1972, and it would have been an extraordinarily long shot. certainly he would have been a different president than he was campaigner. i cannot imagine him being an effective president because although there were 25% of the american people, mostly white americans, who supported him, he always had the great hostility of well over half the american people. it is hard to govern under those circumstances. >> dan carter, was george wallace religious? >> yes. he was a lifelong methodist. it is interesting, during these years, the 1960's and 1970's, about the only time he even talked about religion even in an indirect way was when he ran in 1962. he did say he was taking liquor out of the governor's mansion because big jim folsom, his mentor, had not taken liquor out of the governor's mansion. he talked about it in terms of being a christian that he was going to do it.

totally different kind of views of religion in the 1960's. politicians just did not do that during that time. >> with all the campaigns he ran, did he enjoy politics? hubert humphrey was the happy warrior. al smith, the happy warrior. was he a happy warrior? >> absolutely. he would not have been successful, i do not think. any good politician, i think, have to more than tolerate it. in his case, you would have to be a psychiatrist to figure out each politician, but i think he enjoyed the adulation of the crowd. it was a kind of love affair between him and many of his constituency. he was enormously popular in alabama. he loved that feeling of people supporting him. >> here is more from his 1963 gubernatorial inaugural address. >> each state within its own framework has the freedom to

teach, develop, to ask for and received help from others of separate racial stations. this is a great freedom from our american founding fathers, but if we amalgamate into one unit as advocated by the communist philosophers, then the enrichment of our lives, the freedom of our development is gone forever. we stand for everything and for nothing. we respect the separateness of others and are divided in an effort that has been so twisted and destroyed that there is no wonder that communism is today winning the world. the negro citizens of alabama

will work with us from their separate racial station as we will work with him to develop, to grow in individual freedom and enrichment. we want jobs and a future for both races. we want to help the physically and mentally sick of both races. the strong and the infirm. this is the basic tenet of our religion. for we are all the handiwork of god. >> dan carter, that was from the same speech as "segregation now, segregation tomorrow." was he moderating its position? what was he doing? >> he made a few changes from the original. that does not sound like asa carter. that sounds more like george wallace. it is an attempt to take a little bit of the edge of the harshness of the speech itself. it is an interesting part of

that speech. it only has one line there. it becomes a constant motif, and that is the reference to communism. we do not think about that so much today in terms of anything except the cold war, spies. but for white southerners and many americans around the country, the civil rights movement was the handiwork of communists. it is hard to remember how frightened americans were and how much they believed the communist infiltration had taken place. civil rights seem to be a place they would operate. it was a useful weapon against the movement to emphasize that. >> george wallace's running mate in 1968 was air force general, curtis lemay. our next call comes from harry in oakland, maryland. good evening. >> how are you doing? >> good. >> i remember in 1972 as a

college student at allegheny college in cumberland, maryland, he came to the campus one day. the following day he was shot at the world mall. what i can remember of that is i read about something that does not seem to be talked about much. he went through a major transition after this. i think i read that he did talk openly about it and had some sort of religious conversion so predict conversion somewhat. also, i can remember seeing him received an award from alabama's naacp. that was in his last term as governor, i think. am i wrong on that or not? i can remember actually watching that and i was amazed to see the transformation from

segregationist to basically receiving that type of recognition. >> thank you very much. we are going to be discussing all of that throughout the evening on "the contenders." give us a snapshot of what harry was speaking about. >> if you want to know what happens with white's attitudes towards race, just follow george wallace's career. he was a hard segregationist, using the race issue in the 1960's, but by the 1970's and after he was nearly assassinated, and as the whole political structure changed and blacks came to play a larger role in the democratic party -- both politically and in his own thinking, i think he was a different person. >> very quickly, the 1972 campaign -- how was he doing prior to getting shot? >> george wallace in 1972 was outpolling everyone up through

may in the primaries. it is amazing to think about it. george mcgovern had emerged in the eyes of the national media as the candidate. he sort of brushed aside the other candidates. but in terms of votes, up until the day he was shot, governor wallace had considerably more votes than george mcgovern did. >> the next call for our guest, dan carter, the author of this book "the politics of rage," comes from montana. charles, you are on "the contenders." >> was he influenced by huey long at all? did he ever think about running for federal office -- senate or the house? most likely senate? >> no. he claims he was not influenced by long at all. i think that is probably unlikely.

the was certainly familiar with the career of long. he really was not interested in running for the united states senate. i think he could easily have been elected. at one time the talked about it and thought about it, but he was much more comfortable in alabama. he said why would i want to go to washington and be one of 100 senators when i could be governor of alabama? >> did george wallace used the n-word? >> yes. that would have been pretty common. lyndon johnson used the n-word. it was common among leaders in southern politics privately. there were a couple of times when he slipped up and used it publicly as well, but that was not typical at all. i think much more important than whether you used the n-word -- lyndon johnson did, but often in a different kind of context -- the real problem was the

extent to which this man had been a racial moderate and had been on the trustees of tuskegee university in the early 1950's. he told someone blacks are going to vote in this day and i want to be on the ground floor. of course, currents of change. that was by the late 1950's. i think the tragedy is that someone who had these empathetic feelings for both black and whites let himself be caught up politically and emotionally in the racial currents of the 1960's. yes, there was a time it was pretty nasty business, i think. >> right here in alabama, florence, alabama, tina. you are on "the contenders." >> hello. i enjoyed mr. carter's book.

i wanted to ask a question about mr. george wallace. is his shooter still in prison? did they gas him or was he shot? >> arthur bremer was the very mentally disturbed young man who shot governor wallace. they actually wanted to shoot president nixon, but he could not get close enough to president nixon. he essentially was released. he is now, after many years -- i cannot remember the exact date -- >> 2007. >> i remember i was approached in 1999 about a statement for his parole hearing. he was turned down at that time. it is only in the last four years after all those years that

he has been released. >> let's go back to 1965. george wallace is governor. he is living here at this governor's mansion in montgomery, alabama. reverend martin luther king had been pastor of the dexter avenue baptist church, which is one block from the alabama state capital. there are marches from selma to montgomery. very quickly, dr. carter, why are these marches happening and what were their effect? >> the broader context was a voter registration effort on the part of african-americans. there were a whole series of these violent incidents. there was an assault on some demonstrators in marion, alabama in which one young man was killed by a state trooper. that was really the triggering episode they began to talk about some way to demonstrate how angry and frustrated they were. there was the first attempt to

march from selma to montgomery. that turned out to be a disaster, in some ways, at least nationally or governor wallace because there were television cameras there. violence does not happen unless it is on television, at least in terms of the great impact it had. john lewis and others attempted to walk from brown's chapel in selma across the bridge towards montgomery. they were met by the alabama state troopers. >> under the orders of governor wallace? >> under the orders of governor wallace. it was never clear what those orders were, but they stopped them. they thought it meant stop them by any means. you had a bunch of deputies who were anxious to do a little head-cracking. that is what happened. >> in just a second, we are going to show you some newreels

from 1965 and show you some of the news about those marches from selma, which is 100 or so miles from where we sit now in montgomery. then we are going to introduce you to george wallace's daughter, peggy wallace kennedy. she is inside the mansion. here is the 1965 newreel. >> selma sprang overnight from an obscure southern town to the front pages of newspapers. this church was headquarters for the negro drive. the right to vote. this is where martin luther king came to lend his support to the campaign. from selma's 13,000 negros, only a few more than 300 negroes have been registered at the polls. one group set out to march to the capital at montgomery. the procession was broken up violently by state troopers and deputies. dr. king led another contingent through the town.

this time, there is no violence. the 1000 negroes and 400 white ministers and a civil-rights workers reached the end of the bridge where the state troopers stood. there were ordered to turn back. dr. king confers with the police as the marchers hold their ground. he asks that they be allowed to pray. there are a few minutes of mounting tension. the request to pray is granted and they kneeled in the street.

the march finally gets under way as dr. martin luther king addresses the crowd at the starting point. twice before the marchers had been turned back by state troopers, now they march under a federal court order and with protection of national guard units and federal troops -- 3000 men. there are 2300 marchers in line. half of highway 80 is closed to traffic. the marchers have been ordered to reduce their numbers to 300, a measure designed for their safety. there are a few isolated flare ups between whites and negroes, but otherwise the demonstration is peaceful. the first day the marchers tramp a little over 7 miles. they wanted to present a petition to governor george wallace.

>> you are now looking at a picture of the conclusion of the third selma to montgomery march. it finished up on dexter avenue right in front of the state capital. the dexter avenue baptist church where dr. martin luther king pastored in the 1950's is located a block from the state capital. recently, c-span took some video of the same site. this picture was taken about a month or so ago. it is about two miles north of where we are now. we are, right now, at the governor's mansion in montgomery, alabama. we are inside the foyer. we are joined by george wallace's daughter, peggy wallace kennedy. we played that newreel from 1965. what are your memories? you lived in this house at the time. >> yes, i was here. i was 15 years old. i can remember what went on and everything.

of course, at that time i did not really have an opinion, but i did go to selma in 2009 and marched across edmund pettus bridge. even back in 1965, i knew that their cause was just and i was able to walk across that bridge with my husband and children. >> what was life like here in the governor's mansion? >> it is a great house. when we moved in, my mother made it a home. >> lurleen. >> yes. she made it a home. we had a lot of happy times here. we came from a small town and moved to the big city, to this wonderful house that my mother made a home. it was wonderful. it really was a wonderful place to live.

>> how where were you of your father's reputation outside of alabama, some of the controversial things people said about him? >> i was not aware of that. i was just trying to live a normal life, if you can imagine. my mother was the kind of person that tried to keep us as normal as we could be, a normal life. school and that kind of thing. i really was not aware. >> did you as a child of the governor have a state trooper followed you around all the times or were you free to come and go as you wanted? >> we were free to come and go as we wanted. before i could drive, i had a trooper take me to school. after that, i was on my own. >> how often was your father around? he was running alabama, he was

running for president throughout your childhood. >> he was in and out, but i grew up in a political family. it was normal for me to not see him often. when you do not know anything any different, it is ok. my mother was gone a lot, too. >> peggy wallace kennedy here in the foyer of the governor's mansion in montgomery, alabama. these steps pretty meaningful. a couple of different incidences on these steps. let's begin with santa. >> i believe this was 1970 or 1971. it was 1971. my father dressed up like santa claus and i sat on his knee. that is a picture i will always cherish.

>> what was he like behind closed doors? what was he like as a dad? >> he was busy. he was always really busy. he ate fast. he walked fast. but he was a wonderful dad when you could get with him, you know. the time you had with him, you had to get the quality time and that was fine, too, because we were used to that. >> something else important happened on the steps. what was that? when you got married. >> we got married. also, when we first moved in here, my brother and i slid down the banister into a tour group. my mother was very angry about that. i got married and had my wedding reception here. >> we would be remiss if you did not talk a little bit more about your mother, lurleen wallace, or governor wallace. how did she get elected governor?

>> i think the people just loved her. >> was voting for your dad? >> well, i think that probably he thought so. when she was elected, she certainly let him know who with the governor, i can assure you. >> what happened to her? >> she had cancer and died in may of 1968. she spent 15 months in office. >> after that, between 1968 and 1971 when your father was reelected, or 1970 when he was reelected -- moved back in in 1971 -- what did your father do? >> he remarried in 1971. we moved back in. there is a little apartment in the back of the governor's mansion. i married in 1973, so i was only here for two years. >> between 1968-1970, where did you move too?

>> we had a home that my mother had bought. it was in southern montgomery. >> was he practicing law or running for president? >> he was running. that is what he was doing. >> we have your husband and your son over here. if we could just turn the camera over and show them very quickly so we can wave at them over there. tell us about your husband, mark kennedy. >> we have been married for 38 years. he has spent 22 years in public service. he retired from the alabama supreme court in 1999. he is now a state chairman of the democratic party. my youngest son is a history major at the university of alabama. our oldest son is serving in afghanistan right now. >> peggy wallace kennedy, has anyone played up the irony of a wallace marrying a kennedy?

>> yes, they have. when we got engaged, senator ted kennedy wrote my father a letter saying he was really glad that the kennedys and the wallaces could finally get together. i have that letter. >> peggy will be joining us a little later in the program. thank you for spending a few minutes with us. we will work our way back out to the set. we will be joined by joe reed, the chairman of the alabama democratic conference, along with our other guests. wallace biographer, dan carter. the next call is from houston. joe, you are on the air. oh, we are talking to joe, the caller. sorry about that. go ahead, joe from houston. >> i have a question. had george wallace not been shot in 1972, would he have run as a third-party candidate?

i have another question. in 1976 if he had defeated jimmy carter in florida, how far would he have gone in the democratic nomination process? >> the third party in 1972 and what could have happened in 1976. >> in 1972, of course, he was shot and severely wounded. he did go to the democratic convention, but it is pretty clear his health suffered from being shot. he was not a serious factor in 1972. in 1976, americans have a pretty short life span toward politicians. everybody kept talking about the relationship between governor wallace's campaign and president roosevelt, who, of

course, campaigned from a wheelchair and was president in a wheelchair. the difference was that in the 1930's there was an agreement on the part of the media that he would never be photographed in a wheelchair. most americans simply did not realize how severely crippled he had been by polio. in 1976, every single moment the cameras were on. there were a couple of incidences, one in which he was dropped. it really emphasized the fact that he was in a wheelchair. even apart from that, one of the things that make governor wallace so effective was his feisty, bantam-rooster kind of bravado that he had. he did not walk across the stage, he strutted across the stage, often with his hands up

in a boxing position. he used to be a boxer. in a wheelchair, it was not possible to do that. >> now we want to introduce you to dr. joe reed who is chairman of the alabama democratic conference. he also works for the alabama education association. dr. reed, what is your first memory of george wallace? >> the first memory i have of george wallace was back in 1958. i had just come from korea and george wallace was running for governor. it was a candidate for governor at that time. of course joe patterson won. it was 1958 when i first heard of him. >> do you remember what the memory is? >> he was very vocal. at that time, he did not have anything that any other southern politician had at that time.

all were running against the supreme court decision in 1954. they all said they were going to maintain segregation. they all claimed that they could do what the law insisted that they could not do. they all insisted they could get around the law. at that particular time he was not much different from the rest of them. >> what was your life like in alabama in 1958? >> like most other black folks in the south, and to some extent, in this country. for example, segregation, and even though the supreme court had ruled in brown v. the board of education, for all practical purposes, alabama was still fighting that position. we were all mindful of strom

thurmond's decision in 1948. blacks were more and more sensitized to that. the montgomery bus boycott had occurred. blacks had achieved a great victory there. things were looking up. >> were you able to vote in 1958? >> 1958 -- i was able to vote in 1958. i was from conecuh county, a small county between montgomery and mobile. blacks were not considered a threat then. veterans did not have a problem getting registered to vote in 1958 in conecuh county. because they were not a threat. there was a sheriff john brock, who took on the establishment.

