Barack Obama

You know, 15 months ago, in the depths of winter, it was in this great state where we took the first steps of an unlikely journey to change America.

But the people of Iowa had a different idea.

You spoke of an America where working families don't have to file for bankruptcy just because a child gets sick.

You spoke of an America where we don't send our sons and daughters on tour after tour of duty to a war that has cost us thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars, but has not made us safer.

You know, in her 35 years of public service, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has never given up on her fight for the American people.

But this year's Republican primary was a contest to see which candidate could out-Bush the other, and that's a contest that John McCain won.

The Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans that once bothered John McCain's conscience are now his only economic policy.

Now, I will leave it up to Senator McCain to explain to the American people whether his policies and positions represent long-held convictions or Washington calculations, but the one thing they don't represent is change.

Change is a tax code that rewards work instead of wealth, by cutting taxes for middle-class families, and senior citizens, and struggling homeowners.

Change is an energy policy that puts a price on pollution and makes the oil companies invest their record profits in clean, renewable sources of energy that will create millions of new jobs and leave our children a safer planet.

Change is giving every child a world-class education by recruiting an army of new teachers with better pay and more support.

Change is ending a war that we never should have started.

Change is finishing a war against al Qaeda in Afghanistan that we never should have ignored.

It's more of the same versus change. It's the past versus the future.

They'll play on our fears and our doubts. They'll try to sow discord and division to distract us from what matters to you and your future.

Change is coming to America, Iowa.

I have a message to America. I have a message of change. And this is where we should go as a country.

He represents the policies of the past. He represents the tactics with the past. We represent change.

Look, you can have an issue when it comes to faith. You can talk about guns. You can talk about being from a small town. But the reality is you can't vote against your economic interests.

Our journey may be long, our work will be great, but we know in our hearts we are ready for change. We are ready to come together, and in this election, we are ready to believe again.

American workers who have committed themselves to their employers expect in return to be treated with a modicum of respect and fairness.

Workers and their communities have a right to know when they are facing a serious risk of a plant closing.

I thank Congresswoman Bordallo for her support.

I look forward to working with her to ensure that young people in Guam have the education and opportunities they need to meet the challenges of the 21st Century.

And if people tell you that we can't do it, we can't afford it, you just remind them we're spending $10 billion a month in Iraq. If we can spend $10 billion a month in Iraq, we can spend some of that money right here in the United States…