happening in your state, specifically issues that are bubbling up in the latino community but also issues that you see are shaping and affecting latino families in your state. what are the opportunities that might be inherent in those issues? . have the historic transformation that we see in california, where you have different directions changing so quickly. when i first ran for office, this was the first campaign

issue that i had coming out of the gate was not, how much education that i had learned, or what some of the issues were, the first question to prove to the voters in northern new mexico was whether i was from northern new mexico were had roots here for hundreds of years. there is a very different political context than when i saw in albuquerque or the urban areas that we are founded it -- and we are founded in very rich traditions. this is a very old and historic place, santa fe is the oldest state capital in the country. this is a different land, politically, but when you think about the strong roots that we have here. it does not surprise me that education and health care are at the forefront, because the state of new mexico is the same way. i would break down the top issue in new mexico beyond education and health care and the economy. this is really concerning

families, the dropout rate. they could dominate politically, to achieve a political participation level that is unheard of in the rest of the nation. the dropout rate is still up 15%. we think that we are succeeding politically, but we still have the same social challenges of many other states. i would say that the educational systems are very strained right now and we are looking at solutions. these are the top issues that we are facing. >> the major issue for us is economic. we are in hard times, economically. this is hospitality and construction and the trading industries, and that is where a great many of the workers are employed. this is on everyone's plate. will we have a job in the future?

and what is the prospect of this? we have many -- latino heritage workers in other states. the economy has been rauf lately. i also say that there is a derivative of this, this is the number of scams targeting the new citizens and spanish speakers. we have in the area of predatory lending, a micro industry of people who basically went after that population because they were not sophisticated in mortgage lending. i used to work for housing and urban development. we could not find an acceptable word for home mortgage. people from new mexico did not have this as part of their economic tradition. sometimes i think that this was invented in the last dozen years because this is something that

so many people are concerned about. we have the predatory lenders who were taking advantage of people, under the arizona law all of the legal documents have to be in english. many people were signing mortgages they could not read. so we had a significant victimization of the spanish- speaking population because of that. many of the lenders were speaking to people in their native language, they were entrusted but they lied to the customers, and they sold them very bad loans. we are reaping the whirlwind of that right now. the difference between arizona and new mexico is never more clear than in the current discussion about immigration and what will happen when people are here without documentation. the former attorney general of new mexico, when i was discussing the turmoil in

arizona in terms of some of the race and she said, -- rates and she said, this would never happen in new mexico and we live with that distinction. >> one of the things that was brought up is the cultural framework that people bring to the united states. and the idea that in latin american countries, if you want to purchase the home, you have to pay for this in cash. there is no mortgage system and there are not a lot of homeowners in latin america. how to these cultural mindsets actually affect the people when they get here to the united states, and there are all kinds of responses with the educational system. the economy is different and the mortgages, they are adapting. is this an impediment, or is this actually helping them to become the voters much quicker?

>> let's talk about what latinos have been doing to deal with the recession, the first. and i think you will see an interesting pattern of things that people are doing. in a recent survey, we asked hispanic people, how are you doing with the recession and have you done any of the following things? are you cutting back on eating out, 70% said yes. have you reduced your travel, over 60% said that they had. we also ask, have you given money to a family member, and 45% said that they had made a loan to a family member. we also asked if they had received a loan, and to 17% said that they had received a loan from the family members as a result of the recession. we do not know for certain what kind of informal lending is going on, with the general u.s.

population. we asked these questions because we want to look at the different ways that hispanics are interacting with their community and part of this is through the informal lending. we also asked about how people are responding to the terms of the remittance and many foreign- born hispanics who were here, spent a significant amount of money -- are sending a lot of money to their home countries to support those families and we found that the shared hispanics -- the share of hispanics sending money home has remained constant. 36% have done this and this compares to 36%. the amount of money has been falling, and over 70% of the people who have sent the money say that they were sending less than in the past. we do not know from any of the studies that we have what the culture and roll -- cultural

role is in this, they are bringing this with them from their home countries and we do not know how different that this is from the general population with the informal lending. >> this is with the latino thing across country? very good. i would love to break down the political numbers among the hispanic voters in new mexico and arizona. i want to know what they are looking at and what they need to do to keep voters engaged as they bring in the new voters. we have the recently arrived audience but we also have the families who have been here for 500 years, so how do we bring these people in when they are coming from different perspectives? the attorney general, -- attorney general, what does this look like in your state?

>> this is significant. let me talk about what arizona is looking like. 30% of this was showing the total population. this is hispanic and about 17% of the voter population. there is a drop between the eligible population of the voters, and of the eligible 40%, 60% are registered. of those people who are registered, 60% are voting in the last election. this is a significant increase. obama brought hispanic voters to the polls. but this drop off is perhaps the biggest unknown about the entire political situation. and this is nothing new. we say that the more things change, the more that they stay the same. when i was working for my

father's campaign we were talking about this, when is the hispanic voter going to take place and where will they go? i hesitate to say that this is the biggest question that is there. this is more important in the state in terms of the total number. the question is now, this is much larger. the large number of eligible voters who are not registered, and who are not voting, if you put this together you have a balance of change in the state of arizona. >> we have somewhat of a mixed bag. we have about 200 -- 292,000 latino voters, and we have not kept up with the population growth, we have not kept up in terms of the voter

communication. there is some apathy, for the hispanic voters in new mexico. but i do know that in the demographic we controlled many of the seats in the new mexico legislature, and we have a hispanic governor who ran for president. we have two other statewide elected offices. we think that the turnout, we will have to drive the voters out of their homes a little bit more aggressively, because 43% of the population is hispanic, and there may always be a hispanic advantage in the elections if that is possible. we think that the hispanic voters may have become a little bit too comfortable that there will always be representation of hispanics in the upper echelon of political power. regrettably, we have not kept up in terms of the turnout, but we have quite impressive numbers in

terms of 43% of the population of the hispanics. >> the time is gone and we will give you one last question, we will try to keep this short. if you had magical powers that came upon you, what would you do, what suggestions would you give the state parties, in order to deal with the drop off rate, dealing with the new voters. what would be the words of wisdom that you would share with your state parties? >> where do you want to start? >> words of wisdom are pretty accurate at this time, we have to make certain that we have a personal connection with those individuals. these numbers indicate a failure to mobilize, not this year or last year, but

throughout my knowledge of arizona political history. this has been a 50 year phenomenon. i know that this is going much longer than that. we had won a dramatic change, when he ran for the governor of arizona. all of these numbers increased. this suddenly became awake. and this was a lesson. we need candidates who can speak to the hispanic voter, and we have to make certain that the registration is getting into the living rooms, to make certain that they know, what is in this for them and what the payoff is going to be. i do not think that the pattern has been clearly established. this is not hereditary. >> thank you. >> i would love to answer that question. i am 8 a good friend with the