he went out and help blacks get registered to vote. this was before 1958. he died in 1956. before 1958, there were efforts to get blacks ready to vote. blacks did not constitute a threat. they were captive votes more than anything else. at that particular time, being a veteran, that was not a major problem, getting registered to vote. >> dr. reed, what did you do at the alabama education association? >> i am the associate secretary at the alabama education association. that's the teachers' union. i have been privileged to serve that organization since 1964. i came over from the black association in 1964. the alabama state teachers association -- there were 11

southern states that had dual associations in the south from virginia to texas. i came on as executive secretary at that time. in 1969 we merged and i have been there for 47 years. >> let's see this video of george wallace. >> john will come, unwanted, warranted for intrusion. >> this afternoon, following a series of threats and statements, the presence of alabama national guardsman was required on the university of alabama to carry out the final quarter of the united states

district court of the northern district of alabama. that order called for the admission of two fairly qualified young alabama residents who happen to have been born negro. >> what do you remember about that incident in 1963? >> we were glad to see president kennedy on. he was very simple. we always thought he was going to lose. he had lost races before that time, particularly in 1959 and 1960, when he had the confrontation with jerry frank johnson. a lot of folks forget the civil rights deal in 1967, that particular civil-rights deal, which came under president eisenhower, allows the president to appoint a commission to come in and

investigate discrimination. because blacks in tuskegee, alabama could not get rights to vote, the committee came and did an investigation. george wallace refused to turn over records to them. george frank johnson jr. was the presiding judge. he ordered it turned over to the civil-rights commission so they could complete their investigation. that was one of the early times george wallace misled the voters again in alabama, thinking he could do things he could not do. >> kerry in west virginia, welcome to the program. >> i would like to thank c-span for showing us the governor's

mansion. i would also like to know about his relationship with j. edgar hoover. how was wallace monitored and did he have an opinion of hoover? >> about his relationship with j. edgar hoover and whether or not he was monitored? >> not really. not in the sense that subversives were. governor wallace constantly praised mr. hoover and relied upon him, particularly for information about the so-called links between civil rights activists and communists. hoover was always leery of wallace, in part because i do

not think he could control him. as a result, hoover always told his men to keep hands-off. as a result, there was a distant relationship between the two of them. >> dan carter is the author of this book. look at the picture on the cover of the book. that is from the inaugural address of 1963. the state capital, two miles from where we are right now. randall in stockton, calif., how're you doing? >> as the son of a civil rights leader who came across in 1963, i want to know why he would not let the rest of his counterparts cross the bridge? and when they did, there was national outrage. the bottom line is, was governor wallace in cahoots with

the congress to conspire for us not to come across the bridge? i want to know the answer to that. >> i did not get his question. >> did you hear his question? >> yes. let's go ahead. >> if the marchers crossed the bridge, regardless of the television cameras, and there are always television cameras set up there, it would be a face-saving loss for governor wallace. he made it clear he was not going to allow it. he told al lingo, who was in the state troopers, and he also told major mccloud -- no, cloud, who was in charge of the troopers at the time, that there were not to be allowed to march. they took them very seriously.

at that point, there were ready to go with teargas, mounted men from a posse. and they did not. >> governor wallace was more concerned, at that time, about showing his fellow travelers, his supporters, his friends, that he was going to make the black folks behave. i am going to stop them at all costs. if he had allowed the march to continue, a lot of things would probably have never happened, including his chances in the 1965 voting rights act. i am sure other stations carry it too, they showed people being beaten in selma. other things happened during that same time.

widows to white ministers were killed. i forget their names. and when the white clergy also got involved in this, they started demanding that something happened. they started coming into alabama. when the white clergy got involved, the white house got even more upset. those things, in my opinion, were the major factors in terms of responding to wallace's resistance to the march. if he had just left it alone, it would have turned out differently. >> what was your level of activity in the civil-rights movement in the 1960's? >> i was not at the bridge. this was in 1965. i was with the alabama state teachers association.

we supported the movement, provided resources for the movement, were actively involved -- our local chapter in alabama was led by reverend reese. they came to the alabama state teachers association and we went to washington to elicit help from the national education association to get involved and ensure that our members got the right to vote. >> we showed to the club from 1963, the school house incident. here is george wallace in 1967 talking about that incident and a little bit on the new riots that were occurring after it. >> i said we are further obligated to oppose any where we find them.

a little over three years ago, we stood at the university of alabama. we oppose the enemies of freedom. to use that stand to say that those in high places in washington cannot reconstitute. we warned of the coming lawlessness that would sweep our nation and adversely affect our citizens. >> the worst race violence since los angeles two years ago. at least 24 persons are killed. more than 1800 wounded. despite patrolling by city and state police, millions of dollars of property damage is done. cleanouts closed shops in the ghetto districts.

any vehicle is a target for the mob. two days after beginning, police are augmented by national guardsmen. the governor terms the rebellion open rioting. fire from open windows kills policemen, a fire captain shot in the back, and several bystanders. [intense, dramatic music playing] scores of police, troopers, guardsmen, and civilians are wounded. officials said the strikers, some believe it not to be residents, used guns stolen from a rifle factory. even machine guns were used. because of widespread looting, the emergency food centers are set out to supply milk, bread, and cereal to terrorize residents.

looters are dealt with swiftly. a 10:00 to 6:00 curfew is clamped on. while new york struggles to restore peace and order, it spreads to nearby suburban towns, where a policeman is beaten to death and violence is reported. new jersey, a state under siege. >> and back live in montgomery, alabama. dan carter, the race riots of the 1967-1968 period, what effect they have on toward wallace's campaign for governor? >> you can get some idea of what effect it had. much of it is hyperbolic. a lot of the claims that were made were extraordinarily serious. all of the talk about snipers was pretty much disapproved. a lot of shooting.

a lot of violence. even the music, everything about it, gives the impression that the nation is under siege. although there is absolutely no connection between the race riots, which had to do with poverty, had to do with the conditions in the inner cities -- in the minds of many americans, the civil rights movement and the rights of the 1960's are all blended together. they are rebellion against authority. and the distinction of one, the civil rights movement is going to be non-violent, rely on non- violence, and the other is this spattering of outburst of violence. it is quite different. the connection is there. >> what do you remember about april 4, 1968? >> that was the day dr. king was

shot. i remember going by dr. levi watkins' office at alabama state university in montgomery. i walked in his office and he said, dr. king has been shot. that is what i remember. i was also involved in the city movement as another effort on the part of this growing resistance on the part of black folks and the unwillingness to continue to accept segregation. you had the sit in movement, the freedom rides, all of these things where blacks are demanding that now, and of course would be riots taking place in certain places, which dr. king always condemned, he saw this as a threat to white well-being. >> did you ever meet george wallace? >> yes.

i met him many times. i do not remember the first time i met governor wallace, i really do not. i do remember him speaking to the alabama teachers association. and that may have been the first time i shook his hand. he signed a bill. this was in the 1970's when we did that. i was always very critical of governor wallace. he said to me one time, "you have always been critical of me but you were never mad at me." we had a bill we are trying to get him to sign. it was to register people to vote any time. the voter registrars across the state of alabama were against it. we ask him to sign the bill. he went on and signed the bill. yes, we talked many times in the last years.

>> we will get on to that later in our program. >> i wondered if mr. carter could comment on how the racial politics of rage in the 1950's and 1960's may have morphed into the current hard right stance of the tea party on issues like gay marriage and illegal immigration. this might not be surrogate issues for people whose racial attitudes have not changed, but it is not in fashion to speak publicly about that. >> wow. that is really a tough one to draw a direct connection. we do not have the same kind of language about race that we once had.

weekends off all we want to about political correctness. the fact is, it is politically incorrect to engage in any kind of racist language. but we do have this long tradition in the united states, in this very cantankerous democracy, of selecting scapegoats, groups that seem to represent a violation of what the cultural norms are that a family felt. whether that is the issue of prayer in the schools, the issue of gay marriage, in economic hard times, whether it is the issue of immigrants and so-called job challenges that are threatening the jobs of americans, there is a connection in the sense that we want an enemy. that enemy may be african

americans at some point, it may be other groups. unfortunately, it is one of the darker sides of american history. >> george wallace ran for president in 1964. in 1968, he captured five states and 46 electoral votes. he also ran in 1972 and 1976. next call is from tampa bay, florida. hello, mike. mike from tampa bay, please go ahead. >> i had a cathartic experience tonight as a young american watching these old clips being played. it gives me hope to see how divergent cultures have come together in the clips and a great sense of hope to see how our political differences might be able to be bridged today. >> has politics changed in alabama? >> yes. politics in alabama has changed. one thing we have to keep in

mind -- racism, i do not think, as martin luther king jr. said, the white of goodwill in this country do not realize the depth of racism. all of these things are still part of dyed in the wool racism that exists today not only in alabama but in other states of the country. that is part of the question that the gentleman raised. >> he was talking about how politics have changed. what is the alabama democratic conference? >> they were started in 1964 for the purpose of helping john f. kennedy. blacks were shut out of the democratic party in alabama at that time. we were still struggling and had not got the right to vote until the mid-1960's.

blacks were trying to get a voice in the democratic party. the alabama democratic conference was set up for that reason. they set out to do two things -- to get white political attention, that was one of the things, and also to unify the black vote so that we could, what we call, make white politicians behave. it was that kind of thing that we were working on. that is what the democratic conference was about and is still about today. >> 1968 was george wallace's best run for president. here is part of his announcement. >> one of the issues confronting the people is the breakdown of law and order. both national parties are

apologizing today and saying it comes about as a result of welfare payments, job opportunities, education, etc. the average man on the street in this country knows that it comes about because of activists, militants, revolutionaries, anarchists, and communists. if i were the president, i would give my strong moral support to the local police officers of this country and local law enforcement and say, you enforce the law, and i can tell you that if i were the president of the united states, you could walk on the streets in any section of washington, d.c. at any time and i would make that possible if i had to bring 30,000 troops in washington and put one every 30 feet with a bayonet. we are going to make this safe for the citizens of washington, d.c. it is a sad moment that in the nation's capital, you are

fearful of walking out of this hotel. this is not race i'm talking about. every time i mention this, they say this has racial overtones. when does it come to have racial overtones to stand for law and order? newsmen have indicated so long that the people in our state who defended the right of the state to determine the policies of their local school systems believe in separation. that is, racial separation. we have had more mingling and association of the races in alabama than i would say that any large industrial state above the mason-dixon line. now when you talk about segregation, we have supported, in the past, a separate school system. but as far as working and mingling and living close together, we have done more of that than the people of any other region in the country.

one reason we have had more peace in our region has been that people of all races are needed and wanted in alabama. so i still stand for the right of the people of alabama, through their elected representatives, to determine the policies of their school system. >> joe reed, we want to get your reaction to governor wallace speaking in 1968. >> if he is talking about desegregating public education, it is because of jerry frank m. johnson, who was the architect, who did more than anybody else. then we had the lee vs. macon decision, which accounted for 100 schools. it cannot be attributed to anything governor wallace did. it is a tribute to the fact that the federal government and black leaders, the naacp, and other organizations, went out and risk everything else to desegregate public education. >> dan carter, when you hear

the words law and order, welfare, and militants, are those code words? >> yes, absolutely. this is -- [sirens sounding] they do not like this here, but television plays a critical role in the political process. you are aware that everywhere you're saying is being captured on film. you have to be careful. it is the sense of whatever you want to call it, political correctness. you have to be careful about how you say it. you learn a different language. it is the language in which you, without ever referring specifically to race, you talk about race. nobody was better at it than governor wallace. whenever he wanted to complain

about the federal government enforcing housing non- discrimination, he did not talk about them making african americans live close to you, he talked about blue-eyed chinamen. they're going to make them come into your neighborhood. and everybody knew exactly what he was talking about. >> 1968, richard nixon, 301 electoral vote. hubert humphrey, 191 electoral votes. hubert humphrey won 13 states plus d.c. george wallace won nearly 10 million votes and five states. who won the black vote in 1968? >> it was hubert humphrey. >> do you remember who you voted for? >> not only that, i was co- chair for the national committee of educators to support hubert humphrey. that was the first time that blacks went to the democratic national convention.

i was privileged enough to go because the chairman had arranged that. >> quite the wild convention. >> yes, that was the convention of 1968. i was a pro-humphrey person. i knew him personally. we achieved what we wanted to achieve to get him nominated. we did not succeed in getting him elected. >> we are out in front of the governor's mansion in montgomery, alabama, where george wallace lived for 20% of his life. 16 years he lived here, two miles south of downtown montgomery. this is our 12th week of "the contenders." we have two weeks left. jordan, you are on c-span. >> i have a question and a comment. i began my address in politics when i was 10 years old area. i worked through the american independent party in pennsylvania as a volunteer. even though he did not have a

great deal of support in pennsylvania, he had a strong base of support in the philadelphia area. my question for dr. carter is, what was his relationship as far as richard nixon? i know that the alabama republicans have backed him during the civil rights crisis. pretty much congressman bill dickinson of opelika was a strong wallace supporter. he was one of the early goldwater republicans in alabama. i was wondering, what did wallace think of richard nixon and did he ever endorsed richard nixon for president? >> dan carter. >> no, he did not think much of richard nixon. particularly after 1968, because in 1970, when governor wallace was running, his wife had died in office, al brewer

had become governor and then he was going to run against former governor wallace. richard nixon put $400,000 in secret cash into the brewer campaign. it did not stay a secret very long. moreover, governor wallace always suspected that richard nixon was trying to destroy him, which he was, because nixon saw wallace as his greatest threat in 1972. he made every effort that he could and certainly governor wallace was aware of that. >> in your book, "the politics of rage," in the 1972 campaign, george wallace started strong before he was shot, correct? >> absolutely. he got more votes -- by the end of the day he was shot, he had more votes than any other democratic candidate at the

time. i do not think he would have got the nomination, but it was a tremendous problem for the democratic party. >> after he was shot in 1972, richard nixon went to see him, correct? >> that is correct. >> who else went to see him? >> just about everybody. hubert humphrey went to see him, george mcgovern went to see him, ethel kennedy went to see him. in her case, i think it was a sense of compassion after what had happened. in other cases, it was the politics of it. they realized that they would like to have his support. nixon did more than go and see him go. he also manipulated the shooting of governor wallace by trying to blame -- trying to link the man who had shot him to george mcgovern. >> joe reed, do you remember when george wallace was shot? >> i learned of it at my office. my sympathy went out to the

wallace family as well as everybody else. it was one thing you did not want to happen. i remember it very well. i went to the democratic convention in 1972 where george wallace was. he was trying to make his way. when he was shot and paralyzed, that pretty much ended his political career as a presidential candidate. on the other hand, he continued to run for office and hold office in alabama as governor. of course, after the shooting, and after he was paralyzed for so long, you might get to that later on, but i think that is where he really got his political conversion. i'll hold that.

>> we will get into that. governor wallace served as governor of alabama 1963-1967, 1971-1979, and finally from 1983-1987. he went ahead and ran in the 1976 campaign. how long did that last? >> he made it through several primaries. the problem was not only the difficulty of campaigning from a wheelchair, but there was another southerner, jimmy carter. carter did not have some of the baggage that governor wallace had. moreover, he was running in the aftermath of watergate. this was when religion really gets into the campaign. and he ran as a highly moral person who would restore moral integrity to the white house. remember "i'll never lie to you" jimmy carter. and in so many different ways, his own progressive record as

the governor of georgia approved the better candidate thing governor wallace. and the big example, the primary in florida, where governor wallace lost to jimmy carter. that pretty much finished him. >> pensacola, florida. thank you for holding. you're on "the contenders." >> i remember as a 10-year-old boy when george wallace got shot, a very devastating day to me as a youngster, to be honest to you. my question is when governor wallace was running for president in the 1970's, who was his endorsements? you know how presidential people have their money backers. how did he raise money to run for office? the other question i have -- i know he has a son who is in political office. does he have any endeavors to run for governor at all?

>> there was some "big" money, but by and large, george wallace, you can like him or dislike him, but he was an extraordinarily successful fundraiser of small contributions. he got millions of dollars in small amounts -- $5, $10, $20. he was never really backed by the big money individuals. i will let dr. reed talk about george wallace, jr. >> he ran for state senator. he is his son. the democratic conference endorsed him. of course, helater on switch to the republican party and we opposed him.

overall, he is a nice fellow. >> he is currently a republican, right? >> he is currently a republican. >> peggy wallace kennedy is the honorary chairperson of the democratic party. i think that is what she told us earlier. >> her husband is the chair of the democratic party of the state of alabama. and he is doing a great job. bottom line is that george wallace, jr. did run for the state treasury. in fact, the day we endorsed him, george wallace, sr. came to the alabama democratic conference convention. the rest is history. >> we want to show you one more ad from one more piece of video from 1968. this is an ad that george wallace was running. >> why are more and more americans turning to governor

wallace? follow us across town. >> as president, i shall within the law turn back the absolute control of of the public school system to the people of the states. >> why are more and more americans turning to governor wallace? open a little business and see what might happen. >> as president, i will stand up for your local police and firemen in protecting your safety and property. >> why are more and more americans turning to governor wallace? watch your hard earned tax dollars sail away to anti- american countries. >> as president, i will halt the giveaway of our american dollars and products to countries that aid our enemies. >> give him your support. >> our next call comes from tony in pleasantville, n.y. tony, you are on "the contenders."

