2008 Presidential Campaign Blog

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’m 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

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

John Kerry Hosts KidsFirst Town Hall Meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota

John Kerry traveled to St. Paul, Minnesota on Tuesday, May 3rd for the second in a series of town hall meetings to highlight the growing need for health care coverage in this country and promoting his KidsFirst bill to provide health care coverage to 11 million uninsured children in America.  Kerry will visit Seattle, St. Paul, Baton Rouge and Miami during the tour.

In St. Paul, Kerry was joined by Representative Betty McCollum (D-MN), The Minnesota Nurses Association, KidsFirst coalition partners, health care providers and citizen KidsFirst activists for a town hall meeting on children’s health care coverage.

He spoke about how his KidsFirst legislation can help and how they can get involved to hold their leaders accountable on children’s health care issues.

On the first day of the 108th Congress, Kerry introduced legislation in the Senate, the “Kids First Act” – S. 114, to provide health care coverage to the 11 million American children who currently go without. Kerry’s legislation also helps Governors and states save on health care costs by reducing the burden on state’s Medicaid rolls. 

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

Paul Tsongas 1992 Announcement

Paul E. Tsongas Announcement Speech in Lowell, Massachusetts on April 30, 1991

Two hundred years ago, our Founding Fathers gave us a democracy. It was based upon the simple, yet noble, idea that government derives its validity from the consent of the governed. That consent must be constantly renewed. And it can only be renewed by a full and vigorous debate on the issues that confront our nation.

Today that search for renewal begins. Today that search for consent proceeds as the Constitution has provided. Today the national debate will commence.

You are Americans. You love this country. Together we are entrusted with the principles that represent mankind's greatest political and social achievement.

America is hope. It is compassion. It is excellence. It is valor.

We must return to the glory of our forebearers by unleashing the greatness of our people. We need leadership that calls upon the best of what we are. We need leadership that embraces a higher vision.

Today that leadership is not in Washington. That leadership is here and across America. It is in the hearts and minds and souls of the American people. I want to deploy the leadership to meet the challenges that face us and to restore America's greatness.

That is why I declare today my candidacy for the President of the United States."

Full Speech Text

Democracy for America names R.T. Rybak an "A-List" Candidate

Democracy for America, the nationwide grassroots political organization that grew out of Howard Dean's campaign for President, has endorsed Mayor R.T. Rybak. The Democracy for America endorsement followed Rybak's endorsement by Democracy for Minnesota, whose members voted overwhelmingly for Rybak after screening both candidates.

"Mayor R.T. Rybak has demonstrated that you can lead an American city with innovation, progressive values and strong fiscal management. He has vision, energy and is a rising star of the Democratic Party," commented Dean on April 17th after hearing of the local chapter's endorsement.

Mayor Rybak was the first big city Mayor in the country to endorse Gov. Dean. "Gov. Dean and I both demonstrated that you can lead a government with progressive values and strong management." the Mayor said. "I also share his respect for grassroots democracy and am proud my campaigns have brought many new people into the Democratic Party." Gov. Dean and Mayor Rybak appeared together at a Dean Rally in Minneapolis on February 12, 2004.

Hubert H. Humphrey 1968 Announcement

Hubert H. Humphrey Declaration of Candidacy for the Presidential Nomination given in Washington, D.C. on April 27, 1968.

"My fellow Americans, we're here today on important business, freedom's business, American's business, the Democratic Party's business, and in that order. These priorities of freedom, country, and party have guided me as I have sought to reach an important personal decision. Any man who has had the privilege of spending almost twenty years near the President and the Presidency as I have, must weigh very carefully the implications of seeking an office that demands perhaps more judgment, wisdom, and maturity than any single man possesses. Yet any man who has spent a lifetime, at least who has spent his adult life in public service, also knows within himself that he must be willing to give of himself, when and where he feels he can best serve what he believes in. And so my friends and fellow Americans, facing and knowing the hard realities of the office, yet also knowing the potential for good which lies within it, I shall seek the nomination of the Democratic Party.

(We want Humphrey...) Like it or not, you have him. Yes, as I said, I shall seek the nomination of the Democratic Party for the Presidency of the United States. My credentials, well, they may be stated rather simply: of a loving family; teacher; mayor of my city; senator from my state; vice-president of my country; grateful husband; proud father; believer in the American Dream-the concept of human brotherhood."

And I shall make everything that I do on one conviction: that this country, we the people of these United States, working in a spirit of unity,  can overcome any obstacle, finally realizing the fullness of freedom, the prize of peace, in the happiness of human opportunity, both here and in the world.  My fellow Americans, we are the people of today; we are the people of tomorrow, it is to the future that we look and we aspire. And I found some words are told me exactly what I want to tell you; you’ll find them inscribed in the great literature. The future has several names: for the weak it is impossible, for the faint-hearted it is the unknown, for the thoughtful and the valiant it is ideals. The challenge is urgent, the test is large, the time is now -- on to victory!

Full Speech Text

Lugar Rolls Out Reelection Web Site

Spring Mill State Park -- U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar rolled out his Senate reelection effort while speaking in Lawrence County on Friday, April 22, 2005. In the remarks to the County Lincoln Day Dinner crowd, Lugar said, "I want to tell my friends in Lawrence County I will be a candidate for the Republican nomination," in 2006

Prior to the announcement at Spring Mill State Park, Lugar had already set up a campaign headquarters at the Indiana Republican Party offices in Indianapolis, and had hired a campaign manager and political director to compliment his existing staff.

Lugar ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 on a platform of prosperity, national security and integrity. His 2006 Senate Campaign Website can be reached at both lugarcamp.com and lugar2006.com.

Evan Bayh All America PAC Web Site

Evan Bayh launched the new All America PAC with this welcome message:

"We intend for this site to be a useful source of information regarding the issues and candidates that the All America PAC supports. But frankly, our goals for the site go much further. We hope that this site earns a spot at what has essentially become our nation’s kitchen table: our burgeoning online community.
The level of dialogue going on each and every day thanks to the advent of the Internet and blogs is the single best development in modern democracy. There is no excuse for any politician ever being out of touch with the views of the people again. Knowing that I can hop online and hear what my constituents think has been a breath of fresh air for me. And believe me, most of the best ideas being discussed in our civic discourse today are originating outside the Washington Beltway.

So I hope you will join the All America Community and post your thoughts on our new blog. I am looking forward to hearing what you have to say. And we will do our best to keep you updated with news updates, special features, candidate profiles and information on grassroots issues campaigns that All America PAC will be supporting.

Thank you for joining our All America online community"