perplexed me the most was this idea they kept talking about about the culture of dependency. they seem to think you create a culture of dependency when you provide abright, young, qualified kid a loan to get to college or when you provide a job training program in a new industry for dad who lost his job because it was outsourced. folks, folks, that's not how we look at it. what he doesn't understand is all these men and women are looking for is a chance. just a chance to acquire the skills to be able to provide for their families so they can once again hold their heads high and lead independent lives with dignity. that's all they're looking for. look. and it literally amazes me they

don't understand that. you know, i told you the outset the choices start, from vision, from value, but at its core, the difference is able to be reduced to be a fund mental difference. you see, you, we, most americans, have incredible faith in the decency and hard work of the american people. and we know what has made this country. it's the american people. as i mentioned the outset, four years ago, we were hit hard. you saw, you saw your retirement accounts drained, the equity in your homes vanished, jobs lost around the line, but what did you do as americans? what you've always done. you didn't lose faith. you fought back. you didn't give up. you got up. you're the ones. the american people. you're the ones! you're the reason why we are still better positioned than any country in the world to lead the

21st century. you never quit on america and you deserve a president who will never quit on you! and folks, there's one more thing. one more thing. our republican opponents are just dead wrong about. america is not in decline. america is not in decline. i got news for governor romney. and congressman ryan. gentlemen, never, ever, it never makes sense, it's never been a good bit to bet against the american people. never! my fellow americans, america is

coming back! and we're not going back! and we have no intention of downsizing the american dream! never. never a good bet. ladies and gentlemen, in a moment, in a moment, we're going to hear from a man whose whole life is a testament to the power of that dream. and whose presidency is the best hope to secure that dream for our children. when you see, you see, we see a future. we really, honest to god, do. we see a future for everyone. rich and poor. does their part and has a part.

a future. who we depend on more on clean energy from home and less on oil from abroad. a future where we're number one in the world again in college graduation, a future where we promote the private sector, not the the privileged sector and a future where women once again control their own choices, their destiny and their own health care! and ladies and gentlemen, barack and i see a future. it's in our dna. where no one is forced to live in the shadows of intolerance.

folks, we see a future where american, where america, leads not only by the power of our example of our power, but by the power of our example. where we bring our troops home from afghanistan just as we proudly did from iraq. a future, a future where we fulfill the only truly sacred obligation we have as a nation. the only truly sacred obligation we have is to prepare those who we send to war and care for them when they come home from war and tonight, and tonight, tonight, i want to acknowledge, i want to acknowledge as we should every night.

the incredible debt we owe to the families of those 6,473 fallen angels. those 49,746 wounded. thousands critically. thousands who will need our help for the rest of their lives. folks, we never, we must never, ever forget their sacrifice and always keep them in our care and in our prayers. my fellow americans, we now, we now find ourselves at the hinlg of history. and the direction we turn is literally in your hands.

it has been a truly great honor to serve you and to serve with barack, who has always stood up with you for the past four years. i've seen him testy. i know his strengths, his chands, his faith and a i also know the incredible confidence he has in all of you. i know this man. yes, work and recovery is not yet complete, but we are on our way, the journey of hope is not yet finished, but we are on our way and the cause of change is not fully accomplished, but we are on our way, so i say to you tonight, with absolute confidence, america's best days are ahead and yes, we are on our way and in light of that horizon, for the values that

define us, for the ideals that inspire us, there is only one choice. that choice is to move forward. boldly forward and finish the job and re-elect president barack obama! god bless you all and may god protect our troops. god bless you. thank you! >> vice president joe biden leaving the stage after what you have to call a fiery speech, a very impassioned speech, certainly, talking about the automobile bailout, talking about the killing of osama bin laden. perhaps, larry, his best line of the night, osama bin laden is dead, but gm is alive. also talking about job creation. your thoughts. >> my thoughts, oh, okay.