>> i was 21 years old in 1968 and just out of the navy. i am 65 now, but over the years i supported george wallace, ross perot, ralph nader, and currently a ron paul supporter. i went to a rally in 1968 at madison square garden. george wallace and his vice presidential candidate, curtis lemay. a 21-minute standing ovation by a sellout crowd. during the presentation, there were some hecklers way up in the far reaching seats, about six or seven of them. you could see the lights from the cameras. when the event was over, the local news -- they only had three networks in those days -- the only thing they reported were the three hecklers. outside madison square garden, there were 50 mounted police

expecting riots by the people. what i learned at this rally is how unfairly the media treats third-party candidates. c-span was not around in 1968, but if c-span was around in 1968, george wallace would have done better. in 1972, if he was not shot, he had a good chance at winning. >> tony, let's leave it there. dan carter, that was the american independent party george wallace was running on. what is the role of the media in 1968? >> congratulations. you are the first person i have talked to who was at that rally, which was a pretty remarkable rally. there is a lot of film footage, which we were able to use in a documentary we did on governor wallace. although i think you are right, most of the time the media tends to dismiss a third party

candidates. part of it is they actually like confrontation. there were about 20 demonstrators shouting "sieg heil" and giving hitler salutes. that is colorful news. that is often what these media were as the speeches themselves -- they were not going to show a 21 minute ovation. you are exactly right. he received a 21 minute ovation. >> dr. reed, it looked like you were about to add something. we will move to our next call from north carolina. good evening. >> i just had a question about george wallace's pre- legislative activities before he got involved with the legislature of alabama. was he not a lawyer for some people involved in the

assassination of attorney- general john patterson and the phenix city gambling and things of that nature? >> no. that does not ring any bells at all. >> dr. reed, if george wallace was alive today, would he be a republican or a democrat? >> i think he would be a democrat. i really do. he would just -- i do not think he liked the republicans. out of all his running, he was always a democrat in alabama. i think he would have stayed a democrat. i do not think he would have changed. >> i do not know. i think it is clear that his heart in some ways with the policies of the democratic party, particularly economic policies. on the other hand, he was pretty hostile towards the national government and its activities.

it is possible that may have led him -- certainly running for office in alabama, he would be running as a republican. that is the only way he would get elected. >> george wallace was elected in 1970 and in 1974 to the gubernatorial office here in alabama. he ran for president in 1972 and 1976. in 1982, he said i have been wrong about the race issue. >> i think that after he was shot -- governor wallace's entire political career for the last few years was based, embedded, sanctioned, guided by race. i do not he lost the race to john patterson because the n- word was used too much. john patterson would have

defeated wallace anyway, because his daddy was shot trying to clean up phenix city. governor wallace was not going to beat him either way. john patterson was a prosecutor. he knew how to go after things. >> go back to 1982. >> your question was whether or not -- >> george wallace said he was wrong about the race issue. >> i think he meant that. he felt he had been punished. he had been in a wheelchair over a quarter of a century. you have to look back and say, if you are a christian -- and he said he was, why am i here? why am i going through this? i really believe that he went through this conversion.

george wallace is one of the few politicians who had run on segregation platforms that publicly repudiated segregation. he said "i was wrong." >> in 1982 after that, did you vote for him for governor? >> i voted for the straight democratic ticket. straight out. the alabama republican congress did not endorse george wallace. we supported george mcmillan. george mcmillan lost in the primary. there were blacks running for county commission, blacks running for the legislature, blacks running for everything. we always vote the straight democratic ticket because there was no republican out there. somebody raised the question is the vote about race, live and

let the. one is the rising sun, and one is the setting sun, and that is what happened. >> that is what happened. the alabama democratic conference never endorsed wallace. >> we are in front of the governor's mansion in montgomery, alabama where george wallace lived. good evening. >> i went in the marine corps in 1970. i left erie, pennsylvania, got down to the south, and was amazed at how southerners were treating everybody. i saw the movie "the help" which was a picture of what the south was like. the ways that the blacks were subjugated was phenomenal. it was a terrific movie. another movie that has to be

mentioned is "waiting for superman." you hear about how the teachers' unions are giving this idea of what is happening. i teach as a substitute teacher in california. the democrats were in control of the south that caused all of this -- the deaths in mississippi, the complete destruction of society. i looked at detroit, i've looked all over. there is joe reed. how much of his retirement after 47 years as a teacher -- if you look at what the teacher unions have done to this country. [coughing] john. >> you are getting a little off topic. we appreciate your call. we will get an answer for you very quickly. speak about the education association and respond to his comments very quickly. >> the alabama education association as it exists now is

a combination of the black and white teachers coming together in 1969. for 42 years we have been very successful, bringing in the maids and janitors into our association, protecting tenure, defending our members' rights in court. we suffered some setbacks in the last election, but we are still fighting for the right of teachers in alabama. it is one of the most effective associations in the country. >> i can tell you one thing -- if george wallace was still active in politics, he would not be attacking teachers or the teachers' unions. >> no. >> he thought it was important. i think it is a reflection of how there are many similarities between the kind of conservatism george wallace helped to create and today, in which suddenly teachers who are really not paid that much, who

really do not get vast pensions suddenly become another one of the scapegoats of society. >> governor wallace would not have done that. >> that caller also mention the movie "the help." did you see the movie? ok, what was your impression of it? >> it is a recreation of what it was like in this world in which black and white, and particularly middle-class and upper-middle-class southerners, how they had connection to blacks, but it was always in a subordinate position. i think the film does a good job of explaining that relationship. >> the city of montgomery, alabama -- rosa parks began her bus protest here. the jefferson davis white house is here.

dr. martin luther king preached at the dexter avenue king memorial baptist church, which is one block from the state capital where george wallace announced on january 14, 1963, "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." it is laid out. you can see a lot of these different exhibits here in the city as well. the next call for our guests comes from poughkeepsie, new york. nick, you are on "the contenders." >> she told him not to do it? >> you are on "the contenders." ok, we are going to move on from nick. we will move south to georgia. john, you are on "the contenders." >> my question is for mr. carter. getting back to the 1972 election and his choice of curtis lemay as his running mate -- i was just curious as to what motivated him to make that

selection and what their relationship was? thank you very much. >> that was in 1968? >> he thought that general lemay would bring in a lot of a veteran voters. in the 1960's, there was still a huge number of veterans from world war ii and korea -- even vietnam. he thought putting a respectable general like curtis lemay on the ticket would help them draw a lot of these voters in. it would also draw in the hardliners who wanted to suppress the war in vietnam, even though governor wallace was sometimes a little ambivalent. i think that is the main reason. it turned out to be a disaster, but that is another story. >> in 1972 and 1976 he did not get close to nominating a vice- presidential candidate. >> some of his people opposed chandler because they opposed -- he had welcomed or at least had gone along with bringing

jackie robinson into baseball. chandler was the commissioner of baseball. so when they brought jackie robinson in, chandler was with that. did of wallace's opponents not want chandler on the ticket because of that. he was out of kentucky, of course. >> joe, do you remember your last conversation with george wallace? >> i was trying to think about that. >> we want to reintroduce george wallace's daughter, peggy wallace kennedy. she joins us from inside the mansion. mrs. kennedy, you have been listening to our conversation. what have you heard? >> well, i have heard a lot about my father. >> mrs. kennedy? go ahead.

now we can hear you. >> well, i have heard a lot about my father. i have enjoyed reminiscing a little bit. my father, to me in my heart, was not a racist. he was a politician. he is the man that i want to remember and i want my children to remember. this is a man that, in his later years, reached out for forgiveness and received that forgiveness. >> do you think that he did have some racist tendencies in the 1960's? >> in my heart, i do not think that. i think he was just a politician. that does not make it right what he did. like i said, that the man i

want to remember -- one who reached out for forgiveness and received that forgiveness. >> mrs. kennedy, can you tell us about the day your father was shot? where were you? >> i was in college. i attended troy university. i was sitting in a classroom and i remember looking at the clocks. i was in the classroom alone waiting for a class. i remember looking at that particular time. when the class was over, one of my friends came to me and felt like maybe i had already heard that my father had been shot and he was ok. she said, your father is ok. he has been shot, but he must be ok. i said i did not know that. i was brought here to the mansion and flown straight to maryland.

>> we were talking about you a little bit earlier. you are the honorary chair of the alabama democratic party. correct? >> no. my husband is the chair of the alabama democratic party. i stand by him and help him when i can. i do make some speeches at alabama democratic party functions. >> your brother is now a republican, correct? >> yes, he is, but i still love him very much. [laughter] >> if your father were alive today, would he be a democrat or republican? >> i think he would be a democrat. >> if your father were alive today, who would he have voted for in 2008? >> well, i think he possibly could have voted for president obama. i know that he would have been proud that i endorsed president obama and i think he would have

been very proud that i marched across the edmund pettus bridge in 2009 with john lewis. >> peggy wallace kennedy wrote a piece for cnn the day after the election, november 3, 2008. if you are interested, you can go to cnn and read it. it is about visiting her father's grave and having an obama bumper sticker on her car. albany, ga. -- you are on "the contenders." go ahead. >> just a couple of things real quick, i know my time is limited. number one, selma is only 40-50 miles from montgomery. i grew up in selma at the time of the march. my question is for mr. carter. at the time of the march, rumors were running rampant. a woman was giving marchers a ride back in her car when she

was ambushed. it was rumored for many years that one of the marchers she was giving a ride was an undercover fbi agent. i wondered if he have ever heard of this rumor. thank you very much. >> it was not her passenger, it was one of the individuals in the car that did the shooting, was an undercover agent, and it was his testimony that made it possible for the immediate arrest of the people who did the shooting even though nothing much as usual came of it. that was the situation. the person she was taking back, and i am embarrassed to say i have forgotten his name, faked being shot. he fell under her when she was shot. the car wreck and she fell on top of him. he was covered in blood. they stopped and realized she was dead and thought he was,

too. >> in your book "the politics of rage," 1972 shooting, arther bremer, there is a discussion about potential conspiracies with the nixon campaign to have shot governor wallace. jack nelson, former bureau chief of the l.a. times, pulitzer-prize winner, came down and investigated it. what was the conclusion? >> i do not think so. i do not believe -- richard nixon and his entourage tried to exploit the shooting. but arthur bremer -- we have an awful lot of information, including his diaries he wrote during this time. it is clear that this was a very mentally disturbed young man. >> peggy wallace kennedy, after your father was shot, what was his life like as governor and his personal life? >> of course, he slowed down quite a bit.

i think that even though that was such a tragedy for him, i do think that it helped him in a lot of ways to stop and look around and appreciate his family more and appreciate what he had more. unfortunately it had to happen in that way. >> your father was married twice after your mother died, correct? cornelia and lisa taylor? and divorced from both. >> right. >> here at the governor's mansion here in montgomery, alabama -- in the back is a pool. it was put in as a gift to governor wallace after he was paralyzed because swimming would be good to him and it is in the shape of the state of alabama. dr. reed, do you remember your last conversation with george

wallace? >> no, i was trying to. i do remember one of the final statements i had with him -- once he said to me, joe, a lot of people did not believe what i was doing. i believe in segregation because we were taught that way, but i was wrong. that is when he came to folks for forgiveness. i accepted his decision and accepted his statement that he was wrong, because he was one of the few southern politicians ever to repudiate that. in fact, i was invited to his funeral. i did go to the church where his funeral was. i think as a christian he should have been forgiven and was forgiven. >> peggy wallace kennedy, where are your parents buried? >> they are buried at lee memorial cemetery. they are together. >> is that here in montgomery? >> yes, that is here in montgomery.

>> dr. dan carter, how did george wallace change the national conversation? >> because he identified at this mood that was in the very early stages of conservatism. it was made possible not only by his great skills, but by circumstances over which he had no control but was able to exploit. to me, the great tragedy is that here was a person of enormous abilities. he was caught in the time warp that he was. >> "the politics of rage" is the name of dan carter's book. he has been our guest for the last two hours as has joe reed, the chairman of the alabama democratic conference as well as the executive secretary of the alabama education association. >> associate executive secretary. >> associate executive secretary of the alabama education association. we are very proud to have had join us peggy wallace kennedy,

the daughter of george wallace. we thank you all very much. we also want to thank governor robert bentley for opening up his temporary home. it has been wonderful, so thank you governor bentley. we also want to thank the governor's mansion staff and thanks to everybody at the alabama state capitol building for all their help in setting up this "contenders." we are going to leave you with governor wallace in 1986, his last address to the alabama legislature. good night. >> i have climbed my last political mountain, but there are still some personal hills i must climb. but for now, i must take the rope and pick and hand them off to another climber and say, climb to higher heights.

climb on until we reach our peak. then look back and wave at me. i, too, will still be climbing. my fellow alabamians, i bid you a fond and affectionate farewell. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> we're looking at candidates who ran for president and lost the changed political history. saturday we conclude with even a presidential bids of george mcgovern and ross perot. at 10:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. our road to the white house

coverage continues with rick santorum had a town hall meeting in iowa. recent polls showed the senator moved into third place behind mitt romney and ron paul. this is all little less than an hour and a half. >> how is everybody doing? thank you. how're you doing? >> could i get an autograph? appreciate it.

>> hello, folks. >> i like your sweater. >> i wore it for the occasion. hello, how are you? good to see you. thank you for coming out. >> you have my vote. >> thank you. how are we year? all right. do not want to trip that up.

i'm waiting for my introduction. he is my good luck charm. i'm going to keep that going. good to see you. how are you?

how are you? good to see you. how are you? did. good to see you again. hey, guys. good to see you again. >> good to see you again. can we get a picture? >> stocks, we're waiting for you. very good.

>> hello, everybody. could to be here in marshalltown a few days away. clyde to see everybody is out here and ready to go. my name is chuck from rockford. i work for the congressman on the campaign side. i was his chief of staff. and this time executive director in charge of building the caucus. a couple of things near and dear to me collide here on january 3. the first is, the issues. the other is this process. it is our responsibility. a lot of reporters around the state to, as we get up to the caucus, have asked me, --

>> we cannot hear a word you're saying. >> they asked me why i york. i say why did they play the rose bowl in pasadena? this is where it is. these people tell you, we are engaged in the process. we understand there is a two-way responsibility. we asked the candidates to come to this state because you guys ask more tough questions than the national media. you guys know more about these candidates than anybody else did you should get the first choice. in a couple of days we're going to meet for an hour. beginning of that hour, we're going to tell the world exactly who we think should be the next president of the united states.

at the end of the hour, we are going to create our platform. i volunteered for the santorum campaign for that hour. everything we are doing, building this momentum, building something special is for that hour. i intend to make sure that the vote matches the votes we take at the end of the night. but those things we stand for, life, family, limited constitutional government, all of those things that create our conservative platform. fiscal, social, foreign policy. let those match the candidates we put forward to be the next president of the united states. there is only one person i have faith in. i have trust in, who has the record and will fight for every one of these issues that is

important to us. one candidate that embraces every one of the pillars of american exceptional is some and can take america to the next level of our destiny. ladies and gentlemen, senator ? rick santorum. [applause] >> thank you. thank you very much, chuck. chuck's been a little bit of a good luck charm for us. i don't know if you saw it today, in "the new york times," i know a lot of people don't read the norge tivepls, i happen to be one of those that don't, but neverthelessing in the "new york times" they had a -- o listing of all the modes of transportation the candidates are taking the at the top they had buses, cars, s.u.v.'s and the different caravan. number of people in the then the neppings person way bus and

a birch other people and cars and another with, romney with an airplane an the caravan and bus. so all these, i mean stretched halfway across the page one after another and another and then it came down to me and it person. was chuck's truck and one other person. usually it's my son john, who is here with me today, or my daughter elizabeth, who is here with me today. [applause] so we're very, very proud of the fact that we've done this the way you would think that republican candidates would run a campaign. like every dollar mattered and that we weren't going to go out and waste a lot of money on a bunch of people running game round with earpieces in their anything. hands and clipboards, not doing but in fact we actually put dollars to work to actually get a message across and that's what we did. don't travel with a lot of

staff. we have a very lean machine and we focused on putting lead on the target, that is, making sure that we ran an effective campaign that went out and got that mental across and that we spent our dollars wisely on radio and television as limited we had. wet's what we did and believed ultimately that money didn't really matter in this race, that what mattered is talking to iowans because i was told, i remember coming here very, very early in this process and i was talking to governor brantstead and chuck grassley and others and i said probably not going to have a lot of money. the and the consistent statement to me was you can't buy iowa. you've got to earn the votes of iowans. and i can tell you through this entire process, week after week after week, this is my 361st town hall meeting in the state of iowa and for all this year

except maybe the last five days, i got this question. why are you still doing this? you're the only one out here meeting with iowans? you're the only one who's gone around and spent -- we spent two hours in davenport in a town hall meeting as -- and took questions. they said why are you doing that? because i want to earn the trust of the folks of iowa. they're going to make the call. first they said well, you're not moving anywhere in the polls ms one reminded me at the last event, she said, you know, about two months ago you told me you would get your bump the last week of the campaign from people of iowa. no national media coverage would do it, no glib answer at a debate, no fancy slogan, but

the hard work be communedating a strong, principled conservative message across the board, having the record to back that up and having the courage to be able to fight for that as president and deliver the kind of change that iowans want to see happen in washington, d.c. well, ladies and gentlemen, this race is not over but we're seeing signs that the people of iowa are doing exactly what governor and chuck grass -- grassley and so many others said, that you can't buy iowa, you've got to do out and work for iowa's votes, you've got to have the right principles, the right record and prove that you can get the job done. but if you have those things shall the people of iowa are not going to defer their judgments to pundits would don't even ever come see a candidate speak. the only people the pundits listen to are each other.

