>> thank you so much. thank you, cpac. thank you so much. what an honor, thank you so much. [applause] thank you so much.

thank you, cpac. >> happy birthday to you! >> thank you for the birthday greetings. you are wonderful. thank you so much. to millie and all her good work at the nra, i appreciate her efforts protecting our second amendment rights. thank you. i am honored to get to be here. last time i was in the d.c., my family and i were here cruising on harley-davidsons. the rally to honor america's finest, our veterans. when we were here last, my husband was able to drive one of those 400,000 machines that day. he is back home, gearing up for the race across alaska. my girls are here, though. i am glad they are with us. do you know why rolling thunder chose washington for their rally? they wanted to make their engines their voice. that is why cpac started in the 1970's. conservatives wanted the republican party to hear us. at the 1975 cpac, ronald reagan laid out a blueprint for rebuilding the gop under a banner of bold colors. ever since then, cpac has been the rally for conservative action. that is why i am glad to be here today with all of you. [applause] the conservative movement has never been stronger or brighter. the federal government has never cast a bigger shadow. for the last three years, we have been waving a banner that says "don't tread on me." [applause]

our movement, it is bigger than one person. it is bigger than one candidate. it is bigger than one party. it is about one country united under god. we're not red americans. we are not blue americans. we are red, white, and blue americans. president obama, we are through with you. [applause] [cheers and applause] we paid for three years of his administration and we cannot afford four more. candidate obama promised to fundamentally transform america. transforming the shining city on the hill into a sinking ship.

promising to cut deficits in half. he has piled on trillions more. [applause] this government is not too big to fail, it is too big to succeed. it is too big to ignore and it is too big to bear any more. what did we get in return for the president's spending spree? 8.5% unemployment, 13 million

americans who cannot find work. 46 million living in poverty. government dependency under obama has gone up 23%. for the first time in our history, folks are fearing that our future is going to be worse than our past. look around. you can see decline and failure, but it is not a failure of the american people. it is not a failure of america itself. it is the failure of our leadership. [applause] we know how to change that. yes, we do. yes, we can. [applause] hope and change. you gotta hope things change.

[laughter] to borrow another phrase from our president, we cannot wait. our country hangs in the balance. [applause] u.s.a.! u.s.a.! u.s.a.! [applause] >> [crowd chanting "sarah"] .s'a'.]chanting 'u

>> see how easy that is? [crowd chanting 'sarah'] [cheers and applause] we must come together as constitutional conservatives to save our republic. america has reached her tipping point. the door is open. the door is open. if they keep trying to tax and take and spend our way to prosperity, we know where we will end up. look to the old world to see the new world's future. it is the future of downsizing and downturns and downgrades. that is the future of the far left dream.

that is not the american dream. it is not a future we will ever accept. [applause] [cheers and applause] president obama has a different view. a conflict of visions. when i listened to his state of the union, i was struck that he barely mentioned unemployment. what did he talk about? he gave us more promises, promises to give us "an economy built to last." mr. president, we do not want an economy built to last. we want an economy built to grow. we certainly do not want your economy.

we want your administration to end. [applause] [cheers and applause] in the history of our republic, it never has there been such a gaping disconnect between how our own president sees the state of the union and how the americans see the state of the union. he believes that we are heading in the right direction, even though seven in 10 americans are saying we are heading in the wrong direction. we believe a real recovery cannot get underway until

government gets out of the way. [applause] [cheers and applause] the president wants to raise taxes so he can redistribute wealth. we want to cut taxes so we can create more wealth. government is digging us deeper into debt. it is because it spends too much. [applause] we know how to deal with it. you cut it, gut it. he says he has a jobs plan. a jobs plan to win the future. wtf -- i know. [applause]

wtf plan. he will invest our money in bullet trains to nowhere, but he will stop boeing from building airplanes anywhere. bankrupt energy companies get sweet loans and grants offers. we say his plan is not winning the future, it is losing our country. we have a better jobs plan and it is called the free market. it worked before, and it will work again after this president. [applause] [cheers and applause]

he says we need more of his financial regulations. we say, go asked mf global customers how happy they are with his regulations. they did not prevent the financial meltdown. these folks have helped cause it and you helped to bail them out. the president says, small-town americans, we cling to our religion and guns because we are frustrated with his pace of change. keep your change. we will keep our god, our guns, our constitution. [applause]

