Les discours de Hillary CLINTON, Brian SCWHWEITZER et Mark WARNER
Discours de Hillary CLINTON
I am honored to be here tonight. A proud mother. A proud Democrat. A proud American. And a proud supporter of Barack Obama.
My friends, it is time to take back the country we love.
Whether you voted for me, or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose. We are on the same team, and none of us can sit on the sidelines.
This is a fight for the future. And it’s a fight we must win.
I haven’t spent the past 35 years in the trenches advocating for children, campaigning for universal health care, helping parents balance work and family, and fighting for women’s rights at
home and around the world . . . to see another Republican in the White House squander the promise of our country and the hopes of our people.
And you haven’t worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership.
No way. No how. No McCain.
Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our President.
Tonight we need to remember what a Presidential election is really about. When the polls have closed, and the ads are finally off the air, it comes down to you -- the American people, your
lives, and your children’s futures.
For me, it’s been a privilege to meet you in your homes, your workplaces, and your communities. Your stories reminded me everyday that America’s greatness is bound up in the lives of the
American people -- your hard work, your devotion to duty, your love for your children, and your determination to keep going, often in the face of enormous obstacles.
You taught me so much, you made me laugh, and . . . you even made me cry. You allowed me to become part of your lives. And you became part of mine.
I will always remember the single mom who had adopted two kids with autism, didn’t have health insurance and discovered she had cancer. But she greeted me with her bald head painted with my
name on it and asked me to fight for health care.
I will always remember the young man in a Marine Corps t-shirt who waited months for medical care and said to me: “Take care of my buddies; a lot of them are still over there….and then will
you please help take care of me?”
I will always remember the boy who told me his mom worked for the minimum wage and that her employer had cut her hours. He said he just didn’t know what his family was going to do.
I will always be grateful to everyone from all fifty states, Puerto Rico and the territories, who joined our campaign on behalf of all those people left out and left behind by the Bush
Administrtation.
To my supporters, my champions -- my sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits – from the bottom of my heart: Thank you.
You never gave in. You never gave up. And together we made history.
Along the way, America lost two great Democratic champions who would have been here with us tonight. One of our finest young leaders, Arkansas Democratic Party Chair, Bill Gwatney, who
believed with all his heart that America and the South could be and should be Democratic from top to bottom.
And Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a dear friend to many of us, a loving mother and courageous leader who never gave up her quest to make America fairer and smarter, stronger and
better. Steadfast in her beliefs, a fighter of uncommon grace, she was an inspiration to me and to us all.
Our heart goes out to Stephanie’s son, Mervyn, Jr, and Bill’s wife, Rebecca, who traveled to Denver to join us at our convention.
Bill and Stephanie knew that after eight years of George Bush, people are hurting at home, and our standing has eroded around the world. We have a lot of work ahead.
Jobs lost, houses gone, falling wages, rising prices. The Supreme Court in a right-wing headlock and our government in partisan gridlock. The biggest deficit in our nation’s history. Money
borrowed from the Chinese to buy oil from the Saudis.
Putin and Georgia, Iraq and Iran.
I ran for President to renew the promise of America. To rebuild the middle class and sustain the American Dream, to provide the opportunity to work hard and have that work rewarded, to save
for college, a home and retirement, to afford the gas and groceries and still have a little left over each month.
To promote a clean energy economy that will create millions of green collar jobs.
To create a health care system that is universal, high quality, and affordable so that parents no longer have to choose between care for themselves or their children or be stuck in dead end
jobs simply to keep their insurance.
To create a world class education system and make college affordable again.
To fight for an America defined by deep and meaningful equality - from civil rights to labor rights, from women's rights to gay rights, from ending discrimination to promoting unionization to
providing help for the most important job there is: caring for our families. To help every child live up to his or her God-given potential.
To make America once again a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.
To bring fiscal sanity back to Washington and make our government an instrument of the public good, not of private plunder.
To restore America's standing in the world, to end the war in Iraq, bring our troops home and honor their service by caring for our veterans.
And to join with our allies to confront our shared challenges, from poverty and genocide to terrorism and global warming.
Most of all, I ran to stand up for all those who have been invisible to their government for eight long years.
Those are the reasons I ran for President. Those are the reasons I support Barack Obama. And those are the reasons you should too.
I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me? Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him? Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while
raising her kids? Were you in it for that boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?
We need leaders once again who can tap into that special blend of American confidence and optimism that has enabled generations before us to meet our toughest challenges. Leaders who can help
us show ourselves and the world that with our ingenuity, creativity, and innovative spirit, there are no limits to what is possible in America.
