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* This file contains the text of the major speeches delivered at the *
* Republican National Convention in Houston August 17-20, 1992.      *
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     ===> Here is the text of a speech delivered to the Republican
National Convention Monday by former President Ronald Reagan:

     Thank you, Paul for that kind introduction. And Mr. Chairman,
delegates, friends, fellow Americans, thank you so very much for that
welcome.

     You've given Nancy and me so many wonderful memories, so much of
your warmth and affection, we cannot thank you enough for the honor of
your friendship.

     Over the years, I've addressed this convention as a private
citizen, as a governor, as a presidential candidate, as a president
and now, once again tonight, as private citizen Ronald Reagan.

     Tonight is a very special night for me. Of course, at my age,
every night's a very special night.

     After all, I was born in 1911. Indeed, according to the experts,
I have exceeded my life expectancy by quite a few years. Now this a
source of great annoyance to some, especially those in the Democratic
party.

     But, here's the remarkable thing about being born in 1911. In my
life's journey over these past eight decades, I have seen the human
race through a period of unparalleled tumult and triumph. I have seen
the birth of communism and the death of communism. I have witnessed
the bloody futility of two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam and the Persian
Gulf. I have seen Germany united, divided and united again. I have
seen television grow from a parlor novelty to become the most powerful
vehicle of communication in history. As a boy I saw streets filled
with model-Ts; as a man I have met men who walked on the moon.

     I have not only seen, but lived the marvels of what historians
have called the "American Century." Yet, tonight is not a time to look
backward. For while I take inspiration from the past, like most
Americans, I live for the future. So this evening, for just a few
minutes, I hope you will let me talk about a country that is forever
young.

     There was a time when empires were defined by land mass,
subjugated peoples, and military might. But the United States is
unique because we are an empire of ideals. For two hundred years we
have been set apart by our faith in the ideals of democracy, of free
men and free markets, and of the extraordinary possibilities that lie
within seemingly ordinary men and women. We believe that no power of
government is as formidable a force for good as the creativity and
entrepreneurial drive of the American people.

     Those are the ideals that invented revolutionary technologies and
a culture envied by people everywhere. This powerful sense of energy
has made America synonymous for opportunity the world over. And after
generations of struggle, America is the moral force that defeated
communism and all those who would put the human soul itself into
bondage.

     Within a few short years, we Americans have experienced the most
sweeping changes of this century: the fall of the Soviet Union and the
rise of the global economy. No transition is without its problems, but
as uncomfortable as it may feel at the moment, the changes of the
1990's will leave America more dynamic and less in danger than at any
time in my life.

     A fellow named James Allen once wrote in his diary, "many
thinking people believe America has seen its best days." He wrote that
July 26, 1775. There are still those who believe America is weakening;
that our glory was the brief flash of time called the 20th Century;
that ours was a burst of greatness too bright and brilliant to
sustain; that America's purpose is past.

     My friends, I utterly reject those views. That's not the America
we know. We were meant to be masters of destiny, not victims of fate.
Who among us would trade America's future for that of any other
country in the world? And who could possibly have so little faith in
our America that they would trade our tomorrows for our yesterdays?

     I'll give you a hint. They put on quite a production in New York
a few weeks ago. You might even call it slick. A stone's throw from
Broadway it was, and how appropriate. Over and over they told us they
are not the party they were. They kept telling us with straight faces
that they're for family values, they're for a strong America, they're
for less intrusive government.

     And they call me an actor.

     To hear them talk, you'd never know that the nightmare of nuclear
annihilation has been lifted from our sleep. You'd never know that our
standard of living remains the highest in the world. You'd never know
that our air is cleaner than it was 20 years ago. You'd never know
that we remain the one nation the rest of the world looks to for
leadership.

     It wasn't always this way. We mustn't forget -- even if they
would like to -- the very different America that existed just 12 years
ago; an America with 21 percent interest rates and back-to-back years
of double-digit inflation; an America where mortgage payments doubled,
paychecks plunged, and motorists sat in gas lines; an America whose
leaders told us it was our own fault; that ours was a future of
scarcity and sacrifice; and that what we really needed was another
good dose of government control and higher taxes.

     It wasn't so long ago that the world was a far more dangerous
place as well. It was a world where aggressive Soviet communism was on
the rise and American strength was in decline. It was a world where
our children came of age under the threat of nuclear holocaust. It was
a world where our leaders told us that standing up to aggressors was
dangerous -- that American might and determination were somehow
obstacles to peace.

     But we stood tall and proclaimed that communism was destined for
the ash heap of history. We never heard so much ridicule from our
liberal friends. The only thing that got them more upset was two
simple words: "Evil Empire."

     But we knew then what the liberal Democrat leaders just couldn't
figure out: the sky would not fall if America restored her strength
and resolve. The sky would not fall if an American president spoke the
truth. The only thing that would fall was the Berlin Wall.

     I heard those speakers at that other convention saying "we won
the Cold War" -- and I couldn't help wondering, just who exactly do
they mean by "we"? And to top it off, they even tried to portray
themselves as sharing the same fundamental values of our party! What
they truly don't understand is the principle so eloquently stated by
Abraham Lincoln: "You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the
strong. You cannot help the wage-earner by pulling down the
wage-payer. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You
cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and
should do for themselves."

     If we ever hear the Democrats quoting that passage by Lincoln and
acting like they mean it, then, my friends, we will know that the
opposition has really changed.

     Until then, we see all that rhetorical smoke, billowing out from
the Democrats, well ladies and gentlemen, I'd follow the example of
their nominee. Don't inhale.

     This fellow they've nominated claims he's the new Thomas
Jefferson. Well, let me tell you something. I knew Thomas Jefferson.
He was a friend of mine. And governor, you're no Thomas Jefferson.

     Now let's not dismiss our current troubles, but where they see
only problems, I see possibilities -- as vast and diverse as the
American family itself. Even as we meet, the rest of the world is
astounded by the pundits and finger pointers who are so down on us as
a nation.

     Well I've said it before and I'll say it again -- America's best
days are yet to come. Our proudest moments are yet to be. Our most
glorious achievements are just ahead. America remains what Emerson
called her 150 years ago, "the country of tomorrow." What a wonderful
description and how true. And yet tomorrow might never have happened
had we lacked the courage in the 1980's to chart a course of strength
and honor.

     All the more reason no one should underestimate the importance of
this campaign and what the outcome will mean. The stakes are high. The
presidency is serious business. We cannot afford to take a chance. We
need a man of serious purpose, unmatched experience, knowledge and
ability. A man who understands government, who understands our country
and who understands the world. A man who has been at the table with
Gorbachev and Yeltsin. A man whose performance as commander-in-chief
of the bravest and most effective fighting force in history left the
world in awe and the people of Kuwait free of foreign tyranny. A man
who has devoted more than half of his life to serving his country. A
man of decency, integrity and honor.

     And tonight I come to tell you that I -- warmly, genuinely,
wholeheartedly support the re-election of George Bush as president
United States.

     We know President Bush. By his own admission, he is a quiet man,
not a showman. He is a trustworthy and levelheaded leader who is
respected around the world. His is a steady hand on the tiller through
the choppy waters of the '90s, which is exactly what we need.

     We need George Bush!

     Yes, we need Bush.

     We also need another fighter, a man who happens to be with us
this evening, someone who has repeatedly stood up for his deepest
convictions. We need our vice president, Dan Quayle.

     Now it's true: a lot of liberal democrats are saying it's time
for a change; and they're right; the only trouble is they're pointing
to the wrong end of Pennsylvania Avenue. What we should change is a
Democratic congress that wastes precious time on partisan matters of
absolutely no relevance to the needs of the average American. So to
all the entrenched interests along the Potomac -- the gavel-wielding
chairmen, the bloated staffs, the taxers and takers and congressional
rule makers, we have a simple slogan for november 1992: clean house!

     For you see, my fellow Republicans, we are the change! For 50 of
the last 60 years the Democrats have controlled the Senate. And
they've had the House of Representatives for 56 of the last 60 years.

     It's time to clean house. Clean out the privileges and perks.
Clean out the arrogance and the big egos. Clean out the scandals, the
corner-cutting and the foot-dragging.

     What kind of job do you think they've done during all those years
they've been running the Congress?

     You know, I used to say to some of those Democrats who chair
every committee in the House: "You need to balance the government's
checkbook the same way you balance your own." Then I learned how they
ran the House bank, and I realized that was exactly what they had been
doing!

     Now, just imagine what they would do controlled the executive
branch, too!

     This is the 21st presidential election in my lifetime, the 16th
in which I will cast a ballot. Each of those elections had its
shifting moods of the moment, its headlines of one day that were
forgotten the next. There have been a few more twists and turns this
year than in others, a little more shouting about who was up or down,
in or out, as we went about selecting our candidates. But now we have
arrived, as we always do, at the moment of truth -- the serious
business of selecting a president.

     Now is the time for choosing.

     As it did 12 years ago, and as we have seen many times in
history, our country now stands at a crossroads. There is widespread
doubt about our public institutions and profound concern, not merely
about the economy but about the overall direction of this great
country.

     And as they did then, the American people are clamoring for
change and sweeping reform. The question we had to ask 12 years ago is
the question we ask today: What kind of change can we Republicans
offer the American people?

     Some might believe that the things we have talked about tonight
are irrelevant to the choice. These new isolationists claim that the
American people don't care about how or why we prevailed in the great
defining struggle of our age -- the victory of liberty over our
adversaries. They insist that our triumph is yesterday's news, part of
a past that holds no lessons for the future.

     Well nothing could be more tragic, after having come all this way
on the journey of renewal we began 12 years ago, than if America
herself forgot the lessons of individual liberty that she has taught
to a grateful world.

     Emerson was right. We are the country of tomorrow. Our revolution
did not end at Yorktown. More than two centuries later, America
remains on a voyage of discovery, a land that has never become, but is
always in the act of becoming.

     But just as we have led the crusade for democracy beyond our
shores, we have a great task to do together in our own home. Now, I
would appeal to you to invigorate democracy in your own neighborhoods.

     Whether we come from poverty or wealth; whether we are
Afro-American or Irish-American; Christian or Jewish, from big cities
or small towns, we are all equal in the eyes of God. But as Americans
that is not enough -- we must be equal in the eyes of each other. We
can no longer judge each other on the basis of what we are, but must,
instead, start finding out who we are. In America, our origins matter
less than our destinations and that is what democracy is all about.

