inviting me here this evening, and all of the people who worked to put this on. should we give them another applause? 2 the first speaker we have tonight -- [applause] the first person we have here to speak had a mother who was a domestic worker and a father who was a chauffeur. they knew if they work hard and had faith in god, themselves, and this great country, that they could retrieve their dreams koran -- to achieve their dreams, and they had two dreams. the first dream was to own their own home, and the second was to see their two boys graduate from college. the first was realized hot -- realized when he surprised his family by buying a house.

the second was when his son herman graduated from morehouse college with a dual degree in math and physics. his brother would go on to graduate from college. herman continued his education by earning his master's degree in computer science from purdue university. while working full-time for the department of the u.s. navy. herman returned to his home in atlanta to begin a korea working for the coca-cola company, -- to begin a career working for the coca-cola company and in a short period of time rose to vice president. shortly thereafter, he later became the regional vice president of the burger king division of pillsbury. he was able to turn around the region to make it the best performing in the country.

he then took his biggest challenge by becoming the ceo and president of godfather pizza. the companyp -- izz -- pizza. the company was on the verge of bankruptcy, and he turned it around in the matter of months. they made him the president of the national restaurant association. he had the opportunity to talk with president clinton during a nationally televised town hall meeting. hear, herman challenged president clinton regarding his health-care overhaul proposal. when president clinton attempted to assure him that his legislation would not harm american business owners and their employees, herman responded," quite honestly, mr. president, your calculations are wrong. in a competitive marketplace, it

simply does not work that way." "newsweek" named him the primary saboteur of hillary care. [applause] through his work, he was asked to be a member on the board at the federal reserve, and he had a radio show and is a regular contributor to several networks. his choice in his life are his wife and his two children and grandchildren -- his jointjoy -- note -- his joys in his life are his wife and his two children and grandchildren. one common thing is their importance in faith and family as the foundation of who they

became. so with that, we welcome herman cain. [applause] >> and thank you. thank you very much. thank you, thank you, and take you for being here. as somebody pointed out, you are here because you care, like a lot of people in the country, about the future of this country, and there was what was demonstrated on november 2 of last year. the bigger and more impactful -- of 2012. [applause] let it be borne in mind that the tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goals. the tragedy lies in having

nobles to reach for. -- having no goal was to reach for. -- goals to readh -- reach for. it is a calamity to not have dreams. as you have heard, my parents had dreams, and i have dreams. the good news is we are fighting back. [applause] we are fighting back with our face, and we are fighting back with our freedom to fight back -- we are fighting back with our faith. steve did not give me a lot of time, so rather than go through all of the ideas that i have learned from you and listeners

to my radio show about what i call, and-cents solutions, you can pick up one of those booklets from itable -- what i call common-sense solutions, you can pick up one of the booklets from our table. there are three guiding principles that have guided my life, guided my decisions when i was running companies, and has guided my own family. guiding principle number one, and i am only going to do three, or do the right thing. do the right thing. it was not right to sue the state of arizona when they were simply trying to protect themselves. do what is right. and it was not right, as indicated earlier for the president of the united states to order the justice department to not in force the defense of

marriage act. that was not right. -- to not enforce the defense of marriage act. one of the things you can always count on is to do what is right. epo secondly, one of my guiding principles, we have -- and secondly, one of my guiding principles, we have to guide as to in powering society.-- bust to vote -- guide us to an empowering society. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and last time i looked at it, i did not see a department of happy in washington, d.c. there is no such thing. we have to become an in power and society. we have to win power businesses to create jobs -- we have to

become an empowerment society. [applause] we have got to empower the states to do what they do best, which is to solve the problems in the states. they cannot be solved in washington, d.c. note i will ask you a rhetorical question. when was the last time that something was micromanaged in washington, d.c., and it worked? time is up. we have to move to note -- to an empowerment society. now, we call them entitlement programs, and the only way we will get our hands around the spending is that they have to be restructured, and the state is

given more responsibility and authority to do what they do best, and that is to deal with the people's problems at the state level. empowerment, not entitlement. [applause] and then my third guiding principle but i want to share with you is not about us. it is not about us. our founding fathers did their job. we must all now be the depending father's -- defending father's -- fathers. we have to defend the life of the unborn. we must defend -- we must defend those principles of this nation was founded on. we must defend the future of this nation today. as ralph said, our time, our

