George Bush's nomination acceptance speech - 2000 (a reminder)

[Solly Mack]

a bitter reminder

Warning: Your head might explode...or you might fall off your chair laughing


Governor George W. Bush - Acceptance Speech
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Thursday, August 3, 2000

Mr. Chairman, delegates, and my fellow citizens ... I accept your nomination. Thank you for this honor. Together, we will renew America's purpose.

Our founders first defined that purpose here in Philadelphia ... Ben Franklin was here. Thomas Jefferson. And, of course, George Washington -- or, as his friends called him, "George W."

I am proud to have Dick Cheney at my side. He is a man of integrity and sound judgment, who has proven that public service can be noble service. America will be proud to have a leader of such character to succeed Al Gore as Vice President of the United States.

I am grateful for John McCain and the other candidates who sought this nomination. Their convictions strengthen our party.

I am especially grateful tonight to my family.

No matter what else I do in life, asking Laura to marry me was the best decision I ever made.

To our daughters, Barbara and Jenna, we love you, we're proud of you, and as you head off to college this fall ... ... Don't stay out too late, and e-mail your old dad once in a while, will you?

And mother, everyone loves you and so do I.

Growing up, she gave me love and lots of advice. I gave her white hair. And I want to thank my father -- the most decent man I have ever known. All my life I have been amazed that a gentle soul could be so strong. And Dad, I want you to know how proud I am to be your son.

My father was the last president of a great generation. A generation of Americans who stormed beaches, liberated concentration camps and delivered us from evil.

Some never came home.

Those who did put their medals in drawers, went to work, and built on a heroic scale ... highways and universities, suburbs and factories, great cities and grand alliances -- the strong foundations of an American Century.

Now the question comes to the sons and daughters of this achievement...

What is asked of us?

This is a remarkable moment in the life of our nation. Never has the promise of prosperity been so vivid. But times of plenty, like times of crisis, are tests of American character.

Prosperity can be a tool in our hands -- used to build and better our country. Or it can be a drug in our system -- dulling our sense of urgency, of empathy, of duty.

Our opportunities are too great, our lives too short, to waste this moment.

So tonight we vow to our nation ...

We will seize this moment of American promise.

We will use these good times for great goals.

We will confront the hard issues -- threats to our national security, threats to our health and retirement security -- before the challenges of our time become crises for our children.

And we will extend the promise of prosperity to every forgotten corner of this country.

To every man and woman, a chance to succeed. To every child, a chance to learn. To every family, a chance to live with dignity and hope.

For eight years, the Clinton/Gore administration has coasted through prosperity.

And the path of least resistance is always downhill.

But America's way is the rising road.

This nation is daring and decent and ready for change.

Our current president embodied the potential of a generation. So many talents. So much charm. Such great skill. But, in the end, to what end? So much promise, to no great purpose.

Little more than a decade ago, the Cold War thawed and, with the leadership of Presidents Reagan and Bush, that wall came down.

But instead of seizing this moment, the Clinton/Gore administration has squandered it. We have seen a steady erosion of American power and an unsteady exercise of American influence.

Our military is low on parts, pay and morale.

If called on by the commander-in-chief today, two entire divisions of the Army would have to report ... Not ready for duty, sir.

This administration had its moment.

They had their chance. They have not led. We will.

This generation was given the gift of the best education in American history. Yet we do not share that gift with everyone. Seven of ten fourth-graders in our highest poverty schools cannot read a simple children's book.

And still this administration continues on the same old path with the same old programs -- while millions are trapped in schools where violence is common and learning is rare.

This administration had its chance. They have not led. We will.

America has a strong economy and a surplus. We have the public resources and the public will -- even the bipartisan opportunities -- to strengthen Social Security and repair Medicare.

But this administration -- during eight years of increasing need -- did nothing.

They had their moment. They have not led. We will.

Our generation has a chance to reclaim some essential values -- to show we have grown up before we grow old.

But when the moment for leadership came, this administration did not teach our children, it disillusioned them.

They had their chance. They have not led. We will.

And now they come asking for another chance, another shot.

Our answer?

Not this time.

Not this year.

This is not a time for third chances, it is a time for new beginnings. The rising generations of this country have our own appointment with greatness.

It does not rise or fall with the stock market. It cannot be bought with our wealth.

Greatness is found when American character and American courage overcome American challenges.

When Lewis Morris of New York was about to sign the Declaration of Independence, his brother advised against it, warning he would lose all his property.