     A decade after we summoned America to a new beginning, we are
beginning still. Every day brings fresh challenges and opportunities
to match. With each sunrise we are reminded that millions of our
citizens have yet to share in the abundance of American prosperity.
Many languish in neighborhoods riddled with drugs and bereft of hope.
Still others hesitate to venture out on the streets for fear of
criminal violence. Let us pledge ourselves to a new beginning for
them.

     Let us apply our ingenuity and remarkable spirit to revolutionize
education in America so that everyone among us will have the mental
tools to build a better life. And while we do so, let's remember that
the most profound education begins in the home.

     And let us harness the competitive energy that built America,
into rebuilding our inner cities so that real jobs can be created for
those who live there and real hope can rise out of despair.

     Let us strengthen our health care system so that Americans of all
ages can be secure in their futures without the fear of financial
ruin.

     And my friends, once and for all, let us get control of the
federal deficit through a Balanced Budget Amendment and line item
veto.

     And let us all renew our commitment. Renew our pledge to day by
day, person by person, make our country and the world a better place
to live. Then when the nations of the world turn to us and say,
"America, you are the model of freedom and prosperity." We can turn to
them and say, "you ain't seen nothing, yet!"

     For me, tonight is the latest chapter in a story that began a
quarter of a century ago, when the people of California entrusted me
with the stewardship of their dreams.

     My fellow citizens -- those of you here in this hall and those of
you at home -- I want you to know that I have always had the highest
respect for you, for your common sense and intelligence and for your
decency. I have always believed in you and in what you could
accomplish for yourselves and for others.

     And whatever else history may say about me when I'm gone, I hope
it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst
fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that
you will travel the road ahead with liberty's lamp guiding your steps
and opportunity's arm steadying your way.

     My fondest hope for each one of you -- and especially for the
young people here -- is that you will love your country, not for her
power or wealth, but for her selflessness and her idealism. May each
of you have the heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, and
the hand to execute works that will make the world a little better for
your having been here.

     May all of you as Americans never forget your heroic origins,
never fail to eek divine guidance, and never lose your natural,
God-given optimism.

     And finally, my fellow Americans, may every dawn be a great new
beginning for America and every evening bring us closer to that
shining city upon a hill.

     Before I go, I would like to ask the person who has made my
life's journey so meaningful, someone I have been so proud of through
the years, to join me. Nancy ...

     My fellow Americans, on behalf of both of us, goodbye, and God
bless each and every one of you, and God bless this country we love.

     ===> Here is the text of a speech prepared for delivery to the
Republican National Convention Monday by Patrick J. Buchanan:

     Well, we took the long way home, but we finally got here.

     And I want to congratulate President Bush, and remove any doubt
about where we stand: The primaries are over, the heart is strong
again, and the Buchanan Brigades are enlisted -- all the way to a
great comeback victory in November.

     Like many of you last month, I watched that giant masquerade ball
at Madison Square Garden -- where 20,000 radicals and liberals came
dressed up as moderates and centrists -- in the greatest single
exhibition of cross-dressing in American political history.

     One by one, the prophets of doom appeared at the podium. The
Reagan Decade, they moaned, was a terrible time in America; and the
only way to prevent even worse times, they said, is to entrust our
nation's fate and future to the party that gave us McGovern, Mondale,
Carter and Michael Dukakis.

     No way, my friends. The American people are not going to buy back
into the failed liberalism of the 1960s and '70s -- no matter how
slick the package in 1992.

     The malcontents of Madison Square Garden notwithstanding, the
1980s were not terrible years. They were great years. You know it. I
know it. And the only people who don't know it are the carping critics
who sat on the sidelines of history, jeering at one of the great
statesmen of modern time.

     Out of Jimmy Carter's days of malaise, Ronald Reagan crafted the
longest peacetime recovery in U.S. history -- 3 million new businesses
created, and 20 million new jobs.

     Under the Reagan Doctrine, one by one, the communist dominos
began to fall. First, Grenada was liberated, by U.S. troops. Then, the
Red Army was run out of Afghanistan, by U.S. weapons. In Nicaragua,
the Marxist regime was forced to hold free elections - by Ronald
Reagan's contra army -- and the Communists were thrown out of power.

     Have they forgotten? It was under our party that the Berlin Wall
came down, and Europe was reunited. It was under our party that the
Soviet Empire collapsed, and the captive nations broke free.

     It is said that each president will be recalled by posterity --
with but a single sentence. George Washington was the father of our
country. Abraham Lincoln preserved the Union. And Ronald Reagan won
the Cold War. And it is time my old colleagues, the columnists and
commentators, looking down on us tonight, from their anchor booths and
sky boxes, gave Ronald Reagan the credit he deserves -- for leading
America to victory in the Cold War.

     Most of all, Ronald Reagan made us proud to be Americans again.
We never felt better about our country; and we never stood taller in
the eyes of the world.

     But, we are here, not only to celebrate, but to nominate. And an
American president has many, many roles.

     He is our first diplomat, the architect of American foreign
policy. And which of these two men is more qualified for that role?
George Bush has been U.N. ambassador, CIA director, envoy to China. As
vice president, he co-authored the policies that won the Cold War. As
president, George Bush presided over the liberation of Eastern Europe
and the termination of the Warsaw Pact. And Mr. Clinton? Well, Bill
Clinton couldn't find 150 words to discuss foreign policy in an
acceptance speech that lasted an hour. As was said of an earlier
Democratic candidate, Bill Clinton's foreign policy experience is
pretty much confined to having had breakfast once at the International
House of Pancakes.

     The presidency is also America's bully pulpit, what Mr. Truman
called, "pre-eminently a place of moral leadership." George Bush is a
defender of right to life, and life-long champion of the
Judeo-Christian values and beliefs upon which this nation was built.

     Mr. Clinton, however, has a different agenda.

     At its top is unrestricted abortion on demand. When the
Irish-Catholic governor of Pennsylvania, Robert Casey, asked to say a
few words, on behalf of the 25 million unborn children destroyed since
Roe v. Wade, he was told there was no place for him at the podium of
Bill Clinton's convention, no room at the inn.

     Yet, a militant leader of the homosexual rights movement could
rise at that convention and exult: "Bill Clinton and Al Gore represent
the most pro-lesbian and pro-gay ticket in history." And so they do.

     Bill Clinton supports school choice -- but only for state-run
schools. Parents who send their children to Christian schools, or
Catholic schools, need not apply.

     Elect me, and you get two for the price of one, Mr. Clinton says
of his lawyer-spouse. And what does Hillary believe? Well, Hillary
believes that 12-year-olds should have a right to sue their parents,
and she has compared marriage as an institution to slavery -- and life
on an Indian reservation.

     Well, speak for yourself, Hillary.

     Friends, this is radical feminism. The agenda Clinton & Clinton
would impose on America -- abortion on demand, a litmus test for the
Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious
schools, women in combat -- that's change all right. But it is not the
kind of change America wants. It is not the kind of change America
needs. And it is not the kind of change we can tolerate in a nation
that we still call God's country.

     A president is also commander-in-chief, the man we empower to
send sons and brothers, fathers and friends, to war.

     George Bush was 17 when they bombed Pearl Harbor. He left his
high school class, walked down to the recruiting office, and signed up
to become the youngest fighter pilot in the Pacific War. And Mr.
Clinton? When Bill Clinton's turn came in Vietnam, he sat up in a
dormitory in Oxford, England, and figured out how to dodge the draft.

     Which of these two men has won the moral authority to call on
Americans to put their lives at risk? I suggest, respectfully, it is
the patriot and war hero, Navy Lt.j.g George Herbert Walker Bush.

     My friends, this campaign is about philosophy, and it is about
character; and George Bush wins on both counts -- going away; and it
is time all of us came home and stood beside him.

     As running mate, Mr. Clinton chose Albert Gore. And just how
moderate is Prince Albert? Well, according to the Taxpayers Union, Al
Gore beat out Teddy Kennedy, two straight years, for the title of
biggest spender in the Senate.

     And Teddy Kennedy isn't moderate about anything.

     In New York, Mr. Gore made a startling declaration. Henceforth,
he said, the "central organizing principle" of all governments must
be: the environment.

     Wrong, Albert!

     The central organizing principle of this republic is freedom. And
from the ancient forests of Oregon, to the Inland Empire of
California, America's great middle class has got to start standing up
to the environmental extremists who put insects, rats and birds --
ahead of families, workers and jobs.

     One year ago, my friends, I could not have dreamt I would be
here. I was then still just one of many panelists on what President
Bush calls, "those crazy Sunday talk shows."

     But, I disagreed with the president; and so we challenged the
president in the Republican primaries, and fought as best we could.
>From February to June, he won 33 primaries. I can't recall exactly how
many we won.

     But, tonight, I want to talk to the 3 million Americans who voted
for me: I will never forget you, nor the great honor you have done me.
But, I do believe, deep in my heart, that the right place for us to be
now -- in this presidential campaign -- is right beside George Bush.
This party is our home, this party is where we belong. And, don't let
anyone tell you any different.

     Yes, we disagreed with President Bush, but we stand with him for
freedom-of-choice religious schools, and we stand with him against the
amoral idea that gay and lesbian couples should have the same standing
in law as married men and women.

     We stand with President Bush for right to life, and for voluntary
prayer in the public schools -- and against putting American women in
combat. And we stand with President Bush in favor of the right of
small towns and communities to control the raw sewage of pornography
that pollutes our popular culture.

     We stand with President Bush in favor of federal judges who
interpret the law as written, and against Supreme Court justices who
think they have a mandate to rewrite our Constitution.

     My friends, this election is about much more than who gets what.
It is about who we are. It is about what we believe, it is about what
we stand for as Americans. There is a religious war going on in our
country for the soul of America. It is a cultural war, as critical to
the kind of nation we will one day be -- as was the Cold War itself.
And in that struggle for the soul of America, Clinton & Clinton are on
the other side, and George Bush is on our side. And, so, we have to
come home -- and stand beside him.

     My friends, in those six months -- from Concord to California --
I came to know our country better than ever before in my life, and I
collected memories that will be with me always.

