From: barrett@cc.gatech.edu (James Barrett)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: BUSH: Arrival at convention speech
Date: 25 Aug 92 19:49:35 GMT
Organization: Georgia Tech College of Computing


    Text of Bush's Remarks Upon Arriving at GOP Convention

    Here is the text of President Bush's remarks during his arrival
ceremony Monday at the Republican Natl Convention:

    PRESIDENT BUSH:  What a wonderful welcome home.  You got it.  How
are you?  Hey, listen, thank you all very much.  Thank you so much.  Let
me just thank a couple of people at the beginning.  First, let me thank
Craig Fuller who's done a great job as our convention chairman.  Rich
Bond, our national chairman, Jeanie Austin, our co-chairman.  And let me
say this--what a wonderful welcome home, it is sure great to be back
here in Texas, home again.

    And may I thank Ray Childers and Warren Moon, great heroes right
here, and deservedly so, in Houston, for being with us.  And of course
another friend who entertained us, and at least I got here in time to
hear him--a great American and a great singer, Randy Travis.  By golly,
he was first class.  And I'm leaving out a lot of people, but 1 other
person, my partner in a great adventure, with me every step of the way,
from West Texas to the White House--Barbara Bush.

    And let me thank our great governor, Carroll Campbell who's given
this nation so much leadership as governor of the state of South
Carolina.  And a special word, a special word about 2 very special
friends of ours, Dan and Marilyn Quayle, the vice president of the US.

    Four years ago, Dan Quayle and I teamed up, and I told him then,
speaking from some personal experience, that the job of vice president,
was a real character builder, and I was not exaggerating, but look, this
guy stood there and in the face of those unfair critics, he has never
wavered.  And he simply told the truth and let the chips fall where they
may.  And he said we need families to stick together and fathers to
stick around, and he is right.

    He says we need an America that stands behind our law enforcement
officers, and he is right about that.  And he also said we've got to
take on those trial lawyers and all those who inundate this country with
frivolous lawsuits, and he's right about that.  Let that ABA turn off to
the left--we are with the American people.

    So when the establishment in Washington hears all this, they get all
uptight about it, about him, they gripe about it, that folks in the real
world understand and they nod their head, and he has been a super vice
president, and he will be for another 4 years.

    I couldn't help but notice an interview that my opponent gave to the
USA Today last week.  It was absolutely incredible--you haven't heard it
yet.

    He talked about how he's already planning his transition, figuring
out who should be deputy assistant undersecretary in every Washington
agency, even where he can get away from the White House for a day or
2--and I half expected, when I went over to the Oval Office to find him
over there measuring the drapes.

    Well, let me say, as the first shot out of the barrel:  I have a
message for him.  Put those drapes on hold, it is going to be curtain
times for that ticket.  And I mean it.

    For 9 months the other side has had a one-way conversation with the
American people, and now it's our turn--and they have called our great
country a mockery and sounded the saxophone of change, and that sound
sure sounds familiar:  they say they want to shake up Washington, but
they oppose limiting the terms of congressmen--and that's a change, just
changing the subject.

    They say they believe in a strong America, but they propose gutting
the national defense of this country.  And that's called changing their
tune.

    And they say they want to put people first, but they are proposing
the largest tax increase in the history of the US of America.

    I guess that's change, but by the time they're through, change is
all you're going to have left in your pocket.  And we're not going to
let that happen to the US.

    Don't kid yourself, America:  we're not running against the comeback
kids, we're running against the Kareoke kids, and they'll take any tune,
any tune they think will get them elected.  Say 1 thing in 1 place and
then whisper something else in another, and we're not going to let them
get away with it.

    You know, I've never pretended to be much for words, but for me
eloquence is action.  Ad for the next 78 days, we're going to go out
there to ask the American people a simple question:  Who do you trust to
do what's right for the US of America?  It's a question of trust.

