Thank you.  Hey!

Well thank you dear friends.  Thank you.  Thank you my dear friend and great colleague Congressman Mike Honda.  Thank you Chairman Terry McAuliffe.  And thank you Howard Dean for warming up this crowd for me.

Dear friends, seriously, we meet at a very important moment for Democrats.  And for Republicans, well I guess you could say it's a time of challenge and change for them isn't it.  You remember when they used to be the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan.  Today they are the party of Rush Limbaugh and Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Whoa.  And they're trying to tell us they're the party of values?

You know, after reading the paper this morning about the pill popping, the skirt chasing, the Hitler praising, it would be very tempting to point out the Republicans' hypocrisy on values.  But would it be the right thing to do?  Absolutely.  And that's what we're going to do, from here to next November.

My friends these are seriously dangerous and difficult times that we're living in.  And so I want to take my time today and take my time with you to talk seriously about those problems.  I have been traveling around America, and I can honestly tell you that I have never seen the American people so fearful about their future, and so worried about the ability of their national leadership to make it better.

Didn't have to be this way.

During the 2000 campaign, you remember how George Bush used to act out his own inauguration?

You know how he'd raise his right hand, and say: "When I take that oath, I will swear to uphold the honor and integrity of the office to which I am elected, so help me God," Bush said.

Well it's almost three years now that he's been in office, and we know one thing for certain.  He has done no such thing.

It is a sad fact that since day one of this administration--in fact before day one, since Florida--there has been one value repeatedly missing from this presidency, and that value is integrity.  The people who run this White House simply have not trusted the American people enough to level with us, and so the American people are now naturally losing their trust in this White House.

You know what's happened.  There has been a pattern, a pattern of broken promises and basic deceptions that has diminished the presidency, degraded our strength, and disrespected the American people.  I know those are serious charges.  I don't make them lightly.  But the evidence is clear and supports those charges.

They promised us prosperity but they gave us more poverty and more unemployment, reversing the gains made when Bill Clinton and Al Gore were in the White House.

You remember, they promised to protect the middle class, but what did they do?  They squeezed it and shrunk it.

They said they would pursue the whole truth about how September 11th happened, but they have blocked and concealed it at almost every turn.

They promised an era of responsibility, but they gave us the foxes to guard the fox, foxes, the foxes to guard the foxes.  Here's what I mean.

The leading lawyer for the accountants appointed to head the Securities and Exchange Commission.  A mining lobbyist appointed to protect our public lands.  A lead paint executive put on the lead paint protection council.  Come on.  Give me a break.

They promised that air quality at Ground Zero was safe enough for people to return, even though we now know that the experts at EPA said it might well not be so.

They promised a new immigration policy.  And then they used terrorism as an excuse to deny Latinos and millions of others the right to come safely and legally to the United States of America.  As president I will welcome them, and help them become legal members of the American family.

Well they talk about corporate accountability, but then they reward corporate greed with billions of dollars in offshore tax shelters.  As president I will end those shelters.

They pledged fiscal responsibility, but then what did they do?  They ransacked the American people's Treasury, hiding for as long as they could the historic and humongous debt that they have put on the backs of our children and grandchildren.

And you know it doesn't stop there.

The Vice President of the United States said he has "no financial interest" in Halliburton, but now we learn that he's going to get a half million dollars over the next three years--and that he still holds almost half a million stock options in that company.

And then Dick Cheney said that he'd write a new energy policy, remember?  But what did he do?  He let his oil industry friends write that policy in secret.

They even told us that one day Dick Cheney was at a "secure" location, when in fact we later found out that he was out with his friends hunting ducks.

They didn't even trust us enough to tell us the truth about that.

And there's more.

The President of the United States said he would increase support for AmeriCorps and then he cut it.  He said he would leave no child behind, and then he left millions of our children behind in inadequately funded public schools throughout America.  He proposed a "Clear Skies" initiative, get this now, he proposed what he called a "Clear Skies" iniative.  What did it do?  It actually increased air pollution and gave more of our kids asthma.  He proposed what he called a "Healthy Forests" initiative.  What did it do?  It rewarded the timber industry by helping them cut down more trees.

He says he wants judges who will uphold the Constitution, but we know what that means.  That's a code word for undermining or overturning Roe vs. Wade.  As president I will not let that happen.  I will appoint independent-minded judges to the Supreme Court of the United States just the way the founders of our Constitution and our country intended that to be.

