Latest / BOB DOLE : 1995 Clinton's Comeback / Episode 453 BOB DOLE The Life That Brought Him There (part 34) Bush vs Dole: The 1988 Republican Primary (A) The Iowa Caucus Campaign

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Episode 453 BOB DOLE The Life That Brought Him There (part 34) Bush vs Dole: The 1988 Republican Primary (A) The Iowa Caucus Campaign · BOB DOLE : 1995 Clinton's Comeback

• 0:26
  Born poor in Dust Bowl, Kansas, Bob Dole worked hard to succeed.
• 0:31
  He won two bronze stars for heroism.
• 0:34
  Wounded, his recovery took three years.
• 0:37
  He won some and he lost some.
• 0:39
  But Bob Dole didn't quit.
• 0:41
  Dole turned Ronald Reagan's vision into an action plan for America.
• 0:46
  Tax cuts, aid for the countries, fighting wasteful spending.
• 0:50
  A strong man with a record of solving tough problems.
• 0:54
  Bob Dole for president.
• 0:57
  We Iowaans take good government very seriously.
• 1:00
  So does the man I've decided to support for president.
• 1:02
  That's George Bush.
• 1:04
  Leadership counts, and during his long career in public service from combat hero to vice president, George Bush has proven that leadership.
• 1:12
  George Bush has the experience and the ability to lead this nation.
• 1:16
  He also has another quality essential for good government.
• 1:18
  That's integrity.
• 1:20
  I'm supporting George Bush for president.
• 1:22
  I hope you will too.
• 1:23
  George Bush, ready on day one to be a great president.
• 1:27
  I'm backing Bob Dole to be the next president.
• 1:30
  Bob Dole works hard, makes things happen, and has a record to prove it.
• 1:35
  Bob is the only candidate who doesn't need a team of experts to talk about farm problems.
• 1:40
  Bob Dole is the only candidate who played a key role in the rescue of Social Security.
• 1:45
  And Bob Dole is the only candidate who has made a difference in fighting the budget deficit.
• 1:50
  Bob Dole is one of us, and he'll make a great president.
• 1:55
  Dole for president.
• 1:58
  George Bush and Bob Dole on leadership.
• 2:00
  George Bush led the fight for the INF Treaty for Ronald Reagan.
• 2:04
  Bob Dole straddled until Iowans pushed him into supporting INF.
• 2:08
  George Bush is against an oil import tax.
• 2:10
  Bob Dole straddled, but now says he's for an oil import tax.
• 2:14
  George Bush says he won't raise taxes, period.
• 2:17
  Bob Dole straddled, and he just won't promise not to raise taxes.
• 2:21
  And you know what that means.
• 2:23
  George Bush, ready on day one to provide presidential leadership.
• 2:53
  On April 14, 1945, as part of Operation Craftsman, the 2nd Platoon of I Company, under Lieutenant Bob Dole's command, is ordered to take Hill 913.
• 3:05
  As Dole and his men advanced up the hill, hidden German machine gun and mortar positions rained down heavy fire.
• 3:12
  Casualties were heavy.
• 3:14
  Of the several hundred men to go up Hill 913, only a few dozen made it to the top.
• 3:20
  He got shot up badly in Italy.
• 3:23
  And the reason he got shot up is his radio operator was wounded and he went after him and uh and put him on his shoulder and carried him back.
• 3:33
  After lying wounded in a foxhole for almost nine hours, Dole was rescued by medics and brought with the other wounded by litter to the 15th Evacuation Hospital and then sent home.
• 3:45
  Lieutenant Bob Dole was completely paralyzed.
• 3:49
  He spent 39 months in hospitals.
• 3:51
  His brother Kenny brought him home to Russell on the train.
• 3:55
  It was devastating, no doubt about it.
• 3:57
  And my, you know, when I saw Bob last, he was 180-some pounds and a tremendous athlete and very active and very much involved.
• 4:05
  And then when I first saw him and laying in that bed at 110 pounds, it was pretty hard to take.
• 4:12
  Bob Dole refused to give up.
• 4:14
  With unfailing determination, he learned to walk again.
• 4:18
  And the pioneering doctor who offered to donate his services extended hope of further recovery if young Dole could only travel to the hospital in Chicago.
• 4:28
  There were some hospital costs involved, and the Dole family uh simply didn't have the money at that time, and not many other people did either.
• 4:35
  So they do what they do in a town this size in central Kansas.
• 4:39
  You uh do what you can to help out.
• 4:41
  So they started to fund out the VFW, and then I think every store in town had a Bob Dole box where people dropped money in.
• 4:49
  People just were behind him a hundred percent.
• 4:52
  And Bob worked out right back there on some therapy equipment that he kind of worked out himself to work on his arm.
• 5:01
  It was a tremendous hard thing for him to do because it was painful, and uh he never complained.
• 5:07
  You back to your question about complaining, I never heard him complain.
• 5:11
  The days aren't long enough, is all.
• 5:13
  I think that's the only he ever complained about.
• 5:15
  His health restored, Bob Dole completed his education at the University of Arizona and Washburn University Law School.
• 5:23
  In 1960, with the support of his family, Bob Dole was elected to Congress.
• 5:33
  We have a lot of problems in America.
• 5:37
  You know, we're not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.
• 5:41
  A lot of us in politics make mistakes.
• 5:44
  Our government makes mistakes.
• 5:46
  Even maybe some in the audience have made a mistake or two, so none of us are perfect.
• 5:50
  But compared to what?
• 5:53
  As I've said many times in the 27 years I've been in the Congress of my state of Kansas, I've never had a single letter from anybody in Kansas saying, Bob, get me out of this awful country.
• 6:04
  But I've had a lot of requests and a lot of letters from a lot of people saying, how can I get my mother into America?
• 6:10
  How can I get my husband, my children?
• 6:13
  America's a pretty good place.
• 6:17
  We want to make it better.
• 6:20
  We want better opportunities, yes, for young farmers and better opportunities for our children.
• 6:25
  And better opportunities, not only in education, but in the private sector, in agriculture, wherever it may be.
• 6:33
  And that's what's so exciting about 1989, 1990, and beyond.
• 6:38
  I have to believe we're just on the threshold of many, many opportunities.
• 6:43
  And I believe the American people, whether you're Democrats or Republicans or independents, are looking for strong leadership.
• 6:51
  Someone who can take charge, somebody who understands government, somebody who's worked for the Congress, Democrats and Republicans, someone who's had the experience and the confidence that I would say is a Republican.
• 7:03
  I believe I understand the needs and the desires of those who might be disabled.
• 7:08
  I believe I understand the desires of some who only want enough to eat or a place to sleep.
• 7:14
  I certainly believe I understand the hopes that many in agriculture just want to make a living for their families, send their children to school, pay their bills, buy machinery, whatever it is.
• 7:27
  And I think we have an obligation for all those people.
• 7:31
  And I'm an optimist.
• 7:32
  If I weren't an optimist, I wouldn't be standing here today.
• 7:35
  I think I've been tested.
• 7:38
  I think I understand.
• 7:40
  I can't solve every problem.
