Remarks in Columbus, Ohio

I believe in the Republican Party and I want to invite John and Debbie up here and all the elected Republican officials, and Tom Johnson, all the other — would you come up and stand behind us here.

This is a party, this is a family this is what it's all about.

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Come on, Bob.

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OK, Tom.

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What a great team.

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I'm very proud of them.

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As the governor said, this is our weekly visit to Ohio. I'm glad to be back in Columbus.

I haven't been here for a week.

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Yesterday was Halloween, the day the kids all dress up and do scary things. It's sort of the way the White House is every day.

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The Clinton White House.

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Four years ago, Bill Clinton said he wanted to be president in the worst way, and now is he is.

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And I appreciate the kind words about Elizabeth. I think she'll be an outstanding first lady, bring respect and...

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... to the office.

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DOLE: I've said to some of you before, she is so talented that Eleanor Roosevelt's trying to reach her.

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So we have four big days. I won't get into the Ohio State-Michigan game here, but we have four days...

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... four days until America — not the pollsters, not the pundits, but America, the voters, you, you're the real poll right — this is the poll right here, right out here — you will decide who wins the election on November 5.

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And starting at noon today, in Ohio, in Mansfield, we will kick off a 96-hour non-stop campaign on the road to victory — on the road to victory — 96 hours on the road to victory.

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I remember a long time ago when I was in the hospital in Percy Jones, my father received a letter — I think it was 1947 in December — saying, in effect, that your son is dying. If we can do anything, let us know.

Well, I didn't — didn't happen.

I didn't give up then. I'm not going to give up now.

We're going to win this election.

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CHANT: Dole-Kemp! Dole-Kemp! Dole-Kemp!

DOLE: And in these closing days...

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... we're going to take our message to Republicans and to Democrats, members of the Reform Party, and independent voters, because this a fight for America to elect a president we can trust, and one that will give us an economy that will give us hope.

Working with John Kasich, the chairman of the Budget Committee on the House side, and Pete Domenici on the Senate side, I know we can get it done.

We will stimulate the economy, and we will have strong bipartisan support, I'm willing to bet right now.

Let me say one other thing.

I've heard all these wonderful things this morning, but I want to say, when you — when George Bush stands up, and Gerald Ford stands up before you, you're looking at two men of honor and integrity who love their country, who fought for their country, and served their country because they loved America.

That's what this election's about.

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It's about our country.

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It's about our country.

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This is about walking into the White House after you've been sworn in to be president of the United States, and understanding, in your heart, at that moment, you have a greater responsibility than anyone in America to set the highest standards for people all across America — the young, the old, the rich, the poor, the Black, the White — because you are the president of the United States.

This is not a game. This is not a game. This is not a contest of how arrogant you can be.

And I wonder sometimes, in all the things — almost every week, there's another scandal. Even the New York Times today — it's been a Clinton apologist forever — saying he ought to tell what's happened.

What they ought to do is withdraw their endorsement and endorse Bob Dole.

That made a lot more sense to me.

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And they — the president will not tell us anything. He's going to stonewall until next Tuesday when the polls close.

I don't think that should happen in America.

I don't think that should happen.

There have been book after book after book written about this White House — not about private matters, but about this White House, about the public trust.

There's been all kinds of allegations of what may be for sale, how they raise money.

But I don't really believe that's what America's all about.

I don't believe that's what independents and Democrats and members of the Reform Party, as well as Republicans — and President Ford stood here, who came in to pick up the pieces after Watergate — he understood that our party, the wreckage was strewn all across America.

We took a licking. We took a licking and we learned and we reformed.

But now we've learned we didn't go far enough.

And it seems to me that unless you can vote in America, you shouldn't contribute in America. If you're not a citizen, you can't vote, you shouldn't try to influence the election.

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So we're going to hit the road — Grand Rapids today, and hit about 14 or 15 states in the next 96 hours.

And we're going to do it around the clock.

And we're going to try to reach out to everyone we can at every truck stop, at every all-night diner, because we want the American people to understand that we're dedicated, we're committed.

