>> each week until the election, we will bring you timely coverage of resident races. up next, lyndon b. johnson accepted presidential nomination at the democratic national convention in atlantic city, new jersey. he criticized the republican campaign of running a "fear and smear." president johnson went on to repeat the republican nominee very goldwater in the 1964

general election. he won more than 61% of the republican vote. he carried 44 states. the speech is just under 30 minutes. our coverage is courtesy of nbc news. president lyndon johnson: this tremendous reception has a message to give to you and the american people. chairman mccormack, my fellow americans -- i accept your nomination. [applause] president lyndon johnson: i

accept the duty of leading this party to victory this year. [applause] president lyndon johnson: and i thank you. i thank you from the bottom of my heart for placing at my side the man that last night you so wisely selected to be the next vice president of the united states. [applause] president lyndon johnson: i know i speak for each of you and all of you when i say he proved himself tonight in that great

acceptance speech. [applause] president lyndon johnson: and i speak for both of us when i tell you that from monday on he is going to be available for such speeches in all 50 states. [applause] president lyndon johnson: we will try to lead you as we were led by that great champion of freedom, the man from independence, harry s. truman. [applause]

president lyndon johnson: but the gladness of this high occasion cannot mask the sorrow which shares our hearts. so let us here tonight, each of us, all of us, rededicate ourselves to keeping burning the golden torch of promise which john fitzgerald kennedy set aflame. [applause]

president lyndon johnson: and let none of us stop to rest until we have written into the law of the land all the suggestions that made up the john fitzgerald kennedy program. and then let us continue to supplement that program with the kind of laws that he would have us write. [applause] president lyndon johnson: tonight, we offer ourselves, on our record and by our platform, as a party for all americans, an

all-american party for all americans. [applause] president lyndon johnson: this prosperous people, this land of reasonable men, has no place for petty partisanship or peevish prejudice. [applause] president lyndon johnson: the needs of all can never be met by parties of the few. [applause] theident lyndon johnson: needs of all cannot be met by a business party or a labor party,

not by a war party or a peace party, not by a southern party or a northern party. [applause] president lyndon johnson: our deeds will meet our needs only if we are served by a party which serves all our people. [applause] president lyndon johnson: we are members together of such a party, the democratic party of 1964. [applause]

president lyndon johnson: we have written a proud record of accomplishments for all americans. if any ask what we have done, just let them look at what we promised to do. [applause] president lyndon johnson: for those promises have become our deeds. and the promises of tonight i can assure you will become the deeds of tomorrow. [applause] president lyndon johnson: we are in the midst of the largest and the longest period of peacetime prosperity in our history.

[applause] president lyndon johnson: and almost every american listening to us tonight has seen the results in his own life. but prosperity for most has not brought prosperity to all. and those who have received the bounty of this land -- who sit tonight secure in affluence and safe in power -- must not now turn from the needs of their neighbors. [applause]

president lyndon johnson: our party and our nation will continue to extend the hand of compassion and the hand of affection and love to the old and the sick and the hungry. [applause] president lyndon johnson: for who among us dares to betray the command -- thou shalt open thine hand unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land. [applause] president lyndon johnson: the needs that we seek to fill, the

hopes that we seek to realize, are not our needs, our hopes alone. they are the needs and hopes of most of the people. most americans want medical care for older citizens. and so do i. [applause] president lyndon johnson: most americans want fair and stable prices and decent incomes for our farmers. and so do i. [applause] president lyndon johnson: most americans want a decent home in

-- and a decent neighborhood for all. and so do i. [applause] president lyndon johnson: most americans want an education for every child to the limit of his ability. and so do i. [applause] president lyndon johnson: most americans want a job for every man who wants to work. and so do i. [applause] president lyndon johnson: most americans want victory in our war against poverty. and so do i. [applause] president lyndon johnson: most americans want continually

expanding and growing prosperity. and so do i. [applause] president lyndon johnson: these are your goals. these are our goals. these are the goals and will be the achievements of the democratic party. [applause] president lyndon johnson: these are the goals of this great, rich nation. these are the goals toward which i will lead, if the american people choose to follow. [applause] president lyndon johnson: for 30

years, year by year, step by step, vote by vote, men of both parties have built a solid foundation for our present prosperity. too many have worked too long and too hard to see this threatened now by policies which promise to undo all that we have done together over all these years. [applause] president lyndon johnson: i believe most of the men and women in this hall tonight, and i believe most americans, understand that to reach our goals in our own land, we must work for peace among all lands.