cherry picking on the jobs. 800,000 jobs is the correct number over the course of the administration. but it doesn't bother me. one thing that does bother me is the demagoguery on medicare, saying that 30 million seniors would be thrown off medicare if in fact the romney ryan plan goes through. that is a complete -- in fact, the democrats were losing the medicare battle because of the reduction of $715 billion, which is being taken from mediciare ad put into obama care. by the way, i don't hear mr. biden talk about obama care at all. so unpopular around the country and i must also say this middle class tax hike, the number that comes from the liberal brookings institute has been disproven by so many economists, most recently by martin fieldsteen

and although i appreciate very much his loyalty to the troops, the obama administration has been at the forefront of decimating the defense budget and all their plans for a second term will debt mate the budget again to the point where leon panetta opposes the policy. he delivered a good speech, but i think there was a lot of demagoguery and falsehoods. >> and dick durbin is about to speak. great point on jobs. only about p 3 to 5,000 jobs have been created net under the president's turn. they chose it that cherry picked month where where they could maximize the number. i want to get to something else. you tweeted out a few moments ago that the president sent a mass blast e-mail to followers

asking for $15 in donations before he takes the the stanl? >> the democratic ticket has been outraised by mitt romney, the republican super pacs. that's why rahm emanuel, the mayor of chicago, quit the the obama quit yesterday to go raise money for the priorities usa super pac. one of the things president obama has been innovative about in 2008 and now is the use of social media to raise money. they're working it hard and on larry's point about joe biden, that was as good as he can speak. he was direct. sober. he resisted the tendency he has to shout. he didn't do that so much. took directly on the bain argument, accused mitt romney of not understanding what the auto industry meant to america. said he thought about it the the bain way, which was balanced sheets. you mentioned the point about osama bin laden.

the emotional moment about the troop was meant to contrast on the republican ticket. >> yeah, we did hear earlier this week that corporations were not people and yet, we also heard gm essentially referenced as a person. gm is alive. >> exactly right. look, both sides are a little silly with that argument. corporation, mitt romney is right. corporations are composed of human beings who organize themselves to make profits and pay themselves and pay their shareholders and all that. that's kind of a partisan tool. quote from mitt romney, but that was joe biden at his best tonight and i think in the same way that the republican ticket was very happy with the spectacular performance by paul ryan last week, democrats are going to be happy with that speech. >> certainly was fiery.

next up, the man of the night, the main event. we are coming right back with president barack obama's address to the democratic national convention as he accepts their nomination for re-election. don't go anywhere. >> come and -- bob...

oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners.

back.elcome welcome back. as we await president obama's address to the democratic national convention, let us bring back our very own rick santelli and gina sanchez. what you're looking at is a video tribute. you heard dick durbin introduce it. so when that is done, we may have to cut our panel off to go

to michelle obama, who will be introducing her husband, the president. so, rick santelli, your thoughts on joe biden's speech. >> i thought it was an impassioned speech. certain portions of it especially regarding the military and how a job is more than a paycheck, that i am totally enamored with. like larry, for me, if i were to listen to his speech as a voter to try to make a decision, i don't know that anything mr. biden said would move the ball closer to the goal post if i was worried about the longevity of the entitlement programs and of course, the biggest question of all, how are we going to create jobs. i just don't know there's any substance there, but then again, for this type of speech, i don't look for a lot of substance. >> gina, you were probably the most pessimistic. did you hear anything from biden that would change your mind? >> well, no, i'm still pretty pessimistic. i think the one thing biden said that was worth listening to was

that the point of all of this spending was to help bridge a gap and give people a chance at a job. at having a living, et cetera. to bridge the gap to better times in the future. and that's probably the best message he could have given. the fact of the matter is we haven't really tirned the corner. the reason we need the support being given to the economy is because demand is is still really weak and payrolls are still falling and that is a self-enforcing spiral. >> but i hate to say it, just one man's opinion, but i think all this deficit spending has actually done the economy quite a bit of harm. i think it's cut off investment. i think that's why capital goods orders are doing so badly. i think that's one of the reasons why this is the worst economic recovery in post world war two history. this deficit spending has never

worked. those multipliers have never worked. >> well, i think one of the reasons you're not seeing a lot of capital goods orders is because there's not a lot of demand. so why would you want to build anything more? i think really the problem is is that this is a massive credit boom we've seen and bust and that's very different from your usual economic cycle that people are used to. >> thanks so both of you. let's bring our political panel in. greg, tony fratto, jared bernstein. tony fratto, pardon my french, but i heard a lot of demagoguery from joe biden. 30 million seniors will be thrown off medicare because of romney and ryan? what in god's name is biden talking about? >> i was watching the speech and taking some notes. he was creating some full time

