In His Own Words
Sunday, June 15, 2003; Page A10
An excerpt from Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman's stump speech:
I am running for president because these are tough times for our country and we need a strong new leadership to get America moving forward again. The world has changed and America has changed in the last three years -- terrorism, wars, disease; here at home an economy that's in real difficulty, a health care system that's not delivering for our people, an education system that is not doing well enough by all of our children. And we have an administration that has taken so much of our treasure and spent it on a tax cut that was more than we could afford, that was unfair and, we know now after two years, hasn't done anything to get the economy going again. But it has deprived us of the resources to invest in education, to invest in improving our health care system, to invest in homeland security after September 11. In the world, we're more separated from the rest of the world, including our allies, than we've been in a long time. And that compromises our security and takes us from the high ground of principle, where America is always the strongest.
So I'm running for president to protect the American people's security, to revive our economy and to uphold our best values, including the great American values of opportunity and responsibility, social justice and social progress.
I believe very strongly that I am the Democrat who can stand toe-to-toe with the president in the areas where many think he's strong -- the questions of security and values -- and then defeat him where we know he's weak, on the economy and his divisive right-wing social agenda. . . .
Believe me, I have a real sense of mission about this. I feel very fortunate to have the chance to run for president. It's in some senses awesome, but I feel after 30 years in public life ready for this responsibility, and I feel in my heart that I have the kind of experience that will help me to provide strong leadership in the world and strong leadership here at home. The American people ought not to be given a choice in November of '04 between this president who says he'll be strong in the world and mostly will want to talk about international issues, and a Democratic candidate who mostly will want to talk about domestic issues. The American people deserve a president who will do more than one thing at a time and who will provide strong leadership in the world and strong leadership here at home. I offer myself to you as that kind of candidate and that kind of president. . . .
The fact is we can do a lot better than we are doing now. As president, I propose to do just that, to lead America back to the responsible path toward balanced budgets, investing in education, homeland security, helping the states and cities to deliver what we all want them to deliver. Together, we can revive the American dream for all of our people, and to do that we've got to elect a Democrat and not give these folks another four years. . . . We can do better, but to do it we've got to win and . . . I'm the only Democrat who can do that.
I know that I can beat George W. Bush in 2004. Why? Because Al Gore and I already did it.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
URL:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58483-2003Jun14.html |
