BarackObama HillaryClinton

Mark Worden (Standard British accent):

The May issue of Speak Up contains a feature on the US presidential elections. In these “out-takes” we listen to speeches by the Democratic candidates. The first to speak is Hillary Clinton:

Hillary Clinton (Standard American accent):

I see an America where health care is a moral right, not a privilege, where every man, woman and child has access to quality, affordable health care. We can do this. We can have a uniquely America solution. We already have a plan that we can make available to everyone. It's the plan that provides health care to members of Congress. And it works well for members of Congress and our staffs and federal employees. It has lots of choices. I want to make sure you have the same choices as your member of Congress does. And we will help people pay for it because I want everybody, everybody, to have quality, affordable health insurance. And I also see an America where we end our dependence on foreign oil and we start growing and making our own energy right here in Texas and America. Aren't you tired of paying those exorbitant costs at the gas pump? Aren't you tired of sending billions of our dollars to countries that turn around and use it against us? Well, why don't we get smart and start creating our own energy? We have the sun; we have the wind; we can grow the products; we can turn what we have here in Texas into the energy of the future. I think that if we do this we will create millions of new, good jobs, jobs with rising incomes, jobs that will be right here in El Paso, right here in Texas, jobs that will give a family a good potential opportunity to raise their kids, and send them to school, and feel like they're part of the American dream. Energy can be the key that unlocks our economic future, makes us more secure in the world. And, if we do it right, we will begin to deal with the problem of global warming, which is a real problem that has to be attacked. You know, I see an America where children are better prepared before they ever go to school, where we help families prepare their own children, where we have a universal pre-kindergarten program, so that 4-year-olds can get off to a good start. I see an America where the federal government doesn't tell the teachers, and the principals, and the superintendents in El Paso what they're supposed to teach and what they're supposed to test. I will the end the unfunded mandate known as No Child Left Behind. And, together, we will come up with a 21st-century education system for our children, where we look at each individual child and try to decide what we need to do to lift that little boy or girl to his or her God-given potential. That is the purpose of education, not test after test after test after test after test.

And now a speech by her rival for the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama:

Barack Obama (Standard American accent):

So today, the change we seek swept through Chesapeake and over the Potomac. We… we won the state of Maryland. We won the Commonwealth of Virginia. And though we won in Washington D.C., this movement won't stop until there's change in Washington, D.C.. And tonight, we're on our way. Tonight we’re on our way, but we know how much further we have to go. We know it takes more than one night – or even one election – to overcome decades of money and the influence; the bitter partisanship and petty bickering that's shut you out, let you down, told you to settle. We know our road will not be easy. But we also know that at this moment the cynics can no longer say that our hope is false. We have now won east and west, north and south, and across the heartland of this country we love. We… we have given young people a reason to believe, and we have brought… and we have brought the young at heart back to the polls who want to believe again. We are bringing together Democrats and Independents and, yes, some Republicans. I know this, I… meet them when I’m shaking hands and have to work… there’s one right there, an “Obamacan,” that’s what we call them . They whisper tp me, they say, “Barack, I’m a Republican, but I support you” and I say, “Thank you!” We’re bringing Democrats, Independents, Republicans, blacks and whites; Latinos and Asians and Native Americans; small states and big states; Red States and Blue States all into the United States of America. That’s our project, that’s our mission. This… this is the new American majority. This is what change looks like when it happens from the bottom up. And in this election, your voices will be heard. Because at a time when so many people are struggling to keep up with soaring costs in a sluggish economy, we know that the status quo in Washington just won't do. Not this time. Not this year. We can't keep playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players and somehow expect a different result – because it's a game that ordinary Americans are losing. We are going to put this game to an end.