John McCain and Barack Obama attended the Al Smith Dinner in NYC tonight. In case you missed it, here are their speeches (in four parts).
Al Smith was known as “The Happy Warrior”. He was governor of New York and ran for President of the United States, losing to Herbert Hoover in 1928. He was president of Empire State, Inc., the company that built the Empire State Building during the Great Depression. I have heard people talking about how we can’t afford senior centers or school renovations right now. Some of the people saying this were opposed to these projects three years ago. There are some things that need doing, that we can’t make excuses for. There are other things that can be put off for better times. Let’s not use hard times as an excuse to abandon our obligations. The future depends on us.