Thank you.

Thank you so much.

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more

years!

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you so much

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years!

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years!

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you very much everybody

Thank you

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

Michelle, I love you so much.

[HOOTS]

A few nights ago everybody was reminded just what a lucky man I am.

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

The other night, I think the entire country saw just how lucky I am. Malia and Sasha,

we are so proud of you.

[CHEERS]

And yes, you do have to go to school in the morning.

[LAUGHTER]

And Joe Biden, thank you for being the best Vice President I could have ever hoped for,

and being a strong and loyal friend.

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] 

Madam Chairwoman, delegates, I accept your nomination for President of the United States.

[EXTENDED CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] 

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more

years! Four more years!

PRESIDENT OBAMA: The first time I addressed this convention in 2004, I was a younger man.

[LAUGHER]

A Senate candidate from Illinois who spoke about hope – not blind optimism or wishful

thinking, but hope in the face of difficulty; hope in the face of uncertainty; that dogged

faith in the future which has pushed this nation forward, even when the odds are great;

even when the road is long.   

Eight years later, that hope has been tested – by the cost of war; by one of the worst

economic crises in history; and by political gridlock that’s left us wondering whether

it’s still even possible to tackle the challenges of our time.   

  I know that campaigns can seem small, and

even silly sometimes.  Trivial things become big distractions.  Serious issues become

sound bites.  And the truth gets buried under an avalanche of money and advertising.  If

you’re sick of hearing me approve this message, believe me – so am I. 

[LAUGHTER]

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]   

But when all is said and done – when you pick up that ballot to vote – you will face

the clearest choice of any time in a generation.  Over the next few years, big decisions will

be made in Washington, on jobs and the economy; taxes and deficits; energy and education;

war and peace – decisions that will have a huge impact on our lives and on our children’s

lives for decades to come.       

On every issue, the choice you face won’t just be between two candidates or two parties. 

  It will be a choice between two different

paths for America.   

A choice between two fundamentally different visions for the future.

  Ours is a fight to restore the values that

built the largest middle class and the strongest economy the world has ever known.

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]  The values my grandfather defended as a soldier

in Patton’s Army; the values that drove my grandmother to work on a bomber assembly

line while he was gone.    

They knew they were part of something larger – a nation that triumphed over fascism and

depression; a nation where the most innovative businesses turned out the world’s best products,

and everyone shared in the pride and success – from the corner office to the factory

floor.  My grandparents were given the chance to go to college, buy their own, their own

home, and fulfill the basic bargain at the heart of America’s story:  the promise

that hard work will pay off; that responsibility will be rewarded; that everyone gets a fair

shot, and everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules – from

Main Street to Wall Street to Washington, DC. 

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]   

I ran for President because I saw that basic bargain slipping away.  I began my career

helping people in the shadow of a shuttered steel mill, at a time when too many good jobs

were starting to move overseas.  And by 2008, we had seen nearly a decade in which families

struggled with costs that kept rising but paychecks that didn’t; folks racking up

more and more debt just to make the mortgage or pay tuition; to put gas in the car or food

on the table.  And when the house of cards collapsed in the Great Recession, millions

of innocent Americans lost their jobs, their homes, and their life savings – a tragedy

from which we’re still fighting to recover.     

Now, our friends down in Tampa at the Republican convention were more than happy to talk about

everything they think is wrong with America, but they didn’t have much to say about how

they’d make it right. 

[APPLAUSE]

They want your vote, but they don’t want you to know their plan.  And that’s because

all they have to offer is the same prescriptions they’ve had for the last thirty years:

  “Have a surplus? Try a tax cut.” 

  “Deficit too high? Try another.”

[LAUGHTER]  

“Feel a cold coming on? Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations, and call us in

the morning!”

[EXTENDED CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]   

Now, I’ve cut taxes for those who need it --

[HOOTS]

– middle-class families and small businesses.  But I don’t believe that another round of

tax breaks for millionaires will bring good jobs to our shores, or pay down our deficit. 

I don’t believe that firing teachers or kicking students off financial aid will grow

the economy, or help us compete with the scientists and engineers coming out of China. 

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] 

After all that we’ve been through, I don’t believe that rolling back regulations on Wall

Street will help the small businesswoman expand, or the laid-off construction worker keep his

home.  We have been there, we’ve tried that, and we’re not going back.   We’re

moving forward, America.  

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] 

Now I won’t pretend the path I’m offering is quick or easy.  I never have.  You didn’t

elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear.  You elected me to tell you the truth. 

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] 

And the truth is, it will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that

have built up over decades.  It will require common effort, shared responsibility, and

the kind of bold, persistent experimentation that Franklin Roosevelt pursued during the

only crisis worse than this one.  And by the way – those of us who carry on his party’s

legacy should remember that not every problem can be remedied with another government program

or dictate from Washington.   

But know this, America:  Our problems can be solved. 

[CHEERS]

Our challenges can be met.  The path we offer may be harder, but it leads to a better place.

And I’m asking you to choose that future.  I’m asking you to rally around a set of

goals for your country – goals in manufacturing, energy, education, national security, and

the deficit; a real, achievable plan that will lead to new jobs, more opportunity, and

rebuild this economy on a stronger foundation.   That’s what we can do in the next four years,

and that is why I’m running for a second term as President of the United States. 

[EXTENDED CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]   

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

PRESIDENT OBAMA: We can choose a future where we export more products and outsource fewer

jobs.  After a decade that was defined by what we bought and borrowed, we’re getting

back to basics, and doing what America has always done best:

  We’re making things again. 

