CBS News - Democratic Convention - 2004-07-29 (partial)
Channel: malgent
Transcript
Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)
[0:00] Our
[0:01] [applause]
[0:02] education plan for a stronger America
[0:05] sets high standards and it demands
[0:07] accountability from parents, teachers,
[0:09] and schools. It provides for smaller
[0:12] class sizes and it treats teachers like
[0:15] the professionals that they are. And it
[0:18] gives a tax credit to families for each
[0:21] and every year of college. [applause]
[0:24] When I when I was a prosecutor, I met
[0:27] young kids who were in trouble,
[0:29] abandoned, all of them, by adults. And
[0:32] as president, I am determined that we
[0:35] stop being a nation content to spend
[0:37] $50,000 a year to send a young person to
[0:41] prison for the rest of their life. When
[0:43] we could invest $10,000 a year in Head
[0:47] Start, Early Start, Smart Start, a real
[0:50] start to the lives of our children.
[0:53] [cheering]
[0:54] >> [applause]
[0:58] [applause]
[1:00] >> And we value
[1:04] And we value health care that's
[1:07] affordable and accessible for all
[1:09] Americans. Since 2000, 4 million people
[1:13] have lost their health insurance.
[1:14] Millions more are struggling to afford
[1:17] it. You know what's happening? Your
[1:19] premiums, your co-ayments, your
[1:21] deductibles have all gone through the
[1:23] roof. Our health care plan for a
[1:26] stronger America cracks down on the
[1:29] waste and the greed and the abuse in our
[1:31] health care system. And it will save
[1:33] families $1,000 a year on premiums.
[1:37] You'll get to pick your own doctor and
[1:40] patients and doctors, not insurance
[1:42] company bureaucrats, will make medical
[1:45] decisions under our healthcare plan.
[1:48] Medicare will negotiate [applause]
[1:52] lower drug prices for seniors and all
[1:55] Americans will be able to buy less
[1:57] expensive prescription drugs from
[1:59] countries like Canada. The story of
[2:02] people, the story of people struggling
[2:05] for health care is the story of so many
[2:08] Americans. But you know what? It's not
[2:11] the story of senators and mentors of
[2:13] Congress because we give ourselves great
[2:15] health care and you get the bill. Well,
[2:18] I'm here to say tonight, your family's
[2:22] healthcare is just as important as any
[2:24] politicians in Washington DC. And when I
[2:27] am president, we will stop being the
[2:30] only advanced nation in the world which
[2:32] fails to understand that healthc care is
[2:35] not a privilege for the wealthy and the
[2:37] connected and the elected. It is a right
[2:40] for all Americans and we will make it
[2:43] so.
[2:48] [applause]
[2:52] We value an America.
[2:54] [applause]
[2:56] We value an America that controls its
[2:58] own destiny because it's finally and
[3:00] forever independent of Mid East oil.
[3:04] What does it mean for our economy and
[3:06] our national security when we have only
[3:09] 3% of the world's oil reserves, yet we
[3:11] rely on foreign countries for 53% of
[3:14] what we consume? I want an America that
[3:18] relies on its ingenuity and innovation,
[3:21] not the Saudi royal family. [cheering]
[3:26] And our
[3:35] and our energy plan for a stronger
[3:37] America.
[3:39] Our energy plan will invest in new
[3:41] technologies and alternative fuels and
[3:44] the cars of the future so that no young
[3:46] American in uniform will ever be held
[3:49] hostage to our dependence on oil from
[3:51] the Middle East. I've told you. I've
[3:54] told you about our plans for the
[3:56] economy, for education, for healthcare,
[3:58] for energy independence. I want you to
[4:01] know more about them. So now I'm going
[4:03] to say something that Franklin Roosevelt
[4:06] could never have said in his acceptance
[4:08] speech. Go to johnky.com.
[4:13] I
[4:16] [applause]
[4:20] I want to address these next words
[4:22] directly to President George W. Bush
[4:25] in
[4:27] In the weeks ahead.
