that can handle college calculus, for instance. i met a 15-year-old the other day who just submitted for a science competition a project using a nuclear fusion reactor to produce neutrons. at a poor, you could send the neutrons through on this side and measure the radiation change on the other side of the container to find out if there was fissile material in the container itself. this is a 15-year-old. if you do not have those kind of kids challenged in school, america will not be a better place to live. we want to challenge those gifted kids. there are other programs around the country, but we need to replicate those programs. . .

pays down its debt and does not hand our children a huge amount of debt. imagine a country that actually has a health-care system that you and your doctor may be decisions, that encourages health-care choices, and that we

actually spend less money on health care and therefore make it more affordable and accessible for all americans. imagine the country that produces its own energy, that balances of fat with taking care of the environment, and provides economic security -- which balances that with taking care of the environment. imagine a country that actually educate its children to not the second-worst level in the industrialized society but is actually number one. that is the kind of country that we need in america, and, lastly, imagine a country that actually respects the constitution enough where we appoint justices to the supreme court that respect the constitution, that protect the bill of rights, including the second amendment. that is the kind of america i want to see. together, you and i, together, that is the kind of america we

can build. together, that is the kind of america we will build. will you join me in that effort? [applause] thank you. >> well, we have questions for the senator denied. some of the questions were submitted by members of the audience, -- for the senator tonight. we have questions also from around the country, but before we go to the questions, i just want to make sure that i can introduce our former congressman and still a good friend of everyone in northwest iowa, with us tonight. will you please say hello? congressman? [applause] >> any tough questions, i would just say, "call tom up."

>> this comes from a person in iowa, and he is asking for your thoughts on the general motors bankruptcy filing. >> well, first of all, i think president bush made a huge mistake when he used the tarp fund.s [no audio] [applause] -- the tarp funds. i said that i thought they should go through chapter 11 reorganization. that did not mean that they would go away. at that time, the government could have done some of the things we were talking about today, guaranteeing the warranties so people could feel comfortable buying the cars, and then provide better financing. -- debtor financing. it probably would not have cost us anything. they would already be, i believe, much, much more on their way to recovery than they are under the current plan.

i do not think we should be owning automotive companies the way the president has proposed. [applause] >> the next question comes from east peoria, ill., and he asks, "what are you doing to reach the younger voters?" >> that is a great question, because that is a great challenge for our party. president obama did a great thing with inspiring people. we also have to use technology. our party was behind the learning curve on technology, and you have to be on facebook. you have to be on myspace. you have to, obviously, use twitter. i have used that several times today while i have been in iowa. but we also have to do it in a way where they can hear it. for example, with the budget,

they have to understand what president obama's budget means. they have to understand what this means to their pocketbook and to their future. young people really strongly believe in education. they understand, when you mention to them that we should be able to hire teachers, ok, who in this room did not have one bad teacher along the way, or your child had one bad teacher along the way? they understand, ok? i want to pay good teachers more, but i want to be able to get rid of that teachers and really care about this in the educational system. if we talked issues, not only to young people, but, also, i believe the same kind of things with minorities. we cannot afford to be a party that does not attract minorities. also to be leaders, we have to have a different face on our

party for the future. otherwise, we are going to be a minority party and stay that way. >> the next question is from sears city. -- sioux city. what should u.s. policy towards iran be, and should regime change become a part of a policy? >> this is an unbelievably difficult question, because this is not the same as when iraq started developing their nuclear programs back in the 1980's, when israel took out their program that then. iran has learned from that. they are spreading around the country. it is not as easy for israel to take out the nuclear capabilities. the world simply cannot afford to have iran have a nuclear weapon. cannot afford it. there are no options. that is the bottom line.

the president has said that. i agree with the statements he has made all with that. countries like iran, they only understand strength. remember libya? again, and when ronald reagan was president -- i am a veterinarian, so i can use this. moammar gaddafi. did not mean to offend anyone, but the veterinarian comes out on a once in awhile, and that really is. they understand strength, and you cannot pass a by people like mahmoud ahmadinejad. you cannot, and the understand strength. we have to get the world community behind us, but you have to be prepared to act. >> the next question is from hammons, at indiana. it is asked, "can you define

conservatism and how you would promote it?" >> yes, conservatism, and if they -- , i think there is one more that goes to its heart, and whether it is freedom from government intervention, that means less regulation. that means fewer laws. that means lower taxes because that is freedom from government oppression. you can be oppressed by taxes. a lot of things, but freedom really is the core principle of what i believe the conservative message should be. i do not believe in big government conservatism. i do not. i am not one of those people. i think people do make better decisions with their own money than the government does. businesses know how to invest their money better than government does. the government does not create jobs. it creates jobs by taking them

