Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event -- Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME

Portland Museum of Art
Portland, Maine

7:04 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  Thank you.  Everybody, please have a seat.  Have a seat. 

Well, first of all, you want Karen and Bonnie having your back because you can tell that they're not going to take no for an answer.  (Laughter.)  It is just a thrill to be here.  I want to thank both of them.  I also want to thank Bobby and Rob, because, like me, they don't shine quite as brightly as their spouses.  (Laughter.)  But nevertheless, we are extremely fortunate to be improving our gene pool because of who we married.

A couple of other people I just want to acknowledge.  First of all, your outstanding members of Congress -- Chellie Pingree is here.  (Applause.)  Somebody who always is fighting for working people -- Mike Michaud is here.  (Applause.)  One of the true statesmen in the history of American politics –- George Mitchell is here.  (Applause.)  Your former Governor -- John Baldacci is here.  (Applause.)  And one of the best SBA Administrators of all time -- Karen Mills is in the house.  (Applause.)

Now, I will confess that part of the reason I came here was Michelle just had too good a time.  (Laughter.)  She came up here, and she came back, and she was all, “Oh, we had so much fun, and everybody was so nice, and they all thought I was so much better than you, and” –- (laughter) -- and I said, “Hold on, time out, time out.”  (Laughter.)  I said, “I got to get up there, too.” 

I should point out, by the way, that during Michelle's birthday, I did the same thing -- I brought a birthday cake and a check.  (Laughter.)  So that's where they got the idea.  (Laughter.)

I could not be more grateful to all of you for just the extraordinary reception and hospitality.  There are a lot of you who were involved in 2008, and a lot of you who have signed up for a second tour of duty here.  And it's truly moving to me, and every time I've come to Maine, we have had this extraordinary reception.  And people I think have not just been supportive financially, but more importantly, through organizing and knocking on doors and making phone calls, which has obviously been the hallmark of all our effort and dates back to my own history in politics.

I'm going to speak very briefly at the top, because I want to save a lot of time for questions and answers and comments and advice.  (Laughter.) 

We've gone through a tough three years, this country -- as tough as any in our lifetime.  The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.  The economic aftermath that left millions without work.  A collapsed housing market.  It's hard to remember sometimes how perilous things were when I was sworn in.  The month I was sworn into office, we lost 800,000 jobs in that month alone.  We had lost almost 4 million in the months before I took office.  And then we would just keep on shedding jobs for the first few months that I was sworn in.  The banks were locked up, so even blue-chip companies couldn't get credit.  People, I think, genuinely thought that you might see a world financial meltdown.  And nobody exactly knew where the bottom was.  The stock market, by the way, was about half of what it is today.

And that meant we had to move fast to save the auto industry, to get the banks lending again, to make sure that state governments and local governments didn't have to lay off even more teachers and first responders and others that were providing vital services but, frankly, the states and local governments were having trouble being able to afford.

And we moved so fast that in some ways, people didn't fully appreciate the scope and magnitude of what got done in those first six months, that first year.  Here's the good news -- as you look back, from where we were to where we are now, over the last two years we've created almost 4 million jobs.  We have the strongest manufacturing job growth since the 1990s.  The auto industry is back, stronger than it was before.  GM is once again the number-one auto company in the world, making profits that are higher than at any time in its 100-year history.  We have seen the unemployment rate start ticking down.  We're seeing companies hiring again, companies investing again.  There's a sense that things have stabilized, and that we can start getting back to where we were before this terrible storm. 

But here's the thing.  I ran for office not just to get back to the status quo; I ran for office -- I ran for this office because we had not tended to a set of challenges that had been building up for decades.  And that's why even as we were trying to right the ship and yank ourselves out of a potential depression, we did not take our eye off the commitments that I had made to you when I ran for office.

And that's why we fulfilled pledges to end “don't ask, don't tell,” or to sign the Lilly Ledbetter Act that ensures equal pay for equal work.  That's why we followed through on commitments to invest in clean energy, and doubled fuel-efficiency standards on cars -- and trucks -- in an unprecedented fashion. 

That's why we followed through on the commitment I made to make sure that people don't go bankrupt when they get sick and passed the Affordable Care Act.  And already you've got 2.5 million young people who have health insurance because of it.  (Applause.)  And already, everybody here who has insurance has protections that are more robust than the patient's bill of rights that had been debated in the 1990s and that had never gotten done.  And seniors are benefiting from lower prescription drugs because of it.  And small businesses are getting subsidies so that they can provide health insurance to their workers. 

That's why we followed through and ended the war in Iraq.  That's why we followed through and targeted al Qaeda.  (Applause.)  That's why, with Osama bin Laden gone and al Qaeda weakened, we've been able to start ramping down our involvement in Afghanistan and provide transition, so that Afghans can take control of their own country.  That's why we ended torture, and we put our fight against terrorism on a legal footing.  And that's why we worked to restore our respect around the world.

So in addition to trying to stabilize the economy, we've tried to deal with issues like energy and health care and education, where we've made more strides in terms of reforming the system than probably the previous 30 years just in the last three; making sure that college is more affordable.  We've been focused on those things because those are the foundations for long-term growth, long-term sustainable growth that is inclusive, that says everybody gets a fair shot and everybody does their fair share and everybody plays by the same set of rules. 
Now, in some ways, this election, then, becomes more important than 2008 -- not only to preserve the gains that had been made, but also to finish the task that we set ourselves -- that we set for ourselves in 2008.  Because we still have more work to do.  We still have too many folks who are unemployed, which means that we've got to make sure that we've got a tax code that's incentivizing investment here in the United States, and we're enforcing our trade laws so that there's a level playing field, and we're training our workers to make sure that they can compete in this 21st century globalized economy.

It means that we've got to sustain the work we've done making investments in research and development so that the breakthroughs in biotech or clean energy happen here in the United States.

It means that we have to preserve the gains we've made when it comes to respecting science.  (Applause.)  But it also means that when it comes to education, we've still got kids who are dropping out, unable to read, and they can't compete in this global economy.  So we're going to have to do more work there.

It means we've got to invest in infrastructure.  We used to have the best roads, the best bridges, the best rail lines.  We don't anymore.  And now is the time to rebuild America. 

