-- that is ron paul. did everybody have fun tonight? [applause] please join me in welcoming the champion of the constitution, the thomas jefferson of our day, dr. ron paul. [applause] >> thank you. thank you very much. thank you. chanting] [chanting ronpaul]

[applause] >> thank you very much. i think you might recognize my wife. her picture is on did anybody see that "both? [applause] that was a good crowd not a good speech. we talk about it and we have one of three tickets out. i am one of two broken actually raising campaign and raise the money but there is no monday -- there is nobody like you working hard to believe in something. [applause] that is all the difference in the world. before i continue with the more

comments, i want to bring forward three of our chairman you have met already. aj striker, and they have led the charge throughout iowa. david fisher. [applause] all i can think about in tough campaigns and all the hard work is the work you people do. it is unbelievable, the energy you have and the effort you have made. what makes me feel good about it is you are doing it because you believe in something. [applause] there are two good things -- you guys did do that because you believe in something to promote the cause, certainly, but the

best way to promote a cause is to win an election. [applause] the enthusiasm has been unbelievable. it is fantastic. it is national. thousands of people have been called a only in iowa but around the country and they are ready and raring to go. we have to look at the wonderful changes that have occurred in our country in a positive way. the country has suffered a lot of negative way -- the economy is in trouble, if our civil liberties are being trashed, our foreign policy has been a mess and drains us both economically and our military forces but at the same time, people are coming together and we have the task to reintroduce some ideas the republicans have needed for a long time -- [applause] and that is the conviction that freedom is popular [applause]

once again, we have had a fantastic showing for this cause and challenging people, not the status quo we have put up with for a decade after decade. let's go back to the israel old fashioned idea. this very dangerous idea. let's obey the constitution. [applause] too often, those who preached limited government forgets that invasion of your privacy is big government and we have to emphasize protecting your personal rights and your economic rights that is what. the government is supposed to do. they're not supposed to run our lives and spend our money. [applause]

also, along those lines, what we have introduced with so much enthusiasm that i year so often from so many volunteers -- someone came up to me the other day and he was refreshing my memory because he knew the statement because i have said it -- back in the old days in the early 1970's, nixon said we are all keynesians now which means the republicans accepted liberal economics. i'm waiting for the day when we can say we are all austrians now. [applause] his biggest change in intellectual and political changes we have brought about is the emphasis on a very important matter -- making sure we get to the bottom of the ultimate sellouters and that is our federal reserve system and we need a new monetary system. obey the constitution. this something we made great progress on.

the first initial step we have work so hard on is on the table. today there was a national poll that came out and they were talking about how many people supported the gold standard. how long has it been since they took the national mall and the gold standard? [applause] guess what? the majority of american people believe we should have a gold standard and not a paper standard. [applause] also, the great strides we have made have been on foreign policy. the fact that we can once again talk in republican circles and make it credible, talking about what eisenhower said, be aware of the military-industrial complex, talk about the old days when robert taft said we should not be engaged in these entangling alliances. he believed what the founders taught us. he did not even want to be in nato. we don't need nato to tell us when to go to war. [applause]

we have seen a great difference, the maturity of the american people are behind us on this whole war effort. they are tired of the war, it costs too much money, too many people get killed, too many people get injured, too many people get sick and maybe 70 or 80% of the american people are saying it is time to get out of afghanistan. [applause] those are the issues. that we have broad front and center. there are out there. they will not go away. we have a tremendous opportunity to continue this momentum. it will not be long dead there will be an election in new hampshire and believe me, this momentum will continue. this movement will continue. we are going to keep scoring just as we have tonight. [applause]

so, [chanting ron paul] tonight we have come out of an election where we are essentially three winners, three top vote getters. we will go on. we will raise the money. i have no doubt about the volunteers. [applause] they are going to be there. a lot of you thanked me and complemented by and thanked me for helping but let me tell you, you helped me along and help my family along. without your enthusiasm, we cannot do it. this is where i feel most obligated. we want to do the job, present the case, and if anything is not perfect, i don't worry about myself, i worry about you and

making sure you are satisfied. i think there is nothing to be ashamed of. ready and rate to move on to the next stop which is no answer. [applause] [ chanting ron paul] now, i have another speaker, a special guest tonight who has been with us this evening. he has been with us in the campaign for quite a few years. it may have met and because he has been around the city but i would like to come out and say a few words. he has been serving in the military for 10 years and the has been overseas. a lot of it was in iraq and afghanistan.

