Second Presidential Debate -- Kerry Closing Statement
Washington University in St. Louis - St. Louis, MO -
October 8, 2004
Intro
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q5
Q6
Q7
Q8
Q9
Q10
Q11
Q12
Q13
Q14
Q15
Q16
Q17
Q18
Kerry
Bush



GIBSON: That's going to conclude the questioning.  We're going to go now to closing statements, two minutes from each candidate.

And the first closing statement goes to Senator Kerry. I believe that was the agreement.

KERRY: Do you want to go first?

BUSH: Either way.

KERRY: Thank you.

Charlie, thank you.

And thank you all.

KERRY: Thank you, all of you, for taking part.

Thanks for your questions tonight, very, very much.

Obviously the president and I both have very strong convictions.  I respect him for that.  But we have a very different view about how to make America stronger and safer.  I will never cede the authority of our country or our security to any other nation.  I'll never give a veto over American security to any other entity -- not a nation, not a country, not an institution.

But I know, as I think you do, that our country is strongest when we lead the world, when we lead strong alliances.  And that's the way Eisenhower and Reagan and Kennedy and others did it.

We are not doing that today.  We need to.

I have a plan that will help us go out and kill and find the terrorists.

And I will not stop in our efforts to hunt down and kill the terrorists.  But I'll also have a better plan of how we're going to deal with Iraq: training the Iraqi forces more rapidly, getting our allies back to the table with a fresh start, with new credibility, with a president whose judgment the rest of the world trusts.

In addition to that, I believe we have a crisis here at home, a crisis of the middle class that is increasingly squeezed, health-care costs going up.

I have a plan to provide health care to all Americans.

I have a plan to provide for our schools so we keep the standards but we help our teachers teach and elevate our schools by funding No Child Left Behind.

I have a plan to protect the environment so that we leave this place in better shape to our children than we were handed it by our parents.  That's the test.

I believe America's best days are ahead of us.  I'm an optimist, but we have to make the right choices, to be fiscally responsible and to create the new jobs of the future.  We can do this.

And I ask you for the privilege of leading our nation to be stronger at home and respected again in the world.

Thank you.

GIBSON: Senator.

And a closing statement from President Bush.

BUSH CL >