This won’t be easy. Progress never is. But it will be impossible if we don’t fight to put a Democrat in the White House.
We need to elect Barack Obama because we need a President who understands that America can’t compete in a global economy by padding the pockets of energy speculators, while ignoring the
workers whose jobs have been shipped overseas. We need a President who understands that we can’t solve the problems of global warming by giving windfall profits to the oil companies while
ignoring opportunities to invest in new technologies that will build a green economy.
We need a President who understands that the genius of America has always depended on the strength and vitality of the middle class.
Barack Obama began his career fighting for workers displaced by the global economy. He built his campaign on a fundamental belief that change in this country must start from the ground up,
not the top down. He knows government must be about “We the people” not “We the favored few.”
And when Barack Obama is in the White House, he’ll revitalize our economy, defend the working people of America, and meet the global challenges of our time. Democrats know how to do this. As
I recall, President Clinton and the Democrats did it before. And President Obama and the Democrats will do it again.
He’ll transform our energy agenda by creating millions of green jobs and building a new, clean energy future. He’ll make sure that middle class families get the tax relief they deserve. And I
can’t wait to watch Barack Obama sign a health care plan into law that covers every single American.
Barack Obama will end the war in Iraq responsibly and bring our troops home – a first step to repairing our alliances around the world.
And he will have with him a terrific partner in Michelle Obama. Anyone who saw Michelle’s speech last night knows she will be a great First Lady for America.
Americans are also fortunate that Joe Biden will be at Barack Obama’s side. He is a strong leader and a good man. He understands both the economic stresses here at home and the strategic
challenges abroad. He is pragmatic, tough, and wise. And, of course, Joe will be supported by his wonderful wife, Jill.
They will be a great team for our country.
Now, John McCain is my colleague and my friend.
He has served our country with honor and courage.
But we don’t need four more years . . . of the last eight years.
More economic stagnation …and less affordable health care.
More high gas prices …and less alternative energy.
More jobs getting shipped overseas …and fewer jobs created here.
More skyrocketing debt ...home foreclosures …and mounting bills that are crushing our middle class families.
More war . . . less diplomacy.
More of a government where the privileged come first …and everyone else comes last.
John McCain says the economy is fundamentally sound. John McCain doesn’t think that 47 million people without health insurance is a crisis. John McCain wants to privatize Social Security. And
in 2008, he still thinks it’s okay when women don’t earn equal pay for equal work.
With an agenda like that, it makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities. Because these days they’re awfully hard to tell apart.
America is still around after 232 years because we have risen to the challenge of every new time, changing to be faithful to our values of equal opportunity for all and the common good.
And I know what that can mean for every man, woman, and child in America. I’m a United States Senator because in 1848 a group of courageous women and a few brave men gathered in Seneca Falls,
New York, many traveling for days and nights, to participate in the first convention on women’s rights in our history.
And so dawned a struggle for the right to vote that would last 72 years, handed down by mother to daughter to granddaughter – and a few sons and grandsons along the way.
These women and men looked into their daughters’ eyes, imagined a fairer and freer world, and found the strength to fight. To rally and picket. To endure ridicule and harassment. To brave
violence and jail.
And after so many decades – 88 years ago on this very day – the 19th amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote would be forever enshrined in our Constitution.
My mother was born before women could vote. But in this election my daughter got to vote for her mother for President.
This is the story of America. Of women and men who defy the odds and never give up.
How do we give this country back to them?
By following the example of a brave New Yorker , a woman who risked her life to shepherd slaves along the Underground Railroad.
And on that path to freedom, Harriett Tubman had one piece of advice.
If you hear the dogs, keep going.
If you see the torches in the woods, keep going.
If they're shouting after you, keep going.
Don't ever stop. Keep going.
If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.
Even in the darkest of moments, ordinary Americans have found the faith to keep going.
I’ve seen it in you. I’ve seen it in our teachers and firefighters, nurses and police officers, small business owners and union workers, the men and women of our military – you always keep
going.
We are Americans. We're not big on quitting.
But remember, before we can keep going, we have to get going by electing Barack Obama president.
We don't have a moment to lose or a vote to spare.
Nothing less than the fate of our nation and the future of our children hang in the balance.
I want you to think about your children and grandchildren come election day. And think about the choices your parents and grandparents made that had such a big impact on your life and on the
life of our nation.
We've got to ensure that the choice we make in this election honors the sacrifices of all who came before us, and will fill the lives of our children with possibility and hope.
