 gentlemen again the much-beloved Mr. Bob Hope thank you very much are you all here on the way to the football game I just want to tell you you have two winners in st. Louis today Ronald Reagan and the Cardinals and Ronald Reagan never misses a bet I don't know whether you saw the bumper sticker on his car when he drove in but it said this buds for you this buds for you this is the only city with a head on it you know and how about this location under the arch the president thought it was a little early for a big mac and fries I love it looks like a Texas croquette set but here we are in mid-America the heart of this country and doesn't the president look great does he look great I want to tell you I want to tell you I hope I look that good when I'm his age okay I'm a couple of days older but who counts now it's I'm happy to know that the president stays healthy and I want to tell you how he stays healthy every morning he gets up early and jogs three times around Tip O'Neill and it's great it's great to see Nancy Reagan here she's been working so hard campaigning all around the country and let me tell you and let me tell you Nancy takes good care of Ronnie every night before he goes to sleep she reads him a bedtime poll and Nancy can't wait till Tuesday she's been afraid to send her laundry out until she's sure the lease is renewed and talking about football I want to ask you one question now that America has a winning team in the White House I think we should stick with the coach don't you you know do you know what America would be like without Ronnie Reagan as president well just just picture mr. T without his muscles now President Reagan and America have something in common they're both healthy and in their prime and so this is no time for a change we're on a roll to maybe something bigger than any anything we've ever envisioned when Ronnie Reagan was making a picture he was always better in the third real than he was in the first now we're on the threshold of a great prospect of a great prosperity prosperity and let me ask I'll get that prosperity is not tough and isn't it nice to know that the hand in your pocket now is your own let me tell you I've traveled around this country for the past several months to college campuses business conventions theaters fairs and I've heard people say what a good feeling they have about this great country people are standing tall looking up and taking pride in themselves and in this nation president Reagan has renewed people's faith in the American dream which is the promise which is the promise that every man woman and child can claim the right to lead a finer better and a happier life and I think today that people have more respect for themselves for their neighbors and for their country and I know that other countries have more respect for us as a nation and a little and as a leader of this free world and our leader did that I'll tell you that when you put when you put his promises against his accomplishments it's time to applaud let me tell you and let me tell you it's not it's it's not easy to do it's done with wisdom and experience the experience tells him what to do and the wisdom tells him what not to do you know in a couple of days America will go to the polls and vote and let me tell you that's America at its best election day when everyone has the same weight the same power and the same influence regardless of age sex religion or background that's the time for every American to have their say four years ago I voted for Ronald Reagan and Tuesday I will again vote for him because he has displayed talent courage and integrity that has brought this country where it should be he has put his indelible mark on the face of this great nation and the history of America in the 80s will be his biography I've always been proud to be an American but I've never been proud of that I am today as I introduce to you the president of these United States Ronald Reagan right here thank you very much thank you very much four more years that's what I came to talk to you about I thank you ladies and gentlemen thank you and I think you know how deeply grateful I am not only to all of you for being out here but for a long time and good friend Bob Hope to come here and interrupt his trip home to be here with us well I am proud I'm proud to be here with you in St. Louis a city of hope and expectations the gateway to the West and I'd like to thank you for sending to Washington an individual who's been in the forefront of the battle to strengthen our economy and rebuild America's defenses your fine senator Jack Danforth you've also sent to the Congress three representatives who are working hard to keep our economy growing and our country safe and secure their strong voices for responsible government and come election day please make sure you send back Jean Taylor Tom Coleman and Bill Emerson and I know you have other strong candidates Kerry Frankie is running in the ninth congressional district Kerry is the kind of individual we can work with it's a close race we need your help because we need Kerry in the Congress the same is true for Jack Beekner in the second district he's a former member of your General Assembly and Jack would be a major asset to our efforts to keep our taxes down and our economy growing and here in this district we have Eric Rathbone we need Kerry Jack and Eric in Washington and let's do our best to get them there now and if there's some people listening on the other side of the river well I hope they'll help us and do their best to keep Senator Chuck Percy in Washington you know one of the accomplishments about which I most proud is that in these last four years we've reestablished the balance between federal and state government we tended for a while to forget that this nation is unique in all the world we are a federation of sovereign states and we'd better keep it that way and for that to work we need to continue the strong leadership at the state level that's been provided to you by Kit Bond and now we need John Ashcroft elected as governor to continue that course he's already done a fantastic job as Attorney General he can do even more as governor and to do that he'll need the help and support of his fellow Republican statewide candidates Mel Hancock Roy Blunt Wendell Bailey and Bill Webster so please help spread the word get out the vote and if you can well win these races for the Gipper and you know what the Gipper said he said I'll know about it wherever I am and I'll be happy we want a strong a prosperous and secure America Abe Lincoln said that we must