he was on television tonight and did not get to finish his statement. i asked him if he would come out and make his comments about why he supports our foreign policy and why he is fighting for the constitution and what he thinks we should do. i would like to invite out jessie thronton to come out and say some words to you. [applause] >> how about ron paul? [applause] if there is a man that there has a vision for this country, it is death in him. -- it is definitely m. we don't need to be picking fights overseas. i think everybody else knows that, too. i am flabbergasted. this is an incredible moment. it is like needing a rock star. we will go to new hampshire and

will get involved and keep getting on line and keep talking to people and we are going to make sure this man is an ex- president of the united states. [applause] -- is the next president of the united states. >> thank you very much. that is a powerful message and once again, we all know where the active military people send their money when they are campaigning. they send it to our campaign for liberty, our campaign for the constitution, our campaign for limited government, our campaign for personal liberty and privacy and a wise foreign policy very [applause] the most important thing we have to remember is we want to have influence in the world. that is very important. we want to be active in the world and talk to people and work with people and trade with people and be friends with people. what we need to realize is there

are people who say we are an exceptional measure and and we certainly are and have been but we are slipping various the idea that are exceptionalism is so great that we have to prove it to the world enforce our military down our throats and occupied them -- the best way to spread their message is to do our job at home, preserve our liberties and on, provide the free market, have a sound currency, balance the budget, set an example and get the rest of the world to emulate us. that is the road to peace and prosperity. thank you very much. [applause] thank you. [chanting ron paul]

[applause] >> as the last returns were coming in, the lead in the iowa caucuses remained a statistical dead heat between rick santorum and mitt romney. before the final tally came in, rick santorum spoke to reporters in johnston, >> >> my friends, mr. santorum. [applause] >> thank you.

thank you. game on. [applause] i do not speak for most but there are a couple of things i want to say that are more emotional. i will read them as i wrote them. c.s. lewis said a friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can send it back to you when you have forgotten the words. my best friend, my life mate, who sings that song when i forget the words is my wife karen. [applause]

people ask me how i have done this, sitting back in the polls and not getting a whole lot of attention. how did you keep going out to iowa? 99 counties and 381 town hall meetings and speeches? every morning, when i was getting up the morning to take on that challenge, but it required a stick strength for another particular friendship, one that is sacred. i have survived the challenge is so far by the daily grace that comes from god reported [applause] god. [applause] for giving me his grace every day and loving me is worth at

all. i offer a public thanks to god. [applause] the third thanks -- thank you so much, iowa. [applause] you, you, by standing up and not compromise and, by standing up and being bold and leading, leading with bad burden and responsibility you have to be first, you have taken the first step of taking back this country. [applause]

this journey started officially just a few months ago in june when i stood on the steps of the county courthouse in somerset county, pennsylvania. i decided to go there, not the typical place someone announces for president, not where i was born, not where i ever lived but it is where my grandfather came back in 1925. he came by himself even though he was married with two children, one of them being my father. he came after having fought in world war one because mussolini had been in power now three years that he had figured out that fascism was something that would crush his spirit and his freedom and give his children something less than he wanted. for wanted he made a sacrifice.

he left to the coal fields of southwestern pennsylvania and worked in the mine at a company town and got paid with coupons. he lived in a shack and eventually figured out that that was a trip to nowhere so he started taking money less so he could start to save. he did after five years, he got his citizenship and brought my father over the age of seven. he ended up and continued to work in those mines until he was 72 years old. , digging coal. i will never forget the first time i saw someone who had died it was my grandfather and i knelt next to his coffin and all i could do at a level was to look at his hands. they were enormous hands. all i could think was those hands dug freedom for me.

