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[CROWD CHANTING] WALTER MONDALE: Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very, very much. My fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, I accept your nomination.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

Behind us now is the most wide open race in political history. It was noisy, but our voices were heard. It was long, but our stamina was tested. It was hot, but the heat was passion and not anger. It was a roller coaster, but it made me a better candidate and it will make me a stronger president of the United States.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

I do not envy the drowsy harmony of the Republican Party. They squelched debate. We welcome it. They deny differences. We bridge them. They are uniform. We are united.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

They are a portrait of privilege and we are a mirror of America.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

Just look at us here tonight. Black and white, Asian and Hispanic, native and immigrant, young and old, urban and rural, male and female. From yuppie to lunch-pail, from sea to shining sea, we are all here tonight in this convention speaking for America.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

And when we-- and when we in this hall speak for America, it is America that is speaking. When we speak of family, the voice is Mario Cuomo's. When we speak of change, the words are Gary Hart's. When we speak-- when we speak of hope, the fire is Jesse Jackson's.

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When we speak of caring, the spirit is Ted Kennedy's.

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When we speak of patriotism, the strength is John Glenn's.

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And when we speak of the future, the message is Geraldine Ferraro.

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And now we leave San Francisco together. And over the next 100 days, in every word we say, in every life we touch, we will be fighting for the future of America.

AUDIENCE: Yeah.

[APPLAUSE]

WALTER MONDALE: Joan and I are parents of three wonderful children who will live much of their lives in the 21st century. This election is a referendum on their future and on ours. So tonight, I want to speak to the young people of America and to their parents and to their grandparents. I'm Walter Mondale.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

You may have heard of me, but you may not really know me. I grew up in the farm towns of Southern Minnesota.

[CHEERS]

My dad was a preacher and my mom was a music teacher. We never-- we never had a dime, but we were rich in the values that are important. And I've carried those values with me ever since. They taught me to work hard, to stand on my own, to play by the rules, to tell the truth, to obey the law, to care for others, to love our country, and to cherish our faith.

My story isn't unique. In the last few weeks, I've deepened my admiration for someone who shares those same values. Her immigrant father loved our country, her widowed mother sacrificed her family, and her own career is an American classic, doing your work, earning your way, paying your dues, rising on merit. My presidency will be about those values. And my--

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My vice president will be Geraldine Ferraro.

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Tonight we open a new door to the future. Mr. Reagan calls it tokenism. We call it America.

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Ever since I graduated from Elmore High, I've been a Democrat. I was the Attorney General of my state, then a United States Senator, and then an honest, caring man, Jimmy Carter, picked me as his running mate. And in 1976--

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

And in 1976, I was elected vice president. Then in 1980, Ronald Reagan beat the pants office. So tonight, I want to say something to those of you across the country who voted for Ronald Reagan. Republicans, independents, and, yes, some Democrats, I heard you and our party heard you.

After we lost, we didn't tell the American people that they were wrong. Instead, we begin asking you what our mistakes had been. And for four years, I listened to all of the people of our country. I traveled everywhere. It seemed like I had visited every acre of America. It wasn't easy.

I remember late one night as I headed from a speech in one city to a hotel 1,000 miles away, a friend of mine came up to me and said, Fritz, I just saw you on TV. Are those bags under your eyes natural? And I said, no. I got them the old-fashioned way. I earned them.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

To the thousands of Americans who welcomed me into your homes and into your businesses, your churches and your synagogues, I thank you. You confirmed my belief in our country's values and you helped me learn and grow. So tonight we come to you with a new realism, ready for the future and recapturing the best in our tradition.

We know that America must have a strong defense and a sober view of the Soviets. We know that government must be as well-managed as it is well-meaning. We know that a healthy, growing private economy is the key to the future. We know that Harry Truman spoke the truth when he said, a president has to be able to say yes and no, but mostly no.

Look at our platform. There are no defense cuts that weaken our security, no business taxes that weaken our economy, no laundry lists that raid our Treasury. We are a wiser, stronger, and we are focused on the future. If Mr. Reagan wants to rerun the 1980 campaign, fine. Let them fight over the past. We're fighting for the American future, and that's why we're going to win this campaign.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

[CROWD CHANTING]

One last word.

[CROWD CHANTING]

One last word to those of you who voted for Mr. Reagan. I know what you were saying, but I also know what you were not saying. You did not vote for $200 billion deficits. You did not vote for an arms race. You did not vote to turn the heavens into a battleground.

AUDIENCE: No!

WALTER MONDALE: You did not vote to savage Social Security and Medicare.

AUDIENCE: No!

WALTER MONDALE: You did not vote to destroy family farming.

AUDIENCE: No!

WALTER MONDALE: You did not vote to trash the Civil Rights laws.