     There was that day-long ride through the great state of Georgia
in a bus Vice President Bush himself had used in 1988 -- a bus they
called Asphalt One. The ride ended with a 9 p.m. speech, in front of a
magnificent Southern mansion, in a town called Fitzgerald.

     There were the workers at the James River Paper Mill, in the
frozen North Country of New Hampshire, hard, tough men, one of whom
was silent, until I shook his hand. Then, he looked up in my eyes, and
said, "Save our jobs!"

     There was the legal secretary at the Manchester airport on
Christmas Day, who told me she was going to vote for me, then broke
down crying, saying, "I've lost my job, I don't have any money;
they're going to take away my daughter. What am I going to do?"

     My friends, even in tough times, these people are with us. They
don't read Adam Smith or Edmund Burke, but they came from the same
schoolyards and playgrounds and towns as we did. They share our
beliefs and convictions, our hopes and our dreams. They are the
conservatives of the heart. They are our people. And, we need to
reconnect with them. We need to let them know we know they're hurting.
They don't expect miracles, but they need to know we care.

     There were the people of Hayfork, the tiny town high up in
California's Trinity Alps, a town that is now under a sentence of
death, because a federal judge has set aside 9 million acres for the
habitat of the spotted owl -- forgetting about the habitat of the men
and women who live and work in Hayfork. And there where the brave live
the family values we treasure, and who still believe deeply in the
American dream.

     Friends, in those wonderful 25 weeks, the saddest days were the
days of the bloody riot in L.A., worst in our history. But even out of
that awful tragedy can come a message of hope.

     Hours after the violence ended I visited the Army compound in
south L.A., where an officer of the 18th Cavalry, that had come to
rescue the city, introduced me to two of his troopers. They could not
have been 20 years old. He told them to recount there story.

     They had come into Los Angeles late on the second day; and they
walked up a dark street, where the mob had looted and burned every
building but one, a convalescent home for the aged. The mob was
heading in, to ransack and loot the apartments of the terrified old
men and women. When the troopers arrived, M-16s at the ready, the mob
threatened and cursed, but the mob retreated. It had met the one thing
that could stop it: force, rooted in justice, backed by courage.

     Greater love than this hath no man than that he lay down his life
for his friend. Here were 19-year-old boys ready to lay down their
lives to stop a mob from molesting old people they did not even know.
And, as they took back the streets of Los Angeles, block by block, so
we must take back our cities, and take back our culture, and take back
our country.

     God bless you, and God bless America.

     ===> Here is the text of a speech prepared for delivery to the
Republican National Convention on Tuesday by Housing and Urban
Development Secretary Jack Kemp:

     Thank you, Roger Staubach. It's an honor to be introduced by a
fellow quarterback, an NFL Hall of Famer, and -- hopefully -- a future
governor or senator from the great State of Texas.

     Fellow Republicans, fellow Americans. Tonight America stands at
the doorway of breathtaking opportunity -- on the eve of a new century
and a new millennium.

     As Ronald Reagan reminded us last night, history is on the side
of freedom -- and those liberal democratic ideals which gave birth to
our ntion and inspired the most revolutionary words the world has ever
heard:

     We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable
rights -- and among these are the rights to life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness.

     Tonight these ideas -- liberal democracy, individual freedom,
entrepreneurial capitalism -- are on the march and winning throughout
the world.

     Just think, one year ago, reactionary forces in Moscow tried to
roll back this democratic revolution. They failed.

     Since then, Boris Yeltsin became Russia's first democratically
elected president in over a thousand years.

     Statues of Marx and Lenin were toppled in Red Square.

     The Hammer and Sickle came down from atop the Kremlin --
providentially, on Christmas Day.

     Today Mikhail Gorbachev is a syndicated columnist for the New
York Times.

     And believe it or not, we find the mayors of St. Petersburg and
Moscow to the right of the mayors of New York and Boston.

     Several months ago, I had lunch with the former mayor of Moscow,
and asked him how he got elected.

     He said, "Mr. Kemp, I told all the people in state-owned housing
they should have the right to own their own homes. The right to sell
them for profit and leave their propety to their children.

     "And, I pledged to make downtown Moscow a free enterprise zone."

     I said, "Mr. Mayor, where did you get these radical ideas?"

     He said, "Mr. Kemp, I got them from the 1980 Republican Platform
of Ronald Reagan and George Bush."

     Ladies and gentlemen, communism didn't fall. It was pushed!

     And it was our ideas that did the pushing and our Republican
presidents -- Ronald Reagan and George Bush -- that helped change the
world.

     Now we must change America.

     Our goal must be nothing less than to double the size of our
economy -- to bring prosperity, jobs, ownership and opportunity to all
Americans, especially those living in our Nation's pockets of poverty.

     Think of what that growth would mean: More jobs, higher living
standards, extraordinary opportunities for all our people, and the
resources to meet our most ambitious goals -- public and private.

     But make no mistake: If we are to change America, we must change
the United States Congress. We must give President Bush and Vice
President Quayle a Republican Congress to get America moving again and
finally wage a winning war on poverty.

     Ladies and gentlemen, the purpose of a great party is not to
defeat its opponents, but to provide superior leadership and a great
cause.

     It's not to denounce the past, but to inspire our nation to a
better future.

     This great cause is the same today as it was when our party was
founded. Listen to the words of Abraham Lincoln:

     "The progress by which the poor, honest, industrious and resolute
man raises himself, that he may work on his own account, and hire
somebody else ... is the great principle for which this government was
really formed."

     Lincoln believed that in this country, capitalism must grow from
the bottom up, not the top down -- capitalism must begin on Main
Street and extend to Wall Street, not the other way around.

     This has special meaning to me. As a boy growing up in Los
Angeles this was my experience. You see, my dad was a truck driver. He
earned enough to buy the truck. Eventually he and his brother built a
small business that put six children through college.

     This is the kind of capitalism we envision for America -- the
freedom not just to drive a truck, but the chance to own that truck
and one day own a trucking company!

     This is America. This is the dream. And this is the cause our
party must champion in the '90s.

     We don't believe in an America that pursues equality by making
rich people poor, but by allowing poor people, indeed all people, to
become rich. Not just rich in creature comforts, but rich in the
opportunity to achieve your God-given potential.

     The party of Lincoln does not believe people are a drain on
resources.

     People ARE our resources.

     We don't believe children are just mouths to feed. They are
hearts, minds, and souls for our future. And they deserve our
protection not only after their birth, but before they are born.

     We don't believe compassion should be measured by the size of the
safety net, but by the number of rungs on the ladder of opportunity.

     This is what distinguishes our party from the Democrats.

     The Democrats' New Covenant is not new. It's not change. It
doesn't put people first, it puts government first; it doesn't empower
people, it empowers bureaucracy. It doesn't encourage investment and
growth, it spends ... and spends ... and spends.

     Mario Cuomo gave away the Democrats' game plan just before their
convention when he told us, Bill Clinton has the courage to raise our
taxes.

     The Democrats call that courage -- I call it crazy.

     In this economy, can you imagine anything more depressing and
destructive than raising income tax rates and imposing a surtax. The
Democrats' plan won't soak the rich, it'll soak the poor, soak the
middle class, and drown our economy.

     We all know what the problem is -- the economy is starved for
capital. When capital is taxed heavily -- as it is now -- it becomes
scarce, available only to the privileged few. The spirit of enterprise
-- the engine of growth and new jobs -- is being smothered.

     George Bush and our party understood this back in 1988 when we
ran on a pledge to cut the capital gains tax, index it to stop taxing
gains due only to inflation, and eliminate it in our inner cities and
pockets of poverty.

     In 1989, President Bush asked Congress to carry out his mandate.
The Democratic Congress said no.

     In 1990 and 1991, as the economymoved into recession, he asked
repeatedly for action.

     Congress said no.

     This year, in the State of The Union Address, the president
pleaded with Congress again.

     Congress said no.

     Then just last week, in a party-line vote, the United States
Senate said no again.

     And even after the tragedy of the Los Angeles riots -- when we
asked the Democrats to pass the enterprise zone legislation our party
has sought for 12 years, Congress adjourned.

     Ladies and gentlemen, isn't it time we said no to the Democratic
Congress?

     What nerve they have, these Democrats -- as the unemployment
lines lengthen to 11 million, they stonewall our pleas for action --
and then blame our president and our party for the economic decline.

     What nerve -- to now step forward and offer more taxation, more
government and more welfare dependency and proclaim -- get this -- "a
New Democratic Covenant."

     Let me tell you, capital and credit are virtually non-existent in
our nation's inner cities. As HUD Secretary, I've travelled this
country. I've seen the results -- and they're devastating.

     For 50 years, the Democratic Party has dictated most of the
policies governing our cities. Higher taxes. Redistribution of wealth.
A welfare system that penalizes people for working, discourages
marriage, punishes the family, and literally prohibits savings.

     It's not the values of the poor that are flawed; it's the values
of the welfare system that are bankrupt.

     These policies have robbed our cities of vibrance and shattered
the link between effort and reward. Now the Democrats want to impose
the same failed policies on the rest of merica. What nerve.

     Our party offers a better way.

     Last year, I toured the home of a wonderful black woman named
Evelyn Lindsey. After years in public housing and on welfare, thanks
to our administration's public-private partnerships, she finally
became a homeowner.

     But after the tour, one skeptical reporter asked, "How can you
guarantee this house will look as good ten years from today?"

     Evelyn Lindsey looked that reporter in the eye and said: "It'll
look better because for the first time in my life I own something of
value I can pass on to my children."

     Ladies and gentlemen, she spoke not only for her family, but for
all families.

     Tonight, let us speak for her -- and for all those Americans who
aspire to ownership and entrepreneurship, to jobs and upward mobility,
to safety and security, and to the right to send their children to the
school of their choice -- either public or private.

     President Bush was speaking for her when he told public housing
residents in St. Louis that someday they too could own their own home.
He was speaking for her when he told the cheering crowd that the
capital gains tax is "a tax on the American Dream."

     He pledged "if the system's not helping build a better life, then
we must change the system."

     And we will! We must!

     I loved hearing President Reagan remind us last night that it's
not enough to be equal in the eyes of God, we have to be equal in the
eyes of each other.

     Our party offers a more powerful vision -- an America committed
to prosperity, opportunity, and jobs for our people.

