Video: '2004 RNC - President George W. Bush Acceptance Speech'

(Thursday, September 2, 2004, evening EDT) — George W. Bush accepted the Republican nomination to run for a second term as president tonight, outlining proposals that he vowed would create jobs, expand health care and broaden educational opportunities, while he battered Senator John Kerry for what Mr. Bush said was a weak and wavering record on national security and the economy.

At the culmination of a four-day convention in New York, Mr. Bush repeatedly and soberly referred to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as he portrayed his first term in the White House as one shaped by that tragedy. Defining his presidency with historic sweep, he suggested that Mr. Kerry would falter in the face of the continuing threat to the United States.

Note: President Bush was nominated for a second term last night at the end of a “rolling roll call” that had started the day before, when Pennsylvania’s delegation cast the deciding votes. Vice President Dick Cheney was nominated by voice vote for re-election today. The Bush-Cheney team would face the Democratic ticket of John Kerry-John Edwards (nominated in July 2004) in the 2004 general election.