Morris, a plain-spoken Founder, responded ... "Damn the consequences, give me the pen." That is the eloquence of American action.

We heard it during World War II, when General Eisenhower told paratroopers on D-Day morning not to worry -- and one replied, "We're not worried, General ... It's Hitler's turn to worry now."

We heard it in the civil rights movement, when brave men and women did not say ... "We shall cope," or "We shall see." They said ... "We shall overcome."

An American president must call upon that character.

Tonight, in this hall, we resolve to be, not the party of repose, but the party of reform.

We will write, not footnotes, but chapters in the American story.

We will add the work of our hands to the inheritance of our fathers and mothers -- and leave this nation greater than we found it.

We know the tests of leadership. The issues are joined.

We will strengthen Social Security and Medicare for the greatest generation, and for generations to come.

Medicare does more than meet the needs of our elderly, it reflects the values of our society.

We will set it on firm financial ground, and make prescription drugs available and affordable for every senior who needs them.

Social Security has been called the "third rail of American politics" -- the one you're not supposed to touch because it shocks you.

But, if you don't touch it, you can't fix it. And I intend to fix it.

To seniors in this country ... You earned your benefits, you made your plans, and President George W. Bush will keep the promise of Social Security ... no changes, no reductions, no way.

Our opponents will say otherwise. This is their last, parting ploy, and don't believe a word of it.

Now is the time for Republicans and Democrats to end the politics of fear and save Social Security, together.

For younger workers, we will give you the option -- your choice -- to put a part of your payroll taxes into sound, responsible investments.

This will mean a higher return on your money, and, over 30 or 40 years, a nest egg to help your retirement, or pass along to your children.

When this money is in your name, in your account, it's not just a program, it's your property.

Now is the time to give American workers security and independence that no politician can ever take away.

On education ... Too many American children are segregated into schools without standards, shuffled from grade-to-grade because of their age, regardless of their knowledge.

This is discrimination, pure and simple -- the soft bigotry of low expectations.

And our nation should treat it like other forms of discrimination ... We should end it.

One size does not fit all when it comes to educating our children, so local people should control local schools.

And those who spend your tax dollars must be held accountable.

When a school district receives federal funds to teach poor children, we expect them to learn. And if they don't, parents should get the money to make a different choice.

Now is the time to make Head Start an early learning program, teach all our children to read, and renew the promise of America's public schools. Another test of leadership is tax relief.

The last time taxes were this high as a percentage of our economy, there was a good reason ... We were fighting World War II.

Today, our high taxes fund a surplus. Some say that growing federal surplus means Washington has more money to spend.

But they've got it backwards.

The surplus is not the government's money. The surplus is the people's money.

I will use this moment of opportunity to bring common sense and fairness to the tax code.

And I will act on principle.

On principle ... every family, every farmer and small businessperson, should be free to pass on their life's work to those they love.

So we will abolish the death tax.

On principle ... no one in America should have to pay more than a third of their income to the federal government.

So we will reduce tax rates for everyone, in every bracket.

On principle ... those in the greatest need should receive the greatest help.

So we will lower the bottom rate from 15 percent to 10 percent and double the child tax credit.

Now is the time to reform the tax code and share some of the surplus with the people who pay the bills.

The world needs America's strength and leadership, and America's armed forces need better equipment, better training, and better pay.

We will give our military the means to keep the peace, and we will give it one thing more ... a commander-in-chief who respects our men and women in uniform, and a commander-in-chief who earns their respect.

A generation shaped by Vietnam must remember the lessons of Vietnam.

When America uses force in the world, the cause must be just, the goal must be clear, and the victory must be overwhelming.

I will work to reduce nuclear weapons and nuclear tension in the world -- to turn these years of influence into decades of peace.

And, at the earliest possible date, my administration will deploy missile defenses to guard against attack and blackmail.

Now is the time, not to defend outdated treaties, but to defend the American people.

A time of prosperity is a test of vision. And our nation today needs vision. That is a fact ... or as my opponent might call it, a "risky truth scheme." Every one of the proposals I've talked about tonight, he has called a "risky scheme," over and over again.

It is the sum of his message -- the politics of the roadblock, the philosophy of the stop sign.

If my opponent had been there at the moon launch, it would have been a "risky rocket scheme."

If he'd been there when Edison was testing the light bulb, it would have been a "risky anti-candle scheme."

And if he'd been there when the Internet was invented well ... I understand he actually was there for that.

He now leads the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But the only thing he has to offer is fear itself.

