers, applause.)\nThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which we are members, has an unpaid lay clergy.\nWhile raising his family and pursuing his career, Mitt Romney served in our church, devoting 10, 15 and even 20 hours a week doing so. Like all Mormon leaders, he did so on his own time and at his own expense. (Cheers, applause.)\nI was Mitt's assistant when he was our pastor. I had a front-row seat, and it was marvelous to behold. As we began working together, Mitt asked, how early can I call you in the morning? I answered, 6:00 a.m. I regret my answer. (Laughter.) Mitt Romney became my alarm clock.\nA typical morning call: Grant, it's Mitt. I'm at the airport. Hazel Young (sp) tripped last night and bruised her hip. Please visit her this evening. Give her my love. I'll arrange for meals, and I will visit her on my way home from the airport tomorrow.\nIn our early morning calls, Mitt didn't discuss questions of theology. He found the definition of religion given by James in the New Testament to be a practical guide. Pure religion is to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo what specifically did Mitt Romney do as our pastor? For one or two evenings each week and several hours every weekend, week after week and year after year, he met with those seeking help with the burdens of real life, burdens we all face at one time or another: unemployment, sickness, financial distress, loneliness.\nMitt prayed and counseled with church members seeking spiritual direction: single mothers raising children, couples with marital problems, youth with addictions, immigrants separated from their families and individuals whose heat had been shut off. To uphold the dignity and respect the privacy of those who came, he met with them in private and in confidence. He has upheld that trust. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt's response to those who came was compassion in all its beautiful varieties. He had a listening ear and a helping hand. Drawing on the skills and resources of those in our congregation, Mitt provided food and housing, rides to the doctor and companions to sit with those who were ill. He shoveled snow and raked leaves for the elderly. He took down tables and swept floors at church dinners. He was often the last to leave.\nYears later I became the pastor.\nOnly then did I understand the dedication this calling requires and the clarity this service provides into the full range of our shared human experience. Mitt challenged each of us to find our life by losing it in service to others. He issued that challenge again and again. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe church itself was a marvelous vehicle for extending that challenge. Mitt seldom delivered the sermon himself; he gave that opportunity to fellow church members. He sought to involve everyone so everyone could grow. Mitt taught faith in God, personal integrity, self-reliance and service to our fellow men. (Applause.) And Mitt did what he challenged us to do; he led by example. (Cheers, applause.)\nI treasure every minute we serve together. I am grateful for my apprenticeship in the things that matter most under the hands of a deeply good man named Mitt Romney. (Cheers, applause.)\nIt is my privilege to introduce two families from our congregation: first, Pat and Ted Oparowsky. They will be followed by Pam Finlayson. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJEB BUSH: Thank you. Thank you all very much. (Cheers, applause.) Thanks. Thank you. Welcome to Florida. (Cheers, applause.) Bienvenidos a nuestra querida Florida. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)\nBefore I begin my remarks, I have something personal I'd like to share with you. I've been so blessed to be part of a family that has committed its life to public service. My granddad — (cheers, applause) — my grandfather and my father have been incredible role models for me and served our country honorably.\nAnd my brother? Well, I love my brother. (Cheers, applause.) He is a man of integrity, courage and honor. And during incredibly challenging times, he kept us safe. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo Mr. President — Mr. President, it is time to stop blaming your predecessor for your failed economic policies. (Cheers, applause.) You were dealt a tough hand. You were dealt a tough hand, but your policies have not worked. In the fourth year of your presidency, a real leader would accept responsibility for his actions, and you haven't done it.\nNow — (cheers, applause) — now that I've gotten that off of my chest, let's talk a little bit about our kids and education.\nThis election is about the future of this nation. We can shape that future with what we do here, with what we do on November 6th. We can restore America's greatness. That starts with a strong economy, a smart energy policy, lower deficits and a president who puts America's workers and job creators first.\nBut to have a great future, a secure future, a future that is equal to our potential as a nation, we need to do something else.\nWe must make sure that our children and grandchildren are ready for the world we are shaping today. (Cheers, applause.) It starts — it starts in our homes, in our communities and especially in our schools.\nAs a candidate and governor, I visited over 400 Florida schools. I saw children read for their first sentences, solve their first long division problems, explore the miracles of chemistry and physics. That's the essence of education: students getting a chance at a future.\nThere are many reasons to believe America's future is bright, but also reasons to worry. Of 34 advanced nations in the world, American students rank 17th in science, 25th in math. Only one quarter of high school graduates are ready for their next steps. China and India produce eight times more engineering students each years than the United States. This is a moral cost to our country. Our failing schools need to be fixed. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe say that every child in America has an equal opportunity. But tell that to a kid in whose classroom learning isn't respected. Tell that to a parent stuck in a school where there is no leadership. Tell that to a young talented teacher who just got laid off because she didn't have tenure. The sad truth is that equality of opportunity doesn't exist in many of our schools. We give some kids a chance, but not all. That failure is the great moral and economic issue of our time, and it is hurting all of America. (Cheers, applause.)\nI believe we can meet this challenge. We need to set high standards for students and teachers, and provide students and their parents the choices they deserve.\nThe first step is a simple one. We must stop prejudging children based on their race, ethnicity or household income. (Cheers, applause.) We must stop excusing failure in our schools and start rewarding improvement and success. (Cheers, applause.) We must have high academic standards that are benchmarked to the best in the world.\nYou see, all kids can learn. Governor Romney believes it, and the data proves it. While he was governor, Massachusetts raised standards, and today their students lead the nation in academic performance. (Cheers, applause.)\nHere in Florida, in 1999 we were at the bottom of the nation in education. For the last decade the state has been on a path of reform. Under the leadership of Governor Rick Scott and local leaders, our focus every day is whether students are learning. That's it. (Cheers, applause.)\nToday more students are reading on grade level, passing rigorous college prep courses and graduating from high school. And perhaps most exciting, those traditionally left behind are showing the greatest gains. Among African-American students, Florida is ranked fourth in the nation for academic improvement. Among low-income students — (cheers, applause) — we're ranked third for our gains. Among students with disabilities, we're ranked first. And among Latino students — (cheers, applause) — the gains were so big they require a new metric. Right now Florida's fourth-grade Hispanic students read as well or better than the average of all students in 21 states and the District of Columbia. (Cheers, applause.)\nThese kids — these kids were once written off. But today, thanks to teachers like Sean Duffy, we're changing that.\n(Applause.)\nSEAN DUFFY: I'm honored to be an educator, to help the next generation of leaders, thinkers, builders and entrepreneurs. Sadly, I'm part of a dwindling field. I've seen too many good teachers come and go, mainly due to poor working conditions and little pay. Bad teachers get locked into the system, and good teachers leave for more money.\nOn top of the bureaucratic challenges, what we're teaching doesn't always match what our students actually need. To that end, I helped launch a STEM lab at my high school. These labs focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics and help students learn proficiency in these fields.\nWe turn students away from education each year by not providing a robust curriculum that helps keep — that keeps up with the world in which these students live and will eventually work. And at the end of the day, all of what we do, from the educators to the policymakers, has to be student-focused and student-centered. (Cheers, applause.) After all, students matter most, and that's what counts.\nThank you. (Cheers, applause.)\nJEB BUSH: Thank you, Sean. I know that Del Valle High School is proud of your efforts, and we need more great teachers like you, teachers who don't give up on a kid, who recognize that every child can learn and don't waste a precious year of a student's life. If you're a great teacher and your students are mastering their subjects, no matter your age or years of experience, you should have a job. Education is hard work, but if you follow some core principles and you challenge the status quo, you can get great results.\nSo here's another thing we could do: Let's give every parent in America a choice about where their child's — (cheers, applause) — attends school.\nLook — (cheers, applause) — everywhere in our lives, we get a chance to choose. Go down any supermarket aisle, and you'll find an incredible selection of milk. You can get whole milk, buttermilk, 2 percent milk, lowfat milk or skim milk, organic milk and milk with extra vitamin D. There's flavored milk, chocolate, strawberry or vanilla, and it doesn't even taste like milk. They even make milk for people who can't drink milk. (Laughter.) So my question to you is shouldn't parents have that kind of choice in schools that best meets the needs of their students? (Cheers, applause.)\nGovernor Romney gets it. Mitt Romney gets it. He believes parents, regardless of zip code or income, should be able to send their child to the school that fits them best. That has set him up against some entrenched interests. There are many people who say they support strong schools but draw the line at school choice. Sorry, kid, giving you equal opportunity would be too risky, and it would upset powerful political forces that we need to win elections. I have a simple message for these masters of delay and deferral: Choose. You can either help the politically powerful unions, or you can help the kids. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow, for those that have been involved in this, you know it's hard to take on the unions. They fund campaigns. They're well- organized. Election day, they'll show up.\nMeanwhile, the kids aren't old enough to vote. But you and I know who deserves a choice. Governor Romney knows it, too.\nLet me introduce you to Frantz Placide. Because we gave him a choice, he got a great election. (Cheers, applause.)\nFRANTZ PLACIDE: I grew up in the inner city of Miami, in a place where your ZIP code determines your chances of success. My only option was an unproductive and failing school. I knew that could lead to an unproductive and failing future.\nThank to Governor Bush's school choice program, I got the chance to choose a better school. Making my education my priority, I enrolled at one of the toughest high schools in Miami, Archbishop Curley Notre Dame. (Cheers, applause.)\nI'm sure, like a lot of us, it was my mother Carlette (sp) who really pushed for a choice in my education. I'm glad she did. Her devotion to my future has given me a chance to succeed. I've graduated from Wagner College, and I'm looking forward to a life of learning and serving my community. (Cheers, applause.)\nWho knows what the future would have held if I didn't have a choice in my education? But I do know the numbers for failure, and I probably wouldn't have a good chance.\nGovernor Bush's school choice program gave me a chance to achieve academic success in a school that was best-fit for me. I took it from there. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)\nJEB BUSH: Thank you, Frantz. It is an incredible honor to see you grow up. And Frantz's story is — and many others — is a driving force across this nation to bring about necessary change.\nAnd some of the biggest reformers are Republicans. Governor Mitch Daniels in Indiana and Bobby Jindal in Louisiana have expanded school choice from what we have here in Florida. (Cheers, applause.) Governor Martinez in New Mexico is raising expectations, holding schools accountable for students gaining critical reading skills. Governor LePage in Maine and Deal in Georgia are transforming education by pushing schools to harness the power of technology and digital learning. (Cheers.) Idaho Governor Otter and Superintendent Luna are raising up the best teachers — (cheers) — and separating out the ineffective ones. That earned them some enemies. Some of them slashed the superintendent's tires. But he didn't back down. (Applause.)\nGovernor Scott Walker in Wisconsin led his state — (cheers, applause) — Governor Walker led his state to adopt reforms that promote early literacy and require that teacher evaluations incorporate student achievement. In Nevada, Governor Sandoval pushed for reforms to end the damaging practice of \"last in, first out,\" where teachers are hired or fired based on their years in the system, not their impact in the classroom. Governor Haslam in Tennessee is making sure every classroom has an effective teacher. (Cheers, applause.)\nBecause he is a former governor, Mitt Romney understands that states must lead this national movement. In Massachusetts — (cheers, applause) — Governor Romney narrowed the gap between students of different races, raised testing standards and put into place a merit scholarship — The John and Abigail Adams Scholarship — to give students four tuition-free years at any Massachusetts public institution of higher learning. (Cheers, applause.) He is a champion for bringing hope to education, and he intends to be a champion for equality of opportunity — a president who always puts students first.\nSo in this election, remember this: Our future as a nation is at stake. Fact is this election is not just about one office; it's about one nation. If we want to continue to be the greatest nation on the planet, we must give our kids what we promise them: an equal opportunity. That starts in the classroom. It starts in our communities. It starts where you live. And it starts with electing Mitt Romney the next president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you. God bless you. God bless our excellent teachers, and God bless the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nCRAIG ROMNEY: I am honored and humbled to speak to you tonight. I'm incredibly proud of my father, and I love him dearly.\nIt is my privilege to say a few words in Spanish, so please bear with me for a moment. Buenas noches. Es un placer estar con ustedes. Yo pase dos anios (ph) viviendo y trabajando en Chile. A traves de esa experiencia — (inaudible) — aun mas como hispanos han aportado a la diversa riqueza de los Estados Unidos.\nMi padre, Mitt Romney, es un hombre de familia. El es un gran esposo, padre y abuelo. El sabe como unir a nuestro pais y valora que somos una nacion de inmigrantes unidos en el deseo de lograr el suenio (ph) americano. El ama a nuestra nacion. El luchara para confrontar los retos que tenemos y restaurar la grandeza de los Estados Unidos.\nIt's easy to forget — (cheers) — thank you. (Cheers, applause.) It's easy to forget that the story of my father's success begins with the story of two immigrants. Thank you.