[4:29] In the weeks ahead, let's be optimists,
[4:33] not just opponents. Let's build unity in
[4:35] the American family, not angry division.
[4:38] Let's honor this nation's diversity.
[4:41] Let's respect one another and let's
[4:44] never misuse for political purposes the
[4:46] most precious document in American
[4:48] history, the Constitution of the United
[4:51] States.
[4:56] ALL THE WAY
[4:58] UP,
[5:01] my friends.
[5:06] My friends.
[5:09] [applause]
[5:12] My friends.
[5:14] [applause]
[5:18] My friends. The high road may be harder.
[5:22] The high road may be harder, but it
[5:24] leads to a better place. And that's why
[5:26] Republicans and Democrats must make this
[5:29] election a contest of big ideas, not
[5:32] small-minded attacks. This is our time
[5:35] to reject the kind of politics
[5:37] calculated to divide race from race,
[5:40] region from region, group from group.
[5:43] Maybe some just see us divided into
[5:47] those red states and blue states. But I
[5:50] see us as one America, red, white, and
[5:54] blue. And when I am president, the
[5:57] government that I will lead will enlist
[5:59] people of talent, Republicans as well as
[6:02] Democrats, to find the common ground so
[6:06] that no one who has something to
[6:08] contribute to our nation will be left on
[6:10] the sidelines. And let me say it
[6:13] plainly, in that cause and in this
[6:16] campaign, we welcome people of faith.
[6:20] America is not us and them. I think of
[6:24] what Ron Reagan said of his father a few
[6:26] weeks ago. And I want to say this to you
[6:28] tonight. I don't wear my religion on my
[6:31] sleeve. But faith, but faith has given
[6:35] me values and hope to live by from
[6:38] Vietnam to this day, from Sunday to
[6:41] Sunday. I don't want to claim that God
[6:45] is on our side. As Abraham Lincoln told
[6:48] us, I want to pray humbly that we are on
[6:52] God's side [cheering] and whatever.
[7:00] [applause]
[7:11] Whatever. [applause]
[7:17] And whatever our faith, [applause]
[7:21] whatever our faith, one belief should
[7:23] bind us all. The measure of our
[7:26] character is our willingness to give of
[7:28] ourselves for others and for our
[7:30] country. These aren't democratic values.
[7:32] These aren't Republican values. They're
[7:35] American values. We believe in them.
[7:37] They're who we are. And if we honor
[7:40] them, if we believe in ourselves, we can
[7:42] build an America that is stronger at
[7:45] home and respected in the world. So much
[7:48] promise stretches before us. Americans
[7:51] have always reached for the impossible,
[7:53] looked to the next horizon, and asked,
[7:55] "What if two young bicycle mechanics
[7:58] from Dayton asked, "What if this
[8:00] airplane could take off at Kittyhawk?"
[8:03] It did that and it changed the world
[8:06] forever. A young president asked, "What
[8:08] if we could go to the moon in 10 years,
[8:11] and now we're exploring the stars and
[8:14] the solar systems themselves?" A young
[8:16] generation of entrepreneurs asked, "What
[8:18] if we could take all the information in
[8:20] a library and put it on a chip the size
[8:23] of a fingernail?" We did that, and that
[8:26] too changed the world. And now it's our
[8:30] time to ask, what if? What if we find a
[8:34] breakthrough to Parkinson's, diabetes,
[8:36] Alzheimer's, and AIDS? What if we have a
[8:39] president? What if we have a president
[8:42] who believes in science so we can
[8:45] unleash the wonders of discovery like
[8:49] stem cell research and treat illness for
[8:52] millions of lives?
[8:56] What? What if [applause]
[9:00] what if we [cheering] what if we do what
[9:02] adults should do and make sure that all
[9:05] of our children are safe in the
[9:07] afternoons after school? What if we have
[9:10] a leadership that's as good as the
[9:12] American dream so that bigotry and
[9:15] hatred never again steal the hope or
[9:18] future of any American. I
[9:22] [applause]
[9:27] I learned a lot about these values on
[9:30] that gunboat patrolling the Meong Delta
[9:33] with Americans you saw them who come
[9:35] from places as different as Iowa and
[9:37] Oregon, Arkansas, Florida, California.