That outlook is typical of many in Washington -- always seeing the tunnel at the end of the light.

But I come from a different place, and it has made me a different leader. In Midland, Texas, where I grew up, the town motto was "the sky is the limit" ... and we believed it.

There was a restless energy, a basic conviction that, with hard work, anybody could succeed, and everybody deserved a chance.

Our sense of community was just as strong as that sense of promise.

Neighbors helped each other. There were dry wells and sandstorms to keep you humble, and lifelong friends to take your side, and churches to remind us that every soul is equal in value and equal in need.

This background leaves more than an accent, it leaves an outlook.

Optimistic. Impatient with pretense. Confident that people can chart their own course.

That background may lack the polish of Washington. Then again, I don't have a lot of things that come with Washington.

I don't have enemies to fight. And I have no stake in the bitter arguments of the last few years. I want to change the tone of Washington to one of civility and respect.

The largest lesson I learned in Midland still guides me as governor ... Everyone, from immigrant to entrepreneur, has an equal claim on this country's promise.

So we improved our schools, dramatically, for children of every accent, of every background.

We moved people from welfare to work.

We strengthened our juvenile justice laws.

Our budgets have been balanced, with surpluses, and we cut taxes not only once, but twice.

We accomplished a lot.

I don't deserve all the credit, and don't attempt to take it. I worked with Republicans and Democrats to get things done.

A bittersweet part of tonight is that someone is missing, the late Lt. Governor of Texas Bob Bullock.

Bob was a Democrat, a crusty veteran of Texas politics, and my great friend.

He worked by my side, endorsed my re-election, and I know he is with me in spirit in saying to those who would malign our state for political gain... Don't mess with Texas.

As governor, I've made difficult decisions, and stood by them under pressure. I've been where the buck stops -- in business and in government. I've been a chief executive who sets an agenda, sets big goals, and rallies people to believe and achieve them.

I am proud of this record, and I'm prepared for the work ahead.

If you give me your trust, I will honor it ... Grant me a mandate, and I will use it... Give me the opportunity to lead this nation, and I will lead ...

And we need a leader to seize the opportunities of this new century -- the new cures of medicine, the amazing technologies that will drive our economy and keep the peace.

But our new economy must never forget the old, unfinished struggle for human dignity.

And here we face a challenge to the very heart and founding premise of our nation.

A couple of years ago, I visited a juvenile jail in Marlin, Texas, and talked with a group of young inmates. They were angry, wary kids. All had committed grownup crimes.

Yet when I looked in their eyes, I realized some of them were still little boys.

Toward the end of conversation, one young man, about 15, raised his hand and asked a haunting question... "What do you think of me?"

He seemed to be asking, like many Americans who struggle ... "Is there hope for me? Do I have a chance?" And, frankly ... "Do you, a white man in a suit, really care what happens to me?"

A small voice, but it speaks for so many. Single moms struggling to feed the kids and pay the rent. Immigrants starting a hard life in a new world. Children without fathers in neighborhoods where gangs seem like friendship, where drugs promise peace, and where sex, sadly, seems like the closest thing to belonging. We are their country, too.

And each of us must share in its promise, or that promise is diminished for all.

If that boy in Marlin believes he is trapped and worthless and hopeless -- if he believes his life has no value, then other lives have no value to him -- and we are ALL diminished.

When these problems aren't confronted, it builds a wall within our nation. On one side are wealth and technology, education and ambition.

On the other side of the wall are poverty and prison, addiction and despair.

And, my fellow Americans, we must tear down that wall.

Big government is not the answer. But the alternative to bureaucracy is not indifference.

It is to put conservative values and conservative ideas into the thick of the fight for justice and opportunity.

This is what I mean by compassionate conservatism. And on this ground we will govern our nation.

We will give low-income Americans tax credits to buy the private health insurance they need and deserve.

We will transform today's housing rental program to help hundreds of thousands of low-income families find stability and dignity in a home of their own.

And, in the next bold step of welfare reform, we will support the heroic work of homeless shelters and hospices, food pantries and crisis pregnancy centers -- people reclaiming their communities block-by-block and heart-by-heart.

I think of Mary Jo Copeland, whose ministry called "Sharing and Caring Hands" serves 1,000 meals a week in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Each day, Mary Jo washes the feet of the homeless, then sends them off with new socks and shoes.

"Look after your feet," she tells them ...... "They must carry you a long way in this world, and then all the way to God."

