Transcripts For CSPAN2 Historic 20240705 : vimarsana.com

So are opera. And baroque. Couldnt be here. Im sorry. Im going to sing for you for the rest of the hour. Im just kidding. Hows everybody doing this . This is amazing. Oh, my goodness. There are a lot of you here. Its so exciting. And we are honored to be here. We have an opportunity to do Something Special to bring in leadership that we havent seen in a long, long time. The kind of leaders ship that can inspire us to be a different kind of nation, that can inspire us, challenge us to understand that we have a mutual obligation to one another, that we truly one anothers brothers and sisters keepers, that theres more that unites us than divides us. And in order to bring about that kind of change, we need the kind leadership that can touch our souls in a way that we havent felt in a long time and remind us of all the work that we need to do. We are this close to bringing about fundamental change, and i am so excited and honored to be here. But my job today is very simple because i am here to introduce the woman that you were excited to see. I was excited to. Oprah winfrey is representative of the. She is awesome. Yes, indeed. But she is representative of the kind of broad and deep support that barack has inspired in so many people. She herself understands the beauty of this country. She touches the souls of so many of us. She understand those people on the ground. She listens. She engages in a way that is fundamentally different. And we are honored to have her honored team. A lady that needs no introduction. A woman who empowers us all. It is my honor to introduce to you the first lady of Television Oprah winfrey. Well. I know from. Who. Iowa. Oh, my goodness. Hello. Andlo. Oh. Oh, my goodness. At last. Im here. You know, so much has been said about what my jumping into this arena does, does or does not bring to the table of politics. I really dont know. Im going to leave that all up to the pundits who all say, you know, will it be the same influence as a book club. Will it be like the favorite things show. I dont know about all of that. Despite all of the talk, the speculation and and the hype. I understand the difference between a book club and free refrigerators. That was a nice refrigerator. I understand the difference between that and this critical moment in our nations history. And so. And so i bathed. Yes, i did. And i got dressed to come out here for, i suspect, the same reason you did, because care about this country country. And as we were driving in here today, i said, you have to care about this country to come out in this kind of weather. 12 degrees, freezing rain and snow. You love america. I can see that. You do. Well, i not only care about this country, but there are times that i even worry about what happens to our country. And that is why, for the very first time in my life, i feel compelled called to stand up and to speak out for the man who i believe has a new vision for america. So let me tell you why im here. I came here because i deeply believe in america, and i think that we have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of problems to address. We have true threats to our security that go beyond the very real threat of terrorism. A foreign wars, and extend to problems that we all know about. Problems with health care and problems with education and problems with our economy. So i am not here to tell you what to think. I am here to ask you to think seriously. I want you to think seriously about a man who knows who we are. And he knows who we can be. Im not here for partizan beliefs. Over the years, ive voted for as many republicans as i have democrats. So this isnt about partizanship for me. This is very, very personal. Im here because of my person. No conviction about barack obama and what i know he can do for america. And that america that america is represent it on each of the faces that i see here today . Because when you strip us down, when you take our race, our color, our ethnicity, our backgrounds, our sex, when you strip us all down, we are american at our core. We are america. We are america with our hopes and our dreams. And yes, we have our faults and our fallacies. But what we really have is an abiding faith, an abiding faith in the possibility that life can be better for every one of us. Were 300 strong here with our many colors and languages, many colors, religions and languages. But one government, one congress, one president. And because we only get to choose one. I came out in the cold today to tell you why i believe that choice needs to be barack obama. I believe that barack obama will bring statesmanship to the white house. I believe that he will lead with strength and conviction, with honor, with compassion, and with an unyielding focus on. What we all can do together to make this nation the future that we deserve. He knows he cannot do that alone. So this is not a time for any of us to shrink away from a new, bold path for our country. We can all look around us. And as you look around you, you can be sure that we dont just want to reinvent the same reality that we are now all experiencing. We have to stand strong and united for the potential the potential within us and the potential that lies before us. No, ive never done this before, and it feels like im im out of my pew. Im out of my terrain. Backstage, somebody said, are you nervous . I go, you right im nervous. Yes, i am, because ive never done this before. But if we continue to do the same things over and over and over again, i know that you get the same results. So what i believe is that its time for us all to lets dream america anew again by supporting barack obama. You know, in my private conversations with friends, when were not discussing whos winning, dancing with the stars, we talk about more serious things. And we we shake our heads and we say. Somebody ought to do something about the dismal state of so many of our schools. The dismal state of so many of our schools that dont serve the genius of our children. Here we