 Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice President of the United States and Mrs. Bush. Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States and Mrs. Reagan. Ladies and gentlemen, to introduce to your microphone the Vice President of the United States, the Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Mr. Frank Ferenkald. Ladies and gentlemen, the past five weeks there's been a lot of false rhetoric, a lot of demagoguery about the race for vice presidency of the United States. Let me just introduce to you the best, the best qualified, the best experienced, the best vice president we've ever had, George. You've been here a long time and I know why you came, but let me just take this opportunity to thank Dallas for this fantastic hospitality. Mr. President, you've just seen the tip of the iceberg here to say to, to say to Mayor Stark-Taylor who's sitting here with us and to Trammel Crow and to so many others who have turned this city inside out, we are grateful to you from the bottom of our hearts. And now it is my special privilege and great opportunity to introduce to you the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. Maybe I shouldn't say anything. I should take Billy Joel's advice. You know that fine young singer from New York, he said, leave a tender moment alone. Well, I will say one thing, you may represent 50 states. You, that's Iowa. You, you may just be visitors, but did you ever catch the Texas Spirit? You sure have. I wouldn't want to brag, certainly not in Texas, but you see, I've always felt that I'm a born optimist and I like to feel I carry some of that Texas Spirit with me 365 days a year. And it's been a lot easier to do that and it doesn't hurt a bit having a loyal son of Texas, George Bush, as my partner. His intelligence, his integrity, his experience and his faithful service do make him what has already been said here once, the best vice president this country's ever had. The people of this lone star state have always been very good to me and I guess I arrive feeling a little like that husband who sent a telegram to his wife on their 25th anniversary and it read, can't live without you, request you new contract, renew contract indefinitely. Well, in our case, we'll settle for just four more years. I've just come from a delightful visit with a man who's given a great deal to our party and much to our country, President Ford. And I'm pleased to report to you that Jerry is ready to go all out for our ticket top to bottom from here to election day. But we are honored to be here where the spirit of progress and patriotism is as strong as the heart of Texas is big. Texans play hard and Texans play to win. There's, you have an expression down this way that I like. You don't just score victories, you romp them. Great Dallas Cowboys did much to establish that tradition. Maybe that's why Coach Landry, Roger Staubach, Danny White, all the players gained a reputation much to the chagrin of many in Washington, I might add, of being larger than life. The Dallas Cowboys have come to be known as America's team. May I suggest that by the time this convention ends, the Republican Party will be on its way to being America's party. There are many reasons for this, many reasons. We'll be America's party because it is the interest of all the people that party that we represent. When we asked for the people's help to bring down inflation, to bring down interest rates, to cut tax rates for every working American, and to index taxes so that never again could government profit from inflation at the people's expense, when we accomplished each of these important victories, we only did it with the people's help and all of the people as a result have been helped. Our opponents haven't had an easy time with our success. They've come up with an antidote. Bring back to Carter Mondale administration. Oh, I was going to ask if you wanted that, but I just wanted to check. We Republicans want to keep going forward and we want to bring America's heritage with us. We say without embarrassment that we seek to honor our traditions, that we believe our fellow citizens are good and decent people and their values and aspirations deserve to be respected, not patronized. For us, words like faith, family, work and neighborhood are not slogans to be dragged out of the closet every four years. They are values to respect and to live by every day. We will be America's party because the American dream begins with opportunity and our goal is to build an opportunity society for every man, woman and child. We'll do it because GOP doesn't just stand for grand old party, it also stands for great opportunity party. You'll forgive me, lately it looks like that letter D in their name has gone to stand for defeatism, decline, dependency, doom and despair. It can take your pick of anyone or all of those. Standing for opportunity means that we're determined despite the do nothing democratic leadership to push forward for enterprise zones, to push forward for a youth opportunity wage so that people can get off unemployment, get off welfare and get the chance for decent jobs that they deserve. And when I happen to believe that helping people climb higher and make it on their own is a darn sight more progressive and compassionate than keeping them down and dependent on government for the rest of their lives. Standing for opportunity means that we will push for spousal IRAs. That is for wives who may not be working and earning but housewives that they too will be able to deposit in IRA accounts with the same advantages that those who are working here. We're going to push for tuition tax credits for the protection that will come from passage of our comprehensive crime package and for a constitutional amendment mandating the federal government spend no more than the federal government takes in. And yes, we want to enact an historic reform of our tax system. We need a tax reform that makes the system simple enough to understand fair to all and that can bring everyone's tax rates further down and not up. You know, this thing of making it simpler an amendment that I think if I remember correctly is about 16 words is now 37 feet of wall space taken up by books on the regulations that go to make up the income tax law alone. And the government has the nerve to tell the people of this country you figure out how much you owe us and we can't help you because our people don't understand it either. And if you make a mistake we'll make you pay a penalty for making the mistake. We think we ought to be able to send you a bill and tell you what you owe, not the other way around. And that leads me to something else that I believe with all my heart because we represent all the people because we represent an agenda of opportunity to benefit all the people from excellence in education to developing new frontiers in space and high technology the Republican Party is America's party of the future. We know what the other side wants and for heaven sakes don't argue with them, don't argue for one second just let them be the party of tax and tax and spend and spend and the Republican Cardinals continue to be the party of growth and growth and jobs and jobs. That's our idea of progress and compassion for if we restrain spending reduce tax rates further and keep our economy growing we can sharply reduce the deficit through that growth. Now what I'm suggesting is let's take our cue from our Olympic athletes rather than punish success rather than raise taxes let's challenge America in the next 76 days to raise our sights and reach for greatness let's go for growth and let's go for the gold. Thank you and I've spoken before about our fine leaders in the House and Senate but I just take to take this moment to salute all of you and there are so many bright stars we're reaching out to all Americans and charting the path to a brighter future so let me say to the members of the news media who are present, those new ideas that you're always looking for the vision for the future leadership for the nation you've finally come to the right place it's all right here at this convention in Dallas, Texas Dallas is a winning town and we'll leave Dallas united we'll leave here strong and we'll take our case to the people I want to remind you in 1980 the American people were in a mood to win and they did win and in 1984 they're in a mood to win again and they will my friends it's good to be here all of us together I just never seen anything like this and I keep wondering are those sheets gonna be a lot of sleeping on the mattress tonight our nation is more than 200 years old but somehow America has never been newer never been younger and never been more full of hope we've been truly blessed and for this for this we must be truly thankful may God bless you and may he continue to bless our beloved country thank you very much the Bush kids Mr. President and Mrs. Reagan Mr. Vice President and Mrs. Bush I would like now to introduce to you three people who could also pull a landslide in their own right and they do annually I would like to introduce to you three of the biggest names in the Texas and the country ladies and gentlemen they're here if it gives you a clue they're here with another very very much admired man Texas E. Shram who will not be on stage so you know who I'm about to talk about in this order ladies and gentlemen listen in this order on stage at the same time Mr. Danny White Mr. Roger Stabach and Coach Tom Landry Mr. President you remember four years ago in 1980 Roger and I presented you with a Dallas Cowboy Jersey now we're so sure that was the only reason that you won in 1980 because of the good luck of this Jersey what we're going to do today is we're going to give the Democrats a double whammy today we're going to present you with two cowboy jerseys one for you and one for the Vice President Bush come here Coach if things don't turn out alright I played right guard