PBS - Republican Convention - 1992-08-17 (partial)
Channel: malgent
Transcript
Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)
[0:01] nations would recover their sovereignty
[0:04] and emerge from the shadows of
[0:05] totalitarianism
[0:07] or whether an aging empire would
[0:09] collapse into chaos in which one form of
[0:12] tyranny would replace another.
[0:14] Fortunately for America and the world,
[0:17] United States foreign policy was managed
[0:20] superbly by capable and steady hands.
[0:23] Among the most distinguished of them was
[0:26] Dr. Condlesa Rice.
[0:31] When the president traveled to Malta and
[0:33] Helsinki for the last two United States
[0:36] Soviet summits, Dr. Rice was at his side
[0:40] as a special assistant to the president
[0:42] for national security affairs. She was
[0:45] George Bush's most trusted and reliable
[0:47] advisor on the Soviet Union and Eastern
[0:50] Europe. She has since returned to
[0:53] Stanford University where she is a
[0:55] distinguished professor of political
[0:57] science. Her council is still eagerly
[1:00] sought by policymakers and opinion
[1:02] leaders who require an expert analysis
[1:04] to make sense of a transformed world.
[1:08] Please join me in welcoming Dr. Condisa
[1:11] Rice.
[1:26] Condisa Rice, one of the few uh black
[1:28] women uh prominent in the Republican
[1:30] party and in the Bush administration.
[1:32] >> Thank you.
[1:34] >> An expert on the Soviet Union and German
[1:37] unification.
[1:39] >> Thank you very much.
[1:43] Ladies and gentlemen,
[1:45] honored guests, fellow delegates,
[1:50] when we nominate George Bush for
[1:53] reelection on Thursday night, we will
[1:57] have an opportunity to celebrate the
[2:00] historic transformation that has taken
[2:02] place since 1988.
[2:05] We will celebrate with Boris Yeltson in
[2:08] the Kremlin,
[2:09] with Leuenza in Warsaw,
[2:13] with Vleta Tremora in Managua,
[2:16] with Helmet Cole in a united Germany,
[2:21] and we will celebrate George Bush's
[2:24] historic role in ending the Cold War.
[2:36] We will celebrate looking also to the
[2:38] future to the day when the list of
[2:42] states freed from communism is complete.
[2:46] China, North Vietnam, and when a
[2:51] democratically elected president serves
[2:54] in Havana.
[3:02] Today we hear much about the need for
[3:04] change.
[3:06] But if change is not firmly grounded in
[3:09] our values, we will only confuse our
[3:12] allies and embolden our foes.
[3:16] At the end of World War II,
[3:18] America, the victor,
[3:21] acted upon a vision, not of isolation,
[3:25] but of commitment to a world in which
[3:28] peace flowed from the shared aspirations
[3:31] of a community of democratic and free
[3:34] states.
[3:35] Today, as yesterday, power in the
[3:38] international system comes from
[3:40] permanent engagement in it. To turn
[3:43] inward now would be sheer folly.
[3:48] We must remain committed to the defense
[3:50] of freedom. Never before in history has
[3:53] a country as powerful as ours been so
[3:57] trusted and so admired.
[4:01] As we learned in Desert Storm, the
[4:04] possibilities for joint action in the
[4:06] face of aggression have multiplied.
[4:09] But make no mistake about it. When all
[4:13] is said and done, America's military is
[4:17] the strongest shield of the free world
[4:21] and its mightiest sword.
[4:35] Military power.
[4:37] Military power is not the answer to
[4:40] every question, but to some questions,
[4:42] it is the only answer. And ladies and
[4:45] gentlemen, George Bush knows the
[4:48] difference.
[4:56] The postcold war world is safer. Fears
[5:00] of nuclear holocaust have receded into
[5:02] memory. But let us not deceive
[5:05] ourselves.
[5:07] Dangers still abound
[5:10] as the community of peaceful states
[5:12] grows. The desperate outlaws from
[5:16] Baghdad to Belgrade are still there and
[5:19] must be dealt with.
[5:22] In a perilous world,
[5:24] President George Bush knows that you
[5:27] cannot put a price tag on peace.
[5:31] President Bush understands that
[5:34] America's volunteer army is made up of
[5:37] our mothers and fathers, our sons and
[5:40] daughters, our neighbors and our
[5:41] friends. He understands that they are
[5:44] people who will die if they must. We
[5:47] must not break faith with them. Ladies
[5:50] and gentlemen, I say to you, the
[5:53] American armed forces are the real dream
[5:56] team.
[5:59] Our
[6:09] past
[6:12] our past provides an important principle
[6:14] for our economic future too. In 1945,
[6:18] the United States economy was the only
[6:21] one left standing. But we understood
[6:24] that economic growth could not be
[6:26] protected in isolation.
[6:29] Republicans know that the best recipe
[6:31] for national wealth and national
[6:33] security is to compete in an expanding
[6:37] global economy with free trade and free
[6:40] markets. That is why President Bush has
[6:44] worked against the odds to open markets
[6:46] around the world and to sign agreements
[6:50] that will bring jobs home.
