 Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, and Mrs. Reagan. My goodness, it's wonderful to see all of you again. And I wish to thank Frank and Maureen for getting us all together. And I'd like to extend a very special greeting to my own State Chairman, Bob Naylor, and say happy birthday, Bob. And a special thanks to each and every one of you. Your role as party leaders is not always an easy one. And I appreciate that all that you do on my behalf and for the Republican Party. These are exciting days for us. The presidential campaign is getting underway. And if you've been watching the TV debates, I think the contrast and the candidates of the two parties and their political philosophies is pretty clear. And clear not just to you and me. It's most important the American people are hearing from the Democratic presidential candidates the same tired lines they've heard from Democratic senators and congressmen ever since I took office. We want to cut taxes. They want to raise them. We send in a budget with spending cuts. They call it dead on arrival. We want the balanced budget amendment and the line item veto and they oppose them. We want tough anti-crime legislation. They hold it up for three years in the Congress. We want judges who are firm with criminals. And the Democrats' record of past judicial appointments on this point speaks for itself. We want a prayer amendment. They won't let it come to a vote. We stress firmness with the Soviets. They try to pass legislation that would tie our hands in arms negotiations. The point about all of this is how long it's gone on. Time and again over the past seven years on issue after issue the American people have seen the contrast between the two parties. I think an image of our opponents as the party of high taxes, big spending and weak foreign policy is embedded now in the consciousness of the American people. An image that contrasts very favorably with our party which has brought America its longest peacetime economic expansion and its most significant foreign policy breakthroughs in a long time. All of this is starting to sink in with the American public. But don't get me wrong. The members of the other party aren't yet aware of the bind that seven years of opposition to our policies has put them in with the American public. In fact, some of those folks on the other side are talking pretty confidently about a Democratic party victory in November. Well, forgive me, but you know that reminds me a little bit of a story about Napoleon. On the morning of Waterloo, he had breakfast with his generals. And Napoleon said, I tell you Wellington is a bad general. The English are bad soldiers. We'll settle the matter by lunchtime. Waterloo. Well, I think you know what I mean. 1988 is an unparalleled opportunity for Republicans not only the presidency, not only the presidency but the Congress as well. You see, we need to activate the American people. They're ready for a strong message from our party about the contrast in our approaches to government. We need to show them what the future would be like if our policies were replaced with those of our opponents. As you know, in the Senate, we need only five seats to regain control. And believe me, the last year has taught me how important it is to have key chairmen ships back in Republican control. If we hadn't had the Senate for those six years while they had the House, we wouldn't have been able to do very many of the things that we were able to accomplish. And now it's back to them with both ways. In the House, the opportunity is also there for a real change. In addition to leaving the next president of Congress that will work with him, not against him, we have to focus in on our governors and state legislatures, especially with that all-important redistricting that's coming up in 1991. You all know how important that is. The Republican congressional vote increased by 500,000 votes in the 1984 election. But the other party won 30 more seats than we did. So you can see the cost of gerrymandering. We need to make this point, too, to the American people. They've been in charge for more than 50 years now of the reapportionment every 10 years. And when I saw what they did when I was governor of California, I had to say the only Republican district they left was south of the border. They have a sense of fairness. The people, and I think they're not going to like the idea of our electoral system being tampered with the way it has been. I want you all to know that I'm going to be out there actively working with you for our candidates. As you and I bring our message to the country, we will also be able to advance our case for the unfinished business of this administration. The vote coming up soon on the contrary is vital to the cause of freedom in this hemisphere and to the national security of this nation. So, too, the INF Treaty, the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement, and the approval of Judge Kennedy's appointment to the Supreme Court are on the docket early this year. In each of these battles, I'm going to need your help, just as I'm going to need your help to continue building on the great foundation that the Republican Party has built during the 1980s. It's this legacy of conservative ideals, of international respect, fiscal restraint, and pride in America that all of you did so much to make the story of this decade. Your support over the last seven years has been critical to many of our successes. Already there are those who are trying to call this decade a time of greed or selfishness. A lot of the liberals who were proved wrong about our policies now want to rewrite history and make our economic success sound like a small or a narrow thing. The truth is that in this decade, we saw tremendous progress economically for all classes of Americans, but especially for the poor and the minorities, contrary to what those other candidates are saying out there. I'm proud, for example, that black family income went up 40 percent faster than the income for other families. This kind of reminds me of what one publication, sympathetic to Germany here in America, wrote before the outbreak of World War II, when it was trying to counter American sympathies for Great Britain. This is what was written. Quite a number of people describe the German classical author Shakespeare as belonging to English literature because quite accidentally born at Stratford on Avon, he was forced by the authorities of that country to write English. Well, as I say, our great ally in all of this is the American people. They know the history, they know the truth, they know what took place in this decade, and they know the kind of future they want for their children. With all of us working together, that's exactly the kind of future we can give them. We've already begun the work on the foundation. And I want you to know that I'll be with you and Maureen and Frank every inch of the way. The time is ripe for us Republicans to retain the Oval Office, take control of the Senate, and make surprising gains in the House of Representatives. We've come so far together. Let's finish the job. Now, I've said the things that the American people know, but I've been amazed recently in a dinner table conversation here and there with people that are well informed as you are and that you think would be aware of what I'm now going to tell you, but I've been amazed at how few people have really given thought to some figures that have to be changed and fairness alone, of which the American people are so capable. If they know the story, I think will be of help to us. 57 years. Over these 57 years, the Democrats have had the House of Representatives for 53 of those 57 years. The Senate, they've had for 47 of those 53 years. The only time that a Democratic president had a Republican Congress was for one two-year term out of the eight years of Harry Truman. All the other Democratic presidents in all those years have had Democratic Congresses. The Republicans, only one Republican president up until 1980 or through 1980, only one Republican president had a Republican Congress for two of his eight years, Eisenhower. All the rest of the Republican presidents have served with Democratic Congresses. Beginning with 81, I did have the Senate, as mentioned before, for six years, but now we're back for the last two with them having both Houses of the Congress. Now, some people believe that part of our checks and balances system is based in the idea of a Congress of one party and a president of the other. That isn't true at all. And what we have to show to the American people, I don't think they are aware that this has been going on and that in all of these 57 years, only eight times, eight single years, has the budget been balanced. And they have the nerve then to say that the unbalanced budget, the deficit spending, is our fault. The president can't spend the nickel, except of his own money. They have been responsible all these years. And do you remember for more than a half a century when we protested, they said, it's necessary for prosperity and it doesn't matter because we owe it to ourselves. Well, now the time has come. So I think that if we can convince the people of what's been going on, then I think just sheer fairness may turn some of this around for us. And certainly we need it turned around. And now somebody else here on the platform, and I just brought her some good news tonight. Every year they survey the college freshmen in this country. That means the kids that are 18 years of age. And they survey them on a matter of how would they feel about legalizing marijuana. Ten years ago in 1977, 53% of them said yes to legalized marijuana. 1987, only 20% of them. I want to thank you and I want to say you know that old saying that politics makes strange bedfellows. She's been traveling around the country so much I can tell you it breaks up. Bedfellows. Thank you all and God bless you.