defend our nation, i'd like to ask you to stand to join me in the pledge of aallegiance. i pledge allege to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. thank you. please be seated. before we get started, i'd like to recognize some special guests that we have with us this evening. ..

and play a little game with you. i want you to imagine waking up on the porting of january 21st that year to learn that you were about to become the governor of one of our 50 states. now, we are going to blindfold you and ask that she throw a big dart at a map of the united states. and whichever state it lands on, that's yours. you get to run it. now, some people here are probably envisioning that their dart lands on say california. so we would finally have someone in charge with enough common sense -- [laughter]

[applause] to turn this state around. though some might be thinking colorado for great skiing. others might think florida for its winter or affirm up for it colorful volume. now i want you to imagine that regardless of where you are aiming coming your tartly and square in the middle of the state of arizona. now some of you are probably imagining it glorious weather with over 300 days of sunshine each year. or it's fascinating native american capital culture. or the magnificent grand canyon, the rocks of sedona, the mountains of facts as with the amazing rivers and lakes to cut the landscape they are. now our special guest today didn't hate arizona with a car three years ago by luck. she became its 22nd governor after many years of tireless

work, starting at a state legislator naming each to a moving to the state senate in 1987, the chairman of the maricopa county board of supervisors in 1996 and a secretary of state in 2003. in that time, she has never once lost an election. if she had to do it all over, i'm sure governor brewer, a 40 year resident of this state would have chosen to have been and govern arizona as their first choice to matter where her dart landed. but it is the circumstances she inherited when she took the office, where she might have wanted to see a change or two. she has had her hands full. following the financial collapse of 2008, she inherited one of the worst financial crises of any state in the country. and like most every other

governor, she's had to fight to diversify arizona's economy, improve its share of higher paying jobs and reform its education system. that very few governors, in fact none of had to face the challenge of their federal government refusing to exercise its constitutional responsibility to protect its sovereignty and safety and well-being of its own citizens. governor brewer has. [applause] this governors got great. she does not sound from a fight when it comes to protect dean and improving the lives of the people of her state. [applause] and her life is a remarkable tale. if she didn't pick up her new

book before you came in here, i urge you to do so on your way out. it's a great american story told by a great american governor that we are honored to have with us this evening. so ladies and gentlemen, please welcome trade me in welcoming governor jan brewer. [applause] >> thank you all very, very much. thank you and good evening and thank you for that very kind introduction but it's an extreme honor to be here with you all tonight in ronald reagan's library. it's quite awesome. thank you for allowing me to be

here. i probably don't have to tell you that i love arizona. it's my home. it's an extraordinary place. and after a long hard day, i look forward to working in my garden to rest and relax and enjoy the wildlife, watch the sunset and plan for challenges that i will have to face tomorrow. however, there's something special about being here in this place to go through great joy and fills me with an overwhelming sense of peace. for me, this really is america's chapel, a place to find confidence and faith in our destiny. and yes, dare i say it, are exceptionally fun.

[applause] outside these walls, missing i have been hired to come by recently, especially for anyone paying attention to what is happening to our country. not to mention to the governors who have been battling the bureaucrats in washington. here in the reagan library, my spirit is lifted and i am filled with renewed confidence in our country. i found myself thinking about young americans and how things will look for them in decades ahead and how we must prepare our children to compete and to succeed in a changing world. i know this is much to them visionary future with must understand our past. to decide who they will begin with a look at coming young americans must grasp what they have received.

the year i was born, america was nation's of nearly 130 million people appeared only 40% are present side and the world without water. three years earlier, we had been attacked at pearl harbor, where the uss arizona still rests today. our country sent its beloved sons to fight in unfamiliar places far from home, just as we have sent our sons and daughters today. we spent so many and so many were lost from the outpost in the battlefields of world war ii, more than 400,000 americans would not return home. hard to fathom those numbers today. very few americans even know

them. the remaining survivors of that conflict, the last of the generation that saved the world from tyranny are in their late 80s and 90s. soon they will all be gone. four days from now we will pay tribute to our nation's test and peers so this is a good time for remembering. dwight eisenhower told it's true poise at the benches of normandy. they were about to embark upon the great crusade. the eyes of the world are upon you he said. the hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. & co. with our brave allies and our brothers in arms on the front, you will bring about the destruction of german war machine, the elimination of the tierney over the oppressed people of europe and security for ourselves in the free world. this ronald reagan called them