former leader of the democratic party. young people, young people. recruiting young candidates and never underestimate what the power of a young voice will do to mobilize the young people. the issues change, and do not be afraid of the community. obama was organizing a the old, traditional communities, but i never saw the statewide hispanic candidates mobilizing. it was phenomenal to see old and young people coming together because they were not afraid to engage in this community. they went into some of the most rural hispanic communities and this was amazing to see them mobilizing around a presidential candidate that was so distant from the cultural attitudes and behavior. but then they began to see the similarities of what was

happening in the african- american community. they were not afraid to go into those communities. >> ladies and gentleman, let us keep in mind that every month, 60,000 latinos turn 18 years old every month. attorney-general and mark lopez, and goddard, thank you for joining us this afternoon. thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> still to come on c-span, more about hispanics in politics with a look at the growing influence that they have. in a discussion on lyndon johnson and the politics of medicare.

-- and then a discussion of lyndon johnson and the politics of medicare. then robert redford, on how he became involved with environmental policy. >> this is a look at the growing influence of hispanics in political issues. we will hear from two executives of intravision at this conference from the steamboat institute. this is one hour. >> the are both with intravision, from univision. they are true experts on the issues that we are about to talk about. carerra works for intravision. univision reaches 65% of all hispanics in the united states.

he believes the main focus of this is to enhance the lives and well-being of the audience, through education information and entertainment, as it provides a maximum return on the investments to the shareholders. this is a great mission statement. doing well by doing good is what he believes, and he is living this in his life every day. he has served on the board of the boy scouts of america, the chamber of commerce, and other organizations. mario earned his bachelor's degree in sociology from harvard university, and for the harvard crimson. mercello is -- marcello is the vice-president of government affairs, with the national association of latino elected

officials education fund, 14 years as the senior director. he has created the voter mobilization initiative, which reaches millions of hispanic voters. we have tony blakely as the moderator, and we turn it over to him. >> thank you. [applause] >> i have been going through the information that they have put together, and this is a tremendous opportunity for all of us. we all have strong feelings about voting ethnic groups and immigration and all of these issues. i think that it would be useful to put all this together and listen to the objective analysis of how the hispanics and the latinos actually think and behave and respond. we will come back to applying this to whatever your concerns are. this is a rare opportunity.

i am in the public relations business. this is very valuable. if we want to get into the topic we will save a lot of money to have this kind of information. i will give this to the gentleman for 50 minutes, and i will give you a review of this, and then we will send this over and we will talk back and forth. this is a real opportunity to get inside, into the way that people actually respond. this is not an editorial, or opinionated, or liberal or conservative. this is an understanding of how people behave. i will turn this over to this gentleman. >> thank you very much. i appreciate this. i will stand up to present this to you. we will be -- we are hoping that this will be helpful with giving you some useful information. i have to tell you that you have

a very dedicated staff who is working for you, and a special thanks to jennifer, kristen and i am certain that we are missing a lot of people. you should be pleased with everything that they are doing. i thank you for the introduction. there are several things that we want to leave with you today. they are very important things, we want to reinforce that hispanics are a critical mass of taxpayers, citizens, and voters for future political success. they are also very young and eager to engage sickly. and the wide belief is that the majority can be reached in the spanish language with online and radio and television. and the fourth thing that is very critical, this is a group that is underrepresented and underserved in public office and

public service, and by both the republicans and the democratic party. this is established in that sense. that is something that we want to start with. this is a video that was presented and actually produced in 2007, later on in 2007 and early 2008, to show what was taking place at that time. audio? >> thank you. [laughter] >>i like the dog. >> rin tin-tin. a generational time gap.

>> this time will not come out of your presentation time. >> a yellow lab. ah, there we go. mute might help. thank you, paul. do you see steamboat? there we go. coming up? you can go to it if you want. one more try, if not we will move on to the next one. there we go. >> this generation has been the

political landscape of the country. we are witnessing a new political force. >> do you think you can win without the hispanic vote? >> absolutely not. this is the vote of today and tomorrow. >> i will work very hard to get as much of the hispanic vote as possible. >> i am, and that i will do very well. >> in 2007, the democratic and republican candidates came to debate for the first time ever on a spanish language network. >> they can make a difference in this election. >> i look forward to earning your support. >> and history was made. >> abc headquarters in new york. >> a presidential debate in spanish. 4.5 million people were watching last night. this shows how much america

seems to be changing. >> the latino vote is already playing a decisive role in the primaries. everyone was looking to austin tx. -- austin, texas. >> there is no question, we are the fastest-growing group of the electorate and the fastest growing minority group. >> they have the best of american aspirations. >> i will be asking for their vote, and i will not concede any of them. >> this is the growing clout of the latinos in the united states. >> this is a growing power that will help to elect the next president of the united states. [applause] >> this was historically unprecedented. the republican and democratic parties coming on spanish- language television and actually proving that hispanics have a

strong political appetite. 4.6 million viewers were watching this on univision. compared to the other debates on fox news and msnbc and abc news, 4.3 million. this is a very engaged population. i must correct to jennifer, this is the parent company. we are an affiliate group of univision, and we are in the middle of the battleground. we are in colorado and new mexico and arizona. this is major in terms of the marketplace. this shows that there are 414 counties with 45 million people, 46 million people as of 2007 with 50% that are people with hispanic origin. this is projected into the future, significantly. this will triple by the year

2015. one of the major things that we want to say is that this population is under two-thirds -- two-thirds of the population is under 35. this is a very young population and you will see that this is a group that will be a major part of the economy and the work force, and they will be critical in sustaining the government programs, such as social security. there is a gap in terms of the youth, in nine or 13 years between the latino and the non latino. 50,000 every month are turning 18 years old, and they are eligible to have voting. the widespread message is that they see education for economic advancement and the -- and to the fulfillment of the american dream. this is very important. how do you engage hispanics?

this is something that we would like to spend more time with. this is the assertion that we have, that you do this in the language that they prefer, and this is the language that they are most comfortable in. and the media that they preferred. this is growing and this will continue to grow in time. one of the common assumptions is that you can only reach hispanics in english. ultimately, the majority, 78% are spanish dominant. you have to think of a way to speak this language and make them feel comfortable. this does not matter, the age, it does not matter the education, and it does not matter the income. this is the third party research company, as defined by nielsen. this is a study that has proven time and time again, in terms of

the spanish language commercials, with the increase comprehension and persuasiveness, 61% more effective spanish language commercials. 57% more effective at delivering an effective message and a comprehensive message and ultimately, persuading -- 4.5% more persuasive. specifically in the case of the hispanic voters, we agree with what the statement says. 61% say that it is important to see political candidates on television. in the dominant, it is no surprise, 75% agree with this statement. in the case of the advertisements and the programs, 52%.

