Obama's Campaign Speech in San Francisco June 6

Julia Morgan Ballroom
San Francisco, California

2:28 P.M. PDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Willie Mays, everybody, the “Say Hey Kid.”  (Applause.)  Thank you so much, everybody.  Everybody, have a seat.

First of all, it is true that they provide me with this really nice plane in this job.  (Laughter.)  But as cool as Air Force One is, it is much, much cooler when Willie Mays is with you on the plane.  (Laughter.)  I am so grateful to him for his support, but more importantly -- he mentioned obviously the history that was made with my election.  The fact is, is that we don’t make that history unless there are people like Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays, who helped to lay the groundwork -- (applause) -- helped to lay the groundwork for a more inclusive America.  And so we could not be prouder of him, and he could not be more gracious.

A couple of other people I want to acknowledge -- your outstanding Governor of the great state of California, Jerry Brown.  There he is.  (Applause.)  Your equally dynamic Lieutenant Governor, Gavin Newsom, is in the house.  (Applause.) The wonderful Mayor of San Francisco, Ed Lee -- give him a big round of applause.  (Applause.)

I want to thank Clint and Janet Reilly for hosting us here today.  We are in their spot and we are very grateful.  You can give them a round of applause.  (Applause.)

And we’ve got a guy who I guess is a little bit of a carpetbagger here today.  (Laughter.)  He is former chairman of the DNC, former governor of Virginia, now running for the United States Senate in Virginia, but is also one of my dearest friends. This was the first guy outside of Illinois, the first elected official outside of Illinois to endorse my candidacy for President.  And we made that announcement together in Richmond, the seat of the former Confederacy.  And this was at a time when Barack Hussein Obama was not favored to win.  (Laughter.)  And so he is a man of character.  And I would urge all of you to get to know his incredible track record and support his terrific efforts in Virginia.  Please give Tim Kaine a big round of applause.  (Applause.)

So it is good to be back in San Francisco.  I’ve noticed I’ve been getting very good weather in San Francisco.  (Laughter.)  I don’t know if Ed or Gavin or somebody is arranging this, but it’s always spectacular to be here among so many friends, a lot of people who supported me in the past.

I’m here not just because I need your help, but because the country needs your help.  And when we came together in 2008, like Tim, you didn’t do it because you thought I was necessarily the odds on favorite.  But we came together, because there was a sense that those core values that we hold dear, the things that make America special -- the values that helped to expand opportunity for people from every walk of life and from all over the world -- that those values had eroded a little bit, that they weren’t being observed in Washington the way we’d like them to be.

We had seen surpluses turned into yawning deficits because of tax cuts for people who didn’t need them and weren’t even asking for them.  We had seen two wars fought on a credit card.  We had seen an economy that was increasingly built on financial speculation as opposed to us making stuff, and manufacturing was consistently moving offshore.  And we’d gotten a sense that for a few people things were going really well, but an expanding number of Americans were having more and more trouble getting by, with the cost of everything from health care to college education skyrocketing, even as wages and incomes were flat. Read the rest