2008 Presidential Candidate Senator Joe Biden

Joseph R Biden Jr was first elected to the United States Senate in 1972 at the age of 29. He is now Delaware's longest serving Senator. When he became Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this past January Joe Biden decided to hold a series of high profile hearings on the war in Iraq. I am going to I am going to start again, there we are. Joe Biden decided to hold a series of high profile hearings on the war in Iraq which lead to a resolution passed by the committee to stop President Bush from sending more troops into Iraq. In addition to Chairing the Foreign Relations Committee Senator Biden also serves on the Judiciary Committee and where he Chairs the Sub Committee on Crime and Drugs. He serves as Co-Chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control. As one of the candidates for President for the Democratic nomination, Senator Biden has been outspoken about the war in Iraq and about the full range of public policy issues that concerned all of us, both international and domestic issues. And when it came to the war in Iraq The Washington Post noted that senator Biden is the only candidate who has put forth his own detailed long term plan for coping with Iraq and you will probably hear more about that plan for partition. Senator Biden thinks its time to be bolder on a whole range of public policy issues and so this is our opportunity to hear his pragmatic proposals for the future. Please join me in welcoming Senator Joe Biden. Thank you very much ladies and gentleman. Jane, thank you very much. Jane this is the second time I have been introduced by Jane and so she knows what she is in for, its her own fault. I had a great opportunity to speak to the Northern California World Affairs Council. I was guess it was in the spring meeting a couple of years ago at the magnificent setting I have ever been, near Carmel and it was it was lovely and I want to thank the additional sponsors for tonight for giving me the opportunity to be here. Ladies and gentleman I am going to began in a way no speaker ever should, for apologizing apologizing for my voice. I have a I have a bit of a cold, I am a little bit hoarse and I have a cough drop in my mouth, so I don't want to don't cough. So any mistake I make, attribute it to the cough drop. Ladies and gentleman, in the history of our country 60 percent of our our Presidents had been lawyers. Based on the number of nominees or aspirants to the office who are lawyers, in both parties, I say to the bar association, we still have a shot. We may get back to the point where lawyers who are persona non grata in America. All kidding aside, the fact of the matter is that I think the job description for the next President in the United States is not one that uses the word attorney or lawyer, but I do think it's pretty clear. Every four years the American public slightly alters the job description they have, for those of us who are auditioning for the part. In the mid 70's was Jimmy Carter, when they were looking for someone who was straight forward and honest, restore integrity to the office and in the early 80's they were looking for something totally new and you in California delivered it in the form of Ronald Reagan and there was sort of a repute well seriously it was a it was a pretty significant election. It was the end of an era of Democratic ascendancy from 1932 to 1980. It was consequential, it was real. Like it or not it was a it was an expression of a change in mood in the country and a concern about whether or not the Democratic Party as my grandpa would say, was the horse that could carry the slay into the 21st century. And and now I think that this job description has changed slightly again, I think its pretty clear. I think the American public is looking for a President to who can restore our place in the world and reinvigorate the middle class that feels very much put upon. The truth of the matter is I don't cannot think of a time in my carrier when America has been more isolated in the world. I would argue that I can't think of a time in modern history when America has been more isolated in the world. And I have never known a time in my carrier where there is as much anxiety in the middle class about their place in society, their economic place in society. And but in order to restore America's place in the world and get about the business of attending to the domestic concerns of this nation, there is sort of a big boulder sitting in the middle of a road and that's Iraq. People say to me, why do I speak of Iraq so often, so much. Why do I why am I so focused on it, because the truth of the matter is ladies and gentleman, in order for us to be able to regain our flexibility to deal with our problems at home and our credibility to deal with the problems and opportunities abroad we have to deal we have to deal with Iraq, we have to deal with Iraq. The fact of the matter is that unlike when I started in politics in 1972 as a young United States Senator, I campaigned against the war in Vietnam, it didn't matter whether you are for the war or against the war, whether you went or didn't go. Everyone shared one common notion. Once that war was ended we could begin to attend the problems at home. There was not another shoe to drop, there was not another international crisis that was about to explode or implode on the American scene. But what would you all say if I were president of today and I was able to waive a wand and end the war in Iraq in the most reasonable way possible. Would any of you feel that everything else was okay? That we had the situation pretty well straightened out in the Middle East, that part of the world, that there aren't other areas that are likely to end in conflagration if we don't change the policy very quickly. Ladies and gentleman I think as I said, I think the American public is looking for someone with the breadth and depth of knowledge in Foreign Affairs and National