• 7:43
  The government can't guarantee success.
• 7:46
  It can't guarantee that no one will fail in America.
• 7:51
  I think I said we all have pretty much the same ideas, the same hopes, the same dreams.
• 7:58
  And we have more opportunities here than anybody I know of.
• 8:02
  So I want to be a part of it.
• 8:07
  Welcome everybody.
• 8:08
  This is Randall Wallace, and this is our look at the 1988 campaign.
• 8:13
  We've covered it a little bit in back catalog episodes before, including our first season.
• 8:18
  Uh, but this one we're gonna go in depth here, a look at the 1988 race.
• 8:22
  It's really a two-man race.
• 8:24
  There are six candidates in it, and we're gonna we're gonna go through them, but it's really George H.
• 8:29
  W.
• 8:30
  Bush, who was the front runner, and Bob Dole.
• 8:32
  And in my opinion, this was Bob Dole's year.
• 8:35
  Um he had you know the momentum, he had been the Senate majority leader.
• 8:40
  A lot of senators were backing him, and so it was this was gonna be a tough race, but this was Bob Dole's uh race.
• 8:48
  I think that he uh both could have been a a great president, uh, but this was the year that that would have been his to win.
• 8:57
  But he has a stumbling block there, and it's George H.
• 9:01
  W.
• 9:01
  Bush.
• 9:11
  I can only find this one ad of George Bush's for the Iowa Topics, which was the beginning of the of the uh primary by goal, and in it you see pictures of the bridge being saved off the boat, Premier Damon, to Premier Bowl Reagan, Premier Done John Powell, Mike El Gorbachov, Little Two, Blackburn, the Father, Pope John Paul II, Town Paul talking about him at Joe.
• 10:01
  And I I share that with you uh so that you know, hey, there was, you know, another fight here uh on that Republican primary side.
• 10:10
  This is the other big contender, is uh George H.
• 10:13
  W.
• 10:14
  Bush.
• 10:14
  I think no one else, there were several people in the race, but no one else uh was was in this thing for real, other than uh Bob Dole and George H.W.
• 10:24
  Bush.
• 10:27
  Hello, I'm Bob Dole.
• 10:29
  And I'm Elizabeth Dole, and we appreciate the opportunity to visit with you tonight.
• 10:34
  Right now, we're seated about a hundred feet from the Senate chamber, where I've had the privilege to serve for about 19 years, and where I've been fighting for a stronger America, a fiscally responsible America, and a compassionate America.
• 10:50
  I've been serving in the Congress uh for over 27 years, eight in the House and nineteen in the Senate, and I voted in those twenty-seven years about 10,500 times, and some were tough, tough votes.
• 11:03
  But believe me, if you're a leader, you have to make the tough calls.
• 11:08
  You know, I grew up in a small town, Russell, Kansas, where we cared about people, where we cared about each other, we cared about our families, we cared about the government.
• 11:19
  I fought in World War II for those same traditional family values, and I would fight for the same if elected president.
• 11:27
  I'd believe the bottom line when I travel across the country is that the American people are looking for strong leadership, a hands-on president.
• 11:37
  I think I can do the job.
• 11:38
  Bob and I have devoted our entire lives to public service.
• 11:42
  Now it's my privilege to tell Americans why I believe in Bob Dole.
• 11:46
  With strong leadership, America's potential is unlimited.
• 11:55
  Hello, I'm Jack Kemp.
• 11:58
  As the parent of four children and a grandparent of two children, I realized that the most important influence on my own life looking back was my parents.
• 12:07
  My mother was a teacher and my father a small businessman.
• 12:10
  In the 1930s, during the Depression, they started a small trucking company to help put their four boys through college.
• 12:17
  I think essentially that's why I'm so optimistic about America and the American free enterprise system and the American family.
• 12:24
  I've had two careers.
• 12:26
  One as a professional football quarterback in the National Football League and the American Football League for 13 years, the last eight years of which was with the Buffalo Bills.
• 12:35
  For 17 years, I've been in the Congress of the United States, representing Western New York, an area of our nation with manufacturing and farming, not unlike other parts of our country, with economic problems.
• 12:47
  I'm proud of the role that I played in the Republican Party, not only to broaden its base and to open it up to more people, but to help get America moving again without inflation.
• 12:56
  Proud of the Kemp Roth tax rate reduction bill that was signed into law by President Reagan in 1981, and that helped lead to the tax reform of 1986, which by 1988 will leave 85% or so of the American families in a flat 15% rate.
• 13:12
  I'm not satisfied with the past.
• 13:14
  Politics is about the future.
• 13:16
  That's why I'm running for president.
• 13:18
  To defend peace through strength, the defense of the West, to defend our families and our children, and to help move this economy to full employment without inflation, an equal opportunity for every man, woman, and child in this country.
• 13:33
  Good evening.
• 13:34
  I'm Pete DuPont.
• 13:35
  I've been a state legislator six years, a member of the United States House of Representatives, and for eight years I sat at this desk as governor of Delaware.
• 13:44
  When I came here, Delaware was not enjoying the best of times.
• 13:48
  Now we are.
• 13:49
  Working with thousands of people, we brought government spending under control.
• 13:54
  We cut taxes 30% for every working family.
• 13:58
  Jobs increased by 20%.
• 14:00
  Standards were raised for children and teachers in our schools.
• 14:05
  We succeeded because the people of our state demanded that some changes be made.
• 14:09
  Well, the people of America know there's some changes that have to be made in Washington, too.
• 14:14
  America was built on the work ethic, and yet our welfare system pays people for not working.
• 14:21
  Now the Congress is tinkering with the welfare laws, but they're not going to require able-bodied people to work for their welfare checks.
• 14:29
  You and I know they should.
• 14:31
  On America's farms, our good intentions have turned into a costly mistake.
• 14:36
  Common sense would tell us there's a better way of helping farmers than spending$26 billion of our tax money to drive thousands of farmers into bankruptcy and raise food prices.
• 14:48
  There's some other things Americans want to do as well.
• 14:51
  We want to drive drugs out of our children's classrooms and protect the retirement of our parents.
• 14:57
  We Americans are always restless to make progress, to solve problems, to try new initiatives, to expand horizons.
• 15:05
  Those are good characteristics in a people and in a campaign for the presidency.
• 15:11
  Hello, this is Pat Robertson.
• 15:13
  You may have seen me on the 700 Club television show.
• 15:16
  What you may not realize is that I'm also in charge of a major United States cable network that has 37 million households in all 50 states.
• 15:26
  Plus, I was privileged to found a graduate-level university, five graduate schools, and a law school.
• 15:33
  But I want to take you back a little bit to some of the heritage because my people got here around the time of the founding of the Jamestown colony.
• 15:41
  One of them was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, two served as president of the United States.
• 15:47
  My father had a distinguished career, 34 years in the Congress, and included in that, uh, he was chairman of the Senate Banking and Currency Committee.
• 15:56
  He gave me a very good education, Washington Lee University, Yale Law School, and a business opportunity with W.R.
• 16:05
  Grayson Company for a while in Wall Street before I felt a call to the ministry and received a master's in divinity from New York Theological Seminary.
