Episode 465 BOB DOLE 1995 Clinton's Comeback (Part 7) The Grand Opening of the South Carolina Headquarters of the Bob Dole for President Campaign (3rd Special Event)

EXCLUSIVE HISTORIC CONTENT: 

IN 1995, our Host Randal Wallace showed up tot he brand new Bob Dole for President Headquarters with a camcorder and recorded the event there as Senator Bob Dole and his wife Elizabeth Dole cut the ribbon for the new headquarters. 

It was an all star cast of political leaders who stood on the stage beside him to welcome him to the state and open the campaign headquarters in Columbia S.C. 

Attorney General Charlie Condon, Lieutenant Governor Bob Peeler, former Governor Carroll Campbell, and Governor David Beasley, most prominent political figures in the state of South Carolina at that time and they were all united for Bob Dole for President. 

You can hear their remarks in this episode.  

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Transcript

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unknown 0:25

We reach a defining moment in America.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Americans long for leadership. A strong president with character and courage who shares our conservative values. Basic values like honesty and decency and responsibility and self-reliance. These values form the core of Bob Dole's agenda for America. Reform welfare. Stop rewarding illegitimacy and dependency. Cut taxes for working families and create economic growth. Appoint conservative judges and abolish parole for violent criminals. One man steps forward, ready to lead. Steady leadership.

SPEAKER_07 1:04

For someone who's made tough decisions. For someone who's been a mainstream conservative for a long, long time. For someone who knows what made America great.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Bob Dole embodies the strength of America. A man every American will be proud to call president.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

We're the ones that hit the president. All these folks are gearing up. No exception. He's here itself today. Cut the ribbon on the headquarters. He'll be joined by his wife, Elizabeth Doe, the American Red Cross president, but also a strong showing of support in the state with South Carolina, Governor David Beaver, former Governor Carol Campbell, Lieutenant Governor Bob Bealer, and any number of other local elected officials are here for this big grand opening today. Three hot dogs and a big crowd here on Gervais Street. Welcome Bob Dole to Columbia, South Carolina. And as they gear up now for February of 1996, which will be a little later next year, uh, from this date in 1995, uh, for the big South Carolina Republican primary. And this Bob Dole knows is a must-win state for him. He has the support of Senator Strong Thurman, who's not at this event today. Uh and he does have attorney general Charlie Condent to be able to post here. Just a few minutes. We're about to go down there to him. But uh this is a strong showing. February primary, the one that picks president. This Bob Dole, I know his strategy is to build a firewall in South Carolina. Uh so that nothing that could happen in New Hampshire where he has struggled in the past will derail his march to the White House that begins in South Carolina today. I see Charlie Condon moving into the microphone. So let's go down to Gervais Street and to the ribbon-cutting ceremony and the speeches for Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign here in this beautiful April day in 1995.

SPEAKER_09 4:23

Joining you from today's grand opening of the South Carolina Bill for President Campaign headquarters. This is certainly a significant and important event in Senatorville's march to the White House, and I'm pleased to have this opportunity to extend a warm greetings to everyone in attendance on this occasion. For a candidate to win the presidency, he must develop and execute a successful Southern strategy. If a contender cannot carry this region of the nation, then his chances of becoming the next chief executive are greatly diminished. The work that will be done out of this headquarters over the next 13 months will guarantee that Bob Dole overwhelmingly carries South Carolina and the entire Southeast. Each of us knows that Bob Dole is the best qualified person to challenge and defeat Bill Clinton in next year's election. He has the skills, temperament, and vision to lead the United States into the next century. More importantly, he shares the values and concerns of Southerners. Certainly something that the incumbents in the White House cannot claim. I'm proud to be one of Bob Dole's supporters, and I look forward to seeing him inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States. Congratulations on today's opening, Senator Dole. You know I stand ready to aid you in any way I can in your request for the White House. And to my constituents, do not hesitate to call upon me if I may ever be of assistance to any of you as your United States Senator. With kindest regards and best wishes, sincerely, Strong Thurman. As Congressman Hartnett says, the federal government has three roles: deliver the mail, defend our shores, and stay the heck off our backs. And now it gives me great personal privilege to introduce you to you, a person we're very proud of on the Republican side of the aisle, our Lieutenant Governor. He has brought not only the cows to Colombia, but he's brought business and common sense to the office of Lieutenant Governor. Bob Peel.

SPEAKER_08 6:52

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. A pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God and divisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

SPEAKER_09 7:26

And of course, you know who I'm talking about, our great former governor and next vice president of the United States, Carol Campbell.