Security issues that they can trust. They can trust to guide them through what they know is going to be a difficult decade, no matter what happens no matter what happens in Iraq. I never thought I would live to hear another President blame the problem on those of us who oppose the war. The President of the United States has indicated thank you very much Jane, has indicated that and his minions have indicated that, those of us which includes the vast majority of American people, who oppose this war and the conduct of the war are emboldening the enemy. We are emboldening the enemy. Well ladies and gentleman I remember Richard Nixon I never thought as I said, I would live to see another President blame the majority of the American people who watch what's going on Iraq everyday, and we the critics of his policy as emboldening the enemy. I say to all of you, the only thing that's emboldening the enemy has emboldened the enemy, is this President's failed policy. And the only mission he has accomplished is that, emboldening the enemy. The president took as the war unnecessarily, without letting the weapons inspectors finish their work, without enough troops, without the right equipment for the troops that we send, without the proper care for those who were taken home, but most of all he went to war without a plan, any plan whatsoever. And the price of that mistake can be measured in the blood we have shed and the treasure we have lost and on the domestic opportunities we have had to forfeit. More than 3300 dead, more than 24,000 wounded and a vast majority of them very seriously wounded and more than one trillion dollars, one trillion dollars committed to a war with no end and a war that our children are going to pay for, that we are not even attempting to pay for. Ladies and gentleman this war must end, this war must end. But in Washington the debate about Iraq centers on two false choices. Do we continue the President's policy, this failed course and hand of Iraq to the next President? Is this still on, there you go. Or the other choice offered on Washington is leave and hope for the best. Well Ladies and Gentlemen neither of those is a very good choice. The fact of the matter is there is a civil war that has the potential of turning into a regional war. How we leave matters, how we end these matters, we may have no choice. There may be no good way, but it matters. I have a son who is a Captain of the United States army, he is the Attorney General of state of Delaware, if in fact his unit is called he will go, I don't want him to go. But I also don't want my grandson to go fifteen years from now. So lot's at stake - a lot is at stake. And ladies and gentleman you hear a lot of proposals being made in both critical parties now. But none of them answer the critical two word question that I believe any reasonable, responsible President must be able to answer. Surge the troops, then what? Cut the troops, then what? Cut off the funding, then what? The two word question is "then what" "Then what". And Ladies and gentleman we have to have a plan for we leave behind so the America's interest are protected and we don't really trade a dictator for chaos. And there is one basic idea which is about everyone shares, everyone gives lip service to it. Democrats and Republicans alike, including the President, and that is that there is no military, truly military solution to Iraq, virtually everyone agrees that either winning or leaving responsibly and I don't know what they mean by winning winning or leaving responsibly requires a political settlement. Yet only two people have offered a plan how to produce a political settlement and I am one of them. The other one is Leslie Gelb, my co-conspirator. A year ago yesterday Leslie Gelb and I laid out a very detailed plan, how to arrive at a political solution in Iraq? I was advised when I was working with Les to do that, that it would be a real mistake to put out a detailed plan. If you want to go on to significant detail, my website is joebiden.com. It has significant detail about the plan which I will not bore you with every detail tonight. But ask yourself, why am I the only one that has put forward a detailed plan? Am I only guy that knows anything about Iraq? Am I the only guy that has been there seven times, am I the only guy who knows what to do? Or is it because when your advisers you are running for President, they tell you don't put up a target to shoot at, don't lay out something specific. My god, it will be the thing that everyone focuses on and if it's adopted and doesn't work, you are finished. Well ladies and gentle man I am not running for President to hear hail the Chief. I am not running for President for the honor of living in the White House. I am running for President of the United States of America because I think that I have a better answer how to deal with most critical problems the nation faces than those in the Democrat and Republican Party. And the fact of the matter is, there is one fundamental fallacy that many Democrats and all most Republicans subscribe to is their strategic doctrine that is behind this entire all the tactical recommendations made by Democrats as well as Republicans. And that is there is a possibility in your life time of establishing a strong central democratic government in Iraq that has the confidence of the main sectarian forces in Iraq, I said before we went to war, I said when we went to war, I have said every day since then, there is virtually hear me, no possibility none none whatsoever of establishing a strong a central democratic government in Iraq. There is no faith in the government that exists, there is no trust, there is prospect of arriving at that and there is no means by which to do it. So the Democrats, who say to you, leave and that will generate there was comparison of all of our views today in one of major papers on the Democratic side, they were asked about the Biden plan and the majority of my colleagues