• 16:15
  That's not all.
• 16:15
  One of the things that I'm proudest of is a very beautiful wife, four wonderful children, and uh four grandchildren.
• 16:22
  My wife is not only an assistant professor of nursing, but she's the principal United States delegate to the Inter-American Commission of Women.
• 16:30
  And Dee Dee, you've got some very serious concerns about what's happening with women and families in this country.
• 16:36
  Tell us about it.
• 16:37
  Well, I'm very concerned about the plight of women, both in this country and throughout the hemisphere.
• 16:42
  But probably my main concern is about the single parent.
• 16:47
  Ladies and gentlemen, we look forward to the debates.
• 16:49
  I've just finished a big victory in the straw ballots in Iowa, and uh I'm looking forward to this program.
• 16:57
  Hello, I'm Al Haig, and this is my wife Pat, who's been at my side for the last 37 years.
• 17:05
  I've been asked why I want to be president.
• 17:08
  The answer is simple.
• 17:10
  I've served seven presidents in my lifetime.
• 17:13
  I know the job, its challenges, its rewards, and also the limitations on its power.
• 17:23
  1988 will be perhaps the most important choice made by the American people in modern times.
• 17:32
  We are going to need a candidate of unusual qualifications.
• 17:37
  I've been an executive in the military, in government at highest levels, in the private sector with large and small business.
• 17:47
  I've been an educator in one of our greatest universities.
• 17:51
  And perhaps most importantly, in this shrinking world.
• 17:55
  I've lived abroad.
• 17:57
  I know the concerns, strengths, and weaknesses of those who share our values, and the wiles of those who do not.
• 18:07
  Therefore, I hope you will look at my candidacy as one which brings qualifications that no other candidate will bring.
• 18:18
  Experience, leadership, understand, required for the post-Reagan era.
• 18:26
  Hello, I'm George Bush.
• 18:28
  For seven years, I've been vice president, and now I'm a candidate for president of the United States.
• 18:35
  It may come as no big surprise to you, but let me tell you why I'm running.
• 18:40
  And first, let me introduce some of our family.
• 18:43
  This is George, our oldest son, one of our five kids, and Barbara, my wife, for 42 years, and two of our daughter-in-law, two of our grandchildren.
• 18:53
  I'm running because I believe it is absolutely essential to carry on the good work that we've accomplished during the last seven years.
• 19:01
  We've had a spectacular economic recovery.
• 19:04
  Taxes are down, inflation rates are down, unemployment is down.
• 19:08
  The last year, more Americans had worked than at any time in the history of this country.
• 19:13
  And that's all very important.
• 19:15
  But the issue that is overwhelming, as far as I'm concerned, is peace.
• 19:19
  That is what will motivate my presidency, keeping the peace.
• 19:25
  You probably get sick and tired of hearing candidates talk about their past records, but so let me make mine brief.
• 19:32
  I was a combat pilot, I was in business, I was a congressman, I was ambassador to the United Nations, chairman of the Republican National Committee, I was ambassador to China, and I ran the intelligence community, the CIA, for a year.
• 19:46
  I must have done some things pretty well in this job because they kept giving me new ones.
• 19:50
  And I was also a husband and a father.
• 19:52
  And how'd I do with that one, gang?
• 19:54
  Great, great, great.
• 19:57
  I just want to ask you to listen to what I have to say as I spell out my goals for the future.
• 20:04
  And I hope you'll make the decision to support me for president of the United States.
• 20:09
  Thank you very much.
• 20:25
  Senator Robert Dole was second with 23%.
• 20:28
  The poll found many GOP leaders view Bush as dependable and honest, but not exciting.
• 20:34
  Democratic presidential hopefuls are in New Orleans touting party ideology and criticizing the Reagan administration.
• 20:40
  Jesse Jackson urged fellow Democrats not to abandon women's rights or the struggle for racial equality in South Africa.
• 20:47
  Senator Albert Gore says Democrats must restore America's confidence in the government.
• 20:56
  But uh this was actually a fairly strong field of candidates if you really look at it.
• 21:01
  Jack Kemp was the uh sort of the the brain power of the of the Reagan Revolution when it came to economics uh and taxes and and government.
• 21:13
  Plus he was somebody who was willing to reach out across the the aisle to other uh constituencies that perhaps were not traditionally Republican, and he was well liked uh amongst those folks.
• 21:24
  Um uh Pierre DuPont, who was the governor of Delaware for many years, um, and a and a and a person who really was not as well known uh outside of Delaware, which which uh would hurt him as this race goes on.
• 21:40
  Al Haig, who was the chief of staff for President Nixon and and helped soft land the resignation, we've covered him quite a bit when our back catalog, including one with all of his calls to Richard Nixon when he was chief of staff before the machines were cut off, uh, and his time when he was a deputy to Henry Kissinger, he was a he's a fascinating guy.
• 22:02
  Um a little bit of a controversial person as more and more comes out about different roles that he had during the Nixon years.
• 22:08
  But uh but Al Haig was a candidate.
• 22:10
  This was the only time he ran.
• 22:12
  And of course, uh Pat Robertson, and when I say that the only two real candidates in this race, as far as really contenders, it really was only Bush and Dole.
• 22:20
  But in Iowa is the one place that you begin to see the Christian.
• 22:25
  Conservative uh movement will begin to take off.
• 22:29
  Now that will become a bigger factor when we get into ninety-two and ninety-six and two thousand.
• 22:34
  But Pat Robertson makes a little run for it in an hour.
• 22:38
  And New Hampshire is, you know, the next day over tends not to embrace the that uh that more religious voter uh base in the Republican Party, and so that'll slow this down.
• 22:51
  But the Iowa Caucus is really uh in in 1980, the beginning of this movement, and Pat Robertson, uh, while I don't think he ever really had a chance of being the nominee, becomes a real central player in what's going on.
• 23:04
  Uh one of the difficulties we had in 1988 was uh was portraying ourselves as agents of change when when our candidate, George Bush, the vice president, had been Reagan's vice president for eight years.
• 23:24
  Whatever it is, competing with the Japanese, whatever it is, is education.
• 23:29
  Uh as he said uh when he declared a truce yesterday, I want to be the old George Bush.
• 23:34
  It may not be as interesting, and we kind of found that the year today.
• 23:37
  I voted about 11,000 times since I've been in the Congress.
• 23:41
  Well, I'd like to get rid of a few of those votes myself, but eleven thousand times and a pretty consistent record.
• 23:46
  So Senator Robert Dole and wife Elizabeth invited Barbara and Iowa Senator Charles Grassley to join the campaign.
• 23:53
  Chuck normally stays out of primaries, but in '88 he decided to support me, which is a big boost.
• 24:03
  I mean, those of us that are doing the endorsement say, boy, we're really helping this guy.
• 24:08
  I think we have an over-exaggerated opinion of our endorsement.
• 24:12
  Because Iowans are very independent people.
• 24:15
  Uh, I think it might influence a few people, but it isn't going to make a big difference.
• 24:21
  I guess one of us will be here.
• 24:22
  One of the three of us or four of us, we're all going to be out here working.
