|
 |
Republican National Convention
Full text of
Mitt Romney’s speech
August 30, 2012
Mr. Chairman, delegates. I accept your nomination for President of the
United States of America.
I do so with humility, deeply moved by the trust you have placed in me.
It is a great honor. It is an even greater responsibility.
Tonight I am asking you to join me to walk together to a better future.
By my side, I have chosen a man with a big heart from a small town. He
represents the best of America, a man who will always make us proud –
my friend and America’s next Vice President, Paul Ryan.
In the days ahead, you will get to know Paul and Janna better. But last
night America got to see what I saw in Paul Ryan – a strong and caring
leader who is down to earth and confident in the challenge this moment
demands.
I love the way he lights up around his kids and how he's not
embarrassed to show the world how much he loves his mom.
But Paul, I still like the playlist on my iPod better than yours.
Four years ago, I know that many Americans felt a fresh excitement
about the possibilities of a new president. That president was not the
choice of our party but Americans always come together after elections.
We are a good and generous people who are united by so much more than
what divides us.
When that hard fought election was over, when the yard signs came down
and the television commercials finally came off the air, Americans were
eager to go back to work, to live our lives the way Americans always
have – optimistic and positive and confident in the future.
That very optimism is uniquely American.
It is what brought us to America. We are a nation of immigrants. We are
the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the ones who
wanted a better life, the driven ones, the ones who woke up at night
hearing that voice telling them that life in that place called America
could be better.
They came not just in pursuit of the riches of this world but for the
richness of this life.
Freedom.
Freedom of religion.
Freedom to speak their mind.
Freedom to build a life.
And yes, freedom to build a business. With their own hands.
This is the essence of the American experience.
We Americans have always felt a special kinship with the future.
When every new wave of immigrants looked up and saw the Statue of
Liberty, or knelt down and kissed the shores of freedom just ninety
miles from Castro’s tyranny, these new Americans surely had many
questions. But none doubted that here in America they could build a
better life, that in America their children would be more blessed than
they.
But today, four years from the excitement of the last election, for the
first time, the majority of Americans now doubt that our children will
have a better future.
It is not what we were promised.
Every family in America wanted this to be a time when they could get
ahead a little more, put aside a little more for college, do more for
their elderly mom who’s living alone now or give a little more to their
church or charity.
Every small business wanted these to be their best years ever, when
they could hire more, do more for those who had stuck with them through
the hard times, open a new store or sponsor that Little League team.
Every new college graduate thought they'd have a good job by now, a
place of their own, and that they could start paying back some of their
loans and build for the future.
This is when our nation was supposed to start paying down the national
debt and rolling back those massive deficits.
This was the hope and change America voted for.
It’s not just what we wanted. It’s not just what we expected.
It’s what Americans deserved.
You deserved it because during these years, you worked harder than ever
before. You deserved it because when it cost more to fill up your car,
you cut out movie nights and put in longer hours. Or when you lost that
job that paid $22.50 an hour with benefits, you took two jobs at 9
bucks an hour and fewer benefits. You did it because your family
depended on you. You did it because you’re an American and you don’t
quit. You did it because it was what you had to do.
But driving home late from that second job, or standing there watching
the gas pump hit 50 dollars and still going, when the realtor told you
that to sell your house you’d have to take a big loss, in those moments
you knew that this just wasn’t right.
But what could you do? Except work harder, do with less, try to stay
optimistic. Hug your kids a little longer; maybe spend a little more
time praying that tomorrow would be a better day.
I wish President Obama had succeeded because I want America to succeed.
But his promises gave way to disappointment and division. This
isn't something we have to accept. Now is the moment when we CAN do
something. With your help we will do something.
Now is the moment when we can stand up and say, “I’m an American. I
make my destiny. And we deserve better! My children deserve better! My
family deserves better. My country deserves better!”
So here we stand. Americans have a choice. A decision.
To make that choice, you need to know more about me and about where I
will lead our country.
I was born in the middle of the century in the middle of the country, a
classic baby boomer. It was a time when Americans were returning
from war and eager to work. To be an American was to assume that all
things were possible. When President Kennedy challenged Americans
to go to the moon, the question wasn’t whether we'd get there, it was
only when we'd get there.
The soles of Neil Armstrong's boots on the moon made permanent
impressions on OUR souls and in our national psyche. Ann and I watched
those steps together on her parent's sofa. Like all Americans we went
to bed that night knowing we lived in the greatest country in the
history of the world.
