and as a combination, as two pieces of steel. it is my privilege to introduce jim stockdale and his great wife sybil. [ applause ] >> sibbel and i are in our 46th year of marriage and we have four sons and five grandchildren and another on the way. the love of my life. saved my life once, if you ever read the book we wrote. it's my honor to be my old friend ross perot's running mate in this great effort to give the american people an independent way to go. i have a personal reputation for being independent in outlook and manner so this role gives me added satisfaction. ross perot, extraordinary man. a word used in a popular biographical article on ross by his recent director of

communication jim squires, this is on the newsstands now -- a good man, a selfless man. these adjectives come from the heart. sibbel has known him for 23-plus years and ever since i got off the plane from hanoi in 1973. the toast of american modern-age technology and entrepreneurship, a public education authority, on stanford campus yesterday i was stopped by the chairman of the education department and that department does not train teachers so much as they are into the theory of education and he said, you're having quite a life. i've been there 12 years. i know faculty well. he said, you know, i've read the reports of mr. perot's work both in his preschool experience in 1968 and the work with the high schools later. and he said, he really has some original approaches.

he said, it's not a teacher-bashing operation. he sat there for four months in those classrooms and asked questions and talked to the students and the teachers before he made any moves. he's a benefactor of the poor. perhaps in a -- in a story i heard from one of his close dallas friends, she said ross is the only man who would or could phone the salvation army headquarters in new york every january and ask the question, okay, how far short are you this year? and the guardian of the american fighting man. he put our plight in hanoi on page one in the world. and today gulf war veterans thank him for the sponsorship of the private hospitalization and wounds too extensive for normal v.a. care. so for me, this is a grand experience and a great opportunity. when ross phoned me last march

to be his running mate, i was in the early stages of writing a book about my patron saint in prison, a first century philosophy eftitus. he inspires tough people, like ross and i starting this campaign as underdogs. and i looked for the quote that would give me power in this clutch and i settled for this. a life not put to the test, is not worth living. and i thank providence for this life, with all its trials, and for this opportunity. when i wrote this article right here, sybil and i got on the plane in s francisco this morning and when we got off it, the pilot somehow found out who we were. and he came to the door and he just stuck out his hand and he said i want to thank you -- he was the captain of the plane. a mane in his 40s, any way. i want to thank you for everything you did out there in

hanoi. and suspect you flew over there. and he said no, the gulf war was my war. and before we got off he grabbed me and said tell ross, i'm going to vote for him. they're all over the country, folks. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> and we'll turn the podium over to arsenal signal. our national coordinator. >> mr. perot? >> mr. perot? >> i want to get my family safely out of here. i got that taken care of. now -- just before everybody tarts yelling at once, i can't see you at all because it is so dark. but i'll try. >> tell us the kind of campaign you'll run.

mr. swindle there is a heavy emphasis on media and television. >> it is on the issues. >> does this mean you will not be traveling around the country in will you just be on tv? give us an idea. >> assume you own a basketball team. >> would expect to you ask me for my strategy but would you expect me to give you the strategy. we won't lay out the strategy for you. it is unconventional, i'll tell you that. but i don't want to cut you off, but it doesn't make any sense for us to lay out our strategy. >> will this be a strategy to highlight our issues or to win and if so how do you do that with just over a month to go in the election. >> we will win by highlighting our issues. >> are you caming or just doing -- campaigning or just doing commercials. >> now you are getting into our strategy. and i just feel it is not wise to tell you. i think -- just -- nobody would tell his opponents the strategy in any sort of confrontation and i don't think we should.

[ overlapping speakers ] >> you're not going to tell us what your campaign plans are. will you tell us when you're going to appear and when? >> we will not reveal our strategy. we'll have it unfold day after day. here is the one thing you can bet on, it is going to be serious and it is going to focus on the issues. and that's going to be -- but then exactly how we run a serious campaign focusing on the issues, that will unfold day after day. >> the plan, was it crafted by a former adviser to president carter whose stewardship of the economy was not widely praised? it. >> now, if no one else will yell, try that again. because i got part of it. >> why should america put its trust in an economic plan crafted largely by a carter administration official?