It's not a game.

It's about the greatest country on the face of the earth.

And the stakes are high.

They're high for you — again, regardless of your party, they're high for you.

If you're in business, they're high for you.

If you're a senior citizen, they're high for you.

Don't believe all the negative ads that are coming across the airwaves in Ohio and all across America about Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security and student loans.

DOLE: Sometimes people don't tell the truth.

And these ads do not tell the truth.

As John will tell you — John Kasich — and Debbie Pryce will tell you, we increased student loans in the Republican Congress. We increased the size of Pell grants in the Republican Congress. We increased the growth of Medicare seven percent a year in the Republican Congress.

And he vetoed — what did he do? He raised taxes on Social Security benefits without a single Republican vote.

The president ought to be ashamed of himself, but he looks truth right in the eye and walks beyond it.

He looks you in the eye, as he'll do today, and he'll make a speech in California. And he'll stand there and he'll talk about campaign finance reform and how he's struggled to get it.

He struggled to get it, all right, and they've got a lot of it.

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They had these outreach programs, they called it.

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We have a foreign business man who made an illegal contribution to the Democratic Party.

We have a vice president raising money at a Buddhist temple — where they take a vow of poverty.

But he came out with 122 grand.

And I would expect at least one fundraiser at a homeless shelter before this outfit finishes next Tuesday.

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Because somebody is giving somebody the money and they're giving the money to somebody else. They've got their own laundromat somewhere.

And it's not right.

We have a gardener writing several hundred thousand-dollar checks to the Democrats, then leaving the country.

All these people left the country.

They can't vote here. But they want to influence elections here.

And a lot of these negative ads on Medicare are being paid for by the Riady family or Mr. Gandhi, or somebody else. Now, Gandhi is a case in point.

Here's a guy that scrimped and saved and worked hard and was able to collected $300,000 to give to the Clinton campaign.

Then it was discovered he owned $10,000 in back taxes and lived in very modest housing.

But he's gone. Gandhi's gone. We can't find him.

And then John Huang. The New York Times talks about him today in an editorial.

Nobody could find him but he got a personal note from the first lady. But nobody else knew where he was.

So the administration is in the midst of a growing scandal involving a flow of foreign money into the Democratic Party that bought access to the White House — there's no doubt about it. There's no doubt about it.

So now Bill Clinton — four days before the campaign's going to tell you about campaign finance reform.

And what we have seen from this administration in the last few weeks is the reason we need campaign finance reform. We need it — no question about it.

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And it will come.

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Six years ago, in 1990, I proposed a bipartisan commission.

I'll be very honest with you. When the Democrats are in control of Congress, they want to make it a little better for them.

And when the Republicans control the Congress, we want to make it a little better for us.

And the only way to make it fair and objective and real reform is to have a bipartisan commission — bipartisan. Take it out of politics. Let somebody who understands the system but doesn't have any stake in it make recommendations to the Congress of the United States.

That's probably what the president will suggest today.

But I ask President Clinton to show how serious about reform by accepting four common-sense ground rules for this bipartisan commission.

Number one is to require that only American citizens can make a donation to a candidate or political party, which I just mentioned.

We simply cannot allow the political influence of any American to be outweighed by foreign money.

You have one vote. They have millions of dollars. Now who do you think has the most influence?

Because they're going to use that millions of dollars on television in negative commercials 98.5 percent of the time.

In an American election, the voice of a single citizen must speak louder than the entire world because this is the United States of America and you...

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Number two: We ought to abolish so-called soft money. Both parties take it — don't misunderstand me.

It comes from corporations and it comes from labor unions to federal candidates or parties to influence elections.

We have to deal with it. We must have full disclosure of all corporate and union money spend on so-called issue ads. The AFL-CIO, the labor bosses have been out there spending millions — $35 million we know of, probably $50 or $60 million, on what they call issue ads.

And what are they doing? They're out there bashing John Kasich and Debbie Pryce and everybody else running for Congress on Medicare and Medicaid, and they say — these are issue ads.

They're nothing but partisan — negative partisan — ads.