We still have to do more when it comes to energy, because as much progress as we've made over the last few years, the fact of the matter is, is that we still are importing too much oil and our economy is still subject to the whims of what happens in the Middle East.  And our environment is still captive to our addiction to fossil fuels.

We've still got to reform an immigration system that's broken, because I believe we're a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants, and we can reconcile those two values -- make this country stronger because we continue to be a magnet for incredible talent from all around the world.

So the task before us still looms large.  And the other side doesn’t have answers to these questions.  You don't see them debating how we improve our education system.  You don't see them engaging in any serious way about how we're going to retrain our workers.  There's not a conversation about how we restore manufacturing in this country. 

They've got one message and that is, we're going to make sure that we cut people's taxes even more -- so that by every objective measure our deficit is worse and we will slash government investments that have made this country great, not because it's going to balance the budget, but because it's driven by our ideological vision about how government should be.  That's their agenda, pure and simple.

And so we probably have not seen an election where the contrast is that sharp between the two parties as in this election.  Keep in mind, when I ran in 2008, we had a Republican candidate who believed in climate change -- (laughter) -- who had worked on immigration reform, who had not ruled out the possibility that the wealthy might pay a little bit more as part of an overall package to reduce our deficit.  But that's not what we have right now. 

So there's a lot at stake.  But the good news is, as I travel around the country, part of what sustained me each and every day -- people sometimes ask, boy, you're working pretty long hours and people are calling you pretty nasty names, and how do you put up with all that?  And I tell them, in addition to having this remarkable family and having a rule of not watching television -- (laughter) -- what also sustains me is just the American people.  When you go out there and you meet them, they're resilient. They're tough.  They've got good sense.  They have strong values.

And although this is a big, messy democracy and politics has always been contentious in this country, my confidence in the American people is undiminished.  And my energy, my absolute certainty that we can be doing better, and that if we follow the course that America is going to be in a stronger position today than it was four years ago -- that determination is as strong as ever.

If you are just as determined, and you're willing to work just as hard as we did four years ago, then we're going to win.  And more importantly, we're going to make sure that this country is everything that it deserves to be. 

Thank you very much, everybody.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

END   
7:18 P.M. EDT

Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event

University of Vermont
Burlington, Vermont

2:25 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Vermont!  (Applause.)  Thank you!  (Applause.)  Oh, this is a good crowd here in Vermont!  (Applause.)  It is good to be at UVM -- go Catamounts!  (Applause.)  It is good to be in Vermont.  (Applause.) 

Now, out of all 50 states, Vermont has gone the longest without a presidential visit.  (Applause.)  The last time a President stopped by was President Clinton in 1995.  So we decided that today we are going to reset the clock.  (Applause.)  

A couple of acknowledgements I want to make -- first of all, give Jeanne a big round of applause for her introduction.  You’ve got one of the best governors in the country.  (Applause.)  And when flooding came and disaster struck, he was here every single day working on your behalf.  And we couldn’t be prouder of him -- Peter Shumlin.  (Applause.)   You’ve got two outstanding senators, Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders.  (Applause.)  You’ve got an outstanding mayor-elect -- Miro Weinberger.  (Applause.)  

Give it up for Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.  (Applause.)  I also want to thank Carolyn Dwyer and the entire host committee for helping to organize this unbelievable event.  (Applause.) 

And one last thing I want to do -- I want to express my condolences to everybody who knew and loved Melissa Jenkins, because I know that some of the elected officials are going on to that funeral.  This is a woman, by all accounts, who devoted her life to her community and helping to shape young minds.  And I know that Vermont is heartbroken, so all we can do is live our lives in a way that pays tribute to hers -- by looking out for her students and her son.  And Michelle and I want to express our thoughts and prayers to everyone who knew her.  So I know that’s a tough situation.  (Applause.)  

Now, I’m here -- (applause) -- maybe I should just quit while I’m ahead here.  (Laughter.)  I am going to take off my jacket, though. It’s a little warm.  (Applause.)  I’m here not just because I need your help.  I’m here because the country needs your help. 

There were a lot of reasons that so many of you worked your hearts out for our campaign in 2008.  It wasn’t because it was going to be easy.  It wasn’t because it was a sure thing.  When you decided to support a candidate named Barack Hussein Obama, that’s not a guarantee of success.  (Laughter.)  You didn’t need a poll to know that might be some heavy sledding there.  (Laughter.)   

The point is you didn’t join the campaign because of me.  You joined it because we had a shared vision for America.  It wasn’t a vision where everybody is left to fend for themselves.  It wasn’t a vision where the rules are made just for the powerful.  It was a vision of an America where everybody who works hard has a chance to get ahead -- everybody.  (Applause.)  

That’s the vision that we shared.  That’s the change that we believed in.  And we knew it wasn’t going to come easy; we knew it wouldn’t come quickly.  But we had confidence, we had faith in each other.  We believed that when Americans make commitments to each other about a bold, generous vision for the country, that we can achieve it.  There’s no challenge we can’t overcome. 

And here’s what I want to report -- that in three years, because of what so many of you did in 2008, we've begun to see what change looks like.  (Applause.)  We’ve begun to see what change looks like.

Change is the first bill I signed into law -- a law that says women deserve an equal day’s pay for an equal day’s work, because I want our daughters treated just like our sons.  (Applause.)  

Change is the decision we made to rescue an auto industry that was on the verge of collapse, even when some said let Detroit go bankrupt.  One million jobs were at stake, so we weren’t going to let that happen.  And today, GM is back on top as the world’s number one automaker, reported the highest profits in 100 years -- (applause) -- 200,000 new jobs over the last two and a half years.  The American auto industry is back and it's making cars that are more fuel-efficient.  So that’s helping the environment, even as we’re putting people to work.  (Applause.)  

Change is the decision we made to stop waiting for Congress to do something about our oil addiction.  That’s why we finally raised our fuel-efficiency standards.  By the middle of the next decade, we will be driving American-made cars that get almost 55 miles to a gallon -- (applause) -- saves the typical family more than $8,000 at the pump.  That’s what change is.   

Change is the fight we won to stop handing $60 billion in taxpayer giveaways to the banks who were processing student loans.  We decided let’s give those student loans directly to students -- (applause) -- which meant we could make college more affordable to young people who need it.  That’s what change is.  That happened because of you. 

