Excerpts from Vice President Al Gore's speech announcing his run for President in Carthage, Tennessee on June 16, 1999:

To my beloved family, to Tipper, to the people of Tennessee, and all of you. You have always been there for me. And I begin this journey today to be there for you.

I love this country with all my heart. I believe in its future.  And I know that with our history as our rudder and our ideals as our compass, we can reach our new horizon.

And so today, I ask you to join with me, to keep our economy growing and to bring a new wave of fundamental change to this nation - starting with revolutionary improvements in our public schools.

I ask you to join with me, to build safe and livable communities, where we protect our environment, and restore the quality of life we deserve.

With your help, I will take my own values of faith and family to the Presidency -- to build an America that is not only better off, but better. And that is why today, I announce that I am a candidate for President of the United States.

Seven years ago, we needed to put America back to work -- and we did. Now we must build on that foundation. We must make family life work in America.

As we begin this new millennium, we will face many new questions. But the most important is as old as America itself. It's the one we faced at Concord and Lexington. The question at the heart of the Miracle at Philadelphia in 1776, and at every critical juncture since -- from the cliffs at Normandy to the bridge at Selma:

The question is: will we turn back now - or will we move forward?

That is the question I will put to you, the American people, in this campaign.  History makes no promises to keep the good times going in the absence of our own wise choices. It is all too easy to slide backward if we are not vigilant, or if we allow ourselves to be seduced with eloquent words advancing harmful realities.

If you believe America must move forward -- if you are ready for America to choose the good once more -- then let us lead this nation together. Come with me toward America's new horizon. Across that horizon stands the promise of our common values and prosperity -- of strengthening every family, lifting every child, leveling every barrier, leaving no one behind.

Here, at the center of my hometown, in the heart of America, in the midst of the people I love -- that is the new horizon I see.

I need you for this journey. So together let us vow, in these first long days of summer, that we will work through the night, so that our children may make a clean start from the right place -- a higher place -- in a fresh century.

Thank you and may God bless you.

And God Bless America.