SPEAKER_03 7:40

Thank you all very much. I'm delighted to be here today, and I'm so delighted to see Senator and Mrs. Dole with us. That's the greatest couple in America today, and wouldn't you like to see them both in the White House? Ladies and gentlemen, the interesting thing is that the president is the leader of our country. At the same time, Bob Dole is the leader of the Senate. And it's been said that leader describes Bob Dole as a person, not just as a title. It takes a leader to run a country. A leader has to bring people together. A leader has to have vision, a leader has to be able to convince differing viewpoints of the good of the whole. A leader has to be a person that will stand firm and fight for their beliefs. You couldn't write a better description of Bob Dole. We don't have a leader in the White House today. We need a leader very badly. We haven't held the House, the Senate, and the presidency since the White Eisenhower's days. Isn't it about time that we had the House, the Senate, and President Dole to put America back on the right track? Well, let me say this to you in conclusion before I present another great leader. There is only one Republican running today that has shown that they can beat Bob Dole. I mean, beat Bill Clinton, and that's Bob Dole. That is Bob Dole. Bob Dornan, which I almost got stuck on my tongue, stood up in New Hampshire and said, in in this race in February in New Hampshire, there'll only be two people left, Bob Dole and somebody else. Well, you see, that's an admission from other candidates that they understand that Bob Dole is there. He's going to be there, he's going to win. And the quicker we can focus our campaign on Bill Clinton, instead of the Republicans against each other, the quicker we can then move forward to take the White House. And it's incumbent upon us to do that. And we're working very hard, and I'm asking all of you to please go out and work today. And I can tell you right now, Bob Dole's ahead in South Carolina. He's ahead in California. He's ahead in New York. He's ahead in North Carolina. He's ahead in America, and he will be the next president of the United States. Yeah. And now I have a very distinct pleasure to present to you someone that you already know. But a young man that I got to know when he was in the legislature, a young man that I talked to through the years, that I grew to like, respect, and indeed admire what he stood for. A young man that took everything on his shoulders and stepped forward for the Republican Party and said, we're going to continue a Republican governorship in South Carolina. Ladies and gentlemen, I think that we have one of the finest governors in the United States of America. I think that he is a cutting-edge, leading edge conservative for our whole country as well as South Carolina. And I am proud to be here today to present to you the governor of the state of South Carolina, David Beasley.

SPEAKER_05 11:12

And that's coming from the greatest governor of South Carolina. We've had the United States Governor Carol Campbell. I can remember taking office, and people would ask me, don't you think it's going to be difficult to follow in the shoes of one of the greatest governors in the country? And I said, I think it's a wonderful opportunity. Because Governor Campbell laid the foundation. You see how much he can accomplish, and that was without a Republican-controlled house, nor a Republican-controlled Senate. How much more can I get done? But the American people and the people of South Carolina behind me, when I do have a Republican-controlled house, you see what happened this year. Because leaders laying a foundation with a vision on the base of a conviction. People who've been out in the venues like Carol Campbell and Bob Dahl. You see what's happening in the United States House and the United States Senate now with a Republican-controlled house and a Republican-controlled Senate. Just think how great it would be when we take control of the United States presidency with a Republican in the presidency with a Republican-controlled House and said that would be a great day for America. Bob leaned over a minute ago and he said, you know, I think he's gonna pull me through to a victory. I said, Well, Mary Wood pulls me through. He and I have both been blessed with wonderful women. Elizabeth Dole is one of the greatest women in America. And I can't think of a greater ancestor. A greater contrast in the White House. I know he's conservative, but he really doesn't hear your philosophy. I said, Well, yeah. He was the reason you think we're even political propaganda. I said, I don't believe all his record. I read his record. He's finding true. He's a proof of conservative. He's a man who's been a man. But it wasn't politically convenient fighting for our causes. He's a man who led the Senate year after year, a man this year, who's not done by the mandate, who hold for the largest active increase in American history. He's a man who's fighting for greater flexibility for the state because we know better how to solve our problems than the federal government. He's a man who understands that we can do it more compassionately, more efficiently, and more effectively. He's from the rural plains, the dust stars below in the prairie area, age of 20. Left and went to the army. Where is any good? Great ballot, courage, two rubber hearts, the black star. This is a man who has laid down his life for me and you. A man who has fought on the battlefield so that we can have the freedoms that we have. A man who took that same battle to the halls of commerce to fight to protect within America, the institutions of freedom, and a man that you and I today are gonna say, we're gonna fight for Bob Dole to become the next president of the United States. I present to you, the next president of the United States, Bob Dole. South Carolina, this Bob Dole Country.

