Transcript: Gov. Bill Richardson (D- N.M.)

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson addresses the Democratic National Convention.

RICHARDSON: Delegates, alternates, honored guests. I hereby call the 44th National Convention of the Democratic Party to order.

(APPLAUSE)

Delegates will please take their seats.

While we in this hall are here in Boston, inclusion in our party and our convention is nationwide. Tonight we are being joined live by Americans from Canton, Ohio...

(APPLAUSE)

Milwaukee, Wisconsin...

(APPLAUSE)

Los Angeles, California...

(APPLAUSE)

... and Little Rock, Arkansas.

(APPLAUSE)

Will everyone please rise and help me give a warm welcome to four-time Grammy-Award winning singer, song writer, Bebe Winans, to sing our national anthem.

(NATIONAL ANTHEM)

(APPLAUSE)

RICHARDSON: My fellow Democrats, the last time our party met in convention four years ago, we gathered in Los Angeles, and we put forward a candidate who I had the honor of serving with in the House of Representatives, who I worked closely with on matters ranging from energy to diplomacy as a member of President Clinton's Cabinet, and who I am proud to call a friend.

We Democrats put forward a man who was ready to build on the eight years of prosperity, peace and progress that he helped create, who was known throughout America as a passionate defender of the environment, who has always been a visionary, seeing developments in energy and technology and science years before anyone else, and who is a fighter for all those who felt that they never had anyone in their corner, no one to give their dreams a voice, and who is respected throughout the world over as a statesman, as a diplomat, and as a fervent defender of America's interest and values.

The last time this man stood before our convention, our party embraced him. And he, in turn, embraced Tipper.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to introduce you to a good friend, a colleague, one of this country's greatest leaders and patriots, and the man who on Election Day 2000 more people chose to be the president of the United States, Al Gore.

(APPLAUSE)

END