 Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Mr. President, over the last five years, I've had the opportunity on many, many occasions to introduce you to audiences. With your permission tonight, I'd like to change the normal procedure that we go through to introduce this audience to you, because they are very, very special. You will, as you look out over this audience, and in a few minutes when you meet them personally, recognize and see a lot of old friends, a lot of old friends who have been with you through all the years that you have been in public life. They're special people, because not only have they given of their names and their time and their energy on behalf of Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party, but they've also been tremendously generous in supporting the party and you with their pocketbooks. And as I indicated to you as we came up, the board of directors of the Finance Division of the Republican National Committee, pleasure to introduce them to you, because they're the heart and soul of the Republican Party. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm also proud to turn this microphone over to the President of the United States. Well, believe me, it's a pleasure to be here with you this evening to personally thank each and every one of you for your generous support of our party. You know, it never ceases to amaze me that large contributors in the other party are referred by those party members as public-spirited philanthropists, but you, who are our donors, are called fat cats. Well, I think your designation as eagles is more accurate, especially when you think about all the turkeys on the other side. But it is nice to see so many friends here. I think Frank Ferenkoff deserves a hand for the terrific job that he's been doing as chairman of the Republican National Committee. And I also want to congratulate Keith Brown for the fine job he's doing as RNC finance chairman. The success of this event, inaugurating the new board of directors, is a tribute to this man's persistence and hard work. And let me assure you that your generosity and support are never taken for granted. There's a story you knew I'd have one of those. About a businessman who always stopped at a pretzel stand that was just outside his office building. He came in at work in the morning. It was manned by a quite elderly lady. And he would drop off 25 cents for a pretzel, but he never took a pretzel. And he'd stop, and this went on for about a year. And he'd put that quarter on the plate, on into the office, taking no pretzel. And then one day, the lady that was running them caught him by the arm. And he looked at her and thought he understood why she was. And he said, you probably want to know why I've been putting a quarter on your plate every day, but never taking a pretzel. She said, well, no, I just wanted to tell you, pretzels have gone up to 35 cents. Seriously, though, we do appreciate your contributions. Back in California, there was a political pro in the other party who said that money is the mother's milk of politics. Well, certainly character and principle are also essential, but he was right in that financing is also vital to success. Everything we've accomplished in these last six and a half years would not have been possible had we not been able, financially, to get our message to the people. When we got our message out, we turned things around. 1980, the American people voted for a dramatic change of direction. We put policies in place that had kept taxes down, growth up, that have put inflation in a cage, created more new jobs than in any other country in the industrialized world. In fact, while total employment is stagnated in some countries, in the United States, we've got more people working today and a higher percentage of our population employed than ever before. I just recently found out something, and maybe you haven't found it out. I think you should know. You know what Disraeli said about them. There are lies, damn lies, and statistics. But this thing about unemployment and all of that and the percentages, I never knew till recently that the potential employment pool in America was considered to be everyone, male and female, above the age of 16. Well today, around 62% of that age group is employed. The highest percentage that has ever been in the history of our country. And you stop to think that that, from 16, all the way up through and through all the people who are retired and everything else, that six out of 10 of everybody above 16 has got a job in this country. Well, I'd just like to add that these are not my accomplishments, they're our accomplishments. You've been irreplaceable members of the Republican team. As we head into the 1988 political season, I have one thing to ask. Can I count on you? I have to confess, I knew you'd say that. Well now that you've given me your pledge, I'll give you mine. I may not be a candidate next year, but you can count on me to campaign the width and breadth of this nation. The opposition thinks that I'm history, I got a message for them. They ain't seen nothing yet. And I can't help but be optimistic about this upcoming election. First, each and every one of our GOP candidates for president stands so head and shoulders above the entire gang vying for the other party's nomination. And second, in 1988, we're going to make certain. We must make certain that our new Republican president has a Congress that will work with him rather than against him. You know, all the way clear back through the Roosevelt years. The Republican presidents, we've had a number of them in this more than half a century, but only one has ever had a Republican Congress in both houses, a majority in both houses, and that was for only two years out of his eight. It was Eisenhower. But the Democratic presidents in all this more than half a century have had Democratic congresses or