and the district of columbia. that's "the ed show." the "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening. good evening. thanks my friend. thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. this hour we do have results from the republican primaries in washington, d.c. and maryland. polls in both of those places closed an hour ago at 8:00 p.m. eastern. in maryland nbc projects that mitt romney is the winner by a significant margin. in maryland we have 9% vote in. mr. romney with 53% of the vote. mr. san to rtorum with 27% of t volt. in washington, d.c. mitt romney is projected as the winner. mr. santorum didn't bother putting his name on the ballot.

ding beginning and ron paul behind him. rick santorum not an option for district of columbia republican voters today. in wisconsin, polls have just closed now at 9:00 p.m. eastern. nbc news is characterizing the race in wisconsin as too early to call but with mitt romney leading rick santorum. the call right now in wisconsin, it's too early to call. the wisconsin republican primary is 100 years old today. actually, yesterday it's 100 years old. the first time wisconsin had a primary was april 2nd, 1912. republicans picked bob three years ago. they picked a guy named george norris.

it was not until wisconsin republicans had been picking presidential nominees for 44 years. it was not until it will mid-1950s that wisconsin republicans picked somebody that went onto win the no, ma'am medication when they picked eisenhower. wisconsin republicans are independent minded. they go their own way or they go their own way when the race isn't decided by the time the race gets to wisconsin. for the past 30 years or so the republican nomination contest has mostly already been decided by the time wisconsin republicans got to vote. that's the question of the day today. is that the case again? is the mitt romney nomination a fore gone conclusion or is there still some life to any of the other possibilities particularly rick santorum? one of the things that's interesting to watch on these election nights is where the candidates physically are. it sells you what their expectations are for the nights results. with d.c., maryland and

wisconsin voting today, ron paul is doing a town hall meeting in chico, california. okay. rick santorum is in mars, pennsylvania. newt gingrich is nowhere. he has no events and mitt romney is in milwaukee which might means he expects to win wisconsin. two of the states that border wisconsin, minnesota and iowa did both go rick santorum's way earlier this year. it's worth noting that maryland shares a long border with rick santorum's state of pennsylvania which rick santorum said yesterday he guarantees he will win. mr. santorum did not bother campaigning in maryland before today for even a single day of campaigning. mr. romney won maryland today without even much having to try. rick santorum does not want to be thought of as out of this race. he's been priming the pump for days now trying to your his

supporters to tonight's losses. >> we knew that april would billibe a very tough month for us. this is a series of state, rhode island, new york and connecticut and d.c. and maryland, these are not conservative states. we have some states that we know we can run well in. wisconsin is one. pennsylvania we know we can win. we know that the month of may is rich with delegates and strong states for us. states like texas and arkansas and kentucky and indiana and west virginia and north carolina. those are the states we know we can get this right back to where it was now, which is a lot closer to what mitt romney and the pundits are spending. by the end of may we expect this race to be close to even. >> this is a very close race by the end of may we'll be close to even. rick santorum would like you to know he's in this race until the

end or until may. he think he will have a great may. in may mitt romney may have some trouble. mitt romney may face some states that may make this year's long slog of romney still longer and sl sloggier. we bring in john and steve. thanks for being here in in maryland and washington good night for mr. romney. he's leading in wisconsin. it's too early to call there. rick santorum is talking about may and future contests. that's in part to say i'm not leaving, don't call for me to get out of the race. does he have a point that he may do well in may and if the race is still seen as being alive that mitt romney might have

trouble? >> yeah. the reason he could have trouble in may is because there's been a resistance to mitt romney that's been demographically per sis tent. if you look at the republican voting universe, if that voting universe is 50% or more composed of evangelical christians, rom has not been able to win it. nothing in maryland, nothing in the district of columbia and nothing in wisconsin will change that. if you heard that list that rick santorum rattled off there, you look at those states in may, the republican universes substantially over 50% evangelical christians. the nature of the evangelical opposition to mitt romney, is that something unique to him. is it the mormon factor.

