Excerpts of Obama's speech after Pa. primary
Excerpts of Barack Obama's speech Tuesday after the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania, as provided by CQ Transcriptions:
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"I want to thank all of you who are here tonight, but I want to start tonight by congratulating Senator Clinton on her victory this evening, and I want to thank -- I want to thank -- no, no, she ran a terrific race. I want to thank the hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians who stood with our campaign today.
You know, there were a lot of folks who didn't think we could make this a race when it started. They thought we were going to be blown out. But we worked hard, and we traveled across the state to big cities and small towns, to factories and VFW halls. And now, six weeks later, we closed the gap. We rallied people of every age and race and background to the cause.
And whether they were inspired for the first time or for the first time in a long time, we registered a record number of voters. And it is those new voters who will lead our party to victory in November.
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After 14 long months, it's easy to forget -- after 14 long months, it's easy to forget what this campaign's about from time to time, to lose sight of the fierce urgency of this moment.
It's easy to get caught up in the distractions and the silliness and the tit-for-tat that consumes our politics, the bickering that none of us are entirely immune to, and it trivializes the profound issues: two wars, an economy in recession, a planet in peril, issues that confront our nation.
That kind of politics is not why we are here tonight. It's not why I'm here, and it's not why you're here.
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We already know what we're getting out of the other party's nominee. John McCain has offered this country a lifetime of service, and we respect that. But what he's not offering is any meaningful change from the policies of George W. Bush.
John McCain believes that George Bush's Iraq policy is a success, so he's offering four more years of a war with no exit strategy, a war that's sending our troops on their third tour, and their fourth tour, and their fifth tour of duty, a war that's cost us billions of dollars and thousands of lives, thousands more grievously injured, a war that has not made us more safe, but has distracted us from the task at hand in Afghanistan ... a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged.
John McCain said that -- John McCain said that George Bush's economic policies have led to, and I quote, 'great progress' over the last seven years. And so he's promising four more years of tax cuts for CEOs and corporations who didn't need them and weren't asking for them, tax cuts that he once voted against because he said they offended his conscience.
Well, they may have stopped offending John McCain's conscience somewhere along the road to the White House, but George Bush's economic policies still offend my conscience, and they still offend yours.
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And now it's up to you, Evansville. Now it's up to you, Indiana. You can decide ... You can decide whether we're going to travel the same worn path or whether we will chart a new course that offers real hope for the future. During the course of this campaign, we've all learned what my wife reminds me all the time, that I'm not a perfect man. I will not be a perfect president.
And so, while I will always listen to you and be honest with you and fight for you every single day for the next four or eight years ... I will also ... I will also, should I have the opportunity to serve as your president, ask you to be a part of the change that we need, because in my two decades of public service in this country, I have seen time and time again that real change doesn't begin in the halls of Washington, but on the streets of America.
It doesn't happen from the top down, but it happens from the bottom up.
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Now is our turn to follow in the footsteps of all those generations who sacrificed and struggled and faced down the greatest odds to perfect our improbable union.
And if we're willing to do what they did, if we're willing to shed our cynicism and our doubts and our fears, if we're willing to believe in what's possible again, then I believe we won't just win this primary election, we won't just win here in Indiana, we won't just win this election in November, we will change this country, we will change the world, we will keep this country's promise alive in the 21st century.
That's our task; that's our job. Let's get to work.
