But the people of Iowa had a different idea.

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.

There is a spirit that brought us here tonight, a spirit of change, and hope, and possibility.

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.

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

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

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 ending a war that we never should have started.

Change is facing the threats of the 21st century, not with bluster or fear-mongering or tough talk or suspending due process, but with tough diplomacy and strong alliances and confidence in the ideals that have made this nation the last…

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.