some say is it he used to be pro-choice. they don't really trust him on abortion. we could have a spectacle of going into may. >> is the romney campaign worried about that or would they be right to worried about that? is there prime interest of making it go away? >> yes. they want to focus on the general election. president obama gave a forceful speech. yes, can rick santorum win primaries in may? absolutely he can win in may. can he stop mitt romney from getting the nomination? his chances of that are about as good add winning the next lottery. they are hoping if they get a win in wisconsin tonight, sweep wisconsin that there will be a

moment of reflection and reassessment on the part of rick santorum, and he may decide not to go to pennsylvania. it's hard to imagine that because i talked to santorum campaign this afternoon. they said you're going to hear a battle cry for pennsylvania in rick santorum's speech tonight. he thinks that would be an vent even if he loses everything else that would kick start him going into these more favorable states in may. josh putnam said if you just take the demonstrate congratulatic performance, apply that to the rest of the field, mitt romney is going to get to the end of the primaries with 1122 pledged delegates. that's even if you assume he gets none of the super, automatic delegates, none of the unpledged delegates from iowa where he split the vote with

rick santorum. it's difficult to see a realistic case for anyone but mitt romney winning this. >> because pennsylvania is looming, i think it's important that pennsylvania is where rick santorum is tonight. if you put yourself in rick santorum's shoes and you think what it is he's staying in for. he's joan iing it. i think he thinks it will help his issues. after having lost his seat in the senate by 18 points in pennsylvania, the only way he can go back to not just zero but maybe less than zero is if he goes back to pennsylvania and pennsylvania looks at him again and says no, rick, no. if pennsylvania votes rick down, he's worst off when he started this thing. if he loses it twice, isn't that disaster for him? >> that's the hope for the romney campaign is he will have a recognition and fear that that

could happen. i see no evidence of it. it's hard for candidates once they have invested their blood, sweat and tears. he's become a bigger guy in this process. he's a national figure. it's difficult for them to accept the idea that they are not going to win. the prospect of an embarrassment like that is something that might make a difference. he doesn't see it. >> how do you see that? >> there's only one candidate that's gone on and lost his home state. the interesting thing about pennsylvania is this. all the pressure is on santorum is because he's putting it on himself and it's his home state. think about the demographic stuff we're talking about with evangelical christians, if it wasn't rick santorum's home state this would not presidebe win. i still could see if this

evangelical resistance to romney is absolute, i could see him losing. >> even if rick santorum has no chance of putting together the delegates to complicate does still end up hurting mitt romney by embarrassing him. thank you for being here. we're awaiting a speech from rick santorum. rick santorum is not in wisconsin or in maryland or in d.c. tonight. he's in pennsylvania. we'll bring you that speech live when it happens. in wisconsin nbc news is calling this race too early to call but with mitt romney leading. mr. romney has won in maryland and washington, d.c. we'll be right back.

happy election night. nbc hauz projected mitt romney

the winner in washington, d.c. and maryland. right now these are the current results. the projection on the race is that it's too early to call in wisconsin, but that mitt romney is in the lead. rick santorum is in his home state of pennsylvania speaking right now to his supporters. let gee let's go to it live. >> it's great to be here with friends and family. we have now reached the point where it's halftime. half the delegates in this process have been selected. who is ready to charge out of the locker room in pennsylvania for a strong second half. it is great to be here in south western pennsylvania where i grew up in a steel town about 20 miles northeast of here in this

same county, butler, pennsylvania. this area, this area like that town and like the people in it forged steel to build this country to help win world wars and not just if we built the country and forge still to win wars, we forged people with strong values and a strong commitment to what made america great. you can applaud that too if you want to. i can always be interrupted for applause. this is why we came here. this is why we wanted to come back to south western pennsylvania to kickoff the second half. this is a part of the country, pennsylvania, that well it's

where america started. not only did we forge steel in the state, we forged liberty in this state. the symbol of the liberty bill in philadelphia. this document both the u.s. constitution and the declaration of independent forged right here in pennsylvania. there's no place where those values are more instilled than this this commonwealth. ladies and gentlemen, [ applause ] >> this great commonwealth has given a tremendous amount to our country.

if you look at our great state not only the declaration and the constitution created here, but we won key battles, washington's crossing. washington crossing the delaware to save the revolution. that plan was hatched up here in pennsylvania. some in the other camps in this race have said that all of the significant people have spoken in this race so far. general washington knew that all those significant people are te leets in society. those generals and ranks officers. what general washington understood some of the best ideas and best plans, in fact what has made this country great is that we have listened to real significant voices of every day americans and he did, and that's

why he crossed the delaware and turned the tide of the revolution. ladies and gentlemen, pennsylvania and half the other people in this country have yet to be heard, and we're going to go out and campaign here and across this nation to make sure that their voices are heard in the next few months. >> go rick. go rick, go. >> we know who we are here in pennsylvania. we know the stock that we're made of. we've contributed a lot.

