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GV Senator Muskie's house in Maine
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SV & CU INTERIOR Muskie speaks
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TRANSCRIPT: (SEQ. 2) MUSKIE: "My fellow Americans....



I have come home to Maine to announce my decision to seek the office of President of the United States. I believe America can once again be a nation of moral leadership and high purpose - a symbol of hope for all mankind. But tonight our bombs are still falling on Indochina. Tonight, forty of us will be murdered and a thousand of us will be robbed on our own streets and even in our homes. Tonight, five million of us will go to bed knowing that there is no job to wake up for in the morning. Tonight we are a divided and doubtful people, lacking purpose, worried about the lives we lead and the lives we will leave our children.



This is not what America should be. Most of us feel the country is headed in the wrong direction. Many feel powerless to stop it. To them I say -we can do something about these problems. So this is what I offer and ask of you. Not a promise to solve our problems overnight but a commitment to make a new beginning. I am seeking the Presidency not merely to change presidents, but to change the country. I intend to lead - to ask you to mae America what it was to Abraham Lincoln - 'the last best hope of mankind'. I intend to ask you to try - and to be willing to try again if we fail. And I intend to ask every one of you to pay a fair share of the costs of a decent society. The challenge is great but we can meet it. The decision to run for the Presidency has not been an easy one. It will deeply change my life and it will affect the members of my family for the rest of their lives. I take this step with their support because they feel as strongly as I do about the country's future. Ultimately, of course, what is at stake is your future. I am not telling you that I can guarantee the best of all possible worlds. All I am asking is that we pledge a new beginning.




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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine on Tuesday (4 Jan) announced that he is a candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

57-year-old Senator Muskie is regarded in the United States as the leading contender for the nomination.