Announcement Speech
22 September 2003
Howard University - Washington, D.C.
Benedict College - Columbia, SC
University of Illinois - Chicago, IL
As prepared for delivery
I would like to thank Howard
University for opening these historic halls to us today, and for
affording us the opportunity to take this step on such solid
ground in the tradition of excellence that Howard exemplifies.
I would like to thank each and everyone of you for taking time
to share this moment. I am encouraged and inspired by you, and
confident in the knowledge that our democracy is safe so long as
young people know that it is not a spectator sport.
I would like to thank the National Organization for Women and
the National Women's Political Caucus for their endorsements.
Their clarity and advocacy for women gives me the hope and the
support I must have to engage in this effort.
I would like to thank all of the friends, supporters, and
strangers, too, who have led me along my path towards this day.
Over the past several months I have traveled America, talking
with people, listening to them, registering voters and engaging
in a passionate debate about our country's direction. I am
grateful to all those who opened their homes and their hearts,
to those who shared their experiences with me, and who made it
possible for me to explore the prospect of a Presidential
campaign. Thank you for your encouragement.
Today, I am officially declaring my candidacy for the Democratic
nomination for President of the United States.
I am running for the Democratic nomination because I believe
this party ought to stand for inclusion, hope, and new ways to
resolve old problems.
I am fighting for the nomination because I am determined to move
our party in the direction of our nation's most noble ideals,
and live up to our generation's duty to leave the next
generation no less freedom, no less opportunity, no less
optimism than we inherited from our ancestors.
I am dedicated to building partnerships for peace, prosperity
and progress based on new ideas that are as practical as they
are innovative. These partnerships will help us shape an
American renaissance and renewal in the best traditions of our
country.
I have the experience, the ability and the ideas to heal and
renew America. In all of my public service, I have broken down
barriers, built bridges and brought people together to achieve
solutions that put the public interest first.
As a young federal prosecutor, I won a Justice Department award
for my work to put an end to exploitation in housing policy.
As a state representative, I fought for education, and passed
laws to create the first local school councils and agriculture
schools in Illinois. My colleagues voted me the "Conscience of
the House" for my advocacy for the poor.
As a county executive, I convened the first advisory council,
and worked with organized labor to improve conditions for the
employees and the public. When I left that office, it had become
a profit center for Cook County, the workers were better off,
and the public was better served.
As a United States Senator, and as the first woman to serve on
the Finance Committee, I passed laws for women's pension equity,
and for environmental remediation and alternative energy, for
school modernization and restoration of the interest deduction
for college loans.
As Ambassador, I was credited with improving relations on behalf
of the United States, and was the first envoy to be made an
honorary member of the Te Atiawa Maori tribe.
Breaking barriers; building bridges; bringing people together: I
have been blessed to be an agent for change and progress, but I
cannot take full personal credit for these accomplishments. I
have always depended on the help and support of people of good
will who had the vision to imagine the possibilities borne of
giving me a chance to contribute.
I tell the people what I believe in, I keep my promises and I
hold myself accountable for my service. My entire public life
has been characterized by problem solving with new ideas that
are as practical as they are innovative. I want to bring my
skills and my experience to bear on healing our country, and
creating a renaissance for America.
Through partnerships for peace and prosperity and progress we
will renew the American dream of freedom and opportunity.
We can make our economy work for everyone, not just the already
wealthy, and assure families that they will be able to provide
decent housing, health care, education, retirement and safety to
those they love the most.
We will turn away from the bluster and bravado that has so
soured our friendships and alliances around the world, and build
our global relationships.
We will respect individuals in their private lives, in their
professional endeavors and in their civic engagements.
And we will tap all of the talent that is available to us,
without limitation of any aspect of personality that serves to
divide instead of glorify the human condition.
America will be stronger when we engage the full range of talent
that is at our disposal, and when we live up to our most
fundamental national virtues.
We can, and must renew the American spirit. What makes this
country great is not the size of its military or its budget or
its wealth, but the spirit of her people. That spirit has been
battered since 9/11; not only by the criminals who killed so
many, but by leaders who have pandered to fear in its aftermath.
We must not allow the nightmare of our limitations continue; but
instead dream a world of the best of who we are.
