Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
"A Leader We Can
Believe In"
The Pontchartrain
Center
Kenner, LA
June 3, 2008
[remarks as prepared for delivery]
Good
evening from the great city of New Orleans. Tonight, we can say with
confidence the primary season is over, and the general election
campaign has begun. I commend both Senators Obama and Clinton for the
long, hard race they have run. Senator Obama has impressed many
Americans with his eloquence and his spirited campaign. Senator Clinton
has earned great respect for her tenacity and courage. The media often
overlooked how compassionately she spoke to the concerns and dreams of
millions of Americans, and she deserves a lot more appreciation than
she sometimes received. As the father of three daughters, I owe her a
debt for inspiring millions of women to believe there is no opportunity
in this great country beyond their reach. I am proud to call her my
friend. Pundits and party elders have declared that Senator Obama will
be my opponent. He will be a formidable one. But I'm ready for the
challenge, and determined to run this race in a way that does credit to
our campaign and to the proud, decent and patriotic people I ask to
lead.
The decision facing Americans in this election couldn't be more
important to the future security and prosperity of American families.
This is, indeed, a change election. No matter who wins this election,
the direction of this country is going to change dramatically. But, the
choice is between the right change and the wrong change; between going
forward and going backward.
America has seen tough times before. We've always known how to get
through them. And we've always believed our best days are ahead of us.
I believe that still. But we must rise to the occasion, as we always
have; change what must be changed; and make the future better than the
past.
The right change recognizes that many of the policies and institutions
of our government have failed. They have failed to keep up with the
challenges of our time because many of these policies were designed for
the problems and opportunities of the mid to late 20th Century, before
the end of the Cold War; before the revolution in information
technology and rise of the global economy. The right kind of change
will initiate widespread and innovative reforms in almost every area of
government policy -- health care, energy, the environment, the tax
code, our public schools, our transportation system, disaster relief,
government spending and regulation, diplomacy, the military and
intelligence services. Serious and far-reaching reforms are needed in
so many areas of government to meet our own challenges in our own time.
The irony is that Americans have been experiencing a lot of change in
their lives attributable to these historic events, and some of those
changes have distressed many American families -- job loss, failing
schools, prohibitively expensive health care, pensions at risk,
entitlement programs approaching bankruptcy, rising gas and food
prices, to name a few. But your government often acts as if it is
completely unaware of the changes and hardships in your lives. And when
government does take notice, often it only makes matters worse. For too
long, we have let history outrun our government's ability to keep up
with it. The right change will stop impeding Americans from doing what
they have always done: overcome every obstacle to our progress, turn
challenges into opportunities, and by our own industry, imagination and
courage make a better country and a safer world th an we inherited.
To keep our nation prosperous, strong and growing we have to rethink,
reform and reinvent: the way we educate our children; train our
workers; deliver health care services; support retirees; fuel our
transportation network; stimulate research and development; and harness
new technologies.
To keep us safe we must rebuild the structure and mission of our
military; the capabilities of our intelligence and law enforcement
agencies; the reach and scope of our diplomacy; the capacity of all
branches of government to defend us. We need to strengthen our
alliances, and preserve our moral credibility.
We must also prepare, far better than we have, to respond quickly and
effectively to a natural calamity. When Americans confront a
catastrophe they have a right to expect basic competence from their
government. Firemen and policemen should be able to communicate with
each other in an emergency. We should be able to deliver bottled water
to dehydrated babies and rescue the infirm from a hospital with no
electricity. Our disgraceful failure to do so here in New Orleans
exposed the incompetence of government at all levels to meet even its
most basic responsibilities.
The wrong change looks not to the future but to the past for solutions
that have failed us before and will surely fail us again. I have a few
years on my opponent, so I am surprised that a young man has bought in
to so many failed ideas. Like others before him, he seems to think
government is the answer to every problem; that government should take
our resources and make our decisions for us. That type of change
doesn't trust Americans to know what is right or what is in their own
best interests. It's the attitude of politicians who are sure of
themselves but have little faith in the wisdom, decency and common
sense of free people. That attitude created the unresponsive
bureaucracies of big government in the first place. And that's not
change we can believe in.
You will hear from my opponent's campaign in every speech, every
interview, every press release that I'm running for President Bush's
third term. You will hear every policy of the President described as
the Bush-McCain policy. Why does Senator Obama believe it's so
important to repeat that idea over and over again? Because he knows
it's very difficult to get Americans to believe something they know is
false. So he tries to drum it into your minds by constantly repeating
it rather than debate honestly the very different directions he and I
would take the country. But the American people didn't get to know me
yesterday, as they are just getting to know Senator Obama. They know I
have a long record of bipartisan problem solving. They've seen me put
our country before any President -- before any party -- before any
special interest -- before my own interest. They might think me an
imperfect servant of our country, which I surely am. But I am her
servant first, last and always.
