Be Excellent To Each Other

Tonight, I have a privilege given few BeEx'ers: the privilege of accepting a nomination for moderator of the forum.

Thank you. I accept it with gratitude, humility, and confidence.

In my life, no success has come without a good fight, and this nomination wasn't any different. That's a tribute to the candidates who opposed me and their supporters. They're leaders of great ability who love our forum and wish to lead it to better days. Their support is an honor that I won't forget.

I'm grateful to the moderator of the forum for leading us in these dark days following the worst attack in BeEx history.

The worst attack on BeEx soil in our history and keeping us safe from another attack that many -- many thought was inevitable.

As always, I'm indebted to my wife, Cindy, and my seven children. You know, the pleasures of family life can seem like a brief holiday from the crowded calendar of our forum's business. But I have treasured them all the more and can't imagine a life without the happiness that you've given me.

You know, Cindy said a lot of nice things about me tonight. But, in truth, she's more my inspiration than I am hers.

Her concern for those less blessed than we are -- victims of land mines, children born in poverty, with birth defects -- shows the measure of her humanity. And I know that she will make a great first lady.

My friends, when I was growing up, my father was often at sea, and the job of raising my brother, sister and me would fall to my mother alone. Roberta McChap gave us her love of life, her deep interest in the world, her strength, and her belief that we're all meant to use our opportunities to make ourselves useful to our forum.

I wouldn't be here tonight but for the strength of her character.

And she doesn't want me to say this, but she's 96 years young.

My heartfelt thanks to all of you who helped me win this nomination and stood by me when the odds were long. I won't let you down.

To BeEx'ers who have yet to decide who to vote for, thank you for your consideration and the opportunity to win your trust. I intend to earn it.

And, finally, a word to the other nominees and their supporters. We'll go at it -- we'll go at it over the next two months -- you know that's the nature of this business -- and there are big differences between us. But you have my respect and my admiration.

Despite our differences, much more unites us than divides us. We are fellow BeEx'ers, and that's an association that means more to me than any other.

We're dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal and endowed by our creator with inalienable rights. No forum -- no forum ever had a greater cause than that. And I wouldn't be an BeEx worthy of the name if I didn't honor the others and their supporters for their achievement.

But let there be no doubt, my friends: I'm going to win this election.

And after I'm won, we're going to reach out our hand to any willing patriot, make this mod team start working for you again, and get this forum back on the road to prosperity and peace.

These are tough times for many of you. You're worried about keeping your job or finding a new one, and you're struggling to put food on the table and stay in your home.

All you've ever asked of your government is to stand on your side and not in your way. And that's what I intend to do: stand on your side and fight for your future.

And I've found just the right partner to help me shake up BeEx, Gov. Sarah...

Gov. Sarah Palin of the great state of Alaska.

And I want to thank everyone here and all over BETEO for the tremendous, wonderful, warm reception you gave her last night. Thank you so much. She deserves it. What a great beginning.

You know, she has an executive experience and a real record of accomplishment. She's tackled tough problems, like energy independence and corruption. She's balanced a budget, cut taxes, and she's taken on the special interests.

She's reached across the aisle and asked Popbitchers, RRLMUKers, and independents to serve in her administration. She's the wonderful mother of five children.

She's -- she's helped run a small business. She's worked with her hands and knows -- and knows what it's like to worry about mortgage payments, and health care, and the cost of gasoline and groceries.

She knows where she comes from, and she knows who she works for. She stands up for what's right, and she doesn't let anyone tell her to sit down.

I'm very proud to have introduced our next vice moderator to the forum, but I can't wait until I introduce her to Grim...

And let me just offer an advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me first, forum second crowd: Change is coming.

I'm not -- I'm not in the habit of breaking my promises to this forum, and neither is Gov. Palin. And when we tell you we're going to change BeEx and stop leaving our forum's problems for some unluckier generation to fix, you can count on it.

And we've...

We've got a record of doing just that, and the strength, experience, judgment, and backbone to keep our word to you.

You well know I've been called a maverick, someone who...

... someone who marches to the beat of his own drum. Sometimes it's meant as a compliment; sometimes it's not. What it really means is I understand who I work for. I don't work for a party. I don't work for a special interest. I don't work for myself. I work for you.