great deeds have occurred here. i know. i had the privilege of representing the state in the senate for 12 years and this community here in south western pennsylvania for four. went to every one of those counties, all 67, and i understand the greatness of the people of this state. i understand how important this race is here in pennsylvania. this is called the keystone state for a reason. we are, in fact, the keystone. we're the place upon which our country was built and great things continue to happen here. great things like in manufacturing and oil and gas production here in pennsylvania that is turning our economy around and creating opportunities for us to grow our economy not just here in pennsylvania but because of lower natural gas prices we're seeing manufacturing of other businesses come back in spite of

the crushing burden that barack obama and his administration has put on our economy. we need someone that understands what liberty is all about. someone that will go out and fight and make sure that the biggest and most crushing burden that this add mgs was put on us, one that was debated just last week in the united states supreme court about government taking control of your health and as a result of your very life and dictating to you, dictating to you what you will do, how much you will pay, what insurance you will get and even what the practice of your faith will be dictated by the federal government. we need someone in this race who can go out and make the call for liberty. someone that opposed government

run health care at any level. who can make the case of what barack obama is going even what justice stephen suggests which is what obama care does and his agenda of government control of health care and his attempt to cap and trade is going to dictate how much energy you're going to use. that this is a fundamental change in the relationship between the people and their government. ladies and gentlemen, if we're going to win this race, we can't have little differences between our nominee and president obama. we have to have clear contrasting colors. in the last 120 years -- [ applause ] >> in the last 120 years we've had one time where the

republican party has defeated an incumbent democrat for president. time and time again the republican establishment have shoved down the throats of the republican party and people across this country moderate republicans because we have to win by getting people in the middle. there's one person that understood we don't win by moving to the middle. we win by getting people in the middle to move to us and move this country forward. [ applause ] >> you know who i am. you're going to hear a lot of things being thrown as happened in all the other states where

we've seen a whole bunch of negative campaigning. we've gone out across this country and with the most improbable of odds and with limited resources except one in which we've had incredible resources and that's human resources. the people of this country have stood up and followed because they've seen someone that has a clear, positive vision. someone's who's convictions are forged in steel, not on an etch a sketch. you'll be seeing the negative ads and getting the robo calls and all the other things thrown at us, but you know me. you know how hard i work. you know how strongly i believe

in the things that values of south western pennsylvania have instilled in me. you know i come from a steel town from immigrant parents, grandfather worked in the mines. someone who lived in government housing on a va grounds and saw the great sacrifice of our men and women in uniforms, serving them as they served our country. you know me. they'll say all the things that i'm someone who doesn't stand up for what i believe in. you know me. [ applause ] >> and, so, i ask you over the next three weeks, this isn't

halftime, no marching bands. we're hitting the field. the clock starts tonight. we've got three weeks to go out here in pennsylvania, and win this state and after winning this state, the field looks a little different in may. i remind everybody the one time that we did win in the last 120 years, republican party had the courage to go out and nominate someone who all the experts and all the pundits and all the media, republican establishment said couldn't win. he was too conservative. he lost almost early primary. he only won one until may. one primary until may. everybody told him to get out of the race. this was back in 1976. they said get out of the race. we need a moderate.

in 1976 ronald reagan didn't get out. he was able to stand tall in texas and win, which we have every intention of doing. [ applause ] >> go rick go! go rick, go! go rick, go! go rick, go! >> he took that race the entire way to the convention and he fell short and in the fall republicans fell short because we nominated another moderate who couldn't galvanize our party and bring those votes to our side to bring the change we need in america. four years later they fought him

again. we need another moderate. we have to defeat this democratic incumbent. this time the republican establishment lost. let's not make the mistake of 1976 again. let's bypass that era and move straight to 1980 and let's defeat a democratic incumbent. you can help me here in pennsylvania. thank you very much. god bless you. god bless you. >> former pennsylvania senator rick santorum speaking in his home state. i believe in his home district where he represented part of the district that represented when he was in the house of representivities. mr. santorum making the decision not to be in any of the states that were voting tonight. he's not in wisconsin or maryland. he was not on the ballot in washington. nbc projected mitt romney as the winner in washington and maryland. wisconsin is still too close to call. it's interesting hearing mr.