And, yes, change is the health care reform that we passed after over a century of trying.  (Applause.)  Reform that will finally ensure that in the United States of America, no one will go broke just because they get sick.  Already -- already 2.5 million young people now have health insurance who didn’t have it before because this law lets them stay on their parent's plan.  (Applause.)  Already millions of seniors are paying less for their prescription drugs because of this law.  Already, Americans can’t be denied or dropped by their insurance company when they need care the most.  Already, they’re getting preventive care that they didn’t have before.  That’s happening right now.  (Applause.)

Change is the fact that for the first time in history, you don’t have to hide who you love in order to serve the country you love, because we ended "don't ask, don't tell."  (Applause.)

Change is the fact that for the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq.  (Applause.)  We refocused our efforts on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11.  And thanks to the brave men and women in uniform,

al Qaeda is weaker than it has ever been.  Osama bin Laden is no more.  (Applause.)  We’ve begun to transition in Afghanistan to put them in the lead, and start bringing our troops home from Afghanistan.  That’s what change is.  (Applause.)

Now, none of this has been easy.  We’ve had a little resistance from the other side.  (Laughter.)  We’ve got more work to do.  There are still too many Americans who are out there looking for work.  There are still too many families who can barely afford to pay the bills or make the mortgage.  We’re still recovering from the worst economic storm in generations.

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Love you!

THE PRESIDENT:  Love you back!  (Applause.) 

But over the past two years, businesses have added nearly  4 million new jobs.  Our manufacturers are creating jobs for the first time since the 1990s.  Our economy is getting stronger.  The recovery is accelerating.  All of which means the last thing we can afford to do is to go back to the same policies that got us into the mess in the first place.  (Applause.)

But that’s what the other side wants to do.  They make no secret about it.  They want to go back to the days where Wall Street played by its own rules.  They want to go back to the day when insurance companies could do whatever they wanted to.  They want to go back to the days where -- they want to continue to spend trillions of dollars on tax breaks for the wealthiest individuals in America, even if it means adding to the deficit, or gutting education, or gutting investments in clean energy, or hurting Medicare.

AUDIENCE:  Booo --  

THE PRESIDENT:  Their philosophy is simple:  You are on your own.  You’re on your own.  If you are out of work, can’t find a job, tough luck, you’re on your own.  You don’t have health care, -- that’s your problem -- you’re on your own.  If you’re born into poverty, lift yourself up with your own bootstraps even if you don’t have boots.  You’re on your own.  They believe that’s their -- that's how American has advanced.  That’s the cramped, narrow conception they have of liberty.  And they are wrong.  (Applause.)  They are wrong. 

In the United States of America, we are greater together than we are on our own.  (Applause.)  This country advances when we keep that basic American promise -- if you work hard, you can do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids to college, put a little away for retirement.  And it doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, what you look like.  That’s what has created this extraordinary country of ours.  That’s what we’re fighting for.  (Applause.)  That’s the choice in this election. 

This is not just your usual, run-of-the-mill political debate.  This is the defining issue of our time; a make-or-break moment for the middle class.  That’s what we’ve got to fight for.  (Applause.)   

We can go back to an economy that was built on outsourcing and bad debt and phony financial profits.  Or we can build an economy that’s built to last.  An economy that’s built on American manufacturing and American innovation, and American energy, and American workers who are trained and skilled, and the values that make this country great -- hard work and fair play and shared responsibility.  That’s the vision I believe in.  That’s what I’m fighting for.  (Applause.) 

We’ve got to make sure that the next generation of manufacturing takes root not in Asia, not in Europe, but in factories of Detroit and Pittsburgh and Cleveland.  I don’t want this nation just to be known for buying and consuming things.  I want us build and sell things all around the world.  (Applause.)   I want us to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas  -- reward companies that are investing right here in the United States of America.  (Applause.)    

I want to make our schools the envy of the world.  (Applause.)  And by the way, that starts with the man or woman at the front of the classroom.  (Applause.)  A good teacher -- a good teacher can increase the lifetime earnings of a classroom by over $250,000.  A great teacher can help a child trapped in poverty dream and then live beyond their circumstances.  So I don’t want folks in Washington to be bashing teachers.  I don’t want them to defend the status quo.  I want us to give schools the resources they need to hire good teachers, reward great teachers.  (Applause.)  I want us to grant schools the flexibility to teach with creativity and passion, and stop teaching to the test, and replace teachers who aren’t helping kids learn.  That’s what I want to see happen.  (Applause.)

And when kids do graduate, the most daunting challenge can be the cost of college.  When Americans owe more tuition debt than they do credit card debt, you know we’ve got a problem.  Now, the first thing we’ve got to do -- Congress has to stop interest rates that are currently scheduled to go up in July on student loans, which will be a huge problem for a lot of young people.  I’ve already asked Congress to do it.  They haven’t done it -- shocking enough -- they haven’t done it so far.  (Laughter.)  And colleges and universities have to do their part, too, to keep tuition from going up -- (applause) -- because higher education cannot be a luxury.  It is an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford.  (Applause.) 

An economy built to last is one that supports scientists and researchers and science.  (Applause.)  Whether we’re talking about stem cell research or climate change, we don’t need science deniers.  We need people to understand that America has always succeed because of our belief in science, our investment in research.  (Applause.)  

We’ve got to make sure the next great breakthrough in clean energy happens right here in the United States of America.  We have been subsidizing oil companies for 100 years now through taxpayer giveaways.  I think it’s time -- I just talked about this yesterday -- it’s time to stop taxpayer giveaways to an oil industry that has been rarely more profitable.  Let’s double down on clean energy that has never been more promising -- solar and wind and biofuels, and energy efficiency, electric batteries.  That’s what we need to be investing in.  (Applause.)   

We’ve got to rebuild America.  I want our businesses and our people to have access to the best roads and the best airports, faster high-speed rail and Internet access.  It’s time for us to take the money we were spending at war, use half of it to pay down our debt, use the rest of it to start doing some nation-building right here at home.  (Applause.)

And we’ve got to make sure that we’ve got a tax system that is actually fair.  Part of that is something I call the Buffett Rule.  It’s very simple:  If you are making more than $1 million a year -- I’m not saying you have $1 million, I’m saying you’re making $1 million every year -- then you shouldn’t pay a lower rate than your secretary.  (Applause.)  That’s a pretty simple proposition. 