>> number one, it was not crafted largely by that person. that person participated on the team, made an important contribution. that person is a very bright, wise, able person. i had absolute control over that plan. was deeply involved in it myself and a very talented team made up of a number of people participated. but and so, again, your question is -- has a bad premise. >> and the gas tax, the increase tax and the social security benefits and this all revolved around the middle kplas and the rich don't participate as much as the middle class. >> you expect your opponents to distort and -- and i wouldn't digfy that answer with a comment. i know exactly who and where that comes from. he said it so many times -- >> i will at the proper time. but the point is, does everybody

here -- >> mr. perot, could you explain what interest it is in the average american to have his or her gasoline bill go up an average of $300 a year to solve the deficit when richer americans will not have to undergo that similar type of burden. could you explain why it is in their interest. that is a simple question, sir. >> if you look at the cost of gasoline around the world, in italy it is up to $5 a gallon and most of the other industrial kpet tigs nations it is up to $4 a gallon. mostly the cost is the same roughly all over the world. the variation is in the tax. those nations take that tax and build infrastructure. our infrastructure is falling apart. our purpose in collecting ten cents a gallon over five years put us still way at the bottom of the industrialized world and infrastructure will create jobs and make our country stronger and get the multiplier effect from having a modern

infrastructure as opposed to a decaying infrastructure. when you look at what germany is spending to improve its infrastructure and what japan is spending to improve its infrastructure, little taiwan is looking to improve its infrastructure and here nobody could afford to buy a car let alone gasoline. we have to do that sort of thing now. >> you talked about -- >> i'm here today to announce and have a positive, good time. and i mean, everything here is the usual hostile, negative and yelling and screaming. i'll take two more. [ overlapping speakers ] >> you said when you dropped out of the race, you were making a rational decision. when you dropped out on july 16th -- >> mr. perot? >> mr. perot, you talked about young people and that you're interested in young people in your campaign. many young people in this

country are very apathetic when it comes to voting, how can your role in this campaign change that? >> well, i certainly want to get them to participate and based on the number of young people who have contacted me and come to see me and in some cases driven across the country to come see me, my sense is they're going to be very active this year. and i think it is terribly important that they be active. more and more, particularly once they finish school, finish high school and can't get a job. finish college and can't get a job. get a master's degree and can't get a job and a mab from a big name big school and can't get a job. they are starting to say, wait a minute. something is wrong. they are really concerned about making sure we don't drop the $4 trillion burden on them. and as all you question why we have to have fair shared sacrifice across this country, please recognize, it is because we spent our children's money. and please understand, won't it be neat if we were $4 trillion down but everything was perfect.

they would say, well we're $4 trillion in debt but we have the industrial base for the world and the finest schools and we've got no crime and we have alabaster cities on agreement with human tears and unfortunately with the bottom of the world in public education and most crime in the industrialized world our cities are in decay, and our public schools rank at the bottom of the industrialized world and we owe $4 trillion. this is going to be a tough pull to fix it. now, why am i so blunt about it and nobody else is? because the american people are ready to address it and fix it and both of the other parties say it is political suicide to talk about it. well, my objective is not to commit political suicide but i do understand that the american people are ready to deal with this and every day is precious. if you delay, it is delaying once you know you have cancer. it is like going through a period where you -- denial, you refuse to accept. it it is pretty important to get treatment quick. we're at this point, we need to