[6:53] Then there is diplomacy.
[6:56] In 1980, President Ronald Reagan and
[6:59] then Vice President George Bush asked us
[7:01] to rededicate ourselves to the Cold War
[7:04] challenge. Our opponents called upon us
[7:07] to come to terms with Soviet communism.
[7:11] Instead,
[7:13] Presidents Bush and Reagan stood up to
[7:15] this heavily armed but morally bankrupt
[7:18] foe. And in doing so, they laid the
[7:22] groundwork for the triumph of democracy.
[7:34] When the time came,
[7:36] George Bush showed that he knew how to
[7:38] handle the hardest of problems. German
[7:41] unification, the peaceful break up of
[7:43] the Soviet Union, the liberation of
[7:45] Eastern Europe, ending the Sandinista
[7:47] tyranny in Managua, and an international
[7:51] coalition that he managed so brilliantly
[7:54] against Saddam Hussein.
[7:57] The Bush administration wasn't lucky.
[8:00] Fellow delegates, the Bush
[8:02] administration was good.
[8:13] Now today,
[8:34] Now today, now today,
[8:37] there are those out there who criticize
[8:39] that policy. Do they really think that
[8:43] they can convince the American people
[8:45] that they can do better? Do they really
[8:47] think anybody's going to believe them?
[8:52] Today, as struggling democracies are
[8:55] born around the globe, it is only
[8:58] natural to turn and to reflect on the
[9:01] strengths and the problems of our
[9:03] democracy at home. Throughout the Cold
[9:06] War, America sent a message to captive
[9:10] nations so loud and so clear that not
[9:13] even the KGB could jam it.
[9:16] Now that message of freedom echoes back
[9:20] to us as we seek to build a better
[9:23] America.
[9:24] Communism died because it trusted the
[9:27] state to be all knowing and IT MADE THE
[9:29] BUREAUCRAT OMNIPOTENT. It exalted the
[9:31] society but it despised the human being,
[9:35] the family and the community. Communism
[9:38] died because it did not trust and thus
[9:42] could not tap the power of the
[9:45] individual.
[9:52] We Republicans know that it is the
[9:55] individual that is the locomotive of
[9:57] human progress and human compassion. We
[10:00] know that reliance on government is the
[10:03] last resort, not the first.
[10:08] There's another principle that echoes
[10:10] back to us from this turbulent new
[10:12] world. Our founding fathers believed
[10:15] that a great nation could be forged of
[10:18] many peoples. Citizenship,
[10:20] the right to call oneself an American,
[10:23] comes not from membership in an ethnic
[10:25] group, but from allegiance to an ideal.
[10:28] throughout the world, most dramatically
[10:31] in what was once Yugoslavia,
[10:34] people who divide themselves with
[10:36] labels, we and they are outlining their
[10:39] divisions in blood.
[10:42] Here at home, when the founding fathers
[10:45] said, "We the people," they did not mean
[10:49] me.
[10:51] To them, my ancestors were property.
[10:55] My first trip to Washington DC was
[10:58] actually a stopover on the way from
[11:00] Alabama to New York. In those days,
[11:02] black families could not find lodging
[11:05] along the highways of the deep south.
[11:08] So, fellow delegates, I do not look at
[11:10] America through innocent eyes. But I do
[11:13] believe that ours is a country that
[11:15] wrestles with the practical meaning of
[11:17] its principles. The Republican Party in
[11:21] the first platform in 1856 called upon
[11:25] this nation to abolish slavery and make
[11:28] we the people an inclusive concept.
[11:40] >> That is the heritage that brings out the
[11:43] best in our party today. We are proud of
[11:46] our individual cultures, but we know
[11:48] that America's greatest potential lies
[11:51] in a united future. And we are forever
[11:54] mindful that the entire world looks to
[11:57] us, to America, for assurance that a
[12:00] democracy made up of many racist creeds
[12:03] and colors can work. We know also that
[12:08] democracy is hard. It is hard to balance
[12:12] the rights of the majority while helping
[12:16] minorities. It is hard to be generous to
[12:18] the needy without engendering dependency
[12:21] on the state. It is hard to protect free
[12:24] speech even when people say hateful
[12:27] things. But we know that democracy is a
[12:31] living, breathing, evolving system of
[12:34] governance better than any other way of
[12:37] life. it can cope with change. It is
[12:40] from that belief that the American
[12:42] spirit springs. Sometimes that spirit is
[12:46] best seen at times of riots or
[12:49] earthquakes or floods as neighbor
[12:51] responds to neighbor. Sometimes that
[12:55] spirit is seen in triumphs like desert
[12:57] storm. But sometimes the American spirit
[13:00] finds its clearest reflection in the
[13:03] eyes of those still seeking democracy's
[13:06] promise. a Russian worker, a Cambodian
[13:09] farmer, a black South African child. In
[13:13] 1989, I was privileged to stand in
[13:15] Gdans, Poland, when President Bush
[13:18] addressed 70,000 Polish citizens. I can
[13:21] still hear them chanting, "Bush, Bush,
[13:24] Bush, freedom, freedom, freedom."