Now, if you make less than $250,000 a year -- like 98 percent of American families -- your taxes shouldn’t go up because right now folks are struggling still to dig themselves out of this incredible recession.  But if you’re making more than $1 million a year, you can do a little more.  This is not class envy.  This is not class warfare.  This is basic math -- that’s what this is.  (Applause.) 

Look, if somebody like me gets a tax break that they don’t  need and that the country can’t afford, then one of two things are going to happen -- either it adds to our deficit, or we’re taking something away from somebody else.  That student now has to pay a higher interest rate on their student loan because we’ve got to make up the money somewhere.  Or that senior has to start paying more for their Medicare because the money has to be made up somewhere.  Or that veteran doesn’t get the PTSD care that they needed after serving our country.  Or a family that’s struggling to get by maybe is getting less home heating oil assistance. 

Look, there’s no way of getting around that.  Either folks like me are doing more, or somebody who can’t afford it is getting less.  And that’s not right.  That’s not who we are.  That’s not what America is about.  (Applause.)

I hear politicians talking about values in an election year.  I hear a lot about that.  Let me tell you about values.  Hard work, personal responsibility -- those are values.   But looking out for one another -- that’s a value.  (Applause.)  The idea that we’re all in this together -- I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper -- that’s a value.  (Applause.)   The idea that we think about the next generation and we’re taking care of our planet -- that’s a value.  (Applause.)

Each of us is only here because somebody, somewhere, felt responsibility, yes, to their families, but also to their fellow citizens, also to our country’s future.  That’s the American story.  The American story is not just about what we do on our own.  Yes, we’re rugged individualists and we expect personal responsibility, and everybody out there has got to work hard and carry their weight.  But we also have always understood that we   wouldn’t win the race for new jobs and businesses and middle-class security if we were just applying some you’re-on-your-own economics.  It's been tried in our history and it hasn’t worked.  It didn’t work when we tried it in the decade before the Great Depression.  It didn’t work when we tried it in the last decade.  We just tried this.  What they’re peddling has been tried.  It did not work.  (Applause.)  

We know this from our own lives.  If we attract some outstanding young person to become a teacher by giving them the pay and the support that they deserve, and that teacher goes on to educate the next Steve Jobs, well, we all benefit.  We all do better.  America rises.  (Applause.)  If we’re providing faster Internet to rural America so that some small business owner suddenly can sell his or her goods around the world, that’s good for all of us.  If we build a new bridge that saves a shipping company time and money, then workers and customers all around the country benefit.  They do better.  That’s how America became an economic superpower. 

This has not traditionally been a Democratic or Republican idea.  It was a Republican, Teddy Roosevelt, who called for a progressive income tax.  It was Dwight Eisenhower who built the Interstate Highway System.  The first Republican President, President Lincoln -- who, by the way, couldn’t win the nomination for the Republican primary right now.  (Laughter and applause.)  He’d be -- in the middle of a civil war, helped to make the Transcontinental Railroad possible, the land-grant colleges, the National Academy of Scientists.  He understood that we’re in this together, we’ve got to make an investment in our futures.  It was with the help of Republicans that FDR was able to give millions of returning heroes, including my grandfather, the chance to go college through the G.I. Bill.  (Applause.)  

And that same spirit of common purpose, it still exists today.  Maybe it doesn’t exist in Washington.  But out here in Vermont and all across America, it’s there.  (Applause.)  It’s there when you talk to folks on Main Street.  It’s there when you go to a town hall.  It’s there when you talk to members of our armed forces.  It’s there when you talk to people in their places of worship. 

Our politics may be divided.  But most Americans still understand that no matter where you come from, no matter who you are, we rise or fall together as one nation, as one people.  (Applause.)  And that’s what’s at stake right now.  That’s what this election is about. 

So I know we’ve gone through some tough years.  And I know that for all the things we’ve done, we’ve still got so much undone.  And sometimes the change we fought for hasn’t always come as fast as we wanted.  And when you see what's been going on in Washington, I know it’s tempting sometimes to get discouraged, to kind of think, well, maybe change just isn’t possible.  Maybe it was an illusion.  But I want you guys to recall, I did say back in 2008, real change -- big change -- it’s hard.  It takes time.  It takes more than a single term and more than a single President.  What it takes is ordinary citizens who are committed to keep fighting and to keep pushing, and inching us closer and closer and closer to our country’s highest ideals.  (Applause.)  

And you know something else I used to say in 2008 -- I said, I am not a perfect man -- Michelle will tell you that -- and I'll never be a perfect President.  But I made a promise to you then that I would always tell you what I believed and I would always tell you where I stood, and I would wake up every single day fighting as hard as I know how for you.  And I have kept that promise.  (Applause.)  I have kept that promise.  (Applause.)  I have kept that promise.    

So if you’re willing to keep pushing with me through all the obstacles, through all the naysayers; if you’re willing to keep reaching for that vision of America that we all have talked about -- that commitment you didn’t just make to me or I made to you, but that we made to each other -- I guarantee you change will come.  (Applause.)  If you’re willing to work harder in this election than you did in the last one, I promise you change will come.  (Applause.)  If you’re willing to knock on some doors and make some phone calls, I promise you change will come. 

We will finish what we started in 2008.  (Applause.)   Fight with me, and press on with me, and we will remind the world once again just what America is all about. 

God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)

END
2:55 P.M. EDT

Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event

Sheraton Burlington Hotel
Burlington, Vermont

1:04 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you, everybody.  (Applause.)  Oh, it is good to be in Vermont.  I had to come here because Michelle got such a reception here -- (applause) -- and everybody was saying how popular she was and how much money she had raised and how everybody loved her and -- (laughter) -- I was starting to feel a little -- a little left out.  (Laughter.)  So I said I've got to go there, too.

But part of the reason I had to come is because people like Jane and Bill and Charlie and Marie and others have just been such great friends for such a long time, and the enthusiasm that we received when I was still running when I came here was just extraordinary.  And you've got a couple of outstanding senators, a great member of Congress, just a terrific delegation that has been on the right side of issues for a very long time.  And so I just wanted to come up here and say thank you to the people of Vermont for having such good sense.  (Laughter and applause.)

Also, coming from Chicago, I thought it would be nice to enjoy just even a little taste of winter because I don't think it got below 50 degrees in Washington this entire year.
What I'm going to do is be very brief at the top so that I can spend most of my time answering questions. 

