Acceptance Speech to the Democratic National Convention by Governor Bill Clinton from Arkansas in New York, NY on July 16, 1992.
"My fellow delegates and my fellow Americans, I am so proud of Al Gore. (Applause)
He said he came here tonight because he always wanted to do the warm-up for Elvis. Well, I ran for President this year for one reason and one reason only: I wanted to come back to this convention and finish that speech I started four years ago. (Applause)
Last night Mario Cuomo taught us how a real nominating speech should be given. (Applause) He also made it clear why we have to steer our ship of state on a new course. Tonight I want to talk with you about my hope for the future, my faith in the American people, and my vision of the kind of country we can build together.
I salute the good men who were my companions on the campaign trial: Tom Harkin (Applause), Bob Kerrey (Applause), Doug Wilder (Applause), Jerry Brown (Applause), and Paul Tsongas (Applause).
One sentence in the Platform we built says it all. The most important family policy, urban policy, labor policy, minority policy, and foreign policy America can have is an expanding entrepreneurial economy of high-wage, high-skilled jobs. (Applause)
And so, in the name of all those who do the work and pay the taxes, raise the kids, and play by the rules, in the name of the hardworking Americans who make up our forgotten middle class, I proudly accept your nomination for President of the United States.
I want every person in this hall and every person in this land to reach out and join us in a great new adventures, to chart a bold new future.
As a teenager, I heard John Kennedy’s summons to citizenship. And then, as a student at Georgetown, I head that call clarified by a professor name Carol Quigley, who said to us that America was the greatest Nation in history because our people had always believed in two things- that tomorrow can be better than today and that every one of us has a personal moral responsibility to make it so. (Applause)
That kind of future entered my life the night our daughter, Chelsea, was born. As I stood in the delivery room, I was overcome with the thought that God had given me a blessing my own father never knew- the chance to hold my child in my arms.
Somewhere at this very moment a child is being born in America. Let it be our cause to give that child a happy home, a healthy family and a hopeful future. Let it be our cause to see that that child has a chance to live to the fullest of her God-given capacities. (Applause)
Let it be our cause to see that child grow up strong and secure, braced by her challenges but never struggling alone, with family and friends and a faith that in America, no one is left out; no one is left behind. (Applause)
Let it be our cause that when this child is able, she gives something back to her children, her community and her country. Let it be our cause that we give this child a country that is coming together, not coming apart, a country of boundless hopes and endless dreams, a country once again lifts its people and inspires the world. Let that be our cause our commitment and our New Covenant. (Applause)
My fellow Americans, I end tonight where it all began for me- I still believe in a place called Hope. God bless you, and God Bless America."
