The crisis at home is aggravated by a deeper crisis abroad - with a worldwide war against Al Qaeda disrupted by an unnecessary war against Saddam -- with staggering costs and obstacles facing us in stabilizing Iraq and Afghanistan... with intractable conflicts simmering in the Middle East and South Asia... and with growing nuclear dangers in Iran and North Korea. On top of this, there is one ominous fact that aggravates every other danger:

We are in a crisis in our relations with the rest of the world. Today, at a time when we need friends and allies more than ever, resentment of America has never been higher, and that makes every American less safe at home and abroad....

But that's not who we are. And that's not why I'm running. Think about who we are. We're the party that brought this country out of the Great Depression and brought it into the New Frontier. We brought the country out of trickle down economics and into the best economy in history. We're the party of Roosevelt and Truman, Johnson and Carter, Kennedy and Clinton. And that's a legacy I am proud to be part of....

...you don't have a chance if you can't find a job. I don't think it penetrates the minds of this Administration what it must be like for a factory worker to arrive home to his family with the news that he's been laid off. What it must be like not to know what the future holds for your children, because you don't know what the future holds for you. What it must be like to see the government take hundreds of billions of dollars that could be used to fund job training, unemployment benefits, or jobs programs - and instead to send that money off to people who have such staggering wealth that the new money won't make the tiniest improvement in their lifestyle. What it must be like to be told that tax cuts for the rich are necessary to create jobs for working people, and then to see jobs fall month after month for more than 30 months. If that doesn't break your heart, you don't have a heart.

In the eight years before Mr. Bush, the economy created nearly 21 million private-sector jobs. In the three years under Mr. Bush, the American economy has lost more than 3 million private-sector jobs. Under Mr. Bush, we have lost 2.5 million manufacturing jobs. We have lost another half million jobs in telecom and high tech. Unemployment has jumped from 4 percent to 6 percent. Last year, more than 1.4 million Americans sank into poverty; 700,000 of them were children. ...

...Let's recognize who we are. We are Americans and we have extraordinary promise and live in a time of extraordinary promise. We're the strongest nation in the world. We don't have to fear. We're the leading economy in the world. We can create jobs. We're a military without peer, and we're proud of our Armed Forces and our Veterans.

We've got a heritage of democracy, the rule of law, the respect for the rights and dignity of each and every individual that makes America the envy of the world. And I think to put it in business terms; we're diverse, energetic, practical and innovative. This 21st century is going to be our American century, just like the 20th century was.

And together, we're going to march forward. Forward with a new vision. Forward to bring our children and grandchildren into a future, brightened by hope, courage, and our determination that we can do better. We will do better. And we will do it together. ...