Kendrick Meek: “I want to let the gentlewoman know how excited I am, not about the prospect but about the reality of the number of…”

“I want to let the gentlewoman know how excited I am, not about the prospect but about the reality of the number of individuals who will vote this election. The stakes are high. This election is beyond personalities. It is personal. It is about families and their future. I once said on the floor that the goal of every grandparent and parent is to make sure that their children and grandchildren have better opportunities than they had. That fits everyone, Democrats, Republicans and Independents. The American people are going to have an opportunity to have a new direction. There are 45 million Americans without health care. These are working Americans without health care. We have the highest deficit in the history of the Republic. We are knocking on the bank door of China saying, please help us with our debt because we cannot manage our own money. At the same time, we are in a war with no real end. I will repeat again, I support making sure that we reach our objectives in Iraq, but what I do not support is for us to continue to carry 96 percent of the costs and 96-plus percent of the casualties without being able to go to the world community to build a real coalition in Iraq. It is not good thinking to be able to say we are going to hang in there and go from a shooting-from-the-hip way of doing things; we cannot do that. We have the moral authority in the world so we cannot behave like others. We cannot afford to behave like others.”