Government cannot do this work. It can feed the body, but it cannot reach the soul. Yet government can take the side of these groups, helping the helper, encouraging the inspired.

My administration will give taxpayers new incentives to donate to charity, encourage after-school programs that build character, and support mentoring groups that shape and save young lives.

We must give our children a spirit of moral courage, because their character is our destiny.

We must tell them, with clarity and confidence, that drugs and alcohol can destroy you, and bigotry disfigures the heart.

Our schools must support the ideals of parents, elevating character and abstinence from afterthoughts to urgent goals.

We must help protect our children, in our schools and streets, by finally and strictly enforcing our nation's gun laws.

Most of all, we must teach our children the values that defeat violence. I will lead our nation toward a culture that values life -- the life of the elderly and the sick, the life of the young, and the life of the unborn. I know good people disagree on this issue, but surely we can agree on ways to value life by promoting adoption and parental notification, and when Congress sends me a bill against partial-birth abortion, I will sign it into law.

Behind every goal I have talked about tonight is a great hope for our country.

A hundred years from now, this must not be remembered as an age rich in possessions and poor in ideals.

Instead, we must usher in an era of responsibility.

My generation tested limits -- and our country, in some ways, is better for it.

Women are now treated more equally. Racial progress has been steady, if still too slow. We are learning to protect the natural world around us. We will continue this progress, and we will not turn back.

At times, we lost our way. But we are coming home.

So many of us held our first child, and saw a better self reflected in her eyes.

And in that family love, many have found the sign and symbol of an even greater love, and have been touched by faith.

We have discovered that who we are is more important than what we have. And we know we must renew our values to restore our country.

This is the vision of America's founders.

They never saw our nation's greatness in rising wealth or advancing armies, but in small, unnumbered acts of caring and courage and self-denial.

Their highest hope, as Robert Frost described it, was "to occupy the land with character."

And that, 13 generations later, is still our goal ... to occupy the land with character.

In a responsibility era, each of us has important tasks -- work that only we can do.

Each of us is responsible ... to love and guide our children, and help a neighbor in need.

Synagogues, churches and mosques are responsible ... not only to worship but to serve.

Corporations are responsible ... to treat their workers fairly, and leave the air and waters clean.

Our nation's leaders are responsible ... to confront problems, not pass them on to others.

And to lead this nation to a responsibility era, a president himself must be responsible.

And so, when I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear to not only uphold the laws of our land, I will swear to uphold the honor and dignity of the office to which I have been elected, so help me God.

I believe the presidency -- the final point of decision in the American government -- was made for great purposes.

It is the office of Lincoln's conscience and Teddy Roosevelt's energy and Harry Truman's integrity and Ronald Reagan's optimism.

For me, gaining this office is not the ambition of a lifetime, but it IS the opportunity of a lifetime.

And I will make the most of it. I believe great decisions are made with care, made with conviction, not made with polls.

I do not need to take your pulse before I know my own mind. I do not reinvent myself at every turn. I am not running in borrowed clothes. When I act, you will know my reasons ...When I speak, you will know my heart.

I believe in tolerance, not in spite of my faith, but because of it.

I believe in a God who calls us, not to judge our neighbors, but to love them.

I believe in grace, because I have seen it ... In peace, because I have felt it ... In forgiveness, because I have needed it.

I believe true leadership is a process of addition, not an act of division. I will not attack a part of this country, because I want to lead the whole of it.

And I believe this will be a tough race, down to the wire.

Their war room is up and running ... but we are ready. Their attacks will be relentless ... but they will be answered. We are facing something familiar, but they are facing something new.

We are now the party of ideas and innovation ... The party of idealism and inclusion.

The party of a simple and powerful hope ...

My fellow citizens, we can begin again. After all of the shouting, and all of the scandal. After all of the bitterness and broken faith. We can begin again.

The wait has been long, but it won't be long now.

A prosperous nation is ready to renew its purpose and unite behind great goals ... and it won't be long now.

Our nation must renew the hopes of that boy I talked with in jail, and so many like him... and it won't be long now.

Our country is ready for high standards and new leaders ... and it won't be long now.

An era of tarnished ideals is giving way to a responsibility era ... and it won't be long now.

I know how serious the task is before me.

I know the presidency is an office that turns pride into prayer.

But I am eager to start on the work ahead.

And I believe America is ready for a new beginning.

My friend, the artist Tom Lea of El Paso, captured the way I feel about our great land.

He and his wife, he said, "live on the east side of the mountain ...

It is the sunrise side, not the sunset side.

