The following is a transcript of Mitt Romney's speech, in which he accepts the GOP presidential nomination, at the Republican National Convention on Aug. 30, 2012.

SPEAKER: FORMER GOV. MITT ROMNEY, R-MASS.,

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

ROMNEY: Thank you. Mr. Chairman, and delegates, I accept

your nomination for president of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

I do so with humility, deeply moved by the trust you've

placed in me. It's a great honor. It's an even greater

responsibility. I ask you to walk together to a better future.

By my side I have chosen a man with a big heart from a small

town.

(APPLAUSE)

He represents the best of America. A man who will always

make us very proud. My friend and America's next

vice-president, Paul Ryan.

(APPLAUSE)

In the days ahead, you will get to know Paul and Janna

better. But, last night America got to see what I saw in Paul

Ryan, a strong and caring leader who is down to earth and

confidence in the challenge this moment demands. I love the way

he lights up around his kids. And how he's not embarrassed to

show the world how much he loves his mom.

(APPLAUSE)

But Paul, I still like the playlist on my Ipod better than

yours.

(APPLAUSE)

Four years ago, I know that many Americans felt a fresh

excitement about the possibilities of a new president. That

choice was not the choice of our party, but Americans always

come together after elections. We're a good and generous

people, and we are united by so much more than what divides us.

When that election was over, when the yard signs came down

and the television commercials finally came off the air,

Americans were eager to go back to work, to live our lives the

way Americans always have, optimistic and positive and confident

in the future.

That very optimism is uniquely American. It's what brought

us to America. We're a nation of immigrants, we're the children

and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the ones who wanted

a better life. The driven ones. The ones who woke up at night,

hearing that voice telling them that life in a place called

America could be better.

They came, not just in pursuit of the riches of this world,

but for the richness of this life. Freedom, freedom of

religion, freedom to speak their mind, freedom to build a life

and, yes, freedom to build a business with their own hands.

(APPLAUSE)

This is the essence of the American experience. We

Americans have always felt a special kinship with the future.

When every new wave of immigrants looked up and

saw the Statue of Liberty, or knelt down and kissed the shores

of freedom, just 90 miles from Castro's tyranny, these new

Americans sure had many questions, but none doubted that here in

America they could build a better life. That in America, their

children would be blessed more than they.

But, today, four years from the excitement of that last

election, for the first time the majority of Americans now doubt

that our children will have a better future. That is not what

we were promised.

Every family in America wanted this to be a time when they

could get a little ahead, put aside a little more for college,

do more for the elderly mom that's now living alone. Or give a

little more to their church or their charity. Every small

business wants to have this be their best year ever, when they

could hire more, do more for those who had stuck with them

through hard times. Open a new store, sponsor that little

league team.

Every new college graduate thought they'd have a good job

by now. A place for their own. They could start paying back

some of their loans and build for the future. This is what our

nation was supposed to start paying down the national debt, and

rolling back massive deficits. This was the hope and change

America voted for. It is not just what we wanted, it is not

just what we expected, it is what Americans deserved.

(APPLAUSE)

(AUDIENCE MEMBERS): U.S.A., U.S.A.

ROMNEY: You deserved it because you worked harder than

ever before during these years. You deserved it because, when

it cost more to fill up your car, you cut out moving lights, and

put in longer hours. Or when you lost that job that paid $22.50

an hour, benefits, you took two jobs at $9 an hour

(APPLAUSE)

(AUDIENCE MEMBERS): U.S.A., U.S.A.

You deserve it because your family depended on you. And

you did it because you are an American, and you don't quit. You

did it because that was because it was because you had to do.

The driving home late from that second job, or standing there

and watching the gas pump hit $50 and still going. When the

realtor told you that to sell your house you'd have to take a

big loss on your house. In those moments, you knew that this

just was not right. But what could you do except work harder,

do with less, try to stay optimistic, hug your kids a little

longer, maybe spend more time praying tomorrow would be a better

day.

I wish President Obama had succeeded, because I want

America to succeed.

