Knowledge is Power

The following is a speech that Ann Romney gave at the Republican National Convention on August 28, 2012.
ROMNEY: Hello! What a welcome.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you. And thank you, Luce.
I cannot wait to see what we are going to all do together.
This is going to be so exciting!
(APPLAUSE)
Just so you all know, the hurricane has hit landfall and I
think we should take this moment and recognize that fellow
Americans are in its path and just hope and pray that all remain
safe and no life is lost and no property is lost. So we should
all be thankful for this great country and grateful for our
first responders and all that keep us safe in this wonderful
country.
(APPLAUSE)
Well, I want to talk to you tonight not about politics and
not about party. And while there are many important issues that
we will hear discussed in this convention and throughout this
campaign tonight, I want to talk to you from my heart about our
hearts.
(APPLAUSE)
I want to talk about not what divides us, but what holds us
together as an American family. I want to talk to you tonight
about that one great thing that unites us, that one great thing
that brings us our greatest joy when times are good and the
deepest solace in our dark hours.
Tonight, I want to talk to you about love. I want to talk
to you about the deep and abiding love I have for a man I met at
a dance many years ago. And the profound love I have and I know
we share for this country. I want to talk to you about that
love so deep, only a mother can fathom it. The love that we
have for our children and our children’s children.
And I want us to think tonight about the love we share for
those Americans, our brothers and our sisters, who are going
through difficult times, whose days are never easy, nights are
always long, and whose work never seems done.
They’re here among us tonight in this hall. They are here
in neighborhoods across Tampa and all across America. The
parents who lie awake at night, side by side, wondering how they
will be able to pay the mortgage or make the rent.
The single dad who is working extra hours tonight so that
his kids can buy some new clothes to go back to school, can take
a school trip or play a sport so his kids can feel, you know,
just like other kids.
And the working moms who love their jobs, but would like to
work just a little less to spend more time with the kids, but
that is just out of the question with this economy.
Or how about that couple who would like to have another
child but wonder how they will afford it? I have been all
across this country and I know a lot of you guys.
(APPLAUSE)
And I have seen and heard stories of how hard it is to get
ahead now. You know what? I have heard your voices. They have
said to me, I am running in place and we just cannot get ahead.
Sometimes, I think that, late at night, if we were all
silent for just a few moments and listened carefully, we could
hear a collective sigh from the moms and dads across America who
made it through another day, and know that they will make it
through another one tomorrow. But in the end of that day moment,
they are just aren’t sure how.
And if you listen carefully, you’ll hear the women sighing
a little bit more than the men. It’s how it is, isn’t it? It’s
the moms who have always had to work a little harder to make
everything right. It’s the mom’s of this nation, single,
married, widowed, who really hold the country together. We’re
the mothers. We’re the wives. We’re the grandmothers. We’re
the big sisters. We’re the little sisters and we are the
daughters.
You know it’s true, don’t you?
(APPLAUSE)
I love you, women!
(APPLAUSE)
And I hear your voices. Those are my favorite fans down
there.
(APPLAUSE)
You are the ones that have to do a little bit more and you
know what it is like to earn a little bit harder earn the
respect you deserve at work and then you come home to help with
the book report just because it has to be done.
You know what those late-night phone calls with an elderly
parent are like, and those long weekend drives just to see how
they’re doing.
You know the fastest route to the local emergency room and
which doctors actually answers the phone call when you call at
night, and by the way, I know all about that.
You know what it is like to sit in that graduation ceremony
and wonder how it was that so many long days turned into years
that went by so quickly. You are the best of America.
(APPLAUSE)
You…
(APPLAUSE)
You are the hope of America. There would not be an America
without you. Tonight, we salute you and sing your praises!
(APPLAUSE)
I am not sure if men really understand this, but I don’t
think there is a woman in America who really expects her life to
be easy. In our own ways, we all know better. You know what,
and that’s fine. We don’t want easy. But the last few years
have been harder than they needed to be. It is all the little
things, the price of the pump you could not believe and the
grocery bills that just get bigger, all those things that used
to be free, like school sports are now one more bill to pay.
It’s all the little things become the big things. And the
big things, the good jobs, the chance at college and the home
you want to buy just get harder. Everything has become harder.
We’re too smart and know that there are no easy answers, but
we’re not dumb enough to accept that there are not better
answers.
(APPLAUSE)
And that is where this boy I met at a high school dance
comes in. His name is Mitt Romney and you should really get to
know him.
(APPLAUSE)
I could tell you why I fell in love with him; he was tall,
laughed a lot. He was nervous. Girls like that. It shows the
guy’s a little intimidated. He was nice to my parents, but he
was also really glad when they were not around.
(LAUGHTER)
I don’t mind that. But more than anything, he made me
laugh. Some of you might not know this, but I am the
granddaughter of a welsh coal miner.