It is the side to see the day that is coming ... not the side to see the day that is gone."

Americans live on the sunrise side of mountain.

The night is passing.

And we are ready for the day to come.

Thank you. And God bless you.



And if you're not gasping for breath yet (from laughing)...or your head has yet to explode...




Dick Cheney
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Wednesday, August 2, 2000

Mr. Chairman, delegates, and fellow citizens:

I am honored by your nomination, and I accept it.

I thank you for giving such a warm welcome to Lynne and me and our family.

And, my friends in the Wyoming delegation, I especially want to thank you for your support.

The first campaign stop that Lynne and I were privileged to make with Governor and Laura Bush was in Casper, Wyoming ... our home town, where Lynne and I graduated from high school 41 years ago.

The love and support and enthusiasm of the people of our home state, have buoyed our spirits and strengthened our resolve.

We are going to win this election.

We will prevail.

I have to tell you that I never expected to be in this position.

Eight years ago, when I completed my years as secretary of defense, I loaded a U Haul truck and drove home to Wyoming.

I didn't plan on a return to public office.

Lynne and I settled into a new private life.

There was time for fishing and grandchildren, and we were content.

But now I am glad to be back in the arena, and let me tell you why.

I have been given an opportunity to serve beside a man who has the courage, and the vision, and the goodness, to be a great president:

Governor George W. Bush.

I have been in the company of leaders.

I was there on August 9, 1974, when Gerald Ford assumed the presidency during our gravest constitutional crisis since the Civil War.

I saw how character and decency can dignify a great office and unite a great nation.

I was a congressman when another man of integrity lived in the White House.

I saw a president restore America's confidence, and prepare the foundation for victory in the cold war.

I saw how one man's will can set the nation on a new course.

I learned the meaning of leadership from President Ronald Reagan.

I left Congress to join the cabinet of President Reagan's successor.

And I'm proud to say that I'm not the only man on this ticket who has learned from the example of President George Bush.

I saw resolve in times of crisis...the steady hand that shaped an alliance and threw back a tyrant.

He earned the respect and confidence of the men and women of America's armed forces.

I have been in the company of leaders. I know what it takes.

And I see in our nominee the qualities of mind and spirit our nation needs, and our history demands.

Big changes are coming to Washington.

To serve with this man, in this cause, is a chance I would not miss.

This country has given me so much opportunity.

When Lynne and I were growing up, we had so many blessings.

We went to good public schools, where we had fine, dedicated teachers.

Our mothers, like our fathers, worked outside the home so that we could go to college.

We lived in a caring community, where parents were confident that their children's lives could be even better than their own.

And that is as it should be, and as it can be again.

We can make our public schools better.

We can reform the tax code, so that families can keep more of what they earn ...more dollars that they can spend on what they value, rather than on what the government thinks is important.

We can restore the ideals of honesty and honor that must be a part of our national life, if our children are to thrive.

When I look at the administration now in Washington, I am dismayed by opportunities squandered.

Saddened by what might have been, but never was.

These have been years of prosperity in our land, but little purpose in the White House.

Bill Clinton vowed not long ago to hold onto power "until the last hour of the last day."

That is his right.

But, my friends, that last hour is coming.

That last day is near.

The wheel has turned ... and it is time...it is time for them to go.

George W. Bush will repair what has been damaged.

He is a man without pretense and without cynicism. A man of principle, a man of honor.

On the first hour of the first day...he will restore decency and integrity to the oval office.

He will show us that national leaders can be true to their word...and that they can get things done by reaching across the partisan aisle, and working with political opponents in good faith and common purpose.

I know he'll do these things, because for the last five years I've watched him do them in Texas.

George W. Bush came to the Governor's office with a clear view of what he wanted to achieve.

He said he would bring higher standards to public schools, and he has.

Walk into those schools today, and you will see children with better scores ... classrooms with better discipline...and teachers with better pay.

He pledged to reduce taxes, and he has. He did it twice, with the biggest tax reduction in state history.

And not only is the budget in balance, it's running a surplus of more than a billion dollars.

He promised to reform the legal system...to get rid of junk lawsuits...and he has.

Today the legal system serves all the people, not just the trial lawyers.

None of these reforms came easily.

When he took office, both houses of the Legislature were controlled by Democrats, and the House of Representatives still is.

But Governor Bush doesn't accept old lines of argument and division.

He brings people together...reaching across party lines to do the people's business.

He leads by conviction, not calculation.