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nMy grandfathers, who came to this country with little more than hope and the opportunity of America, through their hard work and perseverance, they lived the American dream. They gave opportunities to their children they wouldn't have had anywhere else. The Republican Party is dedicated to preserving that opportunity for all Americans. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe've had the privilege of hearing about different chapters of the same inspiring story from Governors Sandoval and Martinez and soon-to-be Senator Cruz. We're seeing this story play out in the lives of many other Hispanic-Americans who have become leaders in the Republican party and throughout our nation. These leaders, along with Hispanics across the country, play a vital role in the Romney-Ryan comeback as we fight to put America back on the path to prosperity.\nThank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nCALLISTA GINGRICH: Thank you. Thank you for that warm welcome. What a wonderful tribute to President Reagan and the spirit of the American people.\nNEWT GINGRICH: It's fantastic to see so many friends here, friends from decades of service to the party, service in public life and those who have helped us over the past few years. And we are delighted that tonight we come together to once again renew the American spirit and put real leadership back in the White House this November.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nCALLISTA GINGRICH: The election of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will decisively move America to a better future. Remembering President Reagan reminds us that the choices we make matter. And this year is as important as the choice we made in 1980.\nNEWT GINGRICH: Over three decades have passed since Ronald Reagan was first elected to the White House. Yet the impact of his leadership is still evident today. While in office, President Reagan had three major goals: to restore the economy, to revive the American spirit and to defeat totalitarianism, spreading democracy throughout the world.\nCALLISTA GINGRICH: By remaining true to his convictions through his belief in the American people and with tremendous optimism, President Reagan achieved these goals.\nNEWT GINGRICH: It's striking how President Carter and President Obama both took our nation down a path that in four years weakened America's confidence in itself and our hope for a better future.\nCALLISTA GINGRICH: Both weakened the respect for America abroad. Both increased government programs filled with waste and inefficiency that failed to produce results. Both made promises they couldn't keep. And as a consequence of ineffective policies, both were unable to revive our economy and create jobs.\nNEWT GINGRICH: For example, both crippled American energy production when there were better ways to develop and use our abundant energy resources.\nThe Romney plan for North American energy independence is exactly the kind of bold visionary leadership Reagan believed in, and it is what we need now. (Cheers, applause.)\nCALLISTA GINGRICH: The Reagan presidency also teaches us that there is a better way to put Americans back to work, create millions of jobs and help every American achieve success. The Reagan program of tax cuts, regulatory reform and spending controls worked.\nNEWT GINGRICH: Reagan's belief in small business owners and entrepreneurs is a remarkable contrast with Obama's class warfare rhetoric, massive deficits and a passion for taxing those who create jobs. The Romney plan for a stronger middle class has deep roots in Ronald Reagan's approach.\nCALLISTA GINGRICH: Reagan's commitment to reform welfare and to create a work requirement was a major achievement when he was governor of California. His pioneering work led to the historic welfare reform bill Congress and the president passed 30 years later. This bipartisan legislation reduced the size of government, made our country more competitive and put millions of Americans back to work. (Cheers, applause.)\nNEWT GINGRICH: Tragically, President Obama gutted this achievement, and like Jimmy Carter, over four years he produced little effective legislation that brought the two parties together in the interest of the nation.\nObama's waiving of the work requirements in welfare reform is just one example of his direct repudiation of President Reagan's values.\nObama's proud of what he's done, and of his politically motivated partisanship. But he should be ashamed for putting politics before people. (Cheers, applause.)\nCALLISTA GINGRICH: Governor Romney will return America to work and to the principles that are at the core of President Reagan's legacy. This year the American people will once again have an important choice to make.\nNEWT GINGRICH: Now each of us must commit ourselves, in the tradition of Ronald Reagan, to come together. President Reagan said there is no substitute for victory. And this November we cannot settle for anything less. This — (cheers, applause) — this is the most critical election of our lifetime. Each of us must do our part now to ensure that America remains, in the tradition of President Reagan, a land of freedom, hope and opportunity.\nThank you, and God bless you, and God bless America. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)CONNIE MACK: Once again it's morning in America.\nThere are new leaders on the horizon: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, America's comeback team. (Cheers, applause.)\nGrowing up, I had a plaque on my wall that read: Life's battles don't always go to the fastest or the strongest. Sooner or later those who win are those who think they can. We've always been a people with big dreams and limitless potential. After all, this is America. (Cheers, applause.)\nOur success is built on our values and our principles. But so many of them are under attack. Our commitment to freedom and liberty and to everything that makes our country great seems to embarrass the \"blame America first\" crowd. They penalize individual achievement, praising the power of government, but they have not, cannot and will not destroy our spirit. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe are proud to be Americans, we are proud of our nation, we are proud of our heritage, and we are proud of our success. It is our commitment to the American story. It's our athletes in London who brought home more medals than any other country, even China. (Cheers, applause.) It's our best and our brightest who landed an extraordinary rover on Mars. It's Nobel Prize winners, scientists, writers, artists second to none who inspire us all. These are the achievements that are brought about by a free society that honors individual effort.\nWe owe it to those who have given so much to regain our strength and remain the strongest force for freedom the world has ever seen.\nOur allies deserve an unwavering support. And our enemies need to know we stand to defend freedom at all costs. (Cheers, applause.)\nAmerica was built on the belief in free enterprise, hard work, passion and faith. We have the awesome responsibility to make that dream a reality. That dream is not an impossible dream. It's the American dream. It's sure, it's strong and it's steady.\nMitt Romney's plans to restore America's promise and purpose will be realized, and the American dream will once again be available to all her children. We are a nation of dreamers — Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright Brothers, dreamers like Neil Armstrong who sought new lands and took giant leaps into American exceptionalism, and dreamers like my friend Kiko Villalon. You know the stories of the other. Now let me tell you the story of Kiko.\nIn 1960, Kiko fled Castro's Cuba. He came to New York. He became a taxi driver. He worked hard and saved his money. He became a citizen. He moved to Florida. He started a business building boats. He raised a family. He put his children through school. He sold his business. Now he worries about what opportunities lie ahead for his children and their children.\nKiko has lived the American dream, as have so many others.\nThat's what this election is all about: making the American dream a reality again. (Cheers, applause.)\nIt's not about the past. It's not about what was done wrong. It's not about blaming America. It's quite the opposite. Tonight we embark on a renewal of the American dream. Tonight we honor those who have come before and done so much, many even giving their lives. And tonight we honor our children and their children, to ensure their dreams, whether it's playing under the lights or starting a business or being a doctor or a nurse or a soldier or a sailor or even a president or vice president. Dreams can come — become realities. After all, this is America, and it's morning once again.\nThank you. (Cheers, applause.) God bless America. God bless you. Thank you. I love you, Florida! (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nPAUL RYAN: Hello, everybody. Hello, everybody. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you very much. Thank you. Hey, Wisconsin. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.) (Chuckles.) You guys are great. Thanks so much. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you.\nMr. Chairman — Mr. Chairman, delegates and fellow citizens, I am honored by the support of this convention for vice president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.)\nI accept the duty to help lead our nation out of a jobs crisis and back to prosperity. And I know we can do this. (Cheers, applause.)\nI accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us, with opportunity for the young and security for the old. And I know that we are ready. Our nominee is sure ready. (Cheers, applause.) His whole life — his whole life prepared him for this moment, to meet serious challenges in a serious way, without excuses and idle words. After four years of getting the runaround, America needs a turnaround. And the man for the job is Governor Mitt Romney. (Cheers, applause.)\nI'm the newcomer to this campaign. So let me share a first impression. I have never seen opponents so silent about their record and so desperate to keep their power. They've run out of ideas. Their moment came and went. Fear and division is all they've got left. With all their attack ads, the president is just throwing away money. And he's pretty experienced at that. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou see, some people can't be dragged down by the usual cheap tactics because their character, ability and plain decency are so obvious.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nFor my part, your nomination is an unexpected turn. It certainly came as news to my family. (Laughter.) And I'd like you to meet them: my best friend and wife, Janna, our daughter Liza, and our boys Charlie and Sam. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe kids are happy to see their grandma who lives in Florida. There she is, my mom Betty. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy dad, a small-town lawyer, was also named Paul. Until we lost him when I was 16, he was a gentle presence in my life. I'd like to think he'd be proud of me and my sister and brothers. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou know what? I'm sure proud of him and where I come from: Janesville, Wisconsin. (Cheers, applause.)\nI live on the same block where I grew up. We belong to the same parish where I was baptized. Janesville is that kind of place. The people of Wisconsin have been good to me. I've tried to live up to their trust. And now, I ask those hardworking men and women and millions like them across America to join our cause and get this country working again.\n(Cheers, applause.) When Governor Romney asked me to join the ticket, I said, let's get this done, and that is exactly what we are going to do. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Barack Obama came to office during an economic crisis, as he has reminded us a time or two. (Laughter.) Those were very tough days, and any fair measure of his record has to take that into account. My own state voted for President Obama. When he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it, especially in Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory. A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, Candidate Obama said, I believe that if our government is there to support you, this plant will be here for another hundred years. That's what he said in 2008.\nWell, as it turned out, that plant didn't last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day. And that's how it is in so many towns, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight. Right now, 23 million men and women are struggling to find work, 23 million people unemployed or underemployed. Nearly 1-in-6 Americans is in poverty.\nMillions of young Americans have graduated from college during the Obama presidency, ready to use their gifts and get moving in life. Half of them can't find the work they studied for or any work at all. So here's the question: Without a change in leadership, why would the next four years be any different from the last four years? (Cheers, applause.)\nThe first troubling sign came with the stimulus. It was President Obama's first and best shot at fixing the economy at a time when he got — he got everything he wanted under one-party rule. It cost $831 billion, the largest one-time expenditure every by our federal government. It went to companies like Solyndra, with their gold-plated connections, subsidized jobs and make-believe markets. The stimulus was a case of political patronage, corporate welfare and cronyism at their worst.\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: That's right. (Cheers, applause.)\nPAUL RYAN: You, you the American people of this country, were cut out of the deal. What did taxpayers get out of the Obama stimulus? More debt. That money wasn't just spent and wasted. It was borrowed, spent and wasted. (Cheers, applause.)\nMaybe the greatest waste of all was time.\nHere we were, faced with a massive job crisis so deep that if everyone out of work stood in single file, that unemployment line would stretch the length of the entire American continent. You would think that any president, whatever his party, would make job creation and nothing else his first order of economic business. But this president didn't do that. Instead we got a long, divisive, all-or- nothing attempt to put the federal government in charge of health care. (Boos.) \"Obamacare\" comes to more than 2,000 pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees and fines that have no place in a free country. (Extended cheers, applause.) That's right. That's right. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou know what, the president has declared that the debate over government-controlled health care is over. That will come as news to the millions of Americans who will elect Mitt Romney so we can repeal \"Obamacare.\" (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd the biggest, coldest power play of all in \"Obamacare\" came at the expense of the elderly. You see, even with all the hidden taxes to pay for the health care takeover, even with the new law and new taxes on nearly a small businesses, the planners in Washington still didn't have enough money. They needed more. They needed hundreds of billions more. So they just took it all away from Medicare — $716 billion funneled out of Medicare by President Obama. (Boos.) An obligation we have to our parents and grandparents is being sacrificed all to pay for anew entitlement we didn't even ask for. (Applause.)\nThe greatest threat to Medicare is \"Obamacare,\" and we're going to stop it. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn Congress, when they take out the heavy books and the wall charts about Medicare, my thoughts go back to a house on Garfield Street in Janesville. My wonderful grandma, Janet (sp), had Alzheimer's, and she moved in with Mom and me. Though she felt lost at times, we did all the little things that made her feel loved. We had help from Medicare, and it was there, just like it's there for my mom today. Medicare is a promise, and we will honor it. A Romney- Ryan administration will protect and strengthen Medicare for my mom's generation, for my generation and for my kids and yours. (Cheers, applause.)