santorum's decisions in his speech. he is in part talking about president obama. talking about the issue of health reform. he goes directly to the issue of access to contraception. mr. santorum has gone at the media hard saying you're talking about contraception all the time. he's always the one bringing it up it's the only argument he made against health reform was a contraception related argument. in going after mr. romney, at the end there you heard mr. santorum in one of the best phrased portions of this ad-hoc speech comparing himself to ronald reagan when he fought a losing campaign to gerald ford. he's coming mitt romney to gerald ford who lost to jimmy

carter. it's one thing to call yourself ronald reagan, it's another thing to call someone gerald ford as an insult. i thought interesting also is a choice of words and the way that mr. santorum talked about what he sees himself being up against. he not only talked about the republican establishment as being behind mitt romney. he talked about the republican establishment and aristocracy. at this hour nbc has projected that in washington, d.c. where rick santorum was not on the ballot, mitt romney is the winner of that contest. nbc has projected that in maryland mitt romney is the winner. in wisconsin, we have very few results in so far. nbc is projebting the wisconsin race as too early to call but with mitt romney in the lead. right now too early to call in wisconsin. you can see our vote totals are

low. we've only got 5% in. we'll be watching throughout the night as they continue to come in.

what you're looking at here is the romney campaign headquarters tonight in milwaukee, wisconsin. we're expecting governor romney to be speaking to his supporters there. before he speaks, he's due to be introduced by paul ryan. paul ryan is the author of the

house republican budget which passed the house last week with about ten republican defeks and no democratic votes at all. that republican budget, paul ryan's plan, which mitt romney has embraced as tightly as anybody can embrace anything was the subject of a speech today by president obama. president obama just exscoruating that budget and the ideas in it before editors and the associated press. i think we have a clip of it here. watch. >> this congressional republican budget is something different altogether. it's a trojan horse disguised as deficit reduction plans. an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. it's thinly veiled social

darwini darwinism. by gutting the very things we need to grow an economy that's built to last, education and training, research and development. it's a prescription for decline. thp is now the party's governing fl platform. this is what they are running home. governor romney said he hopes a similar version of this plan from last year would be introduced as a bill on day one of his presidency. he said he's very supportive of this new budget. he even called it marvelous, which is a word you don't often hear when it comes to describing a budget. it's a word you don't often hear generally. >> joining us now is stephanie cutter.

she's a deputy campaign manager of president obama's re-election effort. thank you very much for being here. i appreciate your time. >> thanks. good to be here. >> we're awaiting a speech from governor romney tonight in milwaukee, wisconsin. he be introduced by paul ryan. he and paul ryan have been joined at the hip the last few days. why did the president focus on the house republican budget and name mitt romney personally in this speech today? does he see mitt romney's policy essentially as what paul ryan has prescribed? >> well, yes because mitt romney said that his policy is what ryan described. he's been campaigning with ryan over the past week traveling around wisconsin saying ta one of the first things he'd do as president is pass the ryan budget. i think it was appropriate to

mention him today and talk about the consequences of ryan's policies, romney's policies, the ryan-romney budget on seniors and middle class. >> what was the allegation that it was thinly veiled social darwinism? i think about letting the weak die and letting the strong survive. is that what the president was saying? >> look at what the budget does. it ends medicare. it's the largest cut in medicaid we have seen. it makes the mid class and seniors pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. >> i have to interrupt you for a moment. i never interrupt. we have call in this race. nbc can now project that the republican primary in wisconsin has been won by former massachusetts governor, mitt romney. again, mitt romney the projected winner in wisconsin, maryland and washington, d.c.

only 10% in but mitt romney has been called projected winner. we're still joined by stephanie cutter who is the deputy campaign manager. that's the one really important thing i have to do that for. continue what you were saying about the social darwinism allegation. that's a very harsh critique. you think that's warranted. >> it's harsh but it's accurate. it's the trickle down theory that we have tried over the last decade that didn't work. we had the lowest job growth that we have seen in half a century. we saw the middle class squeeze and the wealthiest get wealthier. that's now how you build an economy that's meant to last. that's what the preponderasiden talking about. let the wealthiest americans continue to get ahead while the middle class get squeezed. look at the impact of the ryan

budget not just from the obama administration or this campaign by independent experts. it would kick hundreds of thousands of kids off of head start. it's the largest cut in history on medicaid which means people would be kicked out of nursing homes. it's not how you build a strong economy. it's not balanced approach to reducing our deficit and it's not an approach that the american people support. >> let me ask you about one last strategic issue that i think i saw in the speech but i'm in the sure i'm seeing it right. i think he name checked six different republican presidents in this speech. he talked about how a lot of the things that he's criticized now he's called socialism now are things that republicans not that long ago embraced as their own ideas. in doing that and in name checking republican presidents and talking about how