You remember when this President said he really didn't know Ken Lay?  But then it turned out he knew Kenny Boy pretty well.

And more seriously he bragged "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq, when it clearly wasn't.

He said he had a plan to win the peace, but he clearly didn't.

He said he would rally the world to our cause, but he clearly hasn't.

He said there was proof that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Niger, when there clearly wasn't.

My friends, by their deception and disarray, this White House has betrayed the just cause of fighting terrorism and tyranny around the world.

And now, and now we learn what they were doing in addition to stop us from learning the truth.

You heard the words, and listen again.  They're from the first President Bush.  In 1999, he said, "I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources."  "They are," former President Bush said, "the most insidious of traitors."

Well I wonder, I wonder if that quote was hanging on the walls of the White House office when they leaked the name of a covert operative to punish her husband for telling us the truth.  That was the politics of personal destruction at its worst, but it was just another day at the office for this crowd.  We've got to do better and tell the American people the truth.

And I'll tell you this.  Whoever did this did not act in a vacuum.  They were encouraged by an atmosphere in this White House and that party that has set no limits on what could be done to advance political interests or hurt political foes.

Look at what they did to one of their own, a great one of their own, John McCain in South Carolina.  Outrageous.  Look at what they did, look what they did to our great one, Max Cleland in Georgia.  And look at what they're trying to do today to our leader, an honorable, able, patriotic American, Tom Daschle in South Dakota.  And never forget dear friends what they did in Florida to Al Gore and me, to all of us--to older Americans, to African-Americans, to Haitian Americans denied the right to vote and have those votes counted.  Never again will we let that happen.

You see, that's the way they play politics.  That's the way they do their business.

But I know you agree with me.  It is wrong, and it must be stopped, and together we can and will stop it.

They think that they can fool most of the people I suppose most of the time.  But you go around America as I have and you hear something else.  People are catching on to their game now.  Their deceptions can no longer conceal the pain that their policies have caused the American people.

The economy is a mess.  Health care is a mess.  Our schools are deteriorating.  The environment, the deficit--they're a mess.  Homeland security--desperately underfunded; dangerously unprepared, as Warren Rudman said, for another September 11th type attack.  And, Lord knows, Iraq is a mess.

My friends, we can and must do better.  And that's why, next November, we can and will win the election.

We have a great field of candidates.  In the primaries our party will choose the nominee.  If I have the honor to be your candidate and then to put my left hand on the bible and my right hand in the air as I recite the oath of office, I can tell you this, I will take it as a sacred obligation to restore the people's trust in their government, pride in their country, and hope in their future.

I will lead with integrity so that while there may be debate about one or another decision I make, there will never be distrust in any of my motives.  My only interest will be the nation's interest.  That is my promise, so help me God.

My friends when we lead with integrity, as we will, based on America's best values, we can restore fairness to our tax system, balance to our budget, and jobs to our economy.

When we lead with integrity based on America's best values, we will give more people the health care they need, we will help more people work their way out of poverty, and we will give every American a more secure retirement.

When we lead with integrity based on America's best values, we will ensure trust in our markets again, make corporations pay their fair share, and clamp down on corporate crime so we can relieve the stress on America's middle class.

And when we lead with integrity based on America's best values, we will once again deserve and earn the respect of the world; we will rebuild our alliances to solve our common problems and protect our common security.

Dear friends I love this country.  I believe in this party and all it stands for.  I have been a lifelong Democrat, and I will work my heart out to make sure that our values, Democratic values, are restored to our government again.  And that will be my singular purpose as President.

Because, hear me clearly, the central issue in this election is integrity.  Integrity is on the ballot next fall.  And I know I can win that battle for America.

So, today I respectfully ask your support.

Let's each in this room pledge to give the American people the truth, the truth that they deserve and that will give them hope.

Let us pledge never again to allow an election to be decided by the Supreme Court instead of the voters of the United States.  We can do that, if we work together.

Let us show the American people what real integrity is--to say what's right, to make clear choices, and to have the courage to stick with them.

And let us stick with each other, remembering that wonderful clause from our Declaration of Independence.  Let us "mutually pledge to each other...our sacred Honor" in this noble cause.

And with that pledge, we will reclaim America's future for the American people.

That, my fellow Democrats, is our responsibility, that is our opportunity, and with God's help and your help, that will be our destiny.

Thank you very much.  God bless you, and God bless America.