[13:35] How proud I was to work for George Bush.
[13:39] How proud I was to be an American.
[13:42] Through their eyes, we see that much of
[13:45] America's greatness is in her
[13:46] generosity. The willingness to look
[13:49] beyond our shores to make the cause of
[13:51] others our own. Through their eyes, we
[13:54] can rise above our own doubts and thank
[13:57] God that we live in this great land.
[13:59] Through their eyes, we can feel the
[14:02] power of our beliefs and proceed from
[14:05] them to build a better America. As we
[14:09] have built a better world, elect George
[14:11] Bush, God bless America. Good night.
[14:19] >> Condisa Rice, a former special assistant
[14:21] to the president. What did you think of
[14:23] the significance of that, David Gen?
[14:25] >> I think it's been the most appealing
[14:27] speech of the evening so far. It's been
[14:28] a rather tepid evening, I think, and she
[14:30] really brought this audience alive.
[14:32] Enormously attractive woman. Of course,
[14:34] you know, it's one of the ironies of
[14:35] politics, Robin, that uh this is a woman
[14:37] >> I'm sorry to interrupt you, David, but
[14:39] um Dan Quail, Vice President Quail and
[14:43] his wife are making a uh
[14:47] >> carefully scheduled, unscheduled
[14:49] appearance on the floor of the
[14:50] convention hall.
[14:51] >> The reason being to go over and say
[14:53] hello to the Indiana delegation.
[14:58] But uh go on with what you were saying
[15:01] about Condisa Rice. You
[15:02] >> had to go and say a little condisa rice
[15:04] too. The uh when Senator Pete Wilson uh
[15:08] was in serving in the Senate from
[15:09] California and then elected governor a
[15:11] couple of years ago and had to fill his
[15:13] place in the Senate. Condi Rice was one
[15:15] of the people he talked to about filling
[15:17] that place. She was teaching at Stanford
[15:19] at the time uh or had been teaching at
[15:21] Stanford. Had a lot of California roots.
[15:23] And one of the reasons she couldn't take
[15:24] the job was nobody thought she could
[15:26] raise the $20 million that's needed in
[15:28] politics these days to run for
[15:30] reelection. But this is exactly the
[15:32] reason that you know money gets in the
[15:34] way so often our politics as a woman of
[15:36] enormous merit. She first came to
[15:37] Washington as a White House fellow went
[15:39] to work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff as
[15:41] a criminologist and now she's gone on to
[15:43] do these things. She's writing the book.
[15:44] She's of course very familiar to the
[15:46] Watchers of McNeel Air the NewsHour.
[15:48] She's been on the last couple of nights.
[15:50] >> What do you think that says Howard
[15:51] Baker? Um, I'm sorry, Howard Baker,
[15:53] you're not still there. It's uh Senator
[15:55] Richard Luger is you're sitting in the
[15:58] seat still warm from Howard Baker.
[16:01] >> Um, what do you think of the um the
[16:03] state of things in politics today,
[16:05] Senator Luger, that what David Gurgen
[16:07] just said were the possibilities of a
[16:08] woman like Condisa Rice not being able
[16:10] to get into the political system?
[16:12] >> Well, of course, that's a shocking
[16:14] indictment that money would prevent her
[16:16] from doing it. I I would have hoped that
[16:19] Governor Wilson might have nominated her
[16:21] in any event because I suspect that a
[16:23] person of this ability is going to find
[16:25] money, is going to find support and find
[16:27] organization. I think she has found this
[16:29] evening an audience with these
[16:31] Republican delegates and hopefully with
[16:33] many millions of Americans who will
[16:35] support the brilliance of that analysis
[16:37] and the remarkable advocacy that she's
[16:39] given us.
[16:41] you uh you introduced her this evening
[16:44] and you've also introduced tonight and
[16:46] in other statements you've made during
[16:48] the day what I gather is going to be a
[16:50] consistent theme here and from now on
[16:52] the competence of uh of uh Governor
[16:55] Clinton in foreign affairs. You used
[16:58] some pretty hard terms on him today. You
[17:00] called him an amateur and that we can't
[17:02] risk putting him in charge of foreign
[17:05] affairs. Lots of um lots of uh people
[17:08] have uh become president without much
[17:10] experience in foreign affairs. Why
[17:12] particularly single him out for his lack
[17:16] of experience?
[17:17] >> Well, I believe that the lack of
[17:18] experience in the case of Governor
[17:20] Clinton is substantially less than the
[17:21] lack of others in modern times. And I
[17:24] would not advocate in any event
[17:26] nominating somebody or electing somebody
[17:29] just for the sake of it with lack of
[17:31] experience. Clearly, we've been trying
[17:33] to illustrate today in the Republican
[17:35] party, we live in a complex and
[17:37] dangerous world, and the persons who
[17:39] govern us really ought to be prepared to
[17:41] do that. And I've tried to make the
[17:43] point that you could take a roll of the
[17:45] dice with Governor Clinton, but that's
[17:47] what you take. The inexperience is
[17:49] clearly there as opposed to the
[17:51] extraordinary experience not only of
[17:53] President Bush, but people like Condisa
[17:55] Rice and others who have served him so
[17:57] well.