\nSo our opponents can consider themselves on notice. In this election, on this issue, the usual posturing on the left isn't going to work. Mitt Romney and I know the difference between protecting a program and raiding it. Ladies and gentlemen, our nation needs this debate. We want this debate. We will win this debate! (Cheers, applause.)\n\"Obamacare,\" as much as anything else, explains why a presidency that we — that began with such anticipation now comes to such a disappointing close. It began with a financial crisis. It ends with a job crisis. It began with a housing crisis they alone didn't cause. It ends with a housing crisis they didn't correct. (Cheers, applause.) It began with a perfect AAA credit rating for the United States. It ends with a downgraded America. (Boos.)\nIt all started off with stirring speeches, Greek columns, the thrill of something new. Now all that's left is a presidency adrift, surviving on slogans that already seem tired, grasping at a moment that has already passed, like a ship trying to sail on yesterday's wind. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou know, President Obama was asked not long ago to reflect on any mistakes he might have made. He said, well, I haven't communicated enough. (Laughter.) He said his job is to, quote, tell a story to the American people, as if that's the whole problem here. (Laughter.) He needs to talk more, and we need to be better listeners? (Laughter, cheers, applause.) Ladies and gentlemen, these past four years we have suffered no shortage of words in the White House. What is missing is leadership in the White House. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd the story — and the story that Barack Obama does tell, forever shifting blame to the last administration, is getting old.\n(Cheers, applause.) The man assumed office almost four years ago. Isn't it about time he assumed responsibility? (Cheers, applause.) Yeah. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn this generation, a defining responsibility of government is to steer our nation clear of a debt crisis while there is still time. Back in 2008 Candidate Obama called a $10 trillion national debt unpatriotic — serious talk from what looked like a serious reformer. Yet by his own decisions, President Obama has added more debt than any other president before him and more than all the troubled governments of Europe combined. One president, one term, 5 trillion (dollars) in new debt. (Boos.)\nHe created a new bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way and then did exactly nothing. (Boos.) Republicans — Republicans stepped up with good faith reforms and solutions equal to the problems. How did the president respond? By doing nothing — nothing except to dodge and demagogue the issue. So here we are, $16 trillion in debt, and still he does nothing. In Europe massive debts have put entire governments at risk of collapse, and still he does nothing. And all we have heard from this president and his team are attacks on anyone who dares to point out the obvious. They have no answer to this simple reality.\nWe need to stop spending money we don't have. (Cheers, applause.) Really simple. Not that hard. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy dad used to say to me, son, you have a choice. You can be part of the problem, or you can be part of the solution. The present administration has made its choices, and Mitt Romney and I have made ours. Before the math and the momentum overwhelm us all, we are going to solve this nation's economic problems. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd I'm going to level with you: we don't have that much time. But if we are serious and smart, and we lead, we can do this. After four years of government trying to divide up the wealth, we will get America creating wealth again. (Cheers, applause.) With tax fairness and regulatory reform, we'll put government back on the side of men and women who create jobs and the men and women who need jobs.\nMy mom started a small business, and I've seen what it takes. Mom was 50 when my dad died. She got on a bus every weekday for years and rode 40 miles each morning to Madison.\nShe earned a new degree and learned new skills to start her small business. It wasn't just a new livelihood; it was a new life. And it transformed my mom from a widow in grief to a small-business woman whose happiness wasn't just in the past. Her work gave her hope. It made our family proud. And to this day my mom is my role model. (Cheers, applause.)\nBehind every small business, there's a story worth knowing. All the corner shops in our towns and cities, the restaurants, cleaners, gyms, hair salons, hardware stores — these didn't come out of nowhere. A lot of heart goes into each one. And if small-business people say they made it on their own, all they are saying is that nobody else works seven days a week in their place. Nobody showed up in their place to open the door at 5:00 in the morning. Nobody did their thinking and worrying and sweating for them.\nAfter all that work and in a bad economy, it sure doesn't help to hear from their president that government gets the credit. What they deserve to hear is the truth: Yes, you did build that. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe have a plan for a stronger middle class, with a goal of generating 12 million new jobs over the next four years. (Applause.) In a clean break — in a clean break from the Obama years, and frankly, from the years before this president, we will keep federal spending at 20 percent of GDP or less, because that is enough. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe choice — the choice is whether to put hard limits on economic growth or hard limits on the size of government, and we choose to limit government. (Cheers, applause.)\nI learned a good deal about economics and about America from the author of the Reagan tax reforms, the great Jack Kemp. (Cheers, applause.) What gave Jack that incredible enthusiasm was his belief in the possibilities of free people and the power of free enterprise and strong communities to overcome poverty and despair. We need that same optimism right now.\nAnd in our dealings with other nations, a Romney-Ryan administration will speak with confidence and clarity. Whenever men and women rise up for their own freedom, they will know that the American president is on their side. (Cheers, applause.)\nInstead — instead of managing American decline, leaving allies to doubt us and adversaries to test us, we will act in the conviction that the United States is still the greatest force for peace and liberty that this world has ever known. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!\nPAUL RYAN: President Obama is the kind of politician who puts promises on the record and then (calls ?) back the record. (Laughter.) But we are four years into this presidency. The issue is not the economy that Barack Obama inherited, not the economy that he envisions but this economy that we are living. (Cheers, applause.)\nCollege graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life. (Cheers, applause.)\nEveryone — everyone who feels stuck in the Obama economy is right to focus on the here and now.\nAnd I hope you understand this too. If you're feeling left out or passed by, you have not failed. Your leaders have failed you. (Cheers, applause.) None of us — none of us should have to settle for the best this administration offers: a dull, adventureless journey from one entitlement to the next; a government-planned life; a country where everything is free but us. (Cheers, applause.)\nListen to the way we're already spoken to. (Cheers, applause.) Listen to the way we are spoken to already, as if everyone is stuck in some class or station in life, victims of circumstances beyond our control, with the government there to help us cope with our fate. It's the exact opposite of everything I learned growing up in Wisconsin or at college in Ohio. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou know, when I was waiting tables, washing dishes or mowing lawns for money, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life. I was on my own path, my own journey, an American journey, where I could think for myself, decide for myself, define happiness for myself. That's what we do in this country. (Cheers, applause.) That's the American dream. (Cheers, applause.) That's freedom, and I'll take it any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) USA! USA! USA! USA!\nPAUL RYAN: By themselves — by themselves, the failures of one administration are not a mandate for a new administration.\nA challenger must stand on his own merits. He must be ready and worthy to serve in the office of president. We're a full generation apart, Governor Romney and I, and in some ways we're different. There are the songs on his iPod, which I've heard on the campaign bus — (laughter) — and I've heard it on many hotel elevators. (Laughter, applause.) He actually — he actually urged me to play some of these songs at campaign rallies. I said, look, I hope it's not a dealbreaker, Mitt — (laughter) — but my playlist, it starts with AC/DC and it ends with Zeppelin. (Cheers, applause.)\nLook, a generation apart — a generation apart, but that doesn't matter. It makes us different, but not in any of the things that matter. Mitt Romney and I both grew up in the heartland, and we know what places like Wisconsin and Michigan look like — (cheers) — when times are good. (Cheers, applause.) We know what these communities look like when times are good, when people are working, when families are doing more than just getting by. And we know it can be that way again.\nWe've had very different careers, mine mainly in public services, his mostly in the private sector. He helped start businesses and turn around failing ones. And by the way, being successful in business, that's a good thing. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt — Mitt has not only succeeded, but he succeeded where others could not. He turned around the Olympics at a time when a great institution was collapsing under the weight of bad management, overspending and corruption. Sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it? (Laughter.) He was a Republican governor of a state where almost 9- in-10 legislators are Democrats. And yet he balanced the budget without raising taxes. (Cheers, applause.) Unemployment went down. Household incomes went up. And Massachusetts under Governor Mitt Romney saw its credit rating upgraded. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt and I also go to different churches. But in any church, the best kind of preaching is done by example. And I've been watching that example. (Cheers, applause.) The man who will accept your nomination tomorrow is prayerful and faithful and honorable. Not only a defender of marriage, he — he offers an example of marriage at its best. (Cheers, applause.) Not only a fine businessman, he's a fine man — (cheers, applause) — worthy of leading this optimistic and good-hearted country.\nOur faiths come together in the same moral creed. We believe that in every life, there is goodness; for every person, there is hope. Each one of us was made for a reason, bearing the image and likeness of the lord of life. (Cheers, applause)\nWe have responsibilities, one to another. We do not each face the world alone. And the greatest of all responsibilities is that of the strong to protect the weak. The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves. (Cheers, applause.)\nEach of these moral ideas — each of these moral ideas is essential to democratic government, to the rule of law, to life in a humane and decent society. They are the moral creed of our country, as powerful in our time as on the day of America's founding. They are self-evident and unchanging. And sometimes even presidents need reminding that our rights come from nature and God and not from government! (Cheers, applause.)\nThe founding generation secured those rights for us. And in every generation since, the best among us have defended our freedoms. They are protecting us right now. We honor them and all of our veterans, and we thank them. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe right that makes all the difference now is the right to choose our own leaders. And you are entitled to the clearest possible choice, because the time for choosing is drawing near.\nSo here is our pledge. We will not duck the tough issues. We will lead. We will not spend four years blaming others. We will take responsibility. (Applause.) We will not try to replace our founding principles. We will reapply our founding principles. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe work ahead will be hard. These times demand the best of all of us — all of us, but we can do this. We can do this. Together we can do this. We can get this country working again. We can get this economy growing again. (Cheers, applause.) We can make the safety safe again. (Cheers, applause.) We can do this. Whatever your political party, let's come together for the sake of our country. Join Mitt Romney and me. (Cheers, applause.) Let's give this effort everything we have. (Cheers, applause.) Let's see this thing all the way through. Let's get this done. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you, and God bless you all. Thank you. (Cheers, applause continue.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nSUSANA MARTINEZ: Thank you, and good evening. Before I begin tonight, let's keep in our prayers the families impacted by the storm affecting the Gulf Coast. If you haven't done so already, please donate to the Red Cross. To find out more about how you can help those affected by Hurricane Isaac, please visit redcross.org/give.\nI am Susana Martinez. On behalf of the great state of New Mexico, let me express my gratitude for being invited to speak tonight. Growing up, I never imagined a little girl from a border town could one day become a governor. But this is America. En America, todo es posible. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy parents taught me to never give up and to always believe that my future could be whatever I dreamt it to be. Success, they taught me, is built on the foundation of courage, hard work and individual responsibility. Despite what some would have us believe, success is not built on resentment and fear. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe grew up on the border and truly lived paycheck to paycheck. My dad was a Golden Gloves boxer in the Marine Corps, then a deputy sheriff. (Cheers.) My mom worked as an office assistant. One day they decided to start a security guard business. I thought they were absolutely crazy. We literally had no savings. But they always believed in the American dream. (Cheers, applause.) So my dad worked to grow the business. My mom did the books at night. And at 18 I guarded the parking lot at the Catholic church bingoes. (Laughter, cheers, applause.) Now, my dad made sure I could take care of myself. I carried a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum. (Cheers, applause.) Yes, that gun weighed more than I did. (Laughter.)\nMy parents grew that small business from one 18-year-old guarding a bingo to more than 125 employees in three states. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd sure, there was help along the way. But my parents took the risk. They stood up. And you better believe they built it. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy parents also taught me about having the courage to stand for something. So I went to law school and I became a prosecutor. I took on a speciality that very few choose to pursue. I prosecuted child abuse and child homicide cases — cases that were truly gut-wrenching. But standing up for those kids, being their voice for justice, was the honor of a lifetime. (Cheers, applause.)\nSometimes you pay a price for standing up. When I was a young prosecutor, I got called to testify against my boss. I could have backed down, but I didn't. I stood up to him. And he fired me for it. So I took him on, ran against him for district attorney and beat him by a landslide. (Cheers, applause.)\nI fear some of our leaders today have lost the courage to stand up. That we have now — what we have now are politicians. They won't offer real plans, and only stand up when they want to blame someone else. And I don't say that just because a Democrat is in the White House.