[cheers and applause] professor obama may have forgotten the bill of rights, but we shall not forsake it, including the rights our founders risked their lives for. freedom of religion, our right to bear arms. we will rise up, we will defend them. the president believes your tax dollars should subsidize planned parenthood. we believe that every child is created equal with that right to life. [applause]

i ask you to stand up for those who cannot stand for themselves. if not us, then who? [applause] [cheers and applause] thank you. the president believes we need to consolidate power, centralize power, because you cannot be trusted to make decisions for yourself. not about your health insurance, your gas mileage, not even about your light bulbs. we believe it is time to return power to the people. that is where the founders intended it. that is where the constitution entrusts it. that is where it belongs today, people. [applause]

[cheers and applause] perhaps this distrust of us is because he seems to believe that america is a destructive force in the world. we should apologize to enemies. he believes that we should share our missile defense technology with the kremlin. he believes we should make cuts in our military while other nations are building up their military. cuts to our troops while we keep on spending wildly on everything else. talk about priorities. the white house is trying to negotiate with the taliban. they are watching helplessly as iran moves close to developing their nuke. the number one duty is protecting the american people

and our allies. god bless israel. [applause] [cheers and applause] our president needs to understand that. he needs to understand what you understand. they are asked to risk their lives for it. this is not some international community organizing we're talking about. we will never apologize for america's strength and our greatness and we will refuse to accept that a weak america means a better and safer world. [applause]

[cheers and applause] we are going to put our confidence in the strength of the armed the forces, not the hollow promises of our adversaries. not the cleverness of our diplomats. we will gladly and route the fight to defend this land of the free. we must be the home of the brave. [cheers and applause] one reason our president has such a skewed view. he does not get out to see much of real america. 11 months from now, he will have his chance to spend time outside of d.c. -- all of it. [cheers and applause]

when he comes down from his lofty office and he is finished rolling back the tides and a lowering the sea levels and snowdrifts or whatever all of those promises were. when he is finished with all of that, and then he is going to see that the facts on the ground are much different. in the divided between washington and the rest of the country has never been greater. it has never been more dangerous. while america struggles, washington prospers. while our real-estate market's crash, washington is strong. washington is hiring, but they are hiring for what? they do not manufacture. they do not drill. they produce nothing. the services that they provide,

they increase dependency, not freedom. they do not create wealth, they take it. this is obama's washington. it is not the washington of our founders. it is something that our forefathers never envisioned. they would not have sworn their lives and fortunes -- it would have sworn their lives and fortunes to change. it is now home to the highest per-capita income. he even have a a lamborghini dealership here. not that there is anything wrong with hot wheels. this is the playground of for the government rich. they are hoping you work really hard to keep it going.

the people need and demand urgent reform from this growing out of touch government. it is for freedom's sake. it is to grow our small businesses and hire more people. we know things must change rapidly in order to let the private sector growth. there is no such sense of urgency here in washington. life around here is a really good materially. our permanent political class is content. they are immune to the realities that the rest of us face. they play by a different set of rules. look at the epa. it is hurting our energy independence to be secure.

it is enslaving us to these foreign dangerous supplies of energy instead of tapping into our own god-given forces of energy under our foot. that is what the epa is about. you have to ask yourself, when is the last time you saw epa prevent constructing a new government building? [laughter] maybe instead of calling washington a swamp, maybe we should call it a wetland. maybe that will slow down the growth of government. [applause] now, the old washington of our founders, it is a place where you came to serve for government and not prosper on it. you left your home and your farm. you left your industry behind to serve the common good.

this washington is a place where politicians arrive as men and women of modest means. they become plutocrats. the money-making opportunities are really at less. enrichn't just themselves off of you for themselves. they spread the wealth around to their pals. this is called crony capitalism. [cheers and applause] i said in a speech over the summer, this is not the capitalism of the free men and free markets, of risk and sacrifice and innovation and hard work. it is the capitalism of connections and of government bailouts and hand out and waste and corporate welfare and corruption. this is the capitalism of barack obama and the permanent

political class. it is why i think occupy protesters, you are occupying the wrong place and protesting the wrong thing. [cheers and applause] this crony capitalism is a root of our economic problems. it has spurred the expansion of government. it diminishes freedom and opportunity for all to rise and to succeed. some politicians get elected by promising more programs and a new freebies and favors. government grows to accommodate their promises. it never shrinks. that crowds out the liberating individual initiative and the equal opportunity that america was built upon. it swallows of the work ethic that we try to teach our

children. often they come to washington, d.c. denouncing the place as a cesspool of corruption. after one year or two, they decide, no, it is not a cesspool. it is like a hot tub. [laughter] they are jumping in and enjoying the jacuzzi. it is time we drain the jacuzzi and we throw the bums out with the bathwater. [applause] [cheers and applause] we took a good first step in 2010. as much as the media wants you to forget, tea party won a historic victory.