do it while we're still strong. >> ten minutes ago you said you were quitting the race because you didn't want to be a spoiler and didn't want to be disruptive. now you say you're back to win this thing. >> yes. >> isn't your strategy to disrupt george bush's vote in a number of key states, including this one, texas? >> absolutely not. that is press myth number 615. wait just a minute. wait a minute. let me finish. absolutely not. absolutely not. now, i love you guys. [ laughter ] he has called me every name in the book. all i've ever said, fine man and fine family. the only thing i ever criticized is his mistakes in office. that's it. we're talking about performance here, not personality. see, i'm everything from a monster to crazy, coming from them, right? nobody ever says, boy, you must really dislike that guy, because

you keep saying those things. i show up here and you say, you don't like george bush. when you create these fairy tales an pass them on, get together sometime in the evening and say is there any basis for this stuff? there is no basis for that. i wouldn't spend 10 minutes because of personal dislike. i certainly wouldn't spend the money i'm having to spend on this. i'm doing it for the reasons i gave in this speech. very simple. take one more. >> mr. perot -- >> sir -- >> i'm green and inexperienced. let me ask -- i'm going to ask the nice quiet gentleman -- i'll recognize you and we'll try it, yes. >> mr. perot in, your book you have an outline, your economic plan. on monday you held the most extraordinary political meeting here where their economic agenda was also discussed. but from what i understand, what most of us understand, there was

similarity and commonalities and differences, but since then and now when you begin your campaign, do you think that you will be changing your economic agenda or altering them or making -- or any kind of adequate changes or will they stay remain exactly as you outlined. >> any plan -- any plan should not be static. any plan should be dynamic. let's assume somebody has a better idea tomorrow. we should think about it. we should discuss it. we should debate it and do it. if you ask for me for 25 words or less for the reason for my business success, i don't get locked into a blue print. we start out with what everybody is all excited about as a good plan. and then as we start down the road to implement it, we have a thousand better ideas. our government doesn't do that. we pass laws, freeze things in concrete and people cannot fine tune and optimize. so i'm a great believer in fine tuning and optimizing and

certainly every step of the way we would want to say, wait a minute, as' go along, is there a better way to do it. what is the goal? to serve the american people. what is the goal? to get the biggest bang for your buck. and that is the reason health care is a mess. it is frozen. there are people all over the place, if they could take a screwdriver and fine tune it, but you can't. >> [ inaudible question ]. >> number one, your question is did i know that? no. number two, let's look -- because i now have checked to find out what was going on. number -- here is what happened. people -- we had 50 states, offices all over 50 states, manned by self-selected volunteers and someone would call dallas and say charlie is stealing money. in order to comply with the federal election rules, we would check it out and it was just false signal.

and then we would have a situation, saying gee, we have a fellow out here in a county in an obscure area that your county coordinator that has done three terms in jail. well, we would have to check that out. 90% of the contact for that firm, most of the effort with that firm was providing security people and offices that needed security. we would rent security people by the hour from them. now, let's stop and think about this for a minute. i would urge someone to say, well how many people do you have in dirty tricks or opposition research? don't have any and never are any. isn't it fascinating that everybody goes bonker on the front day of the page the day i am going to make this acceptance on the issue and ignores both parties who are in absolute overdrive and overload trying to destroy one another personally. step two, really now, if there

is any balance and fairness in what you do, give the same attention to their investigative capability that you've created out of thin air about our nonexistent capability. find out how many full time investigators they have checking everything is breathing and i think you'll conclude there is paranoia, at least in one place. so i realize it is a tough game and i realize nobody has to -- there are rules and i don't care. but i find it silly to the point of ridiculous that if you write a nonstory just because it gives you something hot, that you don't take the time to say, well what about these other two guys? listen, we are not even in the game when it comes to investigation. in terms of what they're doing. and we don't -- all we try to do, if somebody said somebody is stealing, we check it out, we're entitled to under the federal election commission, not to