who disagreed me said, we have to first establish a strong central government in Iraq. That's no different than the President's strategy. The President thinks he can do it by using force, by surging troops, giving time for peace and a breathing room available to Mr. Maliki and others to arrive at a political settlement. The Democrats think the threat of us leaving will force them to look over the precipice and decide that is a possibility of reaching an agreement to a strong central democratic government. Ladies and Gentlemen, in the history of those conflicts which were the consequence of self sustaining sectarian violence, they ended in one of only four ways throughout history. One, one side annihilates the other or one major power sides with one of the forces to annihilate the other. Not a prospect that makes sense for the world, igniting a Shiite Sunni war from the Mediterranean to the Himalayas. The second option is occupy for several generations, it is not in our DNA, we are not the Ottoman Empire, we are not the Persian Empire, we are not the British Empire. We don't have the capacity or interest of occupying that country. The third option, which should be the irony of all ironies, what is it? Find a dictator. Replace the present situation with literally literally wouldn't that be the ultimate irony? And the fourth option is federal system, de-centralize that government. Not divide the nation, de-centralize the government. That's what the Iraqi Constitution calls for. I was there when the vote took place. Our Ambassador at the time did a marvelous job trying to out of the rubble create something and that generate support from the Sunnis and Shia. Article One of the Iraqi Constitution says and no one has read it, it literally says, Article One, we are a de-centralized federal system. Articles 1-15, 16, 17, 18 - without boring you, putting my constitutional law Professor hat on what do they say? They say any governate and there is historically 18 governates sub divisions in that country in the last 75 years, any governate can choose by a majority vote to become a region, substitute the word state like in the United States, for region. If so they write their own constitution. It cannot pre-empt the Federal Constitution no more than California Constitution can. But it can make the Law as relating to local police, local security, education, marriage, divorce, the very things people are killing one another over. Ladies and Gentlemen, the only way to stop this bloodletting and have any chance for leaving Iraq without leaving chaos behind is to in fact de-centralize this government. Now, folks the President has vetoed last night a bill because of provision that Senator Levin and I wrote in that bill, so called Biden-Levin amendment. Everybody focuses on two pieces of our amendment, in that so called supplemental bill that was vetoed. One of those provisions set a date of a 120 days to began to re-deploy American forces. Whether target date of April 1 we initially had March of 08' the house wanted to change it to April, to April of 08' to remove the bulk of the American combat troops, leaving behind only that force which is necessary for force protection or denying Al Qaeda occupation of territory. It also had two other provisions in it. It said that the mission that the President is allowed to pursue with the American forces must be changed. Mr. President you can no longer use American forces in the midst of a civil war. You could only use those forces to train an Iraqi army, to deny territorial acquisition by Al Qaeda and for force protection. The reason why we are able to get to the point where we could draw down forces so drastically is because for those three purposes you do not need a 160,000 forces. And what we are doing today is absolutely counter productive. Ladies and gentlemen, people ask me the question why is Sadr why did the Sadr and the Mahdi army take off the uniforms and put down their weapons because we are killing the Sunnis for them. Literally, not fugitively, we are focusing on 23 Sunni neighborhoods. They are bad guys in those neighborhoods they are bad guys. I am not claiming they are good guys, but we are weighing in with the American force and what is it like? It's like squeezing the water balloon. We bring a little bit more peace and security those 23 neighbors but all of the colored counties around, in American terms, around Baghdad, the killing has gone up, the number of dead has increased considerably and more American forces are lost. Ladies and gentlemen the day if it works, that we are able to pacify those 23 neighborhoods, I promise, you those weapons will come out from under the cellars and under the beds and those uniforms would be put back on by the Mahdi army and the Shia in order to go after us. We have no place, we don't have enough people. The reason why I call to this, to the grin of many of you in this room, for more forces more American forces three and a half years ago, was to avoid a civil war, to establish security. Before the self sustaining cycle began we could put 500,000 forces in Iraq today. Like the nursery rhyme all the king's horses and all the king's men can not settle this civil war. And the best example is the example used by the administration to justify this action of escalating the war. It was what happened in Tolafer. Tolafer is a city outside of Baghdad with 250,000 people. Three year two years ago we put 9000 forces in there. American and and Iraqi. We quelled the city, we cleaned it, we rebuilt it, we literally rebuilt the schools, we have rebuilt the municipal buildings, we actually put the water system in place etc etc and then we left. There are now there are now only 50,000 people in Tolafer. We will leave these neighborhoods and absent and underlined political settlement, there is no prospect no prospect that peace will prevail. And so ladies and gentlemen the third thing we have to do is we have to make Iraq the world's problem, not