republicans have been willing to abandon their own ideas now that president obama supports the idea, i felt like he was not just criticizing republicans but trying to peel off republican voters who may think of themselves as consistent on policy. who may think of them being practically oriented. peopling off republicans from a republican party that no longer seems to practical and no longer seems so wedded to pragmatic policy. is that the aim of campaign in are you trying to repeal to republican voters? >> i think that the president was pointing out basic facts that the republican party is out of touch with mainstream america. there used to be mainstream sector of the republican party that no longer exists. we've seen it throughout this primary contest. look how far rmitt romney has rn to the right. look how far right positions

he's taken including calling himself severely conservative. the mainstream republican party that we used to know that would come together and support things like cap and trade and supported individual mandate because it was the right thing to do to reduce our cost and bring everybody into our health care system. those people no longer exist. they're not running the party in washington and not running in president. >> stephanie cutter, deputy campaign manager for president obama's campaign. thank you for talking with us tonight. >> thank you. we are expecting to hear from mitt romney shortly. he's going to be introduced by paul rye yoan of wisconsin. the big news is nbc has projected mitt romney to be the winner not only in washington, d.c. and maryland but in wisconsin. we'll be right back.

in milwaukee, wisconsin right now in romney headquarters, paul ryan is speaking to romney supporters and introducing the governor. let's listen. >> to deliver all those electoral votes for rom tonight.

[ applause ] >> here in wisconsin, i want to thank senator ron johnson. i want to thank my good friend congressman jim senbrenner and senator alberta darling. thank you for all your hard work. i also want to thank my good buddy mark green for what he's done for this campaign tonight. you know, we all know that president obama cannot run on his record. we know he can't run on his broken promises. after the 2010 election when the voters told him to go a different direction, to change

course, did he moderate? did he do that? no. he doubled down on his partisan agenda. so, if he can't run on his record and if he won't change course, then what does he have left? you know, we found out today he is going to try to divide us in order to distract us. you know, i seem to remember him saying he was going to be a uniter, not a divider. frankly, i think this is one of the worst of his broken promises. we don't need campaigner in chief. we need a commander in chief. we need a leader that america deserves.

the presidency is bigger than this. he was supposed to be bigger than this. we need solutions, not excuses. we need a president who takes the lead. not one who spreads the blame. we need someone who appeals to our dreams and aspirations, not to our fears and anxieties. >> congressman paul ryan of wisconsin serving as the warm up act for mitt romney who is due to address his supporters in milwaukee, wisconsin having been projected to be the winner of the wisconsin primary as well as in maryland and washington, d.c. honestly, had congressman ryan been making any news there i would have stuck into him but once he got into the string of bumper stickers, i decided we would go for some substance to

dan. it's great to have you with us. >> thanks. >> i know you've been covering this primary today in wisconsin and also the recall, the forthcoming recall in wisconsin. the recall of the governor there. does it seem that the walker recall has, i guess, overshadowed this republican primary in the state. which seems like a bigger deal? >> it seems like the recall is the more mornts one. the candidates said this is the first state they have come to where they played second fiddle. all of these elections are very much connected. the romney campaign has created a very large and elaborate infrastructure here, which i'm sure walker's team will try to use for the recall in june and it's true that if walker loses, there's almost no way that romney will win the state. so everyone realizes how interconnected these things are.

>> standby. we're going to dip into mitt romney's comments like in milwaukee right now. thanks. hold on. >> congressman ryan, he's a great leader, wonderful speaker, but he's not going to take ann's place. thank you for providing the thank you. thank you to senator johnson . d thank you to wisconsin, maryland and washington, d.c. we won them all. this really has been quite a night. we have won a great victory tonight in our campaign to restore the promise of america. here in the heartland, you know you're not going to find americans with bigger hearths than the people of wisconsin.

as i've been traveling across the state, i visited with far too many whose hearts are so many good and decent people seem to be running harder just to stay in place, and for many no matter how hard they're running, every day it seems to put them further behind. it's that way across so much of america, too much of america. under this president's watch more americans have lost their jobs than during any other period since the depression. millions have lost their homes. a record number of americans are now living in poverty, and the most vulnerable are the ones that have been hurt the most. 30% of single moms are now living in poverty. new business startups, and that's normally where we get job growth after a recession, new business startups are down to the lowest level in 30 years. of course, you know our national debt is at a record high.

