Lamar Alexander Announces Candidacy for Republican Presidential Nomination

Tell you this morning at about 6:30 we started getting a lot of phone calls and I stay headquarters office from people all over the state in New Hampshire he said we know Lamar Alexander is coming in New Hampshire today. But with the bad weather we have in the bad driving the events still on and we said are you kidding. The next president of the United States of America is coming to New Hampshire today and we are on schedule. Early early. Over the past year I and many of you have had the opportunity to come to know the modern honey and their family. And today starting here we will help you come help in the process of letting the rest of the country and letting the rest of the people in New Hampshire come to know Lamar Alexander and honey and their family the way we have. They will come to know him and respect him and support him. And 51 weeks from tonight when New Hampshire speaks Lamar Alexander will be victorious in

the New Hampshire primary. So from this historic from this historic town hall in the heart of New Hampshire it doesn't look like Arizona out there. This is New Hampshire from this historic town hall. I present to you the next president of the United States Lamar Alexander. Thank you Bill. Thank you. Bill let me add my thanks to all of you for braving this good New Hampshire winter weather. I've got my boots and white socks on under this suit. So I'm I'm learning as well. We had a wonderful beginning at the other end of these mountains in Tennessee. We as most of you know we live I grew up in the at the edge of the Great Smoky Mountains the other

end of the Appalachian Range in Tennessee a little town called Maryville Tennessee. And I want to talk with you about that for a few minutes this morning but that's where we came from. We've had a wonderful morning and I'm delighted to be here in New Hampshire I'm grateful to Bill Cahill for his leadership of our campaign here. This is going to be a grassroots campaign. Is welcome to join in a great many already have come to Tom Rath and Jean savage and Pat Griffin and many others who are here. I appreciate those members of the of the legislature who've come over and tour and Frank are here. I know I'll leave somebody out Donna's side tech is here. Gene Chandler and Doug Turner I saw saw them as well believe Ed Smith and John Warner here there may be maybe others. I believe. Where's the mayor of Manchester shit Ray. We had breakfast. There he is back there. We had breakfast just the other day. Thank you for. Coming on. Wait.

Wait. Wait was all right. Now I'm especially glad to to be in Hopkinton just a couple of weeks I suppose before your town meeting and I'm glad to be in New Hampshire because New Hampshire gives to someone like me someone who lives outside of Washington D.C. a chance to compete for the presidential nomination of this country. We're not electing a president in Washington D.C. We're electing a president the entire United States of America. And if it weren't for New Hampshire we wouldn't be able to have an open contest that included people from all over this country. The only candidate would come from Washington. And so I'm grateful to you and I'm grateful to you also because New Hampshire as the country has a lot to learn from New Hampshire about town meetings about local government about low taxes about unfunded mandates. And it's good to put the national spotlight here. So I think all of you know that I'm a big fan of New Hampshire and the New Hampshire primary

and I think it has to remain first in the nation. It would be un-American to take it out just as un-American is taking the Grand Ole Opry out of Tennessee. And so I'm all for keeping time. I'm grateful to my wife Honey and our oldest son Dhruv for being with me today for supporting me and giving and permitting me giving me the opportunity to lead this crusade to be the Republican nomination nominee for president of the United States. I'm grateful for that. Now here are a few of the things I'd like to say to you to you today. When I was appointed education secretary by President Bush one of the major newspapers wrote a little story about where I come from the place where I was this morning they said Mr. Alexander grew up in a lower middle class family in the mountains of eastern Tennessee which is all right with me but

not. I discovered when I called home with my mother who was literally reading Thessalonians to gather strength for how to deal with this slur on the family. She said we never thought of ourselves that way and she was there this morning. You had a library card from the day you were three and music lessons from the day you were before you had everything you needed that was important. During the last five decades I've had a chance to look at this country in that little town in which I grew up from a lot of directions. I've walked across our state in order to become governor. Last summer I drove across America our family even has lived outside the United States and had a chance to look back at. And I know that this is the place this is the place America is still the land of opportunity. I also know that not every child has the opportunity to imagine the opportunities that I had because of the privileges I had growing up in that

town. I believe I had those two things opportunities and privileges and that they go hand in hand. In 1991 I stood on a street corner in East Los Angeles with some children who gave me a book of their poems. These children were about to walk home through streets so dangerous that none of us would want to walk in them and the principal stands there every afternoon trying to discourage gangs from forming. The children who were 11 12 and 13 years old gave me a book of their poems entitled farewell to the morning. That was how they looked at their lives. That was not how I looked at my life. Just down the road from that town where I grew up with a library card to music lesson was my grandfather's house and he used to sit on the porch and rock and tell us aim for the top. There's more room there. And so we thought that we could be the railroad engineer like he had been or the principal like my father or that we could be the mayor of the town like Ray or the

