I really want to create a whole new political coalition dedicated to reform and renewal. Thirty-nine days ago I traveled to Los Angeles to speak to the Reform Party in California's convention. Looking out at the audience that day I really saw a new gathering of Americans who represented precisely what I think has been missing from politics of the usual. These people were not there as lobbyists of some special interests, but they were there as repairmen of a system that is broke. So as a country, it's time to quit snoozing and to get serious about planting the seeds of change.
Time is short, and there is much work to do.
America needs a decade of reform and renewal. It just doesn't need a new President. It needs a whole decade of reform and renewal, ten years to balance the budget and stop borrowing from our children, ten years to reduce or eliminate the trade deficit, ten years to fix our institutions and make them work again, ten years to promote responsibility instead of indulgence as a national virtue, ten years to put American politics and American government back in the hands of the people. These will be the pillars of our campaign, and they will be also the pillars of an American renewal.