you actually believe that they agree and they like these commercials and find them informative. they are encouraged by these messages to get involved politically and to get out and vote. let me speak to the rest of the presentation. spanish is resonating, with the hispanics who have been here for 20 years. you see the different media that is represented here. you still have a significant amount of time that is spent. i am certain that you have seen the headlines, that univision is in the top five networks, depending on the demographic it may be number one. this is number one in 1834. 67 nights out of the year against the spectrum of services. the local stations such as the one in denver are very strong. nielsen is looking at all the

television stations and this is the number-one station in prime time and also in the newscast. radio is also the same. this is number one in denver against all of the other radio stations. you find this to be the case among the major markets, in the country. los angeles and miami, san francisco, they are no. 1 and no. 2 in radio and television. this is critical in introducing the message. the newscast all over the country -- newscasts all over the country are no. 1 or no. 2. agenda washington is there, and the show, like to meet the press or this week. i will give this to you. -- like me to press -- like

"meet the press" or "this week." i will give this to you. >> what you can see in 1998 is out this was looking at. this was almost 85% of the electorate, hispanics were 3.6%. if you go forward, white people are a 76%, hispanics are 12.1%, and african-americans -- of the electorate is beginning to change. and if you overlay this with what he said earlier, the election will be changing back. i wanted to show you how obama was the winner. you can see the bottom, how this went from john mccain. barack obama, the second is the green one, that is african- american and the other is

pacific and the last one is hispanic. you can see the change in the demographic. to win the elections in the future, republicans will have to compete in the ethnic communities, because otherwise, in certain states they will be out of reach. this is the growth of the hispanic electorate. the bottom is the actual vote, so in 2008 you had about 9.7 million hispanics who were voting, and that is the number of registered. that is about 12 million hispanics registered to vote, and the voting age is about 18 million. for the hispanics, the gulf between legislate -- registration and particular -- legislation and potential registration is larger. -- registration and.

-- registration and potential registration is larger. you have a state like the state of texas. 25% of all of the registered voters are hispanic. it will be interesting to see the role that they will play in the governor's race that is coming up next year. they were crucial in the republican primaries in 2008 between mccain and romney. if you look at florida and colorado, there is a growing influence of hispanics. some argue that the hispanics or the margin of victory in indiana for barack obama. this is giving new a trend, in terms of the presidential -- this is giving you a trend in the presidential vote. look what happened from 2000

until 2008. you can see that president bush, he had 35% of the hispanic vote. this went up to 45%, and the last time this was 31%. this is a community that can swing. i was giving a similar presentation at a democratic gathering, and they ask me if the hispanics were there in 2010. i said, you are making the assumption that they will be voting for you. you have to reach out to them. this is what happened in 2006 with some of the senate races. you can see that this is a community that once they are reached, republican candidates can resonate among these voters. somebody was talking about this

in the previous panel, about what happened in 2004. it is interesting to notice what happened in 2004 in colorado. ken salazar, his votes shifted in 2008. colorado is one of the few states in the 2000 election where the hispanic vote was decreasing for the democrats, compared to what was happening across the nation. we spoke about this, we do not know why, but this happened. this is an interesting look at the electorate. what we did here is the red margin is the margin of victory. the yellow margin is the percentage of the latino registered voters. you can see in several states, the latino registration is

greater than the margin of victory. to ignore this, you do this at your peril because they are going to be having a stronger influence, in the elections as we are moving forward. this is my last slide. i just want to show, this is a serve. -- a survey that was done after the election about the issues according to the hispanics. the economy is number one. this is followed by education, health care, national security, the environment, immigration, and energy policy. this is the way that the hispanic voters report these issues. >> did this happen after september? >> january of 2009.

>> this is after the economic crisis. >> before this, education. this was critical and something that we need to keep an eye on. the hispanics are aspirational in nature, they are looking forward to that opportunity. >> i want to go back to that last slide. because this is so revealing. the economy, i did not know the answer but i assumed that because the economy has fallen, everyone is more focused than normal. immigration, out of the seven issues, immigration is no. 6. obviously, a lot of conservatives and republicans have been concerned about the way the immigration issue has been playing out and this has not been helpful for that side. but you can see that with all of the other issues, national

security and health care and education, national security and the environment, the substance that is not related to being hispanic or anglo, the same issues that we are dealing with. there is a tremendous amount of this, and as somebody who has done politics for a very long time, we all have to go across the spectrum for these policies and not try to pretend things -- pretend that we believe in things that we do not believe in. this is open to the general debate, that this country is having on these issues and the effectiveness or the failure of conservatives to explain the positions on national security, where we have a strong position. this was a very high hispanic

focus in the marine corps. the economy will not be this big, but there will be the potential for a strong case. we spoke about how we have to explain to the public about whether this was to their benefit, to double down, among the hispanic voters. the richness of the opportunity for both parties, with the different sets of use to compete on this. this is not laid down for anybody. the history of the word hispanic as it is used in american politics, this was invented by richard nixon. he saw the black vote, and thought he could have something like that. there was no category called hispanic. there were people from guatemala and mexico. he decided that they should

start to use this term, hispanic for everyone who came from the areas where spanish is the language. for his purposes of turning this into a group that would be block voting for republicans. and that was in 1970, 1971. over 35 years, the term has been embraced by the community, and most people did not know the origin. and some of this information suggests that there has been a higher consciousness of being hispanic bandying mexican or guatemalan, or from argentina. this is in a way that he could not have suspected, there are strong consequences to his decision. but just to know, i have been told that there are of voting patterns among the people that

we call hispanics, and there is a difference in some people can see this based on the country of origin in the same way that we see the french and german and the english and the european. this is not just hispanic, although obviously, we see that there is a consciousness. one of the most interesting statistics -- statistics i have seen is the question of the spanish-language advertising. what i know about the immigration history of america 100 years ago, from 1924 from europe, was that, within a generation they began to speak primarily english, they began to decide the other languages, with those groups, and i happen to be from england. that is the family language.

