Read the McCain and Palin speeches after the jump.
CNN: Sen. John McCain/Gov. Sarah Palin
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN:
thank you, thank you. thank you for that wonderful welcome. and thank you. let me tell you i'm very happy. thank you, twice is enough. thank you very much. thank you. i'm very happy, very happy today. to spend my birthday with you and to make an historic announcement in dayton, a city built on hard, honest work of good people. like the entire industrial midwest. dayton has contributed much to the prosperity and progress of america. and now, in these tough changing times after all you've done for our country, you want your government to understand what you're going through. to stand on your side and fight for you. and that's what i intend to do. that's why i'm running for president to fight for you. to make government stand on your side and not in your way.
and friends, i've spent the last few months looking for a running mate who can best help me shake up washington and make it start working again for the people that are counting on us. which i'm sure you know i had many good people to choose from. all of them dedicated to this country and to getting us back on the road to prosperity and peace. and i am very grateful to all of them and honored by their willingness to serve with me. and i'm going to continue to rely on their support and counsel during this campaign and after we win this election, when the real work begins. but i could only choose one.
and it's with great pride and gratitude that i tell you, i have found the right partner to help me stand up to those who value their privileges over their responsibilities, who put power over principle, and put their interests before your needs. i found someone with an outstanding reputation for standing up to special interests. and entrenched bureaucracies. someone who has fought against corruption and the failed policies of the past, someone who stopped government from wasting taxpayers' money on things they don't want or need and put it back to work for the people. someone with executive experience who has shown great tenacity and skill in tackling tough problems. especially our dangerous dependence on foreign oil. someone who reached across the aisle and asked republicans, democrats, and independents to serve in government. someone with strong principles of fighting spirit and deep compassion. someone who grew up in a decent, hard-working middle class family. whose father was an elementary schoolteacher, and mother was the school secretary. they taught their children to care about others, to work hard, and to stand up with courage for the things you believe in. both of them were coaches too. and raised their children to excel at sports -- and i'm sure they taught them taught them skills that will surely come in handy over the next few months.
the person i'm about to introduce to you was a union member and is married to a union member. and understands the problems, the hopes, the values of working people. knows what it's like to worry about mortgage payments and health care and the cost of gasoline and groceries. a standout high school point guard, a concerned citizen who became a member of the pta, then a city council member, and then a mayor, and now a governor. we'll beat the long odds to win a tough election on a message of reform and integrity. and i am especially proud to say in the week we celebrate the anniversary of women's suffrage, a devoted -- a devoted wife and a mother of five. she's not from these parts and she's not from washington. but when you get to know her, you're going to be as impressed as i am. she's got the grit, integrity, good sense, and fierce devotion to the common good that is exactly what we need in washington today. she knows where she comes from, and she knows who she works for. she stands up for what's right and she doesn't let anyone tell her to sit down. she's fought oil companies and party bosses and do-nothing bureaucratics bureaucrats, and anyone who puts their interests before the people of whom she swore an oath to serve. she's exactly who i need, she's exactly who this country needs to help me fight. to help me fight the same old washington politics of me first and country second. my friends and fellow americans, i am very pleased and very privileged to introduce to you the next vice president of the united states -- governor sarah palin of the great state of Alaska
GOV. SARAH PALIN:
thank you so much.
thank you so much. and i thank you, senator McCain and mrs. McCain for the confidence you've placed in me. senator, i am honored to be chosen as your running mate. i will be honored to serve next to the next president of the united states. i know that when senator McCain gave me this opportunity he had a short list of highly qualified men and women and to have made that list at all it was a privilege. and to be chosen brings a great balance. i know that it will demand the best that i have to give. and i promise nothing less. first -- first, there are a few people whom i would like you to meet. i want to start with my husband todd. and todd and i are actually celebrating our 20th anniversary today. and i promised him -- i had promised todd a little surprise for the anniversary present and hopefully he knows that i did deliver. and then we have after my husband who is a lifelong commercial fisherman. he's a production operator. todd is a production operator in the oil fields up on alaska's north slopes and he's a proud member of the united still workers' union and he's a world champion snow machine racer. todd and i met way back in high school. and i can tell you that he is still the man that i admire most in this world. along the way, todd and i have shared many blessings. and four out of five of them are here with us today. our oldest son, he'll be follow the presidential campaign from afar. on september 11th of last year, our son enlisted in the united states army. he now serves in an infantry brigade, and on september 11th, he will deploy to iraq in the service of his country and todd and i are so proud of him and all the fine men and women serving the country. next to todd is our daughter bristol, willow, and our youngest daughter, and in their arms is our baby traig, he was born just in april. his name is traig paxton.