[17:58] >> Mark Shields. Well, with all respect for
[18:01] Senator Luger and the leadership he's
[18:03] himself provided in in foreign affairs
[18:05] for the country, uh the same indictment
[18:07] could have been made of Ronald Wilson
[18:08] Reagan in 1980 when he ran for president
[18:12] and was uh of course we remember his
[18:15] long foreign negotiations with Nevada
[18:17] over the border dispute and the uh the
[18:20] the Oregon boundary question.
[18:22] >> Did you forget that he had Senator Luger
[18:23] as as the head of his foreign relations
[18:25] committee in the Senate? That's what
[18:26] helped a lot in those days. That was
[18:28] what that we'll see who was whom
[18:30] President Clinton has with his.
[18:32] >> Yeah.
[18:32] >> Uh
[18:34] Susan Molinari, you're you're still with
[18:36] us. Yes.
[18:37] >> On the um on the question that uh Ms.
[18:40] Rice also led into uh that the um uh
[18:45] Republicans in their first platform
[18:47] abolished uh slavery. What is there
[18:50] about better race relations in this
[18:52] platform?
[18:54] >> I'm sorry. What is it about
[18:55] >> what is there in this platform about
[18:57] better race relations?
[18:58] >> Well, I'm not really sure to tell you
[19:00] the truth. I have to claim I'm one of
[19:01] the Republicans that has not read the
[19:03] entire platform, but I think when we
[19:05] talk about better race relations, we
[19:07] have to look at the type of race
[19:09] relations that President Bush has put
[19:11] together. When you want to talk and
[19:13] compare
[19:13] >> I'm sorry I'm very sorry to interrupt
[19:15] you, but I didn't know when I asked you
[19:16] the question that uh Pat Buchanan had
[19:19] just come out to make his uh address to
[19:22] the convention this evening. We'll come
[19:24] back. Congresswoman,
[19:26] >> this may even be larger than the crowd I
[19:29] had in LJ, Georgia.
[19:34] >> Don't laugh. We carried LJ.
[19:40] Listen, my friends,
[19:42] we may have taken the long way home, but
[19:45] we finally got here to Houston.
[19:55] The first thing I want to do tonight is
[19:58] to congratulate President George Bush
[20:01] and to remove any doubt about where we
[20:04] stand.
[20:06] The primaries are over. The heart is
[20:09] strong again. And the Buchanan brigades
[20:12] are enlisted all the way to a great
[20:15] Republican comeback victory in November.
[20:33] friends.
[20:36] My friends,
[20:41] like many of you,
[20:44] like many of you, last month I watched
[20:47] that giant masquerade ball up at Madison
[20:50] Square Garden
[20:54] where 20,000 liberals and radicals came
[20:58] dressed up as moderates and centrists in
[21:02] the greatest single exhibition of
[21:04] crossdressing. in American political
[21:07] history.
[21:14] You know,
[21:16] one one by one,
[21:22] one by one, the prophets of doom
[21:24] appeared at the podium. The Reagan
[21:27] decade they moaned was a terrible time
[21:30] in America. And they said, "The only way
[21:32] to prevent worse times is to turn our
[21:36] country's fate and our country's future
[21:39] over to the party that gave us McGovern,
[21:42] Montdale, Carter, and Michael Dukakus.
[21:50] Where do they find these leaders?
[21:56] No way, my friends.
[21:58] The American people are not going to go
[22:01] back to the discredited liberalism of
[22:03] the 1960s and the failed liberalism of
[22:07] the 1970s,
[22:08] no matter how slick the package in 1992.
[22:24] Hold
[22:26] it my friends.
[22:33] You know the malcontents
[22:35] the mal contents of Madison Square
[22:37] Garden notwithstanding.
[22:40] The 1980s were not terrible years in
[22:42] America. They were great years. You know
[22:46] it and I know it and everyone knows it
[22:50] except for the carping critics who sat
[22:52] on the sidelines of history jeering at
[22:55] one of the great statesmen of modern
[22:56] time, Ronald Reagan,
[23:10] out of
[23:12] remember that time out of Jimmy Carter's
[23:16] Days of Malaise.
[23:18] Ronald Reagan crafted
[23:21] Ronald Reagan crafted
[23:23] the greatest peacetime economic recovery
[23:26] in history.
[23:28] 3 million new businesses and 20 million
[23:31] new jobs.
[23:32] Under the Reagan doctrine, one by one,
[23:36] it was the communist dominoes that began
[23:39] to fall.
[23:40] First, Grenada was liberated by US
[23:44] airborne troops and the US Marine Corps.
[23:54] Then the mighty Red Army was driven out
[23:55] of Afghanistan with American weapons.