God bless Neil Armstrong.
Tonight that American flag is still there on the moon. And I don't
doubt for a second that Neil Armstrong's spirit is still with us: that
unique blend of optimism, humility and the utter confidence that when
the world needs someone to do the really big stuff, you need an
American.
That's how I was brought up.
My dad had been born in Mexico and his family had to leave during the
Mexican revolution. I grew up with stories of his family being fed by
the US Government as war refugees. My dad never made it through college
and apprenticed as a lath and plaster carpenter. And he had big dreams.
He convinced my mom, a beautiful young actress, to give up Hollywood to
marry him. He moved to Detroit, led a great automobile company and
became Governor of the Great State of Michigan.
We were Mormons and growing up in Michigan; that might have seemed
unusual or out of place but I really don’t remember it that way. My
friends cared more about what sports teams we followed than what church
we went to.
My mom and dad gave their kids the greatest gift of all – the gift of
unconditional love. They cared deeply about who we would BE, and much
less about what we would DO.
Unconditional love is a gift that Ann and I have tried to pass on to
our sons and now to our grandchildren. All the laws and
legislation in the world will never heal this world like the loving
hearts and arms of mothers and fathers. If every child could drift to
sleep feeling wrapped in the love of their family – and God’s love --
this world would be a far more gentle and better place.
Mom and Dad were married 64 years. And if you wondered what their
secret was, you could have asked the local florist – because every day
Dad gave Mom a rose, which he put on her bedside table. That's how she
found out what happened on the day my father died – she went looking
for him because that morning, there was no rose.
My mom and dad were true partners, a life lesson that shaped me by
everyday example. When my mom ran for the Senate, my dad was there for
her every step of the way. I can still hear her saying in her beautiful
voice, “Why should women have any less say than men, about the great
decisions facing our nation?”
I wish she could have been here at the convention and heard leaders
like Governor Mary Fallin, Governor Nikki Haley, Governor Susana
Martinez, Senator Kelly Ayotte and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
As Governor of Massachusetts, I chose a woman Lt. Governor, a
woman chief of staff, half of my cabinet and senior officials were
women, and in business, I mentored and supported great women leaders
who went on to run great companies.
I grew up in Detroit in love with cars and wanted to be a car guy, like
my dad. But by the time I was out of school, I realized that I had to
go out on my own, that if I stayed around Michigan in the same
business, I’d never really know if I was getting a break because of my
dad. I wanted to go someplace new and prove myself.
Those weren’t the easiest of days – too many long hours and weekends
working, five young sons who seemed to have this need to re-enact a
different world war every night. But if you ask Ann and I what we’d
give, to break up just one more fight between the boys, or wake up in
the morning and discover a pile of kids asleep in our room. Well, every
mom and dad knows the answer to that.
Those days were toughest on Ann, of course. She was heroic. Five boys,
with our families a long way away. I had to travel a lot for my job
then and I’d call and try to offer support. But every mom knows that
doesn't help get the homework done or the kids out the door to school.
I knew that her job as a mom was harder than mine. And I knew without
question, that her job as a mom was a lot more important than mine. And
as America saw Tuesday night, Ann would have succeeded at anything she
wanted to.
Like a lot of families in a new place with no family, we found kinship
with a wide circle of friends through our church. When we were new to
the community it was welcoming and as the years went by, it was a joy
to help others who had just moved to town or just joined our church. We
had remarkably vibrant and diverse congregants from all walks of life
and many who were new to America. We prayed together, our kids played
together and we always stood ready to help each other out in different
ways.
And that’s how it is in America. We look to our communities, our
faiths, our families for our joy, our support, in good times and bad.
It is both how we live our lives and why we live our lives. The
strength and power and goodness of America has always been based on the
strength and power and goodness of our communities, our families, our
faiths.
That is the bedrock of what makes America, America. In our best days,
we can feel the vibrancy of America’s communities, large and small.
It’s when we see that new business opening up downtown. It’s when we go
to work in the morning and see everybody else on our block doing the
same.
It’s when our son or daughter calls from college to talk about which
job offer they should take….and you try not to choke up when you hear
that the one they like is not far from home.
It’s that good feeling when you have more time to volunteer to coach
your kid’s soccer team, or help out on school trips.
