Prepared Remarks of Al Gore's Acceptance Speech
Aug. 17 -- Vice President Al Gore accepted his party’s nomination for president tonight at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. He spoke of his family, faith and vision for the country’s future. Read a transcript of his prepared remarks here.
Vice President Gore:
I speak tonight of gratitude, achievement, and high hopes for our country.
Tonight, I think first of those who helped get me here — starting with the people of Tennessee. Then, those who braved the first snows of Iowa and New Hampshire — and all of you here, from all over this country, who have come with me into the warm sunlight of this great city.
While I can’t thank each of you individually in words, I do so in my heart.
And I know you won’t mind if I single out someone who has just spoken so eloquently, someone I’ve loved with my whole heart since the night of my high school senior prom — my wife, Tipper. We’ve been lucky enough to find each other all over again at each new stage of our lives — and we just celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary.
I want to acknowledge with great pride our four children: Kristin, Sarah, and Albert;
Our oldest daughter Karenna and her husband Drew;
And the youngest member of our family, who a little over a year ago was born on the Fourth of July — our grandson Wyatt.
I’m honored tonight by the support of a leader of high ideals and fundamental decency, who will be an important part of our country’s future — Senator Bill Bradley.
There’s someone else who will shape that future — a leader of character and courage. A defender of the environment, and working families —
The next Vice President of the United States, Joe Lieberman. I picked him for one simple reason: he’s the best person for the job.
For almost eight years now, I’ve been the partner of a leader who moved us out of the valley of recession and into the longest period of prosperity in American history. I say to you tonight: millions of Americans will live better lives for a long time to come because of the job that’s been done by President Bill Clinton.
Instead of the biggest deficits in history, we now have the biggest surpluses. The highest home ownership ever. The lowest inflation in a generation. Instead of losing jobs, we have 22 million new jobs. Above all, our success comes from you, the people who have worked hard for your families. Let’s not forget that a few years ago, you were also working hard. But your hard work was undone by a government that didn’t work, didn’t put people first, and wasn’t on your side.
Together, we changed things, to help unleash your potential, and innovation and investment in the private sector, the engine that drives our economic growth.
And our progress on the economy is a good chapter in our history.
But now we turn the page and write a new chapter. And that’s what I want to speak about tonight.
This election is not an award for past performance.
I’m not asking you to vote for me on the basis of the economy we have.
Tonight, I ask for your support on the basis of the better, fairer, more prosperous America we can build together.
Together, let’s make sure that our prosperity enriches not just the few, but all working families. Let’s invest in health care, education, a secure retirement, and middle class tax cuts.
I’m happy that the stock market has boomed and so many businesses and new enterprises have done well. This country is richer and stronger.
But my focus is on working families — people trying to make house payments and car payments, working overtime to save for college and do right by their kids … Whether you’re in a suburb, or an inner-city … Whether you raise crops or drive hogs and cattle on a farm, drive a big rig on the Interstate, or drive e-commerce on the Internet … Whether you’re starting out to raise your own family, or getting ready to retire after a lifetime of hard work.
So often, powerful forces and powerful interests stand in your way, and the odds seemed stacked against you — even as you do what’s right for you and your family.
How and what we do for all of you — the people who pay the taxes, bear the burdens, and live the American dream — that is the standard by which we should be judged.
And for all of our good times, I am not satisfied.
To all the families in America who have to struggle to afford the right education and the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs —
I want you to know this: I’ve taken on the powerful forces. And as President, I’ll stand up to them, and I’ll stand up for you.
To all the families who are struggling with things that money can’t measure — like trying to find a little more time to spend with your children, or protecting your children from entertainment that you think glorifies violence and indecency —
I want you to know: I believe we must challenge a culture with too much meanness, and not enough meaning. And as President, I will stand with you for a goal that we share: to give more power back to the parents, to choose what your own children are exposed to, so you can pass on your family’s basic lessons of responsibility and decency.
The power should be in your hands. The future should belong to everyone in this land.
We could squander this moment — but our country would be the poorer for it. Instead, let’s lift our eyes, and see how wide the American horizon has become.
We’re entering a new time —
We’re electing a new President —
And I stand here tonight as my own man, and I want you to know me for who I truly am.
I grew up in a wonderful family. I have a lot to be thankful for. And the greatest gift my parents gave me was love. When I was a child, it never once occurred to me that the foundation upon which my security depended would ever shake.
And of all the lessons my parents taught me, the most powerful one was unspoken — the way they loved one another.
My father respected my mother as an equal, if not more. She was his best friend, and in many ways, his conscience. And I learned from them the value of a true, loving partnership that lasts for life.
They simply couldn’t imagine being without each other. And for 61 years, they were by each other’s side.
My parents taught me that the real values in life aren’t material but spiritual. They include faith and family, duty and honor, and trying to make the world a better place. I finished college at a time when all that seemed to be in doubt, and our nation’s spirit was being depleted. We saw the assassination of our best leaders. Appeals to racial backlash. And the first warning signs of Watergate.
I remember the conversations I had with Tipper back then — and the doubts we had about the Vietnam War.
But I enlisted in the Army because I knew if I didn’t go, someone else in the small town of Carthage, Tennessee would have to go in my place. I was an Army reporter in Vietnam. When I was there, I didn’t do the most, or run the gravest danger. But I was proud to wear my country’s uniform.
When I came home, running for office was the very last thing I ever thought I would do. I studied religion at Vanderbilt, and worked nights as a police reporter at the Nashville Tennessean. And I saw more of what could go wrong in America — not only on the police beat, but as an investigative reporter covering local government.
I also saw so much of what could go right — citizens lifting up local communities, family by family, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, in churches and charities, on school boards and City Councils.
And then, Tipper and I started our own family. And when our first daughter Karenna was born, I began to see the future through a fresh set of eyes. I know a lot of you have had that feeling, too.
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