to honor him, i went to somerset county because i believe foundationally, while the economy is in horrible condition, why our country is not as safe as it was and wild threats are rising around the world, while the state of our culture under this administration continues to decline with the values that are unlike the values that built this country -- the essential issue in this race is freedom. whether we will be a country that believes that government can do things for us better than we can do for ourselves or whether we believe, as our founders did, that rights come to us from god and he gave us those rights, give us the freedom to go out and lived

those rights out to build a great and just society not from the top down but from the bottom up. [applause] my grandfather taught me basic things that my dad taught me. over and over again, work hard, work hard, and work hard. i think about that today. there are so many men and women right now would love to work hard but they don't have the opportunity. we have two parties out talking about how they will solve those problems. one wants to talk about raising taxes on people who have been successful and registered the money, increasing dependency in this country, promoting more medicaid and food stamps and all

sorts of social welfare programs and passing obamacare to provide more government subsidies, more and more dependency, more and more government. that is exactly what my grandfather left in 1925. then there is another vision -- the republican vision which is to cut taxes, let's reduce spending and everyone will be fine. i believe in cutting taxes. i believe in balancing budgets. i propose cutting $5 trillion over this budget over the next five years. i support a balanced budget amendment that puts a cap a 18% of gdp as a guarantee of freedom for this country. [applause] i also believe we as republicans

have to look at those who are not doing well in our society by just cutting taxes and balancing budgets. that is what put forth a plan that in a webs responded to -- thatiowans responded to. if it's good enough for ronald reagan, it is good enough for me. [applause] then i would take the corporate tax and cut that and have because that is the highest in the world and we need to be competitive. when i travel around iowa to the small towns, i found a lot of those small towns were just like the small towns that i travelled around in pennsylvania. there were towns that were centered around manufacturing and the good jobs the build those towns. those jobs slowly, whether it is in hamburg, newton, or any place

in between, we found those jobs leaving iowa, why? because our workers did not want to work3. because the workers were not competitive? it is because government made worker is not competitive by driving up the cost of doing business here. it is 20% more expensive to do manufacturing jobs in this country than it is in the top nine trading partners we have to compete with. that is why we are losing our jobs. the republican purists say why are you treating manufacturing different than retail? i say because wal-mart is not moving to china and taking their jobs with them. [applause] we eliminate the corporate tax and manufacturers so we can compete. we take the regulations, every regulation over $100 million and

we repeal all those regulations. repeal them all and there is a lot of them. under the bush and clinton administrations, they averaged 60 regulations per year. this administration, hit 150 last year. you don't want to know what is crushing business. this administration is crushing business. [applause] people have asked me why you think you can win. we have been told by so many people that there is another candidate in this race. who is running a rather} with me tonight. [laughter] that is a better person to choose because he can win. let me tell you -- [boos] >> romneycare. >> what wins in america are bold

ideas, sharp contrast, and a plan that includes everyone, a plan that includes people from all across the economic spectrum, a plan that says we will work together to get america to work. [applause] how did i win when i win -- one in pennsylvania? but because i went out and worked in the communities like i grew up in kabbalah butler, pa., a steel town. i was able to win as a congressman in a 60% democratic district and then in a 70% democratic district represented the old bended steel mills in pittsburgh. all of them along the

monongahela river, those mills were in my district and i ran a tough election year when george bush sr. was losing the election by a landslide in my district. i got 60% of the vote because i share the values of the working people in that district. if we have someone who can go out to western pennsylvania and ohio and michigan and indiana and wisconsin and iowa and missouri and appealed to the voters who have been left behind by a democratic party that wants to make them dependent instead of valuing their work, we will win this election. [applause] those are the same people that president obama talked about who point to their guns and their

bibles. thank god they do. [applause] they share our values about faith and family. they understand that when the family breaks down, the economy struggles. [applause] they understand when families are not there to instill values in to their children and into their neighbor's as little league coaches, as good neighbors, fathers and mothers being part of a community, that the neighborhood is not safe and they are not free. these are the basic values that america stands for and of those are the values that we need if we're going to go up against barack obama and win this

election and restore the founding principles of our country to america. [applause] i want to close by thanking all of. this has been an incredible journey. 99 counties, 381 town hall meetings, 36 pizza ranches - [laughter] i am not buttoning my coat for a reason they're. i love iowa but the affair can be thickening. it has been a great journey. the three words that i heard most often when i travel around this state -- >> welcome to iowa.