When we come together to create partnerships for peace and
prosperity and progress we will heal the American spirit.Ę
Partnerships for peace will bring a real end to this Iraqi war,
and bring our troops home with honor. Americans don't cut and
run, and so we have to see this misadventure through to a noble
conclusion. The sacrifice of those who lost their lives in the
sands of Iraq will not be forgotten, but neither will the folly
of preemptive war. Partnerships for peace will build on the good
will that we had after 9/11, and engage our allies to help us
leave Iraq better than we found it.
Partnerships for peace will give our international institutions
new support for global collaborations to fight crime and
terrorism, poverty and disease. Our foreign policy will follow
our values, and serve the interests of the American people.
Trade can create opportunity to share our values, not lose our
jobs. We can engage our private sector in ways that will bolster
their bottom line, stem job hemorrhage at home and help stop the
exploitation of workers and the environment around the world. I
want to forge partnerships for prosperity that will explore new
policies to stop our nations' slide toward embedded wealth,
entrenched poverty, and a shrinking middle class.
When we pursue balance in our economic order, we will embrace
fiscal, monetary and trade policies that put working people
first. Economic policy is so interconnected with our nation's
social fabric that government has a special duty to protect the
people from the forces of private interest and greed.
I believe in fiscal responsibility and fighting for social
justice. Partnerships for prosperity give us opportunity to do
good and do well simultaneously. We will fight the greedy -
whose excesses and crimes have threatened our capital markets
and undermined confidence in our economy. We will help the needy
- whether in childhood or retirement, in sickness or despair.
Achieving a balanced budget again will help restore confidence
in our policymakers' ability to protect our nation's economic
health. This administration has no right to make irresponsible
spending decisions that simply shift the payment burden onto
those least able to pay, or to state and local governments, or,
worse still, to our children and grandchildren.
Without spending a dime more than we already pay, we can provide
health security that emphasizes wellness, restores the
provider/patient relationship and maintains the quality of care
Americans have every right to expect. Embracing a single payer
system of health insurance that does not depend on employment
will not only provide universal coverage, but boost our
international competitiveness, stimulate our economy at home,
and let workers keep more of their pay.
Education reform that relieves the burden on local property
taxpayers, while empowering parents and teachers to pursue
excellence and innovation is an opportunity for a partnership
for prosperity that we cannot afford to ignore if we are to keep
our country strong. The cornerstone of the American dream of
opportunity is education-it is the way our workforce is prepared
to engage the rest of the world. Education is not just a private
benefit, but a public good as well, and our national interest is
bound up in providing quality public education for every child.
We can engage in partnerships for prosperity to build
infrastructure, as well. Especially in the wake of the recent
events, storms and blackouts and other calamities, we all know
that our foundations - for energy, for water, for transportation
- are in need of restoration. By bringing together national,
state and local governments with the private sector, including
colleges and universities and non-governmental organizations, we
can spark a building boom that will unleash innovation and
technology transfers and create new industries and new wealth.
Private industry will give us the benefit of the best America
has to offer, and when we make government a partner in our
country's renovation, we will create jobs and opportunity and
hope for all Americans.
As President, I will give you an America as good as its promise.
I will reach out to bring us together to create an American
renaissance, revival and renewal. I am uniquely qualified to do
the job of President, and I offer the clearest alternative to
this current administration, whose only new idea has been
preemptive war and a huge new bureaucracy. I can fix the mess
they have created, because I am practical, I am not afraid of
partnerships and I am committed to making the world better for
our children. By tapping the talent, the ideas, and the capacity
that our whole society has to offer, we will expand the
probability of succeeding together.
America is at a tipping point; if we stay the course we are on,
we won't recognize this country 5 years from now. But if we
shift gears, try another way, tap some of the talent that has
been relegated to the sidelines of leadership, we can heal and
renew and save our country.
Just last week, my little 9-year-old niece Claire called me into
her room to show me her social studies book. Turning to the
pages on which all of our Presidents were pictured, she looked
at me and complained: But Auntie Carol, all the Presidents are
boys!
I want Claire, and your daughters and sons to know that in
America, everyone has a chance to serve and contribute. I
believe that America is ready to take the next great step in the
direction of her most noble ideals of service and merit and
equality.
This campaign is our way of fighting to give Claire and every
American girl or boy not only the opportunity to become
President of this great country, but the freedom to decide to
lead a quality private life if they choose to do so. There is no
human power greater than a made up mind, and we have decided not
to let them take away our liberty, our opportunity, our hope for
a better future.