talents, and their individual issues. whatever gave you the crazy idea of running for president? that was not something i had dreamed about all of my life or aspired to do all of my life, and if you're familiar with my background in many instances, i was compelled into a position of leadership, and this whole journey for me, and i did not know it at the time, started in january 1999, when my first grandchild was born. my wife of 42 years, we have a 39-year-old daughter, a 32-year- old son, and three grandchildren. and on january 22, 1999, my granddaughter at selena was born -- my granddaughter selena was

born, and i did not think i was going to make it back from an out-of-town trip to be there, but as scott will -- as god's will prevailed, i got there, and my wife came out to tell me, "we now have a granddaughter." obviously, i was thrilled. we were both thrilled. i went inside the delivery room, and i said you were, "are you doing ok, melany?" and she said, "yes." and i said, "is the baby doing ok?" and she said, "yes," and then she said, "do you want to hold it?" the first thought that went through my mind is what do i do to help make this a better nation and a better world.

that is when my journey started in order to be here for this location, and so my third guiding principle is, it is not about us. it is about the grandchildren. it is not about us. ask any grandparent. [applause] and even though the liberals starting in the white doves are trying to change this nation, -- starting in the white house are trying to change this nation, the liberals in washington, d.c., as the liberals all over this great nation, the united states of america is not going to become the united states of europe, not on our watch. thank you. [cheers and applause] .

>> up next speaker is the former speaker, newt gingrich. [cheers and applause] he immersed himself in the study of history, in getting a master's in note -- history,

getting a master's degree. he taught college for eight years. he was first elected to congress in 1978, where he served the six district -- sixth district. "the washington times" has called him "the indispensable leader." he got a man of the year in 1995. "meters make a possible. exceptionable leaders made them inevitable we do leaders make things possible -- leaders make things possible. exceptional leaders make them inevitable." under his leadership, congress passed welfare reform and the first balanced budget in a generation and the first tax cut in 16 years. a strong advocate of volunteerism, gingrich talks

about the positive impact every individual can have. he has raised millions, including for habitat for humanity, cerebral palsy notep -- als --palsy, and others. he was named conservationists' of the year. he has published 13 fiction and nonfiction books, "new york times" bestsellers. there is a consulting firm that specializes in transformational change, with offices in atlanta and washington, d.c. he serves as a senior fellow at the american enterprise institute in washington, d.c., a visiting fellow at the hoover institute, an honorary chairman of the business alliance. he was also a news and political

analyst for fox news.channel. -- fox news channel. he has a wife and children. it is my pleasure to introduce the former speaker of the house, newt gingrich. [cheers and applause] >> well, let me be totally candid. i just said to herman cain, i am stealing as much of that as i can, but not this evening. herman and i go back a long way. he is a remarkable person. i first worked with him when we did a tax reform commission that he chaired a brilliantly when i was speaker. it is great to be back.

like herman, i am a grandfather and, at this with maybe a little bit more wisdom than i had a while back -- i am a grandfather an come at this with maybe a little bit more wisdom. this is a time to start a dialogue about america's future, and i do believe that we have an extraordinarily fundamental choice to make about the very future of this country. i believe in some ways, the election and the conversation around this election may be as central to our future as the conversations in the 1850's that led to the election of lincoln in note -- in the 18760 -- 1860's. i have two grandchildren, 11 and

9, and i think our dialogue over the next couple of years will be what kind of country we want to leave to our children and grandchildren, but to me, when the ninth circuit court decided in 2002 that it was unconstitutional to say "one nation under god" as part of the pledge of allegiance in school, and i decided, and i think it was parallel to lincoln responding to the dread scott decision about slavery, i decided that if we now have some judges better fundamentally out of touch with america that they have no clue on what this country was based on, we need a political change so deep and so profound that nothing we have seen in our lifetime is comparable to the love boat -- a level that we have to go to to get this back on the right track. [applause]

let me be very clear about this period since 1952, we have won nine presidential elections for republicans, and democrats got six, but despite the fact that republicans were in the white house for 50% more time, we did not at a fundamental level change the power of the left. we did not change the bureaucracies. we did not change the bias in the judiciary, and over the years, they have all gotten worse, moving further to the left. [applause] this requires a fundamental conversation that believes, i begin, with american exceptionalism. do you believe that this country, because of the declaration of independence and the constitution, is a fundamentally exceptional system

