Why Hillary Clinton is not the right candidate for the White House
The last thing I wanted was to take on the very powerful, very rich, very powerful people who were part of the decision to invade Iraq.
The fact that I was the one who got to make that decision made me a martyr.
But it didn’t make me the right choice.
When the dust settles, I’ll know what I did was wrong.
I didn’t just want to take the oil.
I wanted to get out of Iraq.
I want to get back into politics.
I’ve got my own plans.
The reason I did what I was doing is because of the lessons I learned as a senator, a secretary of state, and I’m trying to make sure that those lessons are put to good use.
I have two children, who are in school.
And we have two daughters.
And I want my kids to grow up in a country that is proud of the values I grew up with.
I’m running to be the next president of the United States.
And if I’m going to be president, I’m not going to make decisions that don’t make sense.
And when I’m president, if we make decisions like we did in Iraq, we’re going to end up with a disaster of unprecedented proportions.
If we make choices that don the truth and put people at risk, it’s not going be the American way.
I will never compromise the security of the American people or the safety of our troops or the ability of our military to work effectively in the war on terror.
I know that the American government is very divided, and that’s why we’re doing what we’re not doing.
But we’ve got to stand up to bullies and to fight for what we believe in, and we have to do it with guts and passion.
We’re going back to the way we were in the early days of our country, when our founders and their forebears would gather in the Capitol to talk about a nation that was founded on freedom and justice.
When I’m here tonight, I want you to hear the words of a woman who helped create this country: My father was a great patriot, a great American, a man who fought for his country, and a great man who did the right thing.
She was a woman, too.
My father did the wrong thing.
And my mother, who died on that fateful day, was a patriot, too, who fought and died for this country.
I am running for president because I want a country where we do better than this.
We can build a better future for our children and for the future of this great nation.
Thank you, everybody.
[Applause.]
Good evening.
It’s good to be back on the stage, but we’re back on stage for the second night in a row, with another special guest tonight.
The Republican National Committee is proud to welcome Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to the stage tonight to celebrate his 100th birthday.
Dr. King’s legacy is indelible, and he continues to inspire Americans to continue the struggle to end racial injustice.
He fought for the right of the black man to vote, and his legacy continues to define how we live our lives today.
When it comes to race relations in America, Dr. Luther King’s words are still relevant today.
He said: We must end racial segregation.
We must ensure equal opportunity.
We cannot deny the fact that African Americans are far more likely than whites to be poor, to be unemployed, to lack health insurance, to live in inner cities and rural areas, to have children who are less educated and have more barriers to entry into the workforce, and to be victims of hate crimes.
We are witnessing the worst racial injustice in the history of our nation.
But there is hope.
There is hope that, at the end of all this, America can rise again, as it once did, to lift its citizens out of poverty, out of racial injustice, out from discrimination, out, for a brighter future for all Americans.
This country is in a great, great state of recovery.
There are so many people out there who want to work and create jobs and improve their lives, but that will not be possible if we continue to fail to confront the real root causes of the problems that we face.
We have to get to work to make our country great again, because it’s only the beginning.
The first task of our administration is to make good on the promise of Martin Luther to unite Americans, to restore the American dream to the American spirit, and restore our nation to its rightful place at the heart of the world.
[Laughter and applause.]
[AppLause.]
Dr. Mahon is a former U.S. senator from Illinois, and the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
She is the author of The Lost Cause: America’s Quest to Empower Black Women, and co-author of the book The Great Black Hope: How the Black Community Is Reclaiming the Future.