some of life's greatest opportunities comes unexpectedly. and this is definitely the case today. i never really set out to be involved in public affairs, much less to run for this office. my mom and dad both worked at the local elementary school and i my husband and i both grew up working with our hands. i was your average hockey mom in alaska. we're busy raising our kids and serving as the team mom and coaching some basketball on the side. i got involved in the pta, and then was elected to the city council. and then elected mayor of my hometown where my agenda was to stop wasteful spending and cut property taxes and put the people first. i was then appointed ethics commissioner and chairman of the alaska oil and gas company. and i fought it hard and held the vendors to account. the old politics as usual to the special interests to the lobbyists, the big oil companies, and the good old boy network. when oil and gas prices went up so dramatically and the state revenues followed that increase, i made sure that revenue went to the people of alaska.
if our state wanted a bridge, i said, we'd build it ourselves. well, it's always safer in politics to avoid risk to just kind of go along with the status quo, but i didn't get into government to do the safe and easy thing. a ship in harbor is safe, but that's not why the ship is built. politics isn't just a game of competing interests and clashing parties. the people of america expect us to seek public office and to serve for the right reasons. and the right reason is to challenge the status quo and to serve the common good.
now, no one expects us to agree on everything, whether in jew -- juno or in washington. but we are expected to governor with integrity, good will, clear convictions, and service. now, no leader in america has shown these qualities so clearly or present so clear a threat to business as usual in washington as senator john f. McCain. this is a moment when principles and political independents matter a lot more than just the party lines. and this is a man who has always been there to serve his country, not just his party. and this is a moment that requires resolve and toughness and strength of hearts in the american president. and my running mate is a man who has shown those qualities in the darkest of places. and in the service of his country. a colleague once said about senator McCain, that man did things for this country that few people could go through. never forget that. and that speaker was former senator john glenn of ohio. and john glenn nose something about heroism. and i'm going to make sure nobody does forget that in the campaign. there is only one candidate who has truly fought for america and that man is john McCain. this is a moment, this is a moment when great causes can be won. and great threats overcome. depending on the judgment of our next president, in a dangerous world, it is john McCain who will lead america's friends and allies in preventing iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. it was john McCain who cautioned long ago about the harm that russian aggression could do to georgia and to other small democratic neighbors and to the world oil markets. it was senator McCain who refused to hedge his support for our troops in iraq, regardless of those political costs. thank you. thank you. and you know what? as the mother of one of those troops and as the commander of alaska's national guard, that's kind of man i want as our commander in chief. profiles of courage, they can be hard to come by these days. you know, so often we find them in books. but next week when we nominate john McCain for president, we're putting one on the ballot.
to serve as vice president beside such a man would be the privilege of a lifetime and a city this trust has been given to me 88 years almost to the day after the women of america first gained the right to vote. i think, as well, today of two other women who came before me in national elections. i can't begin this great effort without honoring the achievement of geraldineferraro in 1984. and of course, hillary clinton who showed determination in her presidential campaign. it was rightly noted in denver this week that hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in america. but it turns out the women of america aren't finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all. so for my part, the mission is clear. the next 67 days, i'm going to take our campaign to every part of our country and our message of reform to every voter of every background in every political party or no party at all. if you want change in washington, if you hope for a better america, then we're asking for your vote on the 4th of november. my fellow americans, come join our cause. join our cause and help our country to elect a great man, the next president of the united states. and i thank you and i god bless you, i say, god bless america. thank you.
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