Since Jane and I first met, and Charlie and I first met, and others, obviously this country has gone through an extraordinary journey -- the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, millions of people losing their jobs, a housing market collapsing, changes internationally that very few of us could have imagined three or four or five years earlier.  And so it's been a challenging time for America.

And yet one of the things that always gave me confidence was, as I traveled around the country, both first as a candidate and then as President, what I continually saw was the incredible resilience and strength and imagination of the American people.  And so even during the darkest days of this recession, I always had confidence that America would bounce back.  It was not a matter of if, it was a matter of when.  And the question was would we be able to pull the country together and move not only to get us back to where we were before the financial crisis, but to solve these ongoing problems that we'd been putting off for decades.

And three years, three and a half years later, I'm here to report that we've made extraordinary progress.  We were losing 800,000 jobs a month the month I was sworn in; we've now seen over the last two years almost 4 million jobs created.  The unemployment rate has started to tick down.  We're seeing the strongest employment in manufacturing since the 1990s.  Exports are on track to double the goal that we set.  The economy is starting to get stronger and businesses are starting to feel more confident.

In the meantime, those issues that so many of us were talking about during the election in 2008 we've started to address.  So I said that I'd end the war in Iraq; we've ended it. I said that we would get a health care law that would provide near universal coverage so that people don't have to go bankrupt when they get sick in this country; we got it passed.  We committed to ending "don't ask, don't tell" -- "don't ask, don't tell" is history. 

We said that we needed to help our students make sure that they can go to college, that they can afford it -- and we took $60 billion that was going to the banks to subsidize them managing the student loan program and now that money is going directly to students.  And millions of students are getting higher Pell grants, or eligible for the first time, and we're on track to make sure that college is a lot more affordable for young people so that they can compete in this 21st century economy.

And so not only have we been able to right the ship and get the banking system working again and make sure that the economy has an opportunity to grow, but we're also dealing with some of those underlying issues that had challenged us for a very long time -- doubling fuel efficiency standards on cars, probably the most significant piece of environmental legislation in a very long time that could end up saving us billions of dollars and taking all kinds of carbon out of the atmosphere.

But I think all of us are here today because we know our job isn't finished.  We've got a lot more to do.  We still have to do more to make sure that people who don't have work can find work. We're going to have to do more to make sure that our housing system is working for everybody and that people can start recovering from the beating that they've taken with the decline in the real estate market. 

We still have to have an energy policy that reflects both the short-term challenges that people are feeling, the pinch that they're feeling at the pump, but also the long-term challenges that we're facing in terms of energy independence and climate change. 

We haven't reformed our immigration system yet.  And we're a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants, and there's no reason why we shouldn’t be able to reconcile those values to have a system that's sensible and continues to replenish America with extraordinary talent from all around the world.

We’ve embarked on an extraordinary path to reform K through 12 education through programs like Race to the Top, and we’re encouraging innovation and accountability and making sure that teachers aren’t teaching to the test but instead are able to teach creatively and passionately.  But we’ve got more work to do because there are still too many kids who are being shunted aside.

And on the foreign policy front, we’ve got to execute effective transition out of Afghanistan, leave a stable country, continue to press on those who would do us harm, and continue to forge the kind of diplomacy around the world that restores respect for America but also ensures not only our own security, but also opportunity and well-being for folks who continue to suffer from extraordinary poverty around the world.

So we’ve still got huge challenges remaining and we’re going to have to figure out how to pay for everything that we do -- which brings me to why in some ways this election I think is actually more important than 2008.  In 2008, I was running against a candidate who believed in climate change, believed in immigration reform, believed in the notion of reducing deficits in a balanced way.  We had some profound disagreements but the Republican candidate for President understood that some of these challenges required compromise and bipartisanship. 

And what we’ve witnessed lately is a fundamentally different vision of America and who we are.  It’s an America that says -- or it’s a vision that says that America is about looking out for yourself, not for other people.  It’s an America that denies something like climate change, rejects it; that takes a position on immigration that would have been unthinkable in either party just a few years ago; that when it comes to figuring out how do we pay for the investments that we need to grow, basically says those of us who are doing best don’t have to do a thing and we will balance that budget on the backs of the poor and seniors, and at the expense of basic research and basic science and investments in clean energy and increasing the cost of student loans for students. 

The recent budget that just passed the House, the budget that passed the House yesterday, if you did the math, essentially the only thing that would be left in the federal government would be defense, social security and the entitlement programs -- although those would be diminished -- interest on the national debt.  That would be about it.  You'd be looking at about 1 percent of the entire federal budget devoted to everything else
-- education, environmental protection, science, those things that historically have made us an economic superpower, but also a country in which everybody has a fair shot, everybody does their fair share and everybody is playing by the same set of rules. 

And so, in some ways, this is going to be healthy for our democracy.  I think it’s going to be a clarifying election about who we are and what we stand for.  But it’s enormous -- a lot is at stake in this election.  And we’re going to have to fight for it.  We’re not going to be complacent and be able to deliver on what we think is the right path for our kids and our grandkids and future generations. 

And so I’m going to need your help.  And in some ways, it may be a little harder because it has lost some of the novelty, right?   When back in ’08, it was cool to say, oh, you know, I’m supporting this guy Obama -- you heard of him?  (Laughter.)  Let me tell you about him.  Now I’m old hat, I’m gray.  (Laughter.)  But my determination is undiminished.  My confidence in the core decency of the American people is undiminished.  I believe we’re on the right track.  And Jane is right -- I believe I’m going to get there.  More importantly, I believe America is going to get there with your help.

Thank you very much, everybody.  (Applause.)

END   
1:16 P.M. EDT

Remarks by Vice President Joe Biden on Manufacturing at a Campaign Event

PCT ENGINEERING
DAVENPORT, IOWA

12:26 P.M. CDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody.  How are you?  (Applause.)  It’s good to be back in Davenport, the Quad Cities.  (Applause.)

Mr. Mayor, thank you for flying back from Brazil and getting off a plane and coming straight here.  If I were you, I’d be home in bed trying to catch up on my sleep.  And I want to tell you something, I know I’m back in Iowa when the guy introducing you from the factory floor speaks better than you do, I know I’m back in -- I know I’m back in Iowa.  (Laughter and applause.)  Incredible state.  You’re an incredible state.

