Speeches

A hilariously sad e-mail is circulating nowadays proposing that members of Congress be required to wear colorful, logo-splattered uniforms like NASCAR drivers so that voters can know their corporate sponsors. So no surprise that the Republicans went out of town to find their official responder to President Obama's Feb. 24 address to a joint session of Congress: Louisiana GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Excerpts from the victory speech by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to his supporters in Des Moines after the Iowa caucuses: I'm amazed, but I'm encouraged, because tonight what we have seen is a new day in American politics. A new day is needed in American politics, just like a new day is needed in American government. And tonight it starts here in Iowa. But it doesn't end here. It goes all the way through the other states and ends at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. one year from now.

Excerpts from Sen. Barack Obama's victory speech to his supporters in Des Moines after the Iowa caucuses: You know, they said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose. But on this January night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do. . . .

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates on Sunday used his final keynote address at the tech industry's top trade show to tout some of the same futuristic technologies he ballyhooed at his first more than a decade ago.

Bill Clinton, who carried Nevada in two presidential elections, trumpeted his wife's accomplishments Tuesday while painting Sen. Barack Obama as the "establishment" candidate who would bring only the "feeling of change." "One candidate says you should vote for me because I've not been involved at all in the struggles of the past and therefore we need to turn over a new leaf and [try] something absolutely new.

Beginning his final year in office with low approval ratings, a Democratic Congress and a nation fixated on choosing his successor, President Bush is preparing a State of the Union speech for Monday that will accentuate unfinished business and lay out modest goals.

Echoing the limited agenda President Bush outlined in his State of the Union address, congressional Democrats are eyeing their second year in the majority with much-diminished expectations. Gone are the grandiose promises of legislation to bring the troops home from Iraq, which dominated the Democratic agenda last year and nearly ground business on Capitol Hill to a halt.

The archbishop of Canterbury on Monday defended himself against a firestorm of recent criticism, telling fellow Anglicans his statement last week that Britain would have to accept some limited form of Islamic law had been misunderstood. Speaking to a gathering of elected representatives from the Church of England, Archbishop Rowan Williams said he took full responsibility "for any unclarity . . . and for any misleading choice of words that has helped cause distress or misunderstanding."

Responding to a rash of racial incidents in the last year, President Bush on Tuesday denounced displays of nooses and jokes about lynching, and said that as past racial injustice fades in memory, the nation risked forgetting the suffering it brought. The president's remarks, at a White House program marking African American History Month, were among his most pointed in recent years on the subject of racial tensions.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin made it plain Thursday that he plans to maintain power when he leaves office, whatever his next job title may be. During a wide-ranging annual Kremlin appearance before hundreds of Russian and foreign journalists, Putin reiterated his threats to aim missiles at his European neighbors if they accept U.S. missile shield installations. But he also said that, despite hostile rhetoric, Russia and the United States ultimately would cooperate out of necessity.