are in a Global Knowledge based economy. How can we build a future here and future for leaders, schools that continue to fall behind . We shake our heads and we say, somebody ought to do something about that. We say, how in this great country can we have people who because somebody in their house got sick and there was no Health Insurance, no, no Health Insurance to cover the avalanche of bills and their houses got foreclosed. Somebody ought to do something about that. We need somebody who is committed to the wellbeing, all americans. We need barack obama. And what we need is we need a new way of doing business in washington, d. C. And in the world. You know, i am so tired. Im tired of politics as usual. Thats why you seldom see politicians on my show, because i only have an hour. And what ive learned is its really hard and an hour to penetrate what i call that that that that that political veil, that veil of political rhetoric. But when you listen to barack obama, when you really hear him, you witness a very rare thing. You witness a politician has an ear for eloquence and a tongue dipped in the unbar honest truth. We the people. We the people can see through all that rhetoric. We recognize that the amount of time you spent in washington means nothing, unless youre accountable for the judgment you made with the time you had. We need good judgment. We need barack obama. You know, every good parent in here and i know a lot of parents in here, we some of you lost your children. Thats not so good. Try to keep up with the babies. But every good parent in here knows that it is not them. The the amount time you spend with your children. But the quality of that time and what i know is, is that experience in the hallways of government as important to me as experience, but on the pathway of life. So i challenge you. I challenge you. I challenge you to see through those people who try and convince you that experience with politics as usual is more valuable than wisdom. One from years of serving people the walls of washington, d. C. I challenge you to think about that. Because Barack Obamas early training in the trenches of community, working in the poor neighborhoods to change the palette of poverty and crime, time and unemployment gave him a lot of experience in relieving the burdens of those who are beleaguered. His track record in the illinois and National Senate show his bipartisan efforts to earn families across our great state of illinois more than 100 million in tax cuts. His advocate see for legislation and support of Early Childhood education because he knows education is the door opportunity and his opposition to racial profiling offer a glimpse into his political pedigree. And as a u. S. Senator, again, from my great state of illinois. Disability pay for veterans. He worked to boost the nonproliferation of deadly weapons. He advocated the use of alternative to cure our National Addiction oil. He has spoken out against governments indifference to the poor and to political incompetence in the aftermath of hurricane katrina. And he has rallied against genocide in darfur and long before it was the popular thing to do. He stood with clarity and conviction against this war in iraq. We need a president with clarity and conviction who knows how to consult his own conscience and, proceed with moral authority. We need barack obama. In my conversations with friends, we talk about how we get worried about america. Yes, im worried. And its not just the threat of terrorism or enemies beyond our its our estrangement from the rest of the world. And the danger, this imbalance that that creates. Its dangerous imbalance. When we fail to realize that all human hearts are the same, tragic, deep and loss and suffering and war and indifference. Destroy humanity, not just americans. We need a president who cares about our relationships with our friends and our enemies. And im worried because this is what i know for sure, that in order for humanity to evolve and thats really the reason why were all here on the planet earth to evolve, we have to learn to treasure our uniqueness and also treasure each others diversity. We have too many divisions here in our United States. We have the left and the right and the red states and the blue states. We need a president who can bring us all together. We need a president. Who can overcome. Our racial divides, our religious divides and divisions between those have and those who need a chance to have. These are dangerous times. I know you know it. Were all watching American Idol trying to forget about it. But these are dangerous times. You can feel it. You can sense it in the air. We are facing a lot of explosive issues, complicated situations that are easily muddied. We need a leader who shows us how to hope again and have faith again in america as a force for peace. Just as just as barack obama. Barack obama has seized this moment and its a beautiful thing to see. We also must seize this opportunity to support a man who, as the bible, loves mercy and does justly. Loves mercy and does justly. There are those who say that barack obama should wait his turn. There are those who that he should take a gradual approach to president ial leadership, but none of us is god. We dont know what the future holds. So we must respond to the pressures and the fortunes of history. When the moment strikes in iowa, i believe that moment is now. You all know i love books. And i know you remember the great book by ernest gaines, the art of biographer of miss jane pittman. That was a great film made from that book starts. Cicely tyson. Some of you might be too young to know about it, but that movie made a impression on me. I cant remember how old i was when i was watching that movie, but i do remember when jane pittman would encounter young people throughout that film, and she would ask, are you the one . Are you the one . I remember her standing in the doorway. Her body bowed, frail old and holding the baby in her arms and saying, are you the one, jimmy . Are you the one . Well, i believe in oh