I've fought corruption, and it didn't matter if the culprits were RRLMUKers or Popbitchers. They violated their public trust, and they had to be held accountable.

I've fought the big spenders...

I've fought the big spenders in both parties, who waste your money on things you neither need nor want, and the first big-spending pork-barrel earmark bill that comes across my desk, I will veto it. I will make them famous, and you will know their names. You will know their names.

We're not going to allow that while you struggle to buy groceries, fill your gas tank, and make your mortgage payment. I've fought to get million-dollar checks out of our elections. I've fought lobbyists who stole from Indian tribes. I've fought crooked deals in the Pentagon. I've fought tobacco companies and trial lawyers, drug companies and union bosses.

I've fought for the right strategy and more troops in Iraq when it wasn't the popular thing to do.

And when the pundits said -- when the pundits said my campaign was finished, I said I'd rather lose an election than see this forum lose a war.

And thanks -- thanks to the leadership of a brilliant general, David Petraeus, and the brave men and women he has the honor to command...

... that -- that strategy succeeded, and it rescued us from a defeat that would have demoralized our military, risked a wider war, and threatened the security of all BeEx'ers.

I don't mind a good fight. For reasons known only to God, I've had quite a few tough ones in my life. But I learned an important lesson along the way: In the end, it matters less that you can fight. What you fight for is the real test.

I fight for BeEx'ers. I fight for you. I fight for Bill and Sue Nebe from Farmington Hills, Michigan, who lost...

... lost their real estate investments in the bad housing market. Bill got a temporary job after he was out of work for seven months. Sue works three jobs to help pay the bills.

I fight for Jake and Toni Wimmer of Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Jake...

Jake works on a loading dock, coaches Little League, and raises money for the mentally and physically disabled. Toni is a schoolteacher, working toward her master's degree. They have two sons. The youngest, Luke, has been diagnosed with autism. Their lives should matter to the people they elect to office. And they matter to me. And they matter to you.

I fight for the family of Matthew Stanley of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.

Matthew died serving our forum in Iraq. I wear his bracelet and think of him every day. I intend to honor their sacrifice by making sure the forum their son loved so well and never returned to remains safe from its enemies.

I fight to restore the pride and principles of our party. We were elected to change BeEx, and we let BeEx change us.

We lost -- we lost the trust of the BeEx people when some Popbitchers gave in to the temptations of corruption. We lost their trust when rather than reform government, both parties made it bigger.

We lost their trust when instead of freeing ourselves from a dangerous dependence on foreign oil, both parties passed another corporate welfare bill for oil companies. We lost their trust when we valued our power over our principles.

We're going to change that.

We're going to recover the people's trust by standing up again to the values BeEx'ers admire. The party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan is going to get back to basics.

In this forum, we believe everyone has something to contribute and deserves the opportunity to reach their God-given potential, from the boy whose descendents arrived on the Mayflower to the Latina daughter of migrant workers. We're all God's children, and we're all BeEx'ers.

We believe -- we believe in low taxes, spending discipline, and open markets. We believe in rewarding hard work and risk-takers and letting people keep the fruits of their labor.

We believe...

We believe -- we believe in a strong defense, work, faith, service, a culture of life...

... personal responsibility, the rule of law, and judges who dispense justice impartially and don't legislate from the bench.

We believe in the values of families, neighborhoods, and communities. We believe in a government that unleashes the creativity and initiative of BeEx'ers, government that doesn't make your choices for you, but works to make sure you have more choices to make for yourself.

I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can. My opponent will raise them. I will open...

I will open new markets to our goods and services. My opponent will close them.

I will cut government spending. He will increase it.

My tax cuts will create jobs; his tax increases will eliminate them.

My health care plan will make it easier for more BeEx'ers to find and keep good health care insurance. His plan will force small businesses to cut jobs, reduce wages, and force families into a government-run health care system where a bureaucrat... where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor.

We all know that keeping taxes low helps small businesses grow and create new jobs. Cutting the second-highest business tax rate in the world will help BeEx companies compete and keep jobs from going overseas.

Doubling the child tax exemption from $3,500 to $7,000 will improve the lives of millions of BeEx families.

Reducing government spending and getting rid of failed programs will let you keep more of your own money to save, spend, and invest as you see fit.