away from the private sector. they should only do with the government is required to do, and whenever the private sector can do it, the private sector should do it. this is what i talk about when i talk about personal responsibility. our welfare system was put into place for a very good reason. it was put in for the right reason. but we have a responsibility as individual citizens. for those who may be down and out, to give them a hand up so that the government does not have to give them a hand out, and that kind of conservatism is, i believe, that we have responsibility and that we care about our community. so we can attract businesses. this all comes, our founders believed -- this is really the

conservatives thought i believe our party should stand for. >> your question, sitting here in the front row, -- what is your plan to counter this? >> first of all, presenting the healthy choices. i am actually drafting a plan right now. we are working with the democrats. we are starting out in a bipartisan fashion. we just do not know how long it is going to continue, and maybe there are some democrats muggy pilaf as well. because they put into place a budget role that they can use, which is called reconciliation. it eliminates the minority from the process. if they want to act as a trigger, they can force this thing down our throats it begins to that point, so we have to be

prepared to work together in a bipartisan fashion. we have to have alternatives, and we have to take it to the american people. the bottom line is that we cannot afford what the call the public auction. that is a government-run health care plan when the bureaucrats -- i said democrat, but i meant bureaucrats. this is when we start seeing the rationing of care, a delay of care, and when health care is delayed, health care is denied. >> from sacramento, calif., she asks, what, if any, sanctions do you think should be placed on north korea? >> that is another difficult but a great question. i moved to nv when i was about

four years of age. north korea and kim jong il, one of the biggest threats is not only what he may do, but also transferring those to places like iran, which is a real danger. they know it. everybody knows it. they are afraid to put too much pressure, because they do not want hundreds of thousands of refugees coming across the border, but the bottom line is that they have to get tough and cut off oil with the north koreans, and this is one of those things that, you know, the chinese do not want the japanese to have any kind of a nuclear program, but that may be one of the things where you have to say to the chinese, "i am not sure we can hold the japanese back if you are not willing to do something about the caribbean, because the japanese do not want the koreans to have nuclear weapons, and you do not

want the japanese to have nuclear weapons, and this whole thing can work if they participate in the right way, and that is the kind of tough diplomacy that i think needs to be asked. >> the final question today, because we said we would be out of your within one hour. this question comes from here in sioux city. there are some within the republican party this in just a departure from conservatism in a move towards moderation in order to be successful. how do you respond to that? >> well, first of all, to be a majority party, you have to allow for disagreements on some issues, but that is hard to talk about. getting to the core principles. that is what ronald reagan did. he made us the big tent party. we have to be respectful in our disagreements.

these are completely different. a lot of the things that you all deal with, there are different kinds of farming issues that you would have in certain other parts of the country, and we have to understand some of the differences and allow for these differences. the core principles that i talked about, about limited government and being fiscally responsible, along with personal responsibility and caring about our community, i think those kinds of things, getting back to the constitution, that is a conservatism that is actually attractive to motto republicans, the conservative democrats, independents, and that is something that can make us the majority party again. those who say that we should moderate, that means that we should of bigger government, more spending, you know, the kinds of things that we have done for some of the last eight years, count me out. that is not part of the

republican party i want to be a part of. i want to be part of the republican party that is fiscally responsible to and says to the young people who are here today, "we care about the future. we care about it so much that we are willing to sacrifice ourselves so that you will have a better america." thank you very much. [applause] thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. we want to thank everyone for coming tonight and thank you for putting up with all of these people and a small room. check out the website, aff, to see what the next part of a lecture series is, and we thank you for coming. >> thanks very much.

thanks for being here. hi. how are you? i am good, good. do you? oh, how old are you? >> i just turned 15 in may. >> you did, huh? i have a 13-year-old daughter, and she wants to be a veterinarian. that is ok. what i do is i challenge people to think. like i said, was liberal when i was younger. think through the issues. think through the application of the issues, and i think that when you do that, this is like welfare. i really cared deeply about people, ok, but then i saw what the democrats did with the welfare system, and the actually destroyed the people they were trying to help, so when you think through some of these issues, for example, on regulation and taxation, ok, those actually make a big business more competitive.

80% of opportunities for minorities and women come from small business, not big business, so if you and women- owned businesses and minority-of businesses, we need republican principles that support small businesses -- and minority-owned businesses. i just want to help rebuild my party, ok? something in the future, maybe, but not right now, no. hi, how are you? what is your name? very good, kim. nice to eat. thanks for being near. did you enjoy that? -- nice to meet you. thanks for being here. >> i have a question. with all this happening in america, do you think there will be another revolution? >> you know, no, i do not think so. a revolution of sorts in people's minds. that is what you see with the tea parties, right?