governor of the state or even the president of the United States. That was our dream of the future. Some of our own children friends don't believe there is an American Dream anymore. And this past summer when I drove across America and spent the night with families asking them looking ahead 20 years. Do you believe your children and your grandchildren will have more opportunities growing up than you have had. Most people were afraid to say yes to that. When we lose that in America we're losing something very special because traditionally in America what's been special about our country is an irrational belief in our unlimited future and that every single one of us has a chance to have a piece of that. And when we lose that we lose what is unique and some of us are losing the promise of American life. I was reminded on that drive as well that as a country we know very well what to do about. And we know why it's

happening in the first place it's the arrogance of Washington D.C. And second it's a collapse of those basic institutions the family the neighborhood the church and the school they gave to me and to most of you the privileges that I had growing up the privileges that made me want to take my grandfather's advice. Aim for the top. There is more room there this anger at the arrogance of Washington D.C. and concern about this basic worry about what's happening to our country produced a Republican Congress in November and gave us the opportunity for a new American Revolution. The opportunity is to turn that anger of November into hope. Next year the place to start with that is Washington D.C. This is where I'm different than most of the other candidates who will be seeking the nomination for the presidency next this next year. I've been a chief executive a governor a university president the head of a Cabinet department in Washington and I've helped to start a business that today has more

than 1200 employees. I've worked for short terms for two presidents President Nixon in the 60s. President Bush in the 90s. But unlike the others in Washington I came home. I've spent about half of the last 25 years in private life and about half in public life. I live in Nashville not Washington D.C. and where I come from has everything to do with where I stand. For example because I believe that in Hopkinton and in Maryville and in Concord and all across this country parents and teachers know more about their children than anyone in Washington D.C. I would abolish the United States Department of Education and send the responsibility home to you. We know what to do about Joe. I would not just fix welfare in Washington D.C. I would end it in

Washington D.C. and move the dollars and the responsibility back to you because I believe you know what to do to help people who need help. I would move job training Bill Zella has a proposal that would move $25 billion of job training back home back into the workforce back to help people get jobs so that they can learn to work. I would move most of law enforcement and all of Medicaid back to the states. I have a short list of about 200 plus billion dollars worth of programs that would go from Washington back to you because I believe that you know what to do. And I would fight for term limits and I would Jar-Jar Congress I would urge our Congress even the Republican Congress to spend six months a year at home and to become more like the citizen legislature of New Hampshire because you know what they should do. I would like for our Congress to be there for years and years and years but they will be have a better chance to do that as a Republican majority if they keep their feet on the ground.

Someone asked me yesterday of the new Republican Congress is going too far. Just the reverse I believe. I'm afraid it might be too timid. The greatest danger we Republicans have is this now that we have captured Washington. We must not let Washington D.C. capture us. For example the Congress is considering welfare legislation that would put two year time limits on welfare benefits. I favor to your time limits on welfare benefits probably shorter time limits than that but I don't think it's any business any of the business in Washington D.C. What New Hampshire does. About time limits on welfare benefits. I trust Governor Merrell and the citizen legislature of New Hampshire and the town meetings of New Hampshire to make that decision for yourselves. You know what to do about welfare time limits.

There. There is a federal crime bill in Washington that would that would set federal rules for what your state sentences ought to be. That sounds like Democrats to me sending orders from Washington about what you ought to do in New Hampshire. I don't think in Tennessee or New Hampshire that we're too stupid to make our own decisions about law enforcement. I would trust Governor Merrell and the citizen legislature of New Hampshire and the town meetings of New Hampshire to make their own decisions about law enforcement. And we have $13 billion to spend on fighting crime in Washington. Why don't we cut taxes. Let the money stay in New Hampshire. And you make your own decision about how to spend it on law enforcement or education or anything. Else. We know what to do and the worst thing we can do as a Republican Party is to replace the Arragon empire we defeated in Washington DC with an arrogant empire of our own

because of where I come from. I believe we should spend less time trying to reinvent America in Washington D.C. and more time trying to remember what made this such a remarkable country in the first place. Equal opportunity is one of those first principles that means scholarships and jobs should be for everybody and should not be based upon race or where you come from. That is why as a student and as a governor in a border state I have fought hard for civil rights and it is why as an education secretary I said that scholarships given out based on race is wrong. That is not the American way. The first Congress felt comfortable passing of passing on one day the first amendment protecting us from an established church and on the next day passing a national day of prayer called Thanksgiving. Thats why as governor in 1981 I felt comfortable passing a law