[cheers and applause] we, the people, we rose up and step up. we said we do not want a big government agenda. we will not pay for it. now these points that i make about congress, i want to be clear. i toast the tea party members there and congress. many of them who have fought so bravely against the status quo. they have agreed with us that you cannot get out of debt digging deeper into debt. some have an voted to give the president and other plastic credit card that our grandkids will have to pay off for us. barack obama has dismissed them. he has lied about them. they have held their ground. they have kept their promises to the people who hired them.

now they need reinforcements. will you help them? [applause] this november we will take back the senate and we will fortified the house. be aware patriots, we will elect more and this time we will expect them to get leadership in congress. [applause] but to fix obama's washington, to return power to the people, we must replace obama at the ballot box. he is sinking our ship of state.

when the a ship is going down, and the last thing you need is the community organizer reorganizing the deck chairs while singing "let's stay together." [laughter] [applause] we should not forget that for all of his lofty rhetoric, he is a chicago politician. britain " -- quid pro quo, that is the chicago way. though you do not make any friends in the establishment doing it, i fought to the corrupt political machine. barack obama used it to advance. he never challenged it. he never changed it. he brought it here with him.

now in the campaign, he will try to reinvent himself as the champion of the workingman. well, sorry, but no. he is the champion of the power player who will bankroll his million-dollar campaign. world only knows how many more solyndras are out there who he promised to finance them. we do not know who our nominee will be to come up against the barack obama and his policies in the fall, but we know this election will be hard fought. our nominee must be ready, strong, up fortified, passionate, a fighter for american ideals. [applause]

[cheers and applause] our candidate must be somebody who can instinctively turn right to constitutional conservative principles. it is too late in the game to teach it or spin it at this point. it is either there or it is not. [applause] all of these challenges facing america. all of these questions -- our candidates are trying to articulate the right answer. it is through often defog the filter of a biased media. these campaign managers are not

ready to run for dogcatcher but they will tell candid it's what to say. a candid its true intention, they can be found in that candidate's view of government itself. my view comes directly from the most incredible blue print, it seems providential lead that they were crafted back then. our charters of liberty. they asserted that liberty is in the power of the people. the government originates within the power of the people's ideas. he who inherently believes that, that is who i am looking for. that is who we are looking for in our nominees. we have all heard from these experts that we have to name our nominee right now. wrap it up. no debate for you. cut it off. as if competition weakens our nominee.

in america, we believe competition strengthens us. competition elevates our game. [applause] competition will lead us to victory in 2012. i believe that the competition has to keep going. let's make sure this competition brings out the best in our party. [cheers and applause] we know that the far left and their media out -- media allies cannot be us on the issues. they will smear our record and smear our reputations. they will attack our families. let's not do the job for them. ok republicans? ok, independence? -- independents? the attempt to destroy it will continue.

we cannot let the next ticket go through that. we cannot let them divide us. we must stand as conservatives with common sense and with a servant hard for the good of our party. more importantly for the sake of our country, we must stand united. whoever our nominee is, we must work together to get him over the finish line so that he can start rebuilding the defense of our republic. [cheers and applause] and then next year at this time, this time next year we will have a true conservative in the oval office.

next year maybe he be here speaking to us at cpac. we will have a president who defends our way of life instead of apologizing for it. we will have a commander in chief worthy of our troops. [applause] our troops, those in uniform who are serving something greater than themselves, sacrificing much around a dangerous world so that we at home can enjoy the blessings of liberty, and they represent the best of america. in their honor, please note we are so blessed to live in the greatest nation ever known. do not squander this. remember ronald reagan's

inaugural address. he acknowledged we had been set aside in a very special way. we must not stray from our noble beginnings. he reminded us we be a free people living in faith with our makers and our future. standards of right and wrong to exist, and they must be lived up to. we are the heirs of patriots who cast off the chains of tyranny. immigrants who braved the seas. of pioneers who pushed into the great unknown. of soldiers who stormed foreign shores. farmers and workers laboring in farms and factories from dusk to dawn. they toiled so their children could have a better life. that is the america, and that is freedom.

