Bill Clinton addressed the DNC as his wife and presidential nominee Hillary Clinton makes history.
Former US President Bill Clinton made a case for democratic presidential nominee and his wife Hillary Clinton as he addressed the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Here are the highlights of his speech:
- In the spring of 1971, I met a girl..We shared a class.
- She exuded a sense of strength that I found magnetic.
- She came over and said if you're gonna keep staring at me, we'd better know at each other.
- I am Hillary Rodham, who are you?
- I was so impressed, you'll find it difficult to believe, I was left speechless.
- I asked for a walk.
- I asked her to take a walk with me to the Yale Art Museum. We've been walking and talking and laughing together ever since.
- We shared good times and bad.
- We cried together this morning.
- She never made fun of people with disabilities. She tried to empower them based on their abilities.
- Knowing her was one of the best gifts Hillary ever gave me.
- She got so involved with children's issues that she actually took an extra year in law school ... working to determine what more could be done for children.
- She figured early on, how to make things better. She's always making things better.
- Hillary opened my eyes to a whole new world of public service by private citizens.
- The civil rights movement convinced Hillary to become a Democrat.
- I was trying to convince her to marry me. I first proposed to her on a trip to Great Britain... I asked her to marry me and she said I can't.
- I went home to law school. Hillary moved to Massachusetts to keep working on children's issues.
- She believed anybody could make it.
- She started the first legal aid clinic in North Arkansas.
- I was still trying to get her to marry me.
- The second time I tried a different tack. I said, I really want you to marry me, but you shouldn't do it.
- She said, that isn't much of a sales pitch.
- I said, I know but it's true. And it was true.
- In 1975, I married my best friend.
- I was still in awe at how smart and strong and loving and caring she was, and I really hoped that her choosing me... was a decision she would never regret.
- By 1979, she was the nation's youngest governor.
- It wasn't the only big thing that happened that spring...we found out that we were going to be parents.
- On February 27, 1980, 15 minutes after I got home from the national governor's conference in Washington, Hillary's water broke. Chelsea was born just before midnight.
- It was the happiest moment in my life. A miracle for me because my father died before I was born.
- It was the greatest moment of my life...and the...conviction that my daughter had the best mother in the world.
- My experience has been, it's a pretty good thing to follow her advice.
- Under Hillary's watch Arkansas went from one of the nation's worst in education to one of most improved. The Judge told me, looks to me like we elected the wrong Clinton.
- She's insatiably curious, she's a natural leader, she's a good organizer, and she's the best darn change maker I've seen.
- This woman had never been satisfied with the status quo. She always wants to move the ball forward.
- New York elected her to the seat once held by another outsider, Robert Kennedy. She didn't let him down.
- She became the first senator ever from New York to sit on the armed services committee.
- Nobody who has dealt with the men and the women in the military believes they are a disaster. They are a national treasure.
- Nobody who has dealt with the men and the women in the military believes they are a disaster. They are a national treasure.
- She talked India and China into cutting their emissions.
- She flew all night from Cambodia to the Middle East to get a ceasefire to avoid a shooting war between Hamas and Israel.
- She launched a team to fight back against terrorists online and built a new global counter-terrorism effort.
- She backed President Obama's decision to go after Osama bin Laden.
- How do you square the things I told you with the picture the Republicans painted of their opponent in Cleveland? You can't.
- When I was president I worked hard to give you a more peaceful and prosperous America.
- But this time Hillary is uniquely qualified.
- She is still the best darn change maker I have ever known.
- If she wins she is coming back to take you on the ride to America's future.
- I have lived a long full and blessed life. It really took off when I met and fell in love with that girl in the spring in 1971.
- If you are a muslim and you hate terror, then stay here and help us fight it.
- If you are an African American afraid, help us build a future where no one is afraid.
- Hillary will make us stronger together. You know it because she spent a lifetime doing it.
- We will build an America where no one if afraid to step out of their homes.
- The aim is to make a better future for your children and grandchildren.