Bob Dole Announces his intention to run for President in Exeter (New Hampshire)

Well in my judgment Bob Dole is the best choice for New Hampshire and our country. And Senator I am very very proud to stand here today and give you my full support and commitment as the don't New Hampshire state chairman. I'm counting on each one of you all out there to stand shoulder to shoulder with me and my wife said as we all work together over the next 10 months. This is a special day for Exeter for New Hampshire and our nation special because one of our country's great leaders has come here today day direct from his home state of Kansas to LIJ his bid for the White House. Bob Dole has served our country as few others have. As a decorated combat veteran. He understands America's special place in the world

as a man who hails from a small town in our country's heartland. He embodies the basic values that sustain our greatness as a conservative. He's committed to the New Hampshire values of less government lower taxes and a balanced budget. And in the United States Senate he's demonstrated the leadership we so desperately need in our White House. It's an honor to present to you a good friend of New Hampshire a great American. Our next president Bob Dole. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Let me say I'm honored I am to be here today. I've been in Exeter before but I've never seen as many people in Exeter before. I hope you all spend a little money on the way out of town and give me a little credit. You leave down south. It's good to be back among friends. Charlie and Judd Thanks for being with us here today. And Bill thanks very much adduction for joining our team today my friend Warren Rudman who has served for a long time ambassador Carmen many other distinguished guests all of my friends from the 10th Mountain Division on each side. I'm very honored to be in your presence. And I'm very proud of all of you.

I've always felt at home here in New Hampshire maybe because it's always been and always will remain the first presidential primary state in the nation right here in New Hampshire. Nobody is going to change. Or maybe it's because as governor Gregg has told me New Hampshire is the birthplace of the Republican Party and it happened right here. So maybe that's why probably. Few people know it but it was right over there and what used to be Blake's tavern. That Amos Tucker. Brought together a group of leaders and created the Republican Party. Let me also say the people of New Hampshire have never had to look to Washington D.C. for a sense of compassion or community.

As far as I'm concerned as a young man in a small town my parents taught me to put my trust in God not government and never confuse the two Something else I learned I learned the hard way. I learned the hard way that while self-reliance is an essential part of the American character. So is this spirit of community that reaches out to those wounded in body or so when I went off to war it was to defend a community of values unique in all the world. I came back sustained by the love and generosity of friends and neighbors who renewed my sense of life's possibilities. Over the years they have given me opportunities for service which I can never never hope to repay and because they restored my spirit in a time of trial I have dedicated myself to restoring the spirit

of America. And so today on this lovely afternoon tempered by adversity seasoned by experience mindful of the world as it is yet confident can be made better. I have come to New Hampshire with a grateful heart to declare that I am a candidate for the presidency of the United States. Thank. You all. Right. Sounds good to me.

We are troubled about the direction our country is taking and the view of many Americans see this afternoon is a sobering one. Our values are under constant assault from our public and cultural institutions. We feel threatened by random incidents of crime. Too many of our schools which were once passports to opportunity have become demoralizing places. Welfare has become a misery subsidy fostering illegitimacy and generations of dependency and yet the deficit keeps growing. And taxes keep increasing and the government keeps demanding more and more authority over our lives. Now none of this should come as much as a surprise for much of this century. Power and wealth I like it flowed from grass roots Americans to a federal government which exploded to meet the twin crises of economic depression

and global war. Yet I say to you the life jacket of one generation can become the straight jacket for the next. And in giving Washington our responsibility to address problems close to their source. Americans have unwittingly encouraged the federal government to become too large too remote too unresponsive and too undemocratic to be representative. And that's what this election is all about. There is another America waiting. There is another America waiting in America strong again and hard and sure of mine. And I would like to lead us there to that other America. Our problems are not too difficult to handle. It's just that our leaders have grown too isolated from places like Exeter. Embarrassed

by the values here they seem to have lost the idea that we are and must remain one nation under God. We are bound by our heritage to a set of common values hardwork integrity responsibility. These values have always been the source of our strength and the glue that holds us together. Our country must again add leaders who believe in our people and are proud. Of our values. We need leaders who will summon from each of us the best of our character who will call us as a nation to our full potential. I want to be president so I can do this for America and the people who live in America. And my mandate as president would be to rein in the federal government in order to set free the spirit of the American people to reconnect our government in Washington with a common sense values of our citizens and to reassert American interests wherever and whenever they are challenged around the world.