I understand the Mayor of Eldridge is here and -- Martin O’Boyle.  Terry, thank you for the opportunity of allowing me on the factory floor here, and I understand the chancellor of Eastern Iowa Community College, Don Doucette, is here.  Don, where are you?  Thank you very much, Don.  I’m going to talk about what you guys are doing in just a minute.

And, folks, first of all, as it relates to the story that was just told by Chuck, it reminds me, my dad used to have an expression.  He’d say -- I mean this sincerely, a guy who had lost jobs, a guy who had to move and move his family -- he said, Joey, you got to understand one thing, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck.  It’s about your dignity.  It’s about your respect.  It’s about your sense of yourself.  It’s about your place in the community.

And too many people have been stripped of their dignity as a consequence of this God-awful recession we’ve inherited.  And we’re determined -- we’re determined -- I think all of us, Republican and Democrat -- are determined to turn that around.

But first I want to thank -- I want to thank Terry, the president of PCT, and I also want to thank the community college for doing what is a remarkable thing that's happening all across America, for partnering -- for partnering with this great company and producing jobs, making sure the skills available match the needs.

Ladies and gentlemen, I come here today with a very, very simple message:  Manufacturing is back.  Manufacturing is back.  (Applause.)

And, folks, that's not only good news for Chuck and all the fellow workers here on this factory floor, it’s good news for America.  But it’s even better news for America’s middle class.  (Applause.)  They’ve taken an awful beating over the last decade or more, and what’s happened just in the last couple years:  430,000 new manufacturing jobs just since 2010; more than 15,000 new manufacturing jobs here in the state of Iowa; the fastest growth in manufacturing since the ‘90s.

After years of hearing the word outsourcing, our children are going to hear a new word as much as we heard outsourcing.  It’s called insourcing.  It’s called insourcing.  (Applause.)

Because, folks, the facts are -- and you’re going to see more of them -- the facts are that the jobs that left the United States are coming back to the United States.  Plants that closed are opening, opening and reinvented.  Companies like John Deere expanding here in Davenport and in Waterloo and in Des Moines, where they added nearly 500 new jobs in the past two years, good paying jobs.  Siemens Wind employs 500 people at Fort Madison.  Sixty-five percent of them used to work in companies in the area that are either closed or downsized.  So, folks, America is coming back.  It’s not a political slogan; it’s a reality.  And it’s happening in the sector that built the middle class in manufacturing.

Look, you know a lot of my Republican friends and some of our political opponents wonder why the President and I have spent so much time working to bring manufacturing back.  No one in the Heartland has to wonder about that.  You all know why.  You all know why because you were the manufacturing center of the world, and you saw what happened when those jobs were lost. 

You know that manufacturing jobs just aren’t any old jobs.  They are good paying jobs; jobs you can raise a family on.  Jobs that allow you to own a home and not just rent; jobs that give you the promise of being able to send your kid to college.  And here in Iowa, the average manufacturing job pays almost $50,000 a year.  And they’re jobs that matter to everyone, as was mentioned by Chuck, because they not only are good for America -- they’re good for America, because they make America competitive again.  And they’re jobs of building products of the future in industries of the future for an economy that’s able to compete for the future, products like the electronic beam systems built here at PCT -- remarkable.

These are jobs building products that export to consumers not just here but all around the world, expanding world markets for the United States of America.  You know about that too.  Fifty percent -- all the workers here know that 50 percent of what they produce here at PCT Engineering are sales that are destined to be exported.  That’s a big deal.
 
They’re jobs that anchor our communities.  They’re jobs that get the local community moving again, manufacturing jobs.  Manufacturing jobs create more jobs, other jobs -- jobs in diners, hardware stores, schools, police departments.  But most importantly, they’re jobs that can help rebuild the middle class, which has been battered.  And nobody knows it better than all of you.

Look, it matters because real growth, growth that is widely shared, the only growth that really matters -- growth that is widely shared by everyone in this country -- can only happen when the middle class is growing again.  When the middle class is growing, everyone does well.  The wealthy do very well, as they should, and those who are not wealthy have a shot, a ladder maybe they can climb up to change their circumstance.

But the middle class will only grow if we build an economy that can support the middle class.  And manufacturing is not the only part, but it’s a critical part to bringing back the middle class.  And no one knows that better than the people of Iowa, who know the essential role that -- it’s not only manufacturing.  Look at Iowa and agriculture and the role agriculture plays in the economic health and well-being of this nation.  That’s why the President and I are so proud that last year farm exports reached a record high of $137 billion, $23 billion higher than ever before.
 
That’s not only good for the economic well-being of Iowa farmers, it’s good for the economic well-being of the entire country.  And with the new trade agreements the President negotiated, we expect an additional $2.3 billion in the coming years in agricultural products supporting an additional 20,000 jobs here at home.  But it’s not only the agricultural sector that’s going to benefit from these new trade agreements.  It will create tens of thousands of more jobs in manufacturing in the high-tech sector because of these agreements.

And, folks, we’re not just fighting harder to be able to export our products -- agriculture or manufactured -- abroad.  They’re important, but we’re fighting to export complex, high-tech services as well, services that Americans provide better than any other people in the world, but things most people don’t think about -- (applause) -- things most don't think about, that they contribute and contribute tens of billions of dollars to our economy like construction, engineering, health care technology, IT.  We do that better than anyone in the world.

We recently signed an agreement, after my negotiations with the Vice President of China, opening America’s automobile insurance industry to the largest automobile market in the world.  You say, what does that have to do?  If you have access for American automobile insurance companies to sell insurance, which has been blocked up to now, in China to the largest number of folks in the world who drive automobiles, that’s real money.  That’s real jobs.  That’s real jobs back here at home.
   
But ultimately, it all comes down to the same question, the real question, quite frankly, of this election and the challenge of our time -- will we be a country that values the role of workers in the success of businesses and values the middle class in the success of the economy or are we going to move backwards to the same disastrous philosophy that rewarded speculators rather than builders?

Look, this is the third in a series of speeches I’m giving on behalf of our administration laying out the stark choices we believe the American people are going to face in November and what’s at stake for the middle class.  Today, I want to focus primarily on manufacturing because President Obama and I -- President Obama and I have been working to rebuild our manufacturing sector and rebuild our country because we think they're one and the same.  We don't know how you do one without the other.  We don't know how you leave it out, manufacturing and rebuild the country.

