From: barrett@cloudgen1.gatech.edu (James Barrett)
Subject: BUSH: Acceptance speech text
Organization: Georgia Tech College of Computing
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 14:44:07 GMT

          Text of President Bush's Acceptance Speech

    Here is the prepared text of the acceptance speech Thursday by
President Bush to the Republican Natl Convention:

    BUSH:  Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.  I am proud to
receive, and I am honored to accept your nomination for president of
the US.  This nomination is not for me alone.  It is for the ideas,
principles and values that we stand for.

    My job has been made easier by a leader who has taken a lot of
unfair criticism, with grace and humor--Vice President Dan Quayle.

    I want to talk tonight about the sharp choice I intend to offer
Americans this fall, a choice between different agendas, different
directions, and yes, a choice about the character of the man you want
to lead this nation.

    I know that Americans have many questions--about our economy,
about our country's future, even questions about me.  I will answer
them tonight.

    First, I feel great and I am heartened by the polls, the ones that
say I look better in my jogging shorts than the governor of Arkansas!

    Four years ago, I spoke about missions--for my life and for our
country.  I spoke of 1 urgent mission--defending our security and
promoting the American ideal abroad.

    Just pause for a moment to reflect on what we've done.

    Germany has united--and a slab of the Berlin Wall sits right
outside this Astrodome.

    Arabs and Israelis now sit face to face and talk peace.

    Every hostage held in Lebanon is free.

    The conflict in El Salvador is over, and free elections brought
democracy to Nicaragua.

    Black and white South Africans cheered each other at the Olympics.

    The Soviet Union can only be found in history books.

    The captive nations of Eastern Europe and the Baltics are captive
no more.

    And today on the rural streets of Poland, merchants sell cans of
air labelled "the last breath of communism."

    If I had stood before you 4 years ago and described this as the
world we would help to build, you would have said, George Bush, you
must be smoking something, and you must have inhaled.

    This convention is the first at which an American president can
say:  the Cold War is over, and freedom finished first.

    Some want to rewrite history, want to skip over the struggle,
claim the outcome was inevitable.  And while the US postwar strategy
was largely bipartisan, the fact remains that the liberal, McGovern
wing of the other party--including my opponent--consistently made the
wrong choices.

    In the '70s, they wanted a hollow Army; we wanted a strong
fighting force.

    In the '80s, they wanted a nuclear freeze; we insisted on peace
through strength.

    From Angola to Central America, they said, let's negotiate,
deliberate, procrastinate.  We said, just stand up for freedom.

    Now the Cold War is over and they claim, hey, we were with you all
the way.  Their behavior reminds me of the old con man's advice to the
new kid.  He said son, if you're being run out of town, just get out
in front and make it look like a parade.

    Make no mistake--the demise of communism wasn't a sure thing.  It
took the strong leadership of presidents from both parties, including
Republicans like Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.
Without their vision and the support of the American people, the
Soviet Union would be a strong superpower today and we'd be facing a
nuclear threat tonight.

    My opponents say I spend too much time on foreign policy.  As if
it didn't matter that schoolchildren once hid under their desks in
drills to prepare for nuclear war.  I saw the chance to rid our
children's dreams of the nuclear nightmare, and I did.  Over the past
4 years, more people have breathed the fresh air of freedom than in
all of human history.  I saw a chance to help, and I did.  These were
the 2 defining opportunities--not of a year, not of a decade, but of
an entire span of human history.

    I seized those opportunities for our kids and our grandkids, and I
make no apologies for that.

    Now, the Soviet bear may be gone, but there are still wolves in
the woods.

    We saw that when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.  The Mideast might
have become a nuclear powder-keg--our energy supplies held hostage.
So we did what was right, and what was necessary.  We destroyed a
threat, freed a people, and locked a tyrant in the prison of his own
country.

    What about the leader of the Arkansas Natl Guard--the man who
hopes to be commander-in-chief?  Well, while I bit the bullet, he bit
his nails.

    Two days after Congress voted to follow my lead, my opponent said
this, and I quote:  "I guess I would have voted with the majority if
it was a close vote.  But I agree with the arguments the minority
made."

    Sounds to me like his policy can be summed up by a road sign he's
probably seen on his bus tour:  "slippery when wet".

