http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lmeJaKZwHI

Former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Al Gore endorsed Barack Obama at a 20,000 person rally in Detroit, MI on June 16, 2008:

And we all know that a long tenure in Washington, D.C. is not the same as judgment, wisdom and vision.

Nevertheless, the other party seems to think that age and experience are factors that will work in their favor during this campaign. But our shared -- our shared experience as a nation tells us otherwise. I remember when one prominent Republican wondered out loud whether the Democratic nominee -- and I quote -- "really is grown up enough to be president." Another used the phrase "naive and inexperienced." Yet another said, "The United States cannot afford to risk the future of the free world with inexperience and immaturity in the White House."

Who are they talking about? Every single one of those quotations came from the campaign of 1960, when the Republicans attacked John Fitzgerald Kennedy for allegedly lacking the age and experience necessary to be president.

Richard Nixon's slogan in that campaign was "experience counts," to which John F. Kennedy responded -- and I quote -- "to exclude from positions of trust and command all those below the age of 44 would have kept Jefferson from writing the Declaration of Independence, Washington from commanding the Continental Army, Madison from fathering the Constitution and Christopher Columbus from even discovering America."

On January 20th, 1961, as a 12-year-old boy, I stood in the snow in front of the Capitol as John Fitzgerald Kennedy took the oath of office. I know what his inspiration meant to my generation. And I feel that same spirit in this auditorium here tonight building all over this country this year.