I have worked with the President to keep our nation safe. But he and I
have not seen eye to eye on many issues. We've disagreed over the
conduct of the war in Iraq and the treatment of detainees; over out of
control government spending and budget gimmicks; over energy policy and
climate change; over defense spending that favored defense contractors
over the public good.
I disagreed strongly with the Bush administration's mismanagement of
the war in Iraq. I called for the change in strategy that is now, at
last, succeeding where the previous strategy had failed miserably. I
was criticized for doing so by Republicans. I was criticized by
Democrats. I was criticized by the press. But I don't answer to them. I
answer to you. And I would be ashamed to admit I knew what had to be
done in Iraq to spare us from a defeat that would endanger us for
years, but I kept quiet because it was too politically hard for me to
do. No ambition is more important to me than the security of the
country I have defended all my adult life.
Senator Obama opposed the new strategy, and, after promising not to,
voted to deny funds to the soldiers who have done a brilliant and brave
job of carrying it out. Yet in the last year we have seen the success
of that plan as violence has fallen to a four year low; Sunni
insurgents have joined us in the fight against al Qaeda; the Iraqi Army
has taken the lead in places once lost to Sunni and Shia extremists;
and the Iraqi Government has begun to make progress toward political
reconciliation.
None of this progress would have happened had we not changed course
over a year ago. And all of this progress would be lost if Senator
Obama had his way and began to withdraw our forces from Iraq without
concern for conditions on the ground and the advice of commanders in
the field. Americans ought to be concerned about the judgment of a
presidential candidate who says he's ready to talk, in person and
without conditions, with tyrants from Havana to Pyongyang, but hasn't
traveled to Iraq to meet with General Petraeus, and see for himself the
progress he threatens to reverse.
I know Americans are tired of this war. I don't oppose a reckless
withdrawal from Iraq because I'm indifferent to the suffering war
inflicts on too many American families. I hate war. And I know very
personally how terrible its costs are. But I know, too, that the course
Senator Obama advocates could draw us into a wider war with even
greater sacrifices; put peace further out of reach, and Americans back
in harm's way.
I take America's economic security as seriously as I do her physical
security. For eight years the federal government has been on a spending
spree that added trillions to the national debt. It spends more and
more of your money on programs that have failed again and again to keep
up with the changes confronting American families. Extravagant spending
on things that are not the business of government indebts us to other
nations; fuels inflation; raises interest rates; and encourages
irresponsibility. I have opposed wasteful spending by both parties and
the Bush administration. Senator Obama has supported it and proposed
more of his own. I want to freeze discretionary spending until we have
completed top to bottom reviews of all federal programs to weed out
failing ones. Senator Obama opposes that reform. I opposed subsidies
that favor big business over small farmers and tariffs on imported
products that have greatly increased the cost of food. Senator Obama
supports these billions of dollars in corporate subsidies and the
tariffs that have led to rising grocery bills for American families.
That's not change we can believe in.
No problem is more urgent today than America's dependence on foreign
oil. It threatens our security, our economy and our environment. The
next President must be willing to break completely with the energy
policies not just of the Bush Administration, but the administrations
that preceded his, and lead a great national campaign to put us on a
course to energy independence. We must unleash the creativity and
genius of Americans, and encourage industries to pursue alternative,
non-polluting and renewable energy sources, where demand will never
exceed supply.
Senator Obama voted for the same policies that created the problem. In
fact, he voted for the energy bill promoted by President Bush and Vice
President Cheney, which gave even more breaks to the oil industry. I
opposed it because I know we won't achieve energy independence by
repeating the mistakes of the last half century. That's not change we
can believe in.
With forward thinking Democrats and Republicans, I proposed a climate
change policy that would greatly reduce our dependence on oil. Our
approach was opposed by President Bush, and by leading Democrats, and
it was defeated by opposition from special interests that favor
Republicans and those that favor Democrats. Senator Obama might
criticize special interests that give more money to Republicans. But
you won't often see him take on those that favor him. If America is
going to achieve energy independence, we need a President with a record
of putting the nation's interests before the special interests of
either party. I have that record. Senator Obama does not.
Senator Obama proposes to keep spending money on programs that make our
problems worse and create new ones that are modeled on big government
programs that created much of the fiscal mess we are in. He plans to
pay for these increases by raising taxes on seniors, parents, small
business owners and every American with even a modest investment in the
market. He doesn't trust us to make decisions for ourselves and wants
the government to make them for us. And that's not change we can
believe in.