allow people to steal money. now that is it. now on that happy note, i'll take one more. >> mr. perot? you said -- let me just take you up -- >> i can't hear, you sir. >> mr. perot, have you ever been approached by the clinton campaign on any of their representatives and have they offered you any sort of a cabinet post? >> no. >> in the white house? >> no. nothing like that. and again, i guess, on a slow day -- of course not. >> i would like to -- i would like to. >> with all due respect. >> think the american people are tired of the type of campaigns that have been run. at the same time, the american public went through a traumatic experience when nixon was president many years ago. how much of a right do the american people have to know about your character? is it fair for someone who might vote for you to wonder about your character and ask questions

and how much should we be allowed to investigate your past? >> of course, now. let me ask you a question. is it unfair for me to wonder why you don't write a balanced presentation. let's assume you find -- well here is the good, the bad, the beautiful, the indifferent. are you trying to present a balanced picture of a candidate, leave me out tv or are you trying to play gotcha journalism? i'll rest my case. i'll take any balanced piece that comes out. i don't claim to be perfect. nobody -- look, i don't care what you do. just have fun. get raises and bonuses. play gotcha. i don't care. but the point is, i want you to know that what i'm about is what i just said and i care about this country and i care about the american people and i love them and i will do whatever i can to serve them and they've asked me to do this and i will do it for them. and with that -- you've been -- i'm going to take this gentleman and then i have to go to work, i have to make a living and have to pay for this.

>> you just said ask the question and why don't we go after the other two candidates. >> no, i said only on the investigate issue. >> and you said that you've had several quotes about how they use investigators and they investigate everything breathing. do you have chapter and verse about their use of investigators? do they investigate you or the american people? >> i don't feed the press. >> you made the accusation. >> i don't give you a feed every morning -- anybody here ever get a nasty feed from me? rest my case. good luck to you. and good luck to you and thanks for being to pleasant and positive at my -- good way to open it up. [ applause ] tonight, you've been watching some of our american history tv programming in prime time. you'll find us here every weekend on c-span 3. we'll take you live to conferences, symposiums and historical sites.

on american artifacts, go behind the scenes with us to museums and archives and travel with us to the nation's classrooms where you'll hear from college and university professors on lectures in history. as the 2016 campaign continues, watch past presidential campaigns on road to the white house rewind. and journey with us through the 20th century on real america which showcases documentaries and other archive films. over the next few weeks, watch for our airings of portions from the 1975 church committee hearings, investigating the intelligence activities of the cia, fbi, irs and nsa. look for all of our programming every weekend on c-span 3. you're watching american history tv in prime time. each week until the 2016 election, road to the white house rewind brings you archival coverage of presidential races.

up next, the 1988 campaign of candidate gary hart. we begin with the former colorado senator announcing his campaign in a ten-minute speech in denver. the senator finished a close second to mondale in the race for the 1984 democratic nomination and was considered by many observers to be the front-runner going into 1988. but within weeks of his announcement, the senator faced allegations of an extramarital affair which led him to withdraw from the race. massachusetts governor michael dukakis lost to george bush in the general election. ♪ >> thank you very much. thank you very much. thank you. [ applause ]

thank you very much. for out of town friends, welcome to colorado. if you don't like the weather, it will change in a few minutes. [ laughter ] . i want to say thanks to my good friends tim worth and federico pena and all the elected official and leaders of our community and our state here on this platform. i want to take this opportunity if i may to introduce the best daughter anyone ever had, andrea hart. [ applause ] i was tempted to introduce the next first lady of the united states, but i'll simply say, the best wife any candidate ever had, lee hart. i may or may not do that. we want to thank each and every one of you who came out here today. you are our friends. many have been our friends and supporters, contributors and

boosters for many, many years. we are strengthened and heartened by your presence here and we thank you. i want to say a special word of thank to a very large group of the best organizers that any candidate for any office has ever had and say a personal word of thanks to all of them who have organized this rally, and particularly mike straton. let's give him a hand. [ applause ] i intend to seek the presidency of the united states in 1988. [ cheers and applause ] and i do so for one single reason. and that is i love my country. this country is 250 million human beings united by a common history and heritage and set of beliefs.

