thank you.

thank you. thank you so much. oh, thank you. thank you. thank you. thank you so i. oh, it is. it is amazing to stand up here and look out at all of you and there are several thousand people outside who can't get in. and i hope they can hear our

voices because we want them to be included in this great rally. understand, you're some of the people who i am so grateful to. thank you. and i just want to make sure that everybody knows that we had an amazing constellation ation of california star was right here. obvious lee, you heard from magic johnson and mayor villaraigosa and speaker nunez and mayor dellums. congresswoman maxine waters and supervisor gloria molina. let me also thank members of congress held a so lee's grace to palatine of brad sherman. i am so grateful to diane watson also, we have dolores where to.

and our general rodriguez and the farmworker is who are here. america ferrera, amber tamblyn, sally field, brad whitburn and christine lahti and mary steenburgen and ted danson. it is so exciting. laura richards and where's laura? right there. let's give another round of applause to these tremendous californians. now you feel you've heard some pretty good speeches already. you've heard a lot of the passion and the advocacy and the arguments on behalf of my candidacy. and i am grateful to each and every one of you. i was told that people were here

late last night and early this morning waiting to get in. and i think you're here because you know how important this election is. you know, some people running for office think only about the next election. i'm thinking about the next generation. leaders come along every so often in our country who mobilize all of us to know we can be better than we are. and it's particularly important for young people, for the students here, and people starting out in your lives and careers. because part of what america has always meant is that every

generation leaves our country better off for the next. you know, it's like leaving the light on or the key under the mat to welcome you into a limitless future of potential. one of the main reasons i decided to run for president is because i will not stand by and see our country break faith that we would leave america worse off than when we found it. there is no guarantee that we remain a great country. it is up to each of us in our own way, in our own time, to make the contribution is to set the goals and achieve them together. i know we can do better than we

have, and i am convinced that. that this election will give us a springboard back into a positive, optimistic future. you know, 40 years ago. bobby kennedy came to east l.a., the south l.a.. he brought in maxine waters, his words not just hope, but the promise of help. he said, we're going to tackle these problems from poverty to injustice to inequality. and i was very proud to know that that campaign engendered so much excitement and passion around the same time, there was another leader here in california, cesar chavez.

who, against all the odds, believed he could bring justice and fairness and dignity and respect to people who did some of the hardest work that any of us know of. and it wasn't easy, and it didn't happen overnight. but he persevered, and we're all the better for it. i was so honored when bobby kennedy jr and cesar chavez, his grandson, decided they not only wanted to support me, but they wanted to speak out and make clear that what we need today is what bob, bobby's father and caesar's grandfather knew. had to be part of the problem is

of change. that is, we need a doer. we need a fighter. and we need a champion. once again to get up every day in the white house and make sure that the people of our country are the ones who are in charge, who are taking care of. this campaign has come down to two candidates, and i was as proud sitting there as you were watching. to know that whichever one of us emerge, we will make history. we will change americans future. but it's not just about making history in a symbolic way. it is about changing lives for

the better. it is about whether we can fix the problems, meet the challenges, seize the opportunities that await. i offer in this campaign a record of making positive change, of standing up with those who are voiceless, power. la's hopeless year after year after year after year after year after year. because i know talk about change is easy. making change is hard. and what we have to do together is to seize this moment and give each and every one of us a role

to play in the new america that i see. i see an america that once again works for everyone, not just the wealthy and the well-connected and the oil companies and the insurance companies and the drug companies. i see a strong and prosperous middle class working people who have a chance to move forward and bring their children along. poor people who will get themselves out of poverty for a better future. i see the opportune ity for us to end our dependance on foreign oil, to attack global warming. and to create millions of new good jobs by doing that. there is no reason that america cannot once again be the

innovation nation. we are the inventors of the future. we have to unleash the potential of all of our people. and if we do that, there is no stopping us. our best days are ahead, but it's going to take leadership and the strength and experience to make those changes. and the america that i see we will once again commit ourselves to making every single child have their same chances, no

matter where he or she is born, to live up to their god given potential. to go to schools that are worthy of them. to have pre-kindergarten programs. to have affordable college. and in the america i see, we will finally have universal health care. we are not going to leave anyone out. because in the america i see, it's no longer acceptable to tell somebody the only health care they can get is through the emergency door that there is no room for them because they can't pay for what they need.

i want to make it absolutely clear that health care is not just an issue for me. this is a cause. this is the central passion of my public life. because i have seen too many people. i've seen children denied health care that they needed because their parents couldn't pay for it. i've met families with children with disabilities who can't get the treatment and the therapies they need because they can't pay for it. i've met people who had insurance policies and when they got sick, the insurance companies canceled their policies. we're going to put together a movement that is going to include business and labor doctors, nurses, other health care profession, heroes, young people, all people, every

american. and we are going to take on the health insurance companies and the drug companies. this is a fight worth having. my opponent will not commit to universal health care. i do not believe i do not believe we should nominate any democrat who will not proudly stand here today, tomorrow and the next day and say universal health care is the. know and the america i see the abusive lending practices that have put so many people's homes at risk would never have been permitted in the first place. those who have prayed on first generation americans on the

elderly, and those are desperate to have a home or like the couple that i met earlier today in englewood who had to mortgage their home to get a second mortgage, to send their daughter to college and had discovered then that the adjustable rate mortgage kept going up. and they they're worried now about how they'll send their next daughter to college in the america. i see all over that horizon that will begin on january 20th, 2009. we will have a housing policy that has affordable housing again. we will protect homeowners from unscrupulous mortgage lenders and brokers. we will have a moratorium on home foreclosures. so we can help people stay in their homes, not lose their