[applause] president lyndon johnson: america's cause is still the cause of all mankind. over the last four years, the world has begun to respond to a simple american belief. the belief that strength and courage and responsibility are the keys to peace. [applause] president lyndon johnson: since 1961, under the leadership of that great president, john f. kennedy, we have carried out the greatest peacetime buildup of national strength of any nation at any time in the history of

the world. [applause] president lyndon johnson: i report tonight that we have spent $30 billion more on preparing this nation in the four years of the kennedy administration then we would have spent if we had followed the appropriations of the last year of the previous administration. i report tonight, as president of the united states and as commander in chief of the armed forces, on the strength of your country. and i tell you that it is greater than any adversary.

[applause] iesident lyndon johnson: assure you that it is greater than the combined might of all the nations, in all the wars, in all the history of this planet. [applause] president lyndon johnson: and i report our superiority is growing. [applause] president lyndon johnson: weapons do not make peace. men make peace. [applause]

president lyndon johnson: and peace comes not through strength alone, but through wisdom and patience and restraint. [applause] president lyndon johnson: and these qualities, under the leadership of president kennedy, brought a treaty banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere. and a hundred other nations in the world joined us. [applause] president lyndon johnson: other agreements were reached, and other steps were taken. their single guide was to lessen

the danger to men without increasing the danger to freedom. [applause] president lyndon johnson: their single purpose was peace in the world. and as a result of these policies, the world tonight knows where we stand and our allies know where we stand, too. [applause] president lyndon johnson: and our adversaries have learned again that we will never waver in the defense of freedom. [applause]

president lyndon johnson: the true courage of this nuclear age lies in the quest for peace. there is no place in today's world for weakness. but there is also no place in today's world for recklessness. [applause] president lyndon johnson: we cannot act rashly with the nuclear weapons that could destroy us all. the only course is to press with all our mind and all our will to make sure, doubly sure, that these weapons are never really used at all.

[applause] president lyndon johnson: this is a dangerous and a difficult world in which we live tonight. i promise no easy answers. but i do promise this. i pledge the firmness to defend freedom, the strength to support that firmness, and a constant, patient effort to move the world toward peace instead of war. [applause] president lyndon johnson: and

here at home one of our greatest responsibilities is to assure fair play for all of our people. every american has the right to be treated as a person. he should be able to find a job. [applause] president lyndon johnson: he should be able to educate his children. he should be able to vote in elections. [applause] president lyndon johnson: and he should be judged on his merits as a person. [applause]

president lyndon johnson: well, this is the fixed policy and the fixed determination of the democratic party and the united states of america. [applause] president lyndon johnson: so long as i am your president, i intend to carry out what the constitution demands -- and justice requires -- equal justice under law for all americans. [applause]

president lyndon johnson: we cannot and we will not allow this great purpose to be endangered by reckless acts of violence. [applause] president lyndon johnson: those who break the law, those who create disorder, whether in the north or the south, must be caught and must be brought to justice. [applause] president lyndon johnson: and i

believe that every man and woman in this room tonight joins me in saying that in every part of this country the law must be respected and violence must be stopped. [applause] president lyndon johnson: and wherever a local officer seeks help or federal law is broken, i have pledged and i will use the full resources of the federal government. [applause] president lyndon johnson: let no one tell you that he can hold back progress and at the same time keep the peace. this is a false and empty promise.