just ours. And the way to do that were I your President today and I called for this well over a year and a half ago. A famous Californian Secretary Shultz called for it shortly after that, Secretary Kissinger, Secretary Albright and that is were I president today, I would call for the Permanent Five of the Security Council to me. I would add Germany and three largest Muslim countries four largest Muslim countries Indonesia, India, Pakistan and Egypt and I would get an agreement as to what the political solution is? Well they are meeting right now in Sharm ash Shaykh to of not great purpose, what is the purpose of the meeting? What is the political outcome that is being sought? What is it? Unless you give the parties breathing room and control over the fabric of their daily lives this will not work. But if you are the President of the United States, you could accomplish that end, then call for a regional conference meeting meeting the Turks, the Iranians, the Jordanians, the Syrians and the Saudis. And impose that settlement because it's that in their own naked self interest. The last thing any one of those nations need is the fragmentation of Iraq. It will cause a war with Turkey. It will bring Iran in, it will force the Saudis to have to fund the most radical elements of the Sunni Jihadis and we will have ourselves a conflagration that makes what's happening now look relatively tame. So ladies and gentlemen there is an answer, it is difficult. It is difficult to accomplish. The fact of the matter is the President for everyday he goes on stuck to this notion of the ability to provide a Democratic government in Baghdad. That is the confidence of all the people. As long as he sticks to that every day that that goes on it makes it harder and harder to figure a good way out. But folks, there is still there is still an ability to find a political answer. But it is not through Baghdad. There is no trust within the central government, there is no trust of the government by the people and there is no capacity the government to deliver services and security, and there is no evidences none, none whatsoever that we can build that trust to capacity anytime soon. And as a result this surge is a tragic mistake a tragic mistake and we must do everything in our power to stop. Now many of you asked me, Biden, how do you stop it? How do you change this man's mind? The fact of the matter is I need 67 votes to override override the Presidential veto. Why did I insist on that non binding non binding resolution in January which all of you thought what difference is that making. Ladies and gentlemen this is a process - I feel obliged, correction [0:27:30] ____ every single day to just keep pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing this President, why? He will not change. But the Republicans, the Republicans in the Congress will change. This war will end on this President's watch only only only, when an additional 17 Republican say, enough Mr. President. That's the only time it will end. And so the reason why I have come up with these ideas I have continued to push the non binding resolution, then the binding resolution trying to change the authorization, reduce the war. Then the language attached to this resolution this supplemental and we will continue is to again everyday call up to the attention of the American people. Everyday make it clear that the President is thwarting the will for the vast majority of Americans, everyday place pressure on those 21 Republicans who are up for re-elections. Because ladies and gentlemen if you have read The New York Times today, as I got in the plane early this morning with one of my staff members, they said what what about this veto? Aren't you kind of dis and I said I am disappointed, but I said, the string is going to run out by September. Today, in the paper, two of your former moderate colleagues in the Republican Party Congressmen, one from Indiana and another from Tennessee said the President has until September has until September. I think the faustian bargain my Republican colleagues made with the President, even though I think they do not believe the surge of the work, is they been convinced to stay with him, at least give it a chance give it a chance. Well the string will run out by September. The saddest part is that so many people are going to die between now and then. But ladies and gentlemen as frustrating this is there is no alternative there is no alternative under our constitutional system. It is not a parliamentary government. We can not have a vote of confidence. There was clearly a vote of no confidence in the part the American people with this policy. And I founded it astounding today, when the president issued his veto messages last night, he said he is listening to the generals and not the politicians. My lord my lord look at all the generals that have quit, look at all generals that advised him that this idea was morbid, that would have made no sense, it could not work. The truth of the matter is my view and the view of those of us who oppose a surge represents the vast majority of the military judgment in this country. So ladies and gentleman, we have to keep relentless pressure in my view on this President. Let me say two other things, as a young Senator back in 1977 I remember hearing Richard Nixon who had resigned in disgrace less than three years early, comment on the presidents duty to obey the law. He was being interviewed, some of you remember this. He was been interviewed by that British David Frost and David Frost asked him, what makes the action of a President constitutional? And he said and I quote, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal. When the President that's what Nixon said. I swear to the lord, I never thought again in my career. I hear any words that echoed even that sentiment. Well Nixon's statement was breathtaking in it's disregard for the rule of law in our constitutional system of checks and balances. But 