    But this is serious business.  Think about the impact of our
foreign policy failures the last time the Democrats controlled both
ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.  Gas lines.  Grain embargoes.  American
hostages blindfolded.

    There will be more foreign policy challenges like Kuwait in the
next 4 years.  Terrorists and aggressors to stand up to; dangerous
weapons to be controlled and destroyed.  And freedom's fight is not
finished.  I look forward to being the first president to visit a
free, democratic Cuba.

    Who will lead the world in the face of these challenges?  Not my
opponent.  In his acceptance speech he devoted just 65 seconds to
telling us about the world.

    Then he said that America was, and I quote, being "ridiculed"
everywhere.  Tell that to the people around the world, for whom
America is still a dream.  Tell that to leaders around the world, from
whom America commands respect.  "Ridiculed?" Tell that to the men and
women of Desert Storm.

    Let me make an aside.  This is a political year, but there's a lot
of danger in the world.  You can be sure, I will never let politics
interfere with a foreign policy decision.  Forget the election; I will
do what's right for our national security.

    Fifty years ago this summer, I was 18 years of age.  I believed
deeply in this country, and we were faced with a world war.  So I made
a decision, to go off and fight a battle much different from political
battles.

    I was scared, but I was willing.  I was young, but I was ready.  I
had barely lived, when I began to watch men die.  I began to see the
special place of America in the world, and I began to see, even then,
that the world would become a much smaller place, and far away places
could become more and more like America.

    Fifty years later, after change of almost biblical proportions, we
know that when freedom grows, America grows.  Just as a strong America
means a safer world, we have learned that a safer world means a
stronger America.

    This election is about change.  But that's not unusual, because
the American revolution is never ending.  Today, the pace of change is
accelerating.  We face new opportunities and new challenges.  The
question is--who do you trust to make change work for you?

    My opponent says America is a nation in decline.  Of our economy,
he says, we are somewhere on the list beneath Germany, heading south
toward Sri Lanka.

    Well, don't let anyone tell you that America is second -rate,
especially somebody running for president.

    Maybe he hasn't heard that we are still the world's largest
economy.  No other nation sells more outside its borders.  The
Germans, the British, the Japanese--can't tough the productivity of
you--the American worker and the American farmer.  My opponent won't
mention that.  He won't remind you that interest rates are the lowest
they've been in 20 years, and millions of Americans have refinanced
their homes.  And you just won't hear that inflation--the thief of the
middle-class--has been locked in a maximum security prison.

    You don't hear much about this good news, because the media also
tends to focus only on the bad.  When the Berlin Wall fell, I half
expected to see a headline:  "Wall Falls, 3 Border Guards Lose Jobs."
And underneath it probably says:  "Clinton Blames Bush."

    You don't hear a lot about progress in America.  So let me tell
you about some good things we've done together.

    Just 2 weeks ago, all 3 nations of North America agreed to trade
freely from Manitoba to Mexico.  This will bring good jobs to Main
Street USA.

    We passed the Americans with Disabilities Act--bringing 43 million
people into the economic mainstream.  I must say, it is about time.

    Our children will breathe easier because of our new Clean Air Act.

    We are rebuilding our roads, providing jobs for more than half a
million Americans.

    We passed a child care law, and we took a stand for family values
by saying that when it comes to raising children, government doesn't
know best, parents know best.

    I've fought against prejudice and anti-Semitism all my life.  And
I am proud that we strengthened our civil rights laws--and we did it
without resorting to quotas.

    One more thing.  Today, cocaine use has fallen by 60 % among young
people.  To the teenagers, the parents and the volunteers who are
helping us battle the scourge of drugs in America:  We thank you.

    Do I want to do more?  You bet.  Nothing hurts me more than to
meet with soldiers home from the Persian Gulf, who can't find a job.
or workers who have a job, but worry that the next day will bring a
pink slip.  And what about parents who scrape and struggle to send
their kids to college, only to find them back living at home, because
they can't get work.

    The world is in transition, and we are feeling that transition in
our homes.

    The defining challenge of the 90s is to win the economic
competition--to win the peace.

    We must be a military superpower, an economic superpower, and an
export superpower.

    In this election, you'll hear 2 visions of how to do this.  Theirs
is to look inward, and protect what we already have.  Ours is to look
forward--to open new markets, prepare our people to compete, to
restore our social fabric--to save and invest--so we can win.