And my guide and this would be the final piece of the Bill of Rights. The 10th Amendment and the Tenth Amendment reads The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the stage are reserved to the States or to the people. And when these words were written by our founding fathers more than 200 years ago they were an affirmation of a radical new theory of politics a theory based on the need to limit the powers of the central government in order to unleash unleash the unlimited potential of the people. I believe the federal government should do only those things specially specifically called for in the Constitution. All others should remain with the states or with the people. It is a philosophy of freedom conceived in liberty tested by history. Yet too often ignored in Washington

and I intend to restore it. And that's what this election is all about. In the last election the American people send an unmistakable message to Washington with rare clarity they reaffirm their faith in themselves and a healthy amount of skepticism in government. If we are really to rein in the government must have a president is more than a clever apologist for the status quo. In 1992 Bill Clinton ran for president as a candidate of change. In 1996 he will seek re-election as a candidate pledged to regret to prevent change at all costs. Oh what a difference four years will make. We need a president will do more than say no to every spending cut. We need a president will save more than no to ever to

return power to the states and to the people. We need a president who shares our values embraces our agenda and will lead the fight for the fundamental change Americans chose last November. We need a president will say yes yes to the American people. And that is the kind of president that I intend to be. And that's what this election is all about. And while on the subject. And while Donna said that creating a government that will say yes to the American people like let me make one fundamental mental belief crystal clear. We can cut taxes and balance the budget. We can cut taxes. And balance the budget. Middle class families are forced to spend too much of their hard earned money to Washington.

We should provide a tax credit for children and remove the marriage penalty to strengthen families and we should cut the capital gains tax to stimulate economic growth create new jobs and expand opportunity for all of our people all of our people all across America. And that is. And that is just a first step. Just a first step not the last. We need a president committed to making our tax system lower fair flatter simply so that ordinary people like you and me could fill out our tax form without a lawyer or an accountant or both. Balancing the budget will also be a top priority. We cannot continue mortgaging our children's future. We will give the president a line item

veto and we will give the American people a balanced budget amendment. We will give the American people a balanced budget amendment. But again that is only a beginning. Reining in the garbage means streamlining the entire federal bureaucracy getting its nose out of places a government just should not be. We should work our way through the alphabet soup of government asking this question is this program a basic function of limit limited government or is that an example of how Gerben has lost faith in the judgment of our people. And I believe the best place to begin is for the most burdensome and mettlesome departments and most ineffective departments the department of education housing and urban development energy and commerce. Together they spend 74 billion dollars a year and employ more than $74000

74000 workers. Let's close down the Education Department. And spend the money on our children not bureaucrats and red tape. And lets implement school choice to return power to parents. HUD the housing and urban development has become a cash cow for big city mayors and the well-connected. We should give housing vouchers to those who need them and get the government out of the landlord business forever and all together. Energy would function better as an agency within the Department of Defense and more than half of what the Department of Commerce does has nothing to do with trade or with commerce it's duplicated by 71 other government departments agencies and offices and there are other questions that we should ask. We spend hundreds of millions of

dollars on the endowment for the Arts and Humanities. Why is the federal government in the culture business in this explosion of the information age. Why do we have a corporation for public broadcasting. And there are a host of other areas that cry out for reform. And I'll be talking about them at greater length in the year ahead. But welfare is one the federal system of welfare has failed and why are the liberals in Washington why are the liberals in Washington so afraid to turn the decision making over to governors like Governor O'Malley and your state legislature. There is Ogburn already considerable evidence that they could do much better in the state of New Hampshire than we're doing at a federal level. Affirmative action. Affirmative action is another federal policy out of control discrimination is wrong discrimination is immoral.