SPEAKER_07 15:57

So I'm very happy that she's here today. I'll just take a minute or I'm very honored to be here with all these people up here. I want to get out and say hello to some of the people who are here today, too, and also get over to the hot dog stand here if we can. And that's probably what you really came for. So I'm the hot candidate, but there are the hot dogs over there. I agree everything has been said up here today, and I'm very proud of the Republican Party. And I'm proud of the gains made in the South. And I'm proud of the work that Strom Thurman does in the United States Senate. You know, he and Floyd Spence have the most important committee assignments in the whole Congress, and they're both in South Carolina. The Armed Services Committee depends, makes decisions whether or not we're gonna have freedom and liberty and how we're gonna react if something happens around the world. And I'm confident of Senator Thurman's judgment, and he'll make the right judgment. And so I'm sorry Strom couldn't be today, but I guess he is racing around somewhere. He runs by my office every day. And uh, how many here have been interns in his office? One, two, three, one or five. It's a great experience, wasn't it? How long are you there? One month, he has a 30-day rotation plan. And he has 40 every 30 days, that's 10 fourth of us. We've got big, big groups. In a year's time, and I figured he's been doing it for quite a few years, probably half the people there have been interns. And the other half want to be interns. And he'll be there long enough. I think you're gonna be able to accommodate all of you. So I want to say a word for Senator Thurman about his re-election. We're gonna try to elect 60 Republican senators so we can stop filibusters by the Democrats, and Senator Thurman's gonna be a key to that. I'll just say one word about Bob Dole. I've been coming to South Carolina for a long time. I've met a lot of friends here. We've got a lot of good people running for president. They're all friends of mine. I've worked with all but one or two of them in some capacity over the years. But this race is not about Bob Dole. It's not even about anybody else running on the Republican side. This race is about the future of America. This race is about the next century. This race is about the next generation. This race may be about your parents or your grandparents or your grandchildren or your children. That's what this race is all about. It's about leadership in America. It's about a vision for America, it's about an agenda for America. It's whether or not we send Bill Clinton back to Little Rock next November. That's what this election's all about. I said from time to time that President Clinton's been AWOL. Absent without leadership. Whether it's a balanced budget amendment, whether it's welfare reform, whether it's cutting taxes, whether it's saving Medicare, he doesn't have a plan. He has a poll. He doesn't have a plan. He takes a poll and then decides where he's ought to go. If it sounds good, he's with you. So he's for that. But his surgeon general is saying not too long ago, but he ought to marrow legalize marijuana so I get mixed up. I don't know what voice is speaking for the administration. And I would just say this. Every election is a key election. And look at the gains you've made in South Carolina. With the leadership of Carol Campbell, David Beasley, and others up here. Bob Peter, Charlie Conan, my state chairman. And my supporters all across this state. Senator Thurman's my honorary chairman. I want to promise you just one or two things. We're going to make the government smaller. We're going to make the tax system simpler. Whether it's a flat tax, it's going to be flatter, fairer, or simpler. And we're going to eliminate the IRS as we know it. We think we can shrink it a lot without causing any big problems. Let me just tell you a couple of things we did because it's going to affect everybody here. If your family, if you have a family with children, unless you're rich, you're going to get a $500 tax credit per child. I didn't fully understand that until I was in Jacksonville, Florida last Wednesday. I met a man with 10 kids. He said, I'm not rich. But 10 times 500 is $5,000 I can spend for my children that Clinton can't spend for something else. We ought to give the money back to the American people who spend it better for their families. And something happens, somebody passes on, you send up end up liquidating the estate or selling off half the assets to pay the estate tax. We've got a new provision passed yesterday in the Senate Finance Committee that's going to protect small businessmen, small businesswomen, family-owned businesses, middle class Americans, the people in this audience, we want you to keep your business, not be forced to sell it off. In fact, I agree with Ronald Reagan, who said one time, told me when I was chairman of the finance committee, he said, we ought to get rid of the estate tax. He said, people work all their life, they scrimp and they're saved and their families work, and when somebody dies, they give half of it to the government. He said, It's not fair. And it's not fair if somebody goes out and works and works and works. Five, six, seven days a week in some cases. We're also going to reduce the capital gains rates so you can get capital to lower costs and go out and expand your business or create a new