AUDIENCE: No!

WALTER MONDALE: You did not vote to poison the environment.

AUDIENCE: No!

WALTER MONDALE: You did not vote to assault the poor, the sick, and the disabled.

AUDIENCE: No!

WALTER MONDALE: And you did not vote to pay $50 for a $0.50 light bulb.

AUDIENCE: No!

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

WALTER MONDALE: Four years ago-- four years ago, many of you voted for Mr. Reagan because he promised that you would be better off. And today, the rich are better off. But working Americans are worse off and the middle class is standing on a trap door. Lincoln once said that ours is to be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. But what we have today is a government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich, and we're going to make a change in November.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

Look at the record. First, there was Mr. Reagan's tax program. And what happened was this. He gave each of his rich friends enough tax relief to buy a Rolls Royce. And then he asked your family to pay for the hubcaps. Then they looked the other way at the rip offs, soaring utility bills, phone bills, medical bills.

Then they crimped our future. They let us be rooted in international competition. And now the Help Wanted ads are full of listings for executives and for dishwashers, but not much in between. Then they sacked it-- then they socked it to the workers. They encouraged executives to vote themselves huge bonuses while using King Kong tactics to make workers take Hong Kong wages.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

Mr. Reagan--

[CROWD CHANTING]

We gotta--

[CROWD CHANTING]

Mr. Reagan-- Mr. Reagan believes that the genius of America is in the boardrooms and exclusive country clubs. I believe that greatness can be found in the men and women who build our nation, do its work, and defend our freedom.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

If this administration has a plan for a better future, they're keeping a secret. Here's the truth about the future. We are living on borrowed money and borrowed time. These deficits hike interest rates, clobber exports, stunt investment, kill jobs, undermine growth, cheat our kids, and shrink our future.

Whoever is inaugurated in January, the American people will have to pay Mr. Reagan's bills. The budget will be squeezed, taxes will go up. And anyone who says they won't is not telling the truth to the American people.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

I mean business. By the end of my first term, I will reduce the Reagan budget deficit by 2/3. Let's tell the truth. That must be done. It must be done. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did.

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There's another difference. There's another difference.

[CROWD CHANTING]

There's another difference. There's another difference. When he raises taxes, it won't be done fairly. He will socket to average income families again, and he'll leave his rich friends alone. And I won't stand for it, and neither will you, and neither will the American people.

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To the corporations and the freeloaders who play the loopholes and pay no taxes, my message is your free ride is over.

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To the Congress, my message is, we must cut spending and pay as we go. If you don't hold the line, I will. That's what the veto is for. Now, that's my plan to cut the deficit. Mr. Reagan is keeping his plan secret until after the election. That's not leadership. That's salesmanship. And I think the American people know the difference.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

I challenge-- tonight, I challenge Mr. Reagan to put his plan on the table next to mine, and then let's debate it on national television before the people of this country.

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Americans-- Americans-- Americans want the truth about their future They're entitled to it. And they want the truth now, not after the election.

[APPLAUSE]

When the economy-- American economy leads the world. The jobs are here. The prosperity is here. And the future is here for our children. But that's not what's happening today. This is the worst trade year in American history. Three million of our best jobs have gone overseas.

Mr. Reagan has done nothing about it. They have no plan to get our competitive edge back, but we do. We will cut the deficits, reduce interest rates, make our exports affordable, and make America number one again in the world economy.

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We will launch a Renaissance in education and science and learning. A mind is a terrible thing to waste, and this must be the best educated generation in American history and I will lead our nation forward to the best system that this nation has ever seen. We must do it. We must do it.

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It is time-- it is time for America to have a season of excellence. Parents must turn off that television. Students must do their homework. Teachers must teach. And America can compete will be number one if we will follow those rules. Let's get with it in America again.

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To big companies that send our best jobs overseas, my message is we need those jobs here at home. And our country won't help your business unless your business helps our country.

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To countries that closed their markets to us, my message is we will not be pushed around anymore. We will have a president who stands up for American workers and American businesses and American farmers in international trade.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

When I grew up and people ask us to imagine the future, we were full of dreams. But a few months ago, when I visited a grade school class in Texas and asked the children to imagine the future, they talked to me about nuclear war. Lately, as we've neared the election, this administration has begun to talk about a safer world.

But there's a big difference. As president, I will work for peace from my first day in office and not from my first day of campaigning for re-election.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

As president-- as president, I will reassert American values. I'll press for human rights in Central America and for the removal of all foreign forces from the region. And in my first 100 days, I will stop the illegal war in Nicaragua.

