SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON: I have one more candidate to introduce.  Our final candidate of the evening, someone who has a lot of firsts in her life.  She was the first, one of the first African-Americans and one of the first women to  serve as an assistant majority leader in the Illinois House, she was the first legislator to be given the best legislator award by the independent voters of Illinois and the independent precinct organizations for ten years in a row, she was the first African-American and first woman to hold executive office in Cook County, Illinois.  She was the first African-American to serve in the Senate in a century, the first woman to represent the state of Illinois in the Senate, and the first African-American woman ever to serve in the Senate.  She was the first woman elected to serve on the Senate Finance Committee, and she was the first African-American to serve as Ambassador to New Zealand, Samoa and the Cook Islands.  Ladies and Gentlemen, please join me in bringing now to the stage former Senator, Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun.

[Music "you got to be tough, you ..."].

AMB. BRAUN: Thank you so much.  Thank you so much Senator Clinton.

Oh I love you too.  Thank you.

Thank you so much.  Iowa Democrats I am so happy to be here with you this evening.  Thank you. Claire.  Claire brought her t-shirt.  It says--what does it say, Claire?  Someday a woman will be president.  That's it.  Thank you, Claire.

You know I remember one of the worst arguments my parents ever had.  The toilet had broken, and there was water spewing all over the bathroom and my mother sent my father out to the hardware store to get something to fix it and he came back with a lawn mower.

Well we sent him out to get the terrorists, to get bin Laden and make us more secure, and they came back looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.  They didn't tell us the truth and now we're stuck in a quagmire that's gonna take more than duct tape to fix.

Iowa Democrats with your help we're going to put our country on the right track.  We're going to fix the mess they've made; we're going to clean house, and we're going to set this country back on track to peace and prosperity and progress again.  We're going to give the American people hope.  We're going to show the American people that there is, that we can  work well with others around the world and we can have a foreign policies that build our country and build the world and give us the ability to go into this next century a stronger America than ever before.  We're gonna show the American people that we can have health care for everyone under a single payer system that provides for care from prevention and wellness to long-term care.  We can do it and not spend a dime more than we're spending today.

We're going to come together and show the American people that we can create jobs in this country again, good paying jobs that pay a living wage, a living wage.  And we're going to have equal pay for equal work for women; our work will be respected and we will have it paid for.

And you know what?  We're gonna show the American people that George Orwell wrote fiction, not prophecy, and we will get our civil liberties back.  We will repeal the Patriot Act.  We will make certain that you have privacy in your home; you will have privacy with what you read; you will be able to think again.  America's freedoms will be restored under Democrats in 2004.

And with your help, Iowa Democrats, we will see to it that our generation lives up to its responsibility to give the next generation of Americans no less freedom, no less opportunity, no less optimism that we receive from our parents.  We will pass along the American dream in better shape than we got it, and we will make certain that the next generation knows that they have a chance to be leaders in this world again.

Now you've just heard from all of these fantastic candidates and the truth is that all of us will come together and support whoever you choose to be our nominee, because we know we have a big job ahead of us.  We're coming up against us special interests and big money and a spin machine that can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.  That's an old fashioned expression. But we know what we're up against, but we will come together to make certain that it happens.

Now people ask me, why are you a candidate; why should you chosen to take on George Bush?

Thank you very much.

But you know what I tell 'em?  I tell 'em vote for me because I'm the clearest alternative to George Bush.  I don't look like him, I don't think like him, I don't act like him, I won't  be like him.  I can run George Bush out of Pennsylvania Avenue and send him back to Texas.

Now I know and you know that I've got a small volunteer-run campaign.  We don't have a whole lot of signs out here.  I need your help; I'd love to have your help in these caucuses.  Our web site isCarolforpresident.com, so if you so if you get a chance to go to it and volunteer we'd love to have you.

But the point is that this really is bigger than any of us.  It really is about the direction that our country is going to have, and I want to put my own candidacy in context for one moment.  My ancestors had to fight for freedom.  My grandfather went off to serve in World War I, and he came back to a country in which he could neither vote nor sit on the front of the bus.  But he did so because he believed in the promise of America.  He believed that by his sacrifice this democracy would be expanded so that his children and his grandchildren would have an opportunity to share in the blessings of liberty and to enjoy and to contribute to this great country.

I am a candidate because I am not prepared to stand idly by and watch that promise of America slip away from us.  I am going to do everything that I can to see to it that we expand the promise of democracy and we keep our country strong.  This is the greatest country in the world, ladies and gentlemen, and it's up to us; it's up to us. 

And so Iowa Democrats I look forward to working with you through the caucus process, going door to door, taking the truth to the people.  Because you know what?  When you tell the people the truth the people will give us back the White House. We will come together to get the word out, to tell the truth, to give the American people a reality check and when we do we will clean house and I am here Iowa Democrats to help you clean house and when we do we will take the men only sign off the White House door.

Thank you very much.  Thank you.

[Music "well I won't back down..."].

Copyright © 2003  Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action.