     We must be the party that unleashes the talents of all our
people. That's why I'm proud our president's platform puts our party
on the side of lower tax rates on working families, on capital
formation, on first-time homebuyers, and on poor Americans who want
their shot at the American Dream.

     Fellow Americans, the liberals just don't get it. They don't
understand -- we can't create more employees without creating more
employers. We can't have capitalism without capital.

     And we can't expect people to defend property rights when they
are denied access to property.

     But when people have a stake in the system they will defend not
only their own property, but their neighbors' as well. This is the
message of Los Angeles and every other pocket of poverty -- we must be
the party that gives veryone a stake in the system.

     That is what the re-election of George Bush means to America.

     We have the ideas. We are on the side of history. We must bring
alive the promise of the Declaration of Independence for all people
everywhere.

     Ladies and gentlemen, this is a great cause, and we've got a
great team.

     And let me say -- as an old football player who played in this
very stadium -- we've got a great quarteback in George Bush.

     ===> Here is the text of a speech prepared for delivery to the
Republican National Convention Tuesday by Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas:

     Never in history has the world experienced more dramatic changes
in a shorter period of time than during the last four years.

     The Berlin Wall has come down; the people of Eastern Europe have
been liberated; the Soviet Union, the evil empire that threatened our
lives and our freedom for 45 years, exists today only in the pages of
history books.

     One-hundred and thirty-two nations united behind our leadership
to stop a tyrant in the Middle East. And America stands today in
triumph with economic and military power unrivaled in the history of
the world.

     None of these changes happened by accident. They are all the
result of strong Republican leadership. Two men more than any other
people on the planet have been the catalyst for these changes, and
their names are Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

     When you count the number of nations liberated from Soviet
tyranny -- when you total up the population freed from the Marxist
yoke -- when you add up all the puppet despots whose support from
Moscow has now been yanked away, ours is the greatest victory in the
history of freedom.

     Ronald Reagan sighted the Kremlin in the cross hairs but it was
George Bush who pulled the trigger.

     If Jimmy Carter had been re-elected in 1980, if Walter Mondale
had won the presidency in 1984, if Michael Dukakis had been elected in
1988, the Berlin Wall would still be standing. And all we marvel at in
the world today would be a wishful dream. Leadership is the
difference. It has changed the world and it has brought us more than
peace; George Bush's leadership has brought us victory.

     With this victory secured, President Bush instituted a long-term
build-down in defense saving $300 billion for deficit reduction and
for tax cuts for working families.

     But Governor Clinton and the Democrats in Congress don't want to
build defense down, they want to tear it down. If they succeed in
implementing the Clinton plan, one million people now in uniform and
in civilian defense jobs will be thrown into the street and defense
spending as a percentage of the budget will plummet below the level
that existed on Dec. 7, 1941.

     We have not forgotten that the last Democrat in the White House
so decimated defense that on any given day, 50 percent of our combat
planes couldn't fly and our ships couldn't sail, for lack of spare
parts and mechanics. So bad was pay for the military that many
enlisted personnel and their families qualified for food stamps.

     Under Republican leadership, we modernized our weapons and we
recruited some of the finest young men and women who have ever worn
the uniform of this country. They wear that uniform all over the world
tonight with a new pride and a new confidence, and we Republicans are
committed to keeping it that way.

     We must never allow the Democrats to disarm America again.

     There are still tyrants in the world and there will be new
tyrants in the future. When reason and diplomacy fail, we must have an
Army, a Navy, an Air Force, and a Marine Corps that do not fail. Even
in a world where the lion and the lamb are about to lie down together,
we Republicans are committed to the principle that the United States
of America must always be the lion.

     The Constitution gives the president broad, unilateral powers in
defense and foreign policy. And in watching George Bush exercise those
powers, the world has stood back in wonder. In any hut in any village
on the planet, one world leader is honored and loved above all others.
Spoken in a thousand dialects his name is still George Bush.

     When crisis erupted in the Middle East, President Bush united the
world behind his leadership. He won the support of the Soviet Union, a
resolution from the United Nations, and the endorsement of every
civilized nation on earth. And then he came to the Congress and said,
let America speak with one bipartisan voice on the Middle East, and
every elected member of the Democratic leadership in the House and the
Senate said, "No."

     Ultimately we shamed enough Democrats in Congress into supporting
the president. But the president, using his constitutional powers,
could have and would have acted without the support of Congress.

     The Constitution makes the president commander-in-chief of the
Army but not commander-in-chief of the Congress. And all domestic
programs proposed by the president must be approved by Congress. The
Democrats who control Congress by overwhelming margins have used their
majority to throttle the president's program and strangle the nation's
economy in a partisan gridlock the likes of which we have not seen in
this century.

     By January of 1989, the Reagan-Bush economic program had created
19 million new jobs. But with the longest peace-time expansion in
American history starting to cool down, President Bush asked Congress
for new incentives to ignite the economy.

     The President asked Congress:

     -- for investment tax credits

     -- for a cut in the capital gains tax

     -- for enterprise zones

     -- for a $5,000 tax credit for first-time home-buyers

     -- and for an additional $500-per-child exemption.

     Had Congress said yes to these proposals, 1 1/2 million more
Americans would be working today. But the Democrats said no.

     To break the back of the deficit before it broke the back of the
economy, George Bush asked Congress:

     -- for a spending freeze

     -- for the line-item veto

     -- and for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

     Had Congress said yes, the deficit would be falling and mortgage
rates would be 6 percent today. But the Democrats said no.

     To stop skyrocketing medical costs from driving working families
to ruin, President Bush asked Congress:

     -- to reform health insurance

     -- to give the self-employed a health insurance tax deduction

     -- to cap Medicare and Medicaid costs

     -- and to end the million dollar malpractice suits that drive
insurance rates out of reach.

     Had Congress said yes, the cost of health care and health
insurance would have stabilized. But the Democrats said no.

     To fight back against the drug thugs who prey on the health,
happiness and lives of our children, 1,161 days ago today, the
president sent to the Congress the nation's toughest
anti-crime/anti-drug bill. It restored the death penalty at the
federal level. Under our bill, no matter who your daddy is or how
society has done you wrong, if you sell drugs to a child you are going
to jail and you are going to serve every day of 10 years in the
federal penitentiary. And when you get out, if you do it again, you're
going back for life.

     Had Congress said yes, we would have grabbed drug thugs by the
throat. But the Democrats said no.

     The Democrats still blame society, not criminals, for crime! Not
content with just gutting the president's bill, the Democrats went on
to overturn 22 Supreme Court decisions that had strengthened law
enforcement. So bad was their bill that 15 Democrat state attorneys
general, not to mention 16 Republicans, urged the President to veto
the Democrats' "pro-criminal" bill.

     America's problem today is not that the president's plan to
energize the economy has failed. Our problem is that it has not been
tried. It is not that the president did not ask for change but that
the Democrats who run Congress killed those changes. Our president
asked Congress for the tools to rebuild the economy and for weapons to
win back our streets. And Congress bent them and broke them and threw
them away.

     To paraphrase Winston Churchill: Give us the tools and we will
finish the job. Give us a Republican Congress to work with President
Bush and we will put America back to work and put criminals in jail
where they belong.

     Democrats and Republicans agree on one thing: We both want
change. The debate is not about who is for change; it's about the
direction of the change. Today America stands at the crossroads. It is
a time for choosing: their way of more taxes or our way of more jobs;
their way of more government or our way of more opportunity.

     The change Republicans want today is to stop the growth of
government, to control spending, to balance the budget and to cut
taxes again. The change Democrats want is to go back to the
tax-and-spend policies they gave us in the '70s, the last time there
was a Democrat in the White House.

     Did you notice that at their convention in New York, the
Democrats hid their congressional leaders? Speaker Tom Foley and
Majority Leader George Mitchell were so far back in the crowd you had
to press your nose right up to the TV screen and use a magnifying
glass to spot them. It is clear Governor Clinton wants people to
forget that Democrats run Congress so he can blame every problem on
George Bush.

     But if you needed a magnifying glass to see the Democrat leaders
of Congress, you needed a microscope to see the details of the
economic plan which Governor Clinton had previously touted before
every special-interest group in America. And the reason is obvious.
The change Clinton has promised the special interests is not the
change America wants. It is a plan that only lobbyists, lawyers, labor
bosses and big-city machines could love.

     The Clinton plan calls for a new domestic spending spree totaling
over $100 billion a year -- the largest increase in American history.

     Is that the change we want?

     The Clinton plan doubles payroll taxes and increases taxes on
small business and family farms. It is, in fact, the largest tax
increase in the nations's history.

     Is that the change we want?

     The Clinton plan through new taxes and mandated costs, will eat
up one-half of all business profits. Private investment would collapse
and millions of Americans would loose their jobs.

     Is that the change we want?

     The Clinton plan repeals congressional spending limits, kills the
balanced budget amendment and sends the deficit up by $100 billion.

     Is that the change we want?

     The Clinton plan. Add up the spending, add up the taxes, add up
the regulations, add up the deficit.

     Is that the change we want?

     At the New York convention, Clinton was like a used-car salesman
peddling his vehicle for change -- the wax job was shiny, the hubcaps
sparkled, the upholstery was spotless, the paint was new. But when you
look under the hood, you discover he is hawking a model from the '70s
-- a Carter mobile with the axle broken and the frame bent to the
left. It was a lemon for the nation in the '70s when it sent inflation
through the roof and income through the floor, and it is still a lemon
today.

     When you look at the fine print, the Clinton plan calls for
increases in domestic spending and taxes greater than those promised
by Mondale and Dukakis combined. The American people rejected Walter
Mondale. The American people rejected Michael Dukakis, and when they
understand the Clinton plan they will reject Bill Clinton too.

     After 12 years of Governor Clinton's failed leadership, his home
state ranks:

     -- 50th in average family income

     -- 50th in jobs for young people

     -- 50th in environmental policy

     -- 50th in law enforcement funding

     That is what 12 years of Governor Clinton's plan for change has
done for Arkansas. That sorry record and a little slick rhetoric is
the change he offers for America.

     Is that the change we want?

     Thanks to the leadership of President Bush, freedom has swept the
planet and all over the world people are turning to free enterprise
and limited government to promote economic growth and prosperity. The
Democrats must be getting pretty lonely. In all the world, only in
Cuba and North Korea and in the Democratic Party in America do we
still have organized political groups who believe that the answer to
every problem is more government.