[23:59] And then in Nicaragua,
[24:02] that squalid Marxist regime was forced
[24:05] to hold free elections by Ronald
[24:07] Reagan's contra army and the communists
[24:10] were thrown out of power.
[24:23] Fellow Americans,
[24:25] we ought to remember it was under our
[24:28] party that the Berlin Wall came down and
[24:31] Europe was reunited. It was under our
[24:34] party that the Soviet Empire collapsed
[24:37] and the captive nations broke free.
[24:40] You know, it is said that every American
[24:43] president will be remembered in history
[24:46] with but a single sentence.
[24:48] George Washington was the father of his
[24:50] country. Abraham Lincoln freed the
[24:54] slaves and saved the Union. And Ronald
[24:57] Reagan won the Cold War.
[25:00] And it is time.
[25:10] And it is just about time. It is just
[25:13] about time that my old colleagues,
[25:18] the columnists and commentators
[25:20] looking down on us tonight from their
[25:23] sky boxes and anchor boos, gave Ronald
[25:27] Reagan the full credit he deserves for
[25:29] leading America to victory in the Cold
[25:31] War.
[25:50] But most of all, my friends,
[25:55] but most of all, Ronald Reagan made us
[25:58] proud to be Americans again. We never
[26:01] felt better about our country and we
[26:03] never stood taller in the eyes of the
[26:05] world than when the Gipper was at the
[26:07] helm.
[26:17] >> We are here tonight, my friends, not
[26:18] only to celebrate but to nominate.
[26:22] And an American president has many
[26:25] roles. He is our first diplomat, the
[26:28] architect of American foreign policy.
[26:31] And which of these two men is more
[26:34] qualified for that great role?
[26:38] George Bush has been UN ambassador,
[26:42] director of the CIA,
[26:44] envoy to China. As vice president,
[26:47] George Bush co-authored and co-signed
[26:50] the policies that won the Cold War. as
[26:54] President George Bush presided over the
[26:58] liberation of Eastern Europe and the
[27:00] termination of the Warsaw Pact. And what
[27:02] about Mr. Clinton?
[27:05] Well, Bill Clinton
[27:07] Bill Clinton couldn't find
[27:11] 150 words to discuss foreign policy in
[27:14] an accepted speech that lasted almost an
[27:17] hour.
[27:19] You know,
[27:23] as was said,
[27:25] as was said of another Democratic
[27:27] candidate,
[27:29] Bill Clinton's foreign policy experience
[27:32] is pretty much confined to having had
[27:34] breakfast once at the International
[27:36] House of Pancakes.
[27:57] You know,
[27:59] let's recall what happened.
[28:03] Let us look at the record and recall
[28:05] what happened under President George
[28:09] Bush.
[28:11] more human beings
[28:14] escaped from the prison house of tyranny
[28:17] to freedom
[28:19] than in any other 4-year period in
[28:22] history.
[28:27] And for any man,
[28:30] let me tell you, for any man to call
[28:33] this a record of failure is the cheap
[28:38] political rhetoric
[28:40] of politicians who only know how to
[28:43] build themselves up by tearing America
[28:46] down. And we don't want that kind of
[28:48] leadership in the United States.
[29:12] President my friends,
[29:20] presidency is also an office that
[29:23] Theodore Roosevelt called America's
[29:25] bully pulpit. Harry Truman said it was
[29:28] preeminently a place of moral
[29:31] leadership.
[29:32] George Bush is a defender of right to
[29:35] life and a champion of the
[29:37] Judeo-Christian values and beliefs upon
[29:40] which America was founded.
[29:48] Mr. Clinton.
[29:52] Mr. Clinton, however, has a different
[29:55] agenda. At its top is unrestricted
[30:00] unrestricted abortion on demand. When
[30:03] the Irish Catholic governor of
[30:04] Pennsylvania, Robert Casey, asked to say
[30:08] a few words
[30:10] on behalf of the 25 million unborn
[30:13] children destroyed since Roie Wade. Bob
[30:16] Casey was told there was no room for him
[30:20] at the podium at Bill Clinton's
[30:22] convention and no room at the end.
[30:27] Yet,
[30:29] yet a militant leader of the homosexual
[30:32] rights movement could rise at that same
[30:34] convention and say, "Bill Clinton and Al
[30:37] Gore represent the most pro- lesbian and
[30:41] pro-gay ticket in history." And so they
[30:44] do.
[30:49] Bill Clinton says he supports school
[30:51] choice,
[30:53] but only for stateun schools. Parents
[30:57] who send their children to Christian
[30:59] schools or private schools or Jewish
[31:01] schools or Catholic schools need not
[31:05] apply.
[31:10] Elect me and you get two for the price
[31:13] of one. Mr. Clinton says of his lawyer
[31:15] spouse.
[31:20] And what
[31:22] And what does Hillary believe?
[31:26] Well, Hillary believes that 12y olds
[31:30] should have the right to sue their
[31:31] parents.
[31:37] And Hillary has compared marriage and
[31:40] the family as institutions
[31:42] to slavery and life on an Indian
[31:45] reservation.