(APPLAUSE)
He was determined — he was determined that his kids get
out of the mines. My dad got his first job when he was six
years old in a little village in Wales called (inaudible).
Cleaning bottles at the (inaudible).
When he was 15, dad came to America. In our country, he
saw hope and an opportunity to escape from poverty. He moved to
a small town in the great state of Michigan.
(APPLAUSE)
Michigan!
(APPLAUSE)
There he started a business, one he built by himself, by
the way.
(APPLAUSE)
He raised a family and he became mayor of our town. My dad
would often remind my brothers and me how fortunate we were to
grow up anyplace like America. He wanted us to have every
opportunity that came with life in this country, and so he
pushed us to be our best and give our all. Inside the houses
that line the streets in downtown, there were a lot of fathers
teaching their sons and daughters those same values. I didn’t
know it at the time, but one of those dads was my future
father-in-law, George Romney.
(APPLAUSE)
Mitt’s dad never graduated from college. Instead, he
became a carpenter. He worked hard and then he became the head
of the car company, and then the governor of Michigan.
When Mitt and I met and fell in love, we were determined
not to let anything stand in a way of our future. I was
Episcopalian, he was a Mormon. We were very young, both still
in college. There were many reasons to delay marriage. And you
know what, we just didn’t care. We got married and moved into a
basement apartment.
(APPLAUSE)
We walked to class together, shared the housekeeping, ate a
lot of pasta and Tuna fish. Our just was a door propped up on
saw horses, our dining room table was a fold down ironing board
in the kitchen. But those were the best days.
Then our first son came along. All at once, a 22-years-old
with a baby and a husband, who’s going to business school and
law school at the same time, and I can tell you, probably like
every other girl who finds herself in a new life far from family
and friends with a new baby and a new husband, that it dawned on
me that I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into.
(APPLAUSE)
Well that was 42 years ago. I survived. We now have five
sons and 18 beautiful grandchildren.
(APPLAUSE)
I am still in love with that boy that I met at a high
school dance and he still makes me laugh.
I read somewhere that Mitt and I have a storybook marriage.
Well, let me tell you something. In the storybooks I read,
there never were long, long rainy winter afternoons in a house
with five boys screaming at once,
(LAUGHTER)
and those storybooks never seemed to have chapter’s called
M.S. or breast cancer. A storybook marriage? Nope, not at all.
What Mitt Romney and I have is a real marriage.
(APPLAUSE)
I know this good and decent man for what he is. He’s warm,
and loving, and patient. He has tried to live his life with a
set of values centered on family, faith, and love of one fellow
man. From the time we were first married, I have seen him spend
countless hours helping others . I’ve seen him drop everything
to help a friend in trouble, and been there when late-night
calls of panic come from a member of our church whose child has
been taken to the hospital.
You may not agree on Mitt’s decisions on issues or his
politics — by the way Massachusetts is only 13 percent
Republican, so it’s not like it’s a shock to me.
(LAUGHTER)
But — but let me say this to every American who is
thinking about who should be our next president. No one will
work harder. No one will care more. And no one will move
heaven and earth like Mitt Romney to make this country a better
place to live.
(APPLAUSE)
It’s true — it’s true that Mitt’s been successful at each
new challenge he has taken on. You know what, it actually
amazes me to see his history of success being attacked. Are
those really the values that made our country great?
(AUDIENCE MEMBER): No.
ROMNEY: As a mom of five boys, do we want to to raise our
children to be afraid of success?
(AUDIENCE MEMBER): No.
ROMNEY: Do we send our children out in the world with the
advice try to do OK?
(AUDIENCE MEMBER): No.
ROMNEY: And let’s be honest. If the last four years had
been more successful, do we really think there would be this
attack on Mitt Romney’s success?
(AUDIENCE MEMBER): No.
ROMNEY: Of course not. Mitt would be the first to tell
you that he is the most fortunate man in the world. He had two
loving parents who gave him strong values and taught him the
value of work. He had the chance to get the education his
father never had. But, as his partner on this amazing journey,
I can tell you Mitt Romney was not handed success. He built it.
(APPLAUSE)
He stayed in Massachusetts after graduate school and got a
job. I saw the long hours that started with that first job. I
was there when he had a small group of friends talking about
starting a new company. I was there when they struggled and
wondered if the whole idea was just not going to work. Mitt’s
reaction was to work harder and press on.
Today, the company has become another great American
success story. Has it made those who started the company
successful — made them successful beyond their dreams? Yes, it
has. It allowed us to give our sons a chance at good educations
and made those long hours of the reports and homework worth
every minute. It’s given us the deep satisfaction of being able
to help others in ways that we could never have imagined.