• 24:26
  So we got a pretty good team.
• 24:27
  There would not have been a farm bill if it had not been for the efforts of Bob Dole.
• 24:31
  Now, if you don't like that, then you're mad at me.
• 24:35
  But if you think it's a little better than what we had, just go to the caucus and say, I think we have a friend of the farmer in Senator Bob Dole, and that's an accurate statement.
• 24:44
  First year of the bill, 46%.
• 24:45
  As Bob Dole locked up the rural vote, Vice President Bush was about to be ambushed in Ames, the Republican cavalcade of stars in 1987, better known as the Ames Straw Poll, was the canary in the coal mine for establishment Republicans and the rise of evangelicals.
• 25:04
  For the last seven years, I've stood side by side with one of the greatest presidents this country's had.
• 25:14
  And I'm very, very proud of that.
• 25:20
  We indeed are going to come once again to a time in our nation and throughout the world when the term made in America is synonymous with the very best in the world.
• 25:31
  So the room was packed with our people, and they were wearing those hats with Robertson for president on them.
• 25:37
  And I was hugging all these wonderful people, and uh, you know, uh, they took a vote, and I didn't, I mean, I really didn't understand what they were doing.
• 25:48
  But when it was finished, I had won decisively, and George Bush was creamed.
• 25:54
  I mean, he really was beaten badly in those straw ballots, and uh the the people were shocked, but I didn't, I didn't, I really didn't understand what the game was.
• 26:05
  I didn't know what they were doing.
• 26:07
  Uh but I do remember the morning after the straw poll that won register had a big cartoon, and it had a picture, uh, the cartoon picture of uh David and Goliath and portraying um Pat Robertson as David and uh George H.W.
• 26:21
  Bush is Goliath, you know.
• 26:27
  He his face was shocked.
• 26:28
  I mean, I remember just looking.
• 26:30
  I mean, I I went up and shook his hand, hi hi, uh, you know, George.
• 26:33
  We were friends, and and uh he had that that shocked look, he was horrified after that Ames Straw.
• 26:40
  He couldn't believe it.
• 26:43
  At that particular time, I never saw the uh uh uh uh dominance of evangelical Christians within the Republican caucus.
• 26:54
  Uh, and now since then it's been very much demonstrated.
• 26:58
  Mr.
• 26:59
  Pat Robertson says a lot about uh the rise of evangelical uh voters as a bloc in Iowa, uh, and and to some extent in in the Republican Party.
• 27:12
  I mean, uh Pat Robertson was a televangelist.
• 27:19
  Talk about the ultimate outsider.
• 27:22
  Neil Bush, who's uh president H.W.
• 27:26
  Bush's one of his sons, you know, had referred to um Robertson supporters and or organizers as cockroaches.
• 27:35
  And uh I was with Pat kind of behind the stage before the Savannah, of course.
• 27:39
  He wanted to come out with both barrels and basically, you know, give the Bush campaign a piece of his mind, but um more rational uh heads prevailed and encouraged him that that wasn't the thing that he should do, you know.
• 27:52
  I had one little woman look at me with just hatred in her eyes.
• 27:55
  Well don't you get out of the race?
• 27:56
  Why do you hear?
• 27:57
  I mean, just vitriol.
• 28:00
  But you know, that's that's politics.
• 28:03
  I want a time in America when husbands love their wives, when wives love their husbands, and when men and women together bring up law-abiding, God-fearing children as citizens of the greatest nation on the face of the earth.
• 28:18
  Ladies and gentlemen, it is about five degrees below zero with the wind chill.
• 28:23
  There are 3,000 frozen media members in downtown Des Moines, and there are enough satellite dishes in this town to dial up Mars.
• 28:30
  It can only mean one thing.
• 28:32
  It's Iowa caucus night.
• 28:34
  Let's party! Bob Doyle would claim first on the Republican side, but his victory was overshadowed by an evangelical awakening.
• 28:45
  Second place Pat Robertson claimed his own victory.
• 28:48
  I believe after this win in Iowa, I'm going to be coalescing the conservatives.
• 28:53
  Many of the Reagan supporters around the country will be coming over to my campaign.
• 28:58
  Big headlines.
• 28:59
  I mean, I'm talking about banner headlines across the country.
• 29:03
  It was remarkable.
• 29:04
  Robertson beats Bush.
• 29:06
  That was the story.
• 29:08
  Because that meant Bush came in third, and this unknown preacher beat him.
• 29:15
  The vice president's eldest son conceding on behalf of his father, but with still a vision of optimism.
• 29:22
  And we look forward to the South.
• 29:24
  A little different environment there.
• 29:27
  A place where his loyalty with the president will be a plus.
• 29:32
  George H.W.
• 29:33
  Bush would regain his footing and later the presidency.
• 29:37
  When his son George W.
• 29:38
  would return for his own campaign a decade later, he would learn from Robertson's evangelical outreach and message, engaging Iowa Christian conservatives as a cornerstone of his own campaign.
• 30:04
  But I haven't I haven't moved since 1980, and I ran in 1980, and it wasn't the the neighborhood that made me finish last.
• 30:12
  I think it's the fact that I've been dealing with the issues since that time.
• 30:26
  A majority of the people.
• 30:28
  Well, I mean a plurality, excuse me.
• 30:30
  Okay.
• 30:30
  A logosight.
• 30:31
  Can you survive a loss here?
• 30:33
  Oh, yes.
• 30:34
  Uh, a loss is a loss, a win is a win.
• 30:37
  Well, that's certainly profound.
• 30:39
  Yes, it is.
• 30:40
  Gertrude Stein would have loved it.
• 30:43
  Good evening, everyone.
• 30:44
  Well, on this Monday night in February, Iowa maintains its tradition of delivering surprises.
• 30:49
  It is a launch launching platform for some and a trapdoor for others.
• 30:53
  Tonight it is a launching platform on the Republican side for Senator Bob Dole, who wins an impressive victory.
• 30:59
  Also for Pat Robertson, who finishes second, and it's a trapdoor for Vice President George Bush, who has gone on to New Hampshire, hoping that he can short circuit whatever momentum Dole and Robertson have coming out of Iowa.
• 31:12
  Here's the vote now on the Republican side.
• 31:14
  Almost all the precincts have checked in, as you can see.
• 31:16
  And Senator Bob Dole, 37% of the vote, and almost two to one lead over Vice President George Bush.
• 31:22
  They were thought to be the front runners going into Iowa.
• 31:24
  Pat Robertson, however, came in here, spent a lot of money.
• 31:27
  He is extremely well organized in the state.
• 31:30
  And tonight he has an impressive second place finish with fully 25% of the Republican caucus goers' vote, the straw vote across the state of Iowa tonight.
• 31:39
  That does not represent necessarily the broad base of the Republican Party, because only about a hundred thousand Republicans turned out out of a registration of about six hundred thousand or so.
• 31:49
  Here are the rest of the Republicans.
• 31:51
  A disappointing night for Jack Kemp, Pete DuPont as well.
• 31:54
  General Al Haig pretty well shut down his campaign here, and his vote total tonight reflects that.
