Senator kerry i want to thank you. But i dont want you to stop the enthusiasm, all right . Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you to the voters from coast to coast, who truly have made this a super tuesday. Thank you very, very much. I want to thank i dont know how many of you here had a chance to hear it, but we heard it upstairs, a remarkably gracious, powerful, generous statement by john edwards tonight. And i want all of us here i want to thank there is no question that john edwards brings a compelling voice to our party. Great eloquence to the cause of working men and women all across our nation, and great promise for leadership for the years to come, and we thank him so much for what he has done. I i believe i believe that in 2004, one United Democratic party, we can and we will win this election [cheers and applause] and we will build one america, of freedom and of fairness for all. For months, four months, john edwards has been our competitor, but first of all and always, for teresa and me, john and elizabeth are our friends. And he is a valiant champion of the values for which our party stands. Let me let me also congratulate howard dean. Again again, today, we are all reminded of the unprecedented contribution he is made to our party and to our country, and particularly by bringing so many who were disenfranchised into our party and into the political process, and i know he will continue to do that. Tonight tonight [indiscernible] change is coming to america. Before us lie long months of effort and of challenge and we understand that. We have no illusions about the republican attack machine and what our opponents have done in the past and what they may try to do in the future, but i know that together, we are equal to this task. I am a fighter, and for more [cheers and applause] for more than 30 years, i have been on the battle lines, the front lines of the struggle for fairness and for mainstream american values, and in 2004, i pledge we will tell the truth about what has happened in our country, and we will fight and we will fight to give america back its future and its hope. There are powerful forces that want america to continue on exactly the path it is on today, and there are also millions of americans who are hurt by the policies that favor the few, who doubt the government can work for them. Many fear that they will lose their jobs or lose their health care or lose their pensions. My campaign, our campaign, is about replacing doubt with hope and replacing fear with security. Together, we are going to build a Strong Foundation for growth by repealing the bush tax cuts for the wealthy and investing in health care and we will cut the deficit in half in four years, and we will invest in education and health care and the creation of jobs in this country. And we and i pledge to you with every fiber in my body and every ounce of energy i can find, we will put the tax code of this nature up to the light of democracy and scrutiny of the american people, and we will repeal every tax break and every loophole that rewards any corporation for gaming the tax code and going overseas to avoid their responsibilities to people in the United States of america. And we and we will provide new incentives, important new incentives, for manufacturing that reward the Good Companies that create the jobs and keep them in the United States and we will fight as never before for Worker Protections and environmental protections in the trade agreements of the United States of america. And long overdue, waiting to be achieved as a matter of fundamental fairness, we will raise the minimum wage so that no one in America Works a 40hour work week and cant get out of poverty. And we will meet one of the most historic challenges of our nation. We will guarantee we have a plan for an Energy IndependentUnited States. We we will invest in the technologies of the future, and we will create 500,000 new jobs doing so so that no Young American in uniform will ever be held hostage to americas dependence on oil in the middle east. And i cannot wait audience, chanting kerry kerry kerry kerry senator kerry and i cannot wait to join with senator kennedy and with others of good conscience in the house on in the senate and all across this country we will complete the mission begun by harry truman to make certain that health care is regarded as a right and not a privilege in the United States of america. [cheers and applause] we will fight for an america where health care and Social Security are protected, where Health Care Costs are held down and your familys health care is just as important as any politician in washington, d. C. We will achieve that. And on behalf of all americans and on behalf of the other 96 in of humankind waiting for leadership from the United States, we well rejoin the community of nations we will rejoin the community of nations. And we will renew our alliances and we will build new alliances because they are essential to the final victory and success of a war on terror. This, the bush administration, has run the most inept, ideological Foreign Policy in modern history. [cheers and applause] audience, chanting kerry in kerry kerry senator kerry this president this president has said again and again