jobs tonight for the fact checkers are going to have to go through this speech. the 800,000 jobs that some experts on the territorial tax system, major trading partners that doesn't use a territorial tax system, but that's going to cost us 800,000 jobs. he fired up the partisans in that room. i think that's what the speech was for. >> was it fair to say 48 million jobs have been created when we've only added about net 300 jobs during the president's full interpreter. fair or fall move? >> it's politics and i think everything's mostly fair. that's the number they're going to use. the republicans are going to use the net number, but more importantly, actually, it's the rate of unemployment right now. actually the most important number at 8.3%, plus discouraged

workers, which is the more powerful number if you think about it in terms of what it means for this economy. 8.3%. no president has sought re-election with unemployment that high. >> you know, jared bernstein, joe biden talked a lot about the middle class and i'm quite sure president obama will, too. the problem is, we just had some new numbers out that shows that during the recovery, median income for the middle class has fallen by 5%. it only fell by 2.5% during the recession, so i'd say the middle class is worse off during the so-called recovery. >> ye, i think that's a tough number and it's legitimate to raise it. median household income was flat all throughout the 2000s as well. the first business cycle where they didn't get anywhere. i want to do a quick little fact check with respect to my friend, tony, and you, larry. in the speech, what the vice

president said, i think it's what he said, is that the republicans' plan would immediate immediately cut benefits to more than 30 million seniors on medicare. now, that's true and it's true because if you repeal the affordable care act, they immediately lose their donut hole prescription drug benefits and the benefits of preventive and wellness visits, so that is a fact. >> i think that's not a factual fact. >> no, the it's a fact. >> i think it depends on what goes on on the medicare side. in other words, if you remove obama care and put in some of paul ryan's choice and opportunity and patient, then you may find you're not losing those seniors. >> this is why -- >> i'm sorsorry. >> one of the things romney is talking about is putting the $715 billion back into medicare and that's going to make a huge difference and of course, joe biden doesn't want to talk about

that. >> i'll be happy to talk about that. that $716 million is overpayments to insurance and providers. you take that out and add eight years to the life of the medicare trust fund. >> hey, guys, i need to cut you off because michelle obama returning in a surprise to introduce her husband. >> thank you so much. tonight, i am so thrilled and so honor honored and so proud to introduce the the love of my life, the father of our two girls and the president of the united states of america, barack obama.

♪ >> thank you! thank you!

>> thank you! thank you so much. thank you. thank you so much. thank you. thank you very much, everybody. thank you. michelle, i love you so much. a few nights ago, everybody was reminds just what a lucky man i am. malia and sasha, we are so proud

of you. and yes, you do have to go to school in the morning. and joe biden, thank you for being the very best vice president i could have ever hoped for and being a strong and loyal friend. madam chairwoman, delegates, i accept your nomination for president of the united states.

now, the first time i addressed this convention in 2004, i was a younger man. a senate candidate from illinois who spoke about hope. not blind optimism, not wishful thinking, but hope in the face of difficulty. hope in the face of uncertainty. that dogged faith in the future which has pushed this nation forward even when the odds are great. even when the road is long. eight years later, that hope has been tested. by the cost of war, by one of

the worst economic crises in history and by political gridlock that's left us wondering whether it's still even possible to tackle the challenges of our time. i know campaigns can seem small, even silly sometimes. trivial things become big distractions. serious issues become sound bites. the truth gets buried under an avalanche of money and advertising. if you're sick of hearing me approve this message, believe me, so am i. but when all is said and done, when you pick up that ballot to vote, you will face the clearest choice of any time in a generation. over the next few years, big decisions will be made in washington on jobs, the economy,

taxes and deficits. energy, education, war and peace. decisions that will have a huge impact on our lives and on our children's lives for decades to come. and on every issue, the choice you face won't just be between two candidates or two parties. it will be a choice between two different paths for america. a choice between two fundamen l fundamentally different visions for the future. ours is a fight to restore the values that built the largest middle klaas and the strongest economy is world has ever known. the values my grandfather defended as a soldier in patton's army. the values that drove my grandmother to work on a bomber assembly line when he was gone.