• 31:59
  On the Democratic side, it is very close tonight.
• 32:02
  Among three frontrunners, the three men who were expected to be closely bunched, and they are.
• 32:06
  We have now about 70 percent of the precincts counted so far.
• 32:09
  Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt with 28 percent of that vote.
• 32:13
  Illinois Senator Paul Simon from just next door to Iowa with 24 percent of the vote, and Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis with 21 percent of the vote.
• 32:21
  Snap judgment there is, of course, that all three will go on to New Hampshire in a pretty close dead heat.
• 32:26
  Mr.
• 32:27
  Robertson, congratulations.
• 32:28
  Thank you, Tom.
• 32:29
  I'm overjoyed at this expression of love and support for the people here in Iowa.
• 32:34
  It is impressive beating the vice president of the United States tonight, but after all, you got only 25 percent, roughly, of the Iowa Republican caucus goers.
• 32:42
  That's only a fraction of the Republicans in the state.
• 32:45
  It's not really broadly based.
• 32:46
  Do you think that you'll have more trouble as you move on to places like New Hampshire?
• 32:49
  Not a bit in the world.
• 32:50
  I think I was looking for an opportunity to broaden my base, and that's exactly what happened.
• 32:53
  When you were a television evangelist, you often said that you had God's advice on specific decisions that you had to make.
• 32:59
  Do you get his advice as well on specific political decisions in terms of?
• 33:04
  I'd like to point out to you if you don't mind.
• 33:05
  I think it's the last time that I want to be called a television evangelist.
• 33:08
  I've been a TV broadcaster, I run the fifth largest cable network in America, and I'm I'm on 37 million households with cable, which uh rivals a lot of the so-called big boys.
• 33:20
  And because I am a religious broadcaster and have talked to people on major issues, that's why they have given me this tremendous victory in Iowa.
• 33:29
  And I I really believe that henceforth the religious bigotry that that question of yours implies is going to be a dead issue.
• 33:36
  I don't like it, and I think out of Iowa, they're saying you're a serious candidate, and I'm going to run as a serious candidate.
• 33:42
  With all due respect, Mr.
• 33:43
  Robertson, there was no religious bigotry expressed at all.
• 33:47
  You're a religious bigger I'll accept your language.
• 33:49
  You're a religious broadcaster.
• 33:51
  I'll accept that.
• 33:53
  You now move on to New Hampshire, where Vice President Bush is said to be extremely well organized.
• 33:57
  It is a state where you won't have what many people perceive to be the regional advantage that you had in Iowa.
• 34:02
  Give us your projection now about what happens in New Hampshire as you go head to head against Vice President Bush and now Pat Robertson, who's much more formidable.
• 34:10
  Uh gonna be a tough race.
• 34:11
  Uh, we're behind.
• 34:12
  Uh, recent polls, the one tonight said we were seven behind.
• 34:15
  I think it's probably more than that.
• 34:17
  I do hope we are helped a little uh in our win here.
• 34:20
  It's an impressive victory.
• 34:21
  We had a lot of good help.
• 34:23
  The people of Iowa really listened carefully, they made their choice.
• 34:26
  We hope that we can give the same message to the voters of New Hampshire and that we may have the same result there.
• 34:32
  But let's face it, I'm behind.
• 34:34
  I'm not uh the front runner in New Hampshire.
• 34:37
  In 88, of course, um, he wins the Iowa caucus.
• 34:42
  No doubt with considerable help from you.
• 34:44
  Um, tell me about that campaign and was the vice president in some ways operating that at a disadvantage compared to 1980 when George Bush didn't have an entourage and he could travel almost one-on-one retail politicking.
• 34:59
  And by eighty-eight, of course, he's in this cocoon.
• 35:02
  Was that was was that something that hurt him on balance?
• 35:05
  Why did the vice president of the United States come in third in the balloting in Iowa?
• 35:10
  What state did he be?
• 35:11
  Well, by then, as you know from the result of the eighty six election, uh, and at the time that Reagan was not so popular.
• 35:22
  Now, just before he left the presidency, I think he gained back some of that.
• 35:26
  But during the 86 and into 87, there was Reagan did not have very good approval ratings.
• 35:35
  Uh, and I think that hurt Bush.
• 35:38
  But the most important thing was is that Bob Dole was like Iowans.
• 35:45
  I think the the personal attachment, regardless of the vice president, the personal attachment of people, they felt that Bob Dole was one of them.
• 35:55
  I think that's why he won.
• 35:58
  It went beyond agriculture.
• 36:00
  Uh I mean that obviously was a factor, but uh well, that affinity.
• 36:06
  Yeah, but I think that that agriculture and ethanol and what he had done over a period of years, w we felt like he was almost president of Iowa.
• 36:19
  See how has conservatism changed in in the time that you've been in Congress?
• 36:27
  Because clearly Dole was a more traditional kind of economic conservative.
• 36:32
  And he had it since particularly in 96 that he was kind of chasing this uh caboose, you know, the social conservatism, and and not terribly convincingly in some.
• 36:44
  Yeah.
• 36:45
  I mean that tension within the well that i that is the difference.
• 36:48
  I think uh the Republican Party uh and and conservatism well I think I better say the Republican Party, not conservatism, it's uh it's moved from strictly economic conservatism to social conservatism.
• 37:07
  Now at the point, now in 2007, uh I'm saying this, I'm not so sure but what economic conservatism isn't gaining some ground now.
• 37:17
  But uh for instance in this uh caucus season in Iowa, uh because I think a lot of Republicans think Hillary Clinton's gonna be the nominee, uh I have not seen the litmus test type people who in 76, 80, 88, 92, 96, and 2000 were looking at this candidate or this candidate which one's the purest on abortion, which one's the purest on gay rights, and but mostly it was abortion, I believe, throughout that period of time.
• 37:49
  Uh they're not uh they're not questioning uh Giuliani right now that has a different view, and they're uh they're not questioning Romney, changing his mind.
• 38:00
  Uh I think re uh so I think there's some that's an opportunity for ascendancy of economic conservatism to come back.
• 38:08
  But Bob Dole's was economic conservatism, and I don't think he always felt comfortable talking about abortion as an example, or gay rights as an example.
• 38:19
  See I've I've wondered because I had this conversation with President Ford.
• 38:22
  There was sort of the same generation, pretty much, same kind of background, and there was sort of this what I call leave me alone conservatism, which is it's almost it's none of my business, conservatism.
• 38:33
  But there are issues that are so personal, so intimate, yeah, that it's really not something the government should be legislating.
• 38:41
  Yeah.
• 38:42
  And um uh I uh I I can talk freely about those things, but I'd rather talk about economic conservatism myself.
• 38:52
  So I'm kind of you know, I'm ten years younger than Bob Dole, but I still uh that's kind of where I'm coming from, although I have a perfect pro-life voting record as an example.
• 39:04
  The caucus w where were you one?
• 39:06
  Do you remember that?
• 39:06
  With Bob Dole Caucus Light.
• 39:08
  Were you with the Senator?
