TEXT of Biden's Speech (lots of good talking points!)

“It’s great to be here, on the steps of the Old State House in the Land of Lincoln. President Lincoln once instructed us to be sure to put your feet in the right place, then stand firm. Today Springfield, I know my feet are in the right place. And I am proud to stand firm for the next president of the United States of America, Barack Obama.

“Folks, Barack and I come from very different places but we share a common story, America's story. He was the son of a single mom, a single mom who had to struggle to support her son and her kids. She raised him. She raised him to believe in America, to believe in this country there is no obstacle to keep someone from their dreams, if you're willing to work hard and fight for it.

“I was different, I was an Irish-Catholic kid from Scranton with a father who, like many of you in tough economic times, fell on hard times.

“My Mom and Dad raised me to believe, its a saying, Barack, you've heard me say before and my father repeated and repeated, the test is not about how many times you get knocked down, it’s how quickly you get up. It’s how quickly you get up.

“Ladies and gentlemen, that's your story, that's America's story. It’s about if you get up to make it. That's the America Barack Obama and I believe in. That's the American Dream.

“Ladies and gentlemen, these are no ordinary times, and this is no ordinary election. The truth of the matter is and you know it, that the American Dream under four years, eight years of Bush and McCain, that American Dream is slipping away. I don't have to tell you that. You feel it in your lives. You see it in your shrinking wages. And the cost of everything from groceries to health care to college to filing up your car at the gas station, it keeps going up and up and the future keeps receding further and further away as you reach for your dreams.

“You know ladies and gentlemen, it is not a mere political saying, I say with every fiber of my being I believe we cannot as a nation stand four more years of this.

“We cannot afford to keep giving tax cuts after tax cuts to big corporations and the wealthiest Americans while the middle class America, middle class families are falling behind and their wages are actually shrinking.

“We can't afford four more years of a government that does nothing while they watch the housing market collapse. As you know, it’s not just the millions of people facing foreclosures, it’s the tens of millions of your neighbors who are seeing the values of their homes drop off a cliff along with the dreams.

“Ladies and gentlemen, your kitchen is like mine, you sit there at night before you put the kids, after you put the kids to bed and you talk about what you need. You talk about how much you're worried about being able to pay the bills. Well, ladies and gentlemen that's not a worry John McCain has to worry about. It’s a pretty hard experience. He'll have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at.

“Folks, again, it’s not political sloganery when I saw we literally can't afford four more years of this non-energy policy written by and for the oil companies, making us more and more dependent on hostile nations for our ability to run this country. And literally, not figuratively, literally putting American's security at risk. We can't afford four more years of a foreign policy that has shredded our alliances and sacrificed our moral standing around the world.

“Ladies and gentlemen, that's the bad news, but there is good news for America. We don't have to have four more years of George W. Bush and John McCain.

“The next president of the United States is going to be delivered to the most significant moment in American history since Franklin Roosevelt was elected president. He will have such an incredible opportunity, not only to change the direction of America, but to change the direction of the world.

“Barack Obama and I believe with every fiber of our beings in our families and in our communities, as Americans there is not a single solitary challenge we cannot face if we level with the American people.

“And I don't say that to say it. History, history has shown, when have Americans ever, ever, ever, ever, ever let their county down then they've had a leader to lead them?

“Ladies and gentlemen, we believe that our tomorrows will bring better than our yesterdays and we believe we'll pass onto our children an even better life than the one we live. That literally has been the American way and it can be that way again but there is a big missing piece, the missing piece is leadership.

“In all my time in the United States Senate, I want you to know there are only four senators senior than me, Barack, but 44 older, I want you to know that. With all kidding aside, in all my years in the Senate I have never in my life seen Washington so broken. I've never seen so many dreams denied and so many decisions deferred, by politicians who are trying to escape the responsibility and accountability. But ladies and gentlemen, the reckoning is now.

“The reality is we must answer the call or we will risk the harshest version and verdict of history. These times call for a total change in Washington. These times require more than a good soldier, they require a wise leader.

“A leader who can deliver the change we need.

“I'll say straight up that John McCain is genuinely a friend of mine. I've known John for 35 years. He served our country with extraordinary courage and I know he wants to do right by America, btu the harsh, harsh truth is you can't change America when you quote, and these are John's words, ‘The most important issues of our day I've been totally in agreement and support with President Bush.’