    We believe that now that the world looks more like America, it is
time for America to look more like herself.

    And so we offer a philosophy that puts faith in the individual,
not the bureaucracy.  A philosophy that empowers people to be their
best, so America can be at its best.  In a world that is safer and
freer, this is how we will build an America that is stronger, safer,
and more secure.

    We start with a simple fact:  Government is too big, and spends
too much.

    I've asked Congress to put a lid on mandatory spending except
Social Security.  And I've proposed doing away with over 200 programs
and 4000 wasteful projects and to freeze all other spending.

    The gridlock Democrat Congress has said:  "No."

    So, beginning tonight, I will enforce the spending freeze on my
own.  If Congress sends me a bill spending more than I asked for in my
budget--I will veto it fast--faster than copies of Millie's book sold.

    Congress won't cut spending, but refuses to give the president the
power to eliminate pork barrel projects that waste your money.
Forty-three governors have that power.  So I ask you, the American
people:  give me a Congress that will give me the line-item veto.

    Let me tell you about a recent battle I fought with Congress.
This spring, I worked day and night to get two-thirds of its members
to approve a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

    We almost had it, but we lost by just 9 votes.  Listen how.  Just
before the vote, the liberal leaders of Congress convinced 12 members
who cosponsored the bill to switch sides and vote no.  Keep in mind,
they voted against a bill they had already put their names on.

    Something fishy going on?  Well, look at my opponent on this
issue.  He says he's for balanced budgets.  But he came out against
the amendment.  He's like that on a lot of issues, first one side,
then the other.  He's been spotted in more places than Elvis Presley.

    After all these years, Congress has become pretty creative at
finding ways to waste your money.  So we need to be just as creative
at finding ways to stop them.  I have a brand new idea.

    Taxpayers should be given the right to check a box on their tax
returns, so that up to 10 % of their payments can go for 1 purpose
alone:  To reduce the national debt.

    But we also need to make sure that Congress doesn't just turn
around and borrow more money, to spend more money.  So I will require
that, for every tax dollar set aside to cut the debt, the ceilings on
spending will be cut by an equal amount.  That way, we'll cut both
debt and spending, and take a whack out of the budget deficit.

    My feelings about big government come from my experience; I spent
half my adult life in the private sector.  My opponent has a different
experience, he's been in government nearly all his life.  His passion
to expand government knows no bounds.

    He's already proposed $220 billion in new spending, along with the
biggest tax increase in history--$150 billion.  That's just to start.

    He says he wants to tax the rich, but, folks, he defines rich--as
anyone who has a job.

    You've heard of the separations of powers.  My opponent practices
a different theory:  "The power of separations." Government has the
power to separate you from your wallet.

    When it comes to taxes, I've learned the hard way.

    When the new Congress convenes, I will propose to further reduce
taxes across the board--provided we pay for these cuts with specific
spending reductions that I consider appropriate, so that we do not
increase the deficit.  I will also continue to fight to increase the
personal exemption and to create jobs by winning a cut in capital
gains taxes.

    That will especially help small businesses.  They create
Two-thirds of the new jobs in America.  But my opponent's plan for
small business is clear, present--and dangerous.  Besides new income
taxes, his plan will lead to a new payroll tax to pay for a government
takeover of health care, and another new tax to pay for training.
That's just the beginning.

    If he gets his way, hardware stores across America will have a new
sign up:  "Closed for despair." I guess you'd say his plan really is
"Elvis Economics." America will be checking into the "Heartbreak
Hotel."

    I believe small business needs relief--from taxation, regulation,
and litigation.

    I will extend for 1 year the freeze on paperwork and unnecessary
federal regulation that I imposed last winter.  There is no reason
that federal regulations should live longer than my friend George
Burns.  I will issue an order--to get rid of any rule whose time has
come--and gone.

    I see something happening in out towns and neighborhoods.  Sharp
lawyers are running wild.  Doctors are afraid to practice medicine.
And some moms and dads won't even coach Little League any more.  We
must sue each other less--and care for each other more.

    I'm fighting to reform our legal system, to put an end to crazy
lawsuits.  If that means climbing into the ring with the trial
lawyers, well, let me just say, round 1 starts tonight.

    After all, my opponent's campaign is being backed by practically
every trial lawyer who ever wore a tasselled loafer.  He's not in the
ring with them, he's in the tank.

