Read the complete transcript.
I don't have to tell you that we were blessed in this country to have a great generation of founders and they foresaw the danger of this kind of senseless partisanship. George Washington himself -- in his farewell address to our country -- warned that the "spirit of party" is "the worst enemy" of our democracy and "enfeebles" our government's ability to do its job.
My friends, I think today we could say that George Washington was absolutely right. The sad truth is -- today we are living through his worst nightmare, in the capital city that bears his name.
And that brings me directly to why I'm here tonight. What, after all, is a Democrat like me doing at a Republican convention like this?
The answer is simple.
Well, I'll tell you why. I'm here to support John McCain because country matters more than party.
I am here tonight for a simple reason. John McCain is the best choice to bring our country together and lead America forward.
And dear friends, I am here tonight here because John McCain's whole life testifies to a great truth: Being a Democrat or a Republican is important.
But it is nowhere near as important as being an American.
You know that both of the presidential candidates this year have talked about changing the culture of Washington, about breaking through the partisan gridlock and special interests that are poisoning our politics.
But only one of them has actually done it.
Only one of them has shown the courage and the capability to rise above the smallness of our politics to get big things done for our country and our people. And that one is John S. McCain!
John understands that it shouldn't take a natural disaster like a hurricane to get us to take off our partisan blinders and work together to get things done.
It shouldn't take a natural disaster to teach us that the American people don't care much if you have an "R" or a "D" after your name.
What they care about is, are we solving the problems that they're against every day?
What you can expect from John McCain as president is precisely what he has done this week: put our country first. That's not a political posture by John. That is the code by which he has lived his entire life, and that is the code he will carry with him into the White House next January.
I have personally seen him, over and over again, bring people together from both parties to tackle our toughest problems we face -- to reform our campaign finance, lobbying and ethics laws, to create the independent 9/11 Commission and pass its critical national security reforms, and to end the partisan paralysis over judicial confirmations.
My Democratic friends know all about John's record of independence and accomplishment.
Maybe that's why some of them are spending so much time and so much money trying to convince voters that John McCain is someone else.
I'm here, as a Democrat myself, to tell you: Don't be fooled.
God only made one John McCain, and he is his own man.
If John McCain was just another go-along partisan politician, he never would have taken on corrupt Republican lobbyists, or big corporations that were cheating the American people, or powerful colleagues in Congress who were wasting taxpayer money.
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