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We know-- we know the deep differences with the Soviets, and America condemns their repression of dissidents and Jews, their suppression of solidarity, their invasion of Afghanistan, their meddling around the world. But the truth is, that between us we have the capacity to destroy the planet. Every president, since the bomb has gone off, has understood that and talked with the Soviets and negotiated arms control.

Why has this administration failed? Why haven't they tried? Why can't they understand the cry of Americans and human beings for sense and sanity in control of these God awful weapons? Why? Why?

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

[CROWD CHANTING]

Why-- why can't we meet in Summit conferences with the Soviet Union at least once a year? Why can't we reach agreements to save this Earth? The truth is, we can. President Kennedy was right when he said, we must never negotiate out of fear but we must never fear to negotiate.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

For the sake of civilization, we must negotiate a mutual, verifiable nuclear freeze before these weapons destroy us all.

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The second-- the second term-- the second term of a Mondale-Ferraro administration will begin in 1989. By the start of the next decade, I want to ask our children their dreams and hear not one word about nuclear nightmares.

[APPLAUSE]

By the start of the next decade, I want to walk into any classroom in America and talk to some of the brightest teachers-- students, and have them tell me, I want to be a teacher.

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By the start-- by the start of the next decade, I want to walk into any public health clinic in America and hear the doctors say, we haven't seen a hungry child this year.

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By the start of the next decade, I want to walk into any store in America and I want to pick up the best product of the best quality and the best price, and turn it over and read, Made in the USA.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

By the start-- by the start of the next decade, I want to meet with the most successful business leaders anywhere in America and see as many minorities and women in that room as I see in this room here tonight.

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By the start of the next decade, I want to point to the Supreme Court and say, justice is in good hands.

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Before the start of the next decade, I want to go to my second inaugural and raise my right hand and swear to preserve, protect, and defend a Constitution that includes the equal Rights Amendment.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

[CROWD CHANTING]

My friends, America is a future that each generation must enlarge, a door each generation must open, a promise that each generation must keep. For the rest of my life, I want to talk to young people about their future and whatever their race, whatever their religion, whatever their sex, I want to hear some of them say what I say with joy and reverence tonight, I want to be president of the United States. Thank you.

[CHEERS, APPLAUSE]

LINDA WERTHEIMER: There he is, Walter Mondale, the candidate of the Democratic Party to be president of the United States. The flags on the floor. There are so many flags on the floor, you can't see people. It's a sea of red, white, and blue flags waving from Walter Mondale. An extraordinary moment. He's still standing there by himself, waving to the crowd.

Cokie Roberts, this speech was not an attempt to out-orate Jesse Jackson, it was not an attempt to outshout Teddy Kennedy. This was a quiet catalog of the things that he says he believes in and he says he wants to do.

COKIE ROBERTS: It started as a personal autobiography, and now Mrs. Mondale has joined the former Vice President on the podium, as someone who's been by his side through these many months. And he wanted to tell the people watching all over the country just who he was. It must have been, at least in part, an answer to those charges that he was not his own man, that he was a person who was the tool of many other special interests, as Gary Hart said so many times, and this was a way to talk about himself and who he is and where he came from.

The other thing, of course, that we've heard so much at this convention is family, values of caring, all of those things that signal to many Americans that this is a mainstream Democratic Party again. That is the attempt they're trying to get across here, trying to win back some of those people who deserted in the last election to say, we are yours, the Democratic Party.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Here comes the running mate, Geraldine Ferraro. And they shake hands, Cokie, and turned to wave to the crowd. We've all wondered, would they hug? Will they kiss? What will they do?

COKIE ROBERTS: This is a-- since it's a first, is a male-female ticket, one of the many questions, then how do they react to each other in these public situations? Usually you see here running mates putting their arms around each other and waving. They are not touching here. It's clearly a sensitive issue.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: I think from what we know of Geraldine Ferraro, who's always got everybody by the arm, that she must really have to restrain herself in a moment like this. The two of them are walking from one side of the platform to the other.

COKIE ROBERTS: And Geraldine Ferraro is waving and keeping time to the music. It's very typical, this sort of loose, free-spirited lady in a way. Now her family-- she is putting her arm around her own husband. That's all right. Her family has joined her. His family has joined him. It really is-- they've stressed over and over here tonight how diverse America is, and you can see it in these two families.

You have the Italian Ferraro Zaccaros and the Norwegian Mondales there. They look like two different continents. And here come the balloons.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: We have balloons. Balloons are falling calling from big plastic bags attached to the ceiling and falling down on the delegates and tossing them back into the air. This is the scene that you remember from a convention, except this time the Democrats have decided to wave the American flag, even if it meant, as it did mean, some sacrifice of noise. It's hard to clap your hands and wave your flag at the same time, but they seem to be having a fine time out there.

