Almost a quarter-century ago, Ronald Reagan stood up on a stage like this one and asked a famous series of questions. I'd like to ask them again tonight:
"Are you better off now than you were you four years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was? Do you feel that our security is as safe?"
Unfortunately, I think most Americans tonight are answering no to all of those questions. All of us now live with the constant fear of a terrorist attack on a scale that would have been unthinkable a few short years ago.
And yet this administration has failed to deal with that threat. From the beginning, it has been less concerned with terrorism, and more concerned with its own narrow agenda of past grudges and risky schemes. As a result, we have alienated many of our closest friends and allies around the world. America used to be both feared and admired -- today we are merely feared.
But most tragically, we have lost many of our finest and bravest young men and women in a poorly-planned, unnecessary war to eliminate a threat which did not exist.
My opponent does not want to talk about the consequences of his foreign policy, or about how he misled you in the run-up to war. He'd rather send his sleazy friends off to lie about my service in Vietnam more than thirty years ago.
Tonight, I'd like to ask for your vote. Not because of what I did then, but because of what I'll do now. With your help, I'll work to rebuild our place in the world community, so that we can enlist others' help in rebuilding and stabilizing Iraq, so that our troops can home within the next four years.
And most importantly, we'll re-focus on the very real threat posed by anti-American terrorism. Not only will we hunt down the terrorists wherever they try to hide, but we'll work over the long-term to attack the root causes of terrorism, starting with a New Apollo plan for energy independence, which you can read all about on my website, johnkerry.com.
Thank you for listening, and for participating in the democratic process that is our birthright as Americans.
Goodnight, and god bless.
Posted by Michael at September 30, 2004 04:16 PM | TrackBack