homes. as we will freeze the interest rate so they don't keep going up, throwing more and more californians and american is out on the street because our home is the most important source of wealth for most of us, isn't it? instead of turning a blind eye, we should be rolling up our sleeves to keep people in their homes. and i will do everything possible as a senator and then as president to make sure we stop the mortgage crisis before more people are hurt. and in the america i see. we will help families prepare their own children for school. starting early, and we'll have universal pre-kindergarten for four year olds so that they can be better prepared to go to

school. and we will. and the unfunded mandate known as no child left behind. i do not believe we should treat our children like little test takers and our teachers like big test givers. and let's make college affordable again for everybody. see, i. i don't want to hear about more families that mortgaged their homes and sell them to send their children to college. that's not the way it should be in our america. is it is now more expensive for

a middle class and working family to afford college. and it was 30 years ago. so let's help people. let's give 30 $500 tax credits for each child for every year. let's expand and extend pell grants for more and more students. let's make sure we offer a national service. if you're willing to do two years of national service. we will pay you up to $10,000 a year to go to college. that's and the abusive student loan industry, interest rates and predatory practices. and let's help all of the students. another man that i met this morning with maxine got out of medical school, wanted to do

research on hiv, aids and we need that, don't we? the research job didn't pay a lot. his debts were huge, so he struggled for ten years to do the work that he loved and pay off his student loans. i think we can do better than that if you take a public service job like teaching or nursing or researching hiv aids, we should forget your debts over time. and that's that's not just think about the young people we want to help go to college. i want to help any young american who's willing to work hard, because most of our young people don't go to college. so how about more job training and apprenticeship programs? let's. let's begin to do more of what mayor dellums and mayor

villaraigosa are doing. and. okay. and and in l.a., their helping to train people for green collar jobs, the kind of jobs of the future that we should be investing in. and we need to deal with the hard problems. they're not going away and they're being turned into political footballs. you know, instead of hearing all this mean spirited demagogue thuggery, let's fix the immigration system. let's make we have comprehensive immigration reform. let's make sure we pass ag jobs so that our farm workers and our growers can actually be part of a productive agricultural sector. let's reform the government and the cronyism, the corruption, the no bid contracts, the indifference, the incompetence, the insensitivity that we have

seen for the last seven years. and let's be sure that we get back to doing what sounds so obvious, but apparently was too hard for the bush administration. let's suppose unqualified people for the job we asked them to hold in government. and let us restore our leadership and moral authority in the world. it has been badly damaged and america is at its best when we're leading with our values. there's no doubt that we have the strongest military in the world. but military force should be used as last resort, not a first resort in a free, emptive, unilateral way.

let's begin to end the war in iraq. and i have said on my very first day, i will start to plan to bring our troops home within 60 days. i will do this carefully and thoughtfully, because i know we have some veterans in this audience. and you know how, hard and dangerous, it is to withdraw troops and equipment. and we have to take care of our civilians who are there. we've got to figure out what to do with the iraqis who helped us. so we need a president and, a commander in chief who understands that we have to withdraw from iraq. unlike senator mccain, who said he'd be perfectly happy to be there for a hundred years.

i just want you to think about this. i believe that we can have an election this time where all of the issues, including national security, are ones that democrats can stand and proudly promote. i take a backseat to no one in my commitment to protect and defend this country. but let's do it. a smart way for a change. on one. and as we bring our troops home, let's take care of them. let's give them the health care and the compensation, the jobs and the services that they earn. let's give them a 21st century g.i. bill of rights where they get money for college and for

homes and to start a business. as i commit to you, i will take care of our veterans from our youngest to our oldest. and i want to pay special attention to the veterans of my generation who served and fought in vietnam, who did not get the welcome home that they deserve. and i will send out distinguished americans, both parties, with a very simple message that america is back. we want to work with you. the of cowboy diplomacy is over. you know, i have been very specific in this campaign

because. i believe you a right to know what i will do if you give me your vote. and i have been willing to talk in detail about all of the important and complex problems facing our country. because i want you to and you and you and you to hold me accountable. i want to know when you vote for me that i will get up every day and try do exactly what i told you. i would do. there will be no guesswork. i'm not asking you to take a leap of faith. i'm asking you to hire me to do the hardest job in the entire world.

so. and so here is what. here is what. i want to ask you. we have three days left for you to help reach as many voters as possible. with my message that i have the experience we need to make, the changes we want in america and that i will start on day one because on january 20th, after the next president is sworn in, there's going to be all of these problems waiting in the oval office, aren't there? and there's a lot of problems we don't even know about yet. so what we have to do together is be resolved that there isn't

anything that stands in our way. once we have leadership again that believes in the american people, sets goals for us, brings us together in order to achieve them. so i want you to tell every body you can reach some of you. i hope, will walk the streets of l.a. this weekend as part of canvasing operation. to bring out as many voters as possible because a very real way this election is not about me or opponent. it is about you. it is about your lives and your futures. and you have to make this difficult decision. so are you for change? are you ready for an economy that will work? everyone again.

are you ready for universal health care? affordable college, and ready to end the war in iraq and bring our troops home? well, if you're ready for a change, i am ready to lead. and with your help, we will make history. thank you all. and god bless you.

and.