iowans take the job seriously. chuck made the point correctly, and that is that you have a big responsibility. you're first. you fight to be first. so what i have been saying over the past few weeks is do not defer your judgment to national polls. there was a poll taken two months ago by pew and they asked the question can you name any one of the republicans who are running for president? 4% couldn't name one. yet they're the ones the national media chase as round and says oh, look where the polls are. it has nothing to do with what you've just done, which is serious people who are going to be going to caucuses, taking candidates. the time to find out about the many of you here have met at least once one other candidate, republican candidate running are for president? that's the difference.

don't defer to people who 95% of them haven't met anybody or even bothered to look into them. lead. lead this country. lead and provide to the people of new hampshire and south carolina and on forward, give them your best judgment as to when who the vite person is to take on -- right person is to take on barack obama and go out and lead this country. we, and the second point i would make, we would all love to defeat barack obama, but we don't need a pyrrhic victory. we want a victory that results in fundamental change that america needs. so i would ask you to make sure that when you are voting for this candidate that you vote for someone that you know can makes the mum -- fundamental changes that are necessary.

so those are the two charges i give to you. am i hearing myself in the background here? oh, sorry about that! sorry for those of you out there getting twice of me. so let me just say to you that i obviously believe that i'm that. the candidate that can do just we wouldn't be out there and tramping around the state of iowa -- look, i like the other folks -- folks who are up on debates. the dais with me at the they're all really good people and would all make better doubt about but your job is to make the tough call, that slice, if you will, as to who should be at the top. i would just say if you're looking for someone that's got that strong record of being a consistent -- be -- this is going to be harder than i thought. [laughter] someonee looking for who's got the strong record of

being a conviction conservative who has that -- this is really hard. [laughter] i feel like i'm doing one of those remotz from australia, you know? someone who has the track record of being a conservative across the board, someone who's been out there be in the trenches fighting for life and for people, someone who's been fighting for reforming our entitlement programs and balancing or budget, someone who's been fighting against radical islam and very voted for -- their time not just as a congressman but outside, writing, lecturing all over the country, who's held those conservative values and fought for them and been able to do it a republican state. here i am, i went out and not just once but twice won a congressional heavily democratic district.

not once but twice went out and won a state with a million are more democrats than republicans. let's see what we can do to win in the districts we have to win presidency. the state to win the who's been able to get those reagan democrats? the reagan democrats who are going to make the difference in this race. why do i say that? well, if you look at the states that are going to be in play in this election, basic lib the states that run from pennsylvania to iowa with the exception of illinois, those are in play. pennsylvania, indiana, michigan, wisconsin, missouri -- those are the states that are going to decide this election. well, i come from one of those state. s. it's very much like the rest of

them, the ones that if you can hold on to the republican base and build with independents and particularly blue-collar democrats you can win these states and you can win them against any candidate. ladies and gentlemen, i've got the track record to do that. i've got the policies to do it. we put forward a bold economic plan, but the focus of that plan is to get the economy going, simplify the tax code, get rid of the death tax, but on the corporate tax side we cut the corporate tax in half but for manufacturers, that key part of that industrial midwest i'm talking about, we eliminate the corporate tax. why? because we want marshalltown, we want des moines, we want mason city, we want sioux city, we want davenport, those towns all over iowa and all over the to two out and -- go out and

compete again for the jobs that built those towns. [applause] we won't be abe to do that unless we make america more competitive and the only way you are going to do that is to deal with what makes business uncompetitive versus the rest of the markets we have to deal with. we are 20% more expensive to do business in, in america, on a manufacturing basis than our nine top trading partners. and that doesn't count labor cost. if we don't do something to reduce that cost, then we're going to continue to see our jobs migrating over -- overseas. i was on "kudlow" last night and larry sort of came after us, he said what are you doing? not the supply-side model, you board. cut everything across the should florists or restaurants or banks pay a high corporate tax and manufacturers not pay corporate taxes? you know what my answer was? because this restaurant isn't

moving to china. right? the florist isn't moving to fina. -- china. we're lowsing jobs because we're competing for making things. you can make things anywhere. we have to create an environment where we can not only create the new technologies, the new microphones, cameras, the are. newspaper ipads, whatever they we're creating all this new technology but not making that technology here, by and large. so we're seeing a lot of wealth accumulate but not trickle down to the blue-collar folks. you see it in the unemployment rate, 4.4 for college educated but over 10% for blue collar workers. folks at the bottom of the income scale don't rise as fast as we used to. there are many european countries that have more income mobility than we do now.

why? because government lost that base. if you want someone who is going to help blue collar america and going to go into michigan, into wisconsin, into ohio and missouri iowa and get votes across the board to be able to take on president obama and his elitist policies of government knows best and we're going to tax rip people so we can make a dependent grown people on the federal government who won't pay taxes but get government benefits, that's the model of obama. it's not my bo model. it's not the american model. it is speckly un-american. ladies and gentlemen, we have a chance not only to do something for the economy, we have to do something right politically for us to win this election. that's why i need your hip.

-- help. i need help. i need your help to go out there on caucus day. i'm getting all this, you see we have a few cameras today -- getting all this attention because the people of iowa seem to be moving in our direction because of the message i've been delivering. i talk about faith, family, and freedom. i actually changed this, but we didn't have enough money to reprint the poster. to faith plus family equals freedom. we're not going to be a free people, a strong economy, unless we have families who are together to nurture children in faith and virtue and morality so we can have limits government and free people. [applause]

our economy will not be strong unless the foundation and right there are the foundations of this economy. right now we have to understand that the economy is weak. i was talking with chuck colson earlier today and we were talking about this very issue and chuck said to me, you know, he said almost everybody in prison, almost all of them, these men in prison are there because this has broken down. they didn't have dads in their life. you know our prison population has increased 10 times, 10 1975. times who -- what it was in we had a little over 200,000 people in jail. we now have over two million in jail. you chart the increase in the prison population with the decrease, what's happened in the last 30 years? the last 30 years, report just came out a couple weeks ago.

30 years ago, the percentage of people married over age 18 in america was 71%. today it's 51%. as the family breaks down, we have to build more prisons and as long as the family breaks down, we're going to continue to build more prisons and we're going to be less free. ladies and gentlemen, this is what's at stake. we have a president who specifically rejects this. president of the united states that was on bill bennett's show the other morning, his radio program, he was talking about his wife elaine who runs a program called best friends, which is a program that focuses in on young girls to try to keep them from having children and they, a big part of their program is abstinence. they've now been informed bit obama administration that you can't talk about abstinence,

can't use that word anywhere, because of course who are we to impose our values on these young girls? aboutly, you can't talk marriage. you can't say wait until marriage, because marriage is one of a variety of different lifestyles, none of which is better than the other. i hear this all the time from the left. santorum, quit imposing your values on us. what's that? their values are just secular values that are antithetical to the basic foundation of our country. they're imposing their morality, but that's ok because not based on any biblical principles. ladies and gentlemen, this is the crossroads of american

civilization in this election. the people of iowa have the opportunity to strike the first blow. i ask you to strike the blow for someone who understands these foundational principles, who's got a track record of going out and fighting and winning not just elections but these principles. winning in washington, d.c. on that's why i ask for your vote today and i'd be happy to take your questions. [applause] how do you like the iowa state vest? pretty good? i was over at a sports bar and sporting that. i'll be at another establishment tonight and my guess is i'll have a plaque and gold vest on the plaffer ha -- [laughter] just so you know i am absolutely nonpartisan in that regard.

>> hi. thanks for being here and thank for putting in all the time in our state. you deserve it. my question is about national service programs like amer i corps and senior corps. it helps out really well known nonprofits like habitat for humanity and teach more america -- i see you nodding so i know you know what i'm talking about. right now hundreds of iowans work in the community, mentoring chirns -- children, helping out with habitat. recently i helped out in hamburg with the flood recovery there and was very beloved. wondering if you would be interested in strengthening these types of programs. >> yeah, i was someone who was a very ardent supporter of these -- opponent of these

programs for a long time. i actually engaged then in -- the the senator i defeated when i became u.s. senator, he was appointed the head of americorps. harris wofford. he reached out and said i know you're a strong opponent of this but can we work together to reform this program so it can be more broadly accepted within the correct me if i'm wrong -- congress? and so i did. i worked with him and we took it out of what was really just another government program that supported government agencies to a program that did work primarily with nonprofit organizations and tried to be a value-add. my concern with this and with a lot of these programs in washington, d.c. doctor washington, d.c. right now is

not that there aren't some very valuable and important programs being done in washington, d.c. and some that actual hi work reasonably well, but is it the role of the federal government to do this when you are running a $1.2 trillion deficit? ien we're going to cut as have said $5 trillion, there are going to be a lot of programs that have a lot of waste and inefficiency that have every reason to be cut and have to go. and there are going to be programs like the e -- ame river. i corps program that you could argue benefit a lot be things but we just don't have the resources. why? this isn't something that needs level. to be done at the federal this could be done at the state or local level and we don't need to have the federal government involved in things that can be done at a lower level. the point you make yourself is that they work with folks at the lom level.

-- local level. the states could do that. the localities could do that if it's a value program that does in fact help the local community orp state, i would make the argument that they pick up this idea and use it. it's not that i think necessarily it's a bad program. there are a lot not things that go on in washington you could say this is well run. it does -- just doesn't need to be done at the federal level. it's not the function of the federal government to do it. anyone who thinks you can just go in there and slash and cut and there are things that aren't going to be cut, it's . simply not true. we have to look of the deficit we are in and the effect it will have on the future of our country. not only do we get rid of programs that are not essential, we have to get rid of programs

that may be worthwhile but do not belong at the federal level. i would make the argument this is one of them. >> if we cut them, we will build more prisons like you said. the strengthen the family. >> i appreciate that. i think that are more foundation always we can encourage family unification. >> what do we need to do to get back to where government is working again and there is less of the victory of-- vitriol?

question was, they were able to work together with bob dole in napthe 1980's that work then ad cannot work now? we are dealing with a different situation in washington. tip o'neill and bob dole were able to work together on a lot of things. both sides were willing to compromise. the problem was with the compromise was. until the welfare reform bill of 1996, what we had was republicans compromising on doing less of what the democrats wanted to do. i used to call republicans to democrats. if the republicans wanted to do something -- instead of saying,

this is the wrong thing to do, we need to put this back into the private sector. it was always grow in government, but less so. that has been the case for decades in america. one caveat was welfare reform, which i was the author of. i was on the ways and means committee. i was the ranking member of the subcommittee that had responsibility over welfare. i was charged by newt gingrich to draft a bill, which i did. ultimately, i came over to the united states senate through a quirk of events and banished to sponsor the bill in the united states said. of growing government, other way around. we said we would do things the we would shrink government. we block granted this program and the entitlements. 82 families -- aid to dependent families with children -- that as much as children with mothers working did.

we said we would capet and freeze the funding and give it to the state. the money to the states. we had two -- cap it and give putting time limits on welfare and putting a work requirement on welfare. what did we compromise on? they vetoed it twice. the left was going apoplectic. the left was absolutely going berserk. clinton continued to veto it. the fall of 1996 rolled around and bob dole was beating him over the head for not passing

welfare reform because he promised to do so. what did clinton do? he made a deal. he made the deal to add a little bit of money on day care and transportation to get folks to work and we passed the bill. he signed it bank. we got seven democratic votes to direction. move government in another except for that, we do not have major accomplishments for government. shrinking the federal now we have a group in washington, thankfully as a result of the next election. we have candidates running for president who are saying, no more. we are not going to compromise on doing less of what the democrats want to do and call that a good compromise. in the last couple of years, you have blown the door is open on expanding government. now we are saying the era of big government is over. that was a line then un.

-- lie then. make it stick. under rick santorum, we will we -- make it stick. will make sure that the compromises you have to have are less of what you want to do, which is shrinking government. we are going to propose $5 trillion. we will take program after program and we are going to cut those programs. we are going to change things. the reason we cannot get compromise is because republicans are saying enough. we are not doing this anymore. the media pulls their hair out. what happens to the good old days? what happens to the good old days is we are tired of doing more bigger and bigger and bigger government and more taxes and spending and bigger and bigger deficits. we are not going to do it. there are fundamental disagreements.

we finally have enough conservatives and the public is realizing, what have we done? that is why we need a leader who is willing to go out and be honest with the american public about the problems we face so we can start to make some big changes in washington, d.c. it we reelect president obama, that will not happen. if we elect someone who does not have a clear vision and a track record of being a strong, courageous conservative, washington and will roll them like they have rolled presidents in the past. that will not happen under my watch. [applause] anybody else? go ahead. >> i am curious about some

things you said a while ago about the things going on. would you explain to us what happens? you were being accused of voting for a lot of pork. i would like an explanation for that. >> the question is, adversaries in the process have noticed that my poll numbers have ticked up so they are starting to level the attacks. the question is about pork barrel spending. let's walk through this. tax dollars are sent from iowa and every other state to washington, d.c. the senators -- in the constitution it says who has the power to appropriate funds. congress does. we appropriate that binds. we appropriated funds. we are levying taxes. we are not going to appropriate

funds and give it to the present and let him spend it any time he wants. does that sound and reasonable? -- unreasonable? i do not think so. people railed against earmarked. earmarks were not the problem. congress can allocate resources. you make sure resources get allocated back to pennsylvania for things you believe are important for your state. that was the case for a long time. what happened is that there were abuses as spending exploded. they tied the abusive earmarked spending bills. to the voting for bigger this became the watchword. you were either against earmarks or you work for big spending. i said, fine, let's end earmarks. the person who was the big ender of inearmarked, jim demint, for the first years of

his term, he had earmarks, too. at some point, we said we have got to stop this. i agreed and have agreed in this campaign to do so. for governor perry to point out that this was some egregious practice and that congress actually spent money when he hired lobbyists to get money for the state of texas through earmarks, this shows a little bit of hypocrisy. i apologize. i said, look at my earmarks. look at the ones i advocated 4. -- for. i will not take responsibility in every bill. look at the things i advocate for. i am proud of the fact that we

put some things in there. there was one example. it was four or five years in the defense department budget. i advocated for money for something called the institute for engineering. it was in my home town. it was the regenative medicine for growing back fingers and spines. a lot of our troops were coming back badly hurt and having great damage in their bodies. many of these soldiers, without the medicine we have a bill now would not have made it. people were able to survive horrible injuries at war. there was this technology available that could help restore some functions that could be there.

