At the National Conventions, the Words They Used
by Democrats
by Republicans
by Democrats and Republicans
Excerpts from Democrats
Democrats mentioned various topics
some number of times per 25,000 words
— what'd Bill Clinton call it? You do the arithmetic. (Laughter, cheers, applause.) You do the math.
(Cheers, applause.) No American should ever have to spend their golden years at the mercy of insurance companies.
Over and over, we've been told by our opponents that bigger tax cuts and fewer regulations are the only way, that since government can't do everything, it should do almost nothing.
You're the reason a young immigrant who grew up here and went to school here and pledged allegiance to our flag will no longer be deported from the only country she's ever called home — (cheers, applause)
(Cheers, applause.) The auto worker who won the lottery after his plant almost closed, but kept coming to work every day, and bought flags for his whole town and one of the cars that he built to surprise his wife — he gives me hope.
If you believe that new plants and factories can dot our landscape, that new energy can power our future, that new schools can provide ladders of opportunity to this nation of dreamers, if you believe in a country where everyone gets a fair shot, and everyone does their fair share and everyone plays by the same rules, then I need you to vote this November. (Cheers, applause.) America, I never said this journey would be easy, and I won't promise that now.
(Cheers, applause.) And I am especially grateful to Michelle Obama and to Joe Biden for supporting those military families while their loved ones were overseas — (cheers, applause)
(Cheers, applause.) And the Republicans call it, derisively, "Obamacare." They say it's a government takeover, a disaster, and that if we'll just elect them, they'll repeal it.
— and — you all got to listen carefully to this; this is really important — and to add eight years to the life of the Medicare trust fund so it is solvent till 2024. (Cheers, applause.)
It's arithmetic. We simply cannot afford to give the reins of government to someone who will double down on trickle down.
in debt and left them with the most debt per capita of any state in America. In Montana, that dog don't hunt.
We invested more new money in education than ever before, frozen tuition at our colleges for the longest period ever, and get this, we increased the percentage of adults with college degrees faster than any other state.
(Cheers, applause.) All four — all four of my grandparents were immigrants. They homesteaded the Montana prairie with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and faith in God, and the hope in their hearts that their kids and grandkids would have a better future.
And if we have the chance to fight on a level playing field where everyone pays a fair share and everyone has a real shot, then no one, no one can stop us.
He believes in a country where everyone is held accountable, where no one can steal your purse on Main Street our your pension on Wall Street. (Cheers, applause.) President Obama believes in a country where we invest in education, in roads and bridges, in science and in the future, so we can create new opportunities so the next kid can make it big, and the kid after that, and the kid after that.
We are called to build something solid so the next generation can build something better. (Cheers, applause.) So let me ask you — let me ask you, America: Are you ready to answer this call?
And that choice is especially stark when it comes to energy. Take Mitt Romney's approach. Governor Romney would do nothing to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and much to increase it.
He wants to keep giving 4 billion taxpayer dollars to oil companies every year, the very same companies pouring millions into the outside groups backing his campaign.
(Cheers, applause.) All day long I make decisions about smart investments and risky gambles. So does the president.
Obama cares about the middle class that makes America great. Obama cares about small business and big values: justice, equality and opportunity.
President Obama gave these patriotic young people a real chance to be a part of America's success. (Applause.) When seniors facing serious illnesses like cancer need Medicare, Mitt Romney said he would turn it into a voucher system, breaking the guarantee of coverage and costing seniors more than $6,000 out of pocket.
President Obama cares about all Americans, regardless of where we came from, when our families got here, what we look like, what our last names are and whether we're middle class or working hard to get there.
The Obama administration has hired more than 3,500 mental health professionals, and they will hire 1,600 more over the next year to help veterans to cope with post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injuries, and to strengthen suicide prevention efforts.
And he spoke two sweet words my generation of returning veterans have yearned to hear: Welcome home. (Cheers, applause.)
After all, we are the ones who protected Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, who fought for fair wages and who ended "don't ask, don't tell." We are Democrats.
