In the most recent issue, Ted Sorensen was asked by Washington Monthly to write a speech for the 2008 Democratic Candidate at the Convention. He came up with this.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/...
Here is what I think are the best lines of the speech.
We remain essentially a nation under siege.
We remain essentially a nation under siege. The threat of another terrorist attack upon our homeland has not been reduced by all the new layers of porous bureaucracy that proved their ineptitude in New Orleans; nor by all the needless, mindless curbs on our personal liberties and privacy; nor by expensive new weaponry that is utterly useless in stopping a fanatic willing to blow himself up for his cause. Indeed, our vulnerability to another attack has only been worsened in the years since the attacks of September 11th—worsened by our government convincing more than 1 billion Muslims that we are prejudiced against their faith, dismissive of international law, and indifferent to the deaths of their innocent children; worsened by our failure to understand their culture or to provide a safe haven for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees displaced by a war we started; worsened by our failure to continue our indispensable role in the Middle East peace process.
He goes on to list some reforms. I don't want to paste too much of it or copy things I shouldn't, so I'll jump to the last lines, which are good too.
I’m told that John F. Kennedy was fond of quoting Archimedes, who explained the principle of the lever by declaring: "Give me a place to stand, and I can move the world." My fellow Americans—here I stand. Come join me, and together we will move the world to a new era of a just and lasting peace.
I'd like to set aside this diary for everyone to tell what their favorite quote is. Of course, the odds are good that it will be political. From my profile, you'll see that mine is this:
"The only thing we have to fear is fear it'self - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." ---- FDR - First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933