    Forty-Four years ago, Barbara and I started out, out in the west
Texas, the Odessa-Midland, area, and I remember travelling across that
country to Wink and Kermit and Notrees and Andrews, places where parents
worried and watched when a kid crossed the street, the kind of towns
that sent those kids halfway around the world from the DMZ to Da Nang
and to Desert Storm.  And Barbara and I loved the rhythms of west Texas.
You remember the Friday night football and Saturday picnics and Sunday
sermons.  And we raised a family and built a business, made friends that
have lasted us an entire lifetime.  And we worked hard.

    But when the work was done, we sat around the table late at night,
and we talked.  Talked about report cards, same thing you all do.
Schoolyard fights, small things, big dreams.  And no matter what the
other side says, America is still a land of dreams, dreams as vast and
wide as those plains out there in West Texas.

    And our dreams, our ideals and our ideas, have awakened dreams from
Managua all the way to Moscow.  And with faith in our people, we will
reawaken those dreams right here in the US of America.

    My opponent wants to protect the jobs of the past, and I have a plan
to create the jobs of the future so that the sons and daughters of steel
workers and linemen, can build their dreams.  And my opponent wants to
change our schools--oh, just a little bit.  And I have a plan to
revolutionize our schools so that--so

    that our kids can do as well in the science labs and math room as
they now do in the swimming pool and out there on the basketball court.
And my opponent--and Dan touched on this--ridicules or attacks me as we
talk about family values.

    Well, let me tell you something:  we are going to keep on trying to
strengthen the American family to make American families a lot more like
the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons.

    Now that I'm getting warmed up, let me tell you about another target
that I'm going to get in the crosshairs.

    The Democratic leaders of the US Congress don't like our ideas--they
are the sultans of the status quo.  They are the only people in America
who could drive to work with a blindfold every morning because they've
been going the same way, controlling that Congress for 38 years.

    You're darn right.  You talk about gridlock.  We know where the
gridlock is:  it's under those leaders that control the Congress, both
the Senate and the House--and we're going to change it, we are going to
get the American people to change it.

    I was very lucky--I didn't get to see the Democratic convention--but
up in Manhattan last month you didn't see those congressional leaders.
Finding them was like playing "Where's Waldo?" in the Astrodome.

    They gave a new meaning to the word "closet liberal." And don't kid
yourselves--

    Don't kid yourselves:  look at where their support is coming from,
that same ossified, entrenched change-allergic support groups out there
supporting the Democratic leaders of the Congress.  And we're going to
make the American people understand it.  I'm going to do what Harry
Truman did:  I am going to take that message to change the Congress all
across this country.

    I've held out my hand to those crazy guys--I've held out my hand to
them only to have it bitten off.  And I'm tired of it.  And we're going
to change that Congress.

    And we are going to link that Clinton-Gore ticket right in close to
those Democratic leaders--they are one and the same.  And we're not
going to let the American people forget that.

    You know, you hear a lot about these polls.  Yes, they say it's
going to be a tough fight--and we know that.  And the truth is--I get a
little comfort from some of these polls.  You know me.  In politics I've
always done better when I fight back, when I'm behind, because you have
a certain freedom.

    It gives you a certain freedom.  The other guy can do what the polls
want; the other side can pay attention, changing this or changing that
because of what the polls say.  And I'm going to roll up my sleeves and
do what is right for the American people, and I don't care what the
polls say.

    Do what's right for America.  And I am a fighter, and I intend to
fight for what's right for America.

    And right next door, there's a big building.  They call it the 8th
Wonder of the World.  Well, Houston, get ready for the Wonder Number
9--the most stirring political comeback since Harry Truman gave 'em hell
in 1948.

    It starts right now.

    It all starts right here.  It all starts right here.  You know, the
Gatlin Brothers like to sing "Houston Means I'm One Day Closer to You."
Well, no offense to Larry, but to me, Houston means that we are 1 day
closer to victory, 1 day closer to building a better and a brighter
future for the people of this great country.

    And Barbara and I want to thank you for coming here.  We want to
thank you for this magnificent show of support.  This, when history
writes about this election, they're going to say it started right here
when you fired up this president to take this message to the American
people.

    May God bless the US of America.  Thank you all very much.
------------------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
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.clinton