that is what you choose, the same with war, i don't care what the issue is. the key is that you start debating. debate is where it is at. they may call you names, it might be intimidating, you might be hesitant. in those moments, you say thank you, lord, because you know you are not ready. to be a leader you have to be ready for that kind of intimidation, that kind of pressure. you have to learn what it is like to go through the fire storm. how many times have i been on television where left was firing questions at me, television cameras live, and they hit a good one and i say to myself that is an excellent point. because i am opposed of the show i can change the topic, but i can guarantee that i am thinking they win that round. that is how i learned. i will change my position on this issue, that is a very valid

point. or that is the best one, i am still solid. i have an advantage where i get caught in those positions, when i go home i have my brother on the phone giving me the details of where the government should go. so i should find out, so can you by talking to others. now you are being -- you have a voice, you are more than someone sitting in a seat, you are moving the dialogue, get excited about the issues. you will let no one tell you what you can and cannot say because that is who you are. if you are going to be a leader, you must find that kind of bold this, that kind of courage to be in front and not to be afraid of being different or differing in opinion with those in your

midst. once your confidence you get a sense of humor about it, it doesn't always have to be this argumentative approach. if they come out of you, you can go right back, then you will decide, once you have knowledge, once you are accustomed to being out there, you will see, you can pick and choose where you want to go, where the difference is going to be. i tell those on college campuses who claim to be on pro-life, get to be in a position where you're in a classroom, you are sitting in that classroom and you are waiting. you are waiting until somebody makes some remark about abortion or anything, and you get your hand up, not even sure what you're going to say and you make a pro-life statement, not mine, yours, whenever it may be, any time child's life is endangered and you know what?

that is leadership because you don't know who's in that classroom. very strange person bringing this point of in all these people who disagree with him, this must be a very nervous type of position to be in and they make this statement added is bold and passionate and the respect you for it and if you don't know, a month, a week, a year, 2 years, they might be forced to make a decision and they don't hear much about the other side but they remember what you said. did gives them pause. you could save a life. you can save a life by speaking out. but you will save no lives by being quiet. you cannot change the direction of this nation by being quiet, by not speaking. that is what leadership is about, that is what we need more of. that is what the people of this town are supposed to be about.

a vibrant debate on the issues, not we can't talk about that one, that is the back burner, what can we talk about? let's come to agreement, democrats and republicans, we will talk about taxes, use a little tax cut and i say a big tax cut, there is a bold debate but we won't talk about the other one because the people in the media cause things when we do that. they cannot tell us what it is, what issues we should bring and how we should raise them. i heard from the white house, the white house press secretary, how we talk about a supreme court nominee. no one tells me how i talked about the supreme court nominee. what are they, threatening us? and if we don't? i am real worried? what kind of nonsense? as soon as he said that -- come on! it is the american spirit. let me just close by telling you that this is what it is to be an

american. we have freedoms other nations don't have, we have a spirit about us where we stand tall in times of trouble, we do lead naturally. don't let them take that away from us. as conservatives, particularly. we have to step back into the fray and start to fight those things we believe in and not let anyone tell us this is ok to save this way but not this way and oh my gosh, they are so mean-spirited. what do you think they are going to say? they call you names because they don't wish to debate the issue, the facts. they call you names to quiet you because then they win without a debate. once the debate gets going the american people agree with us. how many times have i heard as i traveled people thanking me and my brother concurs. the number one thing they say after that, saying it. thank you for saying it.

americans and represented across this country because the 2 parties don't have the guts to get out and say what it is they believe and try to move the country in that direction. they have folded their tents and it is time to clean them out and start bringing back real americans to come into this city from the left and right and to start having healthy debate about where this country should go and not to be manipulated by those who use the politics of intimidation. we need leaders, we need true leaders and is time for you to step up the plate because we need you now and we can't be waiting for any college degrees or any kind of law school or professional or condos or cars. we need you to start now, to be the kind of leaders in your classrooms, in your offices, in your neighborhoods, to start exercising that great american spirit of being someone who believes in something firmly, passionately and is willing to say it.

