美国前总统比尔·克林顿在2012年9月5日民主党全国代表大会上的演讲

A

transcript

of

former

President

Bill

Clinton's

remarks

Wednesday

night

at

the

Democratic

National Convention, as provided by the Democratic Party:

We're here to nominate a president, and I've got one in mind.

I want to nominate a man whose own life has known its fair share of adversity and uncertainty. A

man who ran for president to change the course of an already weak economy and then just six

weeks before the election, saw it suffer the biggest collapse since the Great Depression. A man

who stopped the slide into depression and put us on the long road to recovery, knowing all the

while

that

no

matter

how

many

jobs

were

created

and

saved,

there

were

still

millions

more

waiting, trying to feed their children and keep their hopes alive.

I want to nominate a man cool on the outside but burning for America on the inside. A man who

believes

we

can

build

a

new

American

Dream

economy

driven

by

innovation

and

creativity,

education and cooperation. A man who had the good sense to marry Michelle Obama.

I want Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States and I proudly nominate him as

the standard bearer of the Democratic Party.

In Tampa, we heard a lot of talk about how the president and the Democrats don't believe in free

enterprise and individual initiative, how we want everyone to be dependent on the government,

how bad we are for the economy.

The Republican narrative is that all of us who amount to anything are completely self-made. One

of our greatest Democratic chairmen, Bob Strauss, used to say that every politician wants you to

believe he was born in a log cabin he built himself, but it ain't so.

We Democrats think the country works better with a strong middle class, real opportunities for

poor

people

to

work

their

way

into

it

and

a

relentless

focus

on

the

future,

with

business

and

government working together to promote growth and broadly shared prosperity. We think

all in this together

Who's

right?

Well,

since

1961,

the

Republicans

have

held

the

White

House

28

years,

the

Democrats 24. In those 52 years, our economy produced 66 million private sector jobs. What's

the jobs score? Republicans 24 million, Democrats 42 million.

It turns out that advancing equal opportunity and economic empowerment is both morally right

and

good

economics,

because

discrimination,

poverty

and

ignorance

restrict

growth,

while

investments

in

education,

infrastructure

and

scientific

and

technological

research

increase

it,

creating more good jobs and new wealth for all of us.

Though I often disagree with Republicans, I never learned to hate them the way the far right that

now controls their party seems to hate President Obama and the Democrats. After all, President

Eisenhower sent federal troops to my home state to integrate Little Rock Central High and built

the

interstate

highway

system.

And

as

governor,

I

worked

with

President

Reagan

on

welfare

reform

and

with

President

George

H.W.

Bush

on

national

education

goals.

I

am

grateful

to

President

George

W.

Bush

for

PEPFAR,

which

is

saving

the

lives

of

millions

of

people

in

poor

countries

and

to

both

Presidents

Bush

for

the

work

we've

done

together

after

the

South

Asia

tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the Haitian earthquake.

Through my foundation, in America and around the world, I work with Democrats, Republicans

and Independents who are focused on solving problems and seizing opportunities, not fighting

each other.

When times are tough, constant conflict may be good politics but in the real world, cooperation

works better. After all, nobody's right all the time, and a broken clock is right twice a day. All of us

are destined to live our lives between those two extremes. Unfortunately, the faction that now

dominates the Republican Party doesn't see it that way. They think government is the enemy, and

compromise is weakness.

One of the main reasons America should re-elect President Obama is that he is still committed to

cooperation. He appointed Republican secretaries of defense, the army and transportation. He

appointed

a

vice

president

who

ran

against

him

in

2008,

and

trusted

him

to

oversee

the

successful end of the war in Iraq and the implementation of the recovery act. And Joe Biden did a

great job with both. He appointed Cabinet members who supported Hillary in the primaries. Heck,

he even appointed Hillary. I'm so proud of her and grateful to our entire national security team

for all they've done to make us safer and stronger and to build a world with more partners and

fewer

enemies.

I'm

also

grateful

to

the

young

men

and

women

who

serve

our

country

in

the

military and to Michelle Obama and Jill Biden for supporting military families when their loved

ones are overseas and for helping our veterans, when they come home bearing the wounds of

war, or needing help with education, housing, and jobs.

President Obama's record on national security is a tribute to his strength, and judgment, and to

his preference for inclusion and partnership over partisanship.

He also tried to work with congressional Republicans on health care, debt reduction, and jobs,

but

that

didn't

work

out

so

well.

Probably

because,

as

the

Senate

Republican

leader,

in

a

remarkable moment of candor, said two years before the election, their No. 1 priority was not to

put America back to work, but to put President Obama out of work.

Senator, I hate to break it to you, but we're going to keep President Obama on the job.

In Tampa, the Republican argument against the president's re-election was pretty simple: we left

him a total mess, he hasn't cleaned it up fast enough, so fire him and put us back in.

In order to look like an acceptable alternative to President Obama, they couldn't say much about

the ideas they have offered over the last two years. You see they want to go back to the same old

policies that got us into trouble in the first place: to cut taxes for high income Americans even

more than President Bush did; to get rid of those pesky financial regulations designed to prevent

another crash and prohibit future bailouts; to increase defense spending $$2 trillion more than the

Pentagon has requested without saying what they'll spend the money on; to make enormous cuts

in

the

rest

of

the

budget,

especially

programs

that

help

the

middle

class

and

poor

kids.

As

another president once said_ there they go again.

I like the argument for President Obama's re-election a lot better. He inherited a deeply damaged

economy,

put

a

floor

under

the

crash,

began

the

long

hard

road

to

recovery,

and

laid

the

foundation for a modern, more well- balanced economy that will produce millions of good new

jobs, vibrant new businesses, and lots of new wealth for the innovators.

Are we where we want to be? No. Is the president satisfied? No. Are we better off than we were

when he took office, with an economy in free fall, losing 750,000 jobs a month. The answer is yes.

I understand the challenge we face. I know many Americans are still angry and frustrated with

the

economy.

Though

employment

is

growing,

banks

are

beginning

to

lend

and

even

housing

prices are picking up a bit, too many people don't feel it.

I experienced the same thing in 1994 and early 1995. Our policies were working and the economy

was

growing

but

most

people

didn't

feel

it

yet.

By

1996,

the

economy

was

roaring,

halfway

through the longest peacetime expansion in American history.

President Obama started with a much weaker economy than I did. No president_ not me or any

of

my

predecessors

could

have

repaired

all

the

damage

in

just

four

years.

But

conditions

are

improving and if you'll renew the President's contract you will feel it.

I believe that with all my heart.

President

Obama's

approach

embodies

the

values,

the

ideas,

and

the

direction

America

must

take to build a 21st century version of the American Dream in a nation of shared opportunities,

shared prosperity and shared responsibilities.

So

back

to

the

story.

In

2010,

as

the

president's

recovery

program

kicked

in,

the

job

losses

stopped and things began to turn around.

The Recovery Act saved and created millions of jobs and cut taxes for 95 percent of the American

people. In the last 29 months the economy has produced about 4.5 million private sector jobs.

But last year, the Republicans blocked the president's jobs plan costing the economy more than a

million new jobs. So here's another jobs score: President Obama plus 4.5 million, congressional

Republicans zero.

Over

that

same

period,

more

than

more

than

500,000

manufacturing

jobs

have

been

created

under President Obama_ the first time manufacturing jobs have increased since the 1990s.