COKIE ROBERTS: But again, that's all part of this symbolism that this party is trying to convey, to say, this is not the party that it appeared to be becoming in recent years, that this is an American flag-waving party. We see here many members of it.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: We're going down to the floor now. Nina Totenberg to tell us what it's like to be in the midst of all this. Nina.

NINA TOTENBERG: Linda, all I can say is the word that sums up what I see here is joy. As you said, Fritz Mondale is not a stem-winding speaker, but he is a man who gave this crowd what they wanted, what they were waiting for. And I noticed, for example, I'm in the Minnesota delegation, that even the 16 members of the pro-life caucus who didn't vote for him on the first ballot, who voted for [INAUDIBLE], they were on their feet throughout this speech, clapping and waving flags. This is a joyous, joyous crowd. There are smiles on everybody's faces, from ear to ear. The giggling is going on all around me. Somebody just hit me on the head with a balloon. This is fun. I don't know how else to describe it, except to say that this is fun with a capital F. Back to you.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Nina Totenberg sounds like she's in the middle of something very loud.

COKIE ROBERTS: Well, that floor is extremely difficult to move around in, and Mondale did-- Mondale forces printed up a few extra 100 passes for the night to make sure it was fully jammed. So it's a difficult situation down there.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The speech, Cokie, there were a lot of phrases that I've heard during the months of this campaign. Things that he said to the AFL-CIO when he got their endorsement, that he wanted to turn over the best made products in a store and see Made in the USA, things that he said to the National Education Association, the teachers who endorsed him and helped him in his campaign, that he wants the brightest children in a classroom to tell him that they want to be teachers.

That litany of his hopes for America, I've heard it before. And the audience-- the audiences who see Walter Mondale say those things, I think have to be impressed with the way he feels so personally about it. He is very much out of the Hubert Humphrey background. He's a politician who believes that government can and must, can and should, do a great deal for its people, and that's reflected in everything that he's said here tonight.

COKIE ROBERTS: Of course, his challenge in the months to come is going to be to convince the American people that when he says that government can and must do things for his people, that he's not talking about vast new programs, that he's not talking about great increases in taxes, although he did do an extremely unusual thing in this speech tonight, which was to say that he would raise taxes. It's not very often that we hear a politician do that.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: But we're going-- the ticket is not on the podium for some reason, and I suspect that's because they've gone on some kind of errand.

COKIE ROBERTS: What is, is another very interesting and unusual scene, which is the spouses of the ticket. Mrs. Mondale, Mr. Zaccaro, standing, and probably don't know each other very well, getting to talking there, figuring out what's going on. It's likely that the running mates are going to collect some dignitaries and bring them back with them.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Walter Mondale is down on the floor of the convention. He's among the flags right in the center of this crowd.

COKIE ROBERTS: The Secret Service must be going wild.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Shaking hands, kissing the delegates. He's right in front of the band now, moving along with his agents. And Geraldine Ferraro must be on the other side of the room as well because they're both-- they're both there.

COKIE ROBERTS: Well, this is another sign we will be a people's presidency, they've been saying. This must be a way of showing we'll get down with the people.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: The flags, the big flags, the ones that are the size of flags that honor guard people carry, Color Guard people carry. Oh, there he is with a dancing delegate, Walter Mondale, and a man who is working out on the floor. Actually, he's on his chair at the convention.

COKIE ROBERTS: This is a moment to really just for delegates, people who've many of them have worked hard in the party, this is a moment for them to just celebrate, to forget about the work, the very hard work they will have in the months ahead if they are going to have to try to put this ticket across.

LINDA WERTHEIMER: Now they're up at the very top of the platform in a place that was obviously specially built for just this moment in a spotlight high above the-- standing right on the front of the podium, just above the crowd. Geraldine Ferraro for vice president. Walter Mondale for president. The Democrats have named their ticket.

You've been listening to the fourth and final day of NPR's live coverage of the Democratic National Convention. We'd like to thank quite a few people who helped us during these broadcasts. Our engineers, Manoli Wetherell and Norb Gallery, our technical director, Jim Schulter, production assistance from John Cater, from Lee Roberts, Mike Levey, Ari Allen, Sharon Golub, John Bear, and Greg Smith. Our producer and director is Frank Stasio. And below us in the NPR trailer, our news director, Robert Siegel, is telling us what to do, along with our producer, Jeff Rosenberg.

Special thanks to NPR member stations KQED and KALW in San Francisco for their very great help with our efforts here. For the entire National Public Radio crew, for Nina Totenberg, who is still down on the floor, for Cokie Roberts, who is here with me, for Charlie McDowell of the times-dispatch and Lu Harris Harrison, pollster who's helped us out all this time, I'm Linda Wertheimer. Good evening from National Public Radio and the Democratic National Convention. Good evening from San Francisco.

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