Amy Klobuchar

Remarks at the 2008 Democratic National Convention - Aug. 25, 2008

Amy Klobuchar
August 25, 2008— Denver, Colorado
2008 Democratic National Convention
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My fellow delegates, are you fired up and ready to go? Are you tired of that subprime leadership in the White House? In 2006, people all across America voted for change in Washington. We took back the Senate. We took back the House, and now, in 2008, it’s time to complete that change and put Barack Obama into the White House.

I arrived in Washington in a little different style than some of the other Senators. Unlike the senator from Arizona, my family doesn’t have a private jet. I left Minnesota with my husband and our daughter and loaded up our Saturn with our college dishes and a shower curtain from 1985.

We were barely out of our driveway when I got a call from a certain senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. We weren’t even sworn in yet, and he was already determined to break the lock the lobbyists had on Washington. By the time we got to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Barack had all the new senators on a call, and by the time we got to Washington, we had an ethics reform plan in place.

Within months, he had marshaled support on both sides of the aisle, and it became the law of the land. No more golf junkets to Scotland. No more gifts of caviar. No more special discount flights on corporate jets. No more fast track between Capitol Hill and K Street. We said it’s time to stop the insiders’ no-bid military contracts. We said drug company lobbyists shouldn’t be able to prescribe our health care and that never again will federal energy policy be made from an undisclosed location.

They say that inertia is the most powerful force in the political universe. They say you can’t change Washington. Barack Obama has already started, and he’ll finish the job as president of the United States.

At another time in our history, when our nation was hurting and yearning for hope, President Franklin Roosevelt proved that democracy works best when Washington puts the American people first. “I never forget,” he said, “that I live in a house owned by all the American people and that I have been given their trust.” My fellow delegates, it’s time to elect a president America can trust. It’s time for the American people to take back their White House. It’s time for change we can believe in. It’s time for Barack Obama.


"Senator Klobuchar 2008 Convention Speech." C-SPAN video, 3:54. Aug. 25, 2008. https://www.c-span.org/video/?280553-10/senator-klobuchar-2008-convention-speech