the boys of pointe to hawk, the man who took the cliffs. the champions who helped free a continent. those are now called heroes forever apart of the greatness of america. so when we get there soon for thanksgiving, let us be grateful for the blessings of america and the sacrifices of those who built it and let it to us. my father, wilford drink wine was doing his part fighting, working as a civil servant at the hospital in navy base in western nevada. he passed away when i was 11 years old. his death came after a long and painful battle with lung disease. after years of exposure to the hazardous chemicals and toxic

fumes at the phase. even then again when my dad struggled for breath, he never regretted serving his country. and i am proud to tell you of his teacher tells them. i am also proud to tell you that the most important mentor in my life was my mother, edna drink wine. you see, i know what it's like to be a single mom struggling to make ends meet while caring for your family. i saw my mother to chad after my father died. she'd never worked outside the home, but my mother knew she had to support her family, my brother and me. with meager savings, she got a very small dressed shop and i worked side-by-side until the time she sold it when i was 20 years old. that dress shop was really a

classroom for me, where he learned the importance of hard work, responsibility, honesty, integrity and yes, courage from my mother's example. i think about my mother everyday, especially since i was challenged with the opportunity to become governor of arizona. i say challenged because i inherited the worst state budget deficit in the nation. well, i am my mother's daughter. i was up to the challenge. i am a problem solver. they made a lot of painful decisions. some still weigh heavily on my heart. in arizona, expenditures are almost down 20%. the number of state employees is done on the 15th and in state employees, including they took a 5% pay cut during the crisis.

but we now have a balanced budget and a positive cash balance for the first time in years and it feels darn. [applause] our state government is smaller. our state government is more efficient. our state government has focused on the future. arizona's poise to move into our second century with the creation of a new model to advance our economy. the arizona commerce authority as a public private entity focused solely on quality and recruitment. meanwhile, education in arizona has been transformed. it's a transformation supported by education and business leaders all across america. called arizona ready, were

engaging families across the state to take charge of the children's education and to expect more from our public schools. his reform initiatives include adoption of higher academic standards in the elimination of teacher tenure. they include employment policies that prohibit giving retention priority to teachers face on seniority and we're ensuring arizona has a state-of-the-art educational data systems for teachers have real-time information used to improve instruction. so that they can be held accountable for the results. now, fixing what affects our great nation will not be so easy. however, if there is one thing i learned from my mother and my years of public service, it is that life is about choices. it is said to integrate aim almost always means doing the hard thing.

it's choosing what's tough over what is tempting. it is choosing the truthful over the full period speaking about choices, voters had before the 1984 election, president called reagan said and i quote, the choices this year are not just between two different personalities are between two political parties. they are between two different visions of the future, two fundamentally different ways of governing. her government of pessimism, fear and limits and hours of hope, confidence and growth. end of quote. it seems to me there are still two very different visions of the future. we face increasing economic and

military challenges around the world. yet, we have a president more inclined to apologize for america and to first uphold her principal. we have a president who seeks deeper divisions to cross warfare, a calculator politics of nv and cynical appeals to racial grievance, even as the issues and understanding call for stability. we confront consistent economic instability and decline, yet we have a president who demands more of the same big government excess that triggered it. but what should bother us most is that we have a president to suggest that america is not an exceptional nation.

imagine. what other countries sent its finest young men and women to fight on distant battlefields for justice and peace clicks but other nation ever rose to set string, yet rose not to conquer but to protect? what other nations have acted not to dominate, but to liberate. we are an exceptional nation already. that is just a fact. [applause] written in blood and sacrifice of american patriots and their families, president obama doesn't have much in common with ronald reagan, but the principle difference between the two men is fairly simple.

one want to spread the wealth. the other live to spread freedom. in my work, "scorpions for breakfast," i told my meeting with president obama in the oval office when i looked him in the eye and i told him i didn't want to talk about his so-called comprehensive immigration reform while her order was out of control. i stand here today aiming to make a simple case on the subject of america's border with mexico and our immigration policy. i know my words will be distorted by those who disagree. my opponents have already painted me as hardhearted and uncompassionate. theron. my career, my record, my life i'll stand as proof as to how wrong the critics are.