business, create jobs in Columbia or Russell, Kansas, or Salisbury, North Carolina, or wherever. We want to give you a chance. Because I believe in the Tenth Amendment, which says, and Charlie referred to it, if the power is not reserved to the federal government, it belongs to the states and to the people. It belongs to the governor and the legislature and the people, and you're the people. And we're going to give it back to the states and back to the people, whether it's Medicaid or welfare reform, and we're going to stop unfunded mandates. We have stopped unfunded mandates. And all of this has happened because you gave us. The chance in 1994 with the Republican House and Republican Senate. For the first time in history, we have a speaker named Newton. And we haven't had a Republican speaker for 40 years. And for the first time in history, after the next election, we're going to have a Republican president named Bob. We've never had a Bob named president before, so it's time to elect the Bob to president. If I can't make it, Bob Peter will make it. One of the Bobs out there is going to get it done. A lot of Bobs in this country. All vote for us for him. How many Bobs in the audience? Sure, got to be one or two out here. So we're excited about it. We're going to head to Florida now. We have a couple of meetings there this afternoon. I just promise you two things. I've got a good conservative voting record. I'm proud of it. I'm proud to be an American. I was proud to be a soldier in World War II. I'm proud to be in the same United States Senate with Strom Thurman, who's the most unique character I've ever met. I say that with all the admiration I can. There's nobody like Senator Thurman. You can ask any Democrat or any Republican. There's never been anybody in the Senate like Strom Thurman. And he means it. When he puts an A line, he praises me to the heavens. And by the way, if I can help any of my constituents, give me a ring. When he's in the cloakroom, he's making phone calls. South Carolina. When he's in an airplane, he's making phone calls. When he's in his office, he's making phone calls. And he's never forgotten where he's from and how important constituent service was, and is and will be in the future. Don't forget Tom Turner. And I know you'd be proud of Elizabeth that she becomes First Lady. You'd be prouder yet to know that she will not be in charge of health care. I said many times she's the president of the Red Cross. At least she got to be president or something, which is more than I can say. She wants to start a blood drive. And it's pretty messy. She's trying to find your vein and I'm trying to find your wallet. So I promise you, I'll keep my word. I promise that I'll love America as much as you do. I promise you, I'll provide leadership. And I promise we have to send some American, some foreign country, I'll make the decision, and not bootress, boutras, golly, in the United Nations. I would caution President Clinton. Mr. President, before you send 25,000 Americans or 20,000 off to Bosnia somewhere, you better inform the American people and persuade the American people that it's in our national interest. But I've got a better idea, Mr. President. If you would just lift the arms embark on this little tiny country called Bosnia and let them defend themselves, we wouldn't need to send one American anywhere. They can defend themselves. I knew I was conservative, I didn't know I was way over there. But anybody, any the little right assigned up here, right-wing extremist for Al Gore kind of thinking. We haven't had the leadership in the White House. If we want to balance the budget and save Medicare and cut taxes and reform welfare, I just say to President Brent, please come up and talk to me and do it. Invite us down to talk to you. We're all adults. We want to do the right thing. We understand it's important for America. We know the American people get tired of politics. You can elect the president, Mr. President. That's what leadership's all about. Bringing people together, bringing America. We don't want to divide. We got enough division America. We want to bring people together. Thank you very much for coming. Thank you for being here today. Don't forget the hot dogs and God bless America.

SPEAKER_04 27:31

This is our new headquarters.

SPEAKER_01 28:01

This was a really great event. We've heard from Attorney General Charlie Condon, from Lieutenant Governor Bob Peeler, from the former governor Carol Campbell, and of course Governor David Beasley and Bob Elizabeth Dolton. So this was a really great event, great speech, big crowd, and a great band playing back there. They really did a good job playing that old uh kind of campaign music from the past. Take a few pictures. Quite good.

SPEAKER_05 29:45

I gotta get it. We gotta get the most important.

SPEAKER_06 30:22

Hey, Senator, I gotta go. Some had a lander for me. Like we're special vote.

SPEAKER_07 30:30

Alright, hang on here.

SPEAKER_04 30:43

You can eat my hot dog. In California.

SPEAKER_07 30:52

Wide open, I've opened it up. I got new pages uh we can look very nice.

SPEAKER_06 31:27

I'll send you all later.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

This has been a Randall Wallace Presents Podcast. Special events. Well, that's a wrap. Thanks for joining us. And until our next one, I'm Randall Wallace for the Randall Wallace Presents Podcast. So long for now.