From: jbuckner@lonestar.utsa.edu (James A. Buckner)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
Subject: Dan Quayle GOP Acceptance Speech
Date: 2 Sep 92 22:26:40 GMT
Organization: University of Texas at San Antonio


 Here is the text of the acceptance speech delivered to the Republican National Convention Thursday by Vice President Dan Quayle: 

   Mr. Chairman, delegates to this convention, and friends across America. 
   With gratitude and a sense of mission, once again: I accept your nomination
for vice president of the United States. Tonight I am stronger, more confident,
and more determined than ever to re-elect our great president, George Bush. 
   I know my critics wish I were not standing here tonight. They don't like our
values. They look down on our beliefs. They're afraid of our ideas. And they
know the American people stand on our side. That is why, when someone confronts
them and challenges them, they will stop at nothing to destroy him. To them I
say: You have failed. I stand before you, and before the American people --
unbowed, unbroken, and ready to keep fighting for our beliefs. 
   I come from Huntington, a small farming community in Indiana. I had an
upbringing like many in my generation -- a life built around family, public
school, Little League, basketball and church on Sunday. My brother and I shared
a room in our two-bedroom house. We walked to school together. This was life in
small-town America. Our people were strong, and we believed in the traditional
values of middle America. 
   Marilyn and I have tried to teach our children these values, like faith in
God, love of family, and appreciation for freedom. We have also taught them
about family issues like adoption -- my parents adopted twins when I was 10
years old. We have taught our children to respect single parents and their
challenges -- challenges that faced my grandmother many years ago, and my own
sister today. And we have taught our children about the tragedy of diseases like
breast cancer -- which took the life of Marilyn's mother. Marilyn and I have
hosted an annual event called the Race for the Cure of Breast Cancer. Two months
ago, 20,000 runners, men and women, young and old, joined us in our nation's
capitol to race for the cure. By leading the battle against breast cancer, in
memory of her mother, Marilyn has taken a family tragedy and turned it into hope
for others. 
   Like so many Americans, for me, family comes first. When family values are
undermined, our country suffers. All too often, parents struggle to instill
character in their sons and daughters -- only to see their values belittled and
their beliefs mocked by those who look down on America. Americans try to raise
their children to understand right and wrong -- only to be told that every
so-called "lifestyle alternative" is morally equivalent. That is wrong. 
   The gap between us and our opponents is a cultural divide. It is not just a
difference between conservative and liberal; it is a difference between fighting
for what is right and refusing to see what is wrong. 
   Families can also be strengthened by empowering our people -- with low taxes,
home ownership, parental choice in education, job training, safe streets, a
clean environment, and affordable health care. In all of these areas, we have a
reform agenda, and it is time for Congress to get out of the way and pass the
president's plan. 
   Speaking of reform: our legal system is spinning out of control. The
explosion of frivolous lawsuits burdens our economy and weakens our system of
justice. America has five percent of the world's population and 70 percent of
the world's lawyers. I have nothing against lawyers -- at least most of them.
I'm a lawyer; I'm married to one. When we worked our way through night law
school, Marilyn and I looked forward with pride to becoming part of the finest
legal system in the world. But today our country has a problem: our legal system
is costing consumers $300 billion dollars a year. The litigation explosion has
damaged our competitiveness; it has wiped out jobs; it has forced doctors to
quit practicing in places where they are needed most. Every American knows the
legal system is broken -- and now is the time to fix it. 
   The President's Council on Competitiveness, which I chair, will continue to
lead the charge against unnecessary federal regulation. We've worked to save
jobs, and to save lives. We have reformed the drug approval process to speed up
the availability of new medicines for people with life-threatening diseases like
cystic fibrosis, cancer and AIDS. 
   And what is the response of the Democrats in Congress? They have tried to
kill the Council on Competitiveness, which stands up for the American people
against the bureaucrats and the special interests. They think the
Competitiveness Council should go. They don't get it. It is time for them to go.
If the Democrats in Congress can't run their own restaurant, can't run their own
post office, and can't run their own bank, they sure can't be trusted to run our
country. 