\nI was a Democrat for many years. So were my parents.\nBefore I ran for district attorney, two Republicans invited my husband and me to lunch, and I knew a party switch was exactly what they wanted. So I told Chuck, we'll be polite, enjoy a free lunch and then say goodbye. But we talked about issues. They never used the words \"Republican\" or \"Democrat,\" \"conservative\" or \"liberal.\" We talked about many issues, like welfare. Is it a way of life or a hand up? Talked about the size of government. How much should it tax families and small businesses? And when we left that lunch, we got in the car, and I looked over at Chuck and said, I'll be damned; we're Republicans. (Cheers, applause.)\nThis election should not be about political parties. Too many Americans are out of work, and our debt is out of control. This election needs to be about those issues. And it is the responsibility of both parties to offer up real solutions and have an honest debate. In New Mexico, I inherited the largest structural deficit in state history. And our legislature is controlled by Democrats. We don't always agree, but we came together in a bipartisan manner and turned that deficit into a surplus.\n(Cheers, applause.) And we did it without raising taxes. (Cheers, applause.) But that's not the kind of leadership that we are seeing from President Obama. He promised to bring us all together, to cut unemployment, to pass immigration reform in his first year and even promised to cut the deficit in half in his first term. Do you remember that?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: Yeah!\nSUSANA MARTINEZ: But he hasn't come close. They haven't even passed a budget in Washington, D.C. in three years. (Boos.) If he can take credit for government building small businesses, then he can accept responsibility for breaking his promise and adding $5 trillion to the national debt — (applause) — because he did build that. (Cheers, applause.)\nAs the first Hispanic female governor in the history, little girls, they often come up to me in the grocery store or in the mall. They look, and they point, and when they get the courage to come up, they ask, are you Susana? And they run up and they give me a hug. And I wonder, how do you know who I am?\nBut they do, and these are little girls.\nIt's in moments like these when I'm reminded that we each pave a path, and for me, it's about paving a path for those little girls to follow. They need to know: No more barriers. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn many ways, Mitt Romney and I are very different — different starts in life, different paths to leadership, different cultures. But we've each shared in the promise of America. And we share a core belief that the promise of America must be kept for the next generation. \"El sueno americano es tener exito.\" (Cheers, applause.) Is success — it is success, and success is the American dream. And that success is not something to be ashamed of or to demonize.\nThere is one candidate in this election who will protect that dream, one leader who will fight hard to keep the promise of America for the next generation. And that's why we must stand up and make Mitt Romney the next president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you."
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nCONDOLEEZZA RICE: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you, Condi!\nCONDOLEEZZA RICE: Thank you so much. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening, distinguished delegates. Good evening, fellow Republicans.\nGood evening, my fellow Americans. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe gather here at a time of significance and challenge. This young century has been a difficult one. I can remember as if it were yesterday when my young assistant came into my office at the White House to say that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, and then a second plane, and then a third plane, the Pentagon. And later we would learn that a plane had crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, driven into the ground by brave souls who died so that others might live. (Cheers, applause.) From that day on — from that day on, our sense of vulnerability and our concepts of security were never the same again.\nThen in 2008 the global financial and economic crisis would stun us. And it still reverberates as we deal with unemployment and economic uncertainty and bad policies that cast a pall over an American economy and a recovery that is desperately needed at home and abroad. (Applause.)\nAnd we have seen — we have seen that the desire for liberty and freedom is indeed universal, as men and women in the Middle East rise up to seize it. Yet the promise of the Arab Spring is engulfed in uncertainty. Internal strife and hostile neighbors are challenging the young, fragile democracy of Iraq. Dictators in Iran and Syria butcher their people and threaten regional security. Russia and China prevent a response. And everyone asks: Where does America stand?\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah! (Applause.)\nCONDOLEEZZA RICE: Indeed — indeed, that is the question of the hour. Where does America stand? You see, when friends or foes alike don't know the answer to that question unambiguously and clearly, the world is likely to be a more dangerous and chaotic place.\nSince World War II, the United States has had an answer to that question. We stand for free people and free markets. We will defend and support them. (Cheers, applause.) We will sustain a balance of power that favors freedom.\nNow to be sure, the burdens of leadership have been heavy. I know, as you do, the sacrifice of Americans, especially the sacrifice of many of our bravest in the ultimate sacrifice. But our armed forces are the sure shield and foundation of liberty, and we are so fortunate that we have men and women in uniform who volunteer. They volunteer to defend us at the front lines of freedom, and we owe them our eternal gratitude. (Cheers, applause.)\nI know too that it has not always been easy, though it has been rewarding, to speak for those who would otherwise not have a voice: the religious dissident in China, the democracy advocate in Venezuela, the political prisoner in Iran.\nIt has been hard to muster the resources to support fledgling democracies and to intervene on behalf of the most desperate: the AIDS orphan in Uganda, the refugee fleeing Zimbabwe, the young woman who has been trafficked into the sex trade in Southeast Asia. It has been hard. Yet this assistance, together with the compassionate work of private charities, people of conscience and people of faith, have shown the soul of our country.\nAnd I know, too — (applause) — I know, too, that there is a weariness. I know that it feels as if we have carried these burdens long enough. But we can only know that there is no choice, because one of two things will happen if we don't lead. Either no one will lead and there will be chaos, or someone will fill the vacuum who does not share our values. My fellow Americans, we do not have a choice. We cannot be reluctant to lead, and you cannot lead from behind. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt Romney and Paul Ryan understand this reality. Our well- being at home and our leadership abroad are inextricably linked. They know what to do. They know that our friends and allies must again be able to trust us. From Israel to Colombia, from Poland to the Philippines, our allies and friends have to know that we will be reliable and consistent and determined. And our foes — our foes can have no reason to doubt our resolve because peace really does come through strength. (Cheers, applause.)\nOur military capability and our technological advantage will be safe in Mitt Romney's hands. We must work for an open global economy and pursue free and fair trade to grow our exports and our influence abroad.\nIf you are worried about the rise of China, just consider this. The United States has negotiated — the United States has ratified only three trade agreements in the last few years, and those were negotiated in the Bush administration. (Cheers, applause.) China — China has signed 15 free trade agreements and is in the progress (sic; process) of negotiating as many as 18 more. Sadly, we are abandoning the field of free and fair trade, and it will come back to haunt us. (Applause.)\nWe must not allow the chance to attain energy independence to slip from our grasp. We are blessed with a gift of oil and gas resources here in North America, and we must develop them. We can develop them sensitively, we can develop them, securing our environment, but we must develop them. (Cheers, applause.) And we have the ingenuity to develop alternative sources of energy, too.\nBut most importantly, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will rebuild the foundation of our strength, the American economy, stimulating private sector growth and stimulating small-business entrepreneurship.\n(Cheers, applause.) When the world looks at us today, they see an American government that cannot live within its means. They see an American government that continues to borrow money that will mortgage the future of generations to come. The world knows that when a nation loses control of its finances, it eventually loses control of its destiny. That is not the America that has inspired people to follow our lead. (Applause.)\nAfter all, when the world looks to — (audio break) — we are the most successful economic and political experiment in human history. That is the true basis of American exceptionalism. You see, the essence of America, what really unites us, is not nationality or ethnicity or religion. It is an idea. And what an idea it is, that you can come from humble circumstances and you can do great things, that it does not matter where you came from; it matters where you are going. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy fellow Americans, ours has never been a narrative of grievance and entitlement. We have never believed that I am doing poorly because you are doing well. We have never been jealous of one another and never envious of each other's successes.\n(Cheers, applause.) No, ours has been a belief in opportunity, and it has been a constant struggle, long and hard, up and down, to try to extend the benefits of the American dream to all.\nBut that American ideal is indeed in danger today. There is no country, no, not even a rising China, that can do more harm to us than we can do to ourselves if we do not do the hard work before us here at home. (Cheers, applause.)\nMore than at any other time in history, greatness is built on mobilizing human potential and ambition. We have always done that better than any country in the world. People have come here from all over because they have believed our creed of opportunity and limitless horizons. They have come here from the world's most impoverished nations just to make a decent wage. And they have come here from advanced societies as engineers and scientists to fuel the knowledge- based revolution in the Silicon Valley of California — (cheers) — in the Research Triangle of North Carolina — (cheers, applause) — along Route 128 in Massachusetts, in Austin, Texas, and across this great land. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe must continue to welcome the world's most ambitious people to be a part of us. In that way we stay young and optimistic and determined. We need immigration laws that protect our borders, meet our economic needs and yet show that we are a compassionate nation of immigrants. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe have been successful, too, because Americans have known that one's status of birth is not a permanent condition. Americans have believed that you might not be able to control your circumstances, but you can control your response to your circumstances. (Cheers, applause.) And your greatest ally in controlling your response to your circumstances has been a quality education. (Applause.) But today, today when I can look at your ZIP code and I can tell whether you're going to get a good education, can I honestly say it doesn't matter where you came from; it matters where you're going? The crisis in K-12 education is a threat to the very fabric of who we are. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy mom was a teacher. I respect the profession. We need great teachers, not poor ones and not mediocre ones. We have to have high standards for our kids because self-esteem comes from achievement, not from lax standards and false praise. (Cheers, applause.) And we need to give parents greater choice — particularly, particularly poor parents, whose kids, very often minorities, are trapped in failing neighborhood schools. (Applause.)\nThis is the civil rights issue of our day. (Cheers, applause.)\nIf we do anything less, we condemn generations to joblessness and hopefulness and life on the government dole. If we do anything less, we will endanger our global imperative for competitiveness. And if we do anything less, we will tear apart the fabric of who we are and cement the turn toward entitlement and grievance.\nMitt Romney — (applause) — Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will rebuild us at home, and they will help us lead abroad. They will provide an answer to the question, where does America stand?\nThe challenge is real, and the times are hard, but America has met and overcome hard challenges before. Whenever you find yourself doubting us, just think about all those times that America made the impossible seem inevitable in retrospect: our revolutionary founding against the greatest military power of the time; a Civil War, brother against brother, hundreds of thousands dead on both sides, but we emerged a more perfect union; a second founding when impatient patriots were determined to overcome the birth defect of slavery and the scourge of segregation; a long struggle against communism, with the Soviet Union eventually in collapse and Europe whole, free and at peace; and in the aftermath of 9/11, the willingness to take really hard, hard decisions that secured us and prevented the follow-on attack that everybody thought preordained.\nAnd on a personal note — (cheers, applause) — and on a personal note, a little girl grows up in Jim Crow Birmingham, the segregated city of the South where her parents can't take her to a movie theater or to a restaurant, but they have her absolutely convinced that even if she can't have a hamburger at the Woolworth's lunch counter, she could be president of the United States if she wanted to be, and she becomes the secretary of state. (Cheers, applause.)\nYes, America has a way of making the impossible seem inevitable in retrospect. But we know it was never inevitable. It took leadership, and it took courage, and it took belief in our values. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have the integrity and the experience and the vision to lead us. They know who we are. They know who we want to be. They know who we are in the world and what we offer.\nThat is why — that is why this is a moment and an election of consequence, because it just has to be that the freest and most compassionate country on the face of the earth will continue to be the most powerful and a beacon for prosperity and liberty across the world.\nGod bless you, and God bless this extraordinary country, this exceptional country, the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nMIKE HUCKABEE: Thank you. Thank you very much. I was so very honored to be asked to address one of this week's themes: We can do better. And then I was backstage and I heard some folks say that after hearing me speak, the delegates are going to say: We sure can do better than Huckabee. (Laughter.) And that's when they will unanimously nominate Mitt Romney to be the next president of the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)\nI want to say that Tampa has been a wonderful and hospitable city, and I'm grateful for all that they've done for us. But the only hitch in an otherwise perfect week was the awful noise coming from the hotel room next door to mine. Turns out, it was just Debbie Wasserman Schultz practicing her speech for the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte next week, bless her heart.