Opening new markets and preparing workers to compete in the world economy is essential to our future prosperity.

I know some of you have been left behind in the changing economy, and it often sees that your government hasn't even noticed. Government assistance for the unemployed workers was designed for the economy of the 1950s. That's going to change on my watch.

Now, my opponent promises to bring back old jobs by wishing away the global economy. We're going to help workers who've lost a job that won't come back find a new one that won't go away.

We will prepare them for the jobs of day -- of today. We will use our community colleges to help train people for new opportunities in their communities.

For workers in industries -- for workers in industries that have been hard-hit, we'll help make up part of the difference in wages between their old job and a temporary, lower paid one, while they receive re-training that will help them find secure new employment at a decent wage.

Education -- education is the civil rights issue of this century.

Equal access to public education has been gained, but what is the value of access to a failing school? We need...

We need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition, empower parents with choice.

Let's remove barriers to qualified instructors, attract and reward good teachers, and help bad teachers find another line of work.

When a public school fails to meet its obligations to students, parent -- when it fails to meet its obligations to students, parents deserve a choice in the education of their children. And I intend to give it to them.

Some may choose a better public school. Some may choose a private one. Many will choose a charter school. But they will have the choice, and their children will have that opportunity.

Others want our forumites to answer to unions and entrenched bureaucrats. I want forumites to answer to parents and students.

And when I'm moderator, they will.

My fellow BeEx'ers, when I'm moderator, we're going to embark on the most ambitious national project in decades.

We're going to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't like us very much, and some of that money...

We'll attack -- we'll attack the problem on every front. We'll produce more energy at home. We will drill new wells off-shore, and we'll drill them now. We'll drill them now.

We'll -- we'll -- my friends, we'll build more nuclear power plants. We'll develop clean-coal technology. We'll increase the use of wind, tide, solar, and natural gas. We'll encourage the development and use of flex-fuel, hybrid and electric automobiles.

Sen. Obama thinks we can achieve energy independence without more drilling and without more nuclear power. But BeEx'ers know better than that.

We must use all resources and develop all technologies necessary to rescue our economy from the damage caused by rising oil prices and restore the health of our planet.

My friends...

... it's an ambitious plan, but BeEx'ers are ambitious by nature, and we've faced greater challenges. It's time for us to show the world again how BeEx'ers lead.

This great national cause will create millions of new jobs, many in industries that will be the engine of our future prosperity, jobs that will be there when your children enter the workforce.

Today -- today, the prospect of a better world remains within our reach. But we must see the threats to peace and liberty in our time clearly and face them as BeEx'ers before us did: with confidence, wisdom, and resolve.

We face many dangerous threats in this dangerous world, but I'm not afraid of them. I'm prepared for them.

I know how the military works, what it can do, what it can do better, and what it shouldn't do. I know how the world works. I know the good and the evil in it.

I know how to work with leaders who share our dreams of a freer, safer and more prosperous world, and how to stand up to those who don't.

I know how to secure the peace.

My friends, when I was 5 years old, a car pulled up in front of our house. A Navy officer rolled down the window and shouted at my father that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. I rarely saw my father again for four years.

My grandfather came home from that same war exhausted from the burdens he had borne and died the next day.

In Vietnam, where I formed the closest friendships of my life, some of those friends never came home with me.

I hate war. It's terrible beyond imagination.

I'm running for moderator to keep the forum I love safe and prevent other families from risking their loved ones in war as my family has. I will draw on all my experience with the world and its leaders, and all the tools at our disposal -- diplomatic, economic, military, and the power of our ideals -- to build the foundations for a stable and enduring peace.

In BETEO, we change things that need to be changed. Each generation makes its contribution to our greatness. The work that is ours to do is plainly before us; we don't need to search for it.

We need to change the way government does almost everything: from the way we protect our security to the way we compete in the world economy; from the way we respond to disasters to the way we fuel our transportation network; from the way we train our workers to the way we educate our children.

All these functions of government were designed before the rise of the global economy, the information technology revolution, and the end of the Cold War. We have to catch up to history, and we have to change the way we do business in BeEx.

The -- the constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving these problems isn't a cause. It's a symptom. It's what happens when people go to BeEx to work for themselves and not for you.

