Democratic
National
Convention
Full
Text of Ted
Strickland’s speech at the DNC
I'm
Ted Strickland, and I
come from Duck Run, Ohio. Let me tell you, folks in Ohio know what
happens when
you have a president who stands up for average working people.
Ina
Sidney is a grandmother
who lost her ability to provide for her family when they closed down
the auto
plant in Perrysburg, Ohio. Ina says thanks to Barack Obama for having
the
courage to back an industry that others had given up on. She's an
autoworker
and a breadwinner once again.
As
he celebrated the birth
of his newborn baby boy, Brian Slagle lost his job just at the moment
he needed
it most. But today he's back making auto batteries in a factory in
Springfield
Township, Ohio. And he said there's one reason he has a steady paycheck
again:
Barack Obama refused to let the American auto industry die.
James
Fayson felt like
there was no tomorrow when he was laid off. "I believe in working every
day," he said, "and that was taken from me." Today, James is
working sixty hours a week on the Jeep Liberty line in Toledo. He is
thrilled
to say that his life right now is "eat, sleep and Jeep." He's back,
he said, because Barack Obama gave us a chance for a comeback.
The
auto industry supports
one of every eight jobs in Ohio, and it's alive and growing in America
again.
Late last year, Chrysler announced they were hiring eleven hundred new
autoworkers in Toledo. Just last month, GM announced a plan to invest
200
million dollars in Lordstown, keeping five thousand jobs in Ohio and
building
the next generation of the Chevy Cruze—a car we are proud to say is
made
entirely in Ohio.
It's
been a long slog back,
and we've still got a long way to go. But all over Ohio—all over
America—men
and women are going back to work with the pride of building something
stamped
"Made in America." Before Barack Obama took office, it looked like
that pride could have vanished forever, but today, from the staggering
depths
of the Great Recession, the nation has had 29 straight months of job
growth.
Workers across my state and across the country are getting back the
dignity of
a good job and a good salary.
Vince
Lombardi was right
when he said, "It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you
get
back up." And my friends Ina Sydney, Brian Slagle and James Fayson were
all knocked down. But Ina, Brian and James are all standing today. The
auto
industry is standing today. The middle class is standing today. Ohio is
standing today. America is standing strong today.
That's
what happens when
you have a president who stands up for average working people.
President Barack
Obama stood up for us, and now by God we will stand up for him. Quite
frankly,
Barack Obama knows what it's like to pay a mortgage and student loans.
He knows
what it's like to watch a beloved family member in a medical crisis and
worry
that treatment is out of reach. Barack Obama knows our struggles. And,
my
friends, he shares our values.
Now,
Mitt Romney, he lives
by a different code. To him, American workers are just numbers on a
spreadsheet.
To
him, all profits are
created equal, whether made on our shores or off. That's why companies
Romney
invested in were dubbed "outsourcing pioneers." Our nation was built
by pioneers—pioneers who accepted untold risks in pursuit of freedom,
not by
pioneers seeking offshore profits at the expense of American workers
here at
home.
Mitt
Romney proudly wrote
an op-ed entitled, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." If he had had his way,
devastation would have cascaded from Michigan to Ohio and across the
nation.
Mitt Romney never saw the point of building something when he could
profit from
tearing it down. If Mitt was Santa Claus, he'd fire the reindeer and
outsource
the elves.
Mitt
Romney has so little economic
patriotism that even his money needs a passport. It summers on the
beaches of
the Cayman Islands and winters on the slopes of the Swiss Alps. In
Matthew,
chapter 6, verse 21, the scriptures teach us that where your treasure
is, there
will your heart be also. My friends, any man who aspires to be our
president
should keep both his treasure and his heart in the United States of
America.
And it's well past time for Mitt Romney to come clean with the American
people.
On
what he's saying about
the president's policy for welfare to work, he's lying. Simple as that.
On his
tax returns, he's hiding. You have to wonder, just what is so
embarrassing that
he's gone to such great lengths to bury the truth? Whatever he's doing
to avoid
taxes, can it possibly be worse than the Romney-Ryan tax plan that
would have
sliced Mitt's total tax rate to less than one percent?
My
friends, there is a true
choice in this election. Barack Obama is betting on the American
worker. Mitt
Romney is betting on a Bermuda shell corporation. Barack Obama saved
the
American auto industry. Mitt Romney saved on his taxes. Barack Obama is
an
economic patriot. Mitt Romney is an outsourcing pioneer. My friends,
the stakes
are too high, the differences too stark to sit this one out. Let us
stand as
one on November 6th and move this country forward by re-electing
President
Barack Obama.
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