 Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States. Thank you all very much, and thank you, John Paul. And Mary Ann Stevens, Chesley Pruitt, Ed Bethune, I thank you all very much. And it's great to be back in Little Rock, and great to hear those seven bands, those terrific bands. And you know as president, a lot of important papers cross my desk. And one of them told me about some teams that are undefeated after seven games, nationally ranked, moving up, and that have some of the greatest football fans in the United States. I have to say the Arkansas Razorbacks and the UCA Bears are my kind of teams. Well today, I've come to Little Rock for a very special reason. Because I want to talk to you about a friend of mine, the next President of the United States, George Bush. For eight years, we've worked together to rebuild our economy, to get America on the move again, to make the United States, once again, the great arsenal of democracy. A light unto the nations, the champion of freedom around the world. For eight years, George Bush and I have worked side by side in the White House during times of crisis and times of historic triumph and achievements. I've come to know George Bush very well. The... I also know what is required to be President of the United States. I know who should be the man at the desk. And ladies and gentlemen, George Bush is that man. Now from top to bottom, from President to Congress to local office, especially here in Arkansas, this is what is at stake. The election this year is a referendum on liberalism. Yes, the choice before the American people this year is just as clear as it was in 1980 and 1984. A choice between, on the one hand, liberal policies of tax and spend, economic stagnation, international weakness, and always, always blame America first. And on the other hand, what we believe, the policies of limited government, economic growth, individual opportunity, a strong defense, and always I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. When Vice President Bush and I took office eight years ago, America was in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. But today, America is in the longest peacetime expansion ever recorded in our history. 71 months. Now, of course, the liberals still don't understand how we were able to get rid of their economic crisis, their malaise. That was their word, remember? Their inflation, their gas lines. So they're promising to reverse everything we've done. Well, here's what we've done. We've cut taxes, slashed inflation by two-thirds, sliced interest rates in half, and since the economic recovery began, we've created over 15 million jobs. And in spite of what you might have heard from some people who are talking today, they were good jobs. More than three-quarters of them are the kind to pay better than $20,000 a year. And the unemployment rate in Little Rock has fallen by more than 20 percent. And statewide, real personal income is up by 16.5 percent. And today, in America, a greater proportion of our potential workforce is employed than ever before in the history of the United States. Now, I say that, but let me explain it to you. How the statisticians look at that. Did you know that that potential employment pool according to them is everyone in the United States 16 years of age, male and female all the way up? That and 62.7 percent of that population have jobs today. You and I and George Bush worked much too hard to cut your taxes to let our opponents come into office and raise them all over again. So on November 8th, go into the polling booth and do some negative campaigning on your own. The right kind of negative campaigning. Say no to new taxes and say yes to the Republican ticket. Now, what Vice President Bush and I have done with the economy is very important. And we must continue and expand, but what we believe in is much more than that. Our greatest treasure as a nation is our precious moral heritage. The basic values of faith and family that make ours a great nation. It is it's the power of the family that holds the nation together. That gives America her conscience that serves as the cradle of our country's soul. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the family is the back bedrock of our nation. George Bush believes that public children should be allowed to open their day with a voluntary prayer. Something the federal courts won't allow. He believes that we must have judges who interpret the law, not rewrite it. And who care not just for the rights of criminals, but have compassion for the defense citizens who are the victims of crime. And the Vice President knows the importance to our nation and to our children expressed in the simple words one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Now there's a new election before us. And I have little doubt that the people of the United States are going to do exactly what I did eight years ago. They're going to choose George Bush. Do you know who led the task force that cut away excess federal regulation which saves American people and communities and states from 600 million man hours of paperwork a year making our prosperity and millions of new jobs possible? George Bush led that task force. Do you know who led the offensive against drug smuggling at our borders that just in the past year alone seized a record 70 tons of cocaine before it could reach our communities? George Bush. And when we needed to work with our allies to strengthen NATO to counter Soviet intermediate range nuclear missiles who did I turn to to do the job? George Bush. Now today I don't think I need to review George Bush's resume or his heroism in war or his service to America in the Congress or the United Nations or China as ambassador or as director of the CIA. What I can tell you about is the man that I know personally a man who is strong decent, loyal wise, capable and a compassionate and a man who has the qualities necessary