[9:41] No one [cheering]
[9:42] No one cared. No one cared where we went
[9:46] to school. No one cared about our race
[9:48] or our backgrounds. We were literally
[9:51] all in the same boat.
[9:54] We looked out. We looked out one for the
[9:57] other and we still do. That is the kind
[10:01] of America that I will lead as
[10:03] president. An America where we are all
[10:06] in the same boat. Never has there been a
[10:09] moment more urgent for Americans to step
[10:12] up and define ourselves. I will work my
[10:15] heart out. But my fellow citizens, the
[10:18] outcome is in your hands more than mine.
[10:22] It is time to reach for the next dream.
[10:25] It is time to look to the next horizon
[10:28] for America. The hope is there. The sun
[10:30] is rising. Our best days are still to
[10:34] come. Thank you. Good night. God bless
[10:38] you and God bless the United States of
[10:42] America.
[10:44] [cheering]
[10:47] Heat
[10:49] [cheering]
[10:54] [cheering]
[10:55] [music]
[11:00] [music]
[11:01] [cheering]
[11:02] up here.
[11:04] [music]
[11:09] [music]
[11:15] >> [music]
[11:18] >> John Kerry
[11:20] working himself literally into a sweat
[11:23] [music]
[11:24] or as my high school English teachers
[11:26] refer into a high state of perspiration.
[11:29] [cheering and music]
[11:34] Then almost literal thunder inside the
[11:37] hall, shake shaking the fleet center
[11:40] [music]
[11:41] in a way that it seldom shakes if ever,
[11:44] even during [music] a Celtics basketball
[11:47] playoff game or a Bruins hockey playoff
[11:51] game. [cheering]
[11:53] [music]
[11:54] These Democrats
[11:58] has the speech built having what
[12:00] amounted to maybe a 3,000 calorie attack
[12:04] about every 2 or 3 minutes. [music]
[12:08] United in a way the Democratic Party has
[12:10] not been [cheering]
[12:12] for about a half a century.
[12:15] [music]
[12:17] John Edwards
[12:19] says something in to the top of the
[12:21] ticket.
[12:23] [music]
[12:25] Bob Sheeper.
[12:28] Well, I'll tell you, Dan, this is the
[12:30] best speech I have ever heard John Kerry
[12:33] make. I listen to a lot of speeches back
[12:35] during the primary. This was the best.
[12:37] This was a very deaf critique of policy.
[12:41] But underlying that critique of policy
[12:44] was a message about trust. And what John
[12:47] Kerry seemed to be saying tonight,
[12:49] frankly, was you can't trust these
[12:51] people and you can trust me. I think
[12:54] that was the message here tonight. It
[12:56] was very personal on several fronts. It
[12:59] seems to me like when he said, you know,
[13:02] we can no longer be dependent on
[13:04] overseas oil. He didn't say M East oil.
[13:07] He said Saudi royal family oil. That's a
[13:10] clear jab at at President Bush and
[13:13] allegations that his father has been
[13:15] very close to the Saudis. The direct
[13:18] quote was, "I want an America that
[13:20] relies on its own ingenuity and
[13:23] innovation
[13:24] or not the Saudi royal family." in a
[13:28] night in which there was rolling thunder
[13:31] of applause. That may have been the
[13:33] biggest of a number of big applause
[13:36] lines.
[13:38] Another point he says, "I don't wear my
[13:40] religion on my sleeve." That again, I
[13:44] think was a jab at this uh current
[13:48] president who has uh you know, made a
[13:51] great deal about his own faith. John
[13:53] Kerry said he is a man of faith, but
[13:56] saying it in the way he did, I think
[13:58] again was a direct reference to
[14:01] President Bush. And again, he quoted
[14:04] Lincoln to quote, "I don't want to claim
[14:07] God is on our side. I want to pray that
[14:11] we are on God's side."