Senator Obama thinks we can improve health care by driving Americans
into a new system of government orders, regulations and mandates. I
believe we can make health care more available, affordable and
responsive to patients by breaking from inflationary practices,
insurance regulations, and tax policies that were designed generations
ago, and by giving families more choices over their care. His plan
represents the old ways of government. Mine trusts in the common sense
of the American people.
Senator Obama pretends we can address the loss of manufacturing jobs by
repealing trade agreements and refusing to sign new ones; that we can
build a stronger economy by limiting access to our markets and giving
up access to foreign markets. The global economy exists and is not
going away. We either compete in it or we lose more jobs, more
businesses, more dreams. We lose the future. He's an intelligent man,
and he must know how foolish it is to think Americans can remain
prosperous without opening new markets to our goods and services. But
he feels he must defer to the special interests that support him.
That's not change we can believe in.
Lowering trade barriers to American goods and services creates more and
better jobs; keeps inflation under control; keeps interest rates low;
and makes more goods affordable to more Americans. We won't compete
successfully by using old technology to produce old goods. We'll
succeed by knowing what to produce and inventing new technologies to
produce it.
We are not people who believe only in the survival of the fittest. Work
in America is more than a paycheck; it a source of pride, self-reliance
and identity. But making empty promises to bring back lost jobs gives
nothing to the unemployed worker except false hope. That's not change
we can believe in. Reforming from top to bottom unemployment insurance
and retraining programs that were designed for the 1950s, making use of
our community colleges to train people for new opportunities will help
workers who've lost a job that won't come back, find a job that won't
go away.
My friends, we're not a country that would rather go back than forward.
We're the world's leader, and leaders don't hide from history. They
make history. But if we're going to lead, we have to reform a
government that has lost its ability to help us do so. The solution to
our problems isn't to reach back to the 1960s and 70s for answers. In
just a few years in office, Senator Obama has accumulated the most
liberal voting record in the Senate. But the old, tired, big government
policies he seeks to dust off and call new won't work in a world that
has changed dramatically since they were last tried and failed. That's
not change we can believe in.
The sweeping reforms of government we need won't occur unless we change
the political habits of Washington that have locked us in an endless
cycle of bickering and stalemate. Washington is consumed by a
hyper-partisanship that treats every serious issue as an opportunity to
trade insults; impugn each other's motives; and fight about the next
election. This is the game Washington plays. Both parties play it, as
do the special interests that support each side. The American people
know it's not on the level. For all the problems we face, what
frustrates them most about Washington is they don't think we're capable
of serving the public interest before our personal ambitions; that we
fight for ourselves and not for them. They are sick of the politics of
selfishness, stalemate and delay, and they have every right to be. We
have to change not only government policies that have failed them, but
the political culture that produced them.
Both Senator Obama and I promise we will end Washington's stagnant,
unproductive partisanship. But one of us has a record of working to do
that and one of us doesn't. Americans have seen me put aside partisan
and personal interests to move this country forward. They haven't seen
Senator Obama do the same. For all his fine words and all his promise,
he has never taken the hard but right course of risking his own
interests for yours; of standing against the partisan rancor on his
side to stand up for our country. He is an impressive man, who makes a
great first impression. But he hasn't been willing to make the tough
calls; to challenge his party; to risk criticism from his supporters to
bring real change to Washington. I have.
When members of my party refused to compromise not on principle but for
partisanship, I have sought to do so. When I fought corruption it
didn't matter to me if the culprits were Democrats or Republicans. I
exposed it and let the chips fall where they may. When I worked on
campaign finance and ethics reform, I did so with Democrats and
Republicans, even though we were criticized by other members of our
parties, who preferred to keep things as they were. I have never
refused to work with Democrats simply for the sake of partisanship.
I've always known we belong to different parties, not different
countries. We are Americans before we are anything else.
I don't seek the presidency on the presumption I'm blessed with such
personal greatness that history has anointed me to save my country in
its hour of need. I seek the office with the humility of a man who
cannot forget my country saved me. I'll reach out my hand to anyone,
Republican or Democrat, who will help me change what needs to be
changed; fix what needs to be fixed; and give this country a government
as capable and good as the people it is supposed to serve. There is a
time to campaign, and a time to govern. If I'm elected President, the
era of the permanent campaign of the last sixteen years will end. The
era of reform and problem solving will begin. From my first day in
office, I'll work with anyone to make America safe, prosperous and
proud. And I won't care who gets the credit as long as America gets the
benefit.
I have seen Republicans and Democrats achieve great things together.
When the stakes were high and it mattered most, I've seen them work
together in common purpose, as we did in the weeks after September
11th. This kind of cooperation has made all the difference at crucial
turns in our history. It has given us hope in difficult times. It has
moved America forward. And that, my friends, is the kind of change we
need right now.
Thank you.
###