disenthrall ourselves with the past and then we will save our country but four years ago that's what we did we made a great turn we got out from under the thrall of a government which we had hoped would make our lives better but which wound up trying to live our lives for us four years ago we began to navigate by certain fixed principles our North Star was freedom and common sense our constellations we knew that economic freedom met paying less of the American family's income to government and that's why we cut personal tax rates by 25 percent across the board I know there's been somebody out around saying that well that tax wasn't fair it benefited this group or that group that tax was even Steven across the board and benefited everyone equally now we knew that inflation the quiet thief and record interest rates were stealing our future we knew that our national military defense had been weakened so we decided to rebuild and be strong again to be prepared for peace it it was a second American revolution and it's only just begun but America is back a giant on the scene powerful in its renewed spirit powerful in its growing economy and powerful in its ability to defend itself and secure the peace and you know something that's not debatable and after four years after our efforts began there are small voices in the night sounding the call to go back to go back to the days of drift the days of corporate humidity and taxes you know my opponent's understanding of economics is well demonstrated by his predictions just before we took office he said our economic program was obviously murderously inflationary and that was just before we lowered inflation from above 12 percent to down around four and then and then just after our tax cuts he said the most he could see was an anemic recovery and that was just before the United States economy created more than six million new jobs in 21 months my opponent said that decontrol of the oil prices that government control of the oil prices if we decontroled it it would cost you 36 billion dollars well one of the first things we did was decontrol oil prices and the price of gasoline went down eight cents a gallon now maybe all we have to do I got to figure it out here to get the economy in absolutely perfect shape is persuade him to predict absolute disaster he says he cares about the middle class but he boasts he boasts I have consistently supported legislation time after time which increases taxes on my own constituents doesn't that make you just want to be one of his constituents he's no doubt proud of the fact that as a United States senator he voted 16 times to raise your taxes but this year he's outdone himself he's already promised of course to raise your taxes but if he is to keep all the promises that he has made in this campaign it would cost an amount equivalent to $1,890 for every household in the United States that's that's more than a hundred and fifty dollars a month you know that's like having a second mortgage a Mondale mortgage now his economic plan has two basic parts one raise your taxes the second do it again but I got news for him the American people don't want his tax increases and he isn't going to get his tax increase I wasn't going to but you've talked me into it you know if my opponent's campaign were a television show it would be let's make a deal you you trade your prosperity for what the surprise he's got hidden behind the curtain and if his program were a Broadway show it would be promises promises and if it were a book a novel you would have to read it from the back to the front in order to get a happy ending he sees in America in which every day is tax day April 15th we see in America in which every day is independence day July 4th now we want to lower your taxes and everybody's taxes in this country so your families will be stronger the economy will be stronger and America will be stronger and I'm proud to say that during these last four years on another subject not one square inch of territory in the world has fallen to communist aggression and the and the United States is more secure than it was four years ago but my opponent sees a my opponent sees a different world after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan he said it just baffles me why the Soviets these last few years have behaved as they have but then there's so much that baffles him one year ago we liberated Grenada from the Communist and and what my opponent my opponent called what we did a violation of international law that erodes our moral authority to criticize the Soviets well there is nothing immoral about rescuing American students whose lives are being threatened you know this 1984 election isn't just a partisan contest I was a Democrat once in fact for the greater part of my life and I have to believe in this place in a crowd like this there must be many of you out there who are members of the Democratic Party and I back I know why you're here because you know as well as I do that back there a ways the leaders of the Democratic Party weren't members of the Merit blame America first crowd its leaders were men like Harry Truman senator scoop Jackson John F. Kennedy men who understood the challenges of our times they didn't reserve all their indignation for America they knew the difference between freedom and tyranny and they stood up for one and damned the other well to all of you here who might be Democrats who respect that tradition I say you're not alone we're asking you to come and walk with us down that path of hope and opportunity all right but to those Democrats that I've been addressing let me just say we need you we need your help and what we're trying to do and you and I together all of us together in the best bite partisan tradition of this country can keep an America that is secure prosperous and at peace last month last month an American woman Catherine Sullivan walked in space and she made history but then after she did that she returned to the space shuttle in which some of the great scientific and medical advances of the future will be made cures for diabetes and heart disease I have seen evidence already of the beginning experiments of medicines that can be produced up there that we can't produce here on earth advances in technology and communications but again my opponent as a United States senator personally led the fight against having a shuttle program he called it a horrible waste well we support the shuttle program and we've committed America to a great challenge we're going to build a permanently manned space station and do it within the