[14:14] We go to the podium and CBS News chief
[14:16] White House correspondent, John Roberts.
[14:18] John, Dan, before the speech tonight, I
[14:20] talked to a number of Democrats. I said
[14:22] in one word, what is it that John Kerry
[14:24] needs to do tonight? And I heard
[14:25] anything from he needs to display
[14:27] strength. He needs to exude confidence.
[14:30] He needs to connect with people at home.
[14:34] That last he obviously showed strength.
[14:36] He obviously showed confidence as to
[14:38] whether or not he connected. It's
[14:40] difficult to tell in this room, even
[14:41] when you're watching it on a small
[14:43] television screen, because that's a very
[14:45] personal thing. And those undecided
[14:47] voters at home have to decide whether or
[14:49] not he came through the television
[14:51] screen in a way that that Bill Clinton
[14:53] is famous for and and still I think in
[14:56] the minds of many of these delegates
[14:57] gave the speech of this convention. Did
[15:01] he connect with voters? That's the key
[15:03] question and that's the key question
[15:05] that will determine whether or not he
[15:06] wins over a lot of those undecided
[15:08] voters. To the question of were some of
[15:10] these things aimed at President Bush. I
[15:12] talked to somebody involved with the
[15:14] speech writing a little earlier on
[15:15] tonight. There were several elements of
[15:17] the speech that were in there that were
[15:20] designed to counter things or turn
[15:22] around things that President Bush has
[15:24] said both in his campaign and in his
[15:27] time in the White House. Back in the
[15:29] year 2000 campaign, President Bush
[15:31] always said help is on the way. John
[15:33] Kerry is saying now, well, help was
[15:35] might have been on the way and a promise
[15:36] it never came. Now help is on the way.
[15:39] And he also turned around that phrase
[15:41] that President Bush used in 2000 where
[15:43] he said he was going to restore honor
[15:45] and dignity to the White House. John
[15:46] Kerry tonight, saying [music] he would
[15:48] restore trust and credibility in the
[15:52] White House. So every chance he could
[15:54] tonight, co-opting themes [music] of
[15:56] President Bush or turning around praises
[15:59] that President Bush has issued before. a
[16:01] little more of an attack that we thought
[16:03] we could we'd see from John [music]
[16:04] Kerry, particularly given the optimistic
[16:07] and as one critic put it nambby pami
[16:09] tone of many of these speeches and that
[16:11] they were so non- negative. Dan John
[16:15] Roberts wrote the balloon drop
[16:18] which will eventually involve almost
[16:21] 100,000 balloons. I am not making this
[16:25] up folks. You know, at each convention,
[16:27] there's a kind of can you top this
[16:29] balloon drop. Here's the Democrats bid.
[16:33] [music]
[16:34] Almost a 100,000 balloons will be
[16:36] dropped from the ceiling here before the
[16:38] evening is over. We go to the floor
[16:40] under the balloon drop CBS [music] News
[16:42] correspondent Byron Pitz. Byron,
[16:46] [music]
[16:46] John Kerry and his family. It is also
[16:48] bittersweet. It was four years ago
[16:51] during the Democratic convention not far
[16:53] from where we stand tonight that John
[16:55] Kerry stood near his father on his
[16:57] deathbed.
[16:58] Earlier as the family was preparing to
[17:00] leave John Kerry's home here in Boston,
[17:02] I'm told he whispered to his sister,
[17:05] "Remember the words of her mother on her
[17:07] deathbed when she said, "John, knowing
[17:09] he would run for president someday,
[17:11] remember John, integrity. That's what
[17:14] matters." Tonight, John Kerry tried to
[17:16] show that integrity.
[17:20] Lyron Pittz on the floor. Bob Sheeper.