but most people, the anti- american is may not speak italian. this suggests that this group is going to be different. that the size of this, the geographic concentration and the location, with the dominant population to the south of the border. this may not be tracking the way that the traditional immigrant groups are doing, and they will keep the spanish language longer than the other kinds of immigrants, and there may be some implications. i am not an expert. let me start the question. >> yo hablo espanol. i have no trouble with your information and you have a particular reason to be presenting this, and i have no problem with the objective criteria. but i do have a problem and many

people have a problem, in saying that this should be a bilingual country. i would like to know your position on this. >> this is not so much that this should be a bilingual country, and that is a longstanding debate. we are right next to a population that is public -- that is spanish-speaking. the immigrants who came across the atlantic, and came from this hemisphere, primarily from mexico and central and south america, there are significant differences and we need to put them in perspective and we need to put them in their own context. there are a lot of people who go back five or six generations, speaking spanish. secretary salazar goes back

several generations. this has been here for a long time. hispanics -- they actually embrace english. this is a duality and it is important to recognize this. you have the best selling, beating proctor and gamble. the best-selling packet on univision is from lexicon. they spend more money with univision because they do well, with video packages and cd and dvd packages that are $1,500, and people are embracing this. the more class that you offer, -- the more classes you offer, the more people are there because they understand that being fluent in english is going to help them, and that includes me, be that much more marketable

in the work force, and actually that much more engaged in the community that we live in. it does not say, no quiero espanol. i can speak spanish but i don't have to negate the spanish i carry. that is the difference. i woul>> i would like a quick personal -- i do not remember the study. there are not enough english classes for these people. my mother was born in chile. when she uses english, it is to scold me or tell me to do something. she says she loves me in spanish.

i tell her to tell me what to do in spanish. >> he says something very interesting and we will go over there. there has been a debate in political science, about the culture. in no area is this more significant than here. there is no direct answer. some people believe the cultural instinct is driving the decisions. we come face to face with this phenomenon in the questions that we have. many of us would like to have this as an english-speaking country. the history of countries with this are successful because this is not a unifying factor. putting that aside, we have an objective fact, and a lot of people who are voting to if you want to communicate with them, there are ways to do this and ways to not do this. in the process of

communicating, you can make the case. if you look at the immigrants, there was a separation between the people who wanted to be fully american, and others who did not. this is the ongoing debate but we have to be aware of the tools. we have to know how to speak the language. >> thank you for this chance. i am a son of immigrants. i believe that many of us also are, and we have assimilated. as a famous ukranian has said, do not forget your culture. that is important. you remember what you are going to embody here, to take the next step. he took some of my thunder. i say, what happens historically, to the countries to start to have infusions of different languages, becoming a

daily part of the conversation. this does create some significant challenges, but i do believe that this also creates some real opportunities. you need to look at the little problem as an opportunity for the conservatives. we should be doing what mr. nelson was doing in the black community, and the hispanic community. going to the class so that they can learn. immigrants want to do one thing, to prosper. the only way to prosper is with your ability to be your own boss. and when you do that, obviously, you are reaching the american dream. i would like to think that this would be speaking in one language, but not forgetting the culture that we came from. >> we will go down there. make a brief point.

my old boss said republican candidates should learn how to speak spanish because of how the trend was going. newt, being newt, took spanish and started studying. as the issues and the politics evolved, he was hit by conservatives who said, you are giving in to a bilingual nation. i had him talk about this issue. this is a powerful issue among conservatives and non-immigrant americans. we have seen this with the first issue that comes up. the politics is there. there is a river that is flowing. my view is that as a political

player, i want to be going into the river, i do not want this going by. >> [unintelligible] i have no prejudice against latinos, and i guarantee that they have made a lot of money for me. i have served as a consultant's a at [unintelligible] we took sales from 29 million to 260 million with my strategy. i was just working in guatemala with my company. i was working in nicaragua after the communists and before the communists. however, i am very frightened of latinos and i will tell you why. in the voting bloc, i have to say that right now we have five

nations in latin america that are led by communists. we only had one of them 10 years ago, this was cuba. now we have five of them, possibly two more. the only one that has extracted itself is honduras, and the president is throwing roadblocks to bring back the communist president that the people rejected and threw out. i feel that there is a difference in a latin voter and i and one from this culture. they are coming out of the system where the padrone is there. they have been talked marxism -- taught marxism for years and years in that country and they are voting that way and i believe that they will continue. >> do you have a question?

>> i would like to know if you agree with that. >> i would like to begin -- we had a discussion about this, people in latin america do not see themselves as latino. they see themselves as mexicans or guatemalans or from honduras. there is a discussion in the hispanic community, about the extent that they should have communications, or dialogue with the countries of origin. and there is a discussion and i think that the winning side says, we are americans and we are here and we have to be part of this. i would say that the great majority of these voters are young people, as he was saying. and that is driving the

electorate, and this is a further ground to communicate. >> we will go over because we have a few minutes to finish the panel. what you have said is a big part of american immigration history. the progressive movement that came up in the beginning of the 20th century. this was a reaction to the immigrants who had come over. and this was the concern of the existing population. this was a real concern to the america of 100 years ago. as a result, we had a lot of offices removed from voting, and the reason why we had so many americans who had offices that were voted on by the electorate, this was an attempt to respond to that concern, and this is a major concern right

now. this is a legitimate voice because you cannot put this under the carpet. these cultural issues have always been part of the challenge of being american. we have been dealing with this because we are immigrants and this is a difficult situation. we have to strengthen ourselves and that is why we can lead the world, we have the world in our political dna. this is with the mainstream media and a few other people will not talk about this. but these are legitimate concerns that the americans have, and that is part of the base. in this subject, i find it fascinating as a technician, how you reach with these particular voters. the broad issue is very legitimate. i have time for a few more questions. >> let me respond to this premise.

a professor of mine used to say that latinos are not from the other side of the room. they are not. there is not some mistake -- they are just like you are in many respects. the two-thirds of the population that is so young is the fertile ground, for the people who come from a frame of mind of adopting working and using every tool, that the united states and its principals have actually made available. everything that we have, the form of government, and the economy and capitalism. this is what was attracting a lot of people here. this is what was attracting the immigrants here. this is new found, in many ways. this is found through the marketers.

and there is a significant amount of business creation that is not coming from the hispanic males, this is the hispanic females. this is a significant piece of the pie that is being created politically. >> a closing comment, -- >> you would like to make a closing comment? >> the issue is la mentalidad. the mentality is different. the mentality is different. if you take chile, that would still have the bugger and communism if it was not for the c.i.a., this is different. 67% of them voting for barack obama is telling me that we have big problems. and i know how to sell beans in this country but i am not smart

enough to figure out how to change the opinion of these people, trained in communism, to change them to our way of thinking. >> this has been laid upon the table. >> thank you. i would like to present the other side. one thing that is true, and everyone would like for the united states to be a single language country. but to get to some of the issues that you were talking about, he mentioned that many statistics, to show that the latin population in this country is -- they resonate on the language. if conservatives want to get their view across to the latino community, we cannot ignore that. that is what it is today. >> yo tenga una pregunta.