that established a moment of silence during each day of school which could include voluntary prayer. My grandfather in blunt County Tennessee sold his farm so we could move my father and his brothers and sisters into town so they could go to a better school. That's where I learned that poor families especially need choices of better schools and that parents better than the government knows which school is best for a child. I learned a long time ago. It doesn't make sense for the government in Washington to be spending more than 600 million more dollars a day than it takes in. I am the only Republican candidate for president who's ever balanced a government budget balanced eight of them and in addition to that we lowered the debt we lowered the number of state employees. We got a triple-A bond rating. We avoided a personal income tax and we had the fifth lowest

state taxes anywhere in America. When I was through. Because. Because I helped to start a business and know what that means I would cut the capital gains tax in a minute. I know that that is the fastest way to put dollars into growing companies to produce new jobs. And we know. We know that a focus group presidency in Washington D.C. for the last two years guided by overnight polling has been damaging our foreign policy especially the president zigging and zagging has encouraged our enemies and confuse our allies. I believe we know what to do in Maryville Tennessee in Hopkinton in Concord in Des Moines and Austin in Tampa. We are not too stupid to make decisions for ourselves and we need to move those

decisions from Washington and put them back into our own hands. If the first place to start is Washington D.C. then the next place to start is with you and me getting Washington out of our neighborhoods won't mean very much unless we can get ourselves back into the first place. I stopped last summer on my drive across. Across America was Henning Tennessee the home of my dear our dear late friend Alex Haley Henning is a town of about twelve hundred sixty miles north of Memphis. They had just had their first drive by shooting and they were meeting about not a single person was thinking about a federal crime bill to deal with it. No one suggested calling the governor Governor to send in state troopers. They knew what to do and they were talking about. They were talking about a 9 p.m. curfew for their own children. They were talking about a community code of parental responsibility for themselves and they were talking about a new city ordinance that would

require parents of any child who damaged another person's property to pay the bill for that. They knew what to do about that drive by shooting and they were setting out to do it. We must take responsibility for the future of this country by taking responsibility for our own neighborhoods our own schools and our own families. Nobody else will do it for us. Washington can't do it. That would be a joke. The politicians won't do it. That won't happen. Only we the people can take responsibility for our future. Our Schools will be good when we want them to be. We'll have the right to choose the best one for our child when we demand it. Welfare reform will happen when citizens want to do it want to help people want to make those decisions want to penalize irresponsibility. Streets will be safe when we decide that no wrong will go unpunished on our own streets and families will be strong when we turn off the television and spend more time with our own children.

When I attended those schools in Maryville Tennessee that I walked by this morning I carried a pocket knife to school every day so did every other boy in that school. Now there is a federal law against that. That federal law won't do any good at all. The reason none of us in that school ever thought about not using that pocket knife on each other was not because of the government but because of the homes we grew up in the schools we went to the teachers we had the churches we attended the people we knew the neighbors we had who were interested in us. We need it. We need to elect a president who will say as clearly and as forcefully for as long as it takes. We know what to do in this country and we must do it. Family by family neighborhood by neighborhood and school by school. Fifty years ago what 30 years ago 30 years ago

Ronald Reagan before he was elected any public office made a remarkable speech which most of you know about called a time for choosing. And he said in it he said that freedom in America is our greatest value and that the two greatest threats. This was 1964 or communism abroad and big government at home. Looking back over those 30 years I suppose we could say if we were putting up a scorecard one down and one to go communism abroad has almost completely collapse but the big government at home has become an arrogant Empire obnoxious and increasingly irrelevant in a telecommunications age. This is the way Ronald Reagan put it in 1964. He said this is the issue of the election whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them for ourselves. That was

also the issue of the election in nineteen ninety four and that will be the issue of the election in 19 96 and it will be the issue of the election for a good while after that. It took 30 years of unfashionable principled leadership by Republican Washington outsider to help collapse what we came to call the evil empire. It will take a good deal longer than 30 years and maybe it's time for another Republican Washington outsider to come to Washington D.C. and try to put a little humility into the arrogant Empire. When I was. When I was five years old when I was five years old that grandfather that I mentioned to you who told me to aim for the top was a railroad engineer in on the Santa Fe Railway in Newton Kansas. His job as a switch engineer was to push each big

engine into the roundhouse to put it on the turntable and head it off in the right direction. Last year the people pushed America's engine into the roundhouse. They put it on the turn to the new Republican Congress is trying is struggling. I'm very proud of it. But we need a new Republican president to help that Congress turn this country around and head it off in the right direction. We need a president who is part of the people's revolution. We need a president who has the capacity to paint a picture of America's Future and lead us into the next millennium. We don't need a president of Washington D.C. We need an I'm president of the entire United States of America to help do that. Because I am absolutely committed to moving responsibility out of Washington D.C. and giving us the freedom to make decisions for ourselves

because deep down in my heart I believe we know what to do. And because I am determined to help lead literally a revival of the American spirit the old fashioned way. Family by family neighborhood by neighborhood block by block. I am announcing my candidacy today for the office of the presidency of the United States of America. Proud. Thank you. There is no better. There is no better place to do this than in a historic town hall in New Hampshire.