[17:23] It's difficult bordering on impossible
[17:25] [music]
[17:26] not to get caught up in the moment when
[17:29] you have this scene at an American
[17:31] political convention. Yes, they've been
[17:33] demanding in terms of importance, but on
[17:36] the climactic [music] night, the fourth
[17:38] evening, the acceptance speech by the
[17:40] candidate, it is as colorful as a verity
[17:44] opera
[17:46] and an unforgettable moment. However,
[17:48] it's [music] worth keeping in mind that
[17:51] rarely, if ever, has a presidential
[17:53] election been decided by any
[17:56] candidates's acceptance speech.
[17:58] >> Well, that's probably right. But I think
[18:01] it's fair to say John Kerry certainly
[18:03] didn't hurt himself in this hole with
[18:05] these Democrats tonight. [music]
[18:07] Uh this was a rousing uh political
[18:10] speech, Dan. And I think he did
[18:12] introduce himself in a way to the
[18:14] American people that they have not yet
[18:16] seen him. I've never seen him give a
[18:18] speech in the way that he gave this uh
[18:21] [music] speech tonight. He spoke more
[18:23] quickly than he normally does and I
[18:25] think it really added to the
[18:26] effectiveness uh of his presentation
[18:29] tonight. [music]
[18:30] This was a speech where John Kerry was
[18:32] trying to make a hard cell and it is a
[18:35] hard argument to make. He [music] is
[18:37] saying the country will be safer if you
[18:40] change the commanderin-chief in the
[18:42] middle of this battle on terrorism.
[18:45] That's what this is going to be about
[18:46] from here until election day. Dan,
[18:49] >> Bob, I'm recalling that the morning that
[18:52] John Kerry announced John Edwards as his
[18:55] vice presidential running mate in
[18:56] Pittsburgh by almost acclamation,
[19:00] it was judged to be one of the worst
[19:03] political speeches that any candidate
[19:05] had made in recent memory. [music]
[19:08] And to see the energy, the focus, and
[19:13] yes, the excellent delivery tonight
[19:15] compared with that morning in Pittsburgh
[19:18] [music]
[19:18] is pretty impressive, pretty remarkable.
[19:20] Now, the question is that over the
[19:23] length and breadth of the campaign,
[19:27] and in the words of that old Irish song,
[19:29] it's a long way to temporary, but just
[19:31] to say that there's still long hard
[19:33] roads of soft. Can John Kerry
[19:36] consistently meet the standard that he
[19:39] [music] set for himself tonight or does
[19:41] he lapse back in to what we saw and
[19:44] heard that morning in Pittsburgh? Well,
[19:47] and the other part of that, Dan, I think
[19:49] you make a very good point. The other
[19:50] part of it, Republicans are not just
[19:52] going to sit there and watch all this
[19:54] happen. They're going to have a few
[19:55] things of their own to say. They're
[19:57] going to challenge a lot of what he said
[19:59] tonight. [music]
[19:59] They're going to question where do you
[20:01] get the money to do some of the things
[20:02] he's going to do. They're going to
[20:04] question, okay, so you say you're going
[20:06] to do this. [music] How are you going to
[20:08] do it?
[20:08] >> And how are you going to pay for it?
[20:10] >> And how are you going to pay for it? So,
[20:11] we got a long way to go before this
[20:13] election is over, but I think he has
[20:15] done about as well as he could do to
[20:17] frame it and set the stage uh for what's
[20:20] ahead.
[20:22] [music] John Roberts up on the podium.
[20:25] A decision was made at some point in the
[20:28] Kerry camp fairly recently [music] to go
[20:31] into the convention and stick in the
[20:33] convention act accentuating the
[20:35] positive. And we all know that over the
[20:37] last
[20:38] 40 to 50 years it's been an action of
[20:41] American politics. People say they don't
[20:43] want negative campaigning. They don't
[20:45] want the campaign to get nasty. But
[20:47] frequently, one would say most often the
[20:50] most negative campaign wins. Can you
[20:52] give us any insight to what they may be
[20:54] thinking the White House in that
[20:56] context?
[20:57] Well, Jan, the Democrats obviously were
[21:00] working off of some research that said
[21:01] America wanted an optimistic uh
[21:04] presentation here at this convention and
[21:06] that negativism may not get them exactly
[21:08] what they wanted. I think a lot of it,
[21:10] Dan, was a response to [music] some of
[21:12] what was coming out of the White House.