It is our hope and faith that moves us to action. (Cheers, applause.)
When the jobs of auto workers were threatened in 2009, some said: Let Detroit fail.
He's fought — he's fought for policies that unleash the opportunities that come with 21st century jobs that will remake our economy and restore prosperity for the middle class. President Obama is leading us through a challenging era by recognizing that the strength of America is measured in the opportunity everyone has to work hard and succeed.
(Boos.) And they'll allow insurance companies to once again deny health care to working families and interfere with women's health care decisions. (Boos.) President Obama and Democrats will not let this happen.
Our platforms ensure that the opportunity to live the American dream not only survives but thrives for generations to come.
(Cheers, applause.) Ask Osama bin Laden if he is better off now than he was four years ago.
(Cheers, applause.) God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you so much. (Cheers, applause.)
And he wants to put big banks back in the student loan business. And just ask him about affording college, like one high schooler did in Ohio.
That's why he's standing with me to support companies creating jobs here, and not shipping them overseas. Mitt Romney wants to give up on our manufacturing sector.
That's why they didn't talk about their plan to cut taxes for millionaires by raising taxes on middle-class families with kids — on your family — by $2,000.
Because we have had millions of private sector jobs created, but our unemployment has been higher than it should be, in part because hundreds and hundreds of thousands of hard-working public employees have been let go by Republican policies.
But the Romney-Ryan plan has me terrified, not just for me but for my three married daughters, who are in their 50s. If Mitt Romney gets into office, the Medicare that they've earned will return (sic)
Growing up, I learned from my mama and my neighbors and my church members a certain set of values: Respect your elders; help your neighbors; honor your commitments; stand up for education.
We will demand a balanced approach, a balanced approach to deficit reduction that requires millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share of taxes. The choice could not be clearer.
(Cheers, applause.) He didn't tell you that President Obama has saved seniors more than $4 billion on prescription drugs by closing the doughnut hole and that President Obama added years to the life of Medicare.
Working with President Obama, Democrats passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to strengthen the rights of women in the workplace.
And all of these cuts, all of these cuts are being done so Romney can give a tax cut of $265,000 to your average millionaire.
(Boos.) They believe in this failed approach so deeply that they will cut anything, from student loans to health care for seniors, to give the wealthiest Americans an even bigger break.
Before World War II, my community was mostly potato peels and pumpkin farms. Faced with war, that generation turned farmland into factories and became the backbone of America's middle class.
Rise up to re-elect the leader who will fight to strengthen Medicare. Rise up for President Barack Obama!
In large part it's because this president, this administration gave ordinary people a leg up: construction jobs afforded by recovery act dollars, better schools pushed by the president's education reform, growing hospitals and health centers and booming life science companies born from national research support.
That's why he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, to help women get equal pay for equal work. (Cheers, applause.) That's why he cut taxes for working families and small businesses and fought to get the auto industry back on its feet.
She's working with schools that educate military children to add better courses. When Barack challenged businesses to hire 100,000 veterans and military spouses, Michelle and Jill Biden rallied CEOs to the cause.
We're going to keep fighting. I'm going to keep fighting. I need young people to keep fighting.
(Applause.) Where Mitt Romney was willing to turn his back on Akron, Dayton and Toledo, Ohio, the president said, I've got your backs.
We do not want the government controlling our personal lives or our most personal decisions. Believing in freedom as we do, we don't think it's the role of government to pass judgment on a relationship between two consenting adults regardless of their orientation.
The Democratic women of the House will fight violence against all Americans to move America forward. (Cheers, applause.)
We want to invest in our future. (Applause.) Now, there's just as stark a choice when it comes to fixing America's budget.
But that didn't stop Romney and Ryan from telling the American people that their plan won't hurt seniors.
When it comes to America's economy, the truth is that Mitt Romney believes that the key to our country's economic future lies in the failed policies of the past.