i went to the army and i said, you have to find this. they said, we don't have the money, you have to fund this. i kept as it for four years. now there is a huge program. folks are getting much better care and much better treatment and doing much better as a result of this. sometimes bureaucracy is wrong. sometimes they make a bad mistake. sometimes congress has to step in and say, we are going to do things differently. earmarks, yes. they were abused and we should end them. we cannot trust the bureaucracy to make the right call. i know it is not the most popular thing to say. for a president, it is easy. i get to spend all of the money

because congress does not have the chance to do so. the right thing to do is to listen to the people in the community, listen to members of congress and see what they have to suggest and recommend on what might be a better way to spend that money. i will not approve earmarks, but i will listen to congress and what their recommendations are. sometimes the chuck grassley knows better about what to spend in iowa than a bureaucrat in washington, d.c. [applause] yes, sir. >> i am a former marine. i brought to my 12 year old daughter here tonight. what can you do to make sure she is not deployed? >> what can we do to make sure

america is strong and to make sure we finish the job and that we protect our values throughout the world with all the relationships we have? in particular, i believe if we do not deal with the situation is particularly with iran right now, there is a much higher probability that not only will your children be deployed somewhere, but your children are likely to be harmed in this country. if we do not stop iran, the greatest purveyor of terror in the world today, from having a nuclear shield that will protect them from being attacked, you will see terror explode not just in the middle east, but around the world. iran has systematically attacked this country. they continue to do so. you say, what do you mean? iran has been at war with the united states since 1979. they captured the hostages, as

you recall. the parallels with this president and jimmy carter are eerily similar. you see iran developing a nuclear weapon now. during the carter administration hostage crisis. the iranian revolution and the america was led by a president who was frozen, feckless, unable to deal with crises on his lap. here we have barack obama, where his own party passed a tough sanctions bill, obama frozen, unable to act, afraid to upset anybody. he refuses to impose those sanctions. this is a parallel that is startlingly apparent. we need a president to come in

as reagan came in. our enemies knew that what we said we would follow through with. barack obama has said that iran would not get a nuclear weapon. he has done nothing to stop them from getting a nuclear weapon. they are running military exercises. what is the president doing? the iranians tried to kill the saudi arabian ambassador on our own soil? what was president obama's response? iranian are killing our men and women in uniform in afghanistan today, supplying ied's to the rebels in afghanistan. ladies and gentlemen, they are developing a nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver it. what is the president of the united states doing? playing golf in hawaii.

he is afraid that if we upset iran it will hurt oil production and hurt the economy. let me assure you, mr. president, iran with a nuclear weapon will hurt the economy a lot more. he is helping iran will not develop a nuclear weapon between now and november. he is afraid to do anything that chances. will hurt his reelection he is -- hoping that iran is unable to get a nuclear weapon so he can get elected. the sadness that i feel deep inside for our country, that we have a leader that does not have the courage to protect our country, does not have the

courage to do what he says he wants to do, which is stop them from getting a nuclear weapon. he is frozen for his own political gain. if you want to protect your daughter and protect men and women in this country and around the world who are deployed, the best thing we can do is to adopt those congressional sanctions, work with the pro-democracy movement, tell scientists around the world working on the iranian nuclear program that we will treat you just as an al qaeda member, an enemy combatants. we will use covert activities. iran has said repeatedly that of israel. they want to destroy the state of israel, . to say that unless you open up those facilities, unless you begin the process of disbanding would you have built, we will

use whatever means to do so with air strikes. that is action that backs up the policy. that is what presidents are supposed to do. [applause] >> my question is, how is your stance on abortion different candidates? than your fellow republican -- how are you going to draw in that conservative voted? >> the principle difference is a question of leadership. there are a lot of candidates who are running and who check the box and say i am pro life and i am against its embryonic stem cell research. you can go through the list. most of them now are saying --

mitt romney was openly pro- choice at one point. now he has decided that he is be against abortion. going to be a conservative and i welcome him to the team. the question is, do you feel comfortable going out there and advocating for the culture of life? number 2, are you going to lead an advance the culture of life? if you look at the track record, we have the best track record of actually doing both of those things. there are few candidates to go around and talk about the things i talk about, who talk about the importance of the foundation all rights of our country, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. they say life begins at conception. i do not believe life begins at conception.

i know life begins at conception. [applause] it is a biological fact. we concede ground when we use terms that sound like a belief or an article of faith instead of a description of a biological fact. that is what we need. we need someone who is going to go out and beat unapologetic in laying out the truth to the american public not only on family life, but on all the issues we are dealing with. this is the most critical time in our country's history, economically, morally, culturally, national security. the reason president obama has divided this country is that he has not told the truth to this country. he hides the ball. he plays games. he puts groups against one

another. it is a political chess game. i get a lot of critics who have been calling me at our town hall meetings. they say, santorum has not figured out what it means or what it takes to be president. he gives these long answers. he actually describes the problem and tries to bring people along to the solutions instead of crisp sound bites that the media can cover and that will get him attention and he will look like a leader. i do not want to look like a leader. i want us to lead. if you are a leader as a president, you have to motivate the american public. the best way to do that is to be truthful, to lay out the

problems and say, here are the problems that we have. what are we going to do to join and solve our problems? together and solve those it is hard enough to get the american public to join as divided as we are. there are common things we can agree on. one of those, things we should agree on are the basic foundational principles of our country based on the declaration of independence. do you, as an american, believe as an article of american civic religion that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. do we still believe that? [applause] if we still believe that, at the heart of american

exceptionalism, that dictates a certain course of action. if everyone is in doubt by -- guigod, not any god, but the god of isaacs, abraham, and jacob, to the right of life, and that is something we need to have. what comes with freedom? freedom and responsibility. freedom is not an open checkbook to write whenever check you actions you want. -- want, to perform whatever some who run for president be the freedom is to do whatever you want to do. freedom to use drugs, as long as you are not hurting anybody

else, just do it. i call that no-fault freedom, freedom without responsibility. we cannot long last as a country with people going around irresponsible. living lives that are not -- responsible. freedom comes with the responsibility to do not what you want to do, but what you ought to do. that is the freedom of our founders gave us. if you look at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, happiness in the karnak either -- vernacular today has a different meaning has a different meaning than it did at the time of our founding. happiness is enjoyment, pleasure, what makes you feel

good, what makes you happy. at the time of our founders, one of the principal definitions was to do the morally right thing. think about what our founders envisioned, the freedom to do the morally right thing. rights given to us from ggod to serve him and his will. can we get americans to agree on that or not? i would think that the vast majority of americans would agree with those foundational principles. how do we build upon that? we build a culture of life. we tried to do so with those foundational principles in mind, of freedom, freedom to do what you should do, not what you want to do. yes?

go ahead. >> i would like to know what you are going to do about immigration on the border of mexico and the dangers of the drug lords have cost down there and the killings that are going . on the mexican border? >> i believe we are a country of laws. we should enforce the laws of our country. if you look at the situation in america today, we have a law that say the border should be secure. according to the general 42% secured. border is if you have a fence 42% around your property, do you feel secure? it is either secure or is not secure. we should get a border that is

secure. i do not mean we need to build a fence. there is private property that you have to have the personnel, the technology and the physical barriers to a coppers 100% -- accomplish 100% security. that is in the best interests of our country. we need to execute that and as i will. number 2, there are laws about coming to this country legally. newt gingrich said that if you are in this country for x number of years, we will not break up your country and you have lived here a long time and we should not break up families who have lived here for all these years. if you have been here for 25 years and he said you have been working and be breaking the law. productive, you have been you are not allowed to work here if

you are here illegally. you probably steal somebody's -- stole someone's social security number. you are talking about continual violations. we have families who have been in this countries for 25 years. if they break the law and if it is a serious enough laws to break, you get separated from your family and you are sent to jail. so we do not send anyone to jail who has a family. would that be against our family values? no, there is justice. when people do something wrong, there is justice that has to be meted out. we are not sending them to jail. we are sending them home. the majority of people who come to this country illegally are from central and south america and from mexico. mexico has a faster growing economy now than the united states.

i would just say that i am is a first-generation american. my father and grandfather came to this country. my grandfather came in 1925. he came after serving in world war i. he some selene come to power. -- mussolini come to power. he said he was not going to live in a country where poverty -- the government tells people to their lives. he worked in the coal mines until he was 72 years old. he wanted to go to a country who believe in him. he made sacrifices. he left his family for five years, earned his citizenship,

and brought them over. there are people right now who leave their families behind because america is worth the sacrifice. it is nothing against immigrants. it is not trying to be hostile or mean. it is just try to be fair and try to make sure we maintain ourselves as a country of laws. [applause] anybody else? out here in the peanut gallery. cheap seats? >> i want to thank you for coming here today. the question i have for you is, there has been a federal takeover of education in the last few years. i was wondering if you have any specific plans in taking on the federal takeover of education

and would that include appealing no child left behind and abolishing the department of education -- include repealing no child left behind and abolishing the department of education? >> i have been a strong, consistent conservative. i use the term consistent, not perfect. i would not claim i am perfect in all of my votes. the 1 vote i look back on and wish i had not cast -- i was not a big proponent of this bill. it was one of the bills i voted 4. i am convinced it was not the -- it was one of the bills i voted for. i am convince it was not the right thing to do. it gave us some incentive to try to make local and state government to propose changes in the way we educate our

children. it has been a bureaucratic mess. it has been a huge cost. it has been an enormous amount of growth in the federal government. the federal share of education went from 3% to 11%. the paper and the mandates and the government control from washington, d.c. has been a disaster and something we should get rid of. i would propose the repeal of no child left behind. [applause] i would say we need to replace income -- we need to replace it with a system to focus on the customer of the education system. who is the customer of the education system? the parent. why are the parents the customer of the education system? because they are the ones

responsible for educating their children. we have this idea that government is responsible for educating children. they are not. you are responsible, as parents, to educate your children. the government is there to help you, not take the job from you. does the government, in any real way, cooperate with you in educating your children? no, they do not. you either take the offering the government provides for you, or take your children somewhere else to be educated. we have seven children. elisabeth and john id two oldest. they were such good kids that we wanted to have more. elisabeth and john are the two oldest. home schooling is hard, but freedom is hard. it takes a lot more work than if you are willing to hand off to someone else to do for you. we send our kids to schools and we send our kids to different schools. why? because elizabeth learns differently than sarah maria

does. we were fortunate enough to be able to have that choice. why doesn't every american parent have that choice? because the bureaucracy says you do not. they say, take the money and do with it what we say. with any business in america survive with that attitude? with any business or by its

they said, this is what you get -- which any business survive if it said, this is what you get. did you do not like it, go somewhere else. we need an education system where the federal government gets out of it and the president in powers parents to take the responsibility of educating children and working with administrators to give every child the best chance to get the kind of education that will lead them to be successful academically. this is the other problem with education. focuses on the narrow area of academics. not spirituality or character or other things that help form a well-rounded child. they are left out of the education process in most cases

in america. why would we not want our children to get a complete, a full education so they can be not just academically achievers, but good decent moral people. what is the problem with customized education? the problem is we have leaders who have not fought, leaders who have not tried to rally the american public. you have my commitment. i will not impose any solutions on this country. i will rally parents to demand the kind of solutions they want for their children. [applause] how many more questions do we have? 1, 2, 3. three more questions. we will start with the peanut gallery. yes, sir. >> i am a believer of states rights.

i did not hear the answer about what you would do about the department of education. would there be departments that would be more properly administered by the states? >> what i would do with the department of education is i would take -- i get a kick out of people saying, i will delayed this department that department. if we eliminate the energy department, there is a whole body of bills or acts that the energy department executes. say we get rid of the energy department. who is going to implement these bills? we cannot have laws on the books and not enforce them. the idea that we are going to eliminate the energy department is the list. we would just shipping them to someone else. you do not eliminate the department, you eliminate the functions of the department.

when i talk about the department of education, you did not hear me say i would eliminate the department of education. eliminate the federal government control over primary and secondary education. there are things that the department of education does, some of which i agree on getting rid of. fisa i will eliminate education, you get the impression that you do not -- if i say i will eliminate education, you get the impression that i do not care about education. if you say, i will get rid of this department, everyone is asking about it. let's talk about my decision for taking a lot of federal programs and putting them back on the states. the biggest ones are means tested entitlement programs. there are 72 different means tested entitlement programs, the most expensive of which is

medicaid. the next is food stamps, housing programs, training programs, and a long list after that. what i would suggest is that one by one by one, we do exactly what i did with welfare. block grant them, send them to the states, put a requirement of work and a time limit and give the states the flexibility to design a program. when we did this with welfare in 1996, across the river, the mississippi, in wisconsin, welfare rolls went down 92%. people were transitioned off. we got them to work. newt gingrich said poor people cannot seem to learn the work ethic. then he talked about the great work he did on welfare.

obviously, he does i know what great work he did on welfare. what we did on welfare was put poor people to work. lot of folks went to work who were on welfare who were making minimum-wage and slightly above and were still considered working poor. but they were working. when did gingrich says, kids do not see mother working our parents working, that is not true. single mothers work really hard to do the job of two people in a household. unfortunately, they have a failure rate. you would expect that because it is really hard. what do we need to do with our means tested entitlement programs is give back to the states and help them design programs that transition people out of welfare, transition them out of poverty, and give them

the opportunity to rise in society. the one thing our states should be able to do is go out and talk about the things that are necessary for children to stay out of poverty. there was a 2009 brookings institute study. it was done by a guy working with me when i developed to the welfare bill. i always say two things. the third thing is obvious. you do three things in your life. you will have almost a zero chance to be in poverty in america. one is obvious. you have to work. it cannot stay out of poverty if you do not work. what does the other two things? graduate from high school. not college. a graduate from high school. what is the third thing?

what did you say? i heard it over here. get married. you get married before you have children, graduate from high school, and work, the chances of being in poverty in america is 2%. the chance you will be above median income, 77%. do you want the key to success in america? work, a graduate from high school, get married before you have children. we have the federal government telling young girls that they cannot talk about marriage and a cannot talk about having children out of wedlock. why would we tell children or fail to tell children -- or nurtured them with the ticket to avoid being poor. maybe we do not care if they

are poor. or maybe it's worse than that. this is the brookings institute. this is a liberal think tank. we need a leader who is willing to be honest with the american public. tell the truth and lead this country in a direction that is consistent with our values, which made this country the greatest country in the world. [applause] >> senator santorum, it is so predictable that when conservative candidates -- whether they are governors or any kind of executive -- says we are going to make these necessary cuts -- our national debt is unfathomable. it boggles the mind.

every single time, we have seen at the state level or the federal level, somebody immediately said, you cannot cut this because you are not compassionate or you are going to put people out on the street. you cannot cut this because this is important. every single group does that. up until now, for the most part, we caved. they say, obviously, we cannot cut back. we are seeing -- are seen as not being compassionate. how do we get back to saying, no, i will take this away from

you so that you can get it back. that is the pioneer spirit. >> we need to start telling the narrative of who we are and reminding us. the president has to provide a vision. hopefully, you have got from this discussion where i want to go, what kind of america i want to live in. are we still the country that believes in the founding principles and the declaration of independence and the country that builds the government that structured a country that build the greatest country in the world? do you still believe in that america. president obama does not. if you read his speech in america and listen to -- and see what he is doing and he believes that america never works and needs to be fundamentally restructured. that is why you see little

accommodation. we start out at two different point. the president thinks america is fundamentally flawed. traditional families and free enterprise is a failure. it is wrong, it is broken. and that we have a different model that works. it is hard to find compromise. this is why this election is so important. which merited do you believe? do you believe the narrative -- which now are tens -- which narrative do you believe? do you believe we should be like the rest of the world? smart people should manipulate the market place and dictate to

folks how to run their firms and how to run their businesses because they know better and they are best to allocate resources. i will use two quotes, one that president obama said at one that mrs. obama said. he went out and talked about all of these entitlement programs, unemployment insurance, medicare, medicaid, social security, welfare. he said america is a better country because of these commitments. he said, i will go one step further. america was not a great country before these commitments. america is not a great country because the federal government decides how much money to take from you and then distribute to other people who they believe is more worthy -- are more

worthy than you. the president of the united states did not think america was a great country until the government micromanaged your life. america was born a great country, but he does not believe that. remember what mrs. obama said during the campaign actor husband started during well -- doing well? she said, for the first time i am proud to be an american. this is who our present is. this is his vision. when he said hope and change, he meant change. he believes america is a broken model and always has been. when he went out around the world on his first trip and apologized for america -- he thought america needed to be apologized for. we need someone who believes in the narrative of american

exceptionalism and can go out and promote that. we need a big wave election. three times in american history big changes have happened in washington. one, the new deal. second, the great society. third, 2009 under obamacare and the obama administration. they were the only three times that the president, the house, and the senate where of the same party but the senate having a filibuster-proof majority in the senate to get whatever the president wanted done. republicans have never had that. they have a chance of getting that in this election. all or all of those listening on c-span, you go out into the states where there are elections this year. there are 23 democratic

senators up for election this year. we pick up 13 of those scenes -- of those seats, then you will see the kind of changes that will happen almost certainly. the better we do, the bigger the change. and the better the president we elect to be able to weave the narrative to the american public, the better chance of getting those things done. last question. >> something i would like you to expand on. >> i never have trouble expanding on things. >> how would you preserve your values when you are operating in the washington machine? >> when i served in the united states senate, people said, stop talking about your record.