That is our duty, to build that bright future, and to teach our children that in America there is no chasm too deep, no barrier too great – and no ceiling too high – for all who work hard,
never back down, always keep going, have faith in God, in our country, and in each other.
Thank you so much. God bless America and Godspeed to you all.
Discours de Brian SCHWEITZER
I’m a rancher who has made my living raising cattle and growing wheat, barley and alfalfa in Montana, a beautiful place with soaring peaks, pristine rivers and endless prairies. I’m
probably a little biased, but I think it’s the best place in the world to raise a family, to start and grow a business, and to build a community.
When I ran for governor of Montana, I had never before held elected office. I chose a Republican, John Bohlinger, to be my lieutenant governor, with the simple proposition that we could
get more done working together than we could fighting. Because Montana really isn’t a red state or a blue state. As Senator Obama might put it, we’re a united state.
And so in three-and-a-half years, working together—Republicans and Democrats in Montana—we have cut more taxes for more Montanans than any time in history, increased energy production
at the fastest rate in the history of Montana, invested more new money in education than ever before and we created the largest budget surplus in the history of Montana. That’s the kind
of change we brought to Montana, and that’s the kind of change President Barack Obama is going to bring to America.
Like Senator Obama, my family has roots in the Great Plains. My grandparents were immigrants who came to Montana with nothing more than the clothes on their back, high hopes and faith
in God. My family didn’t have much in our little house. But a few things stand out in my memory: a crucifix and, on our kitchen wall, a framed picture of President Kennedy. My parents
never even graduated from high school, but President Kennedy’s idealism and spirit of possibility inspired them to send all six of us children to college. And when he said, “we’re going
to the moon,” he showed us that no challenge was insurmountable.
A generation later, we face a great new challenge, a world energy crisis that threatens our economy, our security, our climate and our way of life. And until we address that energy
crisis, our problems will only get worse. For eight long years, the White House has led us in the wrong direction. And now Senator McCain wants four more years of the same.
Can we afford four more years? Is it time for a change? When do we need it? And who do we need as the next President of the United States of America? That’s right. Barack Obama is the
change we need!
Right now, the United States imports about 70 percent of its oil from overseas. At the same time, billions of dollars that we spend on all that foreign oil seems to end up in the bank
accounts of those around the world who are openly hostile to American values and our way of life. This costly reliance on fossil fuels threatens America and the world in other ways,
too. CO2 emissions are increasing global temperatures, sea levels are rising and storms are getting worse.
We need to break America’s addiction to foreign oil. We need a new energy system that is clean, green and American-made. And we need a president who can marshal our nation’s resources,
get the job done and deliver the change we need.
That leader is Barack Obama. Barack Obama knows there’s no single platform for energy independence. It’s not a question of either wind or clean coal, solar or hydrogen, oil or
geothermal. We need them all to create a strong American energy system, a system built on American innovation.
After eight years of a White House waiting hand and foot on big oil, John McCain offers more of the same. At a time of skyrocketing fuel prices, when American families are struggling to
keep their gas tanks full, John McCain voted 25 times against renewable and alternative energy. Against clean biofuels. Against solar power. Against wind energy.
This not only hurts America’s energy independence, it could cost American families more than a hundred thousand jobs. At a time when America should be working harder than ever to
develop new, clean sources, John McCain wants more of the same and has taken more than a million dollars in campaign donations from the oil and gas industry. Now he wants to give the
oil companies another 4 billion dollars in tax breaks. Four billion in tax breaks for big oil?
That’s a lot of change, but it’s not the change we need.
In Montana, we’re investing in wind farms and we’re drilling in the Bakken formation, one of the most promising oil fields in America. We’re pursuing coal gasification with carbon
sequestration and we’re promoting greater energy efficiency in homes and offices.
Even leaders in the oil industry know that Senator McCain has it wrong. We simply can’t drill our way to energy independence, even if you drilled in all of John McCain’s backyards,
including the ones he can’t even remember.
That single-answer proposition is a dry well, and here’s why. America consumes 25 percent of the world’s oil, but has less than 3 percent of the reserves. You don’t need a $2 calculator
to figure that one out. There just isn’t enough oil in America, on land or offshore, to meet America’s full energy needs.
Barack Obama understands the most important barrel of oil is the one you don’t use. Barack Obama’s energy strategy taps all sources and all possibilities. It will give you a tax credit
if you buy a fuel-efficient car or truck, increase fuel-efficiency standards and put a million plug-in hybrids on the road.
