Conclusion of Howard Dean's speech to the Iron Workers' convention

Part 1 of the speech is posted here. I'm going to skip ahead to the conclusion now--it's a good one.

So we are going to take this country back to the direction where everybody matters. We've talked about the deficits and the misadventures in foreign policy, and the Republicans wanting to run on fear. And we've had enough of fear, and we've had enough of corruption in this country. This time we're going to stand up for who we are. For positive idears. For a new direction for America.

But, the greatest damage that the Republicans and this president have done to America is not the war in Iraq, it's not the enormous deficit, it's not the incompetence with which they responded to Katrina. The most damage that this Republican administration has done to us, is they've divided us. They've turned us into "us" and "those people". There are no "those people"--they're just Americans. They are working Americans of every size, shape, and color. They're just Americans.

The biggest mistake this president has made out of a long litany of mistakes, is that he fundamentally turned his back on anybody who disagreed with him. Now, when I was governor, I used to say, publicly and loudly, that everybody was my boss. If you were a conservative Republican and you'd voted against me, you were still my boss, because you participated in the process, and some of your taxpayer money went to pay my salary and the salary of the administration.

To have a president who goes to a town meeting and exclude anybody who has a bumper sticker or who has given any money to a Democrat, anybody who might disagree with him, is a president of only half the nation. We need a president and a party that believes in everybody. That believes that everybody's got something good to say, regardless of whether they're a Republican or a Democrat, or a conservative or a liberal--that we're all in this together again.

And so the most important new direction that America can take, is not only a strong defense backed by telling the truth, and American jobs that will stay here in America, and to fix the healthcare mess and to stop the war on the middle class. The most important new direction that we can lead in, is a new direction which includes everybody, including those people who did not agree with us. The fact of the matter is, the greatest times for America have been those times when we're all in it together.

And this time, we really are going to take back this country for the people who built it, and that is you. Thanks very much. (Applause).

The photo of Howard Dean is actually from his visit to Columbus in 2004. I would have liked to get a screen capture from C-SPAN, but although the video is allegedly viewable there, I've been unable to get it to play.

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