You will never see him pointing the finger of blame for failure...you will only see him sharing the credit for success. That is exactly the spirit that is missing from Washington.

In the last eight years, that city has often become a scene of bitterness, and ill will, and partisan strife. American politics has always been a tough business...even in 1787 here in Philadelphia, when George Washington himself wondered if delegates could ever agree on a constitution.

They did agree, as Americans always have when it mattered most...guided by the public interest and a decent regard for one another. But in Washington today, politics has become war by other means...an endless onslaught of accusation...a constant setting of groups one against the other.

This is what Bill Bradley was up against, and others before him.

The Gore campaign, Senator Bradley said, is "a thousand promises, a thousand attacks."

We are all a little weary of the Clinton-Gore routine.

But the wheel has turned.

And it is time...it is time for them to go.

In this election, they will speak endlessly of risk.. we will speak of progress.

They will make accusations...we will make proposals.

They will feed fear...we will appeal to hope.

They will offer more lectures, and legalisms, and carefully worded denials. (LMAO)

We offer another way...a better way... and a stiff dose of truth.

For eight years, the achievement gap in our schools has grown worse...poor and disadvantaged children falling further and further behind.

For all of their sentimental talk about children, Clinton and Gore have done nothing to help children oppressed by bureaucracy, monopoly, and mediocrity.

But those days are ending.

When George W. Bush is President and I am Vice President, tests will be taken, results will be measured, and schools will answer to parents...and no child will be left behind.

For eight years, Clinton and Gore have talked about Social Security reform...never acting, never once offering a serious plan to save the system.

In the time left to them, I have every confidence they'll go right on talking about it.

Those days are passing too.

There will be no more spreading of fear and panic...no more dividing of generations against one another...no more delaying and excuse making and shirking of our duties to the elderly.

George W. Bush and I, with the united Congress, will save Social Security.

For eight years, Clinton and Gore have extended our military commitments while depleting our military power.

Rarely has so much been demanded of our armed forces, and so little given to them in return.

George W. Bush and I are going to change that, too.

I have seen our military at its finest...with the best equipment, the best training, and the best leadership.

I'm proud of them.

I have had the responsibility for their wellbeing.

And I can promise them now...help is on the way.

Soon, our men and women in uniform will once again have a commander- in-chief they can respect.. one who understands their mission and restores their morale.

And now, as the man from Hope goes home to New York...Mr. Gore tries to separate himself from his leader's shadow.

But somehow we will never see one without thinking of the other. Does anyone
... Republican or Democrat
... seriously believe that under Mr. Gore, the next four years would be any different from the last eight?

If the goal is to unite our country ... to make a fresh start in Washington
... to change the tone of our politics
... can anyone say with conviction that the man for the job is Al Gore?

They came in together.

Now let us see them off together.

Ladies and gentlemen, the wheel has turned, and it is time

... it is time for them to go.

This campaign will not be easy.

Governor Bush and I face a real fight.

We're ready for it.

We know the territory, we know the opposition, and we know what's at stake.

We will give all we have to this cause.

And in the end, with your help, George W. Bush will defeat this vice president, and I will replace him.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are so privileged to be citizens of this great republic.

I was reminded of that time and again when I was in my former job, as Secretary of Defense.

I traveled a lot...and when I came home, my plane would land at Andrews Air Force Base, and I'd return to the Pentagon by helicopter.

When you make that trip from Andrews to the Pentagon, and you look down on the city of Washington, one of the first things you see is the Capitol, where all the great debates that have shaped 200 years of American history have taken place.

You fly down along the Mall and see the monument to George Washington, a structure as grand as the man himself.

To the north is the White House, where John Adams once prayed "that none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof."

Next you see the memorial to Thomas Jefferson, the third president and the author of our Declaration of Independence.

And then you fly over the memorial to Abraham Lincoln...this greatest of presidents, the man who saved the union.

Then you cross the Potomac, on approach to the Pentagon.

But just before you settle down on the landing pad, you look upon Arlington National Cemetery...its gentle slopes and crosses row on row.

I never once made that trip without being reminded how enormously fortunate we all are to be Americans, and what a terrible price thousands have paid so that all of us ...and millions more around the world...might live in freedom.

This is a great country, ladies and gentlemen, and it deserves great leadership.

Let us go forth from this hall in confidence and courage, committed to restoring decency and honor to our republic.

Let us go forth, knowing that our cause is just, and elect George W. Bush the forty third president of the United States.

Thank you.

Source: George W. Bush 2000 Campaign Web Site