The Ed Show on MSNBC kicked off its broadcast this evening with a live stream of President Obama's speech at a fundraising event in Houston, Texas. It is a truly memorable speech because he elegantly lists the accomplishments of his administration and thanks US, his supporters, for making it all happen. He also looks optimistically forward to the things that still need to be done and calls out the Republican candidates for their neanderthal platform.
I will embed the video the moment I can find it. For now, I have attempted a partial transcript after the jump...
UPDATE 2: Thanks to seanwright for finding the Ed Show clip:
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President Obama, speaking in Houston, Texas earlier this evening:
...American made cars that will get 55 miles to the gallon, and that saves American families approximately 8,000 dollars at the pump. That's what change is. That happened because of you.
Change is the fight we won to stop handing over 60 billion dollars in taxpayer subsidies to banks in the student loan program. Give that money directly to students and as a consequence millions of young people all across the country are getting help they didn't have before. That happened because of you. Change. (wild applause) We've got TSU in the house. (more 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. Don't Ask Don't Tell is over.
And yes change is health care reform that we passed after a century of trying. This is reform that makes sure that nobody in this country goes bankrupt just because they get sick. And already, 2 and a half million young people have health insurance today who did not have it before because this law let them stay on their parents plan. Because of this law, preventive care is now covered. And yes that includes preventive care for women: check ups, mammograms, birth copntrol (wild applause) We fought for this because the top doctors, the medical experts in the country said this kind of preventive care saves women's lives. We fought for it because we know it saves money. It's a lot cheaper to prevent an illness than to treat one.
So when you see politicians who are trying to take us back to the days when this care was more expensive and harder to get for women, and I know you're seeing some of that here in Texas, you just remember we can't let them get away with it, we fought for this change. we're gonna protect this change. It's the right thing to do.
And change is keeping another promise I made in 2008. For the first time in 9 years we do not have any Americans who are fighting in Iraq.
We refocused our efforts on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11. And thanks to our brave men and women in uniform, and there are a lot of service memebers and veterans here in the great state of Texas. Al Qaeda is weaker than its ever been and Osama Bin laden will never again walk the face of this earth! (big applause)
None of this has been easy. We've got a lot more work to do. There's still too many Americans out there looking for work. Still too many families struggling to pay the bills or make the mortgage.
We're still recovering from the worst economic crisis of our generation, or many generations. But over the past two years, businesses have added almost 4 million new jobs, our manufacturers are creating jobs for the first time since the 1990's. Our economy steadily has been getting stronger, the recovery is accelerating, America is coming back and the last thing we can afford to do is go back to the same policies that got us into this mess in the first place.
Of course that's exactly what the other folks running for this office want us to do. They think you all have amnesia. They think you've forgotten how we got into this mess. They want to go back to the days when Wall Street played by its own rules. They want to go back to the days when an insurance company could deny you coverage or jack up your premiums without any reason. They want to go back to spending trillions of dollars more on tax breaks for the wealthiest individuals, folks like me, even if it means adding to the deficit or gutting education or gutting investments in clean energy or gutting medicare. Their philosophy is simple: we're better off when everybody is left to fend for themselves. Let me tell you something: they are wrong. In the United Staes we are always greater together than we are on our own. We're beter of when we keep that basic American promise that if you work hard you can do well enough to raise a family or own a home. Start your own business. Send your kids to college. Put a litle away for retirement. Maybe someday, own the Astros. (laughter)
That's the choice we face in this election. Look we want everybody to succeed, we want everybody to do well, not just a few, but everybody to have that chance. That's what America is about. No matter where you come from no matter what you look like, if you are willing to work hard, if you are willing to roll up your sleeves, you can make it. That's the American Way.
And this isn't just another political debate; this is one of the defining issues of our time. This is a make or break moment for middle class families and everybody who's trying to get into the middle class.
I mean, we can go back to an economy that's built on outsourcing and bad debt and phony financial profits, or we can fight for an economy that's built to last.
and thats what we've been talking about for the last three years, an economy built on American manufacturing and American energy, and the skills that American workers need, the education that our kids deserve. And the values that always made this country great: Hard work and fair play, and shared responsibility. Everybody from top to bottom, everybody pitching in. And you know what -- that's actually what everybody wants to do. When you hear some of these political debates...poor people, they want to work hard; they want to find a job. Wealthy people, they believe in this country;they want to give back. But we've gotten into this pattern where our politics divides us and pushes us apart.
We need to make sure that the next generation of manufacturing takes root not in Asia not in Europe, but right here, in Detroit and Pittsburgh and Cleveland and Houston. (big w00t!)
We don't want to be a nation -- nobody should want us to be a nation known for just buying and consuming things. We want to build things, make things, invent things, sell things all around the world. Which is why we need to stop giving tax breaks to businesses that ship jobs over seas. Let's reward companies that are creating jobs right here in the United States of America.
...We've got to make our schools the envy of the world...
Ed breaks in not too long after this and gives a concise review:
"President Obama...smooth as can be and telling it like it is..."
Here is an AP article about the speech, hot off the tubez!:
http://www.google.com/...
UPDATE: Big h/t to FoxfireTX for finding the video on C-Span:
http://www.c-span.org/...