Invest $150 billion over the next 10 years in clean, renewable energy technology. This will create up to 5 million new, green jobs and fuel long-term growth and prosperity. Senator
Obama’s plan will also invest in a modern transmission grid to deliver this new, clean electricity from wind turbines and solar panels to homes, offices and the batteries in America’s
new plug-in hybrid cars.
Discours de Mark WARNER
My fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, the most important contest of our generation has begun. Not the campaign for the presidency, not the campaign for Congress, but the race for
the future.
And I believe from the bottom of my heart with the right vision, the right leadership, and the energy and creativity of the American people, there is no nation that we can’t out-hustle
or out-compete, and no American need be left out or left behind.
Yes, the race for the future is on, and it won’t be won if only some Americans are in the running. It won’t be won with yesterday’s ideas and yesterday’s divisions. And it won’t
be won with a president who is stuck in the past. We need a president who understands the world today, the future we seek and the change we need. We need Barack Obama as the next
President of the United States.
Now, I have a unique perspective on this race for the future. Like many of you, I was the first in my family to graduate from college. It was made possible by supportive parents, good
public schools, and since my folks didn’t have the resources, thank goodness for the student loan program. After I graduated law school, it didn’t take long to realize that America
really wouldn’t miss me as a lawyer.
So I started a business. My first company failed in six weeks. My next one was much more successful. It failed in six months. And then a buddy of mine told me that there was this new
idea—this thing called “car telephones”—“cell phones.”
Friends told me, “Warner, get a real job. No one’s going to want a phone in their car.” But I saw a different future. And with luck and a lot of hard work, I got in on the
ground floor of the cell phone industry.
There’s only one country in the world where I could have received that education. Where I could have been given not just one chance, or two, but three, and where I could have
succeeded—and that’s this country: the United States of America.
At our best, it’s not your lineage or last name that matters. It’s not where you come from that counts, it’s where you want to go. In America, everyone should get a fair shot.
Barack Obama understands this, because he’s lived it. And Barack Obama is running to restore that fair shot for every American.
When we look around today, we see that for too many Americans that fair shot is becoming more of a long shot. How many kids have the grades to go to college, but not the money? How many
families thought their home would always be their safest investment? How many of our soldiers come back from their second or third tour of duty, wondering if the education and health
care benefits they were promised will actually be there? Two wars, a warming planet, an energy policy that says let’s borrow money from China to buy oil from countries that don’t like
us. How many people look at these things and wonder what the future holds for them?
Their children? Their country? How many? In George Bush and John McCain’s America, far too many.
Let’s be fair, some of these challenges were inevitable. But all of them are more severe, more immediate and more threatening, because of the misguided policies and outdated thinking of
this administration.
People always ask me, “What’s my biggest criticism of President Bush?” I’m sure you all have your own. Here’s mine—it’s not just the policy differences, it’s the fact that this
president never tapped into our greatest resource: the character and resolve of the American people. He never asked us to step up.
Think about it: after September 11th, if there was a call from the president to get us off foreign oil to stop funding the very terrorists who had just attacked us, every American would
have said, “how can I do my part?” This administration failed to believe in what we can achieve as a nation, when all of us work together.
John McCain promises more of the same—a plan that would explode the deficit that will be passed on to our kids. No real strategy to invest in our crumbling infrastructure. And he would
continue spending $10 billion a month in Iraq.
I don’t know about you, but that’s just not right. That’s four more years that we just can’t afford.
Barack Obama has a different vision—and a different plan. Right now, at this critical moment in our history, we have one shot to get it right. And the status quo just won’t cut
it.
Now let me tell you, if you think there’ve been dramatic changes in the world and technology over the last 10 years, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The race is on, and if you watched the
Olympics, you know China’s going for the gold.
You know, America has never been afraid of the future, and we shouldn’t start now. If we choose the right path, every one of these challenges is also an opportunity. Look at energy: if
we actually got ourselves off foreign oil, we can make our country safer. We’ll start to solve global warming, and with the right policies, within 24 months, we’ll be building 100
mile-per-gallon plug-in hybrid vehicles right here, with American technology and with American workers.
Look at health care: if we bring down costs and cover everyone, not only will America be healthier, we’ll be more competitive in the global economy. Just think about this: in six months
we will have an administration that actually believes in science, and then we can again lead the world in life-saving and life-changing cures.
Look at education: if we recruit an army of new teachers and actually give our schools the resources to meet our highest standards, not only will every child in America get a fair shot,
the American economy will get a shot in the arm. Whether they want to be an engineer or an electrician, every kid will be trained for the jobs of the 21st century.