eight. I have found the answer to miss pittmans question. I have found the answer. It is the same question that our nation is asking. Are you one . Are you the one . Im here to tell you, iowa. He is the one. He is the one. Barack obama. Is. On fire. Hows it going . I have. You know, pretty good show when im the third best speaker. I am third. I know you came here to see michelle. Because one of the things weve discovered in the course of this campaign is, lets face it, michelles a little better than i am. Fortunately, she is too smart to want to be president. She would rather tell the president what to do. And then there is this. Theres this woman with a funny name. A woman with a name come from some little town in the south. Nobody would have thought that she would become somebody who moves an entire nation each and every day. As i sent oprah an email last night, i said, it looks like a lot of people are going to come tomorrow. I guess youre pretty popular. Who would. Who would have thunk it. But. Well, listen, i love you back, but let me tell you how much michelle and i love Oprah Winfrey, because as you know, one of the wonderful things ting people from all walks of life. And i tell you, the more i meet the American People, the more convinced i am of your decency and your generosity of spirit. But i have to tell you, sometimes celebrities will disappoint you. I dont. I dont. Thats my point. Thats my point. So some of them, you know, you get there and you go, oh, you you know, they were on tv and they look so nice and theyre being mean or they look so tall and it turns out theyre kind of short, but its Oprah Winfrey. The more weve known her, the more spectacular you realize her character and her soul is. This is a wonderful person. We love her. Im grateful for her being here. Shes getting embarrassed. She doesnt want me to talk about her anymore. But all i want to say, all i want to say is this. I am under no illusions. Weve had some big crowds here in iowa. We have had not had this big crowd in iowa. So. There are some people here who are here to see oprah. And im you know, im sort of a byproduct of that, and i appreciate that. But what i know is that for her to take the risk of stepping out of her comfort zone is extraordinary. And its a testimony to her courage and her friendship. And so i want everybody to give the biggest round of applause that you can to my friend Oprah Winfrey giving up for who we love. Oprah. We love you. Oh. All right. All right. Yeah. Its all about iowa. Oh, shes all right. You know, im. I love you back. I really do. We. Michelle and i were just talking last night, just the extraordinary experience weve had here in iowa. This state has been so welcoming to us. The people have been so hospitable. Even those who arent caucus. And for me, theyre nice to me. You know, theyll say, well, you know, im not im not caucusing for you, but i really like you. Youre a nice young man and your wife. I just love your health. And your kids are so pretty. So theres a spirit here, not only of warmth and family and community, but theres also a seriousness of purpose. People are paying attention here in iowa and thats why during the course of this campaign, when some the National Polls were showing us way down and everybody saying, obama, this isnt going to happen. All i knew was in iowa, folks were paying attention. In iowa, Something Else was going on in iowa. We looked like we were going to the game. And part of the reason that you are paying such close attention is you understand what is state, what . There you go. I wasnt quite put it that way, but. Are you a little less than a year from today you will be going into the voting booth and selecting the next president of the United States of america and. Here is the good news. The name George W Bush will not be on the ballot. The name of my cousin cheney will not be on the ballot. That was kind of embarrassing. You know, when they do these genealogies, you you know that youre related to you know, dr. King, you know, alexander the great or oprah. But cheney, anyway, his names not going to be on the ballot. And im not going to the family hunting party. Im not going. The era of scooter libby, justice and brownie in competence. And karl, politics will finally be over over. But when you caucus on january 3rd, and i know everybody here will be caucusing. If you can come out on a cold, windy day like today, you can come out on january third and make your voices heard heard. When caucus on january 3rd. And then when you go in to voting booth next november, theres another question that youre going to have to ask yourself. Youre going to have to ask what is next for america. Because are at a defining moment in our history. The nation is at war. The plet is in peril. The dreams that so many generations fought for feels. If its slowly slipping away. Were working harder for less. Weve never paid more high school for. For college or for health care or gas at pump. Its harder to save and its harder to retire. And all of us have lost fai do anything about it. And no wonder, weve lost faith. You think about the past seven years. We were promised compassionate conservatism and we got katrina and wiretaps instead instead. We were promised a uniter and instead got president who could not even lead the half of the country that voted for. We were promised a more ethical and more efficient washington and said, have a town that is more corrupt and more wasteful than it was before. And the only mission that was ever accomplished was to use fear and falsehood to take this nation into a where that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged. So people have lost trust in their leadership. It is because of these failures over the last seven years that is listening intently to what the candidates are saying in this election. Not just democrat ites, but republicans and independents who have lost trust in their leaders. But want to believe again, want to believe that its still possible for us to rally around a common destiny. And its for that same