So let me tell you what we’ve done, but maybe equally as important, let me tell you what we think we have to do, what more we have to do.  When we came into office, the manufacturing sector, had been neglected badly and was getting devastated.

During the 2000s, before we came in, 5.8 million manufacturing jobs were lost in the United States of America.  Right here in Iowa, you lost 53,000 manufacturing jobs.  You saw companies like Maytag and Electolux and many others close shop.  Thousands of factories closed out and laid off workers, a lot of them reopened in places like Vietnam, Mexico, China, “cheaper markets.”  And we were told -- how many times have you been told over the last 15 years that America’s days as a leading manufacturer in the world had passed? 

Look, the President and I said, where is it written, where is it written that says our day has passed in anything?  The President and I fundamentally disagreed with that proposition.  And by the way, it was a widely held proposition, not just with our friends on the other side, with a whole lot of people. 

We knew -- we knew we had to get manufacturing back on its feet again because for every one of those manufacturing jobs lost, somebody lost their place in the middle class.  For every one of those jobs lost.

So we went to work first and foremost over significant opposition, and with Mitt Romney arguing that we should let Detroit go bankrupt. 

AUDIENCE MEMBERS:  Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  What we did is we rescued the auto industry.  We administered some of the very toughest medicine -- (Applause.)  We were criticized by many on our side.  We administered some very tough medicine, but together we saved literally 1 million jobs.

And since restructuring, the industry has already added back another 200,000 jobs and GM is leading the world again as the world’s largest automobile manufacturer.  (Applause.)

Folks, we knew that was essential, but not enough, so we went to work to provide a skilled workforce for companies that have already come back or are bringing their folks back.  We met with the leading companies in the world who came to the White House in January.  They pointed out to us that right now there are 600,000 manufacturing jobs in the United States that companies who have come back home can't fill because of their inability to match the workers’ skills with the need of the companies.

So we launched a partnership between what my wife, Jill, who is a community college professor, calls the best-kept secret -- (Applause.)  Beautiful.  What my wife, Jill, calls the best-kept secret in America, American community colleges.  And businesses looking to fill those 600,000 slots married up with them.

We’ve also proposed an $8 billion partnership to give more momentum to this effort.  My wife and the Secretary of Labor, Secretary Solis, just did an 800-mile bus trip, starting off in Iowa, working all the way -- their way through Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, visiting community college and business after community college and business, providing hundreds and hundreds of good paying jobs because they're training directly, exactly what the companies need. 

And it was all over the countryside, from Tennessee, to North Carolina, to Michigan, Ohio, New Hampshire, and it’s working.  So let me say it again, thank you, Terry.  And thank you, Dr. Paper, and thank you, Chancellor -- Dr. Paper, and thank you, Chancellor, for this partnership of yours.  You are one of the reasons why.  You’re literally one of the reasons why American companies are now insourcing instead of outsourcing.

We’ve committed to breaking down barriers that block access of American products to overseas markets, so the rest of the world and the consumers can understand what we already know, that we make the best products.  No one makes a better product than American workers, and there’s no worker in the world more productive than an American worker.  That's not hyperbole.  That is a fact.  That is literally a fact.  (Applause.)

In addition, the President has signed into law three free trade agreement with Korea, Colombia and Panama.  They're going to open up markets for the best products in the world -- for the best products in the world, Made in America products, to all those countries, which now can't get into those countries and are committed to leveling the playing field across the board.

To that end, we created for the first time a thing we call the Trade Enforcement Unit, whose sole job is to crack down on countries that pursue unfair trade practices.  We’re not -- we don't think that's a trade war.  We think that's a fair way to trade.  And so just this month, we brought a new trade case against China. 

China is unfairly limiting American access to so-called rare earth materials that they possess, that are needed by American manufacturers to make high-tech products like electronic vehicles and advanced electronics.

We changed the tax code to give a 30 percent tax credit to a company that builds wind turbines, solar panels or other clean energy products here in the United States rather than abroad.  (Applause.)  The result so far -- the result so far is $2.3 billion of new investment in factories built here in the United States of America, rather than abroad.  (Applause.)

Look, even more to come as they invest in new plants and equipment right now, right now if they invest, by allowing them to write off more rapidly the cost of the factory, the cost of the equipment, the cost of their vehicles so they can expand opportunities.  That means more people being hired.

The bottom line is we’re changing the paradigm here.  We’re rewarding instead of penalizing American companies that invest in building and hiring here in America, and manufacturers are responding.  They're hiring workers by the hundreds of thousands.  They're exploiting products all around the world. 

With this added incentive, we’re on pace to double, as the President committed to, double American exports by the year 2015.  And let me translate what that means, if we double American exports by the year 2015, that creates another 2 million American jobs.  (Applause.)

So, folks -- so all those skeptics and our Republican opponents who -- especially don't tell me that America can't make things anymore; can't compete in the world market anymore; can't lead the world again any more.  We will lead the world again in every aspect of the economy.  (Applause.)

And, folks, we’ve already begun.  You’ve begun -- not me -- you’ve begun, and we’re not done.  For years, American manufacturers have faced one of the highest tax rates in the world.  We want to reduce that by over 20 percent.  We want to drop the rate particularly for high-tech manufacturers like you, Mr. President, even further than the 20 percent.  We want to create what’s called a global minimum tax, because American taxpayers shouldn’t be providing a larger subsidy for investing abroad than investing at home.  (Applause.)

Look, we want to end and we want to end it right now, the practice of getting a tax break, which you saw happen here in Iowa for dismantling a factory, floor to ceiling, and shipping it abroad and getting a moving expense to go abroad.  Instead, we should be giving a tax credit to companies that dismantle factories abroad and bring them back home.  (Applause.)
 
Look, this and a lot of other ways is why we’re bringing American manufacturing back and it’s how we’re going to grow the middle class.  Look, folks, conventional wisdom that manufacturing is dead in this country is dead wrong -- dead wrong -- and we’ve got to maintain this momentum.  But if you’ll forgive me for saying this, one thing that could bring this momentum to a screeching halt is turning over the keys of the White House to Santorum or Romney.  (Applause.)