the truth have come to share with you is anything but hateful. it has nothing to do with skin color. nothing to do with extremists on. instead, it is treated in freedom. my truth shares the spirit of our founding fathers quest to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide with a common defense, promote a general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty. we must secure arizona's and america's america's southern borders. that is the truth. we must secure orders to keep our citizens safe. they must secure our border because we are a nation of law. we must secure our borders to insurers our relationship with mexico. there is no other choice, no better option. there is no next bass easier

church. of course there are those back in washington who will tell us from 3000 miles away at our border is more secure than other tell that the survivors and friends of robert, a dedicated community minded men shot to death on the same cochise county ran to his family home for more than 100 years. so that to the friends and relatives of grave and noble patrol agent, agent bryan terry, if it time at the border again that was harmed by your own federal government, allowing guns to be shipped into mexico in the scandalous fast and furious operation. tell that to the arizona to wake

up to find drop house raids in progress or witness high-speed chases on our freeways in her neighborhood. we spent hours in an overburdened emergency room on a saturday night, while waiting and cancel in a suffering child. tell that tory tax payers to bury it to state and federal prisons house overflowing with minus 630,000 illegal alien felons at a cost of more than $1.6 billion each year. those are the facts, plain and simple. our opponent, the self-styled do-gooders try mightily to bury them. they stand and shout, hate and announce. to disagree with them i've learned is to suffer incredible verbal abuse. but let me assure you, i can

live with those consequences because i believe in the two and i believe in taking action to protect our hard-won freedom. i sometimes wonder whether the present time is inevitable and whether in fact the struggle will make us stronger. you'll see that secured and are left tilted 80 yeah, but i believe the american people are taking the same right now and moving to correct the course of the 2010 election was historic inconsequential. and if we continue to pull together a work card, there is going to be another like it is year from now. [applause] when i was here in february for president reagan centennial birthday party, former senator

john passport describe ronald reagan as an example of someone who let the life given to him on a lampstand shining not on himself, but on america and on to the world. it is ronald reagan's america. it is that special city on a hill. and i believe it's in that shining city where we might be ronald reagan again one day. in deal to take his hand and thank him for the nation he preserved for us. as a western governor, let me close with the famous prophecy of an english poet, one that our great patcher quoted to ronald reagan as he headed to his california ranch in his retirement. and not by the eastern windows only when daylight comes in the light. in front the sun climbs slowly.

how silly. but westward look, the land is bright. thank you and may god with you and your families and may god always bless the united states of america. [applause] [applause] >> thank you. [applause] thank you. thank you so very, very much. [applause] [applause] [inaudible conversations]

>> we have time just for a few questions and then the governor will be signing books for those of you who are wise enough work out fine. if i could just ask one favor before you ask your question. if you could raise your hand can you hand can you see we have staff in each of the isles. just hold up your hand and look of your microphone and introduced her sophomore go from there. yes, right here. >> brand john from burbank and i was wondering if there's any possibility of use using state resources to prosecute some of the people involved in fast and furious? [applause] >> you know, first we have to find the investigation that's going on, but i would assume as deep as that is handled on a federal level. i will tell you as you all know

that states jay of course we are just getting our budgets under control, which will have a whole lot of money. but i think certainly were going to see prosecution and persons will be held accountable for what indeed has taken place in arizona, in america. >> over here. >> hello. i just want to thank you for championing s.b. 1070. and i know you have a recent press release of the way to the supreme court. would you consider championing the immigration issue within the gop it may be inviting some of the other governors and who are facing the same situation and arizona faces than that though? >> each state police certainly in in the federalism or our state is we have all joined together on knowing certainly what america is facing. i had so many of our governors

not only close to the western area of america, but throughout that have been very, very supportive of us and we certainly reach out and support them. i'm sure if we don't get some release and that there probably will be a national movement. but i am really looking forward to the next election and it's going to count on a lot of people. i think if we see an exceptional election year 2012 we might have to battle won. [applause] >> hi, tucker from calabasas. my impression of the current administration is their belief system is that this is an unfair world i'm the only way people get ahead is from someone else who has accomplished something. there was a recent statement on the part of the administration annecy said earlier america has lost the exceptionalism and

specialness. the two are in conflict with each other. you can't have one and the other at the same time. if you're running things, what would be things you suggest to turn the country around somewhat quickly and effectively collects >> first and foremost we have to remember what america was built on. we all know that america is all about freedom. and i believe so strongly and i think every president and administration not to look to stake in this set of responsibility given in the constitution. i also believe it's the federal government to have a strong sense. i see a complete division between the federal government and the state government. [laughter] federal government simply can't do it all. we don't want them. we know better in our state what is best for our people in the federal government knows 3000 miles away from us and they just keep inflicting on us and