[21:14] Don't forget for the last few weeks,
[21:15] President [music] Bush and the Bush
[21:17] Cheney campaign have been presenting
[21:20] John Kerry and John Edwards as the party
[21:22] of negativism, the party of pessimism.
[21:24] All they have are bad things to say. And
[21:26] there might have been something in what
[21:28] we saw this week to try to uh counter uh
[21:31] that definition that the Bush Jan people
[21:33] have tried to put on this campaign. They
[21:35] didn't want to be the the candidates of
[21:37] pessimism. They wanted to offer an
[21:39] optimistic view. But in the type of
[21:41] [music] speeches that we've seen this
[21:43] week, which uh may may play well with
[21:46] some undecided voters, there's also been
[21:48] a buzz in the Democratic party that they
[21:50] uh they should have gone after attacks
[21:51] that were a little more slashing than
[21:53] they did against President Bush feeling
[21:55] that there were a lot of opportunities
[21:56] to exploit openings that they didn't.
[22:00] John Roberts on the podium. Well, we
[22:02] have heard a lot this week about how
[22:04] tonight John Kerry [music] would have to
[22:07] deliver the speech of his life. And
[22:10] about a quarter of the way in this
[22:11] evening [music]
[22:12] when making the case as he sees it that
[22:15] his Democratic party is an optimistic
[22:18] party, the party of hope and help on the
[22:20] way. John Kerry seemed to hit his stride
[22:23] and just may have cleared [music] the
[22:25] high bar that has been set for him.
[22:28] And so this 44th Democratic National
[22:31] Convention is history. John Kerry took a
[22:34] high stakes gamble tonight, deciding to
[22:37] highlight the war on terror and
[22:39] America's national security, trying to
[22:41] make the argument he can be and will be
[22:43] a better commander-in-chief than George
[22:45] Bush. You may want to consider this.
[22:47] Four years ago, terrorism and national
[22:50] security were barely mentioned by either
[22:52] presidential candidate in his acceptance
[22:55] speech. Candidates Bush and Gore focused
[22:57] much more on economic security, the
[23:00] traditional pocketbook issues, believing
[23:02] people in the end vote their
[23:03] pocketbooks. Tonight, candidate Kerry
[23:06] said flat out, "We are a nation at war."
[23:09] [music] The risk he takes by making that
[23:12] war a make orb breakak issue is that
[23:15] Americans historically have been
[23:17] reluctant to change the
[23:18] commander-in-chief in the middle of a
[23:20] war. Although John Kerry remembers in
[23:22] Vietnam, in effect, America did change
[23:26] its commander-in-chief in the middle of
[23:27] that war. So now, if Kerry is to
[23:30] succeed, he must convince American
[23:31] voters that this time, [music] once
[23:33] again, they can and must make that
[23:35] change, that America would be safer if
[23:38] he were president and
[23:39] commander-in-chief.
[23:41] 5 weeks from tonight when President Bush
[23:43] addresses the nation from the Republican
[23:45] National Convention, he will try to
[23:47] persuade voters to stay the course and
[23:49] stay with him. On November 2nd, voters
[23:53] will make their choice.
[23:55] There'll be much more about the
[23:56] Democratic convention on your local news
[23:58] on this CBS station, tomorrow morning on
[24:01] the CBS Early Show, tomorrow night on
[24:03] the CBS Evening News, and 24 hours a day
[24:06] on CBSN.com.
[24:09] for our CBS News convention team. Dan
[24:12] Rather reporting from Boston.
[24:15] Good night everybody.
[24:21] [music]
[24:26] [music]
[24:27] >> CSI New York CBS Wednesday.
[24:30] >> How did you define him before tonight?
[24:32] How do you define him now?
[24:33] >> I thought he was an unknown candidate,
[24:35] at least to me. And after listening to
[24:37] what he said today, I thought that hey,