2008 Presidential Campaign Blog

Tim Pawlenty For Governor Video

Tim Pawlenty For Governor Campaign Announcement

Tim Pawlenty made his official campaign announcement for Governor in Eagan on May 31, 2006. “I’m running for re-election because we’re improving the lives of Minnesotans by making government more accountable and innovative,” Pawlenty said. After the morning announcement, he toured the state, making stops in Rochester, Moorhead, Duluth, and St. Cloud. In reference to 2008, the Governor was questioned by reporters and emphasized that, "If I run for Governor and win, I will serve out my term for four years."

Carter/Mondale Become Longest Living, Post-Administration Team

Carter/Mondale Set Record.

ATLANTA, GA.- On Tuesday, May 23rd, President Jimmy Carter and Vice President Walter Mondale will become the longest-living, post-administration President and Vice President in U.S. history. On that day, they will surpass President John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Adams and Jefferson lived 25 years, 122 days after the end of their administration. Both Adams and Jefferson died on July 4th, 1826. On Thursday, President Carter and Vice President Mondale will have lived 25 years, 123 days after leaving office. “While breaking the Adams and Jefferson record is certainly a milestone, the important thing is how President Carter and Vice President Mondale have used that time,” Carter Presidential Library Director Jay Hakes said.

In 1982, a year after leaving the White House, President and Mrs. Carter founded the Carter Center to advance peace and health worldwide. The Carter Center is a permanent legacy to the vision and values of both President and Mrs. Carter," said Center Executive Director Dr. John Hardman. "Because of their passion and commitment, once forgotten people in 65 developing nations have renewed hope for lives free of preventable diseases, a voice in their own governance, and the means to create sustainable peace."

Former Vice President Walter Mondale has also continued a distinguished career of public service. Having traveled extensively throughout the United States and the world promoting U.S. policy as Vice President, Mondale was selected as the Democratic Party’s nominee for President in 1984. He has also been a vital contributor to the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota. "The Vice President," according to Dean J. Brian Atwood, "has been a driving force in teaching tomorrow's leaders about public service and in founding our new Center for the Study of Politics and Governance." Mondale is Senior Counsel with the law firm Dorsey & Whitney, LLP.

Senator Chris Dodd Prepares To Seek Presidency

The Hartford Courant reports that Senator Chris Dodd is preparing a run for the presidency in 2008.

"Sen. Christopher J. Dodd said today he has 'decided to do all the things that are necessary to prepare to seek the presidency in 2008.'
The Connecticut Democrat will hire staff, raise money and travel around the country in the next few months as he tries to enlist support."

Terry Sanford 1976 Announcement

Terry Sanford's declaration of candidacy for the Presidency of the United States on May 19, 1975 in Washington, D.C.

"If you believe as I do, that the people are the ones who must govern, then you are running with the people and not with the ambition.  That is an important distinction, especially today, for it is not the imperial president we need, but many people united to choose a spokesman who can provide the focus for bold, determined, and honest self government. 

That is why I made the preparation and today announced that through the Democratic Party I seek the Presidency of the United States. 

I promise a bold campaign and a bold administration, determined to put into practice again the radical promise of the American Revolution, but determined to talk sense and issues, openly and candidly, pledged to make the government join the people, to put people first in all our affairs and aspirations. 

To these challenges I bring experience not born in Washington, and not tainted by Washington.  We need freshness.  We need change. 

I am different in many ways from the other candidates who have announced.  Those differences can be seen as the campaign progresses.  It is not for me to assert finally that my concept of America is better.  But it is different.  It demands boldness, faith in ourselves, creative change, and a focus on opportunity for all people. 

I expect to be running for the Presidency, with a positive program, but I have a duty of also to show the Nation that the South stands for more than the politics of fear.  I want the people of this country to be given a clear choice between what I see as the politics of fear and the politics of hope. 

I知 going to campaign in all the caucus states, and will enter 17 to 20 primary campaigns, not expecting to win them all, but expecting to lay out in all of them the creative tasks that lie before us."

Full Speech Text

One America Committee Website Launch

Elizabeth Edwards sent out this message to supporters announcing the new One America Committee website.

"John and I have been working hard to share our vision for One America with people from across the country. With the launch of the One America Committee website yesterday, we can start working directly with you to realize that vision. Wherever we are, wherever you or your friends are, the One America Committee website will be our meeting place to discuss new ideas, share stories, and mobilize action for the One America we all dream of and know is possible.

Over the years, John and I have witnessed the power of online activism. We have seen online discussions between people living in different states turn into an idea for a town hall forum that ends up catching the attention of a major newspaper and elected officials. That's why we packed the website with interactive tools that will bring people together from all walks of life, encourage dialogue, and generate ideas for taking action on what John and I believe is the most important moral issue of our time: ending poverty in America.

