Leader of an 18 Million Strong Movement
03 June 2008 8:42 pm by Taylor Marsh
BY TAYLOR MARSH
Final minutes of Clinton’s speech (more here).
from Clinton’s
speech…
… .. Now the question is, where do we go from here, and given how far we’ve
come and where we need to go as a party, it’s a question I don’t take lightly.
This has been a long campaign, and I will be making no decisions tonight.
But this has always been your campaign, so to the 18 million people who voted
for me and to our many other supporters out there of all ages, I want to hear
from you. I hope you’ll go to my website at HillaryClinton.com and share your
thoughts with me and help in any way that you can.In the coming days, I’ll be consulting with supporters and party leaders
to determine how to move forward with the best interests of our party and
our country guiding my way. And I want to conclude tonight by saying thank
you. Thank you to the people across America for welcoming me and my family
into your homes and your hearts. Thanks to all of you in every corner of this
country who cast your votes for our campaign. I am honored and humbled by
your support and your trust. Thanks to my staff and volunteers for all those
long hours and late nights, and I thank your families and your loved ones
as well, because your sacrifice was theirs. And I especially want to thank
all of the leadership of my campaign. Our chairman, Terry McAuliffe and everyone
who worked so hard. And, of course, my family for their incredible love, support
and work. Bill and Chelsea, Hugh and Maria, Tony and Megan, Zach and Fiona
and my mother who turns 89 tomorrow. And, finally, I want to thank all of
the people who had the courage to share your stories with me out on the campaign
trail.Tonight, I am thinking of a woman I met just yesterday in Rapid City, South
Dakota. We were outside Talley’s Restaurant. There was a crowd there
as I was walking into the restaurant. And she was standing right up against
the barrier. She grabbed my hand and she said, “What are you going to
do to make sure I have health care?” And as she was talking, she began
to cry. She told me she works three jobs. She has suffered from seizures since
childhood. She hasn’t been able to afford insurance ever since she left her
parents’ home. It is shameful that anyone in this country could tell that
story to me. And whatever path I travel next, I promise I will keep faith
with her and with everyone I met across this great and good country.You know, tonight we stand just a few miles from the Statue of Liberty. And
from the site where the Twin Towers fell and where America rose again. Lady
Liberty’s presence and the towers’ absence are a constant reminder that here
in America, we are resilient, we are courageous, we embrace all of our people
and that when we face our challenges together, there is no barrier we can’t
overcome, no dream we can’t realize, nothing we can’t do if we just start
acting like Americans again.Thank you all very much. God bless you and God bless America.