next decade what America needs America needs high tech not high taxes now I've been probably been going on too long here but the that isn't what you meant by four more years isn't well but the point is that we were right when we made our great turn in 1980 we were right to take command of the ship stop its aimless drift and get moving again and we were right when we stopped sending out SOS and started saying USA you know you know the United States was never meant to be a second best nation so like our Olympic athletes this nation should set its sight on the stars and go for the gold if we if we could bring inflation down from 12.4 percent to four then we can bring it down further from four to zero point zero and we're going to do that if lowering your tax rates led to the best expansion in 30 years then we can lower them again and keep America growing right into the 21st century if we could create six million new jobs in 21 months then we can make it possible for every American old and young black and white everyone who wants to find a job to find one in this country of ours if local governments and states can establish enterprise zones to create economic growth then we can elect people like those I've mentioned earlier to Congress to help free our enterprise zones bill a national bill which has been buried in committee now in the House of Representatives by Tip O'Neill for more than two years we need that bill to provide hope for millions in the most distressed areas of America and this we will do we're leading a revolution in technology and pushing back the frontiers of space and if we give our workers the tools they need I have always believed and I believe more than ever now give American workers the proper tools and they can outproduce outcompete and outsell anybody in the world anytime anywhere our drive to restore excellence in education reversed a 20 year decline in scholastic aptitude test scores and we're going to keep raising those scores and restore American academic excellence second to none our crackdown in crime the crackdown on crime produced the sharpest drop ever in the crime index and we're going to keep cracking down until your families and friends can walk in the streets at night without being afraid we've we have reversed the decline in our military defenses and restored respect throughout the world for America and we're going to keep this nation strong to protect freedom and peace for us for our children and our children's children and if we make sure that America remains strong and prepared for peace then we can begin to reduce nuclear weapons and one day banish them entirely from the face of the earth I know that my opponent has discussed nuclear freeze and every once in a while I see a sign for it well let me just say this let me say this about nuclear freeze when we have reduced nuclear weapons on both sides down to a verifiable equal balance then we will have a nuclear freeze in our security and strengthen the values that bind us America will become an even greater nation with a higher standard of living with culture and art and learning and greater in the love and worship of the God who made us and who has blessed us more than any people have ever been blessed on earth and now two weeks ago today I didn't get to finish something I was saying in a debate I'm gonna finish now to the young people of our country who are with us today you you are what this election is all about you and your future your generation really sparkles your idealism your love of country are unsurpassed I've seen you all across the United States on campuses in schools and here in rallies as you are here and I just want to tell you something my generation and well a few generations between mine and yours we have a sacred trust we grew up in an America in which we just took it for granted that you could dream and make your dreams come true if you were willing to go for them that you could that this was a land of opportunity and it was denied to no one well our sacred trust is my generation those others I mentioned to see that when it comes time to turn over to you young people the reigns of this country we're going to turn over to you an America that is free in a world at peace and in which you can dream and make your dreams come true all of us all of us together are part of a great revolution and it's only just begun America will never give up never go back we were we will never be a second best nation this country was put here this nation between the two great oceans so that people from every corner of the earth people who had a special love of freedom could find their way here to a tired disillusioned world we've always been a light of hope where all things are possible and throughout my life I've seen America do the impossible when I was a long young man we survived a great depression worldwide that topped governments in many places in the world but not here we came back from Pearl Harbor and win won the greatest military victory in world history in a single lifetime my own we have gone from the horse and buggy to putting astronauts on the moon and we we as a people have fought harder paid a higher price and done more to advance the freedom and dignity of man than any people who ever lived on this earth ours ours is the land of the free because it's the home of the brave alright America's future will always be great because our nation will always be strong our nation will be strong because our people will be free and our people will be free because we will be united our people one people under God with liberty and justice for all I'm deeply honored I'm deeply honored that you have allowed me to serve you for these past four years but much much remains to be done we must continue to build on that new beginning that we started four years ago so I have come here to ask for your support and for your vote but I just want to say and with what you just recently said about 50 states I've been trying not to look at the polls because I looked up at Mount Rushmore and I don't see President Dewey's face there don't be complacent day after tomorrow don't think your vote isn't needed please go to the polls vote and and if you're going to vote for me don't send me back there alone you send these other people that I've been talking about America's best days are yet to come and I have something that I know my opponent doesn't like to hear and I think there's a few people over here that aren't gonna like to hear but I'm gonna say it anyway I'm gonna say it anyway you ain't seen nothing yet thank you God bless you all thank you