7月26日傍晚，美国民主党全国代表大会在波士顿正式开幕。大会会场所在地——波士顿富里特中心一直是NBA老牌劲旅波士顿凯尔特人队的主场，现在成为了欢乐的海洋，成为了全美民主党人2004年总统大选的誓师会场, 4353名民主党政要会聚一堂，正式提名克里和爱德华兹为民主党总统和副总统候选人，发动“倒布”总攻。以下是前副总统及2000年总统候选人戈尔在大会上发表演讲。
 

My Friends, fellow Democrats, fellow Americans: I'll be candid with you. I had hoped to be back here this week under different circumstances, running for re-election.

But you know the old saying: you win some, you lose some. And then there's that little-known third category. I didn't come here tonight to talk about the past. After all, I don't want you to think I lie awake at night counting and recounting sheep. I prefer to focus on the future because I know from my own experience that America is a land of opportunity, where every little boy and girl has a chance to grow up and win the popular vote.

In all seriousness, I am deeply grateful for the opportunity you have given me to serve America. I want to thank you as Democrats for the honor of being your nominee for president four years ago. And I want to thank the American people for the privilege of serving as vice-president.

And most of all, I want to thank my family with all my heart-my children and grandchildren, and especially my beloved partner in life, Tipper.

I love this country deeply, and even though I always look to the future with optimism and hope-I do think it is worth pausing for just a moment as we begin this year's convention, to take note of two very important lessons from four years ago.

The first lesson is this: take it from me-every vote counts. In our Democracy, every vote has power. And never forget: that power is yours. Don't let anyone take it away or talk you into throwing it away. And let's make sure that this time every vote is counted.

Let's make sure not only that the Supreme Court does not pick the next President, but also that this President is not the one who picks the next Supreme Court.

The second lesson from 2000 is this: what happens in a presidential election matters. A lot. The outcome profoundly affects the lives of all 293 million Americans-and people in the rest of the world too. The choice of who is president affects your life and your family's future.

And never has this been more true than in 2004, because-let's face it-our country faces deep challenges. These challenges we now confront are not Democratic or Republican challenges; they are American challenges-that we all must overcome together.

It is in that spirit, that I sincerely ask those watching at home who supported President Bush four years ago: did you really get what you expected from the candidate you voted for?

Is our country more united today? Or more divided?

Has the promise of compassionate conservatism been fulfilled? Or do those words now ring hollow?

For that matter, are the economic policies really conservative at all? Did you expect, for example, the largest deficits in history? One after another? And the loss of more than a million jobs?

By the way, I know about the bad economy. I was the first one laid off. And while it's true that new jobs are being created, they're just not as good as the jobs people have lost. And incidentally, that's been true for me too. Unfortunately, this is no joke for millions of Americans. And the real solutions require us to transcend partisanship.

So that's one reason why, even though we meet here as Democrats, we believe this is a time to reach beyond our party lines to Republicans as well.

I also ask tonight for the help of those who supported a third party candidate in 2000. I urge you to ask yourselves this question: do you still believe that there was no difference between the candidates? Are you troubled by the erosion of some of America's most basic civil liberties? Are you worried that our environmental laws are being weakened and dismantled to allow vast increases in pollution that are contributing to a global climate crisis? No matter how you voted in the last election, these are profound problems that all voters must take into account this November 2d.

And of course, no challenge is more critical than the situation we confront in Iraq. Regardless of your opinion at the beginning of this war, isn't it now obvious that the way the war has been managed by the Administration has gotten us into very serious trouble? Wouldn't we be better off with a new President who hasn't burned his bridges to our allies, and who could rebuild respect for America in the world? Isn't cooperation with other nations crucial to solving our dilemma in Iraq? Isn't it also critical to defeating the terrorists?

We have to be crystal clear about the threat we face from terrorism. It is deadly. It is real. It is imminent. But in order to protect our people, shouldn't we focus on the real source of this threat: the group that attacked us and is trying to attack us again-al Qaeda, headed by Osama Bin Laden?

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