About Melanie Shouse, a St. Louis woman who had volunteered for the campaign while battling breast cancer, to which she recently succumbed.
"She didn't have
insurance. She couldn't afford it, so she had put off having the kind of exams
that she needed. And she had fought a tough battle for four years. All through
the campaign she was fighting it, but finally she succumbed to it. And she
insisted she's going to be buried in an Obama t-shirt. (Laughter.)
But think about this: She was fighting that whole time not
just to get me elected, not even to get herself health insurance, but because she
understood that there were others coming behind her who were going to find
themselves in the same situation and she didn't want somebody else going
through that same thing. (Applause.)
How can I say to her, "You know what?
We're giving up"?
How can I say to her family, "This is too
hard"?
How can Democrats on the Hill say, "This is politically too
risky"?
How can Republicans on the Hill say, "We're better off just blocking anything from happening"?"