30 years later, here we are once again, in this Presidents mind he is a blank check to fight a war in Iraq. A blank check to fight a war what he misstates as global terrorism. So it's okay in his view to adopt the policy that permits torture. It's okay to kidnap a suspect and take him to a different country to interrogate him, so called rendition. To operate secret prisons, to spying Americans without warrants, to detain individuals without access to the courts. And the president has justified all of these programs with the disingenuous argument that we have to sacrifice some of our rights and liberties in order to ensure our security. Ladies and gentleman America's trend through the centuries, the core the core of our national values and the key to our leadership in the world has been that Americans have never chosen between liberty and security. America demand both at the same time in equal measure. By doing what this President has done the irony of all ironies is faustian bargain the president has made has had the net effect of making us weaker, less secure and in greater danger and threat. Lest you think I, am making that judgment alone. Let me remind you that the compilation of the judgment of the 13 leading American intelligence agencies in the national intelligence estimate has said the action of keeping Abu Ghraib open, Guantanamo Bay open rendition, the whole notion of redefining torture has emboldened terrorists. We have as they said created more terrorists, than we have captured or have killed, that does not come from Joe Biden, a Democratic Presidential Candidate running against a Republican philosophy. It comes from our intelligence community. I met one of the most heart warming things I have done. I got to the United States Senate I must admit you as a 29-year-old kid thinking every General in America military was slim picking, sitting on the back of an atom bomb jumping out of an airplane, remember that movie? Well let me tell you, the brightest people I have met in the last 20 years have been people with three and four stars on their shoulders. This is not their war. I was asked to meet Doug with 13 retired military men. The most lowest ranking of which was a three star general. Up in at Franklin Pierce Law School two Saturdays ago in New Hampshire. You know why they wanted to meet with me? Because they wanted an assurance on my part that if and when I become President of the United States I will never under any circumstance authorize the use of torture. This is 13 American general, because ladies and gentleman they know for 100 years we the United States have pushed international treaties and compacts relating to terror why, to protect our forces. We have more of men and women stationed abroad than all other countries in the world combined. This is to protect American forces, this is not merely the moral imperative of any great nation, its literally, literally to protect my son, it's literally to protect our sons and daughters from that kind of behavior. And in the process this President has undermined our security, undermined our credibility and spawned more rationale for terrorists than anything that could have been done in the mere conduct of the war. Let me conclude ladies and gentleman by saying that I mentioned to you earlier that I thought Iraq presented three problems, absent its being solved. We did not have the flexibility to deal with our problems at home, the credibility to deal with the dilemma we face abroad getting other nations to cooperate with us and we have squandered opportunities to be able to deal with much of what could have been dealt with already. When I am President of the United States of America and this war has ended pray God, before me but if not by me. I will have $100 billion that I am not spending on Iraq. That's what we will spend this year $100 and those if you who are in the top one percent God love you, I love you and I hope all my kids reach that. But I am going to take away your tax cut, you don't need it, now let me, I don't say you don't need it, you didn't ask for it. It will have no economic negative impact on growth and it costs $85 billion a year. And the notion that we had to reduce the tax on dividends and capital gains to get the economy moving six years ago the rationale no longer pertains that's a $196 billion. Ladies and gentleman imagine what I can do with $200 billion, for $26 billion a year, I can insure every single child in America has total health insurance, every single solitary one. Ladies and gentleman for $3 billion a year I could redouble I could double our investment in alternative renewable energy technology and I could stop begin the process of stop the dependence on the oligarchs. This not only ties us domestically but in terms of our foreign policy. For $3 billion a year I can invest and attracting the highest qualified young graduates out of our universities. Ladies and gentleman we compete with Germany, we compete with Japan, we compete with many other countries. They pay in both of those countries their new young teachers the equivalent of what pay their engineers. My dad used to say, "Don't tell me what your value, show me your budget, show me your budget". If we want the brightest students in the world you need the best teachers in the world, our children have to go to school longer, classed need to be smaller, we have to start earlier, its not rocket science folks. Ladies and gentleman, for $10 billion a year for just the next five years, I can guarantee that every single solitary recommendation of the 9/11 commission regarding home land security is implemented. Not one, not one, not one has been implemented thus far, not one. Your city and most other major cities in the United States of America still do not have full interoperability. If you have an earthquake, if you have a serious terrorist attack you still are going to have a problem with the national guard and the army speaking to, your police department