     The answer is not more government -- it's more opportunity. And
the path to greater opportunity for all our people will be found by
controlling federal spending and letting the people who do the work,
pay the taxes and pull the wagon keep more of what they earn.

     Governor Clinton says trust the Congress to "invest" the
taxpayers' money. We say trust the family. We know the Congress and we
know the American family and we know the difference. Bill Clinton and
the Democrats do not know the difference, and that's what this
election is all about.

     In one very real sense balancing the budget, the hardest thing we
must do to right our economy, is pretty simple. We just have to set
the right standard in spending the taxpayers' money. I know that
standard. In 1981, on the day the Reagan-Bush economic program passed
in the House, I was walking down the steps of the Capitol and a
reporter came running up to me and said "Congressman Gramm, in your
1,350-page budget how did you decide what programs ought to grow and
what programs ought to be cut?"

     I said, "I used the Dicky Flatt test." And not being from Mexia,
Texas, the reporter didn't know Dicky Flatt and didn't understand. So
I explained it. I said, "I looked at every program in the federal
government. And then I tried to think of a real, honest-to-God working
person in my congressional district. And I often thought of a printer
from Mexia named Dicky Flatt.

     "And I thought about Dicky Flatt because he works hard for a
living. He is in business with his wife; his momma; and his brother
and brother's wife. They have a print shop. They sell stationery and
school and office supplies. They work till 7 or 8 o'clock every week
night; and they're open on Saturday. And whether you see Dicky Flatt
at the PTA or the Boy Scouts or at his church, try as he may he never
quite gets that blue ink off the end of his fingers."

     And I told that reporter, "I looked at each program and I thought
about Dicky Flatt and I asked a simple question: will the benefits to
be derived by spending money on this program be worth taking the money
away from Dicky Flatt to pay for it?"

     Let me tell you something, there are not a hell-of-a-lot of
programs that will stand up to that test. The Dicky Flatt test is the
Republican test and when Congress starts using that test we are going
to lick this deficit problem once and for all.

     Bill Clinton does not know Dicky Flatt.

     In saying the answer is more opportunity and not more government,
Republicans have sometimes been accused of having too much faith in
the American system and in American families. It's not just faith we
have, it's evidence. That evidence is found in the life story of
thousands in this hall and millions watching at home on television.
Part of my evidence is from my own family.

     Neither of my parents went to high school and yet my momma had a
dream before I was born that I was going to college. I fought it. They
kept trying to inoculate me with learning, but it didn't take. I
failed 3rd, 7th, and 9th grades but my momma prodded me all the way
through college to a Ph.D in economics. Mothers' dreams do not die
easily in America.

     My wife's grandfather came to this country as an indentured
laborer to work in the sugar cane fields in Hawaii. His son, my wife's
father, was the first Asian-American ever to become an officer of a
sugar company in the history of Hawaii.

     And today Dr. Wendy Lee Gramm, my wife, is chairman of the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees the trading of
all commodity futures from oil and gold to pork bellies and yes, cane
sugar. That's what freedom and opportunity are all about. That story
is not a testament to a great family. It is instead a testament to a
great country.

     America is not a great powerful country because the most
brilliant and talented people in the world came to live here. America
is a great and powerful country because it is here that ordinary
people like you and me have had more opportunity and more freedom than
any other people who have ever lived on the face of the Earth. And
with that opportunity and with that freedom, ordinary people like us
have been able to do extraordinary things.

     In the middle of the last century, in the midst of a crisis far
greater than any we face today, a delegation of citizens deeply
worried about the future called on President Lincoln at the White
House. And Abraham Lincoln told them a story about a young boy who
went hunting with his father in the mountains. As the boy gazed at the
stars that night, a meteor shower frightened him and he shook his
father awake.

     And as Lincoln told the story, the father said, "Son, don't look
at the shooting stars -- look at the fixed stars that have guided us
in the past and will guide us in the future."

     And so Lincoln told the delegation that if America steered by the
fixed stars of freedom that our founding fathers forged, the future of
America would yet be secure.

     As we look to the future tonight, let us be guided by the fixed
stars of freedom and opportunity; of family and faith; of values and
character. If we follow the principles that made America great to
begin with, we need not fear the future.

     America's third century will be our greatest century.

     ===> Here is the text of a speech prepared for delivery to the
Republican National Convention Wednesday by Secretary of Labor Lynn
Martin:

     Delegates of the Republican Convention. And all Americans, those
of you watching and wondering what the future may bring.

     Tonight I have the privilege of placing in nomination the name of
the next president of the United States.

     This convention will choose, our president, the nation's leader,
George Bush.

     To be with you tonight on this podium is a signal honor. Houston,
Texas, is after all, 1,200 miles from Rockford, Illinois, where I
started as a high school teacher.

     It's an even longer journey from growing up on the northwest side
of Chicago where a tomboy like me must have driven patient nuns crazy.

     But it's not that far in the United States of America where
reaching above what other societies call one's place in life is not
only permitted but encouraged.

     It's not that far in a country where each individual's ability to
grow is nourished by family and friends, people like you.

     It's not that far when, this Republican Party, the party of
Abraham Lincoln, of Teddy Roosevelt, of Dwight Eisenhower, of Ronald
Reagan, says "yes" to all who want to join us and "no" to any test of
ideological purity. A party that includes all of us here and on this
podium.

     And its not too far if we have a president who holds that each of
us brings to this party, this government, this nation the great song
of our beliefs, our experiences, our values.

     For as Republicans we can sing the litany of accomplishments.

     In the past decade, the years of George Bush and Ronald Reagan,
our America moved the world.

     We ended the 45-year long Cold War with the Soviet Union by our
deeds and our defense strategy.

     We won Desert Storm and reaffirmed the position of the United
States as the most powerful force for good on this earth.

     And that's why Saddam Hussein is not brutalizing other nations
and controlling two-thirds of the world's oil today.

     These were victories for all of you here, for every American.

     All of you made it possible by your determination and belief in
the American ideals of freedom and of democracy.

     By your willingness to keep America strong.

     And you made this victory possible when America said "yes" to
George Bush and "no" to the gaggle of Democrats, honking their noisy
reasons why it couldn't be done.

     And now the latest in the long line of whimpering naysayers want
you to abandon that strength and steadfast purpose for the crass
politics of fear and the false promise of change.

     Because that's the message from that other convention: despair,
desolation and darkness.

     Let me tell you what you didn't hear in New York.

     We're only five percent of the world's population, but we produce
25 percent of the world's output -- twice that of Japan and four times
that of Germany.

     You didn't hear that last month in New York.

     We export more today in American products than when George Bush
took office.

     You didn't hear that last month in New York.

     We have the world's most productive workforce, the highest
standard of living, and a university system that is the envy of the
world.

     You didn't hear that last month in New York.

     And you helped create 20 million new jobs in America these past
12 years, enabling us to welcome into the workforce record millions of
people like me, and you women pursuing careers, immigrants starting
businesses, minorities seeking and getting that first long overdue
chance.

     Your demands to lower the cost of living and mortgage rates, were
heeded.

     And of course, you sure didn't hear any of that last month in New
York.

     Because the Democrats truly think our best days are behind us.

     Their nominee, Gov. Clinton, was quoted as saying that America
was being ridiculed around the world.

     Who is telling him this?

     Is it the same people from his Democratic party the same blame
America firsters?

     Could it be the Democratic leaders of Congress?

     Those aging punjabs who evidently so embarrassed the Democratic
nominee that they were erased -- made non-people for the New York
convention?

     One thing I do know, Gov. Clinton never talked to the millions of
people who, thanks to the leadership of George Bush, are basking in
the glow of freedom and who see the United States as the beacon of
hope and opportunity, guiding their path towards individual liberty
and justice for the first time in their lives.

     It was George Bush who had the vision when those King Lears of
the Democratic Party were blindly foundering in the sea of
might-have-beens. Unable then and now to grasp the real source of
America's greatness -- you.

     Thank God America has had and will have a leader who believes in
you.

     I said I'm from Chicago. It's a wonderful, muscular kind of city.

     An Illinois poet Carl Sandburg, who wrote about our America and
about my city with such insight said:

     "All we need to begin with is a dream that we can do better than
before."

     That's your dream.

     That's George Bush's dream.

     That's America's dream.

     We, the American people, who have dared to dream, have made
America special.

     And we Americans believe we will make a better tomorrow.

     We possess what everyone else is trying to get: freedom,
opportunity, a future full of hope.

     We are the yardstick by which all other countries measure
themselves.

     As a nation of many different people, we believe in one another,
in our talents, our creativity, in our decency, our ability to build
on all our dreams.

     Surely we have problems. We must confront them honestly. We must
debate our differences, and then we must move ahead.

     We must never let our vision become clouded, even when the
constant braying of those preaching a return to the old and failed
ways fills the air.

     And so we must re-ask the question.

     Is America better off today than she was four years ago?

     Remember President Bush standing in the Rose Garden with Boris
Yeltsin and making the most sweeping nuclear arms cuts in history. Our
children can now go to bed in peace and not wake to the fear of
nuclear war.

     Are we better off than four years ago?

     Of course we are.

     We have moved from an age of building bomb shelters and missiles
that could end our future in a moment, to a chance to restore our
precious land and to rejuvenate this entire planet.

     Are we better off than four years ago?

     Of course we are.

     For now we can enter an era that is truly a Pax Americana -- the
American Peace -- initiated by the policies of our leader, George
Bush.

     With the valor and values of a country that echo in all of us,
George Bush is the right man on our march to the 21st century.

     Because with this peace, a once murky future rings with clarity.

     We can and must secure a different future.

     A future America where debt and deficits are conquered, where
compassion and competency buttressed by common sense are not
exceptions, but the standard for all Americans.

     A future America where creations of value are respected.

     A future America where each individual has the security we have
provided the world.

     A future America where the worth of each person is a sign of our
glory and each person glories in the worth of the future.

     There is one fact that we all know as we begin this often
tortured route to choose that one person to lead this America to that
future.

     You can't be one kind of man and another kind of president.

     Inside George Bush is the heart of an 18-year-old fighter pilot
who risked his life for his country, who did not run from his
responsibilities then and does not now.