reason that we are at a unique moment, a moment of both great challenge, but also great opportunity. We have the chance comes around maybe once a generation for us to come together and finally tackle problems that george bush may made far worse but more festering long before george bush ever took office. Weve been talking about the Health Care Crisis for decades now through democrat and republican administrations. Weve been talking about the energy for decades now. Do republican and democratic. Weve been talking about poverty in the inner city for now through democratic and republican administration. This is our chance to finally tackle problems that have festered for too long. The gap between the ideal of america and the reality. And its because we are in that moment, unique moment, that running same old conventional textbook Washington Campaign this time up just wont do. Telling about avoiding answering tough questions because were worried what folks might say that it might not be popular that wont do. Telling the American People what we think they want to hear instead of what they need to hear just wont do. This time out. Paul testing our positions so that we dont get attacked by mitt or rudy or fred or whoever else might attack us just wont do. Not this time. Not in this election. Not at this moment. If we are going to bring about real change in this election, if we are going to if we really want to win this election, then we cant live in fear of losing it. We cant have a timid polity. We need a bold politics. I am a proud democrat, too, and i know there may be folks in here who arent democrat. As you know, everywhere we go, weve been seeing these huge crowds and, you know, we get all kinds of folks, young people and old people and folks of every race and every religion we get democrats and independents. We get a few republicans. I this because they whisper it to me when im shaking hands afterwards. They say boy about a republican. But i support you. And. I. And i say thank you. Why are we whispering. Thats true. But. You are on oprah as vice president. By. But yeah, that would be a demotion. You understand that. But im a proud democrat now, i welcome everybody to be engaged in this campaign. But im a proud democrat because when i think about the democratic party, the party of jefferson and jackson of roosevelt and kennedy, i am reminded we are a party that has always been at its best when it leads not by polls, but by principles, not by calculation, but by a convex. You. When we summon an entire nation, we summon entire nation around the challenges that a great nation must meet and that is the kind party that we need, the democratic party, to be right now. That is the reason that i am running for president of United States because i want to lead party thats not timid, bold. A party that is leading. A party that is not just talking about change as a slogan, but real, meaningful change. A party that is interested not just in how to win an election, but why we should win an election. Thats the reason running for president of the United States of america. And thats why i need your support. All to bring about a change. Weve got somebody down here doing we already have the paramedics in. Okay. Are you a paramedic right here . Okay. Why dont you let her slide through . Sorry for the interruption, guys. All right, this is what happens, folks. Get too excited about oprah. Now, i dont want you passing out either either. I am for president of the United States to tell the lobbyists in washington that their days of setting the agenda are over. More than any other candidate in this race, i have pushed back against the special interests in washington. They have not funded my campaign. They will not work in my white house and they will not drown out the voices of the American People when im president of the United States of america. Im in this race to take away tax breaks from companies that are shipping jobs overseas and start putting them in the pockets of hardworking americans who deserve it. And i wont be raising the minimum wage every ten years. Were going to raise minimum wage every single year to pace with inflation, because if youre working, you shouldnt be poor in america. If youre trying to do the right thing, you should not be poor in america, we are a wealthy enough nation to make sure that everybody is cared for in america. Thats why im running for president of the United States of america america. Im in this race because im tired of talking about the outrage of 7 Million People without Health Insurance. I want to start doing something about. And this is this is personal for me. When my mother was 53 years old, she died of cancer. And that was tragic enough. But i remember in those last months of her life, she wasnt thinking about to get well. She wasnt taking stock of her own mortality. She was reading insurance forms because she had just gotten a new job. And the Insurance Companies were saying maybe this was a preexisting condition and we wont reimburse you for your medical bills. So i know what its like to a loved one. Suffer not just because theyre sick, but because of a broken health care system. And thats the reason why im going to make sure that every single american has the ability to get health care that is as good as the health care i have as a member of congress. And we wont do that 20 years from now or ten years from now. We will do it by the end of my first term. As president of the United States of america. Im this race to make sure that every child in america has the best education. We have to offer. From the day theyre born to the they graduate from college, they only reason i am standing here today is because i had a good education. I was raised by single mother. We didnt have a lot of wealth. I didnt come from a famous but i got a good education and and we talk education a lot. But sometimes we lose that sense of urgency. You know, when i was working as organizer, i go into low income communities and you saw kids five, six, seven years old, their eyes as bright as