that is why we are exceptional. [cheers and applause] as president obama lacks a vision to lead, we will lead it. the door is open. our vision is as bold and strong and free as the country that we loved it. it is the vision of government that works for us and not against us. it is rooted in the old washington of our founders, not the washington of today's political class. of liberty and of empowerment. it is a vision that our heroes throughout history proved through liberating strife, their selfless love of country.

it is the enduring vision of this land that god had shed his grace upon. we will cherish it and fight for it. the door is opened. god bless you, patriots. god bless the united states of america. [cheers and applause] ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪ ♪ ♪ [crowd chanting 'sarah' >> should your present have a biased and that the call moral standards and be an example to the young people in this country. shouldn't this live make the role model for your future children? shouldn't and when you elect to this office always keep his promises? >> as candidate's campaign promises, we look back at 49

iran for the office and lost. go to our website, c-span.org/ the contenders to see video of the contenders to have a lasting impact on the politics of america. >> to the night -- do they not have right to protest against a government that does not serve their interests. who appointed us to sacrifice the lives of young americans trying to weigh in on this side of a government that represents perhaps 15% of the people of lebanon and has little or no apparent support from the other 85%. >> c-span.org/the contenders. >> the results of the week-long maine republic and caucuses have been a result -- have been announced.

>> republican presidential candidate and u.s. congressman ron paul addressed his supporters in portland, maine following his second place finish in the caucasus. this is about 20 minutes. >> thank you. thank you. [cheers and applause] thank you. just remember -- the revolution is just beginning. we have a ways to go. i do want to recognize the staff and all of you. thank you very much. it encourages me because it is an important issue. thank you.

but, you know, i have won slightly discouraging announcement. i wish all of the caucus had met today. i was disappointed there was one caucus that i think we would have done very well. we lost by almost 200 votes. it is almost like we could call it a tie. but anyway, the votes will be counted. all of the caucuses -- caucuses will meet. if i were a betting man, and i do not have $10,000 to bet. i would bet that we will control the main the caucus. [cheers and applause] -- the maine caucus. [cheers and applause]

it would have been great to win out right to the straw vote, but it will be even greater to win the delegate votes. [cheers and applause] and that is going to happen. momentum will continue. we are not going away. we will be in all these places where we will continue to pick up delegates. that is for one good reason, we have the message that americans need at this particular time. [applause] the wonderful thing is, the message is not complex. everybody understands it. the message is liberty. that is the message. that means we want our freedom. we want each and every individual to have freedom not because they belong to a group or one state or the other, it is because we are individuals.

we are born with our freedoms. we have a natural right to our liberties. if you have a right to your life, if you have a right to your liberty to run your life as you choose. if that is the case, the goal that we have is for all of us to be able to keep the fruits of our labor. [applause] this is not a brand new concept. it was an american concept that was working very well. decades ago we started slipping away. we forgot about what brought about prosperity and production. there are only three things that can do that.

one important issue for prosperity to thrive, you have to have an honest monetary system. [cheers and applause] [chanting "end the fed"] if we do not do it, they will do it to themselves. it is nonviable. the funny money system -- the fiat money system makes no sense whatsoever. it is coming to an end. [applause] we always believed in liberty, but we never did a good job of selling it, especially when we were prosperous and consuming our wealth.

it is now we have to grab the moral high ground. for too long those who wanted to take your wealth and give it to somebody else or get involved into your social life and tell you how to live and to get involved in other countries, that is coming to an end. the country is bankrupt. the most important thing americans can do right now is admit the truth. we cannot deny the truth. we cannot continue this way. we have to go in either a desperately wrong position, or we have to stop the nonsense and not go backwards and act as we did 200 years ago but picked up on that. freedom was never perfect. freedom it was developed over centuries. it is said to me when i see some of the fundamentals that were recognized at the time of the magnet card that all of a 7 -- we are undermining some of these principles. -- the magna car to the and all of a sudden we are under minding

some of these principles. we have gotten careless and strip it away. now the country is waking up for financial reasons. everybody knows we are bankrupt. the world -- it is a dollar fee on system that engulfs the world. do you think we are in this by ourselves? nope. the are writing -- rioting in greece because they have to cut a little bit. what is the plan? bernanke is planning on the bailing them out with our dollars. [boos] we have been liquidating debt the past three or four years. it needs to stop. [cheers and applause]

what should the role of government be? the founders did not like the role that the king had. the revolution was one of the rare times that a overthrow of government delivered more freedom to the people that they had before the revolution. look around the world today, unfortunately they are ending up with even less. we had a more liberty, not less liberty. we need to understand how important it is. the role of government should be no more complicated than guaranteeing the right to your life and liberty. what does that mean? it means the government should be out of the economy. you have regulations a property rights and the market.