[31:49] >> Well, speak for yourself, Hillary.
[32:16] This this, my friends,
[32:20] this is radical feminism. The agenda
[32:23] that Clinton and Clinton would impose on
[32:25] America.
[32:27] Abortion on demand, a litmus test for
[32:31] the Supreme Court, homosexual rights,
[32:34] discrimination against religious
[32:36] schools, women in combat units. That's
[32:39] change. All right. But that's not the
[32:42] kind of change America needs. It's not
[32:45] the kind of change America wants. And
[32:48] it's not the kind of change we can abide
[32:50] in a nation we still call God's country.
[33:15] President,
[33:19] the president of the United States is
[33:21] also
[33:23] The President of the United States is
[33:24] also American. America's
[33:25] commanderin-chief.
[33:28] He's the man we authorize to send
[33:33] sons and brothers and friends into
[33:36] battle.
[33:40] Years old when they bomb Pearl Harbor.
[33:44] He left his high school graduation.
[33:47] He walked down to the recruiting office
[33:50] and he signed up to become the youngest
[33:52] fighter pilot in the Pacific War.
[33:58] And Mr. Clinton
[34:04] and Bill Clinton,
[34:08] >> I'll tell you where he was. I'll tell
[34:10] you where he was.
[34:21] I'll tell you where he was.
[34:31] Let me tell you where he was.
[34:38] I'll tell you. I'll tell you where he
[34:41] was.
[34:44] When Bill Clinton's time came in
[34:47] Vietnam,
[34:49] he sat up at a dormatory room in Oxford,
[34:52] England, and figured out how to dodge
[34:54] the draft.
[35:00] Let me ask the question to this
[35:01] convention.
[35:03] Which of these two men has won the moral
[35:07] authority to send young Americans into
[35:10] battle? I suggest respectfully.
[35:14] I suggest respectfully it is the
[35:16] American patriot and war hero, Navy
[35:20] Lieutenant JG. George Herbert Walker
[35:23] Bush
[35:46] My fellow Americans,
[35:50] my fellow Americans,
[35:52] this campaign is about philosophy and it
[35:56] is about character. And George Bush wins
[35:59] hands down on both counts.
[36:10] And it is time all of us came home and
[36:13] stood beside him. As his running mate,
[36:16] Mr. Clinton chose Albert Gore.
[36:23] But just how moderate is Prince Albert?
[36:30] Well, according to the National
[36:31] Taxpayers Union, Al Gore beat out Teddy
[36:35] Kennedy two straight years for the title
[36:38] of biggest spender in the US Senate. And
[36:41] Teddy Kennedy isn't moderate about
[36:44] anything.
[36:52] I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding about
[36:55] Teddy. How many other 60y olds do you
[36:58] know who still go to Florida for spring
[37:01] Break.
[37:20] So,
[37:25] you know, up at that great at that great
[37:28] big costume party they held up in New
[37:30] York, Mr. Gore made a startling
[37:32] declaration.
[37:33] Henceforth, Albert Gore said, "The
[37:36] central organizing principle of
[37:39] governments everywhere must be the
[37:41] environment."
[37:43] Wrong, Albert.
[37:47] The central organizing principle of this
[37:51] republic is freedom.
[38:05] And from the ancient
[38:08] And from the ancient forests from the
[38:11] ancient forests of Oregon and Washington
[38:15] to the inland empire of California,
[38:18] America's great middle class has got to
[38:22] start standing up to these environmental
[38:24] extremists who put birds and rats and
[38:27] insects ahead of families, workers, and
[38:30] jobs.
[38:42] One year ago,
[38:50] we're doing it.
[38:56] One year ago, my friends,
[38:59] one year ago,
[39:01] I could not have dreamt I would be here
[39:03] tonight.
[39:05] I was just one of many panelists on what
[39:10] President Bush calls those crazy Sunday
[39:13] talk shows.
[39:15] But I disagreed with the president and
[39:17] so we challenged the president in the
[39:19] Republican primaries and we fought as
[39:22] best we could.
[39:24] From February to June, President Bush
[39:27] won 33 of those primaries.
[39:30] I can't recall exactly how many we won.
[39:34] I'll get you the figure tomorrow,
[39:38] but tonight I do want to speak from the
[39:40] heart to the three million people who
[39:43] voted for Pat Buchanan for president. I
[39:47] will never
[39:51] I will never
[39:55] >> I will never forget you
[39:58] or the honor you have done me. But I do
[40:01] believe I do believe deep in my heart
[40:05] that the right place for us to be now in
[40:09] this presidential campaign is right
[40:11] beside George Bush.
[40:23] This party,
[40:27] this party is my home. This party is our
[40:30] home. And we've got to come home to it.
[40:32] And don't let anyone tell you different.
[40:37] Yes, we disagreed with President Bush,
[40:40] but we stand with him for the freedom to
[40:42] choose religious schools. And we stand
[40:45] with him against the amoral idea that
[40:48] gay and lesbian couples should have the
[40:50] same standing in law as married men and
[40:53] women. We stand with President Bush.