• 39:09
  I mean Yeah, I was with uh the Senator and uh and uh we headed the next morning for New Hampshire and I went over to New Hampshire for what was his vote?
• 39:19
  Uh I think he expected to win.
• 39:22
  In Iowa.
• 39:23
  So, and uh and it was obviously uh a a good mood, and uh and he was uh ready to move on.
• 39:31
  And he went into New Hampshire.
• 39:32
  Of course he didn't win.
• 39:33
  I don't think he won New Hampshire.
• 39:35
  Uh he went into New Hampshire, I think, expecting a big lift, and probably did give him a lift, but it didn't materialize uh in the end the way he wanted it to.
• 39:46
  Uh but it was a joyful uh thing.
• 39:51
  Were you surprised that Pat Robertson had come in second?
• 39:54
  Yeah, I was, yeah.
• 39:56
  Uh that would be the height of people who were making decisions on Lipman's test type that I was trying to describe to you.
• 40:05
  Yeah.
• 40:08
  Yeah, he he still refers to himself as the president of Iowa.
• 40:11
  Yeah.
• 40:11
  But Iowa obviously has a very special place in his heart.
• 40:14
  Yeah.
• 40:16
  He thought it's funny, Dick Worthwh in his poster told him on that Friday after the Caucasus, he got the lift.
• 40:22
  Worth it was telling him you're gonna win New Hampshire.
• 40:24
  And Dole wasn't so sure.
• 40:27
  And then over the weekend it slipped away.
• 40:29
  Yeah.
• 40:29
  Uh Governor Sununu's organization came into the picture, they put a new television spot on, and and uh and and then it was over.
• 40:41
  So Bob Dole's riding high after this big win in Iowa.
• 40:45
  Um but he had some advantages there.
• 40:47
  He was the regional candidate because Kansas is right there beside Iowa.
• 40:50
  A lot of a lot of it in common common with those folks about uh agriculture issues, but he's gonna head to New Hampshire.
• 40:56
  And if you know anything about Bob Dole's history, you know that New Hampshire has never uh been a state that embraced Bob Dole no matter what he did, and it it's driven me crazy being a dull guy.
• 41:07
  But anyway, he will head into New Hampshire and he's gonna speak first to the legislature.
• 41:10
  We're gonna let you hear that speech.
• 41:12
  It is the day after he has won the Iowa Caucus.
• 41:17
  Pat Robertson, of course, you know, did so well.
• 41:19
  And Bush looks like he's on the road.
• 41:22
  The other candidates are all drawn down.
• 41:23
  Uh they'll drop out starting that night.
• 41:26
  And so you've got this race between the three of them uh in New Hampshire.
• 41:31
  Uh and Bob Dole has all the momentum heading his way as he steps onto the stage to speak to the New Hampshire legislature.
• 41:40
  One of us is Senator Robert Dole.
• 42:32
  Uh understood that uh one of my greatest resources and greatest assets, as all of you have, is my spouse, my wife, Elizabeth.
• 42:41
  Elizabeth, I also want to observe the great courtesy in which House members give to senators here.
• 43:16
  And you come in last and all those things.
• 43:22
  We're not according to those all the time in Washington, but in any event, it's good to be here.
• 43:28
  It's good to be awake.
• 43:30
  It's good to feel good.
• 43:33
  New Hampshire's a great state.
• 43:37
  And I want to thank uh Doug Scannon for arranging this timely visit.
• 43:51
  He told me not to worry about Iowa.
• 43:55
  He says worry about New Hampshire.
• 43:57
  So I'm here.
• 43:59
  And I want to thank Doug and many others, uh, in fact, all of you, for your courtesies and both me and Elizabeth, regardless of your party and regardless of the candidate, you may be supported.
• 44:11
  I also want to recognize a special friend of yours and a special friend of mine who brings all of us to New Hampshire every four years.
• 44:19
  Dick Upton is over here somewhere, Dick.
• 44:21
  Good to see you.
• 44:34
  I am deeply grateful that I can make my first appearance in New Hampshire since yesterday's good day in Iowa.
• 44:44
  It's perhaps appropriate that we are here before this very unique citizen legislature.
• 44:51
  And I do have a special kind of feeling for this kind of an institution.
• 44:57
  Because as Doug indicated, that's where I started my political career in the state legislature.
• 45:04
  Must say when I came back from World War II, I didn't know anything about politics.
• 45:13
  I remember being visited by a very fine lawyer in my hometown, Clifford Holland, who was a prominent Democrat.
• 45:19
  And he said, Now, Bob, you ought to, when you get to feeling better, you ought to take a look at politics.
• 45:28
  And I said, I don't know anything about politics.
• 45:30
  Well, and he said, also, of course, you ought to be a Democrat.
• 45:34
  And I said, uh, and my parents were, I said, Cliff, I don't, Mr.
• 45:37
  Holland, I don't know anything about politics.
• 45:40
  He said, it's not necessary.
• 45:45
  You got shot, and I think we can get you elected.
• 45:48
  That's sort of how I was.
• 45:51
  Then I remember a Republican friend of mine who still practices law in Russell, Kansas, John Wolf.
• 45:58
  He came by and he said, I know Cliff Holland was by and wanted you to become a Democrat and get into politics.
• 46:03
  He said, I agree you ought to get into politics, but you ought to be a Republican.
• 46:07
  And I said, Why?
• 46:10
  He said, because there are twice as many Republicans in this county as Democrats.
• 46:15
  So I made a great philosophical judgment right there on the spot.
• 46:20
  And I'm proud I did.
• 46:24
  But I might also add, just as an aside, that there have been some rather outstanding presidents who got their start in the state legislature.
• 46:35
  Abraham Lincoln started in the Illinois General Assembly at the age of 26.
• 46:41
  Teddy Roosevelt was 24 years of age when he won a seat in the New York Assembly.
• 46:48
  And as Doug has indicated, I was 26 when I was elected.
• 46:55
  And in 1952, my boyhood hero, Dwight Eisenhower, won the New Hampshire primary that catapulted him to the head of the Republican ticket.
• 47:08
  And today, the day after Iowa, it's a brand new contest in New Hampshire.
• 47:13
  And a week from now, the voters of New Hampshire will play a monumental part in the American drama of choosing our next president.
• 47:23
  Exactly three months ago today, November 9, 1987, when this campaign formally began in my hometown of Russell, Kansas, I said I wanted to lead America into an even greater era of opportunity for all our people and greater security for our nation.
• 47:47
  I offered a willingness to work hard, to hang tough, to go the distance.
• 47:52
  And I offered the strength and the determination to bring common sense answers to the complex problems facing America this century.
• 48:04
  Today I'm renewing my commitment to these goals.
• 48:08
  I happen to believe that America's greatness still lies ahead.
• 48:13
  The ideal nation our founders envisioned more than 200 years ago is yet to be achieved.
• 48:19
  Oh, yes, we've made great progress, more than any other nation in the history of mankind.
• 48:26
  But I believe, and you believe, and most Americans believe, that we can do better yet.
• 48:34
  First, however, we must commit ourselves anew to dealing with the single greatest threat, in my view, to a prosperous and secure America, the federal budget deficit.