(APPLAUSE)

But his promises gave way to disappointment and division.

This isn't something we have to accept. Now is the moment when

we can do something. And with your help, we will do something.

(APPLAUSE)

Now is the moment where we can stand up and say, ``I am an

American, I make my destiny, we deserve better, my children

deserve better, my family deserves better, my country deserves

better.''

(APPLAUSE)

So here we stand. Americans have a choice, a decision. To

make that choice, you need to know more about me and where I'd

lead at our country. I was born in the middle of the century,

in the middle of the country, the classic baby boomer. It was a

time when Americans were returning from war and eager to work.

To be an American was to assume that all things

were possible. When President Kennedy challenged Americans to

go to the moon, the challenge was not whether we would get

there, it was only when we'd get there.

(APPLAUSE)

The soles of Neil Armstrong's on the moon made permanent

impressions on our souls.

ROMNEY: And I watched those steps together on her parents

sofa. Like all American is, we went to bed at night knowing we

lived in the greatest country in the history of the world.

(APPLAUSE)

God bless Neil Armstrong.

(APPLAUSE)

Tonight, that American flag is still there on the Moon.

and I don't doubt for a second that Neil Armstrong's spirit is

still with us. That unique blend of optimism, humility, and the

utter confidence that, when the world needs someone to do that,

you need an American.

(APPLAUSE)

My dad had been born in Mexico. And his family had to

leave during the Mexican revolution. I grew up with stories of

his family being fed by the U.S. government as war refugees.

My dad never made it through college, and he apprenticed as

a laugh (ph) and plaster carpenter. He had big dreams. He

convinced my mom, a beautiful young actress, to give up

Hollywood to marry him. And moved to Detroit.

(APPLAUSE)

He led a great automobile company and became governor of

the great state of Michigan.

(APPLAUSE)

We were -- we were Mormons . And growing up in Michigan,

that might have seemed unusual or out of place, but I do not

remember it that way. My friends cared more about what sports

teams we followed that what church went to.

My mom and dad gave their kids the greatest gift of all.

The gift of unconditional love. They cared deeply about who we

would be and much less about what we would do. Unconditional

love is a gift that Ann and I have tried to to pass on to our

sons and now to our children.

All the laws and legislation is in the world will never

heal the world like the loving hearts and arms of loving mothers

and fathers.

(APPLAUSE)

You know, if every child could go to sleep feeling araft

(ph) in the love of their family and God's love, this world

would be a far more gentle place.

(APPLAUSE)

My mom and dad were married for 64 years . And if you

wondered what their secret was, you could have asked the local

florist.

(APPLAUSE)

Because every day, dad gave mom a Rose, which he put on the

bedside table. That is how she found that the day my father

died. She went looking for him because, that morning, there was

no rose.

My mom and dad were two partners. A life lesson that

shaped me by everyday example. When my mom ran for the Senate,

my dad was there for her every step of the way. I can still see

her as saying in her beautiful voice, ``why should women have any

less safe than men about the great decisions facing our nation?

-- great decisions facing our nation?''

(APPLAUSE)

Don't you wish you could have been here at this convention

and heard leaders like Governor Mary Fallin, Governor Nikki

Haley, Governor Susana Martinez, Senator Kay Alieanos (ph),

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice?

(APPLAUSE)

As governor of Massachusetts, I -- I chose a woman

lieutenant governor, a woman chief of staff. Half of my cabinet

and senior officials were women. And in business, and mentored

and supported great women leaders who went on to run great

companies.

I grew up in Detroit, in love with cars. And wanted to be

a car guy like my dad. But, by the time I was out of school I

realized that I had to go out on my own. That if I stayed

around Michigan in the same business I'd never really now if I

was getting a break because of my dad. I wanted to go someplace

new and prove myself.

Those weren't the easiest of days. Many long hours, and

weekends working. Five young sons who seemed to have a need to

reenact a different world war every night.