thank you all very much. [applause] i apologize to whoever owns this my, my hands have pounded several times. i am open to questions now. high. [inaudible question] >> thank you. >> my question is about the credibility problem conservatism has particularly on fiscal conservatism and limited reach. few would deny we lost a lot of credibility because the bush administration and republican conference, how do we close that gap? do we disavow everything that happened over the last 8 years or do we just have to wait it out? >> the question was what do we

do? do we have a credibility problem because of the last 8 years? republicans have not been fiscally conservative and it makes us look like we are coming late on this topic. the question is a good one. this is the situation. there is no question that in the 8 years, republicans did an awful job on the key issue of fiscal responsibility. they spend and spend. george bush to the great job cutting taxes but kept spending and spending irresponsibly. no question about it. what you have to say is just that. the facts are the facts. i saw a panel on tv, a democrat kept saying george bush is conservative, almost went over the table. he is not a conservative. i am a conservative, i know a conservative when i see one. you don't. this is what they're going to do, paint him to the us, then we

fall as a result. the american people rejected outright the policies of the republicans, they rejected it and they should have. i think conservatives can see now the mistake of not speaking out against the president. you can't let your president, because he shares the same party with you, you can't let him take the country in a direction that you disagree on basic principles, and not say anything because the american people do believe you are worthless. we were. what do we do? take a look at what obama is doing and we say there are 2 ways to define who we are today. by saying what we are for which is hard to do when you don't have a bully pulpit, making proposals, why don't you -- i don't propose anything, we are but nobody's hearing about it because we don't have it.

you have to start that's a you are working it. and by standing against what the other side is for. we must stand against what obama is proposing loudly. look what. did, bush didn't go the direction i would have gone but he left the country with 41%, the debt was 41% of the gnp -- gdp. the way obama is going it will be 81%. that is a lot worse. and he ran on the idea that bush was outrageously spending. this guy has taken it to new efforts. we have to hammer it home, talk about what burden he is placing on our children. will we ever get out of this disaster, that he is exercising. you have to keep hitting it. we know what we have done is

gone, but it is not as bad as an hour and we have to turn it around. with time they will come around. >> you are talking about conservatism and all of that. i am pro-life and against roe v. wade but if we're supposed to be small government, how can the government be doing stuff on the issue of life for education because both things are in the constitution. we are supposed to be the party of small government when it comes to abortion, education, it is closer to the people. i obviously believe life begins at conception or somewhere near there, we should be protecting that but should it be done for a better standpoint? >> on education 9 in complete agreement with you, that is a strictly local issue and the states, the next level, the federal government should not be involved and that is something else we got deeper involved,

with no child left behind under george bush. a terrible policy. when it comes to life, life of a person, the government has every right to protect that life and that is indeed part of our basic principles, a person has a right to pursue, so you have it. the next point to remember, as conservative, we never brought it to the federal level. it was the state level, we were battling it in the states, we had 20 states that have legalized abortion and we go state to state and the rest of them are against it. and roe v. wade federalized it and said even those states who clearly do not want abortions to occur, now it is legalized everywhere. in order to come back, we know if we overturn roe v. wade it goes back to the states. that is one way to do it. another is to pound the states themselves can and the heroes of

this movement are clearly the state's. spent so many years trying to reverse, i realize the real great work is being done by individuals in their neighborhoods and in their communities and in their states. in november i was disappointed, in south dakota have a proposition that failed to ban abortions, they usually passed, a good friend of mine is very involved and i thought oh my gosh, what happened? i read the original abortions statute, they had passed so many state regulations imposed on abortionists that they left the state. even though they were trying to pass a statewide proposition that would go to the state, they had done their work and so i asked the leaders, pro-life leaders across the country, focus -- stop them in your neighborhoods. we are working to overturn roe v. wade.

>> thank you. >> high and a rising junior at notre dame and i would like to say we could have used more speeches like yours today at campus. >> you didn't give one of those? >> my question goes to obama's commencement speech at notre dame this spring, i really felt notre dame should have been a place where conservatives should have felt free to voice our pro-life views and our voices were silenced effectively. my question is, how can we bring people to the table for open dialogue as the excuse was with obama's speech while standing firm for our beliefs and not letting them be silenced? >> where notre dame made a mistake, when they invited him, obama would say yes, it is good politics for him and he got invited and he should go. i don't think he did anything

wrong in that regard. but they chose to make him the speaker of a graduation which means he is speaking to all the young people, great honor and they honored him with a degree, an honorary degree. if they said during the school year, one of our speakers is the president of the united states, that is very good for the university, and the next week or 2 weeks later, have somebody from the other side and get both sides, i don't have a problem with that, but you give the greatest honor of all speakers of the year and to honor him on top of not only that, that was a terrible, terrible mistake on the part of notre dame because it did elevate him to be a national leader equal to those of us who are fighting to protect the unborn and i do not believe that. that university stands as a university that really does teach and preach and uphold the right of the unborn to life.