\n(Mixed cheers and boos, applause.)\nFour years ago Mitt Romney and I were opponents. We still are. (Chuckles.) But we're not opposing each other. No, we are mutual opponents of the miserably failed experiments that have put this country in a downward spiral. The United States of America was originally an experiment. But it was an experiment in recognizing God-given individual liberty and creating a government in which no one is deemed better than another and in which all of us are equal, not equal in abilities but equal in intrinsic worth and value. It is the essence not just of who we are but what we are.\nNow, let me just say, to those who question how once-rivals can be now united, it's quite simple. We have Barack Obama to thank. (Cheers, applause.) It was Barack Obama who said, you didn't build it. Translation: It doesn't belong to you. (Cheers, applause.) Well, no small differences among us in our party approximate the vast differences between the liberty-limiting, radical left-wing, anti- business, reckless-spending, tax-hiking party of Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi versus an energized America who knows we can do better. (Cheers, applause.)\nFor four years we've given a chance to a man with very limited experience in governing, no experience in business whatsoever and, since taking office, mostly in — interested in campaigning, blaming and aiming excuses at his predecessor, the Republicans and people in business or, as Republicans like to call them, employers.\nWe've stagnated into an economy that has taken all that hope right down the slope and left millions without jobs, forced out of their homes by foreclosure, herded into dependency upon a government that promises us candy but gives us cavities.\nBarack Obama seems intent on enrolling more people on food stamps. Mitt Romney's focus is going to be on generating more jobs that will make food stamps unnecessary for them. (Cheers, applause.) We know full well we can do better. (Cheers, applause.)\nMitt Romney turned around companies that were on the skids. He turned around a scandal-ridden Olympics that was deep in the red, into high point of profit and patriotic pride. And he turned around a very liberal state when he erased a deficit and replaced it with a surplus.\nDo you remember when Barack Obama said that if couldn't turn things around in three years, it would be a one-term proposition? (Cheers, applause.) Well, it's been almost four years. I say let's make him a proposition he can't refuse. Let's vote him out. (Cheers, applause.)\nI understand that the job of president is admittedly tougher than running a company, an Olympic contest or a commonwealth. But when one sees what even Bill Clinton noted was a sterling record of problem- solving that has marked the life of Mitt Romney, we are confident that we will do better.\n(Cheers, applause.) I am thrilled to say Mitt Romney has been loyal to his lovely wife, who knocked it out of the park last night in this arena. (Cheers, applause.) He — he's been loyal to his sons, to his country, to his employees and to his church.\nWell, I'm sure now that the press is going to tell you he isn't perfect. But my friends, for the past four years, we tried the one that the press thought was perfect, and that hasn't worked out all that well for us. (Cheers, applause.) That's why tonight I tell you — (chuckles) — we can do better.\nOur Founding Fathers left taxation and tyranny, seeking religious liberty and a society of meritocracy rather than aristocracy. What they created was a bold experiment in government, believing that God gave us unalienable rights and that the role of government is simply to make sure that those rights are protected.\nSo fearful were they that the government would grow beyond their intention that even after crafting our magnificent Constitution, they said, we can do even better. They added amendments. We call them the Bill of Rights. Those Bill of Rights limit what the government can do, and they guarantee what we the people have the unimpeded right to do, whether to speak, assemble, worship, pray, publish or even refuse intrusions into our homes.\nMany of those founders died to pass on that heritage. They had lived under the boot of big government. And what they said was: We can do better. (Cheers, applause.)\nAs a kid growing up in a household, my dad never finished high school. I grew up in a family in which no male upstream from me had ever finished high school, much less gone to college. But I was taught that even though there was nothing I could do about what was behind me, I could change everything about what was in front of me.\nMy working-poor parents told me that I could do better. They taught me I was as good as anybody else. And it never occurred to them to tell me that I could just rest comfortably and wait for good old \"Uncle Sugar\" to feed me, lead me and then bleed me. (Cheers, applause.) They told me to get off my backside, work hard, take risks and treat people honestly and honorably.\nAnd look at me today. I've become, as the press like to label me, a failed candidate. Oh, it's true. I have fallen from the high perch of politics and now I wallow in the mud of the media. (Soft laughter.) But I still know that as a country, we can do better. And with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, we will do better. (Cheers, applause.)\nI want to clear the air about something that has been said. People wonder whether guys like me, an evangelical, would only support a fellow evangelical. Well, my friends, I want to tell you something. Of the four people on the two tickets, the only self-professed evangelical is Barack Obama, and he supports changing the definition of marriage, believes that human life is disposable and expendable at any time in the womb, even beyond the womb, and he tells people of faith that they have to bow their knees to the god of government and violate their faith and conscience in order to comply with what he calls health care.\nFriends, I know we can do better. (Cheers, applause.)\nLet me say it as clearly as possible that the attack on my Catholic brothers and sisters is an attack on me. (Cheers, applause.) The Democrats have brought back that old dance, the limbo, to see how low they can go in attempting to limit our ability to practice our faith. But this isn't a battle about contraceptives and Catholics but about conscience and the Creator.\nLet me say to you tonight I care far less as to where Mitt Romney takes his family to church than I do about where he takes this country. (Cheers, applause.)\nJoe Biden — Joe Biden said, show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value. Well, in the Senate, Joe's party hasn't produced a budget in three years. What does that say — (chuckles) — about their values?\nAnd by the way, speaking of budgets, Joe Biden's budget shows that while he wants to be very generous with your money through higher taxes and government spending, for years he gave less than two-tenths of 1 percent of his own money to charity.\nHe just wants you to give the government more so he and the Democrats can feel better about themselves. Mitt Romney has given over 16 percent of his income to church and charity. (Cheers, applause.) And my friends, I feel a lot better about having a president who will give generously of his own money instead of mine or yours. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy concern is not Barack Obama's past, but my concern is for the future — not his future, but for the future of my grandchildren, little Chandler and Scarlett. And under this president, we have burdened each of them with tens of thousands of dollars of debt and a system that will collapse upon itself because he thinks that we can prosper by punishing productivity and rewarding reckless irresponsibility.\nThe Democrats say we ought to give Barack Obama credit for trying. Folks, that sounds like the nonsense of giving every kid a trophy for showing up. (Cheers, applause.) Let's be clear: We're talking about leading the country, not playing on a third-grade soccer team. Look, I realize this is a man who got a Nobel Peace Prize for what he would potentially do. But in the real world, you get the prize for producing something, not just promising something. (Cheers, applause.) Sometimes we get so close to the picture we really can't see it clearly.\nI've had the privilege of working with Bono for the past few years in the ONE campaign to fight AIDS and hunger and disease around the world.\nBono is an Irishman and a great humanitarian, and I remember him telling me of his admiration for America. He said, America is more than just a country. We are an idea. And he reminded me that we are an exceptional nation with an extraordinary history who owes it to the generations who are coming after us to leave them with an extraordinary legacy. But if we don't change the direction of our nation now, our bequest will be nothing but an extraordinary chain. But dear friends, we can do better. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama is out of gas, and Americans are out of patience. And our great republic is almost out of time. It's time that we no longer lead from behind, but that we get off our behinds and leave something lasting for those who came after us instead of a mountain of debt and a pile of excuses. Tonight — not because we're Republicans — it's because we are Americans that we proudly stand with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, and we say, we will do better. (Cheers, applause.)\nGod bless you. Thank you. God bless. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nTIM PAWLENTY: Thank you. Thank you very much. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Barack Obama's retirement party. (Cheers, applause.)\nFour years ago we came together for this convention back in my home state of Minnesota. (Cheers, applause.) And a lot's happened since then. We've had four years of Barack Obama in the White House. Ah, the Obama White House. One bad decision follows another.\nIt's hard to say exactly just what his worst mistake has been. There's so many to choose from: the stimulus, his energy policy, \"Obamacare,\" taxes, Joe Biden. (Laughter.)\nNow, I hear Joe's particularly interested in tonight's proceedings. He even thought about coming here to Tampa, and he's taking notes, because when Paul Ryan speaks, Joe will finally get to hear what a real vice president sounds like. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut you know, President Obama isn't as bad as people say. He's actually worse. (Laughter, applause.) The president takes more vacations than that guy on the Bizarre Foods show. (Laughter.) And I'll give Barack Obama credit for creating jobs these last four years — for golf caddies. (Laughter.) Actually, Barack Obama is the first president to create more excuses than jobs. (Applause.) In his view, it's George's fault; it's the bank's fault; it's Europe's fault; it's the weather's fault; it's Congress' fault. Mr. President, if you want to find fault, I suggest you look in the mirror. (Cheers, applause.)\nI've come to realize that Barack Obama is the \"tattoo president.\" Like a big tattoo, it seemed cool when we were young, but later on that decision doesn't look so good. And you wonder: What was I thinking? (Laughter, cheers, applause.) But the worst part is, you're going to have to explain it to your kids. (Laughter.)\nNext week Barack Obama will plead with America to give his failed policies and ideas another chance. He's asking Americans to give him more time and more money. Well, sorry, Mr. President, but you're out of time, and we're out of money. (Cheers, applause.)\nBarack Obama's failed us. But look, it's understandable. A lot of people fail at their first job. (Laughter, cheers, applause.)\nNow, our opponents claim to be the party of the middle class, but Democrats don't understand this fundamental point: It's really hard for people to be part of the middle class if they don't have a job.\nNow, I know a bit about these things.\nI grew up in a meatpacking town. For much of his life, my dad was a truck driver. My mom was a homemaker. She died when I was 16 years old, and my dad lost his job not long after that. I was the only one of five kids in our family who had a chance to go to college.\nWhen I traveled the country these past few years, I met Americans from all different walks of life. If you ask middle-class Americans about their hopes and their dreams, they'll share their heart but also their concerns. Can they pay the mortgage? Will they have enough money to buy groceries or put gas in the car? Will they be able to get their kids into college or pay the tuition?\nBut jobs don't come from politicians. They come from the entrepreneurs, the inventors, the innovators and the risk-takers. (Cheers, applause.) America's entrepreneurs know taxes are too high and regulations are too costly and complex. \"Obamacare\" frightens them, and they want more American energy. And they're collectively making one common plea. They're saying, I want to grow my business and employ people, but they're also saying this: Just get the government off my back. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe need to let them know that help's on the way. And help's name is Mitt Romney. (Cheers, applause.)\nLadies and gentlemen, we have the best candidate. This isn't his first job or the first time he's been a leader who's produced results. He's made a success of failing companies. He made a success of the Olympics. He even made government in Massachusetts more effective and efficient. And now he's ready to help get America back on track and Americans back to work. (Cheers, applause.) He has a plan to strengthen and grow America's middle class with lower taxes, a government that works for the American people instead of dashing their hopes and dreams, lowering energy prices and greater access to quality education for all.\nBut there's one other thing that I want to leave you with tonight. It's important for America to know that Mitt Romney is not only a great leader; he's also a remarkable person. (Cheers, applause.) He's smart, gracious and wise. And he has this infectious good cheer about him, something I appreciate and something America needs. Mitt Romney never quits moving. When he sees a problem, he goes after it and finds the solution. It's that can-do spirit, combined with a lifetime of service and success, that convinced me to support him. And it's that can-do spirit that we need in the White House leading America now. (Applause.)\nAs a former governor, I know that leadership takes optimism, but not blind optimism. We need a leader who understands the depth of our challenges but who also doesn't shy away from them.\nMitt Romney knows what our problems are, and he has the tools and the experience and the energy and the right policies to fix them. (Cheers, applause.)\nAfter four years of this president, we need Mitt Romney now more than ever. (Cheers, applause.)\nI'm proud to be supporting him for president of the United States, and I know you are too. And with any luck, in a few months, Barack Obama will at last get some experience in the private sector. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. Good night. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nLUIS FORTUNO: Thank you. Thank you very much. Buenas noches, Puerto Rico. (Cheers, applause.) Buenas noches, Florida. Buenas noches, America.\nAs a proud American serving the nearly 4 million American citizens of Puerto Rico, I'm honored to be with you tonight. We gather to celebrate the hopes and dreams of every American. We all believe in the greatness of this nation. And this greatness lies within each of us.\nHardworking Americans are fighting every day to provide for themselves and their families and leave a more prosperous country for the next generation. That is true here in Florida, it is true in Puerto Rico, and it is true throughout this great land of ours.\nBut as families have tightened their budgets, Washington continues its wasteful spending.\nUnless we elect leaders who take responsibility now, our children and theirs will pay for it later. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou and I know there is a better way, and like many conservative governors around the country, we are proving it. When I took office, I inherited a $3.3 billion budget deficit, per person the largest anywhere in this nation. We could not even meet our payroll. We were on the brink of bankruptcy.