Ted Sorenson: A New Vision: The Speech I Want the Democratic Nominee to Give

[illinoisprogressive]

JFK's old speechwriter was approached and asked to write the perfect democratic nomination speech. this is the speech he came out with:

My fellow Democrats: With high resolve and deep gratitude, I accept your nomination.

It has been a long campaign-too long, too expensive, with too much media attention on matters irrelevant to our nation’s future. I salute each of my worthy opponents for conducting a clean fifty-state campaign focusing on the real issues facing our nation, including health care, the public debt burden, energy independence, and national security, a campaign testing not merely which of us could raise and spend the most money but who among us could best lead our country; a campaign not ignoring controversial issues like taxation, immigration, fuel conservation, and the Middle East, but conducting, in essence, a great debate-because our party, unlike our opposition, believes that a free country is strengthened by debate.

There will be more debates this fall. I hereby notify my Republican opponent that I have purchased ninety minutes of national network television time for each of the six Sunday evenings preceding the presidential election, and here and now invite and challenge him to share that time with me to debate the most serious issues facing the country, under rules to be agreed upon by our respective designees meeting this week with a neutral jointly selected statesman.

Let me assure all those who may disagree with my positions that I shall hear and respect their views, not denounce them as unpatriotic as has so often happened in recent years. I will wage a campaign that relies not on the usual fear, smear, and greed but on the hopes and pride of all our citizens in a nationwide effort to restore comity, common sense, and competence to the White House.

In this campaign, I will make no promises I cannot fulfill, pledge no spending we cannot afford, offer no posts to cronies you cannot trust, and propose no foreign commitment we should not keep. I will not shrink from opposing any party faction, any special interest group, or any major donor whose demands are contrary to the national interest. Nor will I shrink from calling myself a liberal, in the same sense that Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt, John and Robert Kennedy, and Harry Truman were liberals-liberals who proved that government is not a necessary evil, but rather the best means of creating a healthier, more educated, and more prosperous America.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/28/2157/

[illinoisprogressive]

1. I forgot to say: Sorensen has already endorsed Obama for president

[msongs]

2. oh sure, you...forgot to say it upfront :-) well good for him nt