AL GORE: Part IV
August 17, 2000

In his acceptance speech before the Democratic convention, Al Gore says he is asking people to vote for him to create a "better, fairer, more prosperous America." Below is the text of his prepared remarks.

Al Gore's acceptance speech Part I Part II Part III Part IV Aug. 16, 2000: Delegates from George W. Bush's home state find a role at the convention. Aug. 16, 2000: Colleagues of the vice presidential candidate discuss his background. Aug. 15, 2000: Who are the Democrats of 2000? Aug. 15, 2000: Hollywood and Senator Joe Lieberman faceoff. Aug. 15, 2000: Former Vice President Walter Mondale talks about the race. Aug. 14, 2000: Former President Jimmy Carter discusses Gore and the Democrats. Aug. 14, 2000: Former presidential candidate Bill Bradley on the campaign. Aug. 14, 2000: Delegates from Arkansas look at Clinton's legacy. Aug. 11, 2000: Sen. Joe Lieberman talks about his candidacy, religion and the campaign. Aug. 11, 2000: Shields and Gigot discuss Gore/Lieberman. Aug. 11, 2000: Examining Gore's economic plan Aug. 10, 2000: Los Angeles prepares for the Democratic Convention. Aug. 8, 2000: An historic choice. Aug. 7, 2000: Al Gore asks Lieberman to be his running mate. Browse the NewsHour's coverage of Politics and Campaigns and Election 2000     Democratic Convention Official Web Site

We must welcome and promote truly free trade. But I say to you: it must be fair trade. We must set standards to end child labor, to prevent the exploitation of workers and the poisoning of the environment. Free trade can and must be -- and if I'm President, will be -- a way to lift everyone up, not bring anyone down to the lowest common denominator. So those are the issues, and that's where I stand. But I also want to tell you just a little more about two of my greatest heroes, my father and my mother. They did give me a good life. But like so many in America, they started out with almost nothing. My father grew up in a small community named Possum Hollow in Middle Tennessee. When he was just eighteen, he went to work as a teacher in a one-room school. Then the Great Depression came along and taught him a lesson that couldn't be found in any classroom. He told me and my sister often how he watched grown men, with wives and children they could neither feed nor clothe, on farms they could no longer pay for. My father didn't know whether he could help those families -- but he believed he had to try. And never in the years to come - in Congress, and in the United States Senate -- did he lose sight of the reason he entered public service: to fight for the people, not the powerful. My mother grew up in a poor farming community in northwest Tennessee. Her family ran a small country store in Cold Corner. A store that went bust during the Great Depression. She worked her way through college, then got a room in Nashville at the YWCA and waited tables at an all-night coffee shop for 25-cent tips. She then went on to become one of the first women in history to graduate from Vanderbilt Law School. As Tipper told you tonight, we lost my dad a year and a half ago. But we're so lucky that my mother Pauline continues to be part of our lives, every single day. She's here tonight. Sometimes in this campaign, when I visit a school and see a hard-working teacher trying to change the world one child at a time -- I see the face of my father. And I know that teaching our children well is not just the teacher's job; it's everyone's job. And it has to be our national mission. I've shaken hands in diners and coffee shops all across this country. And sometimes, when I see a waitress working hard and thanking someone for a tip, I see the face of my mother. And I know: for that waitress carrying trays, or a construction worker in the winter cold, I will never agree to raise the retirement age to 70, or threaten the promise of Social Security. I say to you tonight: we've got to win this election - because every hard-working American family deserves to open the door to their dream. In our democracy, the future is not something that just happens to us; it is something we make for ourselves -- together. So to the young people watching tonight, I say: this is your time to make new the life of our world. We need your help to rekindle the spirit of America. And I ask all of you, my fellow citizens: from this city that marked both the end of America's journey westward and the beginning of the New Frontier, let us set out on a new journey to the best America. A new journey on which we advance not by the turning of wheels, but by the turning of our minds; the reach of our vision; the daring grace of the human spirit. Yes, we have our problems. But the United States of America is the best country ever created -- and still, as ever, the hope of humankind. Yes, we're all imperfect. But as Americans we all share in the privilege and challenge of building a more perfect union. I know my own imperfections. I know that sometimes people say I'm too serious, that I talk too much substance and policy. Maybe I've done that tonight. But the Presidency is more than a popularity contest. It's a day-by-day fight for people. Sometimes, you have to choose to do what's difficult or unpopular. Sometimes, you have to be willing to spend your popularity in order to pick the hard right over the easy wrong. There are big choices ahead, and our whole future is at stake. And I do have strong beliefs about it. If you entrust me with the Presidency, I know I won't always be the most exciting politician. But I pledge to you tonight: I will work for you every day and I will never let you down. If we allow ourselves to believe, without reservation, that we can do what's right and be the better for it -- then the best America will become our America. In this City of Angels, we can summon the better angels of our nature. Do not rest where we are, or retreat. Do all we can to make America all it can become. Thank you - God bless you - and God bless America.