don francisco. >> i will translate for him. >> francisco? >> uno mas. yeah. thank you. to get at one of the issues you are going with, if you look at the demographics of the hispanic population, i will quote winston churchill. if you are not a liberal at 18, you do not have a heart. if you are not a conservative by the time that you are 30, you do not have a brain. look at how fast the russians changed their thoughts after they grew up under marxism. what you said about, you have obvious statistics of selling two hispanics to are in spanish

-- selling to hispanics in spanish, if they will speak in the language spthat mamacita praises me in, they will use it. this is how politicians will sell himself. >> are there any other questions on this topic? the blond lady. >> my question is, did any of the studies that encompassed this in any way, with mexico being predominately catholic, i am wondering about this because the republicans have always focused more on the christianity, and the religious background and the work ethic, working very hard. and now the hispanic people are very hard working people, with a very family oriented people, and

they feared god greatly. it seems -- fear god greatly. it seems like they would be a greater fit for the conservative party. and this was rejected by the conservative. >> a quick example, there was a proposition in california, this was a marriage amendment. population 8 -- proposition 8. this was a culturally sensitive message in spanish. there was a bilingual message because they could not figure out how to speak to the hispanics. the hispanics were 54% with the proposition, and this is the same year that a majority of them in california were voting for barack obama. this was targeted, with a specific religious message that

will resonate and i just want to mention, i said that one of the pioneers in terms of marketing to the hispanic voters is ronald reagan. .

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[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> we would take the top environmental leaders, and so

on, and we would take the top industry and we would choose a particular issue to try to have a conflict resolution on the assumption that if you bring to people together, on something that they can agree on, you can go from there. if you can build -- if you can build from there, using an open mind on the other side, you can get somewhere where we have not been. my personal view was probably more radical by nature. i did not think i was getting anywhere with that. what happened on the fourth conference that we had, we started with issues in native american land. this was going to the jewish hospital here in denver. we had a conference on the

extreme west, phoenix. in that conference, we had two people from the center for atmospheric research. this is usually one of those things to have people happy as they are eating. these people -- the projected it that this was on global warming and no one had heard about this in 1985. we were showing what was happening every 10 years, in the last 30 years with the heating up of the planet. they showed what would happen every 10 or 20 years, he was looking at this and he thought, he could not grasp this. they said that this would affect

the climate. this was so powerful that this diverted the attention away and a year and a half later i was in the soviet union. there was the window in timewindowpere-- the window in time, perestroka. -- perestroika. your scientific community is talking about this and our community is talking about this but nobody knows about this. the person who was with me, when he said, are you crazy? and i said, a year later, we have the conference and steward was running the conference. you were so good because he was the moderator and he was the

executive to run the conference. what was amazing is that the entire academy of sciences was there. at least we are providing this service of getting the word out that this is an issue. this was called greenhouse. when this was over, i made the wrong assumption, that this could be verified on the most polluting countries in the world, with the soviet union. if you send this to george bush sr., who is the president, and gorbachev, the word will get out to the public. that was a mistake.

it was not leave it to me to not understand the relationship. he was focused on other things. this went to the wayside and no one really knew about this. >> one thing that my father has told me, in order to talk to you and i went to him and the wind 50 -- he is living 50 feet away. this is one of the remarkable things about robert redford. the whole time that he was doing this, he said his approach was not to bring publicity to themselves, it was to bring publicity to the issue. and we have heard about that today, in terms of what you are talking about. you are here because you love the west. you are a resident of the state

of utah. one part of the west that is so different, you know this from your visit to santa fe. this is a landscape and the people. you have done a wonderful thing with the governor. you are trying to expand the art, you can work with the communities. you are going to continue at sundance, with a conference center, and you are going to focus on native people, and the rich history that the hispanics have. >> i do love the west. i love the west and i love to this so much, one thing i forgot

to mention that was in 1975, i came across this incredible piece of history. i came across this by accident. this was in utah. we began to connect the dots and she was showing the letters, she said that there are some hideouts, that are buried a way that probably still exist. this led to further research, which led to the university of utah historian, which led to the discovery of the alamo trail. this was a stretch of the trail, that went from montana all the way to mexico. there was the oregon trail and the california trail.

this was developed by butch cassidy. he had hole in the wall, robins roost, and brown sparked -- brown's park in wyoming. nobody knows about this, and i said that this was incredible. they would rob a bank, and they would get to the next tide out. i went to national geographic in 1975. i said that you should check this out. this is like 60 minutes. they said that they would do that if i would do this. i said, i bet you that national geographic does not like profanity and i cannot imagine hearing the stories without this as part of it. i cannot imagine censoring this. they said they will do this, if

we will do this. if i can come up with something interesting, what if i brought people together who did not know each other that well. they can camp out, and we wrote that the trail like the outlaws and i would follow this. he joined with some others, and they spend a little bit over a month, riding the trail and this turned into a book of articles and then this book came out of this. in that trip, that is really what hit hard, the real value of the west because what i could see was that agriculture is being threatened by development. some of the development was necessary and some of this was healthy. a lot of this was not. the part that was not was

replacing something that i thought was. this had a lot to do with the history. the ranchers and the farmers and the agriculture. i could see the threat of this, and this hit me so hard, i think that this turned me more political. this led to the irm and so forth. on your thing, because of my background with native americans and hispanic culture, i was serrie attached to this. we have the native american laboratory, and i wanted to use this to develop film making capabilities. there was none of this for native americans. native americans were focused on handcrafts. i said that storytelling will come to film.