• 48:46
  Two and a half trillion dollars, two hundred billion dollars a year in interest on the debt.
• 48:53
  And most of us are campaigning or campaigning for the presidency, have been talking in good game and pointing with alarm to the deficit.
• 49:03
  But only one of us has been willing to lay out any real solution, including an across-the-board freeze on federal spending.
• 49:15
  If you think about it just for a moment, a one-year freeze and a number of variations, and a couple of my colleagues started all this five years ago, Senator Cassibaum and Senator Grassley.
• 49:28
  They were joined by two Democrats, Senator Bacchus and Senator Biden.
• 49:32
  There are all kinds of variations of a freeze, but a one-year freeze is$50 billion in savings, no new taxes, no gimmicks, real savings.
• 49:45
  And over a three-year period, it's$150 billion.
• 49:51
  And after you initiate the freeze very early in 1989, then you sit down with the Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike.
• 49:59
  And then the press of the United States goes over program by program.
• 50:05
  And we go to work on the next budget.
• 50:09
  It's across the board, no exceptions, except for vulnerable groups in America.
• 50:14
  The hungry, the homeless, the poor.
• 50:18
  It has bipartisan support in the Congress.
• 50:21
  It has bipartisan support across the country.
• 50:27
  And I believe that one advantage I have over many of my colleagues, and they're all good candidates in both parties, is that I know how to work with the legislative body just as you do.
• 50:38
  I've been doing it for over 27 years.
• 50:42
  I can sit down with Republicans and Democrats alike, and we can hammer out solutions to some of the problems.
• 50:50
  Not all the time, sometimes it's a matter of principle.
• 50:53
  Sometimes you shouldn't work it out.
• 50:57
  And we can do all this without raising tax rates on individuals or corporations.
• 51:05
  And as one who forged a consensus on the plan to save Social Security from bankruptcy in 1983, I believe, I hope I and I hope I can say it modestly that I am the one candidate who has demonstrated his commitment to keeping those brown envelopes coming, and incidentally with a check inside.
• 51:27
  And I think that's very important.
• 51:34
  I happen to believe that getting rid of our deficits, and I have an expert with me, Pete D'Menici, who was chairman of the budget committee, still does outstanding work as a ranking Republican.
• 51:45
  And he will tell you, and I will tell you, and we'll tell each other, that getting rid of the deficit is just as important for America's international position as it is for our own well-being at home.
• 51:59
  The rest of the world knows, the Soviets know, the Japanese know, our adversaries know, and all our allies know that we cannot hold our own in today's world unless we demonstrate the political will to deal with the federal deficit.
• 52:17
  This past decade, the 1980s, has been a decade of growth and prosperity and peace for America.
• 52:25
  I might say all of that thanks to the leadership of one man, President Ronald Reagan.
• 52:30
  But the next president must be prepared to deal with a vastly different world than we have, and one that we've faced over the past quarter of a century.
• 52:40
  Not since the years immediately following World War II have we faced a challenge so great and so potent.
• 52:48
  How we respond to that challenge will determine whether our security, our prosperity, and our stature in the world will flourish into the next century, or whether we will retreat and decline.
• 53:03
  I'm reminded of this TV commercial that maybe some of you have seen.
• 53:07
  It shows a young man about 18 years of age, maybe 19.
• 53:12
  It shows a big steel door, and this young man is pounding on the door and pounding on the door, and there's a little glass, and you can look inside.
• 53:22
  And inside that door are cobwebs and the bones of Congress has passed and administration's passed.
• 53:30
  And the young man is pounding and pounding and pounding, and he's saying and he's screaming, What have you done to my future?
• 53:37
  What have you done to my future?
• 53:41
  And he's talking about the federal deficit.
• 53:45
  There's not a one of us in this chamber, regardless of our politics, Republican or Democrat, man or woman, who wouldn't do almost anything for our children or our grandchildren.
• 53:59
  And they're the ones I'm concerned about.
• 54:01
  My generation can escape, maybe your generation can escape.
• 54:07
  But let's not torpedo the opportunities that rightfully belong to our children and our grandchildren by backing away from dealing with the federal deficit.
• 54:17
  It's not going to go away, it's not going to grow away.
• 54:20
  We have to deal with it.
• 54:23
  So it just seems to me that what we need in this time is continued strong, decisive leadership, imagination, and a certain amount of courage.
• 54:36
  Courage to go to the voters.
• 54:38
  Courage to rally the Congress and to get things done in America.
• 54:46
  And I think to get all that done in addition to the deficit, we're gonna have to start focusing on some other basics.
• 54:53
  Basics like freedom and communism.
• 54:57
  And I have grappled with issues of US-Soviet relations throughout three decades of public life.
• 55:04
  I have visited the Soviet Union.
• 55:07
  I have met Mikhail Gorbachev.
• 55:10
  And based on all that, I can tell you two things, which probably don't come as any surprise to anyone in this room, in this chamber.
• 55:19
  Whatever glass-nosed is, it is not democracy.
• 55:24
  Whatever else Gorbachev may be, he is still a hard as nails communist.
• 55:33
  And when Gorbachev left Washington a few weeks back, with many still in the grip of glass-nosed fever, he flew back to a godless communist state with very little freedom and a miserable standard of living.
• 55:48
  And that's where he woke up the next day.
• 55:52
  But we, all of us, we awoke in freedom in the freest and most just country in the world.
• 56:01
  And I just suggest wherever I go that we must not forget that basic difference.
• 56:09
  So when we deal with the Soviets, it must be from strength.
• 56:14
  And when we talk and have a dialogue with Mr.
• 56:17
  Gorbachev, it should never be in blind faith.
• 56:21
  We make no agreements with the Soviet Union unless they're in our national interest.
• 56:26
  We don't trust Mr.
• 56:27
  Gorbachev.
• 56:29
  That's not even relevant.
• 56:32
  And I'd like to mention very quickly just four issues because I know when 20 minutes is over, I'd be the only one standing here.
• 56:39
  At least I've been told that's how it works.
• 56:43
  Issue number one is Central America.
• 56:47
  And I believe the House vote to cut off aid to the Contras was a grievous strategic mistake.
• 57:05
  The issue in Central America is not that Daniel Ortega's army threatens the Texas border.
• 57:12
  It is the Soviet bases and intelligence facilities and advisors, and soon perhaps Soviet aircraft and submarines that may threaten the fragile small democracies of the Americas, the Panama Canal.
• 57:26
  Remember that?
• 57:28
  And America's own security.
• 57:30
  It is not America which causes war in Central America, but Soviet intervention in our hemisphere.
• 57:37
  At our Republican National Convention in 1984, one of our most dedicated and able national leaders, former UN Ambassador Gene Kirkpatrick, said it as clearly and as eloquently as it can be said.
• 57:52
  She said, There are some people in America who always, and I quote, always blame America first, end of quote.
• 58:01
  And we cannot abandon the field of those people.
• 58:04
  We cannot let this House vote stand as a final act of this drama.
• 58:09
  And regardless of what a bare majority of liberal House Democrats want, we cannot stand by and watch Americans' own national security be compromised by naive faith and Marxist dictators like Daniel Ortega.