(LAUGHTER)

But if you ask Ann and I, what we'd give to break up just

one more fight between the boys, or wake up in the morning and

discover a pile of kids asleep in a room -- well every mom and

dad knows the answer to that. Those days were the...

(APPLAUSE)

... these were tough days on Ann, particularly. She was

heroic through it all. Five boys with our families a long way

away. I had to travel a lot for my job then, and I'd call and

try to offer support. But every mom knows that that does not

help did the homework done or get the kids out the door to

school. I knew that her job as a mom was harder than mine. I

knew without question that her job as a mom was a lot more

important than mine.

(APPLAUSE)

And as America saw Tuesday night, Ann would have succeed at

anything she wanted to do.

(APPLAUSE)

Like a lot of families in a new place with no family, we

found kinship with a wide circle of friends through our church.

When we were new to the community, it was welcoming, and as the

years went by, it was a joy to help others who had just moved

into town or just joined our church.

We had remarkably vibrant endeavors congregations from all

walks of life, and many who were new to America. We prayed

together, our kids played together, and we always stood ready to

help each other out in different ways. That's how it is in

America. We look to our communities, our faiths, our families,

for our joy and support, in good times and bad. It's both how

we live our lives and why we live our lives. The strength and

power and goodness of America has always been based on the

strength and power and goodness of our communities, our

families, and our faiths.

(APPLAUSE)

That's the bedrock of what makes America America. In our

best days, we can feel the vibrancy of America's communities,

large and small. It's when we see that new business opening up

downtown. It's when we go to work in the morning and see

everybody else in the block doing the same thing to read when

our son or daughter calls from college to talk about which job

offer they should take, and you try not to choke up when you

hear that the one they like best is not too far from home.

It's that good feeling when you have more time to volunteer

to coach for you kids soccer team or help out on school trips.

For too many Americans, those kind of good days are harder to

come by. How many days have you woken up feeling that something

really special was happening in America? Many of you thought

the way on election day four years ago. Hope and change had a

powerful appeal. But tonight I would ask a simple question: if

you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama,

shouldn't feel that way now, that he is President Obama?

(APPLAUSE)

You know there is something wrong with the kind of job he

has done as president when the best feeling you had was the day

you voted for him.

(APPLAUSE)

The president has not disappointed you because he wanted

to. The president has disappointed America because he hasn't

lead America in the right direction. He took office without the

basic qualification that most Americans have, and one that was

essential to the task at hand. He had almost no experience

working in a business. Jobs to him are about government.

(APPLAUSE)

I learned the real lessons from how America works from

experience. When I was 37, I helped to start a small company.

My partners and I had been working for a company that was in the

business of helping other businesses. So some of us have the

idea that, if we really believe our advice was helping

companies, we should invest in companies. We should bet on

ourselves and our advice. So we started a new business called

Bain Capital. The only problem was, while we believed in

ourselves, not many other people did. We were young and had

never done this before, and We almost did not get off the

ground. In those days, sometimes I wondered if I had made a

really big mistake.

By the way, I thought about asking my church's pension fund

to invest, but I didm't.

(LAUGHTER)

I figured it was bad enough that I might lose my investors'

money, but I did not want to go to hell, too.

(LAUGHTER)

Shows what I know. Another of my partners got the

Episcopal church Pension Fund to invest. And today there are a

lot of happy retired priests who should thank him.

(APPLAUSE)

That business we started with 10 people has now grown into

a great American success story. Some of the companies we helped

start are names you know you've have heard from tonight. An

office company called Staples, where I'm pleased to see the

Obama campaign has been shopping.

(APPLAUSE)

The Sports Authority, which of course became a favorite of

my boys. We helped start an early childhood learning company

called Bright Horizons that First Lady Michelle Obama rightly

praised. And at a time when nobody thought we'd ever see a new

steel mill built in America, we took a chance and build one in

the cornfield in Indiana.

(APPLAUSE)

Today, Steel Dynamics is one of the largest steel producers

in the United States. These are American success stories.