with the hispanics i could see the increase in california. i said, would you be willing to help the cultures. in any rate, these laboratories were at sundance. once he came there with smoke signals, we were working on this with the laboratory. there was the prospect with governor richards said. they were there near santa fe, and this goes back to 79. this is defunct and he wanted to turn this into something. he said he could not move the festival there. i think that we can't bring the

native american laboratory here because this is more appropriate. the history is deeper here, longer and deeper. they were the first americans. let's focus on that. we really have two axis points. in new mexico and sundance. >> one of the things, i'd like to shift this. we have done the history, we have gone back and forth, but what are the challenges that are facing the west? i think that what we are hearing about today, what are the challenges and how do we forged a coalition to get these things done? i know that you have been involved in all of the western issues. water and climate change, tribal

issues, all of these things. and you mentioned coal fired plants. my opinion is that we have to do two things on this. we have to find out in a short time, with the intense research if we can do this cleanly in any respect. and this should be the federal government investing and if we cannot do this, i would put a time line or something on that kind of research progress. we should not build any conventional coal-fired plants. [applause] you were there, and you were there on the power plants. and so, i am wondering what is the biggest challenge? is this the booming population,

and charles wilkinson was talking about the big boom. we doubled the population and, what is the biggest challenge? what should we all gather around to go do it? >> i think that we should do all of the above. this is a difficult thing because this is such a mainstay of american sustainability. it is difficult to change this. people who are dependent on coal for their own industry. on the other hand you have this against the future of the planet. this is a destructive element. my opinion, and this is just a

hunch, i cannot say anything more than this. i think that there are other alternatives. conservation is one of them. i wish that this could happen sooner. what is one issue that is connected, is that for so long the west was seen as this wide- open area, that was rich in resources and never ending. it was there for the taking. the manifest destiny was working well when the railroads were working, but manifest destiny is yesterday. this has led for the west to be smaller. when you stop and talk about the mining law that we are using, this is 1872. [applause]

what i think, based on my own experience is that they have to realign the thinking. when you think about the water, i remember the days when the colorado river made it to the ocean. this does not happen. the colorado river has half of the flow. this is saying something loud and clear. water is going to be an issue. this is the clash between development and preservation. do not have this state, you have to have the alternative. i would like to see the return of more agriculture. i think agriculture is very important and healthy. the mining in the subdivision, the luxury homes and all this, i

do not. dams should go away. >> we are taking them down in the west. 40 a year. >> the faster, the better. time and resources are running out. this is making people nervous. climate changes affecting water. water is so essential. this is the principal thing to be focusing on. it will the who is in the office who understands, and to replace those people that we have had to live with, who saw manifest destiny still in place, and thought that the west was there for the taking. they were trying to destroy the environment. this was an outgrowing of james

watts. they were committed to developing the resources, to destroy the environment. they were yesterday's people from yesterday. there was nobody who was forward it thinking, wondering what kind of place we will leave for the children. this was amazing for me to watch. the west was a stronghold for the republicans, and then we have this moment where there was a ticket, and you have all these people coming in, and now this is completely turned around. this was going the other way in the 1960's. this tells you something about people waking up, and they say my interest in my investment is threatened by the behavior.

this was a positive sign. these are all the positive steps that are happening. these are wonderful states. they are still living in the west and here comes somebody. >> you are interrupting this wonderful conversation, but we want to engage the audience. >> there are a lot of residents of the state of utah, these are the activists and the leaders. >> before we go to questions, in the state of utah, we had with president bush. you would get elected to the congress and i was sitting there, watching what the bush administration was doing. we were the minority in the congress.

can you talk about what the activists were doing, on the outside in southern utah? >> this was not easy. utah has been very retarded as a state. [laughter] at least politically, on the environment. we have some old-timers who are there, who will not be a friend of the environment. i think they you have right here in colorado, the secretary of the interior. this is a very large seat he is in and he has to do the balancing act. salazar. he understands the west and has made some brave moves so far. and you have people in the other side that should be gone from office. because of the age and the ideology. this is not what the west is

really needed right now. they think you can still develop this. the wilderness should be developed and i disagree. with the new voices, i think that salazar is in a very important position. he is a man who can make a huge difference. but he is going to be hit on the other side, but people say that you are destroying my constituency. he says he will lose his conservative base. he completely when conservatives in the last energy bill. he wanted the conservative -- that is not in the best interest of the area. this is in the best interest of the self-serving politician. that is sort of going on, and the way that this will be. there is compromise that is

needed, democracy. i hope that enough people realize that we are going to lose something incredibly valuable, and what will we have for the children and their children, are we going to have photographs? does that answer your question? >> i was trying to focus on you, and you all really fought a battle against this on the outside. we were in the minority but you did some incredible things with the activists on the ground to try to preserve this. ken salazar, you jumped ahead. he was undoing some of the most destructive policies of the bush a administration. oil and gasoline on the edge of national parks, and national monuments. many of us believe that they should be here.

you were finally having the election, that i think finally made a difference with reversing the policy. >> i sometimes wonder, all kidding aside, people in my business, this is something i am interested in. if you are an actor or a celebrity, there is the resentment that says that you have not learned something. -- earned something. there are those who do not agree with what i am sang. they say this because i have not learned this by living there and appreciating the real value. this is a little bit easier than it was years ago. when you ask about the state of

utah, i think, years ago, this was a lot rougher than it does now. this is still behind in terms of what is needed, in the matters of the west. but this is changing. there are people coming in from outside, and there is the new generation, that has really invested in wanting to play a role in politics. i am actually quite hopeful for the state of utah, but only because time will tell. >> one of my father's greatest accomplishments, he believes this, was the national park in southern utah. the story of how this happened, he was flying the secretary of the interior over southern utah.

he saw the marvelous landscape and he said, what is that? they described the area of little bit, and he said, he did not want to express this because he was with the governor and he said, that is a national park if i have ever seen one. and he went back to washington with all of these people and he got this done. and there are some marvelous things going on in southern utah. [applause] >> go ahead. >> wanting your father would be happy about. they have the governor who is a republican. to show you how when you have an open mind, it almost does not matter what party war with. you have something with the same mind. the west and the national resources. in the past you had people to

solve the state of utah as a place to be developed. this was kind of ironic. they will promote the historic value, the settlement of the mormons, building the cabins and the log cabins. they were opening this to be taken apart. he is coming in and he is of the modern generation of people to understand this. this was a sign of them beginning to understand the values related to the land. >> i think that we would both like to hear some of the questions. >> this is just so much fun to listen to. but i will give you a few

questions. i think that all of us were transfixed. people are really enjoying this. don't you agree? [applause] you have, both of you in the room, have legislative leaders, they were the first leader of utah ever elected here. and there were the legislative leaders, you have the conservationists, and these were people who would go back to their community, and they would organize. there is a mythology about how the west was won, this is what hollywood really captured. one person running off into the sunset. we do not see much about how this was built, the wagon trains crossing over, building the school's together.

my question is, how the west was really built. how do we do that in the current conversation about the role of government. how do we take the beauty and the richness of western history, and bring this back with conservation and the other issues that we are grappling with today. we can really value the answers as we organize. >> i think that first of all, the west should consider returning to the old west. in the sense that when agriculture was the main show, you had the communities built on cooperation. you had neighbors, and families, and they were living close together and supporting each other. and now you have subdivisions and city's expanding, and so forth. i think that if one good thing

about less development, this is inevitable. maybe this time to think about what kind of development. if more communities were developed, people would be working together -- that is how this was in the west. there was nothing else to be done. you cannot just say to stop this. this is for the art and this is my obsession, what i am about as an artist. i believe that this has been kicked around by extremists on the right who say this is elitist or damaging, morally, which is stupid. that art is not an economic driver.

