What is a fighter?
To me a fighter is someone who won’t give up.
To me a fighter is someone who’s passionate about what they believe in
and that will make a difference in people’s lives.
Before Secretary of State, Senator
First Lady of the country
she was just a caring, young, bright, creative student
who cared about children and those left behind.
Hillary came to work for the Children’s Defense Fund
when we were a fledgling, beginning organization.
The children I met lived harsh lives.
It was so overwhelming because
people were being treated
like they weren’t even full human beings.
There are no miracles in all this. It’s hard work.
It’s sticking with it. It’s perseverance.
And over the years she has made a cumulative,
I think significant impact for children.
In September, 1995
I was at the UN conference in Beijing.
The history of women has been a history of silence.
Many people in our own government and our Congress
did not want me to go to Beijing
But you don’t shy away from confronting human rights abuses.
It is a violation of human rights
when babies are denied food
or drowned, or suffocated
simply because they are born girls.
The entire conference hall exploded in this energy and enthusiasm
Human rights are women’s rights
and women’s rights are human rights once and for all
Hearing the words that she spoke
she taught me that there were no limits to what I could achieve.
Bill asked me to lead up our efforts to try to see if we couldn’t get
quality affordable health care for every American
Now is our chance to beat the historical odds.
And give the American people the health security they need.
We worked really hard. We weren’t successful.
I was really disappointed.
But you have to get up off the floor and you keep fighting.
So I got to thinking
Let’s see what we can do to help kids.
You want universal health care for children.
You seem to be swimming against the tide.
That’s because I think the tide is not going in the right direction.
I was very proud when the Children’s Health Insurance Program passed.
We have reports this morning that a plane has crashed.
I’m very proud of being part of the recovery work at Ground Zero.
One of the firefighters just said to me:
“Senator, please, please don’t let anybody forget what happened here.
And don’t let anyone forget us.
I was so overcome by their courage and their compassion.
I knew that I had to also pay attention to what happened to those brave men and women.
She stood up day in and day out, fighting for our medical treatment
It has made a huge difference in my life.
Ladies and Gentlemen: the US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton
I was a career foreign service officer for twenty six years.
The fact that she was willing to work for a former rival,
President Obama, restored my faith in the political process.
He won and I lost, and then he asked me to be Secretary of State.
And I agreed for the same reason: we both love our country.
She was the most dogged, determined Secretary of State I’ve ever seen.
She mended relationships with countries that had been frayed.
But she didn’t just fight for American values abroad.
She fought for the families that serve the State Department.
Secretary Clinton is exactly that kind of fighter.
Everyone deserves a chance to live up to his or her God-given potential.
That’s the dream we share. That’s the fight we must wage.
My dad, the son of a factory worker could start a small business.
My mom, who never got to go to college could see her daughter go to college.
Everyday Americans and their families need a champion,
a champion who will fight for them every single day
And I want to be that champion.
I want to get up every single day,
going to work for you, standing up for you.
And I think by now people know I don’t quit.