continually mandate says. i would say no way under any circumstance is that we do that. we hear from every governor in the state republican and democrat. get the government out of our lives. we've to get your tax situation under control. we've got to get or how situation under control and it certainly isn't obamacare. [applause] and arizona was one of the state to lead the charge on that. i will continue to do what we believe is right. i think if we get back to our principles of what this country was founded on, america will be that great country that we know so well, that exceptional country that we have fought for and need to maintain. you and i and everyone in

america spreading the truth. i will again tell you, doing the right thing almost always means doing the hard thing. but americans are up to it. clap my >> hi, governor. annemarie morel. i don't have a specific question, and which are the reason i got involved locally in politics. i started writing -- actually right for michael reagan's report sometimes. i was terrified. it's hard to be conservative and a liberal kind of way, but after i saw used in name@in america saint's day out which is it's dangerous and around country. when i saw you standing up to obama and he didn't back down and all of us get again she can't keep going like this, she's going to give in.

somebody's going to back off and you never did. you just set there and all you wanted was to suspend your own state. you are such an inspiration to me and i can't shut up anymore. [laughter] i never will again because of you. [applause] >> thank you so very much. this is exactly what the republican party needs. by so much appreciate your comments. it's amazing when you think about our federal government coming into my state it miles north of the border and signs in my desert, saying travel at your own risk. and if you see anything call 9-1-1. he tells it's not a federal issue, the call 9-1-1. [laughter] and that's not protecting my

state. that is flat-out surrender. [applause] and you know, coming here and being with all of you tonight is late being actually in a state of monks destroyed. if we don't all come together and we don't all stand on our principles and get the ipaq, the right people at good, where are we going to be? we will have no one to blame but ourselves. [applause] i can't see you. >> time for one last question. scenic thank you, governor brewer. i was just curious if you had planned to get yourself -- if you reach the point. make an endorsement for the nomination.

[laughter] >> well, i have been asked out by a lot of people as i've been traveling around the united states. of course people to call to call in and say we going to support, what are you going to do? i keep saying and going to wait until i have my debate in arizona, which we are working on and hopefully have some really defined question answered that will satisfy me. however, let me say we have a great bunch of candidates willing to stand up and share with us what they can do for this great country of ours. and when to hold ways and was totally satisfied to it there or desired in regards to our jobs and our economy and certainly in regards to what they are going to do about our defense and certainly how are they going to handle health care? i make a mess, what are they going to do about illegal immigration? [cheers and applause]

and i will tell you, it's going to take us all again. i can't say this much more because i've been a grassroots worker for the republican party for probably 45 years. i believe so strongly in their print both the philosophy that i'm not going to stop. i don't want you to stop. and i would just share with you that i have a pac called jam packed that we are asking for people to participate in so we can work collectively together across the united states to get the right people in the right to protect us and our principles. thank you. [applause] >> for more information, visit dz governor.gov.

>> so, dat of this book actually was sort of worn out of frustration and the idea crystallized for me that the first and only time i flew on air force one as it taken this job for the "washington post" rate than working for a while, where is my assignment to write toward our personal intimate stories about the presidency and what the president places like. and it only took me maybe a week of doing my job to realize that the president doesn't really have personal intimate moments, certainly none that is going to get access to. everything about his life is out doors and this really crazy way. i mean, yes 94 butler's inmates,

six calligraphers. write anything that's written. 78 people make a schedule every day. is this huge army that helps them operate in misstated a way and a schedule of sub divided in its 15 minute chunks. as a secretary who sits outside the oval office, which actually has a reverse people so she can look into the door at him and make sure things are running on schedule. he calls it the bubble and sometimes it really drives them crazy. in a few weeks i've been doing a shot at yet driving me crazy awesome editors crazy because i was not writing as many stories as they were hoping is going to write and not get into this personal moments in obama's life. so you know, family after doing this for publicly a few months at this point, my turn came up to find air force one. the waistline on air force one works is pretty much everyone who covers the president, your

name is put into this huge database. every time the president goes on a trip, they move through this database and eight more people get their turn to find air force one. so my name came up and i finally thought alright, this is a moment where i'll see some even be a close and all of the chance to experience what this is like a little for him. so you know, got dressed. obama flies out of a private air force base in virginia. got dressed up. actually rented a car to drive over there because rachel and nice cars was like a battered pontiac grand am that we manage to keep functional dummy parachute rope. he didn't feel appropriate to pull onto the tarmac next to air force one. sorrento car. i'm sure they gave me a volkswagen bug, but rented a car, drove over there, we did with either the reporters as he waited for her turn to board the plane. we waited for maybe an hour and

then they let us out. they were two entrances on air force one that letters sent to back one that is kind of back by the far rear of the airplane. we walked up the stairs, sat down and they said wait here. or waiting for the president to arrive at the airport. we made up for maybe half an hour and then we heard the president is arriving at the airport. you have never seen reporters that this class. it was a mad scramble to get back off the plane to watch the president motorcade arrived and we saw him walk six steps of the separate entrance to the front of the plane. so you know those six steps are very illuminating. we saw what he was wearing and what he was doing well were frantically taking notes about it. we got back on the plane, flew to new hampshire and scrambled off the plane as fast as we could to watch the president walked the six steps again back into his motorcade.

