Transcript: Kerry and Edwards Comment on Campaign

Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) met with reporters Wednesday in Pennsylvania to discuss their upcoming Democratic presidential campaign. Teresa Heinz Kerry and Elizabeth Edwards also spoke.

J. KERRY: We're going to share a few thoughts with all of you.

First of all, thank you all for coming to join us this morning. This has been so special for all of us as a family. We were able to get together last night. We want to announce today that we have a new campaign manager, Jack Edwards, is taking over everything. He does a wild cannonball.

And the fun we've had yesterday -- I'll tell you, John arrived and we talked about the whole announcement and everything. Elizabeth was in North Carolina, and John was in Washington with the kids. And Emma Claire gets on the phone and rushes on the phone and talks to mom and says, "Mom, Mom, John Kerry picked Daddy." And then Jack wants to get on the phone and Jack gets on the phone, he says, "Mommy, I can swim with my head above water." He knows what's important.

(LAUGHTER)

This is an honor for all of us. This farm in the Allegheny -- western hills of the Allegheny Mountains has been Teresa's home, Andre Heinz and Chris Heinz' home, Johnny Heinz' home, all their lives, and all of the time Teresa's been here. It's a special place.

And Pittsburgh is a place that through the entire Ohio Valley represents the challenge here in our country of putting people back to work, providing health care, restoring hope.

John Edwards and his family represent a life of fighting to provide hope and opportunity for people, opening doors, making things better for people who have been hurt, helping to fight to make America fair; the dream that he's lived, that we're all blessed to live.

J. KERRY: We come to this with a deep, deep belief that America can do better. And today we're embarking on a new journey together, not for us, but for our country, a journey to make our country all it can be, to make it stronger here at home and once again respected and influential in the world. That is what we're setting off on.

We're excited. We had a wonderful dinner last night. We sat around. We laughed. We chatted. We talked politics, talked about funny things that happened to both of us during the race, shared experiences. But I could not be more proud of the pick I have made.

This man is ready for this job. He's ready to help lead America. He's a person of compassion and conviction, of strength. And, together with Elizabeth, they represent, I think, the future that we want to fight for for all Americans.

It's my honor to introduce to you, with the help of a lot of Americans, the next vice president of the United States and his family.

John?

(APPLAUSE)

J. EDWARDS: Well, first of all, this is a great privilege for me, a great opportunity to serve my country, which I love so dearly. Also to be here with John and Teresa and their beautiful family, to have our family, Elizabeth and Kay and Emma Claire and Jack, here with me is extraordinary by itself.

And we had a wonderful, wonderful night last night.

Emma Claire's nervous. She's hiding.

Yesterday when I got the call -- actually yesterday morning when I got the call from John, my assumption was it was another reporter calling to say, "Do you know anything?"

I'm very pleased to have gotten the news. Very pleased to be here. Very pleased to have this extraordinary opportunity. Because this election is so important, so important for the future of America, making America strong and creating respect for America around the world again.

And I know, because I know this guy very well. We served in the Senate together. We worked together, and then I saw him head to head during the presidential campaign. I saw the kind of strength and courage and determination that he showed.

And the truth is, it's the same strength, courage, backbone, leadership that he's shown his whole life. He showed it during his service, his heroism in Vietnam.

I mean, I got to listen to the men who served with John Kerry in Vietnam during the course of the campaign. Their stories are remarkable. If you want to know what kind of man he is, these are men who stand beside him 30 years later, who believe in him, who believe that he should be our next president. They want him to be their president.

Well, I can say this: For my family, I want him to be our next president. There is so much at stake. He shares the values and the vision that I believe in.

You know, I grew up in a small town in North Carolina. This is the kind of man we grew up looking up to, respecting, somebody who believed in faith and family and responsibility, and having everybody get a chance to do what they're capable of doing, not just a few.

J. EDWARDS: That's what this is about for us. And for so many Americans, this campaign is about the future and it's about restoring hope. People are desperate to believe again that tomorrow will be better than today. That's what John Kerry represents for the American people. He represents hope.

It's an honor to be here with all of you.

J. KERRY: I want to ask Teresa to say a word, but before I do I want to also introduce my two daughters who just literally arrived on the red eye from a big event that they did out in California for us, and this is Vanessa and Alexandra Kerry. Thank you.

Tripping all over.

I'd love Teresa just to say a couple words, if she wants.

T. KERRY: Good morning. I can invite you to a chicken walk, steer walk, vegetable garden, but I do want to say words, because this place here in Pittsburgh means an awful lot.

Pittsburgh taught me to be an American. I became an American here. The hard-working people of this part of our country, so steadfast in their beliefs, in their dedication to family and to work, have been very, very badly hurt.

It's been 20-plus years now, almost 30, that people in this area have been hit by loss of jobs, by results of pollution, and we have worked very hard here to try and turn this place around. And we tried, also, to do it with Chattanooga and other places around the country that have the same kind of common history and legacy.

America is full of places like the Ohio Valley, Youngstown, West Virginia, down in Tennessee. It's the same story.

And it's a very nice, personally, point of departure to start this voyage together for America from a place that has been hurt, but a place that is resilient and hopeful. And that's what we're going to do is to bring back hope and inspire all of our country people to be what they can be, which is optimistic working and healthy and at peace.

Thank you.

J. KERRY: I described yesterday that we're blessed to have in Elizabeth Edwards a woman who is both strong and brave and very, very thoughtful.

J. KERRY: She's going to be a great, great part of this team, and I'm delighted to introduce her to you.

Elizabeth?

E. EDWARDS: Thank you, John.

I cannot say how much we appreciate the opportunity that John and Teresa have given us to be part of this effort to change the direction of the country is going. It's unbelievably important, and any endeavor that starts in an environment like this has got to have the wind at its back. I feel completely confident about this race.

We have only a few months to make certain that the rest of the country knows John and Teresa the way we do, and learns what many of them know already, but some of them who haven't been paying quite as much attention as much attention have yet to learn, and that is the wonder of somebody who have spent their entire lives dedicated -- both of these people have spent their entire lives dedicated to improving the lot of people around them, either through public service, through philanthropy, but through concern about the issues that matter in the lives of everyday human beings.

This is a tremendous opportunity for which we thank you.

J. KERRY: Thank you. We're thrilled that you're willing to do it.

And, Cate, thank you for being a part of this.

Cate just graduated from college and is embarking on her own career, but she's joined us here and we're very grateful for that.

Ladies and gentlemen, we're excited. We're heading to Cleveland and on from there to stops across the country today.

This is the beginning of our effort to talk to America and have a conversation that is hopeful, optimistic, positive. Our vision is a vision that puts this country back to work and restores confidence. Our vision is one that makes America stronger and fights a more effective war on terror. Our vision will make America safer in every respect: in our health, in our schools, in our jobs and in our lives.

We need to get about that work. We can't tell you how excited we are to be a team in doing it. It's a thrill for me to have another guy with hair on the road.

Thank you.