to stand in the way of orderly progress is to encourage violence. [applause] president lyndon johnson: and i say tonight, to those who wish us well, and to those who wish us ill, the growing forces in this country are the forces of common human decency and not the forces of bigotry and fear and smear. [applause] president lyndon johnson: our

problems are many and are great. but our opportunities are even greater. and let me make this clear. i ask the american people for a mandate, not to preside over a finished program, not just to keep things going -- i ask the american people for a mandate to begin. [applause] president lyndon johnson: this nation, this generation in this hour, has man's first chance to build the great society, a place where the meaning of man's life

matches the marvels of man's labor. [applause] president lyndon johnson: we seek a nation where every man can find reward in work and satisfaction in the use of his talents. we seek a nation where every man can seek knowledge, and touch beauty, and rejoice in the closeness of family and community. [applause] president lyndon johnson: we seek a nation where every man can, in the words of our oldest

promise, follow the pursuit of happiness, not just security, but achievements and excellence and fulfillment of the spirit. so let us join together in this great task. will you join me tonight in starting -- [applause] insident lyndon johnson: rebuilding our cities to make them a decent place for our children to live in? [applause] president lyndon johnson: will you join me tonight in starting a program that will protect the

beauty of our land and the air that we breathe? [applause] president lyndon johnson: won't you join me tonight in starting a program that will give every child education of the highest quality that he can take? [applause] president lyndon johnson: so let us join together in giving every american the fullest life which he can hope for. for the ultimate test of our civilization, the ultimate test of our faithfulness to our past, is not in our goods and is not in our guns.

it is in the quality, the quality of our people's lives and in the men and women that we produce. [applause] president lyndon johnson: this goal can be ours. we have the resources. we have the knowledge. but tonight, we must seek the courage. [applause] president lyndon johnson: because tonight the contest is the same that we have faced at every turning point in history. it is not between liberals and conservatives. it is not between party and

party, or platform and platform. it is between courage and timidity. [applause] president lyndon johnson: it is between those who have vision and those who see what can be, and those who want only to maintain the status quo. [applause] president lyndon johnson: it is between those who welcome the future and those who turn away from its promises. [applause] president lyndon johnson: this is the true cause of freedom.

the man who is hungry, who cannot find work or educate his children, who is bowed by want, that man is not fully free. for more than 30 years, from social security to the war against poverty, we have diligently worked to enlarge the freedom of man. and as a result, americans tonight are freer to live as they want to live, to pursue their ambitions, to meet their desires, to raise their families than at any time in all of our glorious history. [applause]

president lyndon johnson: and every american knows in his heart that this is right. [applause] president lyndon johnson: i am determined in all the time that is mine to use all the talents that i have for bringing this great, lovable land -- this great nation of ours, together,

together in greater unity in pursuit of this common purpose. [applause] president lyndon johnson: i truly believe that we someday will see an america that knows no north or south, no east or west, and america -- [applause] president lyndon johnson: an america that is undivided by creed or color, and untorn by suspicion or strife. [applause] president lyndon johnson: the founding fathers dreamed america before it was.

the pioneers dreamed of great cities on the wilderness that they crossed. our tomorrow is on its way. it can be a shape of darkness or it can be a thing of beauty. the choice is ours, it is yours, for it will be the dream that we dare to dream. [applause] president lyndon johnson: i know what kind of a dream franklin delano roosevelt and harry s. truman and john f. kennedy would dream if they were here tonight. [applause]

president lyndon johnson: and i think that i know what kind of a dream you want to dream. tonight, we of the democratic party, confidently go before the people offering answers, not retreat, offering unity, not division, offering hope, not fear or smear. [applause] president lyndon johnson: we do offer the people a choice. a choice of continuing on the courageous and the compassionate course that has made this nation

the strongest and the freest and the most prosperous and the most peaceful nation in the history of mankind. [applause] president lyndon johnson: to those who have sought to divide us, they have only helped to unite us. [applause] president lyndon johnson: to those who would provoke us, we have turned the other cheek. [applause] so asent lyndon johnson: we conclude our labors, let us tomorrow turn to our new task. let us be onur way.

[applause] >> road to the white house rewind continues with barry goldwater accepting his party presidential nomination at the 1964 republican national convention in san francisco. in his speech, he outlined his commitment to conservative values. he trumpeted conservativism as a uniting ideology. he also criticized president lyndon johnson's actions in vietnam. he touted himself as a better candidate to fight communism. he lost to president johnson in the 1964 general election. he had only 39% of the popular vote. his speech is just over 40 minutes. our coverage is courtesy of nbc