\nBut we did not shy away from our responsibility to lead. We cut government expenses by almost 20 percent, starting with my own salary. We reduced our deficit 90 percent while continuing to invest in our schools, hospitals and highways. At the same time, we slashed taxes 50 percent on individuals and 30 percent on businesses, the largest tax cut in Puerto Rico history. (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd guess what? Our private sector, the real economy, began to create jobs again. Imagine if we had national policies that support rather than prevent growth. We'd then be able to truly unleash the engine of prosperity that our country and our people deserve. That's what Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will do for America. (Cheers, applause.) They understand that each community's challenges are unique, but the answers are the same.\nOur families cannot grow their budgets if politicians keep growing Washington's budget. We need to get government out of our way. (Cheers, applause.) And we need to let freedom and the spirit of the American people shine through. We can outthink, out-dream, out-work and outproduce anybody in the world.\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah!\nLUIS FORTUNO: I know it, you know it, and Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan certainly know it. (Cheers, applause.) They have a plan and a vision that places our faith in you, the American people, not in Washington. (Cheers, applause.) Ask any small-business owner in America today, from the dairy farmer in Appleton, Wisconsin, to the bodega owner in Kissimmee, Florida. They want to grow, to produce and to hire. But they are concerned, worried that Washington will continue to punish them with more taxes, more red tape and more government control. Give them the freedom to grow, and you'll see how many jobs they create. (Cheers, applause.)\nI like to talk a lot about freedom because freedom is the essence of who we are as Americans. Over 200,000 Puerto Ricans have served in uniform — (cheers, applause) — to defend our nation and the freedom we hold so dear. Like in your home states, we raise and salute the American flag. Just like our fellow citizens in Florida or Virginia, we share the same undying spirit that all Americans have.\nAllow me to share an example of that spirit. I visited a soldier from Puerto Rico at Walter Reed Army Medical Center several years ago. This young man had bravely served in combat and was given little chance to live. Without knowing if he could hear me, in every visit I would whisper into his ear. I would tell him how proud and thankful we were for his dedication and sacrifice, adding, \"No te rindas,\" \"Don't give up.\" (Cheers, applause.)\nMonths later, after his miraculous recovery, I had the honor of awarding the Purple Heart. He never gave up. (Cheers, applause.)\nFor him and for every American in uniform, we will never give up.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) (Inaudible.)\nLUIS FORTUNO: For every mother who struggles, saves and sacrifices so her children will have greater opportunities, we will never give up.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) (Inaudible.) (Applause.)\nLUIS FORTUNO: For every small-business owner who builds it to make a better life, we will never give up.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) (Inaudible.) (Applause.)\nLUIS FORTUNO: For Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, who know what it takes to put America back to work and back on track, we will never give up.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Inaudible) — up.\nLUIS FORTUNO: And for the values — the values that make America great, the justice that is our right, the freedom to unleash the greatness within each of us and the liberty that God endowed every American — for that, I will never give up.\nYou will never give up. We will never give up.\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: We will never give up!\nLUIS FORTUNO: God bless you, and God bless the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.) Muchas gracias, Puerto Rico. See you tomorrow! Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nSTEVE COHEN: Good evening. My name is Steven Cohen, and I am president of Screen Machine Industries, a family-owned manufacturer of construction and mining equipment located in the great Buckeye State of Ohio. (Cheers, applause.) And yes, we did build this company. (Cheers, applause.) Our country's nearly 30 million small businesses serve as the American backbone for job creation and product innovation. The opportunity to create new products and open new markets is the American dream. This capitalistic spirit has supported our economy since its founding.\nAs a manufacturer, our products are the heartbeats of our business. We can't tolerate other companies stealing hard work without compensation. It can take several years and tens of thousands of dollars to achieve patent status. Once granted, we expect it to be protected.\nOur products are often stolen and copied overseas for a mere fraction of the price. All too often tariffs and unfair trade practices make it difficult for American businesses to export. We need a president that will protect America's patented inventions, guard the value of our currency and open up new markets for American products. (Cheers, applause.)\nAmerican small businesses face a mountain of regulations and taxes. In addition, our international competitors do not have to face the upcoming costs associated with funding a multi-billion-dollar health care plan, overreaching emissions standards and the unnecessary war on coal. These factors create a tremendous disadvantage in the global marketplace. We need an administration that will lessen tax burdens and government regulations that strangle small businesses.\nWhile we face higher government-imposed costs, cheaper imports from overseas companies flood our markets. Unnecessary regulations and mandates imposed on business make our products more expensive to make and less competitive to sell. We need a Romney administration to ensure our country's competitiveness and give our companies the opportunities to expand and hire again. (Cheers, applause.) Let's bring back that original American will to invent, employ and prosper! Thank you."
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nMS. : Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Yohana de la Torre live from backstage in the Republican National Convention. And today I have the honor to be with Michigan delegate Michelle Voorheis. Welcome, Michelle. (Cheers.)\nMICHELLE VOORHEIS: Hi, Yohana. It's great to be here tonight.\nMS. : Michelle, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?\nMICHELLE VOORHEIS: Well, I'm a wife and a mom, and I come from the small town of Clio, Michigan. (Cheers, applause.) And I'm a small- business owner.\nMS. : I understand that you have a commercial real estate business. How has your business fared under President Obama?'\nMICHELLE VOORHEIS: Well, first let me say that Obama did not build my business. (Cheers, applause.) But he is doing everything in his power to tear it down. Under his administration, the regulations and restrictions that he is placing on the banks have caused them to stop lending money. So even though my husband and I have excellent credit and we've never missed a payment, we're unsure whether we're going to be able to get the financing to continue funding our business.\nThis creates uncertainty for us, so we aren't hiring any employees. This makes for 12- to 14-hour days that we have to work to keep our business running. I have an 18-year-old son that I just sent off to college and a 90-year-old mother-in-law that we are caring for, and I don't see any end in sight if something doesn't change soon.\nMS. : What does your future look like for you?\nMICHELLE VOORHEIS: Well, first I want to say that we give thanks to God for everything that we have. My husband and I have been married for 35 years, and during that time, we have worked hard, we've played by the rules, we've done everything right. So we thought at the end of the day we were going to have a great retirement and we were going to have a successful business that we could leave to our kids. But right now, I don't know if I'm ever going to get to retire. I'm 55. I don't want to start over again and do something else. So under the Obama administration, I feel that our dreams are slipping away.\nMS. : Michelle's story is just one of the many of small- business owners and what they're going through today during the President Obama's administration.\nNow we go back live to the Republican National Convention. I'm Yohana de la Torre. Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nROB PORTMAN: Thank you. Thank you. (Chuckles.) Thank you. Good evening, America! (Cheers, applause.)\nAnd hello to the fired-up delegation from the Buckeye State right there in front of me. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy name is Rob Portman, and they say I was on Governor Romney's short list of vice presidential candidates. Apparently, it wasn't short enough. (Scattered laughter.) What a great convention. And I'm delighted to be here tonight to talk about the fundamental differences between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama when it comes to understanding our economy.\nLet's begin by talking about something the Democrats love to demonize: Mitt Romney's success in the private sector. He built a company from the ground up, created lots of jobs, and yes, he made money. (Cheers, applause.) He made it the old-fashioned way, folks: He earned it. (Cheers, applause.)\nThen you have Barack Obama, who never started a business, never even worked in business, and yet he claims those who have should give credit to the government or someone else for their success. (Boos.)\nSo you have one candidate who understands that success comes from working hard, competing and taking risks. And you have another candidate who believes that success comes from government. (Boos.) Let me ask you this: Which one do you think knows how to turn around this economy? (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) Romney! Romney!\nROB PORTMAN: Right answer. Let me ask you this: Which one would you choose to invest your life savings?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) Romney! Romney! Romney! Romney!\nROB PORTMAN: Should it be any different for safeguarding our nation's economy?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nROB PORTMAN: Or let's say you don't have any savings. Let's say you're worried about how to pay September's rent or mortgage. Let's say you're one of the millions of Americans out of work or millions more who have given up looking for work. You've got to be running out of patience and hope. You've got to be tired, looking for a new start. Well, you don't have to be patient any longer. Through your vote this fall, you can change the leadership of this country and the opportunities for you and your families. (Cheers, applause.)\nAmerica, it's been nearly four years of 8 percent unemployment — double-digit unemployment for young people, Hispanics, African Americans. Four years. FDR and Truman won an entire world war in four years. America is tired of waiting. (Cheers, applause.) Listen, in business if you don't move rapidly, what happens? You're out of business; you're finished. We want a president who operates at business speed, not government speed. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama says that he deserves re-election because his economic policies have worked. Not in this universe, they haven't. (Cheers, boos, applause.) In fact, the experts tell us that if we don't change our policies, we're going back into recession next year. Folks, tens of millions of Americans are not out of the last recession. Governor Romney had a plan to build his business.\nHe now has a detailed plan to restore our economy and strengthen the middle class. (Cheers, applause.) I ask you, where's the president's economic plan? Blaming others does not qualify as a plan.\nNow, the president did submit a budget. It was so bad, folks, that not a — (audio break) — Republican or a single Democrat in the entire United States Congress would vote for it. He got zero votes. That is a failure of leadership. (Cheers, applause.)\nPresident Obama has been right about at least one prediction he's made about the economy. He said: If I don't have this done in three years, then there's going to be a one-term proposition. (Cheers, applause.)\nI think you're right about that, Mr. President. It hasn't worked because you cannot spend your way, regulate your way, tax your way or blame your way out of the economic mess that we're in. (Cheers, applause.) You have to liberate the productive power of the American people through policies that encourage innovation, risk-taking, investment and jobs. And you have to compete and win in the global economy. Governor Romney understands this. (Cheers, applause.)\nIn contrast, President Obama is the first president in 75 years — Democrat or Republican — who hasn't even sought the ability to negotiate export agreements and open markets overseas.\nNow why is this important? Because 95 percent of the world's consumers live outside of our borders, and to create jobs, our workers and our farmers need to sell more of what we make to those people. (Cheers, applause.)\nWhile this administration has been dragging its feet, other countries have been busy negotiating hundreds of new trade agreements to benefit their workers, their farmers, taking away our opportunities. President Obama has been so driven to advance his big- government ideology that he has abandoned the daily work that a government must do to open markets, restore business confidence and create the climate for job growth. This is the work President Romney would begin on day one. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) (Inaudible.)\nROB PORTMAN: Take trade with China. China manipulates its currency, giving it an unfair trade advantage. So why doesn't the president do something about it? I'll tell you one reason. President Obama could not run up his record trillion-dollar deficit if the Chinese didn't buy our bonds to finance them. Folks, we are as beholden to China for bonds as we are to the Middle East for oil. This will end under Mitt Romney. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe need to knock down these barriers to trade abroad, but we also need to knock down self-imposed barriers to success right here at home. We need to reform our outdated and complicated tax code. We need to fix our burdensome regulatory system. And we need an energy policy that encourages the development of our resources right here, in the ground, in America.\n(Cheers, applause.) America has a choice between Mitt Romney, who seeks to grow the economy, and Barack Obama, who seeks to redistribute it. Which one do you think will liberate America's entrepreneurial spirit?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) Romney! Romney! Romney! Romney! Romney! Romney!\nROB PORTMAN: At the other party's convention, you're going to hear another chant. Their chant will be, \"Four more years, four more years.\" Folks, we cannot afford four more years. (Cheers, applause.) How about no more years? (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) No more years! No more years! No more years! No more years! No more years! No more years! No more years! No more years!\nROB PORTMAN: Governor Romney — Governor Romney chose a terrific partner in Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. (Cheers, applause.) Paul's a close friend, a great family man, and he's got a reformer's heart.\nContrast this to Joe Biden. Vice President Biden has told people out of work to, quote, just hang in there. So much for hope and change. Paul Ryan is not asking America to continue to hang in there. He's proposing new policies that will give poor and middle-class families opportunities and hope for the future. (Cheers, applause.) Mitt Romney made his mark turning around businesses, solving problems. Paul Ryan made his mark as a respected reformer focused on results.