i think people believe past practice is a pretty good indication of future practice. when i served in the united states senate, i was proud of the people we surround ourselves with. i had one keep a staff for 16 years. i had a staff that was as good as anybody in the united states senate. we gave them a test they had to fill out. i wanted to see what they believe and why they be the -- believed it. i wanted people who could execute based on the commander's intent. you find people who want to be in that foxhole with you and see the cause and can go out and perform those duties consistent with that cause.

that is just leadership. if you provide that personally and if you demand that of everybody else, then i think you are going to have an administration that will be faithful to the mission that i articulate it to the american public when i ran for office -- articulated to the american public when i ran for office. there is no office that had more things that it accomplished for the conservative cause on national security, on moral, cultural, and economic issues than we did in the time that i was in the united states senate. if past practice is an indication, we had a great group of people around us and they accomplished a lot for the causes that everybody around believes in. finally, to all of you, caucus

day is coming up. it is just a few days away. we have passed out a little paper. we are looking for folks to help us out. if you would be willing to sign up, there is a place for you to sign up. we are looking for caucus captains. i do not know how many caucus captains we have here. this is the piece of paper. if you could fill it out, please do. if you can sign up to be a cop is captain, that means you can go to because the site -- caucus captain, that means you can go to the site and speak. we have stickers for you to take. you can put it on your coat when you go to church or to be theyear's eve party or to grocery store. it is a conversation starter. this is the time of year when people are talking about going to be caucus. we have signs.

put it on your yard. if you find a cornerback is a good place, put it there. it is all the -- if you find a corner that is a good place, put it there. that was a joke. take signs, put a bumper sticker. you can take it right off after the caucus and put it back when i come back to campaign in the fall. help us out. this is the important election in your lifetime. we have to defeat what is going on in washington, d.c. right now. iowa casts the first vote. you send a signal to the nation. send it loudly, strongly. our founders, at the end of the declaration, said, we pledge our lives, our fortune, and our sacred oath. the four tent part -- on the back of -- the fortune part is on the back of this card.

you can take a little box. i know this is the season of giving. i cannot think of any better gift you can give to your children and grandchildren and to the grandchildren you may not even know of that to step up at this point in time in american history and giving your all to make sure you keep this country free and safe and prosperous. thank you, god bless you, happy new year. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011]

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> i want to help you. >> thanks. >> i have to get a picture of that steeler guy. >> would you mind taking a picture? i would appreciate it. >> your finger is in the way. >> is anybody better at this than i am? >> thank you very much. >> i appreciate your help. >> excellence speech. thank you very much.

>> where do you live? you can help us in south carolina. good to see you. thank you. help us out. i should probably get out of the way. >> would you mind taking a picture? great. thank you so much. >> does that work? >> yep. thank you. >> i have a rick perry sign in my yard. it is coming down and yours is going up. >> thanks for coming.

>> thank you. >> rick, we have a young republican here. he needs to take your picture back to third grade. >> you have got to be kidding me, sir. >> 1, 2, 3. best of luck to you. we are with you. >> keep your promise to come back in the fall. >> thanks for the help.

>> now on the road to the white house, republican presidential candidate newt gingrich at a town hall meeting at the coffee house in the morning. the former house speaker sat down to talk about issues important to mothers. cafemoms a large online community for mothers hosted the discussion. this is a little more than an hour. >> i am starting? welcome, everybody. how are you doing? [applause] first off, how many of you only

have one job? how many have two children, raise your hands? who has four or more? wow. who has five or more. how many kids do you have? how old are your children? thank you very much for being here. this is important. this is the first time that cafemom has brought together a group of moms that will decide the election. i cafemom has been able to bring together a group of moms. you care more than the average american. this is your opportunity to ask the presidential candidates direct questions that will affect your parents, your kids, your families, your career, everything. cafemom has brought this

together to give you a chance to be heard. in the end, what they decide to do over the next four or eight years will affect your son and the people like you. i want to point out our mom in uniform. thank you for being here. [applause] >> hello, everyone. i'm with the number-one mom site on the internet. there are a lot of people out there who are eager to hear what you have to say. one of the things we have noticed is that while we see your policies and plans on the news, we want to get to know who you are personally. i see you brought your family here. >> my wife, callista, is here. [applause]

one of my two favorite daughters, kathy is right here. my other favorite daughter jackie is right here. and my grandson robert is right here. jump up. and my granddaughter maggie. maggie has been campaigning with her this week and she brought her friend. >> you are very close with your daughters, by all accounts, and your grandchildren. >> they are my two favorites. [laughter] >> i read you talk to your father every day. that is a rare bond. how have you maintained that personal connection with them as adults, and with your grandchildren? >> i think you have to work at it.

you have to put in the time and the effort and the conversations and go on vacation, be together to solve problems, try to do things -- we get together and say, what kind of life do you want to have? we want them to have a great life. >> now that you are a grandparent, in hindsight, what do you wish you'd done in different as a father when your girls were growing up? >> my daughters are so terrific. it would have been great not to a been divorced in a different world, to a been able to talk more openly and to solve some of our problems more openly than we did. all three of us worked through it. i do nothing to was a single

week when we were not aware of each other and tried to do things together. they both have become tremendous. callista and i have enormous pride. jackie's doing a great job. kathy has been tremendous. she has sat arthritis since she was 25. she now walks marathons. watching her life and with a husband. jimmy is here. these are my two son-in-laws. >> which one you like better? -- which one do you like better? [laughter] >> these are my two favorite son a loss. >> jimmy is an atlanta falcons fan. the other is a green bay packers shareholder.

we do own one share of stock. we love atlanta and we loved jimmy. >> these moms talked with great in trepidation about the future. i will ask for a show of hands. how many are you afraid that your children when not have the same quality of life that you had when they grow up? this is something that the president can do something about. " -- do -- what would you do so the next generation will have a better? >> i tell audiences that i did not ask anyone to be for me. i think that i am less confident than frank is.

i think presidents can have an impact. ronald reagan was effective because he could communicate clearly with the american people, and the american people communicating clearly with congress. so i think it has to be a team effort. if we don't have profound change in washington, we're heading towards decay. i do not want to leave maggie and robert a country which is poor, weaker, and in more danger than the country that our parents worked and fought to give us. we have to have a whole new approach to politics and have a willingness to deal with large

solutions and to do with together and to bring people together to solve things. i think it can be done. you can go to newt.org. it takes a fair number of ideas to get the country back in shape, and that's what this country is all about, setting a path to create jobs, national growth, and reassert the core values and start with the declaration of independence. if you could get right the economy, national security, and the core values, this would be a remarkably successful country, and you could feel good about what you're leaving your children with. >> you gave a general response. what are your three prioities? >> you have to fix the economy. i had an endorsement from the man that developed the reagan plan.

we created millions of jobs. we did the same thing when i was speaker. >> cutting taxes for everybody? >> i know how to create jobs. the best thing you could do is to get every poor person a job. [applause] if they have a job --if they start getting better education, they will fix redistribution because they will rise and their children will be better off than they were. it teaches everybody that is successful to leave the country. that's the big difference. i would have a lot less

regulations. an informant a protection agency -- a town will have to double its electricity rates to meet the requirements. senior citizens where their coat all day because they cannot afford to heat their houses. there are bureaucrats in d.c. to of no idea where we are. this is the first female mayor of a town and she worries about the people of for town. -- of her town. i think you need an american energy program. i am in favor of ethanol and by a diesel fuels. i pick south dakota or iowa.

i like us to become so energy independent that no american president has to bow to a saudi king. [applause] >> we were talking about the environment. that is an issue that is near and dear to many moms. i have many friends whose children cannot go outside and play in the summertime because they have asthma. that is a big issue in atlanta. what we do to insure that the air is clean and the water is clean? >> we should put in perspective where we are. i taught environmental studies and i taught at the second birthday -- second earth day.

when i was teaching, the caliber river -- cuyahoga river caught fire. so i'm for cleaning things up. but after cleaning them up, i would not lobby the epa to crush -- it would kill several million more jobs. iowa is a perfect example. you produce more electricity from wind than any place on the planet except denmark. it has been successful. nobody has complained. this is a piece of the future, not the whole future.

>> we have our first question. >> kinnick. they are laughing because he is named after the heisman trophy winner. [applause] -- [laughter] >> if this was chicago, he would be voting. >> wait. your husband went to iowa state? >> i went to iowa. [laughter] i wasn't -- i am a public school teacher and teach at the local high school. i do have some difficulty with some of the things that they are doing. how would you handle education and the teachers' union? i have a huge problem with how

they are handling teacher security. i see young teachers losing their jobs and all the teachers that are taking up space and stay because they have been there for a while. >> most education should be at the local level, not washington. i taught a long time ago in a public high school and at college. i think that we should reduce the bureaucracy in washington dramatically and reduce the red tape and bring things back home not just to des moines but all the way back to county offices and to local schools. we should empower parents lot more with the proviso that we need discipline in the school and we need to reestablish the principle that students should obey teachers and that we go back to the all-time model that said if you're in trouble with

your teacher, you are in trouble with your parents. [applause] the nisei something -- let me say something about the teachers union. i would encourage every state to adopt a program that was competitive with the teachers' union so you could choose to pay it direct and you would not have to be a union member. in a lot of states, the protectionism and artificially large number of participants. i believe the purpose of schools is to educate children. i did something lesser that some people thought was daring and other opponents would say it was zany.

i went with the rev. al sharpton and we went around talking about charter schools. in inner-city philadelphia and in a meeting where every official is black, i have no standing. i'm a southern republican conservative. but al sharpton had a lot of standing. he said, don't tell me you will back a bad teacher and ruin children. aery child's right to be in room and learning from a teacher who is confident with their parents involved, and we have to sell this. -- and we have to solve this. if you're not ready to get rid of bad teachers, you will love lost the moral authority in teaching our children.

>> thank you for being here. i appreciate your specific answers. that is what i'm looking for today. what is your strategy in a general election -- no canned answer. please be as specific as you can. [laughter] >> the pain of thinking that -- [laughter] look, i have helped design campaigns for a long time. my father was stationed and i worked at the nixon campaign as a volunteer. this room is bigger than the georgia republican party in 1960. i could not win. when i started there were no federal elected officials. my children were used as child

labor because they were handing out brochures. "this will be fun." some more around the seventh grade, they had friends and did not want to go. so i've had experience my whole life. i work with the reagan campaign in 1980. he was a former democrat. george w. bush was behind in may and we had to get independents and democrats. we have the largest one-point increase, 9 million votes. you have to be positive. independents and democrats hated partnership. we had a positive campaign. i would run on big issues.

i'm running to the american president. 79% of the country wants an american energy plan. over 90% of the country believe our rights, from our creator and that we should honor and respect that. over 90%. president obama has been the most successful food stamp president in history. more people today on food stamps than ever before. i want to be the most successful paycheck president in history. go into any neighborhood in america, and you say, would you

rather your children have food stamps or paychecks, there is a big potential majority of democrats and independents willing to work with you. >> if you look at un mitt romney -- you and mitt romney, he runs and have you in almost every survey against barack obama. why would you be the most electable candidate against a field? >> in this point in 1979, ron reagan was running 30 points behind jimmy carter. the news media image of ronald reagan was such that he had a deficit. as the people got to know ronald reagan, it turned out he cared more states against carter

than fdr carried against herbert hoover. it is october of next year. obama has $1 billion to spend on the kind of negative advertising you have been seeing here. it comes down to a series of debates. who do you think could go on that platform against barack obama and effectively articulate your values, defend your beliefs, and communicate his failures without flinching? i want to suggest almost everybody seems to think that i'm a more effective debater than mitt romney, a more coherent conservative. i first worked with ronald reagan in 1974. i think that i can debate barack obama and begin decisively by telling the truth that the country says, we want paychecks, we do not want more

food stamps. [applause] >> i have a question about the national debt. i have a high-level of anxiety about getting obama out of the white house. please describe your plan to pay off the national debt. >> that is a good question. what you have no is a generation of politicians who plan to leave the debt to their children and grandchildren. when i became speaker, the congressional budget office projected over the next 10 years we will borrow an additional $2 trillion $70 billion. then the work surpluses of over two trillion dollar.

that's a big swing in four years and that was working with bill clinton. you control spending. start by saying how much money is coming in. >> what are you going to cut? >> you can close the department of energy tomorrow morning and you would have more energy. [applause] you could shrink the department of education and you would have more education and better loans. you can apply -- they think they can save $500 billion a year. that doesn't save everything. i think governor perry had a good idea. all foreign aid should be on the table. [applause]

there are three phases. control spending. reform the system. economic growth. we have unemployment down to 4.2%. you take people off of welfare, off of food stamps and medicaid and public housing, unemployment and get them taking care of their family and paying taxes. the biggest single step back. >> thank you for being here today. christian evangelicals believe in second chances. you have stated you're not the same person you work 20 years

ago, that you have change. convince us that the change was a fundamental change of the heart and not just political talk. how would that change died you as you serve as our nominee and president? >> i don't know that i can convince you. you have to decide whether you are convinced. i may sadder and slower person that i was 25 years ago. i thought if you just get moving fast enough, everything would work. i have learned the limitations of life. sometimes it is painful. sometimes you have to go to god for forgiveness. i don't ask people to vote on whether or not they approved of my entire life and more than other people would vote to

approve of their entire life. look to a grandfather who spent 53 years studying with this country needs and how to get it done. look at my overall record and my willingness -- i was told by a reporter 45% of the ads that been bought in the state are attacks on me. just the willingness to take that says something about which of the candidates as character and which of the candidates doesn't. i will let you decide whether the person who was been positive has more character than the one with higher guns to run those ads. >> have you sought forgiveness with those who have had issues with you? >> i tried to express my sadness about what happened.

in the case of my first wife, we had a very long relationship, which jackie has written about as probably the best i witness -- eyewitness. runningeel you're not those negative attacked ads is responsible for your drop in the polls? >> oh, sure. he's the expert. if you have $8 million, $10 million -- >> there is an attack right there. [laughter] >> i will bet ron paul is behind that curtain. [laughter] >> they may want to fix that because it looks strange on television.

i would not vote for the person they are describing. you take all those negative ads and line them up. here's my problem. i deeply believe that we should be worthy of our children and grandchildren. we'll look to them -- we owe it to them to have an honest debate. but i would be ashamed to run some of these ads they are running and i will not participate in that kind of progress. we will face some real decisions. >> you would rather lose? >> i can be a witness to america's future while sparing my opponents -- while smearing my opponents.

i would ask every iowan to ask yourself, do you want to reward negativeness, or insist on politicians with the courage to be honest. this is not some kindergarten election. we can disagree in public and take responsibility for what we're doing. we're talking in a positive way. i do not want a contrast with ron paul on foreign policy. there will be principal positions that you have seen. the attack ads are false.

>> i have a broad question. living in a democracy, i feel like we're losing that. we have the so much special interest and anybody that has a sore toe, we are to pay attention to them except what the majority wants. >> you put your finger on something that's bigger than politics. a culture that loses the work ethic and loses the sense of responsibility is hopeless. we have to confront how serious that is. i am committed to re- establishing that we are in doubt about our creators with certain unalienable rights.

i remind people pursuit is active. [applause] i will tell you a funny story. children that sometimes grow up in families where nobody is working. it would make sense to of jobs in local schools that paid that a bit and give them some responsibilities. new york city janitor's earn more than new york city teachers. they have contracts for how little they are supposed to do. a great example union power that makes no sense at all. for one janitor, you could hire 30 students. pay them $3000 a year. give them a connection to the school that keeps them from dropping out. have them learn habits like show up for work, it is your money, here is how you budget

it. people on the left one crazy. "gingrich wants to destroy children." jackie called me, laughing. she said, you never forgot the my first job at 13 was that the first baptist church cleaning out the toilets. she said she treasured every dollar she got paid because she earned every dollar she got paid. robert is not as enthusiastic about this experience as his mother. you need a president who is a cultural leader as much as they are a political leader. we have to reestablish patriotism, the work ethic, that responsibility, god endows you with rights and he expects you to be responsible in exercising those rights.