And yet the centerpiece of the president's entire

reelection campaign is attacking success. Is it any wonder that

someone who attacks success has led the worst economic recovery

since the Great Depression?

(APPLAUSE)

In America, we celebrate success. We don't apologize for

success.

(APPLAUSE)

Now we weren't always successful at Bain, but no one ever

is in the real world of business. That's what this president

does not seem to understand. Business and growing jobs is about

taking risk, sometimes failing, sometimes succeeding, but always

striving. It's about dreams. Usually it doesn't work out

exactly as you might have imagined. Steve Jobs was fired at

Apple, and then he came back and changed the world. It's the

genius of the American free enterprise system to harness the

extraordinary creativity, and talent and industry of the

American people with a system that's dedicated to creating

tomorrow's prosperity, not trying to redistribute today's.

(APPLAUSE)

That's why every president since the Great Depression who

came before the American people asking for a second term could

look back at the last four years and say with satisfaction,

``You're are better off than you were four years ago.'' Except

Jimmy Carter.

And except this president.

(APPLAUSE)

This president can ask us to be patient. This president

can tell us it was someone else's fault. This president can

tell us that the next four years will get it right. But this

president cannot tell us that you're better off today than when

he took office.

(APPLAUSE)

America has been patient. Americans have supported this

president in good faith, but today the time has come the time to

turn the page. Today the time has come for us to put the

disappointments of the last four years behind us, to put aside

the divisiveness and the recriminations, to forget about what

might have been, and to look ahead to what can be. Now is the

time to restore the promise of America.

(APPLAUSE)

Many Americans have given up on this president, but they

haven't ever thought of giving up, not on themselves, not on

each other, and not on America. What is needed in our country

is not complicated or profound. It doesn't take a special

government commission to tell us what America needs. What

America needs is jobs, lots of jobs.

(APPLAUSE)

In the richest country in the history of the world, this

Obama economy has crushed the middle class. Family income has

fallen by $4,000 , but health insurance premiums are higher.

Food prices are higher. Utility bills are higher, and gasoline

prices, they've doubled. Today more Americans wake up in

poverty than ever before. Nearly one out of six Americans is

living in poverty. Look around you -- these aren't strangers.

These are our brothers and sisters, our fellow Americans. His

policies have not helped create jobs. They've depressed them,

and this I can tell you about where President Obama would take

America. His plan to put taxes on small businesses won't not

add jobs. It will eliminate them.

(APPLAUSE)

His assault on coal and gas and oil will send energy and

manufacturing jobs to china.

(APPLAUSE)

His trillion dollar cuts to our military will eliminate

hundreds of thousands of jobs and also put our security at

greater risk.

(LAUGHTER)

His $716 billion cut to Medicare to finance Obamacare will

hurt today's seniors and depress innovation in jobs and

medicines. And his trillion dollar deficits, they slow our

economy, restrain employment, and cause wages to stall. To the

majority of Americans who now believe the future will not be

better than the past, I can guarantee you this -- if Barack

Obama is reelected, you will be right.

(APPLAUSE)

I am running for president to help create a better future,

a future where everyone who wants a job can find a job, where no

senior fears for the security of their retirement, an America

where every parent knows that their child will get an education

that leads to a good job and a bright horizon, and unlike the

president, I have a plan to create 12 million new jobs.

(APPLAUSE)

Paul ryan and I have five steps. First, by 2020, North

America will be an energy independent by taking invented of our

oil, are coal, our gas, our nuclear, and renewables.

(APPLAUSE)

Second, we will give our fellow citizens the skills they

need for the jobs of today and the careers of tomorrow. When it

comes to the school your child will attend, every parent should

have a choice, and every child should have a chance.

(APPLAUSE)

Third, we will make trade work for America by forging new

trade agreements, and when nations cheat in trade, there will be

unmistakable consequences.

(APPLAUSE)

And fourth, to assure every entrepreneur and every job

creator that their investments in America will not vanish, as

have those in Greece. We will cut the deficit and put America

on track to a balanced budget.