majorities in both houses, all but a single two-year period in Truman's years. And then I was lucky enough for six years to have the Senate while the House was still in the other party's control. But now they're back in control in both houses. And my goodness, the difference every day is very apparent. They're really feeling their oats and they're throwing obstacles and blocks to everything that we're trying to do. So we've got to get back. 1991, the reapportionment of congressional districts will take place again. And today, they have so gerrymandered the country in this half a century every ten years reapportioning with them in charge that we have had recently an election in which 500,000 more Republicans voted for Republican congressional candidates than the Democrats had voting for Democratic candidates, but they won about 40% more seats than we did because they've got all of you bunched up in as few districts as possible to guarantee we'll always be a minority. Well, finally, we go to the American people, as I said, with a record of accomplishment. Even all that Democratic campaign rhetoric will not be able to obscure this next year. And in these next coming months we won't be simply trading water. There are going to be additions to our list of achievements. Next month, General Secretary Gorbachev will be visiting the United States and we'll be signing an agreement that will lead to the first reduction in the world's nuclear arsenals in history. And this is something we Republicans can be especially proud of. When the Liberals called for acceptance of a phony nuclear freeze, we stood firm. A nuclear freeze would have frozen the Western Alliance in a position of nuclear inferiority. Europe would have been condemned to live in the shadow of the Soviet INF missiles. The agreement we're heading toward will eliminate this entire class of longer-range INF missiles, Soviet and American, as well as all Soviet shorter-range INF missiles. And we're proving, or what we're proving is that peace through strength was a formula that worked. They walked away two or three times and said they wouldn't come back. And we just stood there. And pretty soon what do you know? The door opened and back they came. What we're proving, well, the horizon for peace I think shines even brighter. And in the coming months we'll have something else to cheer about too. A newly confirmed justice of the Supreme Court, Douglas Ginsburg. Let's just make sure we do everything we can to ensure this brilliant jurist is confirmed. It's amazing. I don't know how many of you might have seen. It was only a little more than a year ago that he was confirmed for the Circuit Court of Appeals by this same Senate. And you should read some of the statements that were made about him by people like Teddy Kennedy who were now damning him as if he has suddenly gone off the deep end and turned into a different person. I can assure you this, they aren't going to get away with the same sort of tactics that they used against Judge Bork. This time I think the American people will say no to those who want to obstruct at any cost. Finally, in the months ahead we'll remain vigilant against spending or taxing proposals that would undo the economic triumphs of the last six and a half years. I've got the determination and I know you do too to send the right signal for continued growth and opportunity. Now is the time for leadership, not capitulation. And you can count on it. I know, I told a gathering recently that sort of paraphrasing that old line about the operas never over till the fat lady sings or anything. Well, I paraphrased it to the old man isn't out of town till the old man's out of town. The volatility in the stock market suggests a heightened sense of uncertainty in the land. And I'll tell you what we can do to restore confidence. We can return control of the United States Senate to the Republicans in 1988. And I think our chances are good. 1980 has been called a watershed year for American politics, and it was. There are those, however, who would have us believe that in 1986 trends began to reverse themselves. Well, that just isn't true. How many know that in 1986 a higher percentage of the voters supported Republican candidates for the United States Senate than in 1980, when we actually got control? The trends are still on our side and the issues are on our side. We've got a terrific record and we've got some great candidates. Now it's up to us. Well, again, I just, I thank you all for what you're doing and what I know you're going to continue to do. And I've done enough speechifying and I'm now looking forward to going over there and meeting all of you personally and individually. Could I just, could I just before I quit? I have a terrible habit anymore. I've got a new hobby. I collect stories that I can prove are told by the Soviets among themselves which show they've got a great sense of humor but also shows what they think about their system. One of the more recent that came my way was the story about the government putting out an order. There's too much speeding and no matter how important they may be or who they are, the police are supposed to give a ticket to anyone caught speeding. Well Gorbachev came out of his DACA, his summer home, or country home I should say. He was late getting to the Kremlin, told his driver to get in the back seat and he'd drive and down the road he went. Passed two motorcycle cops and one of them took out after him. In a few minutes he came back and joined the other one. And the other one says, did you give him a ticket? He said, no. He said, well, you, why didn't you give him a ticket? He said, this one's too important. Well he says, we were told, no matter how important they were, we were to give them a ticket. He says, not this one. Well he said, who was it? He said, I don't know, I couldn't recognize him, but his driver was Gorbachev. Now I'll go over there.