    There are other things we need to do to get our economy up to
speed--and prepare our kids for the next century.

    We must have new incentives for research, and new training for
workers.  Small businesses need capital and credit, and defense
workers need new jobs.

    And I have a plan to provide affordable health care for every
American, controlling costs by cutting paperwork and lawsuits, and
expanding coverage to the poorest of the poor.

    We don't need my opponent's plan for a massive government takeover
of health care, which would ration care and deny you the right to
choose your doctor.  Who wants a health care system with the
efficiency of the House Post Office, and the compassion of the KGB?

    What about our schools?  My opponent and I both want to change the
way our kids learn.  He wants to change our schools a little bit--I
want to change them a lot.

    Take the issue of whether parents should be able to choose the
best school for their kids.  My opponent says that's okay--as long as
the school is run by government.  I say every parent and child should
have the real choice of schools--public, private or religious.

    So we have a clear choice to fix our problems.  Do we turn to the
tattered blanket of bureaucracy that other nations are tossing away?
Or do we give our people the freedom and incentives to build security
for themselves?

    Here's what I'm fighting for.

    --Open markets for American products.

    --Lower government spending.

    --Tax relief.

    --Opportunities for small business.

    --Legal and health reform.

    --Job training.

    --And new schools built on competition, ready for the 21st
century.

    Why are these proposals not in effect today?  Only 1 reason--the
gridlock Democratic Congress.

    Now, I know Americans are tired of the blame game, tired of people
in Washington acting like they are candidates for the next episode of
American Gladiators.

    I don't like it either.  Neither should you.  But the truth is the
truth.  our policies haven't failed, they haven't been tried.

    Americans want jobs.  On January 28th, I put before Congress a
plan to create jobs.  If it had been passed back then, 500,000 more
Americans would be at work right now.  But in a nation that demands
action--Congress has become the master of inaction.

    It wasn't always this way.  I served in Congress 22 years ago.
Back then, we cooperated, we didn't get personal, we put the people
above everything else.

    At my first inauguration, I said that people didn't send us to
bicker.  I extended my hand to the Democratic leaders, and they bit
it.

    The House leadership has not changed in 38 years.  It is a body
caught in a hopelessly tangled web of PACs, perks, privileges,
partisanship, and paralysis.  Every day, Congress puts politics ahead
of principle, and above progress.

    Let me give you just 1 example.  February 20, 1991.  It was the
height of the Gulf War.  On that very same day, I asked American
pilots to risk their lives to fly missions over Baghdad.  I also
wanted to strengthen our economic security for the future.  So that
same day, I introduced a new domestic energy strategy which would cut
our dependence on foreign oil by 7 million barrels a day.

    How many days did it take to win the Gulf War?  Forty- three.  How
many days has it taken Congress to pass a national energy strategy?
Five-hundred and thirty-two, and still counting.

    Where does my opponent stand with Congress?  Well, up to New York
at their convention, they kept the congressional leaders away from the
podium--hid them away.

    They didn't want America to hear from the people who really make
the decisions.

    They hid them for a very good reason--because the American people
would recognize a dangerous combination:  a rubber check Congress, and
a rubber stamp president.

    Governor Clinton and Congress know that you've caught on to their
lingo.  They know when they say "spending", you say, "oh, oh." So now
they have a new word, "investment".  They want to "invest" $220
billion more of your money, but I want you to keep it.

    Governor Clinton and Congress want to put through the largest tax
increase in history, but I won't let that happen.

    Governor Clinton and Congress don't want kids to have the option
of praying in school, but I do.  Clinton and Congress don't want to
close legal loopholes and keep criminals behind bars, but I will.
Clinton and Congress will stock the judiciary with liberal judges who
write laws they can't get approved by the voters.

    Governor Clinton even says that Mario Cuomo belongs on the Supreme
Court.  If you believe in judicial restraint, you probably ought to be
happy.  After all, the good governor of New York can't make up his
mind between chocolate and vanilla at Baskin Robbins.  We won't have
another court decision for 35 years.

    Are my opponent and Congress really in cahoots?  Look at 1
important question:  should we limit the terms of Congress?  Governor
Clinton says no.  Congress says no.  I say yes.

    We tried this once before, combining the Democratic governor of a
small southern state with a very liberal vice president and a
Democratic Congress.  American doesn't need Carter II.