when you drive home tonight and you stop by the gas station, just take a look at the prices and then ask yourself four more years of that? i agree. that's dwr it's important to understand one extraordinary fact about this election. president obama thinks he's doing a good job. i'm not kidding. he actually thinks he's doing a great job. he thinks he's doing an historically great job like abraham lincoln and lbj and fdr. he did not say that on "saturday night live." it's enough to make you think that years of flying around in air force one surrounded by an adoring staff of true believers telling you you're great and doing a great job, it's enough to make you think you're out of touch with that. that's what happened. this campaign will deal with complicated issues. there's a basic choice we're

going to face. the president has pledged to transform america, and he spent the last four years laying the foundation for a new government-centered society. i will spend the next four years rebuilding the foundation of an opportunity society led by free people and free enterprises. you know, the different visions we have i think are a product of the different lives we've led, the life experiences, the values we have. when he was a community organizer and communities were hurt by plant closings, his reaction was to turn to the government for help. he saw free enterprise as the villain, and government as a solution. he never seemed to grasp the very basic point that a plant closes when a business loses money. so today when the president attacks business and his

policies make it more difficult for business to grow and prosper, he's attacking the very communities he wanted to help, or at least that's how it works when america is working. under barack obama america hasn't been working. the ironic tragedy is that the community organizer who wanted to help those hurt by a plant closing because the president on whose watch more jobs have been lost than anytime since the great depression. in barack obama's government-centered society, the government has to do more because the economy is doomed to do less. because when you attack business and you vilify success, you're going to have less business and less success. then, of course, the debate becomes about how much to extend unemployment insurance because you've guaranteed that there will be millions more unemployed. in barack obama's government-centered society, tax increases not only become a

necessity but also a desired tool for social justice. in that world of shrinking means, there's a finite amount of money. as someone said you need to have some taxes to spread the wealth around. in barack obama's government-centered society, government spending always increases because, well, why not? there's always someone who is entitled to something more and who is willing to vote for anyone who will give them something more. by the way, we know where that kind of -- that transformation of a free society into a government-centered society leads, because there are other nations that followed that path. it leads to chronic high unemployment, crushing debt, and stagnant wages. it's beginning to sound familiar, isn't it? i don't want to transform america. i want to restore to america the economic values of freedom and

opportunity and limited government that have made us the powerhouse of the world. it's opportunity, it's opportunity, not a check from government, it's opportunity that has always driven america to define us as americans. i'm not naive enough to believe free enterprise is the solution to all of our problems. nor am i naive enough to doubt it's one of the greatest forces for good this world has ever known. free enterprise has done more to lift people out of poverty, to help build a strong middle class, to help educate kids and to make you're lives better than all the programs of government combined.

if we become one of those societies that attacks success, why not commit certain. there's a lot less success, and that's not who we are. the promise of america has always been if you worked hard, had the right values, took some risks that there was an opportunity to build a better life for your family and for your next generation. this means that government has to be smaller and centhave stri limits placed on its power. obama care violates both those principles, and i will get rid of it. taxes have to be as low as possible, and in line with those of the competing nations around the world designed to foster inoue strags and growth. that's why i will cut marginal taxes across the board. i want to create good jobs in this country. let's get the taxes down for

employers! now, we, of course, understand in a free market that regulations are necessary and critical, but they have to be continuously updated, streamlined, modernized, and regulators have to see their job not just as cracking down on the bad guys but also as protecting economic freedom and promoting enterprise and fostering job creation. washington has to become the ally of business and not the opposition of business. now, workers should have the right to join unions, but unions shouldn't be forced upon workers. unions should not have the power to take money out of their members' paychecks to buy the support of politicians favored by the union bosses.

you know, out of touch liberals like barack obama say they want a strong economy, but in everything they do they show they don't like business very much. but the economy, of course, is simply the product of all the businesses in the nation added together. so it's a bit like saying you like an omelet but you don't like eggs. to build a strong economy that provides good jobs and rising wages and that reduces poverty, we have to build successful businesses of every kind imaginable, and president obama has been attacking successful businesses of every kind imaginable. we've always been a country of dreamers where dreamers can have dreams, where one dream helps launch another. if those dreamers are rewarded with prosperity, we view that as a reason for others we encourage to dream big as well. these last few years have been difficulty. made a lot worse by the mistakes and failures of the president's

leadership. if the hill before us is a little steeper, we've been a nation of big steppers. in this last year i've been all over the country from student unions to kitchen tables, from factory break rooms to boardrooms, and i've heard frustration and anger, but rarely hopelessness. a lot of americans have given up on the president, but they haven't thought about giving up. not on themselves. not on each other. and not on america. we have a duty placed upon our shoulders by the founders of the nation, a sacred duty to restore the promise of america, and we'll do it. we'll do it because