Pence's Address to the Republican National Convention
"The following speech was prepared for delivery by Congressman Mike Pence at the 2008 Republican National Convention. Due to scheduling changes necessitated by Hurricane Gustav, the speech was not presented."
Good evening. It has been an extraordinary week in America, and I have never been more proud to be a Republican.
With historic flooding in Indiana this year, Hoosiers already learned what Americans saw in the Gulf Coast this week…
…after the hard lessons of 2005, Americans saw President George W. Bush on the job, FEMA reformed and Republican leadership at the state level making the difference!
Tonight we speak of prosperity, but, as every American learned on that terrible day in September 2001, there can be no prosperity without security. Tonight, I want to tell you how I believe we can achieve security and prosperity – let me tell you about my friend Senator John McCain.
I believe John McCain’s background and life experience make him just the right man to lead our nation to a future of security and prosperity in the 21st Century.
On security: our friends and enemies know John McCain will protect this nation.
This became clear when I traveled with John McCain to Iraq in the spring of 2007. We took a meeting with a Sunni Sheik, Abdul Satter Abu Risha, the courageous founder of the Anbar Awakening Movement…a movement that helped transform that province and all of Iraq from hostility toward U.S. forces to the extraordinary cooperation that set the stage for the historic handover of Anbar Province to the Iraqi military that took place this week.
I’ll never forget that meeting.
As we entered the room, the sheik greeted us one by one. He lowered his head, took my hand, and said through his interpreter, “It is an honor to meet you.” He greeted each member of our delegation the same.
Then he greeted John McCain. Bowing deeply, this Sunni sheik took both of Senator McCain’s hands in his and said, “It is a special privilege to meet you, Senator McCain. My people know of you and know of your proud family of warriors and we respect you.”
I realized then that John McCain possesses a currency in this part of the world that transcends titles and position; a currency of immeasurable value that cannot be underestimated and cannot be manufactured – a currency that could save American lives.
Our friends and our enemies know John McCain is a leader who will do what is necessary to defend this nation and will join with democracies around the world to confront terrorism and tyranny and defend the values that have long made us a force for good on this earth.
John McCain will also fight to free our country from a danger which threatens our national security, our economy and our environment.
John McCain knows we must lessen our dependence on foreign oil.
But Democrats have refused to even take a vote on an energy bill that includes more drilling.
We have one message to the Democrats in Washington:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, you can turn off the lights on the House floor and shut off the mics, but you cannot silence the voice of millions of Americans who say:
Drill more, drill here, drill now!
John McCain’s energy plan will unleash our richest renewable resource: American ingenuity. In addition to giving the American people more access to American oil, John McCain will pursue an “all of the above strategy”: conservation, fuel efficiency, wind power, solar power, biofuels, and nuclear energy.
John McCain will overcome the partisanship in Washington that prevents us from solving our energy challenges and promoting our country’s peace and prosperity.
Our jobs and our way of life depend on electing a leader who can achieve comprehensive energy reform that includes more domestic drilling. That man is John McCain.
In his 1941 address before Congress, Winston Churchill said, "He must indeed have a blind soul who cannot see that some great purpose and design is being worked out here below of which we have the honor to be the faithful servants."
My fellow Americans, we need experienced leadership, security and resources to meet the unknowable challenges of the 21st Century, and I believe with all my heart that the times and providence have called forth the right man at the right time to lead this nation.
For every working family, small business and family farm anxious about the threats abroad and struggling under the burden of high gasoline prices…
Let us be the faithful servants.
Let us leave this place and work and not stop until we give the American people the leader they deserve.
For our security, prosperity and energy independence, John McCain must become the 44th President of the United States.
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