So if you agree with me that the problem is the arrogance of Washington D.C. And the answer is the character of our people then this campaign is for you. My friends I invite you to come on along. Join our campaign. Thank you and God bless you and God bless the United States of America. I think it's. Just. Like. I.

Actually Well Republican and I just came to. Sort of look for new candidates and see the left hydrides morning it. Seems and say. What do you know what you know now. Do you know much about him. Well I mean his work with the Education Department is back. Everything. I wanted to hear was on the same person. Harry it sounds he's been in state a lot with the education. Networking. He's been doing. So it's a tough job though. You see yourself as a moderate self-deporting in his candidacy. He will say. It's tough to switch gears. You've been hoping though well that. You better believe it from now live from one or the next 10 days you're hearing me.

That's right. That's cool too. You thought it was speech you support. I was very much impressed. I'm an independent. I'm going around to see all the candidates and I'm very much interested in this little primer that tells you how to win. The election. The primary have you seen a step by step guide. And it has a double your money back a price as well. So you're really going to check it out. All the candidates go from like you're going to check out all the candidates but so far so far Senator Dole and here I'm very much impressed with him. What is it about his message. I think they are going to Washington and giving the

responsibility back to the people that interest me. I like that approach. And I'm thinking he got it across very well. And I think that he will have a lot of support in New Hampshire. Do you believe him when he speaks himself as an outsider to a certain extent. But he is not the typical outsider but he can represent the typical outsider. Confusion in. Marjorie known from Washington just across the street. Thanks a lot more to look at the radio version of the same cabinet when this one. Runs on the radio in the morning four o'clock. You'll.

See. That most of your buddies. Ask. They were afraid they were afraid. Why are you supporting them are you still make up your mind. We're still making up. I am. I can't speak for you. This is the fun of being a handful. We get the chance to say hello to every candidate.

You. Like what you heard today. Yes they did. But. We shop around here. It's like buying a car after you have the test. Drive. It's. Not really. From the.

Gridlock. I think it was one second. Yes sir. How well do you think is outside of this is going to play through certainly no stranger to watch. When you look at his resume when he was there twice he was there for Nixon and he was there for a Bush sign for about two years. Unlike everybody else he didn't become a captive of Washington. He went back home to Tennessee. I think the outsider message which is not just outsider but it is where is where does government work best. The reason we're in a town hall today as opposed to function hall is because people care about local government here. They feel that local government is responsive to them because I think they feel they have a stake in it. It's not remote from them they feel in control of it. And I think that's the real issue is we're going to try to get government to a level that people feel attached to and connected to and that's what the state government level at the city and town level.

They don't feel connected they don't feel a part of what's going on in Washington they feel that Washington is ignoring what they're thinking about and not relevant to their daily lives. This kind of government that's done in the city halls and the town halls and the town meetings all across the state is what I think people in New Hampshire respond to and that's really the essence of theology of their message. There are a lot of decisions that Washington currently makes would be much better made in the Hopkinton town meeting. They are on the floor of Congress. Some polls show that you know who he is how do you overcome that. I didn't get to the village show rather have few people now and then a lot of people know him and not like him. It gives us a lot of room to move. You need two things to win in politics. You need credibility and you need visibility credibility you earn through your positions on issues how you govern your record how you build an organization visibility. Good bye. And we have enough money to buy plenty of visibility. We do a few media tours like this last week with the big dinner. I mean as this campaign goes on I'm confident we'll be able to let people in the state know who Lamar Alexander is. They will be very comfortable with him. As I say our name recognition grows I'm

comfortable or our poll numbers will grow as well. We talk about buying visibility would mean this basic high paid media. I mean that's basically the way you get your message out. We'll find and be as creative as any place getting our message out last night. We were the first candidate in the history of the United States to announce our candidacy on the Internet. We were in on America Online and did our chat with the American people. That's the first time anybody's done that we're going to find new and innovative ways to get this message out. It will be a household word but the word by the time is is over. Finally what about money will have enough. I mean money is the mother's milk of politics unfortunately. It's going to take raising about 20 to 22 million dollars at 95. So you have $15 million to 1996 begins. I am absolutely confident we will have the next Monday night in Nashville at a single dinner. For one part of the state of Tennessee will raise over two million dollars by the end of March. We will raise $5 billion 710. That's the ballpark now for how much you raised. Right now we're at right around two total and that's for for these dinners that I just enumerated will have I

am absolutely confident we will have sufficient resources to compete aggressively with the other candidates especially Bob Dole and Phil Gramm who I think are widely regarded as our chief rivals at this moment. I think. They. Will honor