in the stimulus bill, they were trying to give an endowment to the arts, they would try to cut this down and then taken away. the argument that they were using, that this does not make money -- i can tell you, from my own personal experience, that sundance + $92 million into the economy. he gave a call to think. this is just one example. if you spread this across the land and you think about the amount of lives that are created, these are the projectionists and you go down the line. this is a healthy economic driver. if there is a focus on art in

the communities, you have the grass roots and the community building. this will not take the land away from it. the resources and the language is about the water. [applause] >> i see this as a big challenge that you have going back, we are locked in, and we have a strong oil and gas industry. this has not prevented us from becoming overly dependent on foreign oil. almost 70% of the loyal is coming from six little countries in the middle east. this is putting us against the

wall. the way to think about this as an american let's think about what the resources are. the resources in the west are abundant, in terms of solar power and wind, the biomass and geothermal. this is the energy of the future. that is why i hope that all of us will focus on. how do we move in this direction? this is what i think we should do and where we want to go. you can extrapolate this from the past. >> let me tell you this story. my father was working for chevron.

he was working there in the war for standard oil and this was the only job that he could get and that is how the family survived. i grew up with my father working for an oil company. i was working there to earn money, he was transferred when standard oil became chevron. he was transferred to richmond, california. 30 years, and when i came -- when i became an environmentalist, to speak out -- i have been to a conference. i was sitting there as a guest. i had government people there, talking about energy.

this is such a clear picture. you have renewable and non renewable. all of the attention is going into non renewable energy. the renewable energy is over here. >> if this was not getting attention, how long will this last. this was a journey of me to focus on that. this was not in earlier years. at a certain time, they came out against this and it was very difficult. i love my father. he was a good man. but i said, what are you doing to me? i am massar.

this is very grabby at the plant. i was on larry king. he said, this is about the energy. he said we will talk about energy. they put me on a remote, not in the studio. and those are awful. they put you in a remote place and you are sitting there, in california. and i was at this place nearby, in this house, and there was a camera with the sound, and you are staring into the lands that does not give anything back. and you can hear -- he has a

panel of -- a panel of people who are talking about energy. what he says, you are five minutes out. i say, do i have to talk to somebody? is someone going to tell me what is happening? he said, larry will be there. four and a half minutes. i say, when will he be there? and he says, hello, robert. i say, is this larry? what is going on and what will we do? we will talk about energy. we are going back and forth. three minutes, he says somebody wants to talk to me. and he is off. bill o'reilly comes on. he is from chevron.

i say, this is a set-up. hi. he says he is on after me. i say, that will be interesting. he said, what a great guy your dad was. [applause] i said, -- he said, i came to the company and i was working under your dad. he was good to me, and a great guy. when you made butch cassidy, you were talking about stuff. he said, i want you to see this movie my son is in. your dad introduced us to you and we became fans. i wanted to say what a great guy this is. i say, the trouble with oil.

[laughter] >> that is great. i don't want to stop this but i have to. i felt this for years, that you speak with such passion and credibility and knowledge about this. we hear you as a conservationist and not an actor, somebody who loves this region. this is where we hear it robert redford speaking from. [applause] and udall, if you were not in politics you would be a great talk show host. >> i have a second career? i have to ask bob about that. >> this was a gift to us from

you and we appreciate you spending time with us. this was too enjoyable. i did not want to interrupt. thank you so much. [applause] >> up next, comments from john fund of the wall street journal on health care reform, then comments on obama on the economy from the afl-cio's picnic. and then "washington journal" on obama's speech about succeeding in school. >> the house returns from its august break, with a number of

bills about lands and historic sites, and plans to repair the chesapeake bay on the eastern shore. and the senate will be returning, they will begin with general speeches and later on in the day they will turn to legislation for people in other countries. they will create a nonprofit to do this and they will have money from the foreign visitors. we will have live coverage on [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] -- we will have live coverage on c-span2. >> and now, john fund on health care reform. he says the plan from obama is going to fail and he says that the democratic party will suffer losses. this is held by the steamboat

institute and this is 40 minutes. >> his six year-old daughter thinks that shoot is a bad word. let me tell you how bad political correctness is right now, there is a new book that is banning the use of black day because you now must say miserable day because of course, using the word black day has devaluation of skin color. i am not making this up. you can also not say ethnic minority any more. this implies something smaller and less important. and there is the issue of patriarchy, gentleman's agreement is out. and there is an unwritten agreement. right hand man is gone, replaced

by second in command. and also, we have to get rid of master bedroom, for obvious reasons, because this implies that there is a master. i thought that this could be a man or woman. political correctness is with us everywhere, in colorado, and i have had time at the university in boulder. i saw ward churchhill stuff and you probably have more to tell me that i have to tell you. i want to build on what was told me -- told to me, that this is a difficult act to follow. i am speaking about the temporary things. also, the transcendent importance of what we are about

in the service. coming down to earth i can give you a perspective on where we are in the politics and the economics. i understand if you are pessimistic or shell shocked. it was one year ago that the republican and democratic conventions were held, in denver and one year ago, obama gave the acceptance speech. one year ago, john mccain shows serotinal and as the running mate -- chose sarah palin as his running mate. who thought that general motors is government motors and that the federal government was borrowing 46 cents of every dollar that was spent. koi that we would have a stimulus package that was not a stimulus, for almost one trillion dollars. many of you have a right to be

concerned or depressed. i am here to tell you the rest of the story. first, how many of you are from colorado? this will definitely resonate with you. how many of you subscribe to the wall street journal? the least i can do is help you -- is thank you for pay my salary. colorado, you were the victim of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, you know those for millionaires to created the left-wing infrastructure in colorado, basically running candidates for the legislature, money in politics is only a bad thing if somebody else is spending less in their lives. this is a virtue when they are spending best. the colorado model, as we describe this in the weekly

standard and the wall street journal. this is the success. liberals want over the governor's mansion and the legislature, watering down the amendment and so clearly they were on the march. michael malone, the premier political analyst in the country, do you think that i know this? he knows the boundaries of every congressional district. i will defer to him. he just wrote a very interesting piece in his syndicated column. the gold rush becomes a bust. but he says that as we are reminded frequently by ronald reagan and others, campaigning is poetry, governing is bros. the monday and business -- this

is not -- this is not kind to the rating, and he is trailing his opponents. he is dead even, fvored for -- favored for election. the population of the legislature is even below california which is tough to follow. and you have the democratic congressional delegation. one congressman is announcing he will not be holding town hall meetings because people do not really know what they are talking about. let me predict that this will be a campaign commercial in the next election. about those town hall meetings. isn't it interesting that -- i apologize, i am wearing a suit because i had to do a debate in

denver, i will be taking this often dressing more appropriately very shortly. one thing i have always encountered is how agitated the liberals get when people actually show up to protest what they are doing and argue with them. i have missed some of the rhetoric on both sides. this is the height of hypocrisy to complain about the people because after all, the president had a job as a community organizer. that is what they do. they have people come to meetings and raise heck. they have decided that this is a subversive, and unpatriotic. un-american. by the way.

