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."