Through our One America blog, you can join lively discussions about the day's leading news stories. Your blog postings will be featured on our home page right next to entries from John and me. We want everyone who visits our website to hear your views. You can make your very first entry by joining the blog now. If you've spent all day at the computer and just want to pick up the phone to share your comments or questions, you can call us on our audio blog and let us know your thoughts in a voice message. For those of you with video cameras, you can send us a video blog.

The One America Committee website also has a Town Hall forum where you can discuss important issues like health care, raising the minimum wage, and building an economy that works for all Americans. We also started an online Book Club where you can join a chapter-by-chapter discussion of our latest featured book. We are very excited about our next book, Jimmy Carter's Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis.

Since John is often on the road, we produced our own reality TV show called JRE-TV, that follows John across the country. With personal, behind-the-scenes footage, you can see what Americans are saying to John about the reality they face as they try and raise healthy children with a minimum wage paycheck.

Through this website, we want to mobilize a powerful Internet community whose voice cannot be ignored. We hope these interactive resources will help you and your friends stay informed and mobilize our communities for a better future. The national poverty rate has increased each year for the last five years. The children of working parents deserve to live in a country where food, safe shelter, health care, and education are available to them so that they have a chance at the American dream. John and I will continue to take our message from state to state, coast to coast. We hope you will join us and keep in touch with us through the One America Committee website. We look forward to hearing from you."

Bob Dole 1980 Announcement

Bob Dole Presidential Announcement Speech held in Russell, Kansas on May 14, 1979.

"I am announcing today that I shall seek my Party's nomination to the office of President of the United States.

I have no illusions about the magnitude of the undertaking; neither have I any undue concern for the magnitude of the problems associated with it. Financing, logistics, simple human effort or the lack of these may conspire in time to defeat a candidacy, but they cannot deter it at the outset. The magnitude of the endeavor rests not in the institutional necessities which must carry it forward, but rather in the expectations which any candidate must engender and then satisfy in the minds and the hearts of the American people. This is the great task.

I came home simply because the strength I need for the undertaking before me is here. I know that as I travel the country in the weeks and months ahead, I will be heard and helped by others who agree with me, who will consider my views and examine my record and judge my capacities and they will determine, as they should, whether I succeed or fail.

But there ought to be at least one place for every person where he or she is accepted with unjudging love and strengthened and reassured by it, and for me that place is here. I was born here, I left for awhile, I was hurt and I came back. I was helped and healed in this place by my townsmen and I began my public career here. And whenever I have set out on a new path, I have come back here to begin. No failure has ever been so hurtful that this place could not ease the pain. And no success has ever been so great that its satisfaction exceeded the satisfaction of being a part of the people of Russell, a citizen of Kansas."

Thank you.

Full Speech Text

Bob Graham 2004 Announcement

Bob Graham's Declaration of Candidacy for President of the United States on May 6, 2003.

"We are gathered here today because this is where the future is built. In communities across America. And especially in places like Florida.

This land at the southern tip of the United States has lured people for centuries with the promise of a better future.

But we Floridians know well that a dynamic future rests on a fragile foundation: an environment we must protect; diversity we must nurture; values we must safeguard; families and communities in which we must invest.

We know we will be judged by whether we leave our children and grandchildren an America that is better than the one we inherited.

I am an optimist. America's best days are still ahead of us. Yet, realizing that future starts with an honest assessment of where we are today.

We must become one America again -- an America energized with optimism -- an America that continues its never-ending experiment of democracy -- an America that looks to the dawn and the spring -- an America whose sights are higher, never lower, whose aspirations are greater,
never lesser.

That is why...I am today...Declaring that I am a candidate for President of the United States of America."

Full Speech Text

Kerry-Edwards Minnesota Communications Director Stacie Paxton Named DNC Press Secretary

Stacie Paxton named Press Secretary for the Democratic National Committee. Stacie served as communications director for Kerry-Edwards Minnesota in 2004.

George Bush 1980 Announcement

Presidential Announcement Statement of Ambassador George Bush on May 1, 1979.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am a candidate for President of the United States.

With the help of friends and supporters throughout the country, I intend to seek and win our party's nomination and the general election in 1980.

I seek this nomination as a lifelong Republican who has worked throughout his career, in business and in public office, on behalf of the principles of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower.

At the outset of this campaign, let me say that I am not running for President as a regional or factional candidate, but as a national candidate. I ask all Republicans to join me in a common effort to bring America the principled, stable leadership we must have in the decade of the eighties.

As a national- candidate, I will welcome the support of all Americans -- Republicans Democrats and Independents -- in my campaign, to give America the new leadership needed to keep our country free prosperous and second-to-none in the years ahead.

In this spirit, too, I from this day will go forward to seek the Presidential nomination of my Party and the support of Americans everywhere who believe that in the decade of the eighties, America must have a new leadership -- a leadership confident of our strength, compassionate of heart, and clear in mind, as we turn to the great tasks before us."

Full Speech Text