they knew they were part of something larger. a nation that triumphed over fascism and depression. everyone shared in that pride and success from the corner office to the factory floor. my grandparents were given the chance to go to college, by their own home and fulfill the basic bargain at the heart of america's story. the problems promise that hard work will pay off. that responsibility will be rewarded. that everyone gets a fair shot and everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same rules from main street to wall street to washington, d.c. and i ran for president because

i saw that basic bargain b slipping away. i began my career helping people in the shadow of a shuttered steel mill and we had seen f families struggle with costs that kept rising, the paychecks, folks racking up more and more debt just to make the mortgage or pay tuition. put gas in the car or food on the table and when the house of cards collapsed in the great recession, millions of innocent americans lost their jobs, their home, their life savings. a tragedy from which we're still fighting to recover. now, our friends down in tampa at the republican convention, were more than happy to talk about everything they think is wrong with america. but they didn't have much to say about how they'd make it right. they want your vote, but they don't want you to know their plan.

and that's because all they have to offer is the same prescriptions they've had for the last 30 years. have a surplus? try a tax cut. deficit too high. try another one. feel a cold coming on? take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations and call us in the morning. now, i've cut taxes for those who need it. middle class families, small businesses. but i don't believe that another round of tax breaks for millionaires will bring good jobs to our shores or pay down our deficit. i don't believe that firing teachers or kicking students

after off final aid will grow the economy or help us compete with the scientists and engineered coming out of china. after all we've been through, i don't believe that rolling back regulations on wall street will help the small businesswoman expand or the laid off construction worker keep his home. we have been there. we've tried that and we're not going back, we are moving forward, america! now, i won't pretend the path i'm offering is quick or easy. i never have. you didn't elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear. you elected me to tell you the truth. and the truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades. it will require common effort and shared responsibility and

the kind of bold, persistent exper menation that franklin roosevelt persued during the only crisis worse than this one. by the way, those that carried on his party's legacy should remember that -- dictate from washington, but know this, america, our problems can be solved. our challenges can be met. the path we offer may be harder, but it lead to a better place and i'm asking you to choose that future. i'm asking you to rally around a set of goals for your country, goals in manufacturing, energy, education, national security and the deficit. real achievable plans that will lead to new jobs, more opportunity and rebuild this economy on a stronger foundation. that's what we can do in the next four years and that is why

i'm running for president for a second term. we can choose a future where we outsource fewer jobs. after a decade defined what we borrowed, we're getting back to basics. we are making things again. i've met workers who feared they'd never build another american car and today, they can't build them fast enough because we've reinvented a dying

au auto industry that's back on top of the world. i've worked with business aderers who are bringing jobs back to america because we make better products. because we work harder and smarter than anyone else. i signed trade agreements helping our country sell goods to millions of new customers. good stamped with three proud words. made in america. after a decade of decline, this country created over a half a million manufacturing jobs in the last two years and now, you have a choice. we can give more tax breaks to corp. rags that can rations that

can ship job overseas or open companies that train workers and create new jobs here in the united states of america. we can help big factories and small businesses double their exports and if we choose this path, we can create a million new manufacturing jobs in the next four years. you can make that happen. you can choose that future. you can choose the path where we control more of our own energy. we raised fuel standards so that by the middle of the next decade, cars and trucks will go twice as far on a gallon of gas. we have doubled our use of renewable energy and thousands of americans have jobs today building wind turbines and long lasting batteries. in the last year alone, we cut oil imports by one millionon barrels a day.

more than any administration in recent history and today, the united states of america is less dependent on foreign oil than any time in the last two decades. so now you have a choice between a strategy that reverses this progress and one that boilds on it. we've opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration the last three year, but unlike my opponent, i will not let them endanger the coastlines or collect another $4 billion in corporate welfare from our taxpayers. we're offering a better path. fz we're offering a better path where we, a future where we keep investing in wind and solar and

clean coal. where farmers and scientists harness new bio fuel, where we develop a 100 year supply of natural gas beneath our feet. if you choose this path, we can cut our oil imports in half by 2020 and support more than 600,000 new jobs in natural gas alone. and yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon emission. climate change is not a hoax. more droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke. they are a threat to our children's future and in this election, you can do something about it.