Or look at America’s standing in the world: if we rebuild our military and rebuild our alliances, we can rally the world to defeat terrorism and restore America’s leadership. Which
candidate understands these opportunities, and which candidate knows we don’t have another four years to waste? Barack Obama.
And Barack Obama knows this too: we need leaders who see our common ground as sacred ground. We need leaders who will appeal to us not as Republicans or Democrats, but first and
foremost as Americans.
You know, I spent 20 years in business. If you ran a company whose only strategy was to tear down the competition, it wouldn’t last long. So why is this wisdom so hard to find in
Washington? I know we’re at the Democratic convention, but if an idea works, it really doesn’t matter if it has an “R” or a “D” next to it.
Because this election isn’t about liberal vs. conservative. It’s not about left vs. right. It’s about the future vs. the past. In this election, at this moment, in our
history, we know what the problems are. We know that at this critical juncture we have only one shot to get it right. And we know that these new times demand new thinking.
We believe in success. We believe that everyone should have an opportunity to get ahead, and with success comes a responsibility to make sure others can follow. I think we are
blessed to be Americans. But with that blessing comes an obligation to our neighbors and our common good.
So you give every child the tools they need to succeed. That means quality schools, access to health care, safe neighborhoods. Not just because it’s the right thing to do, of course it
is; but because if those kids do better, we all do better. You can be soft-hearted or hard-headed—both are going to lead you to the same place. We’re all in this together. That’s what
this party believes. That’s what this nation believes. That’s what Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe.
And we can do it, sure we can. When I became governor, this is what Virginia faced: a massive budget shortfall, an economy that wasn’t moving, gridlock in the capital. Sound
familiar? So what did we do? Working together, a Democratic governor, with a two-to-one Republican legislature, and a whole lot of good folks who didn’t see themselves as either
Democrats or Republicans but as Virginians, we closed the budget gap, and Virginia was named the best managed state in the nation.
We made record investments in education and in job training. We got 98 percent of our eligible kids enrolled in our children’s health care program. We delivered broadband to the most
remote areas of our state; because, if you can send a job to Bangalore, India, you sure as heck can send one to Danville, Virginia and Flint, Michigan and Scranton, Pennsylvania and
Peoria, Illinois. In a global economy, you shouldn’t have to leave your home town to find a world-class job.
Let me tell you about a place called Lebanon—Lebanon, Virginia. Lebanon is in the coalfields of southwest Virginia, and everyone in that whole town could fit right here on the
convention floor. Lebanon is like many small towns in America. It has seen the industries that sustained it downsized, outsourced, or shut down. Now, some folks look at towns like
Lebanon and say, “Tough luck. In the global economy, you’ve lost.”
But we believed that we shouldn’t—and couldn’t—give up on our small towns and expect the rest of the state to prosper. And that’s what brought me, towards the end of my term, to the
high school gym in Lebanon to announce that we were going to bring over 300 high-tech jobs, jobs that paid twice the county average.
One student told a reporter from The Washington Post that before this, he always thought he’d have to move away to get a good job and raise a family. I just heard from this young man,
Michael Kisor. Today, he is a junior at Virginia Tech. His older brother just moved back home to Lebanon because there was an information-technology job open for him, that was just too
good to pass up.
That’s a story worth rewriting all across America. With the right leadership, we can once again achieve a standard of living that is improved—and not diminished—in each
generation. We can once again make America a beacon for science and technology and discovery.
Ladies and gentlemen, we know how to do it. The American people are ready. And Barack Obama and Joe Biden will get it done.
As governor of Virginia, it was humbling to occupy a position that was once held by Thomas Jefferson. Almost as daunting as delivering the keynote speech four years after Barack Obama
or speaking before Hillary Clinton.
Towards the end of his life, Thomas Jefferson, the founder of our party, wrote one of his frequent letters to his old rival, John Adams. He complained about the aches of getting old,
but what was on his mind was what life would be like for the next generation of Americans. As Jefferson was ready to go to sleep, he closed his letter by writing, “I like the dreams of
the future better than the history of the past.”
Jefferson got it right at the dawn of the 19th century, and it’s our challenge to get it right at the dawn of the 21st. This race is all about the future. That’s why we must elect
Barack Obama as our next president. Because the race for the future will be won when old partisanship gives way to new ideas, when we put solutions over stalemates, and when hope
replaces fear.
Tonight, looking out at all of you and with a deep faith in the character and resolve of the American people, I am more confident than ever that we will win that race and make the
future ours.
Thank you. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.