The time has come to meet the challenge of our founding fathers'
vision, and I am prepared to fight for you and with you to
revive the American dream of freedom and opportunity. Together
we will break down barriers. Together we will rebuild and
restore our country. And together we will give ourselves the
greatest gift of all: an America we can be proud of.
Thank you for your patriotism. Thank you for your energy. Thank
you for your faith in the goodness of this country. We will lift
up the hearts of the American people. We will inspire hope. We
will renew the American Spirit. And we will win. Together,
failure is impossible.
Carol Announces Presidential Exploratory Committee
On Tuesday, February 18, Carol Moseley Braun announced the
formation of her presidential exploratory committee in a
statement at the University of Chicago Law School.
"In these difficult times for America, I believe women have a
contribution to make to move our country toward peace,
prosperity and progress," Carol said. "As a candidate for our
nation's highest office, I will make the case that our domestic
security is ultimately tied up in how well we work with others
to fight terrorism around the world."
CAROL MOSELEY BRAUN WITHDRAWS
FROM PRESIDENTIAL RACE AND ENDORSES HOWARD DEAN
Statement of Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun
CARROLL, IA- I want to thank everybody for your kindness to me,
and for allowing me to participate as a candidate for the
Democratic nomination for president of the United States. This
campaign has been a wonderful learning experience for me, one
that restored my faith in the political process and renewed my
belief in the goodness of the American people.
I am here today to thank those Iowans who were prepared to stand
for me in Mondays’ caucuses, and to ask that you stand instead
for Howard Dean.
Your support is precious to me, and so I make this
recommendation with the most sincerity and thought I have ever
brought to any decision.
Gov. Dean has the energy to inspire the American people, to
break the cocoon of fear that envelopes us and empowers
president Bush and his entourage from the extreme right wing,
and he has a program to put our country back on track to tax
fairness, job creation, balanced budgets and an economy that
works for everyone regardless of sex or race. He has the
experience to know that state and local and national government
have to cooperate and collaborate, and end the destructive game
of monetary musical chairs that creates unfunded mandates and
failing schools. He understands that a real war on terrorism
starts with putting the domestic security of the American people
first. He can “work well with others” around the world and craft
a foreign policy that is neither arrogant nor preemptive, but
that begins with respect and builds on alliances. He takes
seriously our stewardship of the planet and our environmental
responsibilities.
Howard Dean is a Democrat we can all be proud to support.
I am so very grateful to you who have made my candidacy
possible, and who believed, as I did, that my campaign offered
Americans a unique opportunity for progress. When barriers of
gender and race fall in America, our nation is richer for it,
and all Americans will benefit from the opening up of a
reservoir of talent and capacity and contributions and ideas
that have been locked up for too long.
But the funding and organizational disadvantages of a
nontraditional campaign could not be overcome, and so this
campaign was unable to compete effectively or support your hard
work as it should. Continuing would not have been fair to
hundreds of delegates, (especially Congressmen Bobby Rush and
Danny Davis), and thousands of volunteers and millions of
supporters who wanted to give the American people a message of
hope and progress. We were and are determined to give the next
generation of Americans no less than what we inherited for the
last one, and we are committed to opening up our democracy.
We will get there one day. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said,
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards
justice.” Progress for our republic will come when we live up to
the ideal of equality and inclusion that is at the heart of the
American dream. The political process is an avenue for building
a more perfect union, if for no other reason that it is, in the
end, a purely mathematical process: with one vote more than the
next guy, you win (most of the time!)
When women run, when people of color run, we open up the
possibility that women and people of color can win. I have a
record of building bridges, bringing people together, and
breaking barriers, and I am proud of my role in breaking new
ground with this campaign. I was able to walk in the footsteps
of my hero, Shirley Chisholm, and we qualified for ballot
position in more states than any woman has ever done in the
history of this country.
So to those of you who believed in this effort, I say, take
heart, you can claim the nobility of moving our country forward,
and of opening up possibilities for all our daughters. I thank
you for your vision and your patriotism.
But today, especially, I ask that you share my view that Gov.
Dean is the candidate best equipped to continue the progress we
need to have, to bring Americans together to renew our country
and restore our privacy, our liberty and our economic security.
His leadership will help us live up to our generational
responsibility.
I am happy to support him, and hope you will stand for him with
the conviction and courage with which you would have stood for
me.
I appreciate your continued support and look forward to dancing
with you at the Inaugural Ball for Howard Dean this time next
year.
Source: Carol Moseley Braun for President Web Site
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