Text Of Gore Speech Continued

LOS ANGELES, Posted 10:07 p.m. EDT August 17, 2000 -- Editor's note: This is part two of the prepared remarks Al Gore was to deliver Thursday in accepting the Democratic presidential nomination. here for Part One.

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.