\nTogether, they will do what President Obama has not done: They will lead in breaking through the partisan gridlock in Washington, D.C. (Cheers, applause.) America, give them the chance to restore America's economy and restore the American dream.\nI've seen that dream up close. When I was a kid, my dad left his job as a salesman for a big company and started his own business, taking a risk. He sold forklift trucks. My mom was the bookkeeper. She had to borrow money — they had to borrow money from her uncle because the bank wouldn't give him a loan. He lost money the first few years, but he never lost his dream. By the time he retired and my brother took over, the business had 200 employees. Two hundred families in southwest Ohio were supported by that business.\nThis is the classic American story not of government telling us what to do but of free men and free women willing to work hard and take a risk to build something of value for themselves, their families and their community. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!\nROB PORTMAN: About a year into the Obama administration, I asked my dad whether he would do it again. He said, Rob, with all the uncertainty out there today, I don't know if I would take the risk. In that one sentence, folks, he summed up what I've heard from hundreds of small-business owners all across Ohio and around this great country. They're afraid to make the investment, and jobs are the casualty. (Applause.)\nLadies and gentlemen, we need new leadership and new policies to bring back the dream and renew America's promise. (Cheers, applause.)\nNo more excuses, no more blaming others, no more waiting. We need Romney-Ryan, and we need them now. (Cheers, applause.) And with your help, it's going to happen. (Cheers, applause.)\nThank you, and God bless our great country. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nTAD TRUE: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, energy powers everything we do, and America depends on reliable and affordable energy. This is a simple concept, but the Obama administration does not get it. His policies are driving us away from energy independence, not towards it.\nMitt Romney knows that we need an all-of-the-above energy policy that includes oil, gas and coal and renewables like wind and solar so that we can finally secure energy independence for our country. Infrastructure is fundamental to all energy systems, and infrastructure is critical to achieving energy independence, infrastructure like pipelines, which prompts me to ask, Mr. President, where is the Keystone pipeline? (Cheers, applause.)\nI am part of the third generation of a family-owned businesses, and we operate pipelines in the great states of Wyoming, North Dakota and Montana.\nThese companies were started by my grandfather and then run by my father and uncles. Between them and our 152 dedicated and incredibly talented employees, we built almost 4,000 miles of pipeline. (Cheers, applause.) A lot of our recent work has been constructing new pipeline infrastructure in western North Dakota to support the development of the Bakken oil shale, an exciting and an important development for America.\nSome time ago we agreed to build the on ramp the Keystone XL pipeline, so that it could take American-produced oil to American markets. (Cheers.) If Keystone had received timely approval of their permit, it would be under construction today. Instead Americans have missed out on jobs from this pipeline because the Obama administration has played politics with the Keystone project.\nMy hope is that my three boys, Henry, Sam and Charlie, will be part of the fourth generation of our family business. (Cheers.) And although my kids think pipelines are boring, I know and you know and Mitt Romney knows that pipelines are vital to America's energy system. (Cheers, applause.)\nLadies and gentlemen, this is not about just one pipeline. This is about a fundamental transformation of America's energy system so that we can achieve that long sought-after goal of energy independence. (Applause.)\nMore importantly, it's about my three boys and your children and about rebuilding a nation that can once again power itself.\n(Cheers, applause.) We need a president that understands that we need all of that energy, all of that oil, all of those jobs. And we need a president that understands that America needs that pipeline. That president is Mitt Romney. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you."
      , "MS. : Good evening, conventiongoers. I'm Tara Wald (ph) live for the 2012 Republican National Convention here on the convention floor, and with me is Yash Wadhwa, your civil engineer from India. Tell us a little bit about why you came and you immigrated to this country. Give us a little snapshot.\nYASH WADHWA: Let me first say one thing: I'm a proud Republican from the state of Wisconsin! (Cheers, applause.)\nMS. : All right, good old Paul Ryan country.\nYASH WADHWA: The next vice president of the United States. I came to this country as a student with few dollars in my pocket and a dream in my heart. I knew America was a country which provided opportunities for any person from anywhere in the world and live the American dream. Guess what, I have lived the American dream. (Cheers, applause.)\nMS. : All right.\nYASH WADHWA: And I'm very proud of it. This is the best country on earth, and I love it with passion. In 1980 something happened which changed my life: A man by the name of Ronald Reagan was elected the president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.) And he inspired me so much that I decided to become a U.S. citizen and a Republican.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nMS. : All right. Well, tell me this. You owned a small business for 22 years. So in your opinion, what are the biggest challenges that small-business owners face today?\nYASH WADHWA: Well, let me go back to Ronald Reagan a little bit. Ronald Reagan used to say that America is a shining city on a hill. Under President Obama, we are becoming a tent city with people waiting in line for government handouts, and I don't like it.\nMS. : All right. (Cheers, applause.) Well, we want to thank Yash Wadhwa for joining us from Wisconsin — great state. And we want to turn it back to the program. Once again, I'm Tara Wald (ph), live from the 2012 Republican National Convention. (Cheers, applause.) Back to the program."
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nSAM OLENS: As attorneys general, we have been on the front line defending the Constitution and the American people from a president driven to exercise government power over our freedoms, our rights and our lives. We know that the Constitution limits federal power, but President Obama clearly believes those limits just get in his way. So he ignores them time and again.\nHe promises to rescue our economy and environment by investing in green jobs but instead funnels your tax dollars into campaign donors' pockets. He promised to have the most transparent administration in history but now refuses to come clean with Congress and the American people about Fast and Furious.\nPAM BONDI: He sure does. He talks about giving us more control over health care decisions but instead grants that power to government bureaucrats. He claims that government is responsible for private-sector success, but the only thing he is building is bigger government. And \"Obamacare\" is exhibit A. (Cheers, applause.)\nSAM OLENS: It distorts our Constitution and endangers our fragile economy. We did everything in our power to stop it, taking the fight all the way to the United States Supreme Court. We prevailed on our two main arguments.\nPAM BONDI: The court agreed that the Commerce Clause of the Constitution does not allow the federal government to purchase a product — to force you to purchase something that you do not want.\nThe court agreed that the Constitution does not allow the federal government to force states to adopt a budget-busting expansion of Medicaid.\nSAM OLENS: Then came the shocker: The Supreme Court upheld the individual insurance mandate by calling it something the president swore it never was: a tax. At every stage of the process, President Obama and congressional Democrats promised us that the mandate was not a tax because they knew Americans were hurting, and the last thing we needed was another tax, because they knew if the American public were told that \"Obamacare\" was just a massive tax hike, they wouldn't have a prayer of passing it.\nPAM BONDI: Right. Instead, President Obama and the Democrats called it a mandate. Then they turned around and, without a shred of shame, asked the court to call the mandate a tax. Yet the president can't bring himself to acknowledge publicly that the only reason this unaffordable care act still stands is because it is a tax.\nThis is what happens when a president has such total disregard for our individual liberty that he knowingly and purposely imposes unwarranted restrictions against the will of the people. This is not why our Founding Fathers risked their lives and their fortunes when they created a nation. This is not why young American men and women today risk their lives in defense of freedom.\nSo tonight we ask you: Do you want skyrocketing health insurance premiums?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nSAM OLENS: Do you want enormous new financial burdens on young people, who already shoulder our nation's crushing debt?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nPAM BONDI: Do you want the government to force individuals and religious institutions to violate the tenets of their faith?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nSAM OLENS: Do you want over $1 trillion in new tax increases?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nPAM BONDI: Do you want a job-destroying insurance mandate that strangles our businesses?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nSAM OLENS: Do you — do you want a federal government that tells you what to do, what to think or what to buy when it comes to your health care?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nPAM BONDI: Do you want the federal government to steal hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare to hide the true cost of \"Obamacare\"?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nSAM OLENS: Do you want more of this for four more years?\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: No!\nSAM OLENS: The health care lawsuit has reminded all of us that the Constitution limits the power of government. It has reminded us of the precious relationship between federalism and individual liberty. And though we fundamentally disagree with his decision, Chief Justice Roberts did observe that it is not the Supreme Court's job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.\nPAM BONDI: That's right. It is our job to make a new choice. (Cheers.) It is time to stand up and say, in a loud, clear voice, enough!\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: Enough! (Cheers, applause.)\nPAM BONDI: It is time to repeal \"Obamacare.\" (Cheers, applause.) It is time to stop those who ignore the Constitution when it's expedient.\nIt is time to remember that our rights are not a gift from government, but from God, and that by his grace, we will defend them. It is time for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.\nThank you.\nSAM OLENS: Thank you.\nPAM BONDI: Have a great night. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you."
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJOHN THUNE: Thank you. Thank you, South Dakota, and good evening, my fellow Republicans.\nIt's no secret that I'm a sports fan. In fact, I get asked all the time if I've ever played basketball with President Obama. The answer is no. I'm still waiting for that invitation.\nThe next question is, do you think you could take him one-on-one. And I say: I really don't know. I've never seen him play. But I can tell you this: President Obama would be easy to defend because you know he's always going to go to his left. (Cheers, applause.)\nLike many Americans, I've been blessed by the hard work and sacrifice of those who've come before. You see, it was back in 1906 that two Norwegian brothers named Nicolai and Matthew Gjeslvik came to this country in search of the American dream.\nWhen they reached the shores of America, the only English words they knew were the words \"apple pie\" and \"coffee,\" which, evidently, they had plenty of on the way over.\nThe immigration officials at Ellis Island determined that their name, Gjelsvik, which was spelled G-J-E-L-S-V-I-K, was too difficult to spell and pronounce, so they asked them to change it. The two brothers picked the name of the farm where they worked in Norway, which was called the Thune Farm. And so Nicolai Gjelsvik became Nick Thune, my grandfather.\nWith their new country — (applause) — with their new country and their new name, the two brothers began their new life by working on the railroad. They learned English and saved enough money to start a small hardware store. And yes, Mr. President, they did build it. (Cheers, applause.)\nMy grandfather raised three sons. The middle son, my father, joined the Navy when World War II broke out. He became a naval aviator, flying combat missions off the aircraft carrier Intrepid in the Pacific theater. On one mission, he shot down four enemy aircraft, for which he received the Distinguished Flying Cross. After the war, my dad quietly returned to South Dakota, to his hardware store and his family.\nYou know, many versions of that story are told all across this country. The details may be different, but the dream is the same. (Cheers, applause.)\nI hate to say it, but that dream is in serious jeopardy.\nWe have a sluggish economy burdened by Obama administration policies that are weighing down our job creators. Middle-class Americans in cities and on our farms are bearing the brunt. The big-government bureaucrats of the Obama administration have set their sights on our way of life. Instead of preserving family farms and ranches, President Obama's policies are effectively regulating them out of business. His administration even proposed banning farm kids from doing basic chores. (Boos.)\nSince President Obama took office, we've had 42 consecutive months of unemployment above 8 percent, the longest streak on record. The cost of family health insurance premiums has risen by nearly 19 percent. College tuition has increased by 25 percent. And fuel costs have doubled. The number of people on food stamps has increased by 45 percent. And the debt that we are piling on the backs of our children and grandchildren has gone up by 50 percent. Yet for all of President Obama's talk about the middle class, middle-class incomes are down.\nFolks, we won't be in this situation with Mitt Romney in the White House. He understands — (applause) — he understands what it takes for businesses large and small to grow and to create jobs. This knowledge doesn't come from a textbook, although he's read plenty of those. It comes from decades of rolling up his sleeves and getting the job done. (Applause.) It comes from recognizing the strengths and contributions of every individual.\nHis experience tells him that the most valuable insight can be gained not by lecturing, but by listening.\nAnd when he does use his presidential bully pulpit, it will be to champion the cause of small business and make it clear to all companies that it is safe to hire again. (Cheers, applause.)\nOn day one of Mitt Romney's presidency, the transformation of Washington will begin. Gone will be the arrogance of a president whose first instinct is to condemn achievement. Gone will be the attitude that government knows best and solves all. What you will see and hear is a president who will do everything in his power to make sure government is a catalyst for growth, not an obstacle to success. (Cheers, applause.) And you will have a president with a plan to strengthen the middle class.\nMy friends, may it never be said of us that when confronted with the economic peril before us, that we averted our eyes, turned away and did nothing. Our children's future depends on our willingness to act and our decision to elect Mitt Romney president of the United States. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. May God continue to bless the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJOHN MCCAIN: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. (Audience members singing.) (Chuckles.) (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. Thank you very much. It's an honor, as always, my fellow Republicans, to join you at our national convention and add my voice to yours as we nominate the next president of the United States, my friend Governor Mitt Romney. (Cheers, applause.)\nYou know, I had — I had hopes once of addressing you under different circumstances. (Chuckles, laughter.) But our fellow Americans had another plan four years ago, and I accept their decision. I've been blessed for so long to play a role in our nation's affairs, and I'm conscious only of the debt I owe America. And I thank you for the honor. (Cheers, applause.)\nWhen we nominate Mitt Romney, we do so with a greater purpose than winning an advantage for our party. We charge him with the care of a higher cause. His election represents the best hopes for our country and the world. It is said that this election will turn on domestic and economic issues. But what Mitt Romney knows and what we know is that the success at home also depends on our leadership in the world. It is our willingness to shape world events for the better that has kept us safe, increased our prosperity, preserved our liberty and transformed human history.\nAt our best, America has led. We have led by our example as a shining city on a hill. We have led at the direction of patriots from both parties. We have led shoulder to shoulder with steadfast friends and allies. We have led by giving voice to the voiceless, insisting that every human life has dignity and aiding those brave souls who risked everything to secure the inalienable rights that are endowed to all by our Creator. We have — (cheers, applause) — we have led with generous hearts, moved by an abiding love of justice, to help others eradicate disease, lift themselves from poverty, live under laws of their own making and determine their own destinies. We have led, when necessary, with the armed might of freedom's defenders. And always we have led from the front, never from behind. (Cheers, applause.)\nThis is what makes America an exceptional nation. It's not just a matter of who we are; it's the record of what we have done. It is the responsibility that generation after generations of Americans has affirmed and carried forward. It is a cause that many Americans have sacrificed everything, absolutely everything to defend. And when they've gone into battle, as they do today, they have done so with a conviction that the country that sent them there is worth their sacrifice, that it stands for something more than the sum of our individual interests.\nMay God bless all who have served, all who serve today, as he has blessed us with their service. (Cheers, applause.)\nWe are now being tested by an array of threats that are more complex more numerous and just as deeply and deadly as I can recall in my lifetime. We face a consequential choice, and make no mistake, it is a choice. We can choose to follow a declining path toward a future that is dimmer and more dangerous that our past, or we can choose to reform our failing government, revitalize our ailing economy and renew the foundations of our power and leadership in the world. That is what's at stake in this election. (Cheers, applause.)\nUnfortunately, for four years, for four years, we've drifted away from our proudest traditions of global leadership, traditions that are truly bipartisan. We've let the challenges we face both at home and abroad become much harder to solve. We can't afford to stay on that course any longer. We can't afford to cause our friends and allies, from Latin America, to Europe, to Asia, to the Middle East and especially in Israel, a nation under existential threat, to doubt America's leadership. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) USA! USA! USA! USA!\nJOHN MCCAIN: We can't afford to give governments in Russia and China a veto over how we defend our interests and the progress of our values in the world.\n(Cheers, applause.) We can't afford to have the security of our nation — we can't afford to have the security of our nation, and those who bravely defend it, endangered because their government leaks the secrets of their heroic operations to the media! (Cheers, applause.)\nI believe we can't afford to substitute a political timetable for a military strategy. By committing to withdraw from Afghanistan before peace can be achieved and sustained, the president has discouraged our friends and emboldened our enemies, which is why our commanders did not recommend these decisions and why they have said it puts our mission at much greater risk. We can't afford another $500 billion in cuts in our defense budget on top of the nearly 500 billion (dollars) in cuts that the president is already making. (Cheers, applause.)\nHis own secretary of defense has said that cutting our military by nearly a trillion dollars would be devastating, and yet the president is playing no leadership role in preventing this crippling blow to our military.\nA wise congressman from Wisconsin has said: Our fiscal policy and our foreign policy are on a collision course. And that man is our next vice president, Paul Ryan. (Cheers, applause.)\nBut most of all, we can't afford to abandon the cause of human freedom. When long-suffering peoples demand liberation from their jailers and torturers and tyrants, the leader of the free world must stand with them.\nUnfortunately, this is not happening. When Iranians rose up by the millions against their oppressive rulers; when they beseeched our president, chanting in English, are you with us or are you with them; when the entire world watched as a brave young woman named Neda was shot and bled to death in a street in Tehran, the president missed an historic opportunity to throw America's full moral support behind an Iranian revolution that shared one of our highest interests, ridding Iran of a brutal dictatorship that terrorized the Middle East and threatens the world. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe situation is far worse in Syria. What began as peaceful protests has now become, 18 months later, a savage and unfair fight. With the full backing of Iran and Hezbollah and Russia, with tanks and helicopters and fighter jets, Bashar Assad is murdering men, women and children. More than 20,000 people have perished. Extremists are gaining ground, and the conflict is becoming more dangerous by the day for our allies and for us.\nIn other times, when other courageous people fought for their freedom against sworn enemies of the United States, American presidents, both Republicans and Democrats, have acted to help them prevail.\n(Cheers, applause.)\nSadly for the lonely voices of dissent in Syria and Iran and elsewhere in the world who feel forgotten in their darkness and sadly for us as well, our president is not being true to our values. (Cheers, applause.) For the sake of the cause of freedom, for the sake of people who are willing to give their lives so their fellow citizens can determine their own futures and for the sake of our nation, the nation founded on the idea that all people everywhere have the right to freedom and justice, we must return to our best traditions of American leadership and support those who face down the brutal tyranny of their oppressors and our enemies. (Cheers, applause.)\nAUDIENCE MEMBERS: (Chanting.) U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!\nJOHN MCCAIN: My friends, across the world, people are seizing control of their own destinies. They are liberating themselves from oppressive rulers. And they want America's support. They want America's assistance as they struggle to live in peace and security, to expand opportunity for themselves and their children, to replace the injustices of despots with the institutions of democracy and freedom. America must be on the right side of history. (Cheers, applause.)\nThe demand for our leadership in the world has never been greater. People don't want less of America; they want more.\nEverywhere I go in the world, people tell me that they still have faith in America. What they want to know is whether we still have faith in ourselves.\nI trust that Mitt Romney has that faith, and I trust him to lead us. (Cheers, applause.) I trust him to affirm our nation's exceptional character and responsibilities. I trust him to know that our security and economic interests are inextricably tied to the progress of our values. I trust him to know that if America doesn't lead, our adversaries will. And the world will go darker, poorer and much more dangerous.\nI trust him to know that an American president always, always, always stands up for the rights and freedoms and justice of all people. (Cheers, applause.) I trust Mitt Romney to know that good can triumph over evil, that justice can vanquish tyranny, that love can conquer hate, that the desire for freedom is eternal and universal and that America is still the best hope of mankind. (Applause.)\nAnd now, my fellow Americans, let's elect our next commander in chief and the next leader of the free world, my friend Governor Mitt Romney. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nJEANINE MCDONNELL: Thank you very much. Good evening. I am proud to be one of the 212,000 service women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade.\nAUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you! (Cheers, applause.)\nJEANINE MCDONNELL: Thank you.\nAs a 24-year-old Virginian in Iraq, I worked with some of the most courageous men and women this nation has to offer. And we were united in a singular cause: to protect the nation that we love. (Cheers, applause.)\nIt has been my privilege to serve alongside heroes of every service. Defending this nation and its citizens is not without sacrifice for service members and the families that support them. And that is why that we need leaders who don't play chicken with our nation's defense. (Cheers, applause.) We need leaders who will invest in defense — not abandon it. (Cheers, applause.) And that is why we need Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.\nNow, it is my distinct honor to introduce Chris Devon Young, a hero in his own right, a former Coast Guardsmen and a two-time Paralympic Gold Medalist in alpine skiing.\nChris. (Cheers, applause.)\nCHRIS DEVON YOUNG: Thank you. It is wonderful to be here with you tonight.\nIn 1982, while flying in heavy fog during a Coast Guard mission, our plane crashed, leaving me paralyzed from the waist down.\nWhile my career as a Coast Guardsman ended, a new world of service began for me. Twenty-seven years ago, this California boy was introduced to ski racing at the first Veterans Administration winter sports clinic. I decided then and there to dedicate to my life to racing and coaching other injured veterans.\nBeing a gold medal paralympian gives me a whole new way to honor and serve my country. Being the coach — (cheers, applause) — being the coach of paralympic medalists gives me a way to honor and serve others.\nAnd I believe that we can all serve, no matter what our challenges, because it's not about what you've lost in life, but rather what you are able to give. (Cheers, applause.)\nNow it is my honor to introduce a hero who's given of himself regardless of the price. He is the son and grandson of admirals. He's a decorated naval pilot, a war hero and THE senior senator of the great state of Arizona, Senator John McCain. (Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\n(Video plays.)\nGEORGE W. BUSH: I remember the first time I went to the Oval Office as president. I was in awe. And after I got there, I had a guest, and that was president 41.\nGEORGE H.W. BUSH: I was in the bathtub at the White House residence, and Ramsey (sp), a guy that worked there, came in and said, yeah, that bathtub — your son is over in the Oval Office.\nGEORGE W. BUSH: As I recall, the conversation went something like this: Welcome, Mr. President. It's good to see you, Mr. President. (Laughter.) And that's all we said.\nGEORGE H.W. BUSH: It was fun just walking in and seeing your own son be the president of the United States.\nGEORGE W. BUSH: And I remember visiting Dad in the Oval Office when he was president and how much reverence he treated the office. And I tried to do the same thing. I mean, the Oval Office is a place where you make decisions and welcome dignitaries and welcome some friends. But it's a place that always has to be treated with respect and dignity.\nBARBARA BUSH: Lech Walesa's visit to the White House — we'd sort of been involved with him in Poland and gotten to know him. And he came to the White House, and he really spoke no English. But he mentioned freedom and stooped down as he was getting the award the president can give a foreigner and kissed the ground. And I must say I was very emotional.\nGEORGE W. BUSH: The first time Vladimir Putin came to visit Washington — and the sun was pouring through the windows, and I mean, the Oval Office just sparkled. And the door opened up, and in came President Putin. And his first words were, my God.\nWhen Dad was president he kindly would invite all of us up to the White House. He actually invited me to the state dinner with the queen. He took a huge risk, a diplomatic gamble — (laughter) — but it worked out OK.\nGEORGE H.W. BUSH: What'd she say? It's a — (laughter) — that's a black — black — (chuckles) --\nGEORGE W. BUSH: Yeah, something about black sheep. (Laughter.) Of course, mother said, well, you're looking at him — that would be me — (laughter) — and we moved him as far away as possible for the luncheon.\nGEORGE H.W. BUSH: Not going to do it. Wouldn't be prudent. (Laughter.) Dana Carvey — (laughter) — we were coming into the speech room, said, ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States, and in walked Dana Carvey.\nDANA CARVEY: First thing I notice, this podium is for the other guy over there. (Laughter.) Would love to be up here, but I'm down here. (Laughter.)\nLAURA BUSH: So we didn't really have any issues with family, but our dog did bite a reporter. (Laughter.) But right after that, I got a big sack of correspondence to sign and go through, and in the correspondence was a letter from Barney — (laughter) — and he wrote and said he was so embarrassed, he was really sorry, he'd made a mistake. (Laughter.) He thought that reporter was with The New York Times. (Laughter.)\nWell, I hope people will remember George, and I think they will, for having the determination and the toughness and the persistence to be able to see us through in our country through such a very difficult time after the terrorist attack. I'm so proud of George.\nGEORGE H.W. BUSH: Integrity, honesty, there was never a taint of scandal around his presidency. And I think — I think we forget the importance of that. But they'll remember him for being a good, honest president who maybe got a lot of things done, but I think — I think the thing I take pride in is integrity.\nGEORGE W. BUSH: History will remember him as a great president. Not only was he well-prepared for the job, but when the unexpected took place, he handled it with vision, a clear strategy and calm nerves.\nBARBARA BUSH: He is the most decent, honorable, wonderful — nobody's ever been as lucky as I've been.\nI want people to remember him as courageous. I want them to remember him as he is.\nGEORGE W. BUSH: Dad and I both know what it takes to be president. And there's no doubt in our minds that Mitt Romney will be a great president.\nGEORGE H.W. BUSH: He's a good man.\nBARBARA BUSH: And I hope that all the people at the convention work really, really hard because I think the Romneys are prepared. I think Ann Romney will be great. And I think Mitt Romney will do a fabulous job.\nLAURA BUSH: This gives me a chance to — also to thank everybody gathered in Tampa and to send our very best wishes to everybody at the convention. We've been to lots of conventions in the past. We want to thank everyone there for their very, very strong support for all of our Republican candidates --\nBARBARA BUSH: Absolutely.\nLAURA BUSH: — from your local ones to our candidate for president, Mitt Romney.\n(Video ends.)\n(Cheers, applause.)"
      , "(Cheers, applause.)\nRAND PAUL: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. (Cheers, applause continue.) Thank you. (Inaudible.) Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.\nYou know, when the Supr