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Edward Kennedy delivers remarks at Democratic National Convention
AUGUST 15, 2000
SPEAKERS: U.S. SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY (D-MA)
KENNEDY: Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you, Caroline. I love you. I love you so much and thank
you for all the difference that you've made to my family, and to our
entire family, and to millions of Americans everywhere.
I see in you the poise and the strength of purpose that belonged
to your father, and the dignity and grace of your mother that inspired
a nation.
(APPLAUSE)
I remember Election Night in November of 1960, the results were
so close that my brother went to bed still not certain that he had
won. It was nearly dawn when victory finally became clear.
And here is how Jack learned about it: from 3-year-old Caroline,
who woke him up by jumping on his bed and shouting, "Good morning, Mr.
President."
(APPLAUSE)
It was the first time he ever heard those words from anyone. How
proud he would be of Caroline this evening, and of the magnificent
woman that she has become.
(APPLAUSE)
KENNEDY: How proud -- how proud he would be of Al Gore and our
party and the new barrier of bigotry we are breaking down with the
choice of Joe Lieberman as the next vice president of the United
States.
(APPLAUSE)
This truly is a homecoming for me. It was here in this City of
Angels on a warm summer night 40 years ago that America first looked
across the New Frontier -- a New Frontier, as my brother said, where
there were unsolved problems, unconquered pockets of ignorance and
prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus.
We were given just a thousand days on that journey of hope.
KENNEDY: Yet the challenge of those days and the resonance of my
brother's words are still with us, because today our generation faces
its own New Frontier, and we are called upon to address our unresolved
problems, our problems with unanswered questions and unconquered
prejudice, while we dare to dream of a far horizon, or we will look
inward, backward or lower our sights and narrow our vision.
That is the choice we face in the election of 2000. If you
believe that prosperity is a challenge to do better, that we have to
seize this extraordinary moment to make progress in providing decent
quality health care that all Americans can afford...
(APPLAUSE)
... if you believe that we must provide access to health care for
all our children, that we must provide access to prescription drugs
for all our seniors, that we must assure for all our citizens that
medical decisions be made by doctors and nurses and not by HMOs that
put profits ahead of patients' health...
(APPLAUSE)
... if you believe all of that, then this is your convention.
KENNEDY: This is your cause. And I ask you to dedicate yourself
to elect Al Gore as the next president of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
There has only been three times in my life that I have supported
candidates for president as early and as enthusiastically as I have
supported Al Gore. Two of them were my brothers.
(APPLAUSE)
I support Al Gore for president, not solely because he has helped
lead us to the strongest economy in American history, as important as
that is. I support him with my whole resolve because I know from his
record, and not just from his words, that Al Gore will not stop
fighting, Al Gore will not stop striving until we have quality,
affordable health care for all Americans.
KENNEDY: Two weeks ago, at the convention in Philadelphia, we
heard a partisan negative attack on the past eight years as a time of
lost opportunity and stalemate.
Well, I've been there on the front lines for working families and
I can tell you, we weren't coasting. We were seizing an opportunity.
When Al Gore and I worked with Republican Senator Orrin Hatch to pass
landmark health care coverage for children, and now two million more
children have health care coverage...
(APPLAUSE)
That...
(APPLAUSE)
... that is called progress, not partisanship, and that is Al
Gore's way.
We weren't drifting. We weren't drifting. We were moving ahead.
When Al Gore and I worked with Republican Senator Nancy Kassebaum to
see that a family doesn't health lose health coverage just because a
parent loses a job or changes jobs. And today, we are working with
Republicans and Democrats alike to make it even stronger. That's
called progress, not partisanship, and that is Al Gore's way.
(APPLAUSE)
We weren't gridlocked.
KENNEDY: We were rising up our nation when Al Gore and I worked
with Republican Senator Jim Jeffords to make sure that people with
disabilities can keep their health care when they join the work force.
And today, more and more of disabled are putting their abilities to
work for themselves and for America. That's called progress, not
partisanship. And that is Al Gore's way.
(APPLAUSE)
I've been a Democrat all my life, and I'm proud of it.
(APPLAUSE)
But I say to you, there is no Democratic or Republican way to
heal a sick child. There is no Democratic or Republican way to make
the right medical decision; no Democratic or Republican way to fight
cancer or ease the pain of HIV and AIDS. This is not the time to play
partisan games with human health.
Let there be no mistake about it. Let there be no mistake about
it, there is a profoundly deep difference between the Democratic and
Republican nominees on this issue, this life-and-death issue of health
care for all Americans.
(APPLAUSE)
KENNEDY: Al Gore is the only candidate committed to moving this
country step-by-step to universal health, starting by covering every
child by the year 2004. He believes in it in his heart and in his
soul.
(APPLAUSE)
So I say to all Americans, regardless of party, if you believe we
should use our prosperity to make our children healthy and whole,
fight for Al Gore because he's fighting for you.
(APPLAUSE)
Al Gore will put Medicare in an iron-clad lockbox where
politicians can't raid it or cut it. He will veto any effort to use
money from Medicare for anything but Medicare.
So, if you believe in quality health care for all our seniors as
a matter -- that no matter what the politics, fight for Al Gore
because he is fighting for you.
(APPLAUSE)
Al Gore believes that no senior citizen in America should ever
have to choose between the food on their table and the medicine they
need.
KENNEDY: So if you believe in prescription drug coverage for our
seniors, then fight for Al Gore because...
AUDIENCE: (inaudible)
(APPLAUSE)
Al Gore -- Al Gore has been leading -- Al Gore has been leading
the fight for a real patients' bill of rights. He's been working with
the leaders of both parties to do it. So if you believe medical
decisions should be made by doctors and nurses on the basis of sound
medicine and not by accountants and number crunchers sitting at
computer screens hundreds of miles away, then fight for Al Gore
because...
AUDIENCE: (inaudible)
(APPLAUSE)
KENNEDY: The fight for health care has been the driving dream of
my public service, starting with my bother's crusade to pass Medicare
into law. In my first term in the Senate, I was proud to support Al
Gore's father, Senator Albert Gore, Sr. of Tennessee, when he
sponsored -- when he sponsored the very first version of Medicare to
pass on the Senate floor.
KENNEDY: And now I believe we have the greatest chance in my
lifetime, and the lifetime of our nation to secure the promise of
health care for all. Let us make the most of our great moment. On
the issue of health care, on all the great issues of our time, we must
heed my brother's words here in Los Angeles, which echo now across the
years.
He spoke of a choice between the public interest and private
comfort. And that is our choice today: Will we comfort the
comfortable, or will we strengthen the fabric of this country for all
Americans? Our capacity to better has never been greater. Let us not
turn back to old policies and old ways that favor the few at the
expense of the many.
(APPLAUSE)
This nation has always been a work in progress, and it always
will be. You have it in our power, we do, to take America to new
heights, to make this new century a new progressive era of high
achievement for working families, a time in which all Americans
advance together.
KENNEDY: That is our challenge. That is our New Frontier.
Cross it we can, and cross it we must. And 40 years from this night,
may a future generation look back on this time and this convention and
say, it was here under the leadership of Al Gore that we set forth to
secure for all citizens the fundamental right to health care, that
here -- that here, we kept the faith on the journey of hope, and
America dared to dream again.
(APPLAUSE)
END
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