any children around. And yet you already knew they were two, three years behind. And youd ask him, what do they want to do . And they said, i want to a doctor and i want to be a lawyer. And you knew that the odds were they wouldnt make it because we had not made the investment. There was necessarily. So were going to make investment when im president of the United States we will invest in Early Childhood education. So kids are prepared when they start school. And i wont just talk about im not just going to talk about how Great Teachers are. I will reward for their greatness by paying them more money and giving them more support support. And i dont know about you, but i think its about time we make College Affordable and accessible for every single child in america. Were wealthy enough to do that. Why. Lets begin to create a new future for our children. Thats why im in it. Im in this race because im tired of democrats thinking the only way to look tough on National Security is to vote and acting. Talk like george bush. When im president of the United States, they wont be able to say that i was for the war because i was when im the nominee of this democratic party, they wont be able to say that irattling and war talk the heard over the last month, because thats not what i believe when i am the best partys nominee, the other side wont be able to say that. I thought it might be okay to torture. Its never okay to torture. Thats not who we are as a people. Thats not what america stands for around the world. As president of the United States. I will bring this war to an end. I will bring our troops home. I will bring our troops home within 16 months. We will shut down guantanamo because were not a nation that locks people up without charging them. Well restore corpus. We will take the fight to al qaeda in afghanistan and finh j. And we will the world to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Nuclear proliferation issue and terrorism. But also Climate Change and poverty. And genocide and disease. Those are threats to our security as well. And i will send a message, those yearning faces across our shores that says you matter to us, your future is our future. And our moment is now. Our moment is now america. Our moment now. I dont want to spend the next four years retired arguing all the same arguments and getting no results. I dont want to pit red america against america. I want to be the president of the United States of america. Some people ask, just as oprah mentioned, why now . You know, i am not running fulfill some long plans. I know that there were some some talk there about what i was writing in kindergarten. Im going to be disclosing all my kindergarten papers tomorrow. I couldnt write an essay back then. I think i could write my name and mom. M o. M but thats not why im running. Im not running because i think its somehow owed to6o my here today is unlikely. Just like oprah is unlikely. We. We share that in common. The odds say we should not be here. I always knew this journey would be improbable. I have never been on a journey that wasnt. But i am running now. Because of what dr. King called the fierce urgency of now. Because i believe theres such a thing as being too late. And that moment is almost upon. I dont want to wake four years from now and find out that millions of people still dont have Health Insurance because we didnt. The courage to take on the insurance industry. I dont want to wake up four years from now and find that weve been losing more jobs overseas and unions have been losing and ordinary people are having a time and losing their homes because nobody was willing to look out for main street the same way. Washington right now. Looks out for wall street. I want i dont want to see four years from now that the oceans have risen a few more inches and the planet reached the point of no return because we couldnt figure out a way of freeing ourselves from fossil fuels and not buying oil from dictate. I dont want to see that. I dont want to find out that. Put more american at risk in a misguided war because no one had the judgment or the courage to ask the tough questions before we sent our troops up to fight. I dont want to see Homeless Veterans on the streets. I dont want to send another generation of children through failing schools. I dont want that future for daughter. I dont want that future for your sons. I dont want that future for america. So the reason im running now is the same reason that i moved to chicago over 20 years ago to work with steelworkers who had lost their jobs and rebuild communities that had fallen hard times to give to the jobless. Some hope to the hopeless. The same reason i fought for justice and equality as a civil rights attorney. The same reason that i fought for illinois families for over two decades. Because i know that the only reason im standing here, iowa, is because. So somebody somewhere for some time stood up when it was risky. They stood up when it was hard. They stood up when it was unpopular. And because somebody stood up a few stood up and. Then a few thousand stood up, and then a few million stood up and standing up with courage and conviction. We somehow managed to change the world. I know. I you to stand up so that our children have the same chance as somebody gave me. I need you to stand for those who . Still hunger for opportunity and those who still thirst for justice. On january 3rd, i you to stand up with me. I need you to caucus me. I you to stop settling. For what . The cynics say is possible. I need you to reach for what you know in your hearts as possible. A nation healed a world repair, and an america that believes. Thank you all. I love you. Thank you. For. Your patriotism, your teachers support and of course. For. The. Support we. Both hoped that. Supported for you, as you said this on monday. You. Hear. Really do. Love the young. Today we are going to do our second lecture on the history artificial intelligence. We talked about it way back in september. And today were going to be talking about how it is