speaking to your civilians. It is outrageous, it is outrageous, the cargo containers that come ashore in this city one percent of them are are in fact inspected by gamma rays. We have the technology to determine whether or not there is a density that would be it could be equivalent to a plutonium bomb and/or the radiation capacity to determine whether or not we have a dirty bomb. It cost money, it would cost $12 more per container. Ladies and gentleman one dirty bomb goes off in a port, anywhere in the United States they will all shut down. We will shut down, commerce it will the cost the United States within one month over $53 billion. One back up in Hong Kong had a 120 mile back up in cargo containers bumper to bumper to bumper when they shut down the port for one day. Ladies and gentleman we are not being very wise. $1 billion a year I could take my Violence Against Women Bill that are the proudest thing I have ever done in my carrier and I could make sure that we fully funded it, fully funded the training of judges, police officers as well as building the shelters and providing the income and opportunity for woman to get out from within the prisons that exist in this country. Ladies and gentleman I will not take any more of your time, let me conclude by saying this, I am always asked by the press and it's a legitimate question, "Biden, you want to do these things, how you are going to pay for it"? Ladies and gentleman when I was a kid I would say to my dad but dad he would say, "Look Joe, if everything is equally important to you nothing is important to you." What are your priorities, what are our priorities, we can fund my Cops Bill, we can put more cops in the streets in this country the program they cut out. We can take care of the Violence Against Women problem that we have in America, we can deal with the energy problem but we can't do it the same time that we have a tax policy that's skewed and a foreign policy that's broken. You all know the score unless you fix them we are hog died as they say, there is very little we are going to be able to do and I say to you, I believe the American public is absolutely ready for someone to boldly state this is my these are my priorities this is where I stand this is what I will do if you like me, if you like what I say. Help me out if not vote for the other guy or the other woman but this is where I stand. The American people are tired of timidity. They are tired of the timid way in which we in both parties are afraid to trust them. Ladies and gentleman, there has never been a single solitary time and all of you in here what the press would call elites, intellectual and economical elites. Average people out there have a lot more grit than you give them credit for. They are a hell of a lot tougher than you think they are and there are whole lot smarter. They need your political party gives them credit for being not once, not once in American history that the American people been challenged that they have not risen to a challenge not once. Every single major breakthrough or stride we have made as a nation has come on the heels of a tragedy or a crisis. That's how America works. Unless you doubt me just think, think what would have happened on 9/12 if John Kennedy had been President instead of this President. This President will be judged very harshly not for the mistakes he has made but for the opportunities he squandered. Imagine Kennedy, I imagine you would have heard something like my fellow Americans we have been dealt with tragic blow. 3000 of our fellow citizens have been murdered. Our economy has hit the balls of its heels but like every generation before us we will overcome this and be better for it. I am making two announcements today. I am calling a meeting with the world's major powers, to meet in Brussels on October the 1st to begin to jointly plan the demise of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and secondly I am sending an Energy Bill to the United States Congress. It will require some sacrifice and commitment. I ask, no I demand your help, so we can be free from the axis of oil. Who in America would have said, "No, no, no, that's too tough," Literally, not a joke, think, think about it. Remember what you saw on 9/11, there wasn't just the buildings coming down, the Pentagon ablaze, that field must have in Pennsylvania. If you remember, after the buildings came down you saw what looked like relatively young people lined up single file in the streets of New York City as far as the eye could see. Remember why they were there. They stayed there for six, seven and eight hours. they were there to give blood. And they stayed even after they were told no more blood was needed. They were crying out let me do something to help mend this nation's broken heart. Folks - American people are ready, we are not afraid. We are not afraid to taking on the energy crisis, the health care crisis, the foreign policy. I am always quoting Irish poets in mind my friends in the senate kid me. They think it's because I am Jean Finnigan's son I am Irish. That's not the reason I quote - I quote them because they are the best poets. And there is a poem there is a poem from my favorite contemporary Irish poet Seamus Heaney and it's called The Cure at Troy and it won the Nobel Prize for poetry in the mid 90s and there is a stanza in it that I truly believe, I truly believe is the sentiment in the hearts of the vast majority of American people and the reason why I want to be president because the next president would be able to change the world change the world. Not a utopia, change the direction of the world and those stanza goes like this. It says history teaches us not to hope on this side of the grave, but then once in a lifetime that long fore tidal wave of justice rises up in hope and history rhyme. I believe with every fiber of my being we have a chance and an obligation to make hope and history rhyme, the nation is ready. Thank you very much.