[40:56] We stand with President Bush for right
[40:58] to life and for voluntary prayer in the
[41:00] public schools.
[41:10] And we stand against putting our wives
[41:13] and daughters and sisters into combat
[41:15] units of the United States Army.
[41:19] And we stand, my pre my friends,
[41:22] we also stand with President Bush in
[41:25] favor of the right of small towns and
[41:27] communities to control the raw sewage of
[41:30] pornography that so terribly pollutes
[41:33] our popular culture. We stand with
[41:35] President Bush in favor of federal
[41:38] judges who interpret the law as written
[41:41] and against wouldbe Supreme Court
[41:43] justices like Mario Cuomo who think they
[41:46] have a mandate to rewrite the
[41:48] Constitution
[42:02] friends. This election
[42:04] is about more than who gets what.
[42:08] It is about who we are. It is about what
[42:12] we believe
[42:14] and what we stand for as Americans.
[42:18] There is a religious war going on in
[42:20] this country. It is a cultural war as
[42:24] critical to the kind of nation we shall
[42:27] be as the Cold War itself. But this war
[42:30] is for the soul of America.
[42:33] And in that struggle for the soul of
[42:35] America, Clinton and Clinton are on the
[42:38] other side. And George Bush is on our
[42:40] side.
[42:52] And so to the Buchanan brigades out
[42:55] there, we have to come home and stand
[42:58] beside George Bush.
[43:06] In these six months of campaigning from
[43:09] conquered New Hampshire to California,
[43:13] I came to know our country better than I
[43:16] have known it ever before in my life.
[43:19] And I gathered up memories that are
[43:22] going to be with me the rest of my days.
[43:27] It was that dayong ride through the
[43:29] great state of Georgia
[43:32] in a bus Vice President Bush himself had
[43:35] used in 1988 called Asphalt One.
[43:40] The ride ended in a 900 p.m. speech in a
[43:44] tiny town in southern Georgia called
[43:46] Fitzgerald.
[43:49] There were those workers
[43:52] at the James River Paper Mill in
[43:55] northern New Hampshire in a town called
[43:57] Grove. Tough, hearty men. None of them
[44:01] would say a word to me as I came down
[44:02] the line, shaking their hands one by
[44:05] one.
[44:07] They were under threat of losing their
[44:09] jobs at Christmas. As I moved down the
[44:11] line, one tough fellow about my age just
[44:15] looked up and said to me,
[44:18] "Save our jobs."
[44:21] Then there was the legal secretary
[44:24] that I met at the Manchester airport on
[44:26] Christmas Day who came running up to me
[44:29] and said, "Mr. Buchanan, I'm going to
[44:31] vote for you." And then she broke down
[44:34] weeping
[44:36] and she said, "I've lost my job.
[44:40] I don't have any money and they're going
[44:42] to take away my little girl. What am I
[44:45] going to do?" My friends, these people
[44:49] are our people. They don't read Adam
[44:52] Smith or Edmund Burke, but they come
[44:55] from the same schoolyards and the same
[44:58] playgrounds and towns as we came from.
[45:01] They share our beliefs and our
[45:02] convictions,
[45:04] our hopes and our dreams. These are the
[45:08] conservatives of the heart. They are our
[45:11] people and we need to reconnect with
[45:15] them. We need to let them know we know
[45:19] how bad they're hurting.
[45:22] They don't expect miracles of us, but
[45:24] they need to know we care.
[45:28] They were the people. They were the
[45:30] people, my friends.
[45:40] They were the people of Hayfork, a tiny
[45:42] town up in California's Trinity Alps, a
[45:45] town that is now under a sentence of
[45:48] death because a federal judge has set
[45:51] aside 9 million acres for the habitat of
[45:55] the spotted owl, forgetting about the
[45:58] habitat of the men and women who live
[46:01] and work in Hayfork.
[46:04] And there were the brave people.
[46:07] And there were the brave people of Korea
[46:09] Town who took the worst of those LA
[46:12] riots but still live the fa family
[46:14] values we treasure and who still deeply
[46:18] believe in the American dream. Friends,
[46:21] in these wonderful in these wonderful 25
[46:24] weeks of our campaign,
[46:27] the saddest days were the days of that
[46:30] riot in LA.
[46:34] worst riot in American history. But out
[46:36] of that awful tragedy
[46:38] can come a message of hope.
[46:42] Hours after that riot ended,
[46:45] I went down to the Army compound in
[46:47] South Los Angeles where I met the
[46:50] troopers of the 18th Cavalry who had
[46:53] come to save the city of Los Angeles.
[46:57] An officer of the 18th Calav said, "Mr.
[47:00] Buchanan, I want you to talk to a couple
[47:02] of our troopers. And I went over and I
[47:05] met these young fellas. They couldn't
[47:07] have been 20 years old. And they
[47:09] recounted their story. They had come in
[47:12] to Los Angeles
[47:15] late in the evening of the second day
[47:18] and the rioting was still going on. And
[47:20] two of them walked up a dark street
[47:23] where the mob had burned and looted
[47:26] every single building on the block but
[47:29] one. A convolescent home for the aged.