   I hope everybody who watched the Democratic Convention noticed how they hid
their Congressional leaders. You couldn't find them anywhere. Maybe it was a
slick idea to keep those Democratic congressmen and senators under wraps. But on
election day they're going to learn a hard lesson: You can run from a TV camera;
you can even run from your own delegates; but you can't hide from the voters of
America. So, again, there is only one thing to say about the spend-everything,
block-everything, know-nothing Democratic Congress: it is time for them to go. 
   And it is time to change Congress for good. Almost 16 years ago, in my first
speech as a member of the House of Representatives, I proposed limiting the
terms of Congress. The Democratic Congress tells us that it is good for the
country to limit Ronald Reagan and George Bush to two terms as president. I say
to them, if it is good for the country to limit Ronald Reagan and George Bush to
two terms, then it would be great for the country to limit the terms of senators
like George Mitchell and Ted Kennedy, and the rest of that liberal Democratic
Congress. 
   None of the reforms I've just mentioned has any support from Bill Clinton.
Bill Clinton talks about change, but he can't really change America because the
special interests won't let him. He can't say a word -- not one single word --
about legal reform, because the trial lawyers won't let him. He can't support
school choice for parents, because the education lobby in Washington won't let
him. He will not join the majority of Americans in supporting term limits,
because the Democratic Congress won't let him. And he can't fight for the
traditional family, because his supporters in Hollywood and the media elite
won't let him. My friends: Bill Clinton and the special interests will never run
America -- because we won't let them. 
   For more than a month the media have been telling us that Bill Clinton and Al
Gore are "moderates." Well, if they're moderates, I'm a world champion speller. 
   We are the true voice for change -- and we do not take our marching orders
from the special interests. On behalf of legal reform and education reform,
we've taken on the strongest forces of the status quo -- and we will not back
down. On behalf of deregulation and term limits, we've taken on the Democratic
Congress -- and we will not back down. And, on behalf of family values, we've
taken on Hollywood and the media elite -- and we will not back down. 
   It has been said, and it is true, that "a leader gives his people character."
And once again America is going to choose a leader who has judgment, experience,
and moral strength. Four years ago, none of us knew that the Berlin Wall would
fall, the Iron Curtain would be lifted, the Baltic nations would be free,
communism would be dead and buried, the Soviet Union would cease to exist, and
the threatening SS-18 ballistic missiles would be history. Nor did we know that
we would be called upon to confront the aggression of a Middle East tyrant. 
   But four years ago we did know this: Whatever lay ahead, there was a clear
choice to lead us. There was one man we could trust to guide our journey to a
new century. And because we elected George Bush as our president, America is
stronger, and the world is safer. 
   My friends, now listen to this. In an attempt to establish credibility in
foreign policy, Governor Clinton recently compared himself to former Governor
Ronald Reagan. I know Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan is a friend of mine -- and
Bill Clinton, you're no Ronald Reagan. 
   The Democratic nominee calls America "the mockery of the world," but he and
his running mate are the only ones who believe that. To Gov. Clinton, I say
this: America is the greatest nation in the world, and that's one thing you're
not going to change. 
   These last four years, I have worked with a man who represents so much of
what is good in our country -- a man whose public and personal life are the
embodiment of character. Every day in that Oval Office, I see the dedication of
a husband, father and grandfather; the self-reliance of an entrepreneur; the
courage of a Navy pilot; the dependability of a loyal friend; the compassion of
a man of faith; and the wisdom of the man who married Barbara Bush. George Bush
has given us great victories abroad and performed great deeds at home. But, as
Theodore Roosevelt said, "the greatest victories are yet to be won ... the
greatest deeds are yet to be done." 
   We will go on fighting for the values, the hopes and the dreams of our
people. We will take this campaign to every American, and to every state. We
will win because of our principles; we will win because of our beliefs; and we
will build an America more secure in the values of faith, family, and freedom.
In these difficult times, America needs the very best: the best in character,
the best in leadership, and the best in judgment. And the very best is our
nominee ... our president ... George Bush. 
   Thank you very much. God bless you and God bless America.