but america is and always has been an ideal. this land has stood for equality and justice and hope and opportunity for generations and generations of americans, and millions of people around the world. at our best, we've come close to that ideal. but i think all of us know deep down in recent years that this country has fallen short of the ideal of america. we've seen personal agreed replace a sense of social justice and equity and the national good. we've seen right wing ideology skew this nation's basic priorities. we have seen narrow single interests increasingly finance our campaigns and control our political process. and we've seen high standards for public officials and public ethics be eroded. most of all, this nation has lost the sense of the national interest, and we're in serious

danger today of letting our future pass us by. i believe this nation can do better. and i believe that's what the issue in 1988 is all about. we must rebuild this nation. in the latter years of this century using a blue print of new directions and new ideas based upon a foundation of the national interest. [ applause ] we must build the best education system in the world. [ cheers and applause ] we must renew and revitalize our national economy, and modernize our factories, invent new technologies and train your workers. [ applause ] we must make a moral commitment

to our children that we will leave behind to them a natural heritage cleaner and better than we have today. [ applause ] we must reform our conventional defenses and drastically reduce our reliance on nuclear weapons for this nation's security. [ cheers and applause ] the states -- the states in 1988 could -- the stakes in 1988 could not be higher, and the choices could not be clearer. we could have a defense policy that takes school lunches away from poor children to pay for mx missiles or b-1 bombers, or we could have a defense policy that reforms our conventional defenses, saves the taxpayers dollars and makes this country safer. one choice is in the national

interests, and that choice could not be clearer. [ applause ] we can have an agriculture policy that turns over the productive farmland of this nation to a handful of giant corporations, or we can have millions of family farmers producing the food and fiber of this nation. one choice is in the national interest. and that choice could not be clearer. [ applause ] we can have public officials who represent the ethics of donovan, defer, and boastie. or we can demand the highest standards for our elected officials and say to those people in washington and wall street, you are out of business. one choice is in the national interest. and that choice is clear.

and we can continue to have our political campaigns financed by special interests and have those special interests control the flow of legislation and the quality of government or we can reform the campaign finance laws and restore dignity and honesty and integrity to this nation's political process. one choice is in the national interest. and that choice is clear. [ applause ] and finally, we can define patriotism. we can say that patriotism is only the symbols of this nation and that the flag belongs to a handful of narrow right-wingi ideologues or we can say that patriotism and the flag blopgsz

to all of us who love this nation and choose this nation. one choice is in the national interest, and that choice is clear. [ applause ] people want to know what is the issue in 1988. i will state that issue to you very clearly. the issue in 1988 is who is best qualified to govern this country. the question is one of leadership. we can have leadership that unites us or leadership that divides us. we can have leadership that challenges us or leadership that makes us feel good. we can have leadership in the national interest or leadership in the narrow interest. we can have leadership that tells this country that it must move forward, or leadership that says we will go back and recapture our past. that is the issue in 1988. and that is why i make this

race. i make this race because i love my country and i want america to do better and to move forward. i believe there is an untapped idealism in the american spirit, and there is a quality in the american character that is yet to be unlocked. at its best that is what a national campaign is and ought to be about. and i pledge to you that is what this campaign will be about. you give me 20 days in the next 20 months and i will give you a presidency you can be proud of. [ cheers and applause ] thank you.

let us go forward from this day committed to restore this land to all of its people, to restore a sense of genuine true patriotism to america. and if we do, we will have done the goest thing for this country any of us can ever do, march on! [ cheers and applause ] ♪ ♪ ♪ >> thank you all very much.