    We don't want to take America back to those days of malaise.  But
Americans want to know--where's proof that we will have better days in
Washington?

    I'll give you 150 reasons.  That's how many members of Congress
are expected to leave Washington this year.  Some are tainted by
scandal--the voters have bounced them the way they bounced their own
checks.  But others are good members.  Republican and Democrat.  They
agree with me.  The place just doesn't work anymore.

    One hundred-fifty new members--from both parties--will be coming
to Washington this fall.  Every one will have a fresh view of
America's future.

    I pledge today to the American people, immediately after this
election, I will meet with every one of these new members, before they
get attacked by the PACs, overwhelmed by their staffs, and cornered by
a camera crew.  And I will lay out my case, our case, for change.
Change that matters, real change that makes a difference.  Change that
is right for America.

    You see, there is a yearning in America, a feeling that maybe it's
time to get back to our roots.

    Sure, we must change, but some values are timeless.  I believe in
families that stick together, and fathers who stick around.  I happen
to believe very deeply in the worth of each individual human being,
born or unborn.  I believe in teaching our kids the difference between
what's wrong and what's right, teaching them respect for hard work and
to love their neighbors.  And I believe that America will always have
a special place in God's heart, as long as he has a special place in
ours.  And maybe that's why I've always believed that patriotism is
not just another point of view.

    There are times in every young person's life, when God introduces
you to yourself.  I remember such a time.  It was back many years ago,
when I stood watch at 4:00 AM.  Up on the bridge of the USS.  Finback.
I would stand there and look out on the blackness of the sky, broken
only by the sparkling stars above.  I would think about friends I
lost, a country I loved, and about a girl named Barbara.  I remember
those nights as clearly as any in my life.

    You know, you can see things from up there that other people don't
see.  You can see storm clouds rise and then disappear.  The first
hint of the sun over the horizon, and the first outline of the shore
far away.

    Now, I know Americans are uneasy today, there is anxious talk
around our kitchen tables.  But from where I stand, I see not
America's sunset, but a sunrise.

    The world changes for which we've sacrificed for a generation,
have finally come to pass, and with them a rare and unprecedented
opportunity, to pass the sweet cup of prosperity around our American
table.

    Are we up to it?  I know we are.  As I travel our land, I meet
veterans who once worked the turrets of a tank, and can now master the
keyboards of a high-tech economy.  I see teachers, blessed with the
incredible American capacity for innovation, who are teaching our
children a new way to learn, for a new century.  I meet parents, some
working 2 jobs with hectic schedules, who still find new ways to teach
old values to steady their kids in a turbulent world.

    I take heart from what is happening in America, not from those who
profess a new passion for government, but from those with an old and
enduring faith in human potential.  Those who understand that the
genius of America is our capacity for rebirth and renewal.  America is
the land where the sun is always peeking over the horizon.

    Tonight I appeal to that unyielding, undying, undeniable American
spirit.  I ask you to consider, now that the entire world is moving
our way, why would we want to go back their way?  I ask not just for
your support for my agenda, but for your commitment to renew and
rebuild our nation--by shaking up the 1 institution that has withstood
change for over 4 decades.

    Join me in rolling away the roadblock at the other end of
Pennsylvania Avenue, so that in the next 4 years, we will match our
accomplishments outside, by building a stronger, safer, more secure
America inside.

    Forty-Four years ago--in another age of uncertainty--a different
president embarked on a similar mission.  His name was Harry S Truman.

    As he stood before his party to accept their nomination, Harry
Truman knew the freedom I know this evening, the freedom to talk about
what's right for America, and let the chips fall where they may.

    Harry Truman said:  "This is more than a political call to arms.
Give my your help, not to win votes alone, but to win this new crusade
and keep America safe and secure for its own people.

    Tonight I say to you--join me in our new crusade--to reap the
rewards of our global victory--to win the peace--so that we may make
America safer and stronger--for all our people.


------------------OS/2 v2.0 -- Why settle for anything less?--------------------
James C. Barrett (barrett@cc.gatech.edu)| "If your so damned smart, why are
Georgia Tech College of Computing       |   you doing what your doing, and I'm
                                        |   president of the U.S.?" - G.Bush
Xref: sparky talk.politics.misc:39675 talk.abortion:31692 alt.politics.bush:1561