I had wanted to post this list a few weeks back when I was watching the DNC and taking notes. Before Palin exploded onto the scene at the RNC and changed the entire campaign landscape.
Congratulations, Palin puppetmasters and the rest of the McCain Campaign, you did it… you knocked the cheerful, inspired and hopeful post-DNC wind right out of me. Mission accomplished. You are running a campaign on fear and ignorance and it works – even on me. I’m scared. (Mostly of you.)
So today… on a day when Alan Greenspan says recent economic events are the worst he’s seen in his lifetime and McCain insists our economy has great foundations, we are just going through another rough path. A day where another Palin scandal is breaking (as she puts herself above the law and refuses to comply with a criminal investigation). Following weeks where their campaign has lied and lied and lied and exaggerated and contradicted themselves and embarrassed themselves publicly AND people STILL seem to be buying it. Today, I needed some of that hope back and some of the fiery inspiration.
So I’m revisting my mood a few weeks back. And my notes. Here are my favorite quotes from the DNC speeches.
My mother was born before women could vote. But in this election my daughter got to vote for her mother for President.
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This is the story of America. Of women and men who defy the odds and never give up.
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How do we give this country back to them?
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-Hillary Rodham Clinton
You can learn an awful lot about a man campaigning with him, debating him and seeing how he reacts under pressure. You learn about the strength of his mind, but even more importantly, you learn about the quality of his heart.
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I watched how he touched people, how he inspired them, and I realized he has tapped into the oldest American belief of all: We don’t have to accept a situation we cannot bear.
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- Joe Biden
We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes.
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Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land – enough!
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-Barack Obama
Look at the example the Republicans have set: American workers have given us consistently rising productivity. They’ve worked harder and produced more. What did they get in return? Declining wages, less than ¼ as many new jobs as in the previous eight years, smaller health care and pension benefits, rising poverty and the biggest increase in income inequality since the 1920s. American families by the millions are struggling with soaring health care costs and declining coverage….
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What about the military families pushed to the breaking point by unprecedented multiple deployments? What about the assault on science and the defense of torture? What about the war on unions and the unlimited favors for the well connected? What about Katrina and cronyism?
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America can do better than that. And Barack Obama will.
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But first we have to elect him.
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-Bill Clinton
The choice in this election is clear. These times require more than a good soldier; they require a wise leader…
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-Joe Biden
It’s not because John McCain doesn’t care. It’s because John McCain doesn’t get it.
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For over two decades, he’s subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy – give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is – you’re on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps – even if you don’t have boots. You’re on your own.
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Well it’s time for them to own their failure. It’s time for us to change America.
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-Barack Obama
And one day, they—and your sons and daughters—will tell their own children about what we did together in this election. They’ll tell them how this time we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears. How this time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming.
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How this time, in this great country, where a girl from the south side of Chicago can go to college and law school, and the son of a single mother from Hawaii can go all the way to the White House. We committed ourselves to building the world as it should be.
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-Michelle Obama
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