>> welcome to iowa. [applause] i want to thank the people on stage, folks to stu who stood un no one else was standing up, folks the when i was sitting at single-digit in the polls believed in the message and the messenger, believe in the cause, and were willing to stand behind us and do what was not popular in the world today l,ead. they lead into each and everyone of you, i want to thank you for leading and doing what was necessary to promote the cause of liberty. thank you, a m includingatt

schultz. [applause] i have to give a shout out to the guy really helped us on the ground here as a volunteer late. he became a symbol of the campaign, the owner of thechuck truck. [laughter] the new often talk about" york times" but i love that crap like that had had the entourage has traveled around the state and there were these long roads of buses and people and airplay staffv's and people and and at the bottom, was ch theuck truck, me and matt and one of my kids. [applause]

i started with this and i'll and with this -- i have written just one book in my life. takes aalled it family." i started talking about my wife and i will end talking about the other gems of my life, six of my kids are appear, elizabeth, john, daniel, maria, and patrick. they have not seen much of their dead over the past several months. yet they have stood by me every step of the way, encouraged me, and loved me unconditionally. another little girl who was not here tonight is our little angel. that is isabella maria. we don't take her out in crowds. she has a disability. she has a disability that,

according to the records, the statistics, is a week -- has a 1% chance of survival after one year. she is 3.5 years old. [applause] isabella is here with us in spirit and embedded into my heart. people ask me what motivates me. i say the dignity of every human life. [applause] god has given us this great country to allow his people to be free. he has given us that dignity because we are a creation of. we need to honor that creation

and whether it is the sanctity of life in the womb for the dignity of every working person in america to fulfill their potential, you will have a friend in rick santorum. we're off to new hampshire. [applause] the message i share with you tonight is not an ilem message or in iowa and south carolina message. it is a message that will resonate across this land. it will resonate in new hampshire. you think i have been in iowa a lot. i have been to new hampshire 30 times and have done more events than anybody but jon huntsman and he cheats, he lives there. [laughter] we will be in new hampshire. we will leave tomorrow and spend our time there. with your help and god's grace,

we will have another fun night a week from now. god bless you. [applause] ♪ days night] ♪

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♪ >> and no matter from the boss speech. he tied first place in the iowa caucus with rick santorum and both candidates got 25% of the votes. this is 10 minutes. [applause] >> what a great welcome.

we love you, iowa. this has been such a terrific night. congratulations to rick santorum. he fought so hard and we don't know when yet but here we are. [applause] this is the beginning of a journey and i think all of you in this recognize how important this journey is. i am thrilled to introduce to you the next president of the united states. [applause] >> we don't know what the final vote tally will be but congratulations to rick santorum. this has been a great victory and a great achievement for him and a great victory for us here. [applause] this has been terrific. i think it is great that here in

the heartland of america that a campaign begins. all three of us will be campaigning is very hard to make sure we restore the heart and soul of the entire nation. thank you iowa for the great sendoff you're giving us and the others in the campaign. this is campaign tonight where america wins. we will change the white house and get america back on track. [applause] i am proud tonight to have been introduced by my sweetheart of longer than 42 years. behind her, four of our five sons. one of her sons is a resident at a hospital so he cannot be here tonight. this has been a family affair for us and we feel like family in this room with you. you guys have been extraordinary. [applause] for those that don't know, this

volunteer team has done extraordinary work. i hope you understand. when i ran four years ago, we have 52 members of our full-time staff. this campaign we have had five. you guys have done the work on the direction of david and sarah. thank you to the [applause] m. you were working and we are all working together because of our passion for this country and the concern that is being led by a president who may be a nice guy but is over his head. four years ago tonight, he was giving a victory celebration speech here in des moines. he had been going across the state and making all sorts of promises and the gap between his promises four years ago and his performance is as great as anything i have ever seen in my life. we face an extraordinary challenge in america and that is internationally, iran is about