(APPLAUSE)

And fifth, we will champion small businesses, America's

engine of job growth. That means reducing taxes on business,

not raising them. It means simplifying and modernizing the

regulations that hurt small businesses the most, and it means we

must rein in skyrocketing cost of health care by repealing and

replacing Obamacare.

(APPLAUSE)

Today women are more likely than men to start of business.

They need a president who respect and understand what they do.

And let me make this clear. Unlike President Obama, I will not

raise taxes on the middle class of America.

(APPLAUSE)

As president, I'll respect the sanctity of life. I'll

honor the institution of marriage.

(APPLAUSE)

And I will guarantee America's first liberty, the freedom

of religion.

(APPLAUSE)

President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the

oceans.

(LAUGHTER)

And to heal the planet. My promises to help you and your

family.

(APPLAUSE)

I will begin my presidency with the jobs tour. President

Obama began his with an apology to our.

(LAUGHTER)

America he said had dictated to other nations. No, Mr.

President America has feed other nations from dictators.

(APPLAUSE)

(AUDIENCE MEMBERS): U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A..

(APPLAUSE)

Every American...

(AUDIENCE MEMBERS): U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.

ROMNEY: Every American was relieved the day President

Obama I gave the order and SEAL Team 6 took out Osama Bin Laden.

(APPLAUSE)

On another front, every American is less secure today

because he has failed to slow Iran's nuclear threat. In his

first TV interview as president, he said we should talk to Iran.

We are still talking, and Iran's centrifuges are still

spinning.

President Obama has thrown allies like Israel under the bus

even as he has relaxed sanctions on Castor's Cuba. He abandoned

our friends in Poland by walking away from missile defense

commitments

(AUDIENCE MEMBERS): Boo.

ROMNEY: But he's eager to give Russia's president Putin

the flexibility he desires after the election.

(AUDIENCE MEMBERS): Boo.

ROMNEY: Under my presidency our friends will see more

loyalty and Mr. Putin will see a little less flexibility and

more backbone.

(APPLAUSE)

ROMNEY: We will honor America's Democratic ideals because

a free world is a more peaceful world. This is the bipartisan

foreign legacy of Truman and Reagan, and under presidency we

will return to it once again.

(APPLAUSE)

You might have asked yourselves if these last years were

really the America we want, the America that was won for us by

the greatest generation. Does the America we want borrow a

trillion dollars from China?

Does it fail to find the jobs that are needed for 23

million and for half the kids graduating from college?

Are those schools lagging behind the rest of the develolped

world?

And does America that we want succumb to resentment and

division among Americans?

The America we all know has been a story of many becoming

one. United to preserve liberty, uniting to build the greatest

the economy in the world, uniting to save the world from

unspeakable darkness.

Everywhere I go there are monuments and now for those who

have given their lives for America. There is no mention of

their race, their party affiliation, or what they did for a

living.

(APPLAUSE)

They lived and died under a single flag, fighting for a

single purpose. They've pledge allegiance to the United States

of America. Taht America, that united America can unleash an

economy that will put Americans back to work, taht will once

again lead the world with innovation and productivity, and will

restore every father and mother's confidence that their

children's future is brighter even than the past. That

American, that united America will preserve a military that's so

strong no nation will ever dare to test it.

(APPLAUSE)

That America, that America, that united America will of

uphold the consolation of rights that were endowed by our

creator and codified in our Constitution.

(APPLAUSE)

That united America will care for the poor and sick, will

honor and respect the elderly and will giving a helping hand to

those in need. That America is the best within each of us.

That America we want for our children.

If I am elected president of these United States I will

work with all my energy and soul to restore that America, to

lift our eyes to a better future. That future is our destiny.

That future is out there. It is waiting for us. Our children

deserve it. Our nation depends on it. The peace and freedom of

the world require it. And with your help we will deliver it.

Let us the begin that future for Amreica tonight.

Thank you so very much. May God bless you! May god bless

the American people, and may God bless the United States of

America!