[47:33] and the mob was headed in to ransack and
[47:36] loot the apartments of the terrified old
[47:39] men and women inside.
[47:42] The troopers came up the street, M16s at
[47:46] the ready, and the mob threatened and
[47:49] cursed.
[47:50] But the mob retreated
[47:52] because it had met the one thing that
[47:55] could stop it.
[47:57] force rooted in justice and backed by
[48:01] moral courage. You know, greater
[48:11] greater love than this greater love than
[48:14] this hath no man than that he lay down
[48:17] his life for his friend. Here were
[48:19] 19-year-old boys ready to lay down their
[48:23] lives to stop a mob from molesting old
[48:26] people they did not even know.
[48:30] And as those boys took back the streets
[48:32] of Los Angeles block by block, my
[48:35] friends, we must take back our cities
[48:39] and take back our culture and take back
[48:43] our country. God bless you and God bless
[48:46] America.
[48:51] All right, Patrick Buchanan, the only
[48:54] Republican who challenged George Bush
[48:56] for the Republican nomination, has uh
[49:00] told his followers and any others who
[49:02] may be interested tonight that they are
[49:04] with George Bush. They should join him
[49:06] at George Bush's side. And he laid out
[49:09] all of the the reasons why.
[49:12] Mark Shields and David Gurgen are here.
[49:15] What do you think of the speech, Mark?
[49:16] Well, it was uh Pat Buchanan certainly
[49:19] sang from the same hymbook that he has
[49:21] written for others that he used during
[49:23] the his own campaign. Uh he uh
[49:27] in my judgment it was a it was a
[49:29] divisive speech. Uh but uh that's that's
[49:33] Pat's style. I mean Pat is not the
[49:35] politics of the big tent by any means.
[49:38] Never has been. I thought it was
[49:39] interesting that Shelley Buchanan, his
[49:41] wife, uh, and his constant companion on
[49:44] the campaign was with Mrs. George Bush,
[49:47] Mrs. Barbara Bush in the presidential
[49:49] box at the convention hall, which sort
[49:51] of showed a certain reproach mind. I It
[49:53] was a tough, scalding, scorching attack
[49:56] on Bill Clinton. And I still, it still
[49:58] escapes me why the why the Republicans,
[50:00] Rich Bond and uh and Pat Buchanan
[50:03] tonight insist on going after Hillary
[50:05] Hillary Clinton who has become was seen
[50:08] as a little bit of a political liability
[50:10] by the Democrats to the point where they
[50:11] had kept her under wraps and now they're
[50:13] going to turn her into a martyr, make
[50:14] her Jonah Arc.
[50:15] >> Do you see that as a danger, David?
[50:17] >> I do. I think this speech, Jim, from a
[50:19] Republican standpoint does something
[50:21] that that the conservatives will like.
[50:23] It energizes the base. It helps to unite
[50:26] the base with George Bush. They needed
[50:27] to do that. But for a lot of other
[50:29] Americans who are not conservative, it
[50:30] will be seen as a journey through the
[50:32] fever swamp. It was it was a very tough
[50:34] speech. The attack on Hillary, I think
[50:36] that it was interesting to think about
[50:38] what does Mrs. Bush thinking there
[50:39] having just a few days ago chastised
[50:41] Rich Bond for attacking Hillary Clinton.
[50:43] And Rich Bond used and then Pat McKenna
[50:45] came along tonight used almost precisely
[50:47] the same lines as Rich Bond to go after
[50:49] Hillary, going after the radical
[50:50] feminism, going after the draft, uh,
[50:52] eliciting the booze. I I think that was
[50:54] something we did not hear very much at
[50:55] the Democratic convention. So I I think
[50:57] it probably will excite the
[50:58] conservatives and and turn off and and
[51:01] and and be a wrenching turnoff for a
[51:03] fair number of other voters.
[51:04] >> Congresswoman Susan Molinar, you are
[51:06] with us coming to me.
[51:08] >> Did you hear that?
[51:09] >> Yes.
[51:09] >> You agree with David Gurgen?
[51:10] >> Yeah, I do. Um Pat Buchanan would never
[51:13] be my choice for this party's nominee.
[51:15] And while I think he made a a useful
[51:17] attempt at the end of his speech to talk
[51:20] about some of the problems America's
[51:21] going through and tangentially connect
[51:23] George Bush to the solutions, I thought
[51:25] that it was a a divisive speech and I
[51:28] frankly didn't appreciate the majority
[51:29] of the tone of it, but I suppose it
[51:31] served its purpose as David stated.
[51:33] >> Did it serve any purpose for you,
[51:35] Senator Luger?
[51:36] >> Yes, I thought so. I thought that when
[51:38] he talked about the fact there's a war
[51:39] going on and Clinton and Clinton are on
[51:41] one side and George Bush is on our side,
[51:45] there was a sense of unity and
[51:47] reconciliation there. And I think that
[51:48] Pat Buchanan has put his finger upon