Look, they’re both good guys.  They’re both good guys and I’ve worked with Rick for a long time.  Senator Santorum is the only one of them who is even claiming to care about manufacturing, but his Senate record tells a different story.  He voted against ending loopholes for companies that move manufacturing jobs offshore, from America offshore.  And just like Mitt Romney, when asked if we should have rescued the automobile industry, he said, “No, absolutely not.”

But if Senator Santorum has been inconsistent in what he has said and what he has done, Mitt Romney has been remarkably consistent -- (laughter) -- as an investor/businessman, as the governor of Massachusetts, and now as a candidate for President, remarkably consistent and I respectfully suggest, consistently wrong.  (Applause.)

Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, when he was CEO of Bain Capital, Bain Capital closed down two factories in South Florida that made medical devices, moving the production to Germany.  They shut down a plant in South Carolina and cut jobs in another one in Rhode Island that made photo albums and picture frames and outsourced production overseas.  I’m tempted to say, Mitt, thanks for the memories.  (Laughter.)  You know what I mean?

As governor of Massachusetts, he repeatedly slashed funding for workforce training in manufacturing specifically.  And despite the fact that millions of taxpayer dollars were flowing to companies outsourcing state services like overseas call centers, he vetoed a bill passed by the Massachusetts legislature that would have stopped the state from outsourcing contracts overseas, state contracts.

Look, think about it, a Massachusetts taxpayer with a question -- this is how it works -- with a question about Massachusetts state services, picks up the phone, dials an 800 number expecting to talk to somebody in the Massachusetts government to get an answer to their question.  And instead, he talking to -- or she’s talking to someone on the other side of the world and all of it paid for by his or her tax dollars.  I find that kind of fascinating.  (Laughter.)  No, I really mean it.  I mean, that’s one when I was told about, I said, I’m not going to say that until you fact check that for me again.
  
But think about it, it’s one thing for the local company to outsource a call service, but for the state government to outsource a call service that’s set up to answer questions for people in the state about a problem they have with the government, to outsource that, denying folks in Massachusetts the jobs that are attendant to that?  Is it any surprise to you that Massachusetts, under Governor Romney, was losing manufacturing jobs twice as fast as the rest of the country?
 
Now, as a presidential candidate, he has proposed a new international tax system that zeroes out taxes for companies that create jobs outside the United States of America.  I’m not making this stuff up.
 
Look, your -- President Obama and Governor Romney, Joe Biden, and whoever the nominee is going to be, we are talking about taxes and the burden on manufacturers.  But there’s a big difference.  Our tax cuts go to companies that create jobs over here.  The Romney tax cut goes to companies that create jobs overseas.  It’s a fundamentally different philosophy from ours.
 
When China was dumping tires into the international marketplace, hurting American manufacturers of tires and their workers, President Obama stepped up and enforced our trade laws and won.  Governor Romney, at the time, called what the President has done protectionism.  That’s his quote -- “protectionism.”  Now, when it’s politically expedient, he wants to get really tough on China.
 
Look, it’s a different philosophy.  Governor Romney has called the President of the United States “out of touch” -- that's a quote, “out of touch” -- for encouraging young people to try to get manufacturing jobs.  Out of touch?  Romney?  (Laughter and applause.)  I mean, pretty remarkable, pretty remarkable.  As an old friend of mine says, that’s chutzpah.  (Laughter.)  Look, the Wall Street Journal wrote, “Romney appeared to scoff first in Detroit, then in Florida at the notion of manufacturing as a job engine for the future.”
 
So, look, folks, we have a choice in this election between our philosophy that believes manufacturing is central to our economy and their philosophy that scoffs at it, between our philosophy that says there is nothing out of touch about fighting for the future of the middle class by creating manufacturing jobs -- a philosophy that says if the folks at the top -- and their philosophy says if the folks at the top do well, everything else will do well.  How many times have you heard about the job creators?
 
Look, Governor Romney’s business practices and his policies have clearly benefited the wealthy and most powerful among us, often at the expense of working and middle-class families.  They actually believe it’s the best way.  I’m not doubting their belief.  But it just doesn’t work that way.

As the President said, and I quote, "this" -- meaning the middle class -- "this is the defining issue of our time.  This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and for all those who are fighting to get into the middle class.”

Folks, I stood outside of a lot of plant gates in my career, both here in this state, the state of Iowa, and in my home state of Delaware, shaking hands and asking for support.  I've also stood outside those gates -- like the General Motors gate of my home state -- asking those -- when those workers needed my help because the plant was shutting down, going somewhere else.  Those are the days that stick with me the most in my career.

Those are the days when the longest walk that these folks were taking wasn't from the factory floor to the parking lot for the last time, it was up that flight of stairs they had to go up once they got home into their child's bedroom to say, Honey, I'm sorry but you're not going to be able to go back to Roosevelt High School, or St. Mary's, or not be able to be in that little league; Daddy, Mommy, I lost my job.  We've got to do something else.

My dad made that walk when I was young.  An awful lot of kids heard the same words I heard, except the difference between then and now was that my father said everything was going to be okay.  In the mid ‘50s he believed it, and I believed it.  So many people have made that walk in the recent past five, six, seven years, and they can't even say with certainty when they look at their child up until now, it's going to be okay. 

But the good news is that today, hundreds of thousands of workers are replacing that longest walk with walks of a totally different journey.  (Applause.)  A journey that ends with workers who are able to come home and say, I've got a job -- just like you were.  (Applause.)  I've got a job.

They've been able to say, I've got a good job building amazing products that the world wants to buy.  That’s what makes me so optimistic.  We've got a way to go yet, but knowing these journeys are taking place again in the thousands -- more of them every single day. 

Look, some of you know me fairly well.  My entire career I've been characterized as an optimist, since I got elected as a 29-year-old kid to the Senate.  Well, I've got to tell you, I mean this sincerely, I've never been more optimistic in my life about the prospects for America.  (Applause.)  America today is better positioned than any country in the world to lead the 21st Century.  (Applause.) 

Folks, it's not just manufacturing that’s coming back.  The middle class is coming back.  America is coming back.  Worker by worker, home by home, neighborhood by neighborhood, the country is coming back.  So as my grandpop would say, keep the faith.  And thank you.  May God bless you all, and may God protect our troops.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

END
12:55 P.M. CDT