♪ ♪ thanks very much. ♪ road to the white house rewind continues with more from the 1988 campaign of democratic candidate gary hart. just weeks after entering the presidential race, the former colorado senator faced allegations of an extramarital affair with a miami woman named donna rice. next he addresses the charges at a news conference in hand over, new hampshire. our coverage picks up as the news conference gets underway

this. portion is just under 40 minutes. >> as i have made clear, i think, to everyone, i have nothing to hide. i made a mistake. i made a series of mistakes in mistakes, in fact. i regret those very much not just for myself but for all those individuals and the individuals who have been unfairly maligned. my own family, first of all, and for my supporters. we still believe, and i would be willing to go into these at any length you wish, that some very fundamental facts about the events are still not clearly known. i just mentioned three or four since they have been mentioned to me by key supporters and spokespersons on my behalf that they were not aware of. those were, including this, in the events of the evening in question on last saturday, reporters did not confront me.

icon fronted them. there was a report that i was, i think, in their words, walking aimlessly about the neighborhood. what i was doing was finding them. and when i found them, icon fronted them. and it was only then that they identified themselves. i knew they were out there and had known that they were -- that someone was surveilling me and my home for some time. second, i answered questions of those reporters on the spot for 25 minutes or 30, which obviously, i did not need to do. i had nothing to hide, and i -- the allegations that they made, i flatly and vociferously refuted. and well, i wanted to make it clear that there was no avoidance of questioning even at that time. third, i think one very -- or two other things i'd like to mention. the group involved in these

reports came and went to my house in broad daylight at twice on saturday afternoon and apparently were not observed by the press organization in question. why that is, i don't know. and they don't have to account for it. the fact of the matter is that except for leaving once or twice through the carport, entry to and from the house in broad daylight by three or four people went on on saturday during a period when i was supposed to have been in the house only with one other person. finally, as i hope most of you know, we requested a meeting with reporters. mr. broadners particularly did at his home in the company of his guests to the reporters involved. he tracked them down. he found them. it took some doing. he called their headquarters. there was not an answer. he came back to my house, found

their photographer, asked where they could be found and found them. he offered if they would not publish their story until he talked to him to clarify the fact and make sure they are not under any miss apprehension. for whatever reason, their own, they chose not do that. finally, let me say a word about my wife, leigh. she has been, if anything, under more stress because of these events in the last few days than i have. and she continues to astonish me with her strength and her courage. this is, needless to say, not a pleasant thing for anyone. not for me, not for our children, but particularly not for her. she has said that we have been married for 28 years. i hope we're married 28 more. if that work out, and i think it will. but over that 28 years, i have

to tell you, there is -- of the people i have met in the world, friends that i have made, this is most extraordinary human being i have ever had the pleasure of knowing not simply as a wife, but as a human being. and she is here today and will be with us on the campaign trail. >> senator, you told me a couple weeks ago in much in that you didn't feel the american people had any interest in your personal life. do you still maintain that's true? or do you believe that the events that happened whatever the conversion raise questions about your judgment? >> they are two separate questions. i think the answer to both is yes. clearly, they have more interest than i thought they would. second, the issue is that i made a mistake. and the issue is judgment -- like character -- i'd like to talk about judgment if i may because it's not a simple term.

people who seek national office or leadership are called upon to make judgments in their personal lives, in their ethical and moral lives, in their family lives. but also decisions affecting literally millions if not hundreds of millions of people, perhaps everyone on the planet. judgments include decisions to go to cemeteries, judgments that include holding a summit. judgments as i have learn while holding a seat in senate, oppositions to tax cuts. judgments to oppose mx missiles, judgments to stand up against reaganomics when it was very popular. we make judgments in all of our lives. i think if you are going to analyze or evaluate a person's character or ability to lead, then in all fairness you have to evaluate their entire record.

the entire history of their public and private lives. and take into account those very hard political and other judgments that have to be made. i have said, i will say again, i made a mistake. i underestimated the way in which the appearance of something wrong going on here could be raised particularly by those who didn't get all the facts and it was something i shouldn't have done. >> you stressed on a couple of occasions here you have been reported to not adequately diligent. [ inaudible ] and yet they have said several times, repeatedly that out on the street they asked you repeatedly for an opportunity to speak with the woman which turned out to be miss rice and you would not let