that was a setback. but the good news, you students got something going. the radio talk-show hosts were talking about it and bishops got involved. a couple years back in everett, bishop thomas was from the left. it told a lot of those traditional catholic schools that maybe it is time to start living up to those things that we preach, practice what we preach. >> thank you. >> that is a very fine school. >> i am amy crowley from southern mississippi. my question is i work a lot with, specifically the baptist church at methodist church and politics, and one of the trends i am noticing is a push towards their saying that in politics, especially in the conservative movement, there is so much talk, they're wanting to go to we will just do this action and we don't

have to worry about politics, how can we explain to people who have that view that talking gets you nowhere, we need to work with people, our voices are still very important because i agree with you that our voices are powerful, how can we talk with them and tell them if you shut up, no matter what work you are going to do, there are going to be people making it harder and harder. >> excellent point. excellent point. i am doing a lot of thinking about that recently because as i speak to young people, you have to start speaking out. people across the country have to start speaking out. when they start talking about issues, in several races, peter king, the new york congressman who tends to be a moderate republican, was totally opposed to the immigration reform, my position of restricting and enforcing the laws and getting the border secure, and he went

out in august recess, to all of these town hall meetings, a very good congressman, gets all the people together to talk about the problems, one is transportation, and he says it didn't matter where i went, what are you going to do about the illegal immigrants? he came back and said i think i had better start looking into this. he became quite a strong member of the caucus that was trying to get strong immigration reform through. he was a remarkable leader. people spoke out. you see presidential politics, they are above it, wrong. go out to iowa, we went out for one reason, to tell people running for president, here is the position on immigration. if you one the other guy to get this position, you have to ask what the position is. en before tom tancredo came

around, they completely flipped because they couldn't get to iowa. he had such a bad position on it. the other ones, why is that? people said that is it. i am going to start asking what are you going to do? we are tired of this, this is where we stand. americans don't speak up, don't expect your leaders to find a voice. you have to give them that voice, you have to make them think, there's a lot of encouragement, i can make a difference here, that is what my people want me to do. go to the offices, i don't care how old you are, show up at their offices and tell those people in town hall meetings, get them on the phone and talk to their staff, you have got to tell people, if they keep their mouth shut, they fail to have any impact whatsoever. and we do need to move this country back into a direction

that is where it was meant to go. we are off course, and without the american people becoming more bold and more courageous and saying to their elected officials we have had it, you think this is back burner, you are back burner, you're out of here. >> thank you. >> i am matt donatello from printing the of college and you spoke about finding issues we are interested in to debate. i was wondering, say i am interested in constitutionalism or federalism but the hot social issue is something else like abortion or immigration, should i focus on what i am passionate about or go about what we might be able to get people interested in on campus? >> excellent question. the key is you need a controversial issue to speak about in a crowd because if you come into a crowd and say i am a federalist, they may fall asleep on you. they will look at you -- did you see the basketball game last

night? if you are not going to gain the ability to feel that fire. the key to the debate is to constantly be put in a position where you feel intimidated and has a satellite you don't want to be there another minute because that is what happens when they come back here and a president of the united states as i need your vote or the leader, in the office, you're intimidated, oh my gosh, you need to be strong in the toughest of times. you need to train to get there. once you get to the fire, you go through that fire, there's the fire again, you can make it. if you are not happy, you know you can make it. you know you have to. you don't do that. don't get me wrong, the federalist papers are brilliant and they really lay out in the constitution, we do have to get back in so many regards but if you are not willing to debate the hot issues of the day, you are not going to get any

traction and you're not going to have the developments that you need. ron paul got the traction, he got in those debates and was magnificent and they laughed at him. i disagree with him on many issues that he was up there like a teacher laying out the constitution, he was brilliant. by the end of that primary season, they were glad, he had done his job and he didn't care. they were dismissive of the other candidates, dismissive of them which was very effective. and he would show up again and again. he really connected. i don't say get away from that, but at the same time, have some positions on those hot button issues and see if you can't get something going and see where you stand when the pressure it. >> i am emily, one of the things i noticed in examining the conflict between the 2 sides is