you can choose a feature where more americans gain the skills they need to compete. no matter how old they are or how much money they have. education was the top gateway for me, for michelle, for most of you and now, more than ever, it is the gateway to a middle class life. for the first time in a generation, nearly every state has answered our call to raise their standards for teaching and learning. some of the worst schools in the country have made real gains in math and reading. millions of students are paying lake erie for college today because we finally took on a system that wasted billions of taxpayer dollars on banks and lenders. and now, you have a choice. we can get education or decide

that in the united states of america, no child should have her dreams deferred because of a crowded classroom or a crumbling school. no family should have to set aside a college acceptance letter because they don't have the the money. no company should have to look for workers overseas because they couldn't find any with the right kiskills here at home. that's not our future. that is not our future. the government has a role in this, but teachers must do spire. principals must lead. parents must instill a thirst for learning and students, you got to do the work. and together, i promise you, we can outeducate and outcome pete any nation on earth.

help me improve early childhood education. help give two million workers the chance to learn skills at their community college that will lead directly to a job. help us work with colleges and universities to cut in half the growth in tuition costs over the next ten years. we can meet that goal together. you can choose that future for america. that's our future. you know, in a world of new threats and new challenges, you can choose leadership that has been tested and proven. four years ago, i promised to end the war in iraq. we did. i promised to refocus on the terrorists who attacked us on

9/11 and we have. in 2013, our longest war will be over. a new tower rises above the new york skyline, al-qaeda is on the bath to defeat and osama bin laden is dead. and tonight, we pay tribute to the americans who still serve in harm's way. we are forever in debt to a generation whose sacrifice has made this country safer and more respectable. we will never forget you. and so long as i'm commander in chief, we will sustain the

strongest military the world has ever known. when you take off the uniform, we will serve you as well as you served us because no one who fights for this country should have to fight for a job or a roof over their head or the care they need when they come home! around the world, we've strengthened old alliances and forged new coalitions to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. we've reasserted our power across the pascuccific and stoo to china. from burma, to libya to south sud sudan, we have advanced the rights of people. christians and muslims and jews, but challenges remain. terrorist plots must be

disrupted. our commitment to israel's security must not waiver and neither must our pursuit of peace. the iranian government must face a world that stays united against its nuclear ambitions. the historic change sweeping across the arab world must be defined not by the iron fist of a dictator or hate of extremists, but by the hopes and aspirations of the people reaching for the same rights that we celebrate here today. so, now we have a choice. my opponent and his running mate are new to foreign policy. but what we've seen and heard, they want to take us back to an era of blustering and blundering the cost of america so dearly. after all, you don't call russia our number one enemy.

not al-qaeda. russia. unless you're still stuck in a cold war mind war. you might not be ready for diplomacy with beijing if you can't visit the olympics without insulting our closest ally. my opponent said that it was tragic to end the war in iraq and he won't tell us how he'll end the war in afghanistan. well, i have and i will. and while my opponent would spend more money on military hardware than our joint chiefs don't even want, i will use the money we're no longer spending on war to pay down our debt and put more people back to work rebuilding roads and bridges and

schools and runways because after two wars that have cost us thousands of lives and over a trillion dollars, it's time to do some nation building right here at home! you can choose a future where we reduce our deficit without sticking it to the middle class. independent experts say my plan would cut our deficit by $4 trillion and last summer, i worked with republicans in congress to cut a billion dollars in spending because those of us who believe government can be a force for good should work harder than anyone to reform it so that it's leaner and more efficient and more responsive to the american people. i want to reform the tax code so that simple, fair and ask the

wealthiest households to pay incomes over $250,000. the same rate we had when bill clinton was president. when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest surplus in history and a whole lot of millionaires to boot. now, i'm still eager to reach an agreement based on the principles of the bipartisan agreem. no democracy works without compromise. i want to get this done and we can get it done. but when governor romney and his friends in congress tell us we can somehow lower our deficits by spending trillions more on new tax breaks for the wealthy, well, what did bill clinton call it? you do the arithmetic. you do the math. i refuse to go along with that

and as long as i'm president, i never will. i refuse to ask middle class families just to pay for another millionaire's tax cut. i refuse to ask students to pay more for college or kick children out of head start programs to eliminate health insurance for millions of americans who are poor and elderly or disabled all so those with the most can pay less! i'm not going along with that. and i will never, i will never turn medicare into a voucher.