[applause] >> 12% of mothers have faith that washington gets that. how many of you have faith that washington gets it? nobody. >> i like to meet the 12%. i do not believe the elite in this country. i don't think the elites in this country have a clue. they are arrogant and lecture us and they have no standards. >> how are you going to restore confidence in the future if you're attacking the institutions that are supposed to help us feel confident in the future? >> i am cleaning them out, not attacking them.

our job is to reestablish the constitution and to insist that the congress be competent and to insist that bureaucrats remember we are citizens, they are subordinate to us. we're not subject that are supported to them. >> is congress incompetent? >> when you pass a two-month extension of a minor tax cut and go home claiming victory -- this is the most irresponsible washington i can remember in my lifetime. >> congress is led by republicans, including people who served as part of your leadership. >> this is an anti-team.

the sum of the whole is less than the individual parts. very confident and very smart people get in a room together and collapse. i'm not saying this happily. i would love to be a partisan republican. the whole country is say mess and the whole country will be faced with huge challenges. this is part of what i am so angry about the negative commercials. we need a presidential campaign that is an honest discussion about how we can fix our country and we cannot do that when consultants are throwing mud. you have to think about what kind of campaign we want because we will end up with the same kind of election and next year will be worse and the future will therefore be worse.

[applause] >> good morning. my question is three parts. if margaret thatcher was here in the united states and 30 years younger, would you consider her as a running mates? [laughter] >> one at a time. i would ask her to consider me as her running mate. [laughter] [applause] >> ok. do you have right margaret thatcher-like woman in mind? >> i think that we have to look for people who are very confident and capable and tough enough mentally to do that. i like susanna martinez, the governor of mexico. she was a prosecutor.

her husband was the deputy sheriff. she has done a fantastic job. >> would you consider condoleezza rice as a running mate? >> the only question i has is if you've never run for office, it is a different business. but she is very smart. she is one of the people you would look at in terms of sheer talent and sheer knowledge. >> thank you. >> our national survey shows that moms tend to be more conservative, they do agree with the occupy wall street sentiment that government and business operate to the benefit of the 1% and that they are part of the 99%. what do you have to say to the armchair occupiers? >> the genius of the american

system is you could have a huge impact by calling into talk radio, voting, the kind of questions you asked candidates. the federal reserve has spent trillions of dollars in secret. i want to break up fannie mae and freddie mac because they are much too big and are out of control and to wean them off of any kind of government sponsorship. the former governor of new jersey said, i don't know what happens to the billion dollars. it is confusing. is there no sense of responisibility or accountability? i talked to someone in a small

town who had some funds invested with that firm and he said it is still locked up and it is still a total mess. something is profoundly wrong. the last three years, what we did was fundamentally wrong because it protected the big at the expense of middle class americans. >> next question. >> thank you. you said you would use executive power to overturn some of obama's policies. how can you be sure another president will not overturn your orders? >> an executive order operates within the law. you have pretty wide latitude. the first executive order i would sign would abolish all the white house czars. [applause]

if you elected a future left- wing president and it wanted to go in and recreate them, they could. it would take positive action on their part and it would not be very popular. ronald reagan had the mexico city policy, that no american money would go to pay for abortions overseas. you could reinstate that by executive order. there are things you can do within the law that are pretty powerful. >> do you think that the president -- using their orders to go around congress, aren't you doing the same thing? if it is not good for him, why would be good for you? >> any president uses executive order. it goes back to george washington. president obama was doing things at the margin. to be serious about it,

congress should cut off the funding. they could say that no money would be spent on the czars. the constitution is designed for that kind of checks and balances. if you think that the wagon is in the ditch, the president will do some strong things. otherwise the wagon will stay in the ditch. that is a decision the american people have to make. if they want a timid president who operates in a way that avoids the fights in washington, that is fine. nothing much will be changed. if you want someone who says there will -- and fix these things -- i would move on the first day the american embassy

from tel aviv to jerusalem. we've said to the israelis that they don't get to designate their capital. that is state department bias against israel. >> there have been focused with moms and they do have some concern that you can create even more chaos than what exists right now. take a look at the things that you said over the last eight months, there are so many things you'll do one day one, day two, day 100. couldn't create a battle every single day because of all this change -- could you create chaos? >> i do not know about chaos.

how many days should we wait for children to be trapped in a school that fails every child? how patient should we be? how much we say, those of children's lives are worth -- if you were a lifeguard and somebody fell in the river, you have to get up and dive in. that is a pretty aggressive action. ronald reagan understood action. when reagan wanted to call the soviet union the evil empire, he thought was important morally to undermine the psychology. they stuck it through the national security council.

he knew it would be opposed. he wanted to say, mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. there were fighting in as late as the morning he was delivering the speech. bold leaders want to get the country moving again. they leave a sense of anxiety around people who do not want to move. did not want to take risks or fix things. you have been in situations where you had to get it done. otherwise, it would stay a mess. if we're going to fix this, we'll have several years of rolling up our sleeves together and cleaning this out. this is like spring cleaning. some will be messy, but i think together we will get this done. >> moms are frustrated with this on willingness to compromise. can a bold leader find

solutions? >> you don't necessarily have to compromise but you have to find a way to have a win-win system. if i want to get what i need, i have to find out which you need. "i have to have this and i cannot do that." you begin to figure out, is there a formula that brings you together. senator webb and senator warner are two democrats from virginia. it would increase revenue of the government and in the state of virginia and it would increase revenue for infrastructure and land conservation.

i've been trying to convince the house republicans to pass the bill. it is not a compromise. harry reid has to say, i'm not going to let you bring up your bill. there are ways to work together. you understand each other and you figure out how to find the agreement that lets you move forward. i did it in the 1980's with ronald reagan when tip o'neill was speaker. i did it as speaker when bill clinton was president. >> i am from memphis, tennessee. what is your plan for obamacare? >> go to newt.org. i would repeal it. [applause]

then you have to replace it with a program that is more focused on doctor-patient relationships and your pharmacist and the people you rely on. government bureaucrats and the insurance bureaucrats and get doctors -- [applause] >> and replace it with what? >> a system that is much more localized and that people will have more choices. there are more regulations in health care than there are at the internal revenue service. >> do people have the right to quality health care? >> none of us want to see someone die on the streets. an amazing percent of poor

people go to emergency rooms don't have an emergency. if you put a clinic inside the emergency room door, you could save 80% of a cost by using common sense at a local level. >> thank you for coming today, mr. speaker. if there was to be a government shutdown, how would the military be affected? >> i am proud of you for wearing that uniform. >> thank you. [applause] >> my father wore uniform in the infantry.

i grew up on army bases around the world. this goes back to our conversation about how that washington is. we twice closed the government. we did not affect the military, the fbi, social security because we designed the danced to not be stupid. these guys are doing the opposite. they are trying to maximize the pain to win their way. it is bad government. i hope we will not get to that. if we did, i would introduce legislation to exempt all public safety personnel and to exempt social security so that you didn't have those engaged in the fight. we should be able to up a fight over here without crippling our institutions and leaving people that have enough to worry about. military families should not

have to worry about whether they will get their next paycheck. >> what about that paycheck? what about veterans benefits and those who are serving our country right now? >> this probably goes against the tide of the current believes in washington. you're not five years from now. you'll not that significant cuts in military spending. you cannot live in a world with china is modernizing and there are radical islamists that want to kill us. in which the north koreans have a nuclear weapon. if we cut on the most expensive military you can have, there is a cheap military-- we did decide if we will be the strongest country in the world and that would be the first duty to remain strong.

[applause] >> i don't think you're expecting the questioned or this one. i asked you to talk about a moment in your life that had an impact on your policies and on your beliefs. this is a group of moms here. i know your mother is not still with us. what do you think of we think of your mom? >> i get teary-eyed every time we sing christmas carols. excuse me. my mother sang in the choir and love singing in the choir. i don't know -- when i was

young, she made me sing in the choir, and we had pictures of me at an early age singing in the choir. identify my mother with being happy, loving life, having a sense of joy in your friends. she was in long term care facility with bipolar disease and depression and she acquires some physical ailments. that introduced me to long-term care, which ended with bob kerrey and that introduced me to alzheimer's. my emphasis on brain science comes with -- i'm getting emotional. the real problems of real people and my family. this is not a theory.

this is my mother. [applause] i do policy much easier. [laughter] >> they will be mad at me. is she was here today, would you tell her? >> here today? she would be talking to all these people. she would be telling them how nice i am. she was proud of me most of the time. >> what would you say to her? >> she spent 27 years as an army wife, and she was in a culture that valued patriotism, duty. took a risk for this country.

i would say to her that i will do everything i can as a candidate to be worthy of her. [applause] >> do you have another mom question? we have about four minutes left. i apologize. i did not mean to put you through that. >> they're helpful. >> and they are free. >> no, no, no. that's a sign you have not had children. [laughter] >> how would you like to close, knowing there are moms in this room and moms who are watching

you right now connected through cafemom? what would you tell them that they need to do and they need to hope for in going forward? >> women in general and moms in particular bear the brunt of the economy. when the economy is bad, try to figure out what to do and how to do what by mothers and women in general. that's the way culture works. mother's care and or more deeply about their children. one of the most powerful comments i've heard was a focus group that was done about national security and why people are worried about the iranian nuclear weapon. the mother said on the morning of 9/11 she had three children in three different schools and

she had to decide which one to get first. she said she would do anything to never do that again. whether you talk about the economy, security or mothers of the civilizing influence. we all get it. mothers play an enormous role in sustaining civilization. mothers understand the threat more deeply than men do. i would ask you to think about how much you love your children, how much you love your country, and help people like me figure out how to get the news media and the candidates to understand they should

participate in an election where the of our children and our country because we are in real trouble and cannot stand politics as usual. [applause] >> thank you so much. we really appreciate you joining us here in front of all of these moms, and we will be talking to more candidates in the coming weeks. you can keep tabs on what we are momsmatter2012.com.

thank you, speaker. [applause] >> thank you. [applause] >> these are his grandchildren, and if you want to come up and grab a photograph or shake hands, this is your chance to do it. yes. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> everyone, there will be a book signing just outside the theater. -- up here.

>> our coverage continues with republican presidential candidate, mitt romney, at a campaign rally at a local grocery store in the morning. you jersey governor chris christie also spoke. governor christie endorsed mr.

romney. ♪ >> just amazing. thank you guys. good to be out here in the cold, the wind, and the rain and i brought with me chris christie, the great governor of new jersey. and, of course, about the future first lady, i hope, my sweetheart, ann romney. you guys -- nobody does it

better than iowa. look at you with this rain, the cold, the wind. over 1000 people, almost 1500 people out on a morning like this. i just cannot take off my hat -- i do not have a hat on -- but i would take off if i could for your willingness to get out and see who is running for president and support those you care about and take a close look to get a sense of the character of the people looking for the highest office of the land. i believe this race is not just about replacing president obama -- as important as it is -- but it is also a race about saving the soul of america. this is a time to decide what america is going to be over the coming years, over this century, and there is nobody who has fought this battle more consistently and effectively than the governor of new jersey so i want to welcome the great governor of new jersey, chris christie. [applause] >> thank you all very much for being here this morning. thank you for coming with me to welcome the next president of the united states of america,

governor mitt romney. america is watching iowa, as we always do every four years, we are watching iowa and you will be the folks to help start this process to get us going to make sure that the republican party nominates the very best person to take on president obama in november. when you look at that stage and you watch these debates, i think you guys have come to the conclusion i have come to -- there is no person better qualified by his experience and his character, to take on barack obama and to lead the united states of america, then governor mitt romney. and this election is about our kids. it is about our kids and their future. and that is what governor romney talk about all across this country. he and ann and their family have benefited greatly from all the opportunities america has offered to them. they want the same thing for their grandchildren, and for your children. and the fight to take back the white house starts on tuesday

night and it starts here in iowa and we are counting on you to get out there. take nothing for granted. elections are decided by the people who show up and the people who vote, by the people who care about their country and not to be out here on a friday morning in iowa in the rain and cold because you love your country and you believe this man can help lead the country back to greatness. now, listen -- the fight just starts on tuesday, and it is going to continue right through november. and the president of the united states, he is going to be out here and he is going to try to tell you a story, a story that somehow america is doing better after his three years of leadership in the white house. we know that is not true. we know that is not true.

and the president is going to try to convince you somehow that he deserves to be rehired. let's be real clear -- president barack obama came out to iowa three years ago and he talked to you about hope and change. let me tell you, after three years of obama, we are hopeless and changeless, and we need mitt romney to bring us back, to bring america back. so,, thank you all for being here this morning. i am thrilled to be in iowa. new jersey is watching you, too. we are watching you really closely. so, listen, i want to tell you something. i want to tell you something really clearly. i am in a good mood this morning. i am feeling happy and upbeat. i love dealing with mitt and ann -- but let me tell you, you people disappoint me on tuesday -- [laughter] you don't do what you are supposed to do on tuesday for mitt romney, i will be back, jersey-style, people. i will be back. but i would much rather come back to iowa this fall, to come back this fall to campaign for mitt romney and to help you help him lead this country.

all you need to know is this -- i am going to be there every minute that i can possibly be to help them, because i believe in our country just as much as you do. so, everybody, thanks for coming out this morning. i appreciate it very much. and it is my extraordinary honor to introduce to you the next president of the united states of america, governor mitt romney. >> you are 1%. >> we are lucky to have him in the party and leading a great state like new jersey. this morning, i have a little someone i met in high school. i want to a party in stu white's house. i had seen this girl in elementary school but she was in the second grade and i was in the fourth grade. but when she turned almost 16, i thought she was pretty interesting. i went over to her and she had come with someone else. if i went up to him and i said, look, i live closer to ann than

you do -- why don't i give her a ride home for you? he said, ok. and we have been going steady ever since. my sweetheart. >> mitt and i are thrilled -- to see a mic that works --to see you all here. it is cold and windy. people maybe watching on television don't know. there is a brisk wind up here. thank you for coming. i want to express something to you that is deep in my heart, and that is my love of america and knowing that that is what you are here -- why you are here, too. you are not here for any other reason except that you love america. and we are concerned about the direction the country is going. and we hear you. we know what you are feeling, and we understand that there is

someone who is coming that is going to help you. and i have all the confidence in the world in this guy standing next to me. the parts i can tell you about him are the parts you might not ever hear about -- which is how he has been as a husband and a father. to me, that is what really matters. it matters. you never know what decisions are going to be made in the white house, so you really want to understand the character of a man. this is a man who stands by and does the write always. he has been with me for 42 years. we have five children, 16 grandchildren, and i trust him implicitly. and i trust that he will always do the right thing and he will do the hard thing. so, with all the confidence in the world i can recommend that this is going to be one the greatest presidents ever. the next president of the united states, mitt romney. >> thank you, sweetheart. there is an entirely unbiased

endorsement. i want you to know that. over there is a sign. it says -- in obama we trusted and now our economy is busted. you got it right, brother. the president said it could be worse -- that was his line, it could be worse. could you imagine hearing that from a president -- pessimistic present? that goes down like marie antoinette, let them in cake. he is in hawaii -- hawaii right now, and here we are out in the cold and wind -- he just finished his 90th round of golf. we have 20 million americans out of work, stopped looking, underemployed. home values have come down. the median income in america and the last four years has dropped by 10%. do you want more of barack obama? >> no. >> do you want more of obamacare? >> no. >> do you what promises of

higher taxes? >> no. >> do you want the amount of regulation they are putting on the financial-services sector, health care sector, manufactoring? >> no. >> is it time to have real change in washington? >> yes. >> i represent a very dramatic change of what you have seen in the past three years. i have not spent my life in washington. i spent in the private sector. i am smart enough to get out of the rain i spent my life and the private sector. i know how the economy works. i want to use this economy -- this skill to get the american people working again good why do i want to get in the middle of this? it goes back to my early days with my mom and dad and we drove around to the national parks. my mom and dad wanted me to fall in love with america, and fall in love, i did. i saw the mountains, the canyons, the amber waves of grain. i love america. between stops at the various national parks my mother would read to us from books about the

founding of the country and dad would talk about the founders. there is a hymn i love -- "oh beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain." i think corn qualifies. but there is another verse "o beautiful, for patriot's dream, who sees beyond the years." the idea was the patriots and their vision for america was not just for their time but for permanence. that america and the foundations of this country would not just be a short experience but something that would last a long, long time, even our days. it would see beyond the years. i believe in the principles the yacht -- on which this country was founded. i believe that freedom and being able to choose our elected representatives is one of the key principles and i also believe in opportunity. when the founders drafted the declaration of independence they said the creator in doubt us with certain unalienable right -- among them life,

liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. and that the pursuit of happiness means we are free in america to choose our course in life. we can choose to do what we want to do. we are a generic society, an opportunity society -- merit society, opportunity society. education, hard work, and our willingness to take risk -- we can see what we want to accomplish the. and we live to one another and we lift the entire society. america's freedoms and our opportunity nature has made is the most powerful nature -- nation in the history of the earth. but this president and the people of around him have a different vision. they think instead of being an opportunity nation and a merit society, we should become an entitlement society where the government takes from some to give to others, where we would replace ambition with envy, they would poison the american spirit with class warfare.