President Obama has walked with our small businesses, our job creators. He knows small businesses are the backbone of our economy.
— this generation of Americans will expand upon the hope, the dream, the truth and the promise of America.
Excerpts from Republicans
Republicans mentioned various topics
some number of times per 25,000 words
Tell it to you this way: In the automobile of life, dad was just a passenger. Mom was the driver.
(Cheers, applause.) Here's what they believe. They believe seniors will always put themselves ahead of their grandchildren.
For — make no mistake about it, everybody — the problems are too big to let the American people lose: the slowest economic recovery in decades; a spiraling, out-of-control deficit; and an education system that's failing to compete in the world.
If you're willing to fight with me for Mitt Romney, I will fight with you. If you're willing to hear the truth — (cheers, applause)
Now is the moment when we can stand up and say, I'm an American, I make my destiny, we deserve better, my children deserve better, my family deserves better, my country deserves better.
Shows what I know. Another of my partners got the Episcopal Church Pension Fund to invest — (laughter) — and today there are a lot of happy retired priests who should thank him.
Every American was relieved the day President Obama gave the order and Seal Team 6 took out Osama bin Laden. (Cheers, applause.) On another front, every American is less secure today because he has failed to slow Iran's nuclear threat.
(Cheers, applause.) I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants who reminded my brothers, my sister and me every single day how blessed we were to live in this country.
(Cheers, applause.) And not too long ago, The Wall Street Journal said anyone still thinking the U.S.
We deserve a president who won't sacrifice American jobs and American workers to pacify the bullying union bosses he counts as his political allies.
That starts with a strong economy, a smart energy policy, lower deficits and a president who puts America's workers and job creators first.
Of 34 advanced nations in the world, American students rank 17th in science, 25th in math. Only one quarter of high school graduates are ready for their next steps.
(Laughter.) Those were very tough days, and any fair measure of his record has to take that into account.
A Romney- Ryan administration will protect and strengthen Medicare for my mom's generation, for my generation and for my kids and yours.
Of the four people on the two tickets, the only self-professed evangelical is Barack Obama, and he supports changing the definition of marriage, believes that human life is disposable and expendable at any time in the womb, even beyond the womb, and he tells people of faith that they have to bow their knees to the god of government and violate their faith and conscience in order to comply with what he calls health care.
(Cheers, applause.) Joe Biden — Joe Biden said, show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value.
The court agreed that the Constitution does not allow the federal government to force states to adopt a budget-busting expansion of Medicaid.
It is our job to make a new choice. (Cheers.) It is time to stand up and say, in a loud, clear voice, enough!
(Cheers, applause.) Immigrants have flocked to our shores seeking freedom. Our forebears came full of hopes and dreams.
But when you seek to punish the rich, the jobs that are lost are those of the poor and the middle class.
But President Obama's policies undermine the traditional family, weaken the education system. And this summer he showed us once again he believes in government handouts and dependency by waiving the work requirement for welfare.
(Cheers, applause.) I thank God that America still has one party that reaches out their hands in love to lift up all of God's children, born and unborn.
After school, Harold took a job cleaning out oil barrels. And guess what, at the age of 20, he bought his own truck, and he began a one-man oilfield service business.
Gosh. The president believes that government is responsible for our successes, and that's why his solution to everything is more government, bigger spending, more regulation, more bureaucratic programs like "Obamacare." And he says his plans are working, but look at the results: 42 months of unemployment, over 8 percent; 23 million Americans out of work, underemployed or even just not even looking for work anymore; a nation that is threatened by nearly $16 trillion of debt; and families that are feeling pinched, not just by a bad economy, but by a president that promised hope and change, and left many Americans with no hope and just change in their pockets. President Obama believes that the power of big government is the key to American success.
They want to focus on their business; the Obama administration wants to bury them with rules, regulations and red tape. (Boos.) From the National Labor Relations Board to the Department of Labor to the EPA, under this administration, the regulations are up and the job creation is down.