And number three: No American should be forced against his or her will to give up part of his paycheck to finance a political agenda he doesn't agree with.

Forty percent of union members are going to vote for us.

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Practically every day, I meet union members upset with the bosses for spending their dues to promote liberal ideas they don't agree with at all.

They're concerned about drugs and crime and education. But their money is taken out of their check and put into the Clinton campaign. That's what's happening.

DOLE: This is America. You shouldn't have to support someone when you don't believe in that person or don't believe in that agenda.

And number four: We're going to have to abolish political action committees.

So these are four principles I think the bipartisan commission out to start on.

Maybe there are others. There probably are others. But this — after Watergate, we got the message. After all that's happened in this White House, I think the American people have again gotten the message.

It wasn't partisan. It was bipartisan. It was across the board. If you want to clean up politics, this may be the time.

When you think of all the money, all the money they've spent — we think around $91 million — trying to paint Bob Dole as some kind of an ogre who is against Medicare, veterans, Medicaid, student loans, farmers — everybody. There wasn't anybody left.

I'm opposed to everybody...

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... except Bill Clinton. I'm opposed to him, too, but I don't get to run any ads.

He ran against a guy in a primary who was in jail and the result was he had an opponent, so it made him eligible for campaign — federal funds of about $14 million.

We need to change the system. But above all, we need to change the White House and have a new occupant there in January 1997.

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And I'm very honored to...

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And I'd be willing to have a debate — a debate right here, Joe, if you can work it on, on campaign finance reform with the president and with Ross Perot, and talk about it — and talk about it.

I don't think he'll come, but I think he'll be in Ohio again. Maybe — I'll go wherever he goes.

If he wants to meet me somewhere to talk about campaign finance reform.

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I want to thank John Kasich for his help on our tax package, and Mike DeWine, and others.

This is not rocket science. You know what we figured out — we had a big meeting and we figured out that it's really your money. It's not ours.

Did it ever occur to you that it's your money?

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And we didn't have to appoint a commission. We figured that out all by ourselves.

And you haven't had a federal tax cut in 10 years and 15 percent across the board for a family of four with a $500 child credit per child under 18 in Ohio is $1,261.

It's a Main Street tax cut. It's not a Wall Street tax cut. It's for working families — families with children, Forty million children are going to be involved in this tax cut — 40 million — 40 million little $500 credits out there.

And the money's going to go to the family. And you can have more daycare or maybe make some mortgage payments, or maybe make a down payment on a car, or maybe even take a vacation.

Better you take one than Hazel O'Leary fly all around the world at your expense.

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What about you having a vacation?

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And then to get the economy rolling again, we're going to cut the capital gains rate in half — 50 percent — right down the middle — 50 percent.

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So don't apologize because the government doesn't take all your money. They ought to apologize for taking too much in the first place.

And we're going to make it work, and we're going to have a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, which President Clinton defeated by twisting arms and getting six Democrats to vote the other way.

You know, I think when young people get together for sports and everything else, if they want to get together on their own without any dictation from the teachers or the state, they ought to have a little voluntary prayer ought to be permitted now and then.

It would probably be good for America.

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And maybe it's only symbolic — maybe it's only symbolic — but I believe in an amendment to protect the flag of the United States. It means a lot to veterans and others who've served their country and it ought to be out there, and it ought to be done, and I am for it and he's against it.

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And finally, I want to challenge all of you.

Maybe you can't put in 96 hours — we'll buy the No-Doz if you'll do it.

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In my view, if candidates and party leaders across America will join us in this last 96 hours, which starts in the great state of Ohio in about two hours — 96 hours from noon today until noon on election day when I cast my vote in the great metropolitan area of Russell, Kansas — that is 96 hours.

And that's not — we're not doing this to punish the media. That's not my intent.

I know some are skeptical. I wouldn't think of anything like that. Well, I thought of it, but I wouldn't...

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But, this is about America.

The last time I fought around — around the clock for my country was in Italy in 1945. It was worth it then and it's worth it now and we're going to make it happen.

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Thank you very much and God bless America.

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