     You can't be one kind of man and an other kind of president.

     Who could forget George Bush showing his American Express card to
a small child who didn't think he was president.

     He said to him, "What did you think? Did you think I was a
pretend kind of guy?"

     This president has never been "a pretend kind of guy."

     This is such a decent man, an honest man, a modest man, a man who
saw his mission four years ago as peace -- and who has delivered this
dividend every day since.

     No, you can't be one kind of man and another kind of president.

     George Bush believes in you. He believes in individuals. He has
travelled to our factories that take on foreign competition and win.

     And he has seen factories that close, leaving working men and
women adrift in a world -- a world of change where they feel
forgotten.

     He has walked in neighborhoods where ordinary people are doing
heroic things to fight gangs and drugs, refusing to give into thugs
and thieves.

     And he has also seen the shadowy streets of broken glass where
the suffocating smell of defeat permeates the air around vacant lots
and boarded apartments.

     He has sat in schools where the extraordinary is ordinary, where
the future shines in the eyes of children.

     And he has watched other schools take eager minds and produce not
excellence and excitement, but sullen survivors sometimes lacking in
skills and too often lacking belief in themselves or in our country.

     And that is why today George Bush has a new mission.

     That's why today George Bush is fighting a new revolution for the
future of our country.

     That's why George Bush is working to win the next war.

     Our grandparents, our sons deserve a safe way to grow up and to
grow old -- that's why he fights for tougher laws against criminals.

     Our children won't have one job, they'll have four careers --
that's why he fights for change in education and for training.

     Our daughters and cousins have seen opportunities stolen --
that's why George Bush fights to shatter the glass ceiling and empower
the disabled.

     Our grandchildren deserve to live where fresh water glitters in
the new day's sun -- that's why he fights for clean air now and a
greener planet forever.

     Our uncles and aunts, our neighbors, need jobs -- and that's why
George Bush fights for new investment policies, for tax cuts, and for
a growing share of world markets.

     He knows you can't win when you can't take a new job because
you're son has that rheumatic heart, when you can't enjoy retirement
because your company doesn't have a pension, when you worry about AIDS
and when you struggle to live with a mom who has Alzheimer's.

     That's why he fights for humanizing our health care, for real
pension reform, for investments in research and answers to life's real
nightmares.

     You know you won't win, unless he does.

     He knows he can't win, unless you do.

     Is this the stuff of headlines?

     Is this the simple sound bite?

     George Bush doesn't govern by sound bites.

     He knows the more you talk, the less you get done.

     He knows it means he hasn't received credit: he knows it often
means he has taken blame and he knows we haven't even known about some
of the battles.

     In exactly 76 days, we're going to elect our next President, a
decision as serious and weighty as any choice America faces.

     In a changing and sometimes dangerous world, we can not risk the
inexperienced or the inept.

     We in this convention hall know America needs a fighter.

     A fighter whose quiet strength produced peace.

     A fighter who does not speak with honeyed words but with a full
heart.

     A fighter who with measured steps moves us to a new century.

     A fighter who understands in the solitude of the Oval Office the
difficulty of decisions.

     A fighter who holds our trust, our hopes.

     A fighter proven, battle hardy, but not weary.

     A fighter -- with mind, heart and soul devoted to this glorious
experiment, this human kaleidoscope, this halcyon place, this America.

     A fighter who is the same kind of man as he is our President.

     Ladies and Gentleman, I nominate for president of the United
States, a man who is the same kind of man as he is our president,
George Bush.

     ===> Here is the text of a speech prepared for delivery to the
Republican National Convention Thursday by former President Gerald R.
Ford:

     Thank you, Lynne, for your warm and generous words. As Will
Rogers might have said, "I've never met a Cheney I didn't like."

     This is my 12th Republican Convention. Should we make it a
Baker's dozen?

     My fellow Americans, how much this world has changed since we
last met in New Orleans. Four years ago I answered the taunting
Democrat question: "Where Was George?"

     That November the voters sent George to the White House.
Suddenly, astonishingly, and most peacefully, the world we knew began
to change.

     The winds of freedom blew away the Iron Curtain. The Berlin Wall
lies in rubble. Captive nations are again independent. And let me just
say -- once again -- Poland is free! The Cold War is history. The
Soviet-United States arms race is gone.

     My fellow Americans, our long international nightmare is over.
The Gulf War showed the world there is now only one superpower.

     Leaders of Israel, its Arab neighbors and the Palestinians, for
the first time ever, are sitting down at the same table, talking
peace.

     The industrial nations of Europe are forging a closer union to
better compete with the economic powerhouses of the United States and
East Asia. And we have worked with our good neighbors in Canada and
Mexico on a constructive trade agreement to counterbalance such
peaceful but potent challenges. Congratulations President Bush and
Carla Hills.

     Under their separate red-white-and-blue flags, former Soviet and
American athletes hugged one another on Barcelona's Olympic platforms.
Our scientists and military leaders cooperate to destroy deadly
stockpiles of doomsday weapons, to expand peaceful uses of space. The
United Nations has become a revitalized force in the world. I ask my
Democratic friends who are always talking about change: How much
change from this new kind of world do you want?

     We know these dramatic triumphs of peace and freedom were the
culmination of decades of dedication and sacrifice by Americans who
did not duck their duty. But it was George Bush at the helm of our
ship of state when freedom finally triumphed and peace prevailed. It
happened on his watch.

     Tonight I'm tremendously proud to say again: "George was there!"

     America -- We must keep him there!

     Yes, we must do even more. We must give President Bush the kind
of backup in Congress without which no president can turn his programs
into real progress.

     In 1948, President Truman crisscrossed the land on his whistle-
stop train lambasting my Republican Congress and won in a big upset
four more years in the White House.

     Give 'em hell Harry. He's my kind of fighter.

     Four years later everybody liked Ike. With Gen. Eisenhower's
Republican landslide I moved from the minority to the majority party
in the House of Representatives. Believe it or not, 1953 and 1954 were
the last years that any Republican president has enjoyed a Republican
majority in both houses of the Congress.

     You know, our Constitution gave us a federal system of checks and
balances. What we have now is a Democrat House that knows all about
checks -- but not one damn thing about balances!

     When I was first in Congress the whole legislative branch of our
federal government cost about $62 million a year.

     This year it is estimated the Democrat Congress will spend almost
$2 billion -- not for the poor, not for the rich, but purely and
simply on itself! A 3,000 percent Congressional increase.

     No wonder they can't cope with the $4 trillion federal debt. They
could make a significant start by firing 4,000 of their 16,000
redundant, make-work staffs on 186 committees, subcommittees and joint
agencies.

     If it's change you want on Nov. 3, my friends, the place to start
is not at the White House, but in the United States Capitol!

     Congress, as every school child knows, has the power of the
purse. For nearly 40 years Democrat majorities have held to the
time-tested New Deal formula: Tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and
elect.

     Now don't get me wrong, I have many good friends who are
Democrats. I have to admit that many wise and perceptive people have
come out of the Democratic Party. In fact, the wiser and more
perceptive they are, the quicker they've come out of the Democratic
Party. Why? Because they've learned what we Republicans have known all
along, that a federal government big enough to give you everything you
want, is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.

     From what you read and watch in the news media, from all you see
in the opinion polls and hear from the Democrats, the Bush presidency
is finished, done, kaput, the ball game's over.

     I do not believe it. You don't believe it. And let me tell you --
the Democrats don't believe it!

     Haven't we heard enough from the whiners, the wanters, the
wasters and the wafflers? The Democrats tell us every four years that
they have repented and rejuvenated themselves. Now they proclaim a New
Covenant that will lead us all to the land of promises, promises,
promises.

     President Carter tells us with some satisfaction that his party
has finally returned to where he left off in 1981. Does anyone
remember the Carter economic record? Inflation, 13 percent. Interest
rates, 21 percent.

     Is that the change Americans want for the next four years?

     Let me take you back 16 years to the 1976 election. It's really
not my favorite subject, but there are some things I hope Americans
remember. My opponent was a one-term ex-governor, newcomer to the
national scene, with virtually no international experience. At this
time in 1976, I was 29 percentage points behind in the Harris Poll and
trailing by 33 points in Gallup's. The economists agreed we were
coming out of a recession, but not fast enough to do me much good by
November. The Republican Party had torn itself apart and never put
itself back together. Nevertheless, we closed the gap to 49.9 percent
and we almost made it.

     Close only counts in horseshoes. I lost. Gov. Carter won. We got
change all right!

     But remember, change isn't a magic word that makes everything
rosy. Change may get you 13 percent inflation. Change may get you a 17
percent home mortgage interest rate. Change may bring risky actions
abroad, shaking American prestige and confounding friend and foe.
Change just for the sake of change may be a four-year disaster.

     I am sick and tired of people downgrading America's triumphs over
the past four years and badmouthing our president and our vice
president. It makes me particularly sad when it's done by those who
call themselves Republicans.

     I believe with all my heart in the two-party system. But my
fellow Republicans, don't you forget what this party is all about!
This is the party of Abraham Lincoln, who lived and died for the
proposition that all men are created equal.

     This is the party of Dwight David Eisenhower, who believed that
America is not good because she is great; America is great because she
is good.

     This is the party of George Bush, a president who has earned our
trust and the world's respect, a seasoned and experienced president
who can safely lead us into the challenging climax of this American
century.

     We have a great country! We have more to be proud of than any
people on Earth. The things that unite us as Americans are far more
enduring than the things that divide us. As this campaign gets hotter,
let's all remember to singe, but never to burn. Our unwritten compact
of respect for the convictions of others allows all Americans the
luxury of rugged political competition.

     America didn't come to this high point in history without courage
and conviction. We solve our problems by faith -- faith in our form of
government, faith in one another, and faith in God's bountiful
blessings.

     Two centuries ago, John Adams was the first president to move
into the new White House. He confided to his wife, Abigail, about the
prayer he had offered for all his successors: He said, "May none but
honest and wise men ever rule under this roof."

     When Betty and I lived in the White House, many times I made this
prayer my own.

     "May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof."

     America, think about that before you vote. Make it your own.

     God bless our country and our president. Bless us all and help us
to care about all Americans and to better understand one another.

     Thank you and good night.

     ===> 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.

