 Thank you very much, and welcome all of you to the White House here. And let me say a special welcome to your chairman, Ambassador Joe Rogers. I just told him I was going to blame him and say he made me late coming here, but I won't. And to Pat Barrett, who did an outstanding job heading up your youth initiative program. Two hundred years ago this month, we all know a small group of men met in a room in Philadelphia to draft a new order for the ages. For the two centuries since then, the constitution they drafted has been the enduring guide for what they called the great experiment, and Lincoln called the last best hope of earth, the United States of America. The heart of that experiment, the living soul of that hope was and is the simple proposition that the people should control the government and not the other way around. I delight when I meet with young people in schools and tell them how many constitutions I have read of other countries, and how much they are like ours in many ways, except for that one difference. Their constitutions are documents in which the government tells the people what they can do, and ours is a document that says the people are telling the government what it can do. Let's keep it that way. You, the supporters of Vote America, are in the forefront of helping to keep that experiment a success and to keep that hope alive. Without the right to vote, there's no American experiment. Everything that's great in our nation arises out of that broad right, just as the majestic Rockies rise out of the vast great plains. And yet, over the last few decades, too many Americans have, in effect, given up their vote. Too many have said, well, I'm busy on election day, or my vote doesn't count much anyway, or I'm going to be away, and it's too complicated to get an absentee ballot, and the result has been that fewer and fewer people have shown up at the polls. It was quite a shock to me when that first in many, many decades, that first democratic election occurred in El Salvador, and with the guerrillas, the communist guerrillas, threatened to kill the people on their way to the polls, and a woman stood there, wounded by rifle fire, and refused to leave the line until she had voted. And there were other stories similar to that, and I think about 83 percent of the people wound up voting. We haven't had that high a percentage vote in this country, where all they have to do is just walk down to the polling place and get it over with. And we've got to change that. Incidentally, let me say that Will Rogers, the great kind of country philosopher that he was, Will Rogers once said, the people in public office are no better and no worse than the people who sent them there. But they're all better than the people who didn't vote at all. So let me pause here and say that I've noticed over the years that many of those who find reason to complain most loudly about the state of our nation, no matter whether Republicans or Democrats are in office, they turn out to be the people who don't find time to vote. They remind me a little bit of a man who was on a roof with the floodwaters all around him, and a boat came by and offered to take him off, and he said, no, I've placed my faith in the Lord, and he'll take care of me. And a little time later with the water much higher along came a motorboat, and they offered to take him again the same answer, no, he placed his faith in the Lord. And finally a helicopter dropped a line, and he wouldn't touch that. And he was swept away and drowned, and he got to heaven, and he said, I don't understand, I placed my faith in the Lord. And here I am dead and in heaven, and a voice from above said, I sent two boats in a helicopter. Well, when it comes to deciding our nation's future, the Lord has sent us each boats in a helicopter our right to vote. Six years ago, Joe Rogers decided that there'd been enough talk about declining boat or turnout. It was time for action, and like a modern Paul Revere, he decided it was time to sound the alarm. Just as Paul Revere carried his message to every middle-sex village and farm, Joe and all of you in Vote America are carrying your call throughout the land. You aren't shouting from horseback, of course, you've got a faster, more modern means, television and radio, and you're producing shorts for movie houses to show, distributing bumper stickers and posters and sending out direct mail appeals. But however much the medium has changed since Paul Revere's time, the message is still the same, that it's time to stand for freedom. American voters may not have to face musket fire, but when we vote, we're standing for the same things the Minutemen stood for, the same things Americans have fought and died for throughout our history. We're helping to keep our country free, to keep our government one of, by and for the people. I especially like the fact that you're focusing your efforts on four groups, Americans who in particular should vote, but too often don't. One of those groups is young people. No one has a greater stake in the future of our nation than do our young people. We have their entire adult lives stretching out before them. Yet young people are the least likely of our citizens to show up at the polls, and you're helping to change that, helping to get them to register and vote. Another group is new citizens. Many immigrants have come here because they yearn to live in freedom. Many are here because freedom has made America a land of opportunity for all. But often getting registered is a baffling process for these new citizens. You'll be helping them with advertisements and announcements in publications that immigrants in particular read, and with spots on radio and TV stations that large numbers of immigrants listen to. Then there are our men and women in uniform. In the last two elections, you've helped the members of our armed forces and their families vote through absentee ballots. I can't think of any prouder service you can perform than assisting those who are on the front lines of freedom to take part in our democratic process. And finally, you're launching a campaign to reach Americans who can't make it to the voting booth on election day. And I appreciate this because Nancy and I are often in that boat. Like many Americans, we're often away from home on election day, so we use absentee ballots. You'll be getting the word out about absentee ballots to business travelers as well as the handicapped and students. You'll be helping these voters learn about how to get a ballot, and then you'll be urging them to fill it out and send it in. Everyone in America owes each of you a vote of thanks for all you're doing. As I said, you're helping us all preserve, protect and defend our liberties. Before I leave, I thought I'd tell you one last story. These days, a lot of things remind me of stories. I particularly like to collect those that I can be sure that people in the Soviet Union tell one another in private when the authorities aren't around. And I make sure that I can check them out, that they are truly stories from behind the Iron Curtain. They show how the people there feel about their system, in which, of course, they can't vote freely and in which only approved candidates can run for office. This one's about Comrade Ivan from Leningrad. He was a member of the Communist Party, and after many years of service, he was at last trusted enough to be sent on business out of the country. First to Eastern Europe and then to the West. And every place he stopped, he did what he would do. He sent a postcard home. So after a few days, the first card arrived in Leningrad. And it said, best regards from Free Poland, Ivan. Free Poland, that's how the Soviets refer to the nations of Eastern Europe. Free Poland, Free Czechoslovakia and so on. Week later, the next card arrived. Best regards from Free Hungary, Ivan. A few days later, best regards from Free Bulgaria, Ivan. Then a week passed, and then two weeks, and finally another card. It said, best regards from France, Free Ivan. All of you are helping to keep America free, and I thank you for what you're doing. And, you know, I just can't resist. I just yesterday got a new Soviet story, and I just have to share it with you. Well, it seems that they put out an edict, too much speeding. And the police were to give tickets to anyone that has caught speeding in the Soviet Union, including those vast government limousines, no matter how high up and how ranking the individual. Well, Gorbachev was in his country home out there in the woods. He was needed to the Kremlin. He was late, and he liked to drive anyway. And he told his driver, you get in the back seat, I'll drive. And down the road, he went breaking all the speed limits. Two motorcycle policemen, and one of them caught him, caught up with him, came back to the first policeman in a little while, and the other one said, did you give him a ticket? And he said, no. Well, he said, why not? Oh, he said, he was somebody very important. But he said, there's supposed to be no exceptions. Everybody, no matter who was supposed to get it. He said, who was so important? Well, he said, I couldn't recognize him, but he had Gorbachev for a driver. And now I'm going down to the blue room there so that I could meet each one of you individually, and we can shake hands and say hello. So I'll go down to the blue room.