“That's what he said.

“You can't change America when you supported George Bush's policy 95 percent of the time. You can't change America when you believe, and these are his own words "that in the Bush Administration we made great progress economically. You can't change America and make things better for our senior citizens when you signed on to Bush's scheme to privatizing Social Security.

“You can't change America and give our workers a fighting chance when after 3 million manufacturing jobs you continue to support tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas.

“You can't change America and end the war in Iraq and these are his words, ‘No one has supported President Bush more than I have.’

“You can't change America , you can't change America when you know your first four years as president will look exactly like the last eight years of Bush's presidency.

My friends, I don't have to tell you this election year the choice is clear. One man stands ready to deliver change we so desperately need. A man I'm proud to call my friend. A man who will be the next president of the United States, Barack for America.

“Let me tell you about Obama.

“You learn a lot about a man when you campaign with him, when you debate him 12 or 10 times. When you hear him speak. When you watch how he reacts under pressure. You learn about his strength of mind, and I think more importantly the quality of his heart

“Ladies and gentleman, no one knows better than I do when presidential campaigns are crucibles in which you’re tested and challenged every single day. And over the past 18 months, I've watched Barack meet those challenges with judgments, intelligence and steel in his spine.

“I've watched as he's inspired millions of Americans to this new cause.

“And during those 18 months I must tell you, my friends, I've been disappointed my friend John McCain gave into his right wing of his party and yielded to the swiftboat politics that he himself once so deplored.

“Campaigns for president are a test of character and leadership and in this campaign one candidate, one candidate, has passed that test.

“Barack has the vision and you can't forget that vision. He also has the courage to make this a better place, and let me tell you something else, this man is a clear eye pragmatist who will get the job done.

“I watched in amazement when he came to the Senate, I watched in amazement. He made his mark literally from day one, reaching across the aisle to pass legislation to secure the world's deadliest weapons. Standing up to some of the most entrenched interests in Washington. Risking the wrath of the old order to pass the most sweeping ethical reforms in the nation.

“I was proudest, I was proudest when I watched him spontaneously focus the attention of the nation on the shameful neglect of wounded solders at Reid Army Hospital.

“Ladies and gentleman, I know I’m told I talk too colloquially, there is something about this guy, there is something about this guy, there is something about Barack Obama that allows him to bring people together like no one I've worked with or seen.There is something about Barack Obama that makes people understand that if they make compromises they can make things better.

“It’s been amazing to watch him, but then again that's been the story of his whole life.

“I emphasize again this is a man raised by his single mother who sometimes was on food stamps as she worked to put herself through school. By grandparents from the prairies of Kansas who loved him. A grandfather, a grandfather who marched in Patton's army and then came home and went to college on the G.I. Bill. And a grandmother, a grandmother who got a high school education, started off working in a small bank in the secretarial pool and rose to be vice president of that bank.

“Ladies and gentlemen, these remarkable people gave Barack Obama the determination and drive, and yes, the boundaries, to turn down that big job on Wall Street to come to Chicago's Southside where he helped workers help themselves after the steel mills had been shut down and the jobs disappeared.

“Ladies and gentleman, my wife Jill who you'll meet soon, is drop dead gorgeous, she also has a doctor's degree which is a problem, but all kidding aside, my Jill, my Jill, my wife and I are thrilled to join Barack and Michelle on this journey, the second leg of this journey. We share the same values. The values we had passed down to us by our parents. The values Jill and I passed onto our children Beau, Hunter and Ashley.

“Ladies and gentleman, I'm here for their future, I'm here for the future of your kids, I'm here for everyone I grew up in Scranton, Pa., with, and everybody in Claymont, Del., and Wilmington where I live, I'm here for the cops and firefighters, the teachers and line workers, the folks who live, the folks whose lives I will measure if whether the American dream endured.

“Folks, these are no ordinary times, and this is no ordinary election. This may be the last chance we have to reclaim the America we love, to restore America's soul.

“Ladies and gentleman, America gave Jill and me our chance, gave Barack and Michelle their chance, to stand on this stage today, it’s literally incredible. These values, this country gave us that chance. Now i’ts time for all of us to put our feet in the right place and to stand firm. Ladies and gentleman, it's time to elect Barack Obama president. Its our time, it’s America's time.

“God bless America and may he protect our troops.”