But for too many Americans, these good days are harder to come by. How
many days have you woken up feeling that something really special was
happening in America?
Many of you felt that way on Election Day four years ago. Hope and
Change had a powerful appeal. But tonight I'd ask a simple
question: If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack
Obama, shouldn’t you feel that way now that he’s President Obama? You
know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as
president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.
The President hasn’t disappointed you because he wanted to. The
President has disappointed America because he hasn’t led America in the
right direction. He took office without the basic qualification that
most Americans have and one that was essential to his task. He had
almost no experience working in a business. Jobs to him are about
government.
I learned the real lessons about how America works from experience.
When I was 37, I helped start a small company. My partners and I had
been working for a company that was in the business of helping other
businesses.
So some of us had this idea that if we really believed our advice was
helping companies, we should invest in companies. We should bet on
ourselves and on our advice.
So we started a new business called Bain Capital. The only problem was,
while WE believed in ourselves, nobody else did. We were young and had
never done this before and we almost didn’t get off the ground. In
those days, sometimes I wondered if I had made a really big mistake. I
had thought about asking my church’s pension fund to invest, but I
didn't. I figured it was bad enough that I might lose my investors’
money, but I didn’t want to go to hell too. Shows what I know. Another
of my partners got the Episcopal Church pension fund to invest. Today
there are a lot of happy retired priests who should thank him.
That business we started with 10 people has now grown into a great
American success story. Some of the companies we helped start are names
you know. An office supply company called Staples – where I'm
pleased to see the Obama campaign has been shopping; The Sports
Authority, which became a favorite of my sons. We started an early
childhood learning center called Bright Horizons that First Lady
Michelle Obama rightly praised. At a time when nobody thought we'd ever
see a new steel mill built in America, we took a chance and built one
in a corn field in Indiana. Today Steel Dynamics is one of the largest
steel producers in the United States.
These are American success stories. And yet the centerpiece of the
President’s entire re-election campaign is attacking success. Is it any
wonder that someone who attacks success has led the worst economic
recovery since the Great Depression? In America, we celebrate success,
we don't apologize for it.
We weren’t always successful at Bain. But no one ever is in the
real world of business.
That’s what this President doesn’t seem to understand. Business and
growing jobs is about taking risk, sometimes failing, sometimes
succeeding, but always striving. It is about dreams. Usually, it
doesn't work out exactly as you might have imagined. Steve Jobs was
fired at Apple. He came back and changed the world.
It’s the genius of the American free enterprise system – to harness the
extraordinary creativity and talent and industry of the American people
with a system that is dedicated to creating tomorrow’s prosperity
rather than trying to redistribute today's.
That is why every president since the Great Depression who came before
the American people asking for a second term could look back at the
last four years and say with satisfaction: "you are better off today
than you were four years ago."
Except Jimmy Carter. And except this president.
This president can ask us to be patient.
This president can tell us it was someone else’s fault.
This president can tell us that the next four years he’ll get it right.
But this president cannot tell us that YOU are better off today than
when he took office.
America has been patient. Americans have supported this president in
good faith.
But today, the time has come to turn the page.
Today the time has come for us to put the disappointments of the last
four years behind us.
To put aside the divisiveness and the recriminations.
To forget about what might have been and to look ahead to what can be.
Now is the time to restore the Promise of America. Many Americans have
given up on this president but they haven’t ever thought about giving
up. Not on themselves. Not on each other. And not on America.
What is needed in our country today is not complicated or profound. It
doesn't take a special government commission to tell us what America
needs.
What America needs is jobs.
Lots of jobs.
In the richest country in the history of the world, this Obama economy
has crushed the middle class. Family income has fallen by $4,000, but
health insurance premiums are higher, food prices are higher, utility
bills are higher, and gasoline prices have doubled. Today more
Americans wake up in poverty than ever before. Nearly one out of six
Americans is living in poverty. Look around you. These are not
strangers. These are our brothers and sisters, our fellow Americans.
His policies have not helped create jobs, they have depressed them. And
this I can tell you about where President Obama would take America:
His plan to raise taxes on small business won't add jobs, it will
eliminate them;
His assault on coal and gas and oil will send energy and manufacturing
jobs to China;
His trillion dollar cuts to our military will eliminate hundreds of
thousands of jobs, and also put our security at greater risk;
His $716 billion cut to Medicare to finance Obamacare will both hurt
today's seniors, and depress innovation – and jobs – in medicine.