  I’ve met workers in Detroit and Toledo…

[CHEERS]

…who feared they’d never build another American car.  Today, they can’t build

them fast enough, because we reinvented a dying auto industry that’s back on the top

of the world.  

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] 

AUDIENCE: U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!   

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I’ve worked with business leaders who are bringing jobs back to America

– not because our workers make less pay, but because we make better products. 

[CHEERS]

Because we work harder and smarter than anyone else.   

  I’ve signed trade agreements that are helping

our companies sell more goods to millions of new customers – goods that are stamped

with three proud words:  Made in America. 

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] 

AUDIENCE: U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!   

PRESIDENT OBAMA: After a decade of decline, this country created over half a million manufacturing

jobs in the last two and a half years.  And now you have a choice:  we can give more

tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, or we can start rewarding companies

that open new plants and train new workers and create new jobs here, in the United States

of America. 

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

We can help big factories and small businesses double their exports, and if we choose this

path, we can create a million new manufacturing jobs in the next four years.  You can make

that happen.  You can choose that future.   

You can choose the path where we control more of our own energy.  After thirty years of

inaction, we raised fuel standards so that by the middle of the next decade, cars and

trucks will go twice as far on a gallon of gas.  

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

We’ve doubled our use of renewable energy, and thousands of Americans have jobs today

building wind turbines and long-lasting batteries.  In the last year alone, we cut oil imports

by one million barrels a day – more than any administration in recent history. 

[CHEERS]

And today, the United States of America is less dependent on foreign oil than at any

time in nearly two decades.

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]  

So now you have a choice – between a strategy that reverses this progress, or one that builds

on it.  We’ve opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration in the last three

years, and we’ll open more.  But unlike my opponent, I will not let oil companies

write this country’s energy plan, or endanger our coastlines, or collect another $4 billion

in corporate welfare from our taxpayers. 

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]   

We’re offering a better path – where we, a future where we keep investing in wind and

solar and clean coal; where farmers and scientists harness new biofuels to power our cars and

trucks; where construction workers build homes and factories that waste less energy; where

we develop a hundred year supply of natural gas that’s right beneath our feet.  If

you choose this path, we can cut our oil imports in half by 2020 and support more than 600,000

new jobs in natural gas alone.   

And yes, my plan will continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet

– because climate change is not a hoax.  More droughts and floods and wildfires are

not a joke.  They’re a threat to our children’s future.  And in this election, you can do

something about it. 

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]  

You can choose a future where more Americans have the chance to gain the skills they need

to compete, no matter how old they are or how much money they have.  Education was

the gateway to opportunity for me.  It was the gateway for Michelle.  It was the gateway

for most of you. And now more than ever, it is the gateway to a middle-class life. 

  For the first time in a generation, nearly

every state has answered our call to raise their standards for teaching and learning. 

Some of the worst schools in the country have made real gains in math and reading.  Millions

of students are paying less for college today because we finally took on a system that wasted

billions of taxpayer dollars on banks and lenders.

  And now you have a choice – we can gut education,

or we can decide that in the United States of America, no child should have her dreams

deferred because of a crowded classroom or a crumbling school.  No family should have

to set aside a college acceptance letter because they don’t have the money.  No company

should have to look for workers overseas because they couldn’t find any with the right skills

here at home. That’s not our future. That is not our future.

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]  

Government has a role in this.  But teachers must inspire; principals must lead; parents

must instill a thirst for learning, and students, you’ve got to do the work.  And together,

I promise you – we can out-educate and out-compete any nation on Earth.  So help me, help me

recruit 100,000 math and science teachers in the next ten years, and improve early childhood

education. 

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

Help give two million workers the chance to learn skills at their community college that

will lead directly to a job.  Help us work with colleges and universities to cut in half

the growth of tuition costs over the next ten years.  We can meet that goal together. 

You can choose that future for America. 

[EXTENDED CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

  That’s our future. You know, in a world

of new threats and new challenges, you can choose leadership that has been tested and

proven.  Four years ago, I promised to end the war in Iraq.  We did. 

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

I promised to refocus on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11.  And we have. 

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

We’ve blunted the Taliban’s momentum in Afghanistan, and in 2014, our longest war

will be over. 

[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

A new tower rises above the New York skyline, al Qaeda is on the path to defeat, and Osama

bin Laden is dead.

[EXTENDED CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]

AUDIENCE: U.S.A!  U.S.A!  U.S.A!  U.S.A!  U.S.A!  U.S.A!  U.S.A!  U.S.A!  U.S.A!

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Tonight, we pay tribute to the Americans who still serve in harm’s

way.  We are forever in debt to a generation whose sacrifice has made this country safer

and more respected.  We will never forget you.  And so long as I’m Commander-in-Chief,

we will sustain the strongest military the world has ever known.  When you take off

the uniform, we will serve you as well as you’ve served us – because no one who

fights for this country should have to fight for a job, or a roof over their head, or the

care that they need when they come home.   

Around the world, we’ve strengthened old alliances and forged new coalitions to stop

the spread of nuclear weapons.  We’ve reasserted our power across the Pacific and stood up

to China on behalf of our workers.  From Burma to Libya to South Sudan, we have advanced

the rights and dignity of all human beings – men and women; Christians and Muslims

and Jews.        

But for all the progress that we’ve made, challenges remain.  Terrorist plots must

be disrupted.  Europe’s crisis must be contained.  Our commitment to Israel’s