if you do not believe in the common sense of the american people, i can give you some information about the people of the state of nevada. harry reid is trailing two i known republican challengers by double digits. -- unknown republican challengers by double digits. [applause] he will raise $25 million from out of state. he remembers what happened to tom mashal, the democratic leader in 2004. he remembers -- daschle. he was the democratic leader in 2004. there is a major decision to make. this will determine his fate in the next election but several other democrats in the senate. the health care bill got into some rough weather.

this is in trouble. only 43% of the population is supporting this and the independent voters are against this by 70%. this is 20 points down for the elderly and this is in trouble. they have a problem because they have to pass something. when hillary clinton exploded so significantly -- they had nothing at the end. and he was there, and he remembers this, and he will tell you about the lessons that we have today. the lessons that democrats took away from this was that you have to pay -- you have to pass something. i think that this cost them some support because there is only one thing in washington that is seen as wrong.

they will try to pass something. but here is the problem. the bill that they can pass with support is probably going to enrage the left wing. i was just at the net roots convention with the liberal lagers that assemble every year. i was there, i was there for a couple of days. they were not happy there. i say that i was there with ron emmanuel -- rahm emmanuel. i learned two things from them. i heard about this in five different panels. this is all racial. you think that you are opposing health care because you are worried about your health or

smaller government. this is with the national health care -- these all the code words for -- race. chris matthews says people are upset because we have a black president. now, i think that this is a positive difference. this shows the extent that they do not understand the rest of the country. as conservatives, we engage in activities like coming together here, i can assure you that we are aware of what the other side says. sometimes we even agree with them when they have a good idea. they have the heights of the media. all that we have to do is pick up the local newspaper. i think that they have a more

sheltered existence. they could not have certain stations. how many times have you heard the discussion about what was said, people who are convinced that he is some kind of evil person they never listen to him. -- evil person, and they never listen to him. they never have listened to him. the people at the conference that i spoke with have no understanding of where you are coming from. it must be coming from a base motives. here is the problem. they do not understand the opposition, projecting onto others what they are thinking. let me show you a projection. there was a bbc news anchor -- there was chip reed with him

substituting for katie couric. >> critics say that they are genuine grass-roots anger, but democrats have consumer groups that list the democratic town halls, and urge people to be heard. that is the orchestration. robetrrt gibbs. the organized intimidation -- we can discuss these issues about not being uncivilized, which is what i tell my six year-old. they are acting petulant, that are lashing out with frustration because they have to pass something. they realize that they have probably lost enough moderate democrats who are up for the election, or who are worried about the future election, they cannot pass the public auction

for national health care. there is co-op, which is a word for the public auction. they will have to retreat. whenever they pass, they cannot get 60 votes. they say the republicans are being obstructionist. i have said i have known republicans and democrats all of my life in washington. they want to take as much money as possible, the republicans will fill more guilty about this. the republicans cannot be accused of being obstructionist right now. they do not have power. how can you do this as a hopeless minority in the house, you cannot have a filibuster -- this is called passing the buck. the health-care plan will only pass if this is bipartisan, with

something called reconciliation. this is a 35 year-old process to get some budget changes through. the budget process -- they do not have a filibuster for the margin that is required. it is only for the budget. the bush tax cuts got through this way, and this was timing out. they will expire next year and they will happen for the middle class and those making $250,000 contrary to what obama said. the budget reconciliation process is not meant to reorder one seventh of the economy. there would be civil war in the senate if they tried this. they cannot do this because this will be like swiss cheese. this will be a slice -- a slice of swiss cheese. everywhere that there is a policy change they will have to do this some other way.

you have something with 60 votes or 51. if you do this, if you think the people are angry right now, i think that they will hit the red button if they try to pass reconciliation. harry reid will have to make the decision. if he makes this decision, he is toast. i will make this prediction. now, where will they go from here regardless of the health care? we have heard from feingold and chairmoster = -- chairmonster that there will not be a health care vote until december. there is something that happens between now and christmas. this is the off-year election. this is the bellwether, that

will tell the party in power how they are doing and how much danger that they are in. we have had this in the past that will remind you, when republicans were the winners of virginia and new jersey in 1993, the liberal white house did not pass any thing, and they had midnight basketball. the november elections, and the special alexian's in my old bay area home district, these are going to be very important. the republican candidates in new jersey and virginia are up by 11 points. the democratic moderates are watching. even though they have majorities in the house and senate, 49 democrats said in districts that john mccain carried.

49 is larger than the majority. 82 democrats are in areas that george w. bush carried. 21 and centers are in states that john mccain carried in 2004, 13 -- more than the majority in the senate. you have the majority but with enough nervous people you will be constrained with what you will do. and this kind of process where liberals covering, they governed badly, and they overreach and they are taken back by the electorate. we have had this many times before. ronald reagan was many things, you know him as a commander in chief and he set in motion the end of the cold war, uplifting the country and brought us the largest sustained run of economic prosperity in the country.

i will tell you something about great ape -- how great a political strategist that he was. this is directly relevant for the time today. in 1976 the republican party was in worse straits than today. watergate was in the past, mistakes were made. they lost the white house with 143 seats in the house, with 38 senators and 12 governors. they had 12 governors. they were in worse shape than today. in 1977 after reagan lost the nomination, reagan met with the staff, and they were very depressed. he said to them, i am here to tell you about where we are

going to go. i will not say this because i believe this, is because i know this. we believe in free enterprise, because we believe that this will lead to a more prosperous country. liberals, no matter how patriotic they may be, the policies will fail. we will lose the elections only when two things happen. the people who represent us make mistakes, richard nixon being an example, and liberals temporarily running as moderates to get elected. and they convince people they have changed their stripes. carter was running as a moderate but he will govern from the left. the people who pay the bills will not have this any other way. these are the special interests.