And his trillion-dollar deficits will slow our economy, restrain
employment, and cause wages to stall.
To the majority of Americans who now believe that the future will not
be better than the past, I can guarantee you this: if Barack Obama is
re-elected, you will be right.
I am running for president to help create a better future. A future
where everyone who wants a job can find one. Where no senior fears for
the security of their retirement. An America where every parent knows
that their child will get an education that leads them to a good job
and a bright horizon.
And unlike the President, I have a plan to create 12 million new jobs.
It has 5 steps.
First, by 2020, North America will be energy independent by taking full
advantage of our oil and coal and gas and nuclear and renewables.
Second, we will give our fellow citizens the skills they need for the
jobs of today and the careers of tomorrow. When it comes to the school
your child will attend, every parent should have a choice, and every
child should have a chance.
Third, we will make trade work for America by forging new trade
agreements. And when nations cheat in trade, there will be unmistakable
consequences.
Fourth, to assure every entrepreneur and every job creator that their
investments in America will not vanish as have those in Greece, we will
cut the deficit and put America on track to a balanced budget.
And fifth, we will champion SMALL businesses, America’s engine of job
growth. That means reducing taxes on business, not raising them. It
means simplifying and modernizing the regulations that hurt small
business the most. And it means that we must rein in the skyrocketing
cost of healthcare by repealing and replacing Obamacare.
Today, women are more likely than men to start a business. They need a
president who respects and understands what they do.
And let me make this very clear – unlike President Obama, I will not
raise taxes on the middle class.
As president, I will protect the sanctity of life. I will honor the
institution of marriage. And I will guarantee America's first liberty:
the freedom of religion.
President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and
heal the planet. MY promise...is to help you and your family.
I will begin my presidency with a jobs tour. President Obama began with
an apology tour. America, he said, had dictated to other nations. No
Mr. President, America has freed other nations from dictators.
Every American was relieved the day President Obama gave the order, and
Seal Team Six took out Osama bin Laden. But on another front, every
American is less secure today because he has failed to slow Iran's
nuclear threat.
In his first TV interview as president, he said we should talk to Iran.
We're still talking, and Iran’s centrifuges are still spinning.
President Obama has thrown allies like Israel under the bus, even as he
has relaxed sanctions on Castro's Cuba. He abandoned our friends in
Poland by walking away from our missile defense commitments, but is
eager to give Russia's President Putin the flexibility he desires,
after the election. Under my administration, our friends will see more
loyalty, and Mr. Putin will see a little less flexibility and more
backbone.
We will honor America’s democratic ideals because a free world is a
more peaceful world. This is the bipartisan foreign policy legacy of
Truman and Reagan. And under my presidency we will return to it once
again.
You might have asked yourself if these last years are really the
America we want, the America won for us by the greatest generation.
Does the America we want borrow a trillion dollars from China? No.
Does it fail to find the jobs that are needed for 23 million people and
for half the kids graduating from college? No.
Are its schools lagging behind the rest of the developed world? No.
And does the America we want succumb to resentment and division? We
know the answer.
The America we all know has been a story of the many becoming one,
uniting to preserve liberty, uniting to build the greatest economy in
the world, uniting to save the world from unspeakable darkness.
Everywhere I go in America, there are monuments that list those who
have given their lives for America. There is no mention of their race,
their party affiliation, or what they did for a living. They lived and
died under a single flag, fighting for a single purpose. They pledged
allegiance to the UNITED States of America.
That America, that united America, can unleash an economy that will put
Americans back to work, that will once again lead the world with
innovation and productivity, and that will restore every father and
mother's confidence that their children's future is brighter even than
the past.
That America, that united America, will preserve a military that is so
strong, no nation would ever dare to test it.
That America, that united America, will uphold the constellation of
rights that were endowed by our Creator, and codified in our
Constitution.
That united America will care for the poor and the sick, will honor and
respect the elderly, and will give a helping hand to those in need.
That America is the best within each of us. That America we want for
our children.
If I am elected President of these United States, I will work with all
my energy and soul to restore that America, to lift our eyes to a
better future. That future is our destiny. That future is out there. It
is waiting for us. Our children deserve it, our nation depends upon it,
the peace and freedom of the world require it. And with your help we
will deliver it. Let us begin that future together tonight.
|
|
|
|