This is America. We should have a colorblind society but fighting discrimination never be used to divide Americans by race or ethnic background or gender. And I would also say there is one area where the federal government must work in partnership with our state and local governments. And that area's crime. Today a criminal committing a serious crime has less than a 10 percent chance of going to jail. And once in jail that criminal will serve only a fraction of his sentence. We should put an end we should put an end to parole for violent offenders. Put limits on the endless and often frivolous appeals clogging our courts remove teenagers who commit serious violent crime some juvenile courts and try them as adults. And we should be more concerned about the rights of the victims and the privileges of the criminals.

Far too often that happens in America. And we must rededicate ourselves to the war on drugs. No doubt about it. And finally let me close and touch for a moment on America's place in the world. There is one responsibility that only the federal government has and that is to protect our freedom. We must never be reluctant about our greatness or ashamed of our national strength. We must stop placing the agenda of the United Nations before the interests of the United States. And when we take. And when we take our revolution to the White House in 1996 we will bow that American policies will be Terman by us not by the United Nations.

And let us remember that America has been the greatest force for good. The world has ever known no doubt about it. The greatest force for good the world has ever known and that is why on the 50th anniversary of D-Day last summer the eyes of the world were focused on the now on the 50th anniversary of D-Day. Last summer. Before visiting France I travel to northern Italy where I was proud to serve in the 10th Mountain Division. A lot of people who arrived here today. And while revisiting the battle sites

there. I thought about the America of our youth. The America we were risking our lives to protect and about our hopes. And our prayers for the generations that to follow. And then I thought about the America we live in now and America is still great and still the beacon of freedom around the world. But an America that is headed in the wrong direction. And standing there gazing across those now peaceful fee and sacrifice to keep us free and that would do all in his power to lead America back to our place in the sun. And we should do it for ourselves. We owe it to our children. We must act to be worthy of the gift of our ancestors and what they sacrificed

so much for to ensure that the next century will dawn on a new beginning of American greatness and prosperity and freedom. Let us do it together. Let us begin today. God bless the United States of America. Thank you very much. I think. A million.

OK. In. New Hampshire Public Radio and I just know it's going to like we're a Democratic club. And last night we got the other posters and made pens with with guns and shoving crosses through though. You're more upset about the corporate Dole just giving.

Money to corporations for nothing and also cutting education giving more money the military. Or decreasing cutting taxes but 50 percent of that to go to the upper class which is already been getting more money through their salaries the last 20 years than any other other Republicans because he's running because he's running for president. We don't want him here because it's not going to do well at all because of a lot of it. You don't like that. There are some Republicans that are better than others but. Like well. There's. Been. A lot worse than. That. Benjamin Martin G L R T I am from Boston Massachusetts. Yes in Exeter. Yes.

Thanks. My. Dear. I thought he spoke well. He addressed the issues that. We have the Republicans want to hear. And now he's got to come and persuade us. First. Of. All we're not your father's Republican Party are we. Tell the difference what it.

Is and how can your vote. We're fiscal conservatives and we're cultural libertarians. And he said all those words. Now he has to convince us that he means that. You. Know. He has my interest. I mean this is this is new history has to come and do us one person at a time. That's what makes this such a great state. I could just. Ask her. Well I'd like to ask. I'm still pissed off. I'm from incident. I. Think. It was great. I actually watched CNN this morning so I have paid more attention than I thought it was great. I guess I could have. Been. Checked. Myself. I just like history.

Is my house like this to me and I'd be very happy to. To. Your favorite right now. I'd like. To. Talk to some because of his. Privacy already. At this point. Bill brand. Name just. On. Your. Public radio I just wanted to know what you thought. Your public radio station is that you get that you can get Sprint over. But I'd like to get your reaction to Bob Dole. What did you think of him. Terrific. Very impressive. Good meeting. Good morning. Tell me did you get your vote. Could he get your votes got mine already. Oh. Why. I was capable of number one.

You know what he's doing. It's very experience experience I think makes a big difference. Like very. Good in any way except things are working. And he's put in a lifetime serving the country. I think he was 19 years old when he went to service. You know I don't remember that. You don't remember that. My dad just told me stories generation. That's right. Can I get your names from. We're from there. You don't need a name for any of you know. No. I would like to have them down to give it the name. Don't. Think. Like.

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