that he wants to run on National Security. Well, if george bush was to make National Security the central issue of the campaign of 2004, i have three words for him that i know he understands. Bring it on. This this cap paying this campaign is about the big issues and challenges that we face as a nation. It is about our opportunity to step up. Our opponents cannot campaign on jobs or health care or fiscal responsibility. Instead, george bush, who promised to become a uniter, has become the great divider. And just last week just last week he proposed to amend the constitution of the United States for political purposes [audience cheering] senator kerry and we say we say that he has no right to misuse the most precious document in our history in an effort to divide this nation and distract us from our goals. We resoundingly reject the politics of fear and distortion. We will instead, all across this nation these next six months, keep trust with lincolns ideals of america as the last, best i hope of the world. When i first led veterans to the Washington Mall during vietnam, it was a time of fear in this land. It was a time when millions of americans could not trust or believe what their leaders were telling them, and now today, americans are once again wondering if they can trust or believe the leadership of our country. Our campaign is about restoring that faith, speaking plainly and honestly to the american people, offering real choices about the future, about leaving america in a new direction, guided by the values we have held here for 200 years. And our campaign is about building a fairer, safer, more prosperous america the nation that is, again, the great light to all of the world. That is what this is about. There is no way we all together would have arrived at this evening unless we had worked together, bled together, fought together, believed together in the possibilities, and that is what unites us. And i want to thank the most amazing woman, the most remarkable partner and wife a man could ask for. She has stunned everybody all across this country, and everywhere she goes, people fall in love with teresa. I want to thank her. [cheers and applause] i want to thank all of our children my stepsons and my daughters. I am so grateful to them. As anyone will tell you in public life, it is hard on families. They are thrust into it. Its not of their choosing. But they have been the most remarkable partners in this effort, and i want you to say thank you to them for [cheers and applause] i want you all to join me in thanking and man who has been the champion of the values of our country for over 40 years, my colleague ted kennedy, and Vicki Kennedy [cheers and applause] my friend, and a special friend who has traveled all across this nation with an extraordinary band of brothers, Max Cleveland max cleland [cheers and applause] to all of those in public life who took risks, joined this campaign early, hung in when it was tough, and stayed with us today, into all those who joined recently, this is not a campaign that will measure who and when. It is a campaign that will measure what we have to achieve together over the course of these next months, and i want to thank, standing behind me, the greatest Campaign Staff in america, the greatest volunteers, many of whom [cheers and applause] audience, chanting kerry kerry kerry kerry senator kerry and i want to thank the many and there are many you have come over from other campaigns, who have become part of this great effort. We are grateful to all of them. And i particularly want to say thank you to the people of iowa and new hampshire, who gave me a hearing when no one thought we had a chance and they sent us on our way, and i thank them. And to all of those who have been fighting in our ranks all along the way, all of those firefighters of america who have been there from the beginning, the ranks of labor, the millions of citizens who have now rallied to our cause, and for those who want to, i invite them to come to johnkerry. Com and join this effort now. So, the message rings out across the lands tonight. Get ready. A new day is on the way. Good night. God bless all of you. And god bless the america that we love so much. Thank you and take care. [cheers and applause] audience, chanting kerry kerry kerry [cheers and applause] hey, baby there aint no easy way out hey, ah i wont back down hey, baby ive got just one life in a world that keeps on pushing me around but i stand my ground hey, baby there aint no easy way out hey, ah i wont back down hey, baby there aint no easy way out stand my ground and i wont back down no, i wont back down road to the white house rewind continues with more from the 2004 president ial campaign with democrats john edwards on a bus tour in rural, oklahoma. In addition to his remarks, you will hear from Campaign Staff and a journalist. Senator edwards went to a secondplace finish in the oklahoma primary. Senator kerry later selected senator edwards as his running mate, but they lost to incumbent president bush and Vice President cheney in a close general election. Our coverage begins in oklahoma. This is under 50 minutes. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the next president of the United States, john edwards. [applause]