• 58:24
  America is always ready to give peace a chance.
• 58:28
  Ronald Reagan is always ready to give peace a chance.
• 58:31
  When will Ortega give peace a chance?
• 58:33
  When will Castro give peace a chance?
• 58:36
  And finally, when will General Secretary Gorbachev give peace a chance?
• 58:42
  And I must say I'm proud of this letter, which I brought a copy of along today.
• 58:46
  A letter from Ronald Reagan received yesterday, saluting my leadership and winning the Senate vote on Contra Aid.
• 58:55
  Some say it didn't mean a thing.
• 58:56
  I think it meant a great deal.
• 59:00
  As far as the future of our policy is concerned.
• 59:09
  But Bob Dole isn't, and America isn't, and I've already sent my contribution for freedom.
• 59:16
  And today I urge all private Americans to join me in this legal above-board effort to provide humanitarian support to the freedom fighters of Nicaragua.
• 59:36
  Then there is the critical issue of arms control.
• 59:40
  Ladies and gentlemen, the headlong rush toward achieving a strategic arms reduction treaty may put us on strategic thin ice.
• 59:50
  So let me say very flatly and very clearly, I would sign no further arms control agreements with the Soviet Union until we are absolutely 110% sure of two things.
• 1:00:03
  First, that they can be verified, and second, that they will not undermine the deterrence power of the United States beyond any shadow of a doubt.
• 1:00:13
  And let me add, too, the next arms reduction agreement should be a conventional arms reduction agreement.
• 1:00:21
  Because until we get Soviet conventional forces down a manageable size, any strategic arms reduction treaty can compromise the very deterrence that protect us from Soviet attack and also preserves the peace.
• 1:00:36
  We must link any so-called START agreement to resolving the overwhelming Soviet advantage in conventional forces in Europe.
• 1:00:46
  We must also insist that our allies carry their fair share of the load in global peacekeeping.
• 1:00:53
  Our European and Asian allies deserve first consideration in our foreign policy consultations.
• 1:00:59
  But they must also recognize that an alliance is a two-way street.
• 1:01:04
  When America comes to the defense of a mutual friend, we have the right to insist we not be there alone.
• 1:01:12
  And finally, there is perhaps the most important single contribution of President Reagan's term to preserve America freedom.
• 1:01:21
  And that is the so-called Strategic Defense Initiative, SDI.
• 1:01:25
  Scuttling our only nuclear defense insurance policy remains one of the very highest priorities for Mikhail Gorbachev.
• 1:01:34
  And Gorbachev's best chance to kill SDI is to get Americans to buy the phony proposition that giving SDI to get a start agreement would be a good trade for America.
• 1:01:46
  SDI should not be on the table in the start talks, period.
• 1:01:50
  We should not be negotiating with the Soviets on our own military RD options.
• 1:01:56
  We should not be tying our own hands unilaterally through self-implosed legislative restraints on the president's right to pursue SDI wherever it may lead us.
• 1:02:07
  And for those Republicans who are campaigning to pick up the national security legacy that Ronald Reagan will leave behind, I challenge them to join me in this clear and unequivocal pledge.
• 1:02:21
  I will develop SDI, I will test SDI, and I will deploy SDI.
• 1:02:37
  And I would like to close by recalling an experience that Elizabeth and I had when we visited the Soviet Union a few years ago.
• 1:02:45
  An experience neither one of us will ever forget.
• 1:02:50
  And maybe it's been repeated by some in this audience.
• 1:02:54
  We went to the basement of our embassy in Moscow and talked with two families from Siberia who had sought asylum from religious persecution.
• 1:03:04
  In attempting to reach our embassy's gates, one of the young sons was caught by Russian guards, beaten in full sight of the two families, and then dragged away.
• 1:03:17
  Not until three weeks later did they learn that he had been thrown on a train back to Siberia.
• 1:03:24
  It was nearly five years separated from their friends and family and living in the basement of that embassy before the Soviet government allowed those families to emigrate to Israel.
• 1:03:37
  And as we drove to the airport to begin our long trip home, I looked up at that airplane sitting on the runway with the United States of America emblazoned on its side.
• 1:03:50
  It was a stirring sight that filled me with love for our country.
• 1:03:56
  And I just thanked God I could go home to America, home to freedom, home to democracy.
• 1:04:03
  And I resolved as I stood there, stood there on that Soviet airfield, that I would do everything in my power, not only to secure our freedom, but to spread its light around the world.
• 1:04:18
  And I would just say finally, ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for giving me this privilege.
• 1:04:25
  I'm honored to be in your presence.
• 1:04:28
  It's great to be an American, regardless of any differences we may have politically.
• 1:04:36
  But we have some very tough challenges ahead.
• 1:04:39
  But we're tough people.
• 1:04:40
  All of us are tough people.
• 1:04:42
  We've been through wars, through depression, through national crises and national tragedies.
• 1:04:49
  We're still America.
• 1:04:52
  And that still means something.
• 1:04:54
  And I've said many times as I've traveled around America, you know, we're not perfect.
• 1:05:01
  People complain about America, people complain about politicians in Congress, maybe even state legislatures.
• 1:05:08
  Probably not as much.
• 1:05:13
  But that's part of the American system.
• 1:05:16
  That's part of freedom.
• 1:05:17
  We wouldn't have it any other way.
• 1:05:20
  But in all the 27 years, 27 plus years I've been in the Congress of the United States, I'm still waiting to receive the first letter from any of my constituents in Kansas saying, Bob, get me out of this awful country.
• 1:05:36
  But I've had a lot of letters and a lot of phone calls and a few personal tearful meetings with people saying, Can you get my mother into America?
• 1:05:47
  Can you get my children into America?
• 1:05:51
  And I think that pretty much says it all.
• 1:05:55
  And being here in New Hampshire, where your state motto is live, free, or die, being here in this state legislature, I see and I sense and I think I know what America means.
• 1:06:07
  It means individuals like all of us.
• 1:06:10
  Proud individuals.
• 1:06:12
  It means groups and communities working together.
• 1:06:18
  It means parties and politicians competing freely as only we can in America.
• 1:06:24
  And finally it means freedom.
• 1:06:28
  We wouldn't trade our system for any other system in the world.
• 1:06:34
  You wouldn't trade your legislature for any other legislature in America.
• 1:06:40
  I wouldn't trade my years in Congress and my years in the state legislature for many experiences.
• 1:06:46
  Got one in mind.
• 1:06:48
  But I've had a great deal of fun.
• 1:06:51
  A great many opportunities, a great many challenges.
• 1:06:55
  And all this means one thing.
• 1:06:59
  It all means that in America we're free.
• 1:07:02
  It all means in America we can do just about anything we're able to do.
• 1:07:07
  We can fulfill our potential.
• 1:07:11
  But above all, it means freedom.
• 1:07:14
  Freedom ringing loudly and clearly and consistently and on and on forever.
• 1:07:21
  And that's what America's all about.
• 1:07:24
  I'd like to think that's what Bob Dole's all about.
• 1:07:28
  Small town traditional values.