that while conservatives as he mentioned, have varying degrees of positions on certain things like abortion where some have conditional, pro-life, some have absolute pro-life, the liberal camp seems to present much more united front because they will spread their arms out and welcome just about everything. how do we effectively combat that and effectively lead when there are so many degrees of positions? >> excellent question. as a movement, we have to come together and decide too -- what is important. i will give you a perfect example. ronald reagan. he was very pro-life, solid pro-life. i have a girlfriend in college, from high school, i had been working with him 45 years before he became president, i've was with him in '76, why are you with that old guy?

the old orange hair from hollywood? going down a dead head road? couple years later arms in the office of the treasury of the united states, i ran into her and she said i was wrong. we had a kind of -- joked about it and who did you vote for? she said ronald reagan. ronald reagan? you have given me nothing but grief. she said he gave me a sense that he was a true leader and he knew where he wanted, i don't agree with him always but i got the feeling he was in charge, he could take charge and move this country and that is what we need. leadership is a very powerful asset to have, and people -- my brother, pat, how many people, he was a leader in the immigration movement and he is pro-life, not all of them but many of them are not. they risk saying dropped the life side, just drop it. if we can drop that, he can

surely drop the immigration side when he needs to too. the key is to appreciate people. you don't usually vote for somebody because of a, b, and see. there's something more to it. to see somebody who has terrific character, somebody who is very strong and definite and knows what they are about. and wants to take the country in a certain direction or the community, the only vote on one or 2 issues, i disagree with him on this or is this, but i really do think this is what we need today. that is the key. that is what the party needs to do. i am never stopping to fight for the unborn, never. every opportunity i can i speak for the unborn but at the same time i am also involved in immigration, i am very outspoken on what obama is doing to this economy, and to economic freedom

and prosperity in this country. i can speak about those and i come to get there. i worked with ralph nader who was completely on the other side. i used to work very closely with him to stop nafta. one night he called me at home, my son yelled up the steps, ralph nader is on the phone. i told him don't ever tell another sold that ralph nader's calling my home. i figured i was finished in the conservative movement. come together with other people to accomplish something. ralph nader said we disagree on a lot, but we agree, the difference should be made in this country but not in geneva. once we get back to this country we disagree with the rules and regulations. that is how you do it but you don't dismiss people. come together a coalition. to the republican party the key is we are about personal free m freedom, we are about responsibility, individual responsibility and we are about small government and that is a whole lot to pull people

together. at the same time, don't let anyone say we should drop our social issues because that defines our better side. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you very, very much. >> now an event with ms. cheney, the daughter of former vice president dick cheney. this is posted by the clair b t boothe policy institute. >> we present our conservative leadership award to one woman who has show exceptionally is to that commitment to promoting conservative values. we are honored to present the war to elizabeth cheney. liz cheney is the left's worst nightmare, she is smart, and conservative woman and she is one of the few leaders in this country who is not afraid to stand up to the obama

administration on critical issues like our national security. she is an attorney and a specialist in u.s. middle east policy and she recently served as principal deputy assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs. in this capacity she was the second ranking state department official responsible for u.s. policy in the middle east. she practiced law in the area of finance for 3 years and served on assignment with the international finance corporation where she provided legal advice on investments in the middle east and central asia. from 1989 to 1993 she served at the department of state, at the agency for international development. during the 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns, she managed to vice-presidential debate preparations, and served as a national surrogate for the bush/chaney campaign. she is collaborating with her father, vice-president cheney,

on his memoirs covering 40 years of his career in washington. she earned her law degree from the university of chicago and her bachelor's degree from colorado college. like our organization's namesake, clare boothe luce policy institute, ms. cheney is accomplished woman, an expert in the area of foreign affairs, especially the least and affairs but she has one other important role on her resume, she is also a wife and the mother of 5 children, one of whom is with us today. liz cheney has all the qualities that make great conservative women leaders, love of country, a commitment to family, and brave the fender of conservative principles. by standing so firmly, you inspire all conservatives to be more courageous and and feisty and not to back off when we know we are right but it might be easier to back down. many liberals do all they can to silence women like liz cheney. but at the clare boothe luce policy institute, we are eager on