>> yes. >> we do not need a bloody revolution. we can have this at the ballot box, and it will really be up to your generation to really care. you are our future. quit being so selfish instead of worrying about our future. hi, how are you? thank you very much. you want a picture? go-ahead. there you go. >> thank you. >> you are welcome.

good. thank you. thanks for saying that. ok. you have got a camera? ok. >> thank you. >> yes, go ahead. go ahead. we are ok. >> we are going to need to address the pro-lifer agenda. >> there is no question. here is what we need to do on the pro-life issue. when i talk about this, we have to change people's hearts. we have to have people really value human life, and that is part of the role caring and creating this that we talk about. we are not going to change anything when it comes to this for quite some time, until we change people's hearts and people believe that every child is a child got and that every person has value.

when we find out today nine out of tend down's syndrome babies are aborted, 9 and 10 -- nine out of 10 are aborted. my son has a genetic problem. it seems like the better the heart is, -- we lose value when we do this. >> there are a lot of people who need to hear that. >> ok. thank you. >> he wanted picture? sure. come on over here. >> one, two, threee. -- you want a picture?

>> we have to be very objective, it is she is like some of us suspect, and then she has a fight, because our record is kind of mixed on some of the issues. we have to ask the tough questions. we really have to get into some of the issues that i saw come out today, and it is sometimes not what they say but how they say it, so we are going to review her record very, very carefully. i mean, the president does deserve his nominee as long as they're halfway reasonable. the president himself kind of set president by voting for people he just agreed with politically, so that may come back to haunt him. >> ok, ok. >> ok. >> coming back to iowa. >> thanks so much for saying that. i appreciated. >> a concealed permit holder, i want to say thank you -- i

appreciate it. >> you do not have to worry about me on that one, ok? you are welcome. >> excuse me. >> ok. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> tonight on "q&a," mitch daniels, first elected governor in 2004 and then reelected in 2008. before that, he wins in the office of management and budget and a senior adviser to president reagan -- he was in the office of management and budget. that is on "q&a." tomorrow on "washington journal," and reporter for the wires, michael crittenden. dave mccurdy talks about general motors, and stephen after --

steven aftergood. "washington journal," live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. former vice president dick cheney was at the national press club to present the actual ford foundation journalism awards. he also answered questions from audience members. this lasts about 35 minutes. >> the first question, you were working to get information declassified from the obama administration. how is that going? [laughter] >> well, the debate is over a set of memos that were produced

by intelligence agencies, the cia, that talked about what we achieved through the interrogations program of high- value detainees, and i would not ordinarily be leading the charge to declassify classified information. otherwise, they would not call me darth vader for nothing. [laughter] but once the administration released the legal memos that gave the opinions that were used to guide the interrogations program, they had given away the store, in a sense, the techniques that were used in the interrogations program, i thought was important to have the results that were gained from the interrogations front and center, as well, so that is why i asked for those to be declassified. what is happening now is the

response that came back to my formal request was a negative 1. it, in effect, said -- i thought that was pete for a second. [applause] [laughter] that it could not be released. the same standard would apply if you looked at the legal memos that had previously been released. the president has the authority to declassify anything he wants. if they wanted to, at a stroke of a pen, he could declassify those documents i have asked for this afternoon. i hope he will. it needs to be out there. this is an important debate.

i think the declassification of those documents would serve the public purpose and would give the american people in a broader basis on which to make a determination. >> i know, mr. vice president, many are trying to give people a better understanding of history. one of those, of course, was the run-up to war in iraq and the connections that were used to justify the argument and decision. numerous determinations of been there was no coordination between saddam hussein and al qaeda. do you still maintain that such a collaborative relationship existed, and if so, what sources of information did you have that the cia and other agencies did not have?

>> the prime information was from george tenet. there was the senate intelligence committee where they talked about the collaborative relationship, code words sometimes that gets wrapped up in this debate, but there was a relationship between al qaeda and iraq which stretched back 10 years. that is not something i made up. that is not something i thought of. that is something the director of central intelligence was telling us. we know for a fact that saddam hussein was a sponsor, a state sponsor, of terror. it was not my judgment. that was the judgment of our state department. we know that, for example, he

was making $25,000 payments to families of suicide bombers who would blow themselves up and kill as many as really is as they could. we know that there -- to kill as many israelis as they could. the notion that, say, there was not a collaborative relationship, i do not believe, and i have never seen any evidence, to confirm that he was involved in 9/11. we had that reporting for a while, and eventually it turned out to not be true. saddam hussein being a terror sponsor and someone who provided sanctuary and safe harbor and resources to terrorists i think is without question a fact, and it was of sufficient concern that, of course, you saw in the till end of the clinton administration -- tli