to have nuclear weapons and this president said he would have a policy of engagement. how has that worked out to? not terribly well. we have no sanctions of a severe nation put in place. the president was silent when dissident voices took to the streets in iran and he has not repaired the military options that would present credibly our opportunity to take out the threat that would be presented by iran. what about the economy? he borrowed $787 billion and his administration said they would hold on employment below 8%. it has not been below that cents since. people are unable to get the kind of jobs that will meet their needs. this is not just a statistic. these are real people's lives have been impacted severely,

people lose their jobs over a long perry. of time they lose their marriages and lose their faith and become depressed. this is a tragedy and did not need to happen. almost everything the president has done has made it harder for businesses to grow and higher and put people back to work. there's one more aspect of his track record that has been a failure -- he was critical of president bush for not balancing the budget and having such a large deficit. his deficits have been three times larger or more. by the end of his first term, he is on track, his only term, by the white -- [applause] -- by the way [applause] he is on track to put almost as much public debt in place as all the prior presidents combined. this has been a failed

presidency. i'm absolutely convinced that everyone to get jobs again in this country it will be helpful to have a person who has had a job in the private sector who can create jobs in the private sector. [applause] he said three years ago after being inaugurated that if he can i get this economy turned around in three years, i will be looking at one term proposition and we are here to collect. [applause] i will go to work to get america back to work by making america once again the most attractive place in the world for job creators and innovators and investors and jobs will begin to flow like that have in the past. i will keep our tax rates competitive, get regulators and regulations to see their job to encourage enterprise and make sure we open up new markets for american goods and finally take advantage of the energy resources we have in oil and gas and coal and nuclear and renewable energy. [applause]

i will also do the work of cutting our federal spending and capital we spend and balancing our budget. it is immoral for us to spend our kids' future year after year with trillions of dollars passed on to the next generation knowing we cannot get -- possibly pay back. it is wrong. in my administration, it will end. [applause] you have heard me say this before -- how can i cut programs? i will look at all the programs we have in the federal government and i will ask with regards to each one is that program is so critical it is worth borrowing money from china to pay for it? on that basis, we will have many programs and the number one on the list ofc obamaare. that will be gone. [applause]

this election is bigger even than jobs and a strong economy. it is bigger than the budget that needs to be balanced and deficits and debt begins to be reduced. it is really an election about the soul of. america are we going to continue to hew to the vision of the founders. when they crafted this country and wrote the declaration of independence, they said the creator had endowed us with certain unalienable rights including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. happinessse purser'of deals with the opportunity associated with this nation. people came here from all over the world seeking freedom electorally but also personally, able to choose their own course in life they came to america. by virtue of their successes, their passion, their energy,

their pioneering, they helped lift a nation. they did not megaspore. that made us better off. the president has a different view. he wants an opportunity society. he learns from the welfare societies of europe were government takes and some to give to others. the only people who do well in that situation is those in the government to do the taking very the right course of america is to remain a merit society and opportunity nation. [applause] the right course for america economically, personally, morally is for america to restore the principles that made as the shining city on the hill, our conviction that freedom is a gift from god, our recognition that america as a merits aside a where people based on their education, their hard work,

their risk-taking, their dreams can lift themselves and let people around them and let our entire nation. that is what we need to restore in this country. i love this country. america the beautiful, o beautiful for spacious skies. another favorite verse -- o beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strivfe. do we have any veterans and the run tonight? please, raise your hand. [applause] one more verse -- o beautiful for patriot dream that seas beyond. the years the patriots, the founders of this country had a dream that was not just for their time but was an enduring

dream. it seized on to our time. i don't want to do as the president says to fundamentally transform america into something we might not recognized. i want to restore the principles that made america the hope of the earth. i love our freedoms and i love our constitution and i love our land, i love our people and i love the fact that this is the land of opportunity. let us restore the greatness of america and keep this land, the hope of the earth. thank you so much for all your support. [applause] thank you, guys. ♪

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>> in a moment, "washington journal" will examine the iowa caucus results. plus, a look at what we are covering today on c-span. 1:15 p.m. eastern, president obama visit the high school in cleveland to talk about the economy. the republican presidential race has moved on to new hampshire. we will bring town hall meetings from jon huntsman beginning at 4:00 p.m. eastern and rick santorum p.m. -- rick santorum at 7:30 p.m. then a preview in 45 minutes of this new hampshire primary with this new hampshire primary with the executive direct