no american should ever have to spend their golden years at the mercy of insurance companies. they should retire with the care and dignity they have earned. yes, we will reform and strengthen, but we will do it by reducing the cost of health care. not by asking seniors to pay thousands of dollars more and we will keep the promise of social security by taking the responsible steps to strengthen it, not by turning it over to wall street. this is the choice we now face. this is what the election comes down to. over and over, we've been told that fewer tax cuts and bigger regulations are the only way, that since government can't do everything, it should do almost nothing.

if you can't afford health insurance, hope that you don't get sick. if a company releases toxic pollution into the air your children breathe, well, that's the price of progress. if you can't afford to start a business or go to college, take my opponent's advice and borrow money from your parents. you know what? that's not who we are. that's not what this country's about. as americans, we believe we are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. rights that no man can take away. we celebrate individual initiative. we're not entitled to success. we have to earn it. we honor the strivers, dreamers, the entrepreneurs who have

always been the driving force behind our free enterprise system. the greatest growth the world's ever known, but we also believe in something calls citizenship. citizenship. a word at the very heart of our founding. a word at the very essence of our democracy. an idea that this country only works when you accept certain obligations to each other and future generations. we believe that when the the ceo pays his workers enough to build the cars that need to be built, the whole company does better. we believe that when a family can no longer be tricked into signing a mortgage they can't afford, that family's protected, but so is the value of other people's homes and so is the entire economy.

we believe the little girl who's offered an escape from poverty by a great teacher or grant from college could become the next steve jobs, or a researcher who cures cancer on the next president of the united states and it is in our power to give her that chance. we know that churches and charities can often make more of a difference than a poverty program alone. we don't want handouts for people who refuse to help themselves and we certainly don't want bailouts for banks that break the rules. we don't think that government can solve all of our problems. but we don't think that the government is the source of all of our problems. any more than our welfare recipients or corporations or

unions or immigrants or gays or any other group we're told to blame for our troubles. because, because america, we understand that this democracy is course. we, the people, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights. that our destinies are bound together, that a freedom which asks only what's in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, without love or charity or duty or patriotism is unworthy of our founding ideals and those who died in their defense.

as citizens, we understand that america is not about what can be done for us. it's about what can be done by us together, but not necessary work of self-government, that's what we believe. so, you see, the election four years ago wasn't about me. it was about you. my fellow citizen, you were the change. you're the reason there's a little girl with a heart disorder in phoenix who will get the surgery she needs because an insurance company can't limit her coverage. you did that. you're the reason a young man in

colorado who never thought he would be able to afford his dream to get a medical degree is about to get that chance. you made that possible. you're the reason a young immigrant who grew up here and went to school here and plenled allegian blenlgedded allegiance to our flag will no longer be deported from the only country she's ever called home. why self-less soldiers won't be kicked out of the military because of who they are or who they love. why thousands of families have finally been able to say to the loved ones who served us so bravely, welcome home. welcome home. you did that! you did that. you did that. if you turn away now, if you turn away now, if you buy into

the citizen that the change we fought for isn't possible, well, change will not happen if you give up on the idea that your voice can make a difference, then other voices will fill the voids. the people with the $10 million checks trying to buy this election and trying to make it harder for you to vote. washington politicses who want to decide who you can mary or health care decisions that women should be making for themselves. only you can make sure that doesn't happen. only you. have the power to move us forward. you know, i recognize that times have changed since i first spoke to this convention.

times have changed and so have i. i'm no longer just a candidate. i'm the president. and that, and that means i know what it means to send young americans into battle. i've held in my arms mothers and fathers of those who didn't return. i've shared the pain of families who have lost their homes and frustration of workers who have lost their jobs. and the critics are right that i've made all my decisions based

on polls, then i must not be very good at reading. and while i'm very proud of what we've achieved together, i'm far more mindful of my own failings, knowing exactly what lincoln meant when he said i've been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that i have no place else to go. but as i stand here tonight, i have never been more hopeful about america. not because i think i have all the answers. not because i'm naive about the magnitude of our challenges, i'm hopeful because of you. the young woman i met at a science fair who won national recognition for her biology research while living with her family at a homeless shelter.