Richard Gephardt Speech (Transcript)

Richard Gephardt

Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, it's a great honor and thrill to be before this convention of this great union.

And President Jones, I'm glad that you told them my name.

One of the problems you have when you're in public life and you're on television a good deal is that thereafter people see you in airports and restaurants, and other public places, and they know they've seen you before, but they struggle with your name. And I have all kinds of stories that are still happening today as I go through airports and public places.

A fellow not too many years ago saw me in Denver. He came up to me in the airport, and he said, Boy, I know you. I've seen you. He said, you sold me an insurance policy in Denver.

I had people thinking that I'm a professional golfer, something that's really a misnomer. People thinking I'm a football coach, somebody thought I was Jack Kemp.

And one of the best stories is there were two women in the concourse in St. Louis when I was waiting for a plane. I knew we were into one of these identity crisis and they finally came over to me and the one woman said, we've been looking at you, talking about you, we know you're somebody.

But we're having a dispute about who you really are. We have a $5 bet. You have to decide it. She said, I think you're Dan Quayle.

She said my friend here thinks you do the weather on CNN.

But the best story of all is about two weeks ago, I was in Atlanta, in the airport. I went through the security check. There was a woman, a TSA worker, standing there, and she looked at me, and she said, You know, I've been looking at you and trying to remember who you are. She said, I finally figured it out. I said, What? She said, You played Batman in the last Batman movie.

So I'm really thrilled, Mr. President, to be properly introduced so you know who I am.