     ===> Here is the text of President Bush's acceptance speech
prepared for delivery to the Republican National Convention on
Thursday:

     Thank you. Thank you, thank you very much. I am proud to receive,
and I am honored to accept your nomination for president of the United
States.

     My job has been made easier by a leader who has taken a lot of
unfair criticism, with grace and humor -- Vice President Dan Quayle. I
want to talk tonight about the sharp choice I intend to offer
Americans this fall -- a choice between different agendas, different
directions, and yes, a choice about the character of the man you want
to lead this nation.

     I know that Americans have many questions -- about our economy,
about our country's future, even questions about me. I will answer
them tonight.

     First, I feel great and I am heartened by the polls -- the ones
that say that I look better in my jogging shorts than the governor of
Arkansas.

     Four years ago, I spoke about missions -- for my life and for our
country. I spoke of one urgent mission -- defending our security and
promoting the American ideal abroad.

     Just pause for a moment to reflect on what we've done.

     Germany has united -- and a slab of the Berlin Wall sits right
outside this Astrodome.

     Arabs and Israelis now sit face-to-face and talk peace.

     Every hostage held in Lebanon is free.

     The conflict in El Salvador is over, and free elections brought
democracy to Nicaragua.

     Black and white South Africans cheered each other at the
Olympics.

     The Soviet Union can only be found in history books.

     The captive nations of Eastern Europe and the Baltics are captive
no more.

     And today on the rural streets of Poland, merchants sell cans of
air labeled: The last breath of communism.

     If I had stood before you four years ago and described this as
the world we would help to build, you would have said: "George Bush,
you must be smoking something, and you must have inhaled."

     This convention is the first at which an American president can
say the Cold War is over, and freedom finished first.

     Some want to rewrite history, want to skip over the struggle,
claim the outcome was inevitable. And while the U.S. postwar strategy
was largely bipartisan, the fact remains that the liberal, McGovern
wing of the other party -- including my opponent -- consistently made
the wrong choice.

     In the 70s, they wanted a hollow army -- we wanted a strong
fighting force.

     From Angola to Central America they said, "Let's negotiate,
deliberate, procrastinate." We said, "Just stand up for freedom."

     Now the Cold War is over and they claim, "Hey, we were with you
all the way!" Their behavior reminds me of the old con man's advice to
the new kid. He said "Son, if you're being run out of town, just get
out in front and make it look like a parade."

     Make no mistake, the demise of communism wasn't a sure thing. It
took the strong leadership of presidents from both parties, including
Republicans like Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. Without
their vision and the support of the American people, the Soviet Union
would be a strong superpower today and we'd be facing a nuclear threat
tonight.

     My opponents say I spend too much time on foreign policy.

     As if it didn't matter that schoolchildren once hid under their
desks in drills to prepare for nuclear war. I saw the chance to rid
our children's dreams of the nuclear nightmare, and I did. Over the
past four years, more people have breathed the fresh air of freedom
than in all of human history. I saw a chance to help, and I did. These
were the two defining opportunities -- not of a year, not of a decade,
but of an entire span of human history.

     I seized those opportunities for our kids and our grandkids, and
I make no apologies for that.

     Now, the Soviet bear may be gone, but there are still wolves in
the woods.

     We say that when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. The Mideast might
have become a nuclear powder keg, our emergency supplies held hostage.
So we did what was right and what was necessary. We destroyed a
threat, freed a people and locked a tyrant in the prison of his own
country.

     What about the leader of the Arkansas National Guard, the man who
hopes to be commander-in-chief? Well, while I bit the bullet, he bit
his nails.

     Two days after Congress voted to follow my lead, my opponent said
this, and I quote: "I guess I would have voted with the majority if it
was a close vote. But I agree with the arguments the minority made."

     Sounds to me like his policy can be summed up by a road sign he's
probably seen on his bus tour, "Slippery When Wet."

     But this is serious business. Think about the impact of our
foreign policy failures the last time the Democrats controlled both
ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. Gas lines. Grain embargoes. American
hostages blindfolded.

     There will be more foreign policy challenges like Kuwait in the
next four years. Terrorists and aggressors to stand up to; dangerous
weapons to be controlled and destroyed. And freedom's fight is not
finished. I look forward to being the first president to visit a free,
democratic Cuba.

     Who will lead the world in the face of these challenges? Not my
opponent. In his acceptance speech he devoted just 65 seconds to
telling us about the world.

     Then he said that America was, and I quote, being "ridiculed"
everywhere. Tell that to the people around the world for whom America
is still a dream. Tell that to leaders around the world from whom
America commands respect. "Ridiculed?" Tell that to the men and women
of Desert Storm.

     Let me make an aside. This is a political year, but there's a lot
of danger in the world. You can be sure, I will never let politics
interfere with a foreign policy decision. Forget the election: I will
do what's right for our national security.

     Fifty years ago this summer, I was 18 years of age. I believed
deeply in this country, and we were faced with a world war. So I made
a decision, to go off and fight a battle much different from political
battles.

     I was scared, but I was willing. I was young, but I was ready. I
had barely lived when I began to watch men die. I began to see the
special place of America in the world, and I began to see, even then,
that the world would become a much smaller place, and faraway places
could become more and more like America.

     Fifty years later, after change of almost biblical proportions,
we know that when freedom grows, America grows. Just as a strong
America means a safer world, we have learned that a safer world means
a stronger America.

     This election is about change. But that's not unusual, because
the American revolution is never ending. Today, the pace of change is
accelerating. We face new opportunities and new challenges. The
question is -- who do you trust to make change work for you?

     My opponent says America is a nation in decline. Of our economy
he says, we are somewhere on the list beneath Germany, heading south
toward Sri Lanka.

     Well, don't let anyone tell you that America is second-rate,
especially somebody running for president.

     Maybe he hasn't heard that we are still the world's largest
economy. No other nation sells more outside its borders. The Germans,
the British, the Japanese -- can't touch the productivity of you --
the American worker and the American farmer.

     My opponent won't mention that. He won't remind you that interest
rates are the lowest they've been in 20 years, and millions of
Americans have refinanced their homes. And you just won't hear that
inflation -- the thief of the middle class -- has been locked in a
maximum security prison.

     You don't hear much about this good news, because the media also
tends to focus only on the bad. When the Berlin Wall fell, I half
expected to see a headline: "Wall Falls, Three Border Guards Lose
Jobs." And underneath it probably says: "Clinton Blames Bush."

     You don't hear a lot about progress in America. So let me tell
you about some good things we've done together.

     Just two weeks ago, all three nations of North America agreed to
trade freely from Manitoba to Mexico. This will bring good jobs to
Main Street USA.

     We passed the Americans with Disabilities Act -- bringing 43
million people into the economic mainstream. I must say, it is about
time.

     Our children will breath easier because of our new Clean Air Act.

     We are rebuilding our roads, providing jobs for more than half a
million Americans.

     We passed a child care law, and we took a stand for family values
by saying that when it comes to raising children, government doesn't
know best, parents know best.

     I've fought against prejudice and anti-Semitism all my life. And
I am proud that we strengthened our civil rights laws -- and we did it
without resorting to quotas.

     One more thing. Today, cocaine use has fallen by 60 percent among
young people. To the teenagers, the parents and the volunteers who are
helping us battle the scourge of drugs in America: We thank you.

     Do I want to do more? You bet. Nothing hurts me more than to meet
with soldiers home from the Persian Gulf who can't find a job. Or
workers who have a job, but worry that the next day will bring a pink
slip. And what about parents who scrape and struggle to send their
kids to college, only to find them back living at home, because they
can't get work.

     The world is in transition, and we are feeling that transition in
our homes.

     The defining challenge of the '90s is to win the economic
competition -- to win the peace.

     We must be a military superpower, an economic superpower, and an
export superpower.

     In this election, you'll hear two visions of how to do this.
There is to look inward, and protect what we already have. Ours is to
look forward, to open new markets, prepare out people to compete, to
restore our social fabric -- to save and invest -- so we can win.

     We believe that now that the world looks more like America, it is
time for America to look more like herself.

     And so we offer a philosophy that puts faith in the individual,
not the bureaucracy. A philosophy that empowers people to be their
best, so America can be at its best. In a world that is safer and
freer, this is how we will build an America that is stronger, safer
and more secure.

     We start with a simple fact: Government is too big and spends too
much.

     I've asked Congress to put a lid on mandatory spending except
Social Security. And I've proposed doing away with over 200 programs
and 4,000 wasteful projects and to freeze all other spending.

     The gridlock Democrat Congress has said, "No."

     So, beginning tonight, I will enforce the spending freeze on my
own. If Congress sends me a bill spending more than I asked for in my
budget I will veto it fast -- faster than copies of Millie's book
sold.

     Congress won't cut spending, but refused to give the president
the power to eliminate pork barrel projects that waste your money.
Forty-three governors have that power. So I ask you, the American
people: Give me a Congress that will give me the line-item veto.

     Let me tell you about a recent battle I fought with Congress.
This spring, I worked day and night to get two-thirds of its members
to approve a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

     We almost had it, but we lost by just nine votes. Listen how.
Just before the vote, the liberal leaders of Congress convinced 12
members who cosponsored the bill to switch sides and vote no. Keep in
mind, they voted against a bill they had already put their names on.

     Something fishy going on? Well, look at my opponent on this
issue. He says he's for balanced budgets. But he came out against the
amendment. He's like that on a lot of issues, first one side, then the
other. He's been spotted in more places than Elvis Presley.

     After all these years, Congress has become pretty creative at
finding ways to waste your money. So we need to be just as creative at
finding ways to sop them. I have a brand new idea.

     Taxpayers should be given the right to check a box on their tax
returns, so that up to 10 percent of their payments can go for one
purpose alone: To reduce the national debt.

     But we also need to make sure that Congress doesn't just turn
around and borrow more money, to spend more money. So I will require
that, for every tax dollar set aside to cut the debt, the ceilings on
spending will be cut by an equal amount. That way, we'll cut both debt
and spending, and take a whack out of the budget deficit.

     My feelings about big government come from my experience; I spent
half my adult life in the private sector. My opponent has a different
experience, he's been in government nearly all his life. His passion
to expand government knows no bounds.

     He's already proposed $220 billion in new spending, along with
the biggest tax increase in history -- $150 billion -- that's just to
start.