you have the regulations of sound money. the regulations that do not bail out anybody that comes to the government for bail out. those are truly market oriented. it means the government should be out of our social lives. for too long we have taken liberty and chop it into two pieces. it is one in the same, because it is individual liberties with the right to our life and liberty. [cheers and applause] we have to have the property rights. we have to have sound money. we have to have limited government and restraint. we also have to have a different foreign policy. we have a foreign policy that is

deeply flawed. it is a foreign policy that always brings great nations down. even in our recent history, what brought the soviets down? i was drafted in the 1960's. they had a 30,000 nuclear missiles. we did not have to fight them. they collapsed because of their flaw that foreign policy of over extending themselves. we are doing the same thing. people too often will say to that we are going to talk about foreign policy. the other that we will talk about economic policy. how could you talk about economic policy without talking about all of the spending overseas? that is why we need all of the troops to come home. [cheers and applause] we need a policy that is

constitutional. the founders gave us good guidelines. we have a responsibility to a strong national defense. but today the president does not come to the congress and the people. they just go to war. sometimes they do not even consult with congress. but they are always ready to go to nato and take their marching orders from the u. n. a foreign policy of minding our own business and staying out of nation-building -- that is the road to peace and prosperity. that is what we have to go for. under the circumstances we live in today where we allow our government as big as it can be, the governments cannot grow without undermining personal liberty. no matter how a new regulation comes about, it undermines our personal liberty. people get frightened and you

hear about foreign-policy issues or you hear about economic issues, they think i am frightened. the government is supposed to take care of me. i have a right to this. they are so willing to give up freedoms. you cannot be safer by giving up your liberty. we never should have to give up our liberty in order to pretend that we might be a little safer. [cheers and applause] [chanting "ron paul"] when we get our freedom back again, things will look differently. we will not have a patriot act that repeals the fourth

amendment. [applause] if we have our freedoms back, we will not have a president that assumes the right to assassinate american citizens. that is wrong. [applause] also, we would look at the national defense authorization act and make sure that the army has no ability and no power to arrest american citizens not charged with any crime, not convicted, hauled off into prisons, the nine attorneys, and jailed indefinitely. that is not the american we will live in. we have to protect the civil liberties of all american citizens. [cheers and applause]

the great thing about a free society, there is no reason why we cannot sell this and let the other side have a moral high ground. he wanted freedom because there will be more freedom for everyone. we have to realize that if we do not do this, it is going to get a lot worse. that is what our big concerns are. freedom brings people together. this is why our crowds are so diverse. people come together not because we agree on how to use our freedom, but we want our freedom to use it as we choose. [cheers and applause] this is where we are making the great progress. the numbers are growing by leaps and bounds.

there is a whole new generation that is excited about what we are doing. [cheers and applause] there is a whole generation that has been rather silent, people who know about it and got disgusted because they said no matter who was elected, it ended up the same. there is a secret weapon out there if we can only keep the government off of our internet. that's how the liberty can come about. [cheers and applause] you have every right to be optimistic when we see what is happening in this country. the movement is in our direction and the excitement is in our

direction and is the answer to the problems we have today -- more government is not answer. the answer comes in more liberty. thank you very much. [cheers and applause] ron paul']ting 'elct [cheers and applause]

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>> coming up next, your calls and comments on "washington journal," after that new"is makers," and then mate senate hearing with ben bernanke. >> just the -- just so i will remember, here is that wonderful moment or senator lottt bill his nostalgia for the state its rights segregation, take a look. >> when strom thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. we are proud of it. >> talking points memo.com josh marshall. >> the media ecosystem is such a different world today that was

about 10 years ago. and like that happen all the time now and there is certainly many big stories that tpm has had over the last decade, more and more. we have an editorial staff of 20 people so we are breaking stories right and left. it has almost become commonplace and it is not nearly as surprising today as it was back then. >> more about tpm and judge marshall tonight at 8:00 on cspan's "q &a." >> this morning, citizens united president talks about the impact suoper-pacs and president obama's decision to support the priorities usa action and an author and radio talk-show host bill press