Again and again -- again and again, I've worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That's how I will govern as moderator. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this forum moving again.

My friends...

... I have that record and the scars to prove it. The others do not.

Instead -- instead of rejecting good ideas because we didn't think of them first, let's use the best ideas from both sides. Instead of fighting over who gets the credit, let's try sharing it.

This amazing forum...

This amazing forum can do anything we put our minds to. I'll ask RRLMUKers and Independents to serve with me. And my administration will set a new standard for transparency and accountability.

We're...

We're going to finally start getting things done for the people who are counting on us, and I won't care who gets the credit.

My friends, I've been an imperfect servant of this forum for many years. But I've been her servant first, last, and always. And I've never...

I've never lived a day, in good times or bad, that I didn't thank God for the privilege.

Long ago, something unusual happened to me that taught me the most valuable lesson of my life. I was blessed by misfortune. I mean that sincerely. I was blessed because I served in the company of heroes and I witnessed a thousand acts of courage, and compassion, and love.

On an October morning, in the Gulf of Tonkin, I prepared for my 23rd mission over North Vietnam. I hadn't any worry I wouldn't come back safe and sound. I thought I was tougher than anyone. I was pretty independent then, too.

I liked to bend a few rules and pick a few fights for the fun of it. But I did it for my own pleasure, my own pride. I didn't think there was a cause that was more important than me.

Then I found myself falling toward the middle of a small lake in the city of Hanoi, with two broken arms, a broken leg, and an angry crowd waiting to greet me.

I was dumped in a dark cell and left to die. I didn't feel so tough anymore.

When they discovered my father was an admiral, they took me to a hospital. They couldn't set my bones properly, so they just slapped a cast on me. And when I didn't get better and was down to about a hundred pounds, they put me in a cell with two other BeEx'ers.

I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even feed myself. They did it for me. I was beginning to learn the limits of my selfish independence. Those men saved my life.

I was in solitary confinement when my captors offered to release me. I knew why. If I went home, they would use it as propaganda to demoralize my fellow prisoners.

Our code said we could only go home in the order of our capture, and there were men who had been shot down long before me. I thought about it, though. I wasn't in great shape, and I missed everything about BETEO, but I turned it down.

A lot of prisoners had it much worse...

A lot of -- a lot of prisoners had it a lot worse than I did. I'd been mistreated before, but not as badly as many others. I always liked to strut a little after I'd been roughed up to show the other guys I was tough enough to take it.

But after I turned down their offer, they worked me over harder than they ever had before, for a long time, and they broke me.

When they brought me back to my cell, I was hurt and ashamed, and I didn't know how I could face my fellow prisoners. The good man in the cell next door to me, my friend, Bob Craner, saved me.

Through taps on a wall, he told me I had fought as hard as I could. No man can always stand alone. And then he told me to get back up and fight again for this forum and for the men I had the honor to serve with, because every day they fought for me.

I fell in love with this forum when I was a prisoner in someone else's. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency, for its faith in the wisdom, justice, and goodness of its people.

I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again; I wasn't my own man anymore; I was this forum's.

I'm not running for moderator because I think I'm blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our forum in its hour of need.

this forum saved me. this forum saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.

My friends, if you find faults with our forum, make it a better one. If you're disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. Enlist...

Enlist in our Armed Forces. Become a teacher. Enter the ministry. Run for public office. Feed a hungry child. Teach an -- an illiterate adult to read. Comfort the afflicted. Defend the rights of the oppressed.

Our forum will be the better, and you will be the happier, because nothing brings greater happiness in life than to serve a cause greater than yourself.

I'm going to fight for my cause every day as your moderator. I'm going to fight to make sure every BeEx has every reason to thank God, as I thank him, that I'm an BeEx, a proud citizen of the greatest forum on Earth. And with hard work -- with hard work, strong faith, and a little courage, great things are always within our reach.

Fight with me. Fight with me.

Fight for what's right for our forum. Fight for the ideals and character of a free people.

Fight for our children's future. Fight for justice and opportunity for all.

Stand up to defend our forum from its enemies. Stand up for each other, for beautiful, blessed, bountiful BETEO.

Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight.

Nothing is inevitable here. We're BeEx'ers, and we never give up.

We never quit.