DEAN: This is going to be a real quick one. First of all, I want to thank Senator Edwards and all of the senators and also Tom Daschle for filibustering Miguel Estrada and Priscilla Owens. They are not qualified to serve.

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Second of all, Bob Graham and I are the only people that have actually ever appointed judges, and I never thought I'd ever say anything that I agreed with Dick Nixon, but what we need is a strict constructionist. What we really need is a somebody who is going to uphold the Constitution, and what the president is doing is appointing members of the far-right federalist society who don't see the Constitution the way most Americans do.

I happen to think there is such a thing as a right to privacy in the Constitution, and we need to appoint judges who will support our civil liberties, who will declare parts of the Patriot Act unconstitutional. It is not OK...

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... it is not OK to hold American citizens without the right to see a lawyer indefinitely. It is not OK to snoop through our video files to see what we rented last Saturday night.

I'm going to appoint judges, as I have in the past, who will uphold the Constitution, work hard and will not come with an ideological agenda.

But I don't agree with Bob Graham about one thing. As the recipient of the Wellstone, I'm very proud to be a member of the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, and if we worry so much about electability, that they can't tell the difference between the Democratic and the Democratic Party and the Republicans, then we're going to be in a lot of trouble in this party.

We need to win this election by standing up for who we are and speaking our peace.

Now as a former governor, I can say that I'm the only one that's actually delivered universal health care to a significant number of our people, and my health care plan will pass because it's inexpensive. And it will give Americans the same health-care plan that the members of Congress have.

I don't think we can win this election by voting for tax cuts. I don't think we can win this election by voting for No Child Left Behind and then saying it's only bad because it's unfunded. I don't know a teacher in America who thinks that's a good bill. It labels good schools as failing schools. It's the wrong thing to do.

I went to Seattle a couple of days ago. Twelve hundred people showed up to hear me speak. I stopped my speech in the middle of it and I said, "How many of you all haven't been in politics in the last 10 or 15 years?" Half of the room stood up. We're not going to win this election in this room. We're going to win this election talking to people who want hope again, who want hope in America, who are going to stand up.

It's not just going to be Democrats that win this election. It's independents who want jobs again.

The biggest lie that people like me tell you is, "If you elect me I'm going to solve all of your problems." The truth is that you have the power to change this country, that you have the power to make a difference to nominate somebody in this party who can bring those 50 percent of the people who have given up on the political process back in, that we can win and we can mobilize again.

Abraham Lincoln said that a government of the people by the people and for the people shall not perish from this earth. The truth is that this president has forgotten about ordinary people, and that you have the power to take this country back. You have the power to take this party back and you have the power to take the White House back in 2004.