An Excerpt From Senator Obama's Speech
Xcel Energy Center
June 3, 2008

In just a few short months, the Republican Party will arrive in St. Paul with a very different agenda.
They will come here to nominate John McCain, a man who has served this country heroically.
I honor that service, and I respect his many accomplishments, even if he chooses to deny mine.
My differences with him are not personal; they are with the policies he has proposed in this campaign.

Because while John McCain can legitimately tout moments of independence from his party in the past,
such independence has not been the hallmark of his presidential campaign.

It's not change when John McCain decided to stand with George Bush ninety-five percent of the time,
as he did in the Senate last year.

It's not change when he offers four more years of Bush economic policies that have failed to create well-paying jobs,
or insure our workers, or help Americans afford the skyrocketing cost of college - policies that have lowered the real
 incomes of the average American family, widened the gap between Wall Street and Main Street, and left our children
 with a mountain of debt.