we followed by separately in a different car to the event. there was actually not enough time or space for that price to go and do that within, so we're offside in a satellite location where we watch the speech on a closed-circuit tv and were taking us at the event that way. so i was sitting there feeling honestly just really frustrated with trying to read about the presidency in any kind of meaningful way. i was listening to his speech and i heard him say something that i've heard him talk about before. it just sort of clicked. he talked about these 10 letters that he reads every night, which are stamping of the 20,000 letters that come in the white house every day. he talked about how these letters were what he felt like his only direct connection to people out in the country and the people he governs. he said the letters for the same that come sometimes kept him sane when you were so barricaded from so many other things. i realize pretty quickly that

that was something missing personal and real genuine and something i wanted to try and write about. so that's what i did. it started with a story for the post. i wrote a longer piece about the process of getting others to the steps in the paper was generous enough to give me a leave for a year, where i did go out to montana and i think they totally eliminated distinguished in that professor title now, that one out there and grow. at the end of this year, finally did get time on the president's schedule where they were looking in the reverse people at us while we talk about the letters. and i will read a brief part of the book now it is sorted from that half-hour he had with him about what this means to him. the president said the hardest letters to read with one for me to fill remote come even powerless. people tended to reach their

present circumstances during dyer, feeling hurt into an envelope is a matter of last resort. results of each day inside the purple folder with an intimate view of hardship and personal struggle, a wave of desperation capable of overwhelming senses. so many writers need urgent help upon a set and get the active governing was so slow it sometimes took years before legislation could actually improve people's lives. a few times during his presidency, obama had been so moved by a letter he'd written a personal check or native phone: the raiders behalf, believing it was the only way to ensure a fast result. it's not something i should advertise, but it's had and he said. many other times he forwarded letters to government agencies or cabinet secretaries after attaching a standard handwritten note that read, can you please take care of this? these letters can be heartbreaking, just heartbreaking he said. then you read and say gosh i really want to help this person and they may not have this will

stop them right now. and then you start thinking about the fact for everyone person who wrote describing her story, there might be another hundred thousand going for the same thing. there's time and i read the letters and i feel pain that i can't do more faster to make a difference in their lives. the wait has sometimes made in time for his days as a community organizer. back in the 1990s he was making $10,000 here and working on the south side of chicago. he just graduated from college and purchased a used car for $2000 spent days driving down a housing project to speak with residents about their lives. he became familiar with the same issues that would flood is now 25 years later, housing calamities, chronic unemployment and struggling schools. obama's fellow organizers in chicago considered a master of hands on granular problem-solving. he was skinny and boyish committee good listener, still a bit naïve in some of the older women in the housing projects made a habit of inviting them into their home and cooking for

them. he looked around the apartment, keeping a log of maintenance issues and delivering that listed the landlord. he helped arrange meetings for city housing officials to talk about asbestos problem. he established the tenants rights organization founded a job training program and a tutor group to prepare students for college. when he left for harvard law school after three years in chicago, obama has had his pass for his future. he wanted to become a politician come a job that would allow them to listen to peoples problems and enter the simple satisfaction solving them. now he was the most powerful politician alone in fixing problems the more difficult and satisfaction more lucid. the people right there in front of me and i could take, but maybe not the kid in some fashion obama said. and here, just because of the nature of the office and scope of the issues, you removed in ways that are frustrating. sometimes he went to pick up the phone and take him and tell me more about what is going on in

the me see if i can be your social worker, or advocate from your mortgage advisor. what a costly reconcile in my mind to say the very specific role to play in this office and i've got to make a bunch big decisions that you hope in the attic it one of having a positive effect for this many lives. you can always be certain. i was one of the reasons obama had taken to respond they enter a few letters each night. he still like the satisfaction of providing one thing immediate and concrete. >> up next, frances moore lappe rgc pushing me pessimistic about solving problems. this is about an hour and 10 minutes. >> good evening. my name is tim farnum and director of the miller warley center for the environment at loyola coll