for a country, or do you believe that we are a normal country like everywhere else in the world? now, it is a very profound question. but there was the nine days that changed the world. we discovered one of the great weapons is what the polls say, a sign that solidarity put out, which i have a copy of, the original sign in my office, and it said, "for poland to remain poland, two plus two must always equal four," and that does not seem like much to you, but this may be the most important government slogan over the next 25 years, because it comes down to a question of truth. lincoln said, "if a man can convince you that two plus two equals anything but four, then

facts do not matter." there are times that a man can be killed for say two plus two equals of fujiwhara, because they cannot stand the truth. -- two plus two equals four, because they cannot stand the truth. we hold these truths. what are they? that we are in doubt by our creator with certain inalienable rights. en dow -- we are endowed by our creator. you are personally sovereign. you loan power to the government. the government does not loan power to you. that is the difference between the secular socialist people around obama and the degree that they can understand america,

cannot possibly lead us to a successful future. [applause] orality applies across the board. morality is important. so you can have a sense of dignity and worth. it matters because balancing the budget is immoral, not economic question about whether or not politicians ought to have to follow the same rules as the rest of us. there should be no distinction between economic national security and social conservatives. we should base our principles on fundamental questions of morality. [applause] you had a great speaker last year and in it strongly endorse his cutting out all funding for planned parenthood which has

become a major source of abortion in america. [applause] how fast could we turn the country around if we had a president who shared our values and set up the values of the secular socialist left? there is a system called an executive order which allows the president to interpret the application of the law. , what we hadxample a president who said we're inlishing every single saaczar the white house and their offices. [applause] what if we said on the very first day, we are reinstating ronald reagan's mexico city policy, and no american tax money willin the abortion

anywhere outside the united states,. . what if we said on the very first day that george w. bush's limitations of conscience protection will be reinstated so the government will act of the protect those as a matter of conscience who refused to do the things and finally, what we said on the first day at the state's department will be instructed as of this state to recognize the right of every sovereign nation to define its capital and the embassy will be in the capital of the country that defines it. it, means that the united states embassy will be in jerusalem. the only country in the world where it refuses the local

government to allow its embassy in the capital. we should stop on the very first day. i am not yet a candidate. i am the process of exploring. you can go to newtexplores20 12.com. we are all lying to be on the same team after this is over. it will take all of us to defeat the left. we cannot just to feed the left in washington. we need 40 more house seats in washington. we need to pick up the state senate here. we need to strengthen the hand the government has. we need to recognize the 513,000 elected officials of the state

and local levels, and only 537 in the federal level. we need then for the first time in 80 years to replace the governing structure of the left with the governing structure that is center-right, and we need from the very first day to implement decisively every establishment of an american exceptional is some that recognizes the power starts with you and goes to washington when necessary. art does not start in washington with a bunch of judges and bureaucrats dictating to you what to do. thank you, good luck, and god bless you. attendeds roemer

public schools. he went on to harvard university where he received his degree in 1964. governor romer served four terms in united states congress. as a conservative democrat he broke ranks with his own party to vote for president ronald reagan. he was louisiana governor from 1988 until 1992, both a democrat and republican. during his tenure, unemployment in the state dropped by half. the state budget was balanced in all years. teacher pay was leaked to proformance street -- was linked to performance. since leaving office, he has

been involved in a number of ventures, recently serving as the founder and ceo and president of business and first bank. it took no bailout money from the federal government. governor roemer the father of three children. it is my pleasure to introduce you governor buddy roemer. >> thank you, and three grandchildren. i love those kids. i am honored to be with you in iowa at faith in freedom. i have always been a church- going methodist boy.

from a cotton field in north louisiana. after a long. as a divorced man, 12 years i remarried some 10 years ago. i married a piano player in a church next door to my own. scarlet. thank you, jesus. i now go to first methodist church nearly every sunday, said in the balcony, and then as the final hymn is sung, i go to the chapel at lsu and sit with my wife did the piano. faith and freedom, i am honored to be invited. let's get to it. i am pro-life, traditional values man. i am the only person thinking of running for president who was elected as a congressman