I call it a success tax. (Applause.) And, you know, the very best example is "Obamacare." And let me tell you what I hear in the real world about "Obamacare." Just a couple of months ago, a successful restaurant owner in Concord, New Hampshire, told me about his dilemma.
Unlike President Obama, I know that small businesses are the true engine of our economy, not big government.
(Cheers, applause.) And one of the speakers I'm most looking forward to hearing from tonight is someone who I think we can all agree will make a fabulous first lady, Ann Romney.
Mitt Romney, with humility, grace and diligence has succeeded at everything he's done: as a governor with a Cabinet that was 50 percent women, at turning around the scale-plagued Olympics, as a businessman, as a husband, a father, a grandfather and a trusted friend.
His budget failure threatens to slash 200,000 national security and high-tech jobs in Virginia. His war on success undermines individual initiative and innovation.
The labor force participation is at its lowest level in 30 years, 23 million Americans are unemployed, underemployed or have stopped looking for work.
Household incomes have fallen and debt has risen. We are paying more for health care and getting less choice. There is a war on young people, a war on paychecks and a war on our ability to succeed.
And when they succeed, they hire more people who invest or spend their money in the economy, helping others start a business or create jobs.
— can live the American dream. Well, let me tell you, my friend Mitt Romney gets it. (Cheers, applause.) And I could not be more confident in saying the American people get it.
The election of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will decisively move America to a better future.
It's striking how President Carter and President Obama both took our nation down a path that in four years weakened America's confidence in itself and our hope for a better future.
Like in your home states, we raise and salute the American flag. Just like our fellow citizens in Florida or Virginia, we share the same undying spirit that all Americans have.
Well, first let me say that Obama did not build my business. (Cheers, applause.) But he is doing everything in his power to tear it down.
We have a sluggish economy burdened by Obama administration policies that are weighing down our job creators. Middle-class Americans in cities and on our farms are bearing the brunt.
I believe we can't afford to substitute a political timetable for a military strategy. By committing to withdraw from Afghanistan before peace can be achieved and sustained, the president has discouraged our friends and emboldened our enemies, which is why our commanders did not recommend these decisions and why they have said it puts our mission at much greater risk.
I decided then and there to dedicate to my life to racing and coaching other injured veterans. Being a gold medal paralympian gives me a whole new way to honor and serve my country.
The role of government ought to be for the protection of liberty, not for the intrusion in our private lives, not for the intrusion in economic affairs.
From the time we were first married, I've seen him spend countless hours helping others.
Equally as important, we improved the economic climate for job creators. Today 94 percent of our employers believe Wisconsin is headed in the right direction.
And you know the problems: unemployment over 8 percent for 42 straight months; the national debt, immoral, at $16 trillion and growing; new business startups at the lowest level in 30 years.
Governor Romney knows and, more importantly, appreciates what it takes to build a successful business. And that's why I'm supporting Mitt Romney.
They're on track to create 109 million new paperwork burden hours, and by year's end, $110 billion worth of new regulatory costs will be laid on the back of business owners and taxpayers. (Boos.) You might call that regulatory uncertainty.
In these critical times, America needs a leader. Our economy is stagnant. Our vitality has been sapped.
Number one, they want less interference and fewer regulations controlling businesses. Number two, they want the kind of strong fiscal conservative leadership that only Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan can deliver.
We need a new generation of leadership to chart the path, to fight for policies that create jobs rather than red tape and to help small businesses succeed rather than helping green energy companies fail. Like you, we valley folks are tough, independent and faithful, and we are ready to rebuild our American dream.
We can do better. (Cheers, applause.) And we'll do better by honestly talking about the issues. As I have in Iowa this year, we will continue to talk about big issues this week.
We must take this election house by house, precinct by precinct, city by city and state by state to bring our proud conservative message of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to every voter in America. (Cheers, applause.) When we leave Florida in just a few days, let's commit ourself (sic)
(Cheers, applause.) The American dream isn't just my story. It isn't just your story.