to fill the office of the presidency. That man is George Bush and on November 8th I hope Arkansas helps make him the next president of the United States. Now as for a certain governor from a certain New England state I'd best let someone else do the talking. Former congressman Ed Bethune said that he met this fellow 10 years ago and he said his reaction was and let me quote him now I have never met a person in my whole life who is more liberal. But we have to give equal time so here's the response that it's wrong to use labels because ideology doesn't matter. Well what I have to say how can a man running for president of the United States look the American people in the eye and tell you that his ideology doesn't matter. Ladies and gentlemen if he's saying to you that what he believes doesn't matter isn't he really saying that what each one of us believes doesn't matter either? And in fact a lot of Democrats around the country are saying that their party leadership has swung so far to the left so far out of the mainstream that the national Democratic leadership has lost touch with the rank and file of the Democratic party. Now I'm a former Democrat and I have to say I didn't leave my party my party left me it left me when it went left now whether it's their opposition to voluntary prayer in school support for gun control or the left wing judges appointed in a state like Massachusetts or a weak need defense policy that only McGovern could love their views can only be described by the dreaded L word liberal liberal liberal for example the liberals recently proposed federal childcare assistance but under their program if you want assistance and wish to leave your child with his or her grandmother the grandmother will have to be licensed by the federal government one of the congressional staff members behind that bill was asked by a reporter if this was true that grandmothers would have to get a federal license to take care of their own grandchildren and the reply came yes of course it's true after all and here's the quote how else can you design a program that receives federal funds licensing grandmothers can you believe it the next thing you know they'll say that grilling hamburgers is an environmental hazard but there's more in this election one of the candidates believes that no matter how horrible or brutal the crime he opposes capital punishment is that what you believe well George Bush believes that for the most horrible crimes like when a drug dealer murders a policeman in cold blood that kind of dealer or killer deserves and should receive the death sentence and if you ask me there are no Americans braver and no citizens more precious than the men and women who guard us our state and local police and George Bush and I stand behind them all the way you know violent crime has fallen significantly since 1981 George and I put criminals on notice we said make a false move and the next sound you hear is the clang of a jail cell door slamming shut of course what happens in Massachusetts is a little bit different in that state and only in that state first degree murderers not even eligible for parole were left free on weekend passes and some of them never bothered to return do you call that justice I call it the most liberal prison program since Billy the Kid sprung the Lincoln County jail now these same liberals say that the only people in the United States who should be permitted to have guns are the military and police officers is that what you believe I didn't think so so on November 8th be sure to go to the polls and vote for George Bush and Dan Quail just think of it as an act of self-defense besides fighting crime and restoring our economy we've made sure that once again America is respected in the world our armed forces are strong and our nation is at peace we and our NATO allies stood firm in the face of Soviet missiles pointing at the heart of Europe and Asia and Mr. Gorbachev got the message he did business because he knew we meant business and we still mean business but none of this my friends none of this could have happened if the liberals had their way there would have been no INF treaty or rollback in Afghanistan or democratic revolutions around the globe they opposed rebuilding our military defenses they opposed the deployment of the missiles in Europe to counter the Soviet threat they opposed the liberation of Grenada they opposed the blow we struck against Libyan terrorism they opposed our policy of helping freedom fighters fight communism and advance the cause of liberty around the world well George and I did all those things and I'll tell you proudly right now we'd both do every single ladies and gentlemen America needs the strength, the vision and the true grit of George Bush and Dan Quayle so let's remember what Yogi Berra said it isn't over till it's over no complacency or overconfidence we need you to work we need you to vote and if you would I hope you'll help win just one more but really let's all do this for America thank you and God bless you all I agree with you about the wisdom of passing on the stewardship of leading our nation in a free world to George Bush so we would like to present this enlargement of a popular Arkansas bumper sticker symbolizing our determination to add our states six electoral votes to his margin I know some of you out there can't read what this says it says I'm a Bush hog Hey Pig Suey Arkansas song we would like to share with you this morning a song commissioned for our Susque Centennial in 1986 Old Arkansas will be performed by you by the composer who is also our terrific entertainment master of ceremonies today Terry Rose It's the spirit of the river and the spirit of the lakes It's a spirit that's a need in every home It's a spirit of the people and the spirit of the land It's a spirit of tomorrow and today Arkansas Oh Arkansas friendship It's a spirit of acts every game they play It's the spirit that shines