we want to return to the principles of that made america the hope of the earth and the strength of the earth. i believe in america, i believe in freedom and opportunity, and that is what we are going to bring back to this nation. [applause] this really is a battle for the soul of america. the question is, what kind of america are we going to be? what kind of land are we going to give to our children and their children? i convinced if we stay on the course we are on, you will see america hit a wall like they did in europe. you will see us have the experience of like they see in greece and italy. that is not acceptable. we need somebody to go to washington and what chris christie is doing in new jersey, which is finally bring sanity, to work across the aisle -- and by the way, good democrats love america, too. i do remember, however, what ronald reagan said. he said it is not that liberals

are ignorant, it is just what they know is wrong. [applause] we have to educate them from time to time and make sure they understand how we can work together to get america back on track. i will do that. i am not a lifelong politician. i did not spend my life in the political world. i did not spend my life in washington, d.c. you have a choice of a number of people on our stage, the republican stage, who spend their life in washington, d.c. that is fine. but i think to get america back on track you need to have someone who spent their life outside of washington, will understand how the real world works, who understands how the economy works. i did spend four years as a governor. four years in government. i did not inhale -- i promise. i can still in business guy, a father, a husband, a person who cares very deeply about this country. i think our president takes his inspiration from europe. he thinks europe got it right. he thinks if bigger government, more intrusive government with more regulations, a government

that takes from some to give to others, a government that racks of that higher and higher -- that that is the course. i do not think europe is working in europe. i sure as heck to not think it working. i believe in restoring the principles that makes america great and i will do it with your help on tuesday night. [applause] if you can get out here in this cold and is wind and a little bit of rain coming down, then you can sure get out on tuesday night and you can sure find a few people to bring with you. and on the way to the caucus, you could tell him -- then just who you will vote for and you will bring the next few to make sure they do the same thing. i need your help, you guys. it is a battle for america. it is a battle for the future course of america. i don't want politicians running america anymore. i want to make sure we have citizen leaders going to washington, leading the country, fighting for the great soul of this country. thank you so much. great to be with you.

thank you. ♪ >> ♪ i was born free appreciate that very much. thanks. thank you so much for your thoughts. how're you doing? that is great. how are you? how are you?

[laughter] >> going to do it this time. >> how are you? good to see you this morning. thanks for being out here in the freezing cold. you bet. turnaround. flag out here, too. are you about the same age? how are you? where is my wife? i want to show heard this.

where is ann? hi, there. how are you? nice to see you. take care. thanks so much for seeing you this morning. >> thank you for coming out. >> thank you. hi, how are you? good morning. nice to see you guys. how are you? ♪ good morning, how are you?

thanks so much. how are you?

a long way to go. a good start this morning, i will tell you that. thank you. thank you. appreciate it. how are you? >> i met you four years ago at the iowa state fair. >> nice to see you. the jacket, i love that. >> welcome to iowa. nothing for coming out today. >> thank you. good to see you.

hi, andrea. very enthusiastic.

big crowds. a lot of excitement. i think people really feel they want a change in washington. a lot of support and energy across the great state of iowa. [laughter] terrific, isn't it. he is terrific. i am delighted to have him with me on the trial. you don't get better than chris christie. how are you? >> wonderful. oh, good luck, good luck, good luck. on tuesday, i'll be there. good to see you this morning. good morning, good morning. thank you. thank you.

i will need it. appreciate it very much. thank you. how are you? thank you. thanks for being here. you got a pen, right? how are you? thank you. look at these guys. how are you doing?

i don't have any idea who is

going to win. >> how are you doing? >> not worrying about reelected. >> yes, i couldn't care less about reelection. thanks for your help this morning. thank you. i will do my best. thank you. thank you so much.

hi, guys. thank you. making it real clear that we are going to bring real change to washington. >> running mate? >> there are a number of people who would be terrific. >> pennsylvania, ohio -- bringing back those old moderate republicans -- reagan democrats? >> how are you?

what happened to our black pen? >> governor, why did you call for -- >> marie antoinette, when she said let them eat cake -- he said, it could be worse. it can be better -- that is what i represent. >> can you say let them eat cake in french? >> [laughter] >> i can, but i won't. thank you for being here this

morning. how are you? it is cold out here this morning. thank you so much. i appreciate it. look at that. that is a great idea. that is terrific. today is the 30th, i think. you bet. i think it is easier on that side. absolutely.

. .

the most expenses of which is medicaid. the next is food stamps and housing programs. training programs. and the long list after that. i would suggest that we do exactly with them when i did what welfare, which is block grant them, send them to the states, the requirement of work and time limit, and give the states flexibility to design a program. fare,you did this with well fo across the mississippi, welfare went down 92%. states saved a bunch of money.

they were able to do things to transition people off and get them to work. nuking burch said poor people need to learn a work ethic. then he talks about the work he did on welfare. obviously he does not know what work he did. what we did is put poor people to work. a lot of folks went to work who were making minimum wage and were still considered working poor. but they were working. when newt says kids do not seem moms working, that is not true. single moms work really hard. they do the job but to people in a household. unfortunately, they have a failure rate.

he would expect that because it is hard. what we need to do with our entitlement programs, give it back to the states and help design programs that transition people out of welfare and poverty and give them opportunity to rise in society. when things are states should be able to do is talk about the things that are necessary for children to stay out of poverty. there was a steady in 2009 done by a guy who worked with me. it said, bioassay two thinks -- i always say two things, if you do then you will have a zero chance of being in poverty in america. 82% chance.

one of those things is obvious, you have to work. order the other things? -- what are the other things? graduate from high school. what is the third? i heard it over here. get married. if you get married before you have children, a graduate, and work, the chances of you being in poverty is 2%. the chance you will be above 70 -- $50,000 is 70%. if you want the key to success, work, high school, get married before you have children. we have the federal government saying they cannot talk about marriage or having children out of wedlock.

why? why? why would we tell children or fell to tell children the ticket to help them to make sure they are never pour unless you do not care if they are poor or maybe worse than that. these are things that can unite america. this is a liberal think tank. we need a leader who is willing to be honest with the american people and tell the truth and lead this country in a direction that is consistent with our values. [applause] >> so often, it is predictable

that when conservative candidates, any kind of executive says we're going to make these cuts, because as we have seen our national debt is unfathomable. it boggles the mind. the you have the nerve, when you say we're going to make this cut, because it does now works, eliminate this because it does not cause people to stand on their feet, every time the state or fragile level, somebody immediately says, you cannot cut this because you are not compassionate or put people on the streets or because this is important. every program does that. up until now, for the most part, we cave.

obviously we cannot cut that. we would be seen as not compassionate. i think it is compassionate to give that kid a little shove out and say do it yourself. how do we get back to saying, i am going to be compassionate by taking this away from you. that is the pioneer spirit. >> i would say two things. we need to start framing the narrative of who we are and reminding us. the president has to provide a vision. where do you want to go it? hopefully you got a vision of where i want to go. are we the country that believes in the founding principle of the declaration of independence? the country that bill to the government and structured a country that built the greatest country in the history of the

world. do you believe in that america? president obama does not. look at tortillas doing, it is clear that it never worked and is not working today and it needs to be restructured. that is why you see little accommodation because we start out at different points. the president thinks it is flawed. if the free market. traditional families and free enterprise is a failure. it is wrong and broken and that we have a different model that works. it is hard to find compromise. what a narrative do you believe? that brings in millions of people every year experts america is the beacon of hope,

believes and freedoms, or should we me like the rest of the world that believes that smart people living in the in the cities of our countries are the ones who should manipulate the market place and to dictate to folks how to run their farms and families and businesses because they know better and they can best allocate resources. something president obama said earlier this year, he talked about all of these entitlement programs, unemployment insurance, medicare, medicaid, social security, welfare, he said america is a better country because of these commitments. i will go one step further.

america is not a great country because the government decides how much money to take for you and redistribute to other people. that is not what america -- what makes america great. the president does not think america was a great country. until the government micromanaged your life. america was born a great country. he does not believe that. remember what obama said during the campaign after her husband was doing well. she said i am proud to be an american for the first time. this is to our president is. this is his vision. when he said hope and change he meant change. he believes america is a broken model and always has been.

when he went out around the world and apologized for america, and he thinks america needed to be apologized for. we need someone who believes in america exceptional is some and is willing to promote that. that is how we're going to make the changes. we need an election, three times in history, a change has happened in washington. huge changes three times. the new deal, the great society, 2009 under obamacare. what to those having common? they were the only three times that the president, the house, and the senate or of the same party with the senate having a filibuster proof majority to get whatever the president wanted

done. republicans have never had that. they have a chance of getting that in this election. for all of those listening, you go out in those states several of whom have announced retirement. we picked up 13 of those seats, and it is 23-10 right now. it could go the other way and republicans will have 60 votes. then you will see the kind of changes that will happen. the better we do, the bigger the changes. and the better the president, to be able to get the american people behind it, the better the chance of getting those things done. last question. i never have trouble expanding

on things. >> how will you preserve your integrity and values when you're operating in the washington machine. >> i am proud of the fact that people say talked -- quit talking about your experience and your record. i think people believe that past practice is a good indication of future practice. when i served in the senate, i am proud of the people we surround ourselves with. i had one chief of staff for 16 years. i had a staff that was as good as anybody in the united states senate because we give them a test and i wanted to see what they believed but why. i'm looking for people who share that vision that i have that can execute based upon the

commander's intent. the five people who want to be and that foxhole and see the cause the way you see it and perform this duty is consistent with that cause. that is just leadership. it you provide that personally and demand that of everybody else, i think you have an administration that will be faithful to the mission i articulated to the american public. i can only look to the example i had when i was in that position. there is no office to get things accomplished for the conservative cause and on economic issues than we did in the time i was in the senate.

if past practice is an indication, we have a great group of people around us and they accomplished a lot for the causes everybody in this room believes. i give you that as an answer and i would say the caucus is coming out. a few days away. we have passed out a paper and are looking for folks to help us out. if you would be willing to sign that, there is a place. i do not know how many captains we have. this is the piece of paper. if you cancel it out, sign up to be a capt. that means you go to the caucus site and speak and our behalf. you guys figure out who will speak and the others can work the room. if you could take a badge, we

have stickers to take. you can put it on your coat when you go to church or the grocery store, it is a conversation starter. you can start with talking to your neighbors. we have signs, if you find a great corner put it on. they will probably not notice it is there. of hitting on that one. that was a joke. anyway, and take signs, a bumper sticker, you can taken off after the caucus and save it when i come back to campaign in the fall. help us out. this is the most important election in your lifetime. we have to defeat what is going on in washington, d.c. right now.

you send the signal to the nation. send it loudly and strongly. our founders said we pledge our lives and fortunes and our sacred honor. i am asking for four days. not your life. on the back of this card, there is a place where you can give to help the campaign. you can go to rick santorum.com or when you get home you can leave a check. this is the season of giving. i cannot think of any matter gift you can give your children and grandchildren then stepping up at this point in time in american history and giving your all to make sure you keep this

country free and safe. thank you very much. god bless you. happy new year. [applause]

>> appreciated. appreciate your help. >> an excellent speech. thank you. where do you live? you can help us in south carolina. thank you. good to see you. help us out. i should probably get out of the way. thank you so much.

>> does that work? >> yes. >> republican candidate newt gingrich had a town hall meeting at the coffee house in iowa. the former speaker sat down with a pollster to talk about issues important to mothers. the largest online community for mothers hosted the discussion. it is a little more than one hour. >> i'm starting a. welcome, everybody. how're you doing? [applause]

first off, how many of you have one child? to children? three children? who has four or more. wow. who has five or more? how many kids do you have tax you look too young for five. how old are your children? thank you for being here. this is important. this is the first time we have been able to bring together a group of moms. you voted more than your average american. there is a level of fear in this room and this is your opportunity to ask the candid its direct questions that will affect your parents and your kids and your families and careers, everything. we have brought to this together

to give you the chance to be heard and give the candice the chance to respond and appreciate to those who brought their children here so they have a chance to be represented. in the and what they decide to do over the next eight years are going to affect your son and the people like you. i want to point out our moms and uniforms. [applause] thank you for being here. >> hello, everyone. i'm with the number-one mom site on the internet. there are a lot of people out there who are eager to hear what you have to say. one of the things we have noticed is that while we see your policies and plans on the news, we want to get to know who you are personally. i see you brought your family here. >> my wife, callista, is here.

[applause] one of my two favorite daughters, kathy is right here. my other favorite daughter jackie is right here. and my grandson robert is right here. jump up. and my granddaughter maggie. maggie has been campaigning with her this week and she brought her friend. >> you are very close with your daughters, by all accounts, and your grandchildren. >> they are my two favorites. >> i read you talk to your father every day. that is a rare bond. how have you maintained that

personal connection with them as adults, and with your grandchildren? >> i think you have to work at it. you have to put in the time and the effort and the conversations and go on vacation, be together to solve problems, try to do things -- we get together and say, what kind of life do you want to have? we want them to have a great life. >> now that you are a grandparent, in hindsight, what do you wish you'd done in different as a father when your girls were growing up? >> my daughters are so terrific. it would have been great not to a been divorced in a different world, to a been able to talk

more openly and to solve some of our problems more openly than we did. all three of us worked through it. i do nothing to was a single week when we were not aware of each other and tried to do things together. they both have become tremendous. callista and i have enormous pride. jackie's doing a great job. kathy has been tremendous. she has sat arthritis since she was 25. she now walks marathons. watching her life and with a husband. jimmy is here. these are my two son-in-laws. >> which one you like better? -- which one do you like better? >> jimmy is an atlanta falcons fan.

the other is a green bay packers shareholder. we do own one share of stock. we love atlanta and we loved jimmy. >> these moms talked with great in trepidation about the future. i will ask for a show of hands. how many are you afraid that your children when not have the same quality of life that you had when they grow up? this is something that the president can do something about. " -- do -- what would you do so the next generation will have a better? >> i tell audiences that i did not ask anyone to be for me.

i think that i am less confident than frank is. i think presidents can have an impact. ronald reagan was effective because he could communicate clearly with the american people, and the american people communicating clearly with congress. so i think it has to be a team effort. if we don't have profound change in washington, we're heading towards decay. i do not want to leave maggie and robert a country which is poor, weaker, and in more danger than the country that our parents worked and fought to give us. we have to have a whole new approach to politics and have a willingness to deal with large solutions and to do with together and to bring people

together to solve things. i think it can be done. you can go to newt.org. it takes a fair number of ideas to get the country back in shape, and that's what this country is all about, setting a path to create jobs, national growth, and reassert the core values and start with the declaration of independence. if you could get right the economy, national security, and the core values, this would be a remarkably successful country, and you could feel good about what you're leaving your children with. >> you gave a general response. what are your three prioities? >> you have to fix the economy. i had an endorsement from the man that developed the reagan