     He says he wants to tax the rich, but, folks, he defines rich as
anyone who has a job.

     You've heard of the separations of powers. My opponent practices
a different theory: "The power of separations." Government has the
power to separate you from your wallet.

     When it comes to taxes, I've learned the hard way.

     There's an old saying: "Good judgment comes from experience, and
experience comes from bad judgment."

     Two years ago, I made a bad call on the Democrats' tax increase.
I underestimated Congress' addiction to taxes. With my back against
the wall, I agreed to a hard bargain: One tax increase one time, in
return for the toughest spending limits ever.

     Well, it was a mistake to go along with the Democratic tax
increase. But here's my question for the American people. Who do you
trust in this election? The candidate who raised taxes one time and
regrets it, or the other candidate who raised taxes and fees 128
times, and enjoyed it every time?

     When the new Congress convenes, I will propose to further reduce
taxes across the board -- provided we pay for these cuts with specific
spending reductions that I consider appropriate, so that we do not
increase the deficit. I will also continue to fight to increase the
personal exemption and to create jobs by winning a cut in capital
gains taxes.

     That will especially help small businesses. They create
two-thirds of the new jobs in America. But my opponent's plan for
small business is clear, present -- and dangerous. Besides new income
taxes, his plan will lead to a new payroll tax to pay for a government
takeover of health care, and another new tax to pay for training.
That's just the beginning.

     If he gets his way, hardware stores across America will have a
new sign up: "Closed for despair." I guess you'd say his plan really
is "Elvis economics." America will be checking into the "Heartbreak
Hotel."

     I believe small business needs relief -- from taxation,
regulation, and litigation.

     I will extend for one year the freeze on paperwork and
unnecessary federal regulation that I imposed last winter. There is no
reason that federal regulations should live longer than my friend
George Burns. I will issue an order -- to get rid of any rule whose
time has come -- and gone.

     I see something happening in our towns and in our neighborhoods.
Sharp lawyers are running wild. Doctors are afraid to practice
medicine. And some moms and dads won't even coach Little League any
more. We must sue each other less -- and care for each other more. I'm
fighting to reform our legal system, to put an end to crazy lawsuits.
If that means climbing into the ring with the trial lawyers, well, let
my just say, round one starts tonight.

     After all, my opponent's campaign is being backed by practically
every trial lawyer who ever wore a tasselled loafer. He's not in the
ring with them, he's in the tank.

     There are other things we need to do to get our economy up to
speed -- and prepare our kids for the next century.

     We must have new incentives for research, and new training for
workers. Small businesses need capital and credit, and defense workers
need new jobs.

     And I have a plan to provide affordable health care for every
American, controlling costs by cutting paperwork and lawsuits, and
expanding coverage to the poorest of the poor.

     We don't need my opponent's plan for a massive government
takeover of health care, which would ration care and deny you the
right to choose your doctor. Who wants a health care system with the
efficiency of the House Post Office, and the compassion of the KGB?

     What about our schools? My opponent and I both want to change the
way our kids learn. He wants to change our schools a little bit -- and
I want to change them a lot.

     Take the issue of whether parents should be able to choose the
best school for their kids. My opponent says that's OK -- as long as
the school is run by government. I say every parent and child should
have a real choice of schools -- public, private or religious.

     So we have a clear choice to fix our problems. Do we turn to the
tattered blanket of bureaucracy that other nations are tossing away?
Or do we give our people the freedom and incentives to build security
for themselves?

     Here is what I'm fighting for:

     -- open markets for American products,

     -- lower government spending,

     -- tax relief,

     -- opportunities for small business,

     -- legal and health reform,

     -- job training

     -- and new schools built on competition, ready for the 21st
century.

     Why are these proposals not in effect today?

     Only one reason -- the gridlock Democratic Congress.

     Now, I know Americans are tired of the blame game, tired of
people in Washington acting like they are candidates for the next
episode of American Gladiators.

     I don't like it, either. Neither should you. But the truth is the
truth. Our policies haven't failed -- they haven't been tried.

     Americans want jobs. On Jan. 28th, I put before Congress a plan
to create jobs. If it had been passed back then, 500,000 more
Americans would be at work right now. But in a nation that demands
action, Congress has become the master of inaction.

     It wasn't always this way. I served in Congress 22 years ago.
Back then, we cooperated; we didn't get personal. We put the people
above everything else.

     At my first inauguration I said that people didn't send us to
bicker. I extended my hand to the Democratic leaders -- and they bit
it.

     The House leadership has not changed in 38 years. It is a body
caught in a hopelessly tangled web of PACs, perks, privileges,
partisanship and paralysis. Every day, Congress puts politics ahead of
principle and above progress.

     Let me give you just one example. Feb. 20, 1991. It was the
height of the Gulf War. On that very same day, I asked American pilots
to risk their lives to fly missions over Baghdad. I also wanted to
strengthen our economic security for the future. So that same day, I
introduced a new domestic energy strategy which would cut our
dependence on foreign oil by 7 million barrels a day.

     How many days did it take to win the Gulf War. Forty-three. How
many days has it taken Congress to pass a national energy strategy?
Five hundred and thirty-two -- and still counting.

     Where does my opponent stand with Congress? Well, up in New York
at their convention, they kept the congressional leaders away from the
podium, hid them away.

     They didn't want America to hear from the people who really make
the decisions.

     They hid them for a very good reason -- because the American
people would recognize a dangerous combination: A rubber check
Congress -- and a rubber stamp president.

     Governor Clinton and Congress know that you've caught on to their
lingo. They know when they say "spending" you say "oh, oh." So now
they have a new word, "investment." They want to "invest" $220 billion
more of your money -- but I want you to keep it.

     Governor Clinton and Congress want to put through the largest tax
increase in history, but I won't let it happen.

     Governor Clinton and Congress don't want kids to have the option
of praying in school, but I do. Clinton and Congress don't want to
close legal loopholes and keep criminals behind bars, but I will.
Clinton and Congress will stock the judiciary with liberal judges who
write laws they can't get approved by the voters.

     Governor Clinton even says that Mario Cuomo belongs on the
Supreme Court. If you believe in judicial restraint, you probably
ought to be happy. After all, the good governor of New York can't make
up his mind between chocolate and vanilla at Baskin Robbins. We won't
have another court decision for 35 years.

     Are my opponent and Congress really in cahoots? Look at one
important question: Should we limit the terms of Congress? Governor
Clinton says: "No." Congress says no. I say: "Yes."

     We tried this once before, combining the Democratic governor of a
small southern state with a very liberal vice president and a
Democratic Congress. America doesn't need: "Carter II."

     We don't want to take America back to those days of malaise. But
Americans want to know -- where's the proof that we will have better
days in Washington?

     I'll give you 150 reasons. That's how many members of Congress
are expected to leave this year. Some are tainted by scandal -- the
voters have bounced them the way they bounced their own checks. But
others are good members. Republican and Democrat. They agree with me.
The place just doesn't work any more.

     One hundred-fifty new members -- from both parties -- will be
coming to Washington this fall. Every one will have a fresh view of
America's future.

     I pledge today to the American people, immediately after this
election, I will meet with every one of these new members, before they
get attacked by the PACs, overwhelmed by their staffs, and cornered by
a camera crew. And I will lay out my case, our case, for change.
Change that matters, real change that makes a difference. Change that
is right for America.

     You see, there is a yearning in America, a feeling that maybe
it's time to get back to our roots.

     Sure we must change, but some values are timeless. I believe in
families that stick together, and fathers who stick around. I happen
to believe very deeply in the worth of each individual human being,
born or unborn. I believe in teaching our kids the difference between
what's wrong and what's right, teaching them respect for hard work and
to love their neighbors. And I believe that America will always have a
special place in God's heart, as long as he has a special place in
ours. And maybe that's why I've always believed that patriotism is not
just another point of view.

     There are times in every young person's life when God introduces
you to yourself. I remember such a time. It was back many years ago,
when I stood watch at 4 a.m. Up on the bridge of the USS Finback. I
would stand there and look out on the blackness of the sky, broken
only by the sparkling stars above. I would think about friends I lost,
a country I loved and about a girl named Barbara. I remember those
nights as clearly as any in my life.

     You know, you can see things from up there that other people
don't see. You can see storm clouds rise and then disappear. The first
hint of the sun over the horizon and the first outline of the shore
faraway.

     Now, I know Americans are uneasy today. There is anxious talk
around our kitchen tables. But from where I stand, I see not America's
sunset, but a sunrise.

     The world changes for which we've sacrificed for a generation
have finally come to pass -- and with them a rare and unprecedented
opportunity -- to pass the sweet cup of prosperity around our American
table.

     Are we up to it? I know we are. As I travel our land, I meet
veterans who once worked on the turrets of a tank and can now master
the keyboards of a high-tech economy. I see teachers, blessed with the
incredible American capacity for innovation, who are teaching our
children a new way to learn for a new century. I meet parents, some
working two jobs with hectic schedules, who still find new ways to
teach old values to steady their kids in a turbulent world.

     I take heart from what is happening in America, not from those
who profess a new passion for government, but from those with an old
and enduring faith in human potential. Those who understand that the
genius of America is our capacity for rebirth and renewal. America is
the land where the sun is always peeking over the horizon.

     Tonight I appeal to the unyielding, undying, undeniable American
spirit. I ask you to consider, now that the entire world is moving our
way, why would we want to go back their way? I ask not just for your
support for my agenda, but for your commitment to renew and rebuild
our nation -- by shaking up the one institution that has withstood
change for over four decades.

     Join me in rolling away the roadblock at the other end of
Pennsylvania Avenue, so that in the next four years, we will match our
accomplishments outside by building a stronger, safer, more secure
America inside.

     Forty-four years ago -- in another age of uncertainty -- a
different president embarked on a similar mission. His name was Harry
S. Truman.

     As he stood before his party to accept their nomination, Harry
Truman knew the freedom I know this evening, the freedom to talk about
what's right for America and let the chips fall where they may.

     Harry Truman said: "This is more than a political call to arms.
Give me your help, not to win voters alone, but to win this new
crusade and keep America safe and secure for its own people."

     Tonight I say to you -- join me in our crusade to reap the
rewards of our global victory, to win the peace, so that we may make
America safer and stronger for all our people.