This is important. I want you to hear what I am going to
say. Mitt does not like to talk about how he has helped others
because he sees it as a privilege, not a political talking
point.
(APPLAUSE)
We are no different than the millions of Americans who
quietly help their neighbors, their churches and their
communities. They don’t do it so that others will think more of
them. They do it because there is no greater joy . Give and it
shall be given unto you.
(APPLAUSE)
But because this is America, that small company which grew
has helped so many lead better lives, the jobs that grew from
the risk they took have become college educations and first
homes. That success has helped scholarships, pensions and
retirement funds. This is the genius of America. Dreams
fulfilled, help others launch new dreams.
(APPLAUSE)
At every turn in his life, this man that I met at a high
school dance has helped lift up others. He did it with the
Olympics when many wanted to give up. He did it in
Massachusetts where he guided the state from economic crisis to
unemployment at just 4.7 percent. Under Mitt, Massachusetts’
school for the best in the nation. The best.
(APPLAUSE)
He started something that I really love. He started the
John and Abigail Adams scholarship which gives the top 25
percent of high- school graduates a four-year tuition-free
scholarship.
(APPLAUSE)
This is the man America needs.
(APPLAUSE)
This is a man who will wake up every day with the
determination to solve the problems that others say cannot be
solved, to fix what others say is beyond repair, this is the man
who will work harder than anyone so that we can work a little
less hard.
I can’t tell you what will happen over the next four years.
But I can only stand here tonight as a wife and a mother and a
grandmother, an American, and make you this solemn commitment.
This man will not fail.

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The following is a keynote address that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gave at the Republican National Convention on August 28, 2012.
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: Thank you!
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you! Thank you all very much. Thank you.
Well, this stage and this moment are very improbable for
me, a New Jersey Republican.
(LAUGHTER)
Delivering the keynote address to our national convention.
(APPLAUSE)
From a state with 700,000 more Democrats than Republicans.
A New Jersey Republican stands before you tonight proud of my
party, proud of my state, and proud of my country.
(APPLAUSE)
Now I am the son of an Irish father and a Sicilian mother.
My dad, who I’m blessed to have here with me tonight, is
gregarious, outgoing, and lovable. My mom, who I lost eight
years ago, was the enforcer.
(LAUGHTER)
Now she made sure we all knew who set the rules. I’ll tell
it to you this way, in the automobile of life, dad was just a
passenger. Mom was the driver.
(LAUGHTER)
Now they both lived hard lives. Dad grew up in poverty.
And after returning from Army service, he worked at the Breyers
Ice Cream plant in the 1950s. Now with that job and the G.I.
bill, he put himself through Rutgers University at night to
become the first in his family to earn a college degree.
(APPLAUSE)
And our first family picture, our first family picture was
on his graduation day with my mom beaming next to him, six
months pregnant with me. Now mom also came from nothing. She
was raised by a single mother who took three different buses
every day to get to work.
And mom spent the time that she was supposed to be a kid
actually raising children, her younger brother and younger
sister. She was tough as nails and did not suffer fools at all.
And the truth was she could not afford to. She spoke the
truth, bluntly, directly, and without much varnish. I am her
son.
(APPLAUSE)
I was her son as I listened to “Darkness on the Edge of
Town” with my high school friends on the Jersey Shore. I was
her son when I moved into that studio apartment with Mary Pat to
start a marriage that’s now 26 years old.
(APPLAUSE)
I was her son as I coached our sons, Andrew and Patrick, on
the fields of Mendham, and as I watched with pride as our
daughter Sarah and Bridget, marched with their soccer teams in
the Labor Day parade.
And I am still her son today as governor, following the
rules she taught me, to speak from the heart, and to fight for
your principles. You see, mom never thought you would get extra
credit just for speaking the truth.
And the greatest lesson that mom ever taught me though was
this one. She told me there would be times in your life when
you have to choose between being loved and being respected.
Now she said to always pick being respected. She told me
that love without respect was always fleeting, but that respect
could grow into real and lasting love. Now, of course, she was
talking about women.
(LAUGHTER)
But I have learned over time that it applies just as much
to leadership. In fact, I think that advice applies to America
more than ever today.
(APPLAUSE)
You see, I believe we have become paralyzed, paralyzed by
our desire to be loved. Now our founding fathers had the wisdom
to know that social acceptance and popularity were fleeing, and
that this country’s principles needed to be rooted in strengths
greater than the passions and the emotions of the times.
But our leaders of today have decided it’s more important
to be popular, to say and do what’s easy, and say yes rather
than to say no, when no is what is required.
(APPLAUSE)
In recent years — in recent years we as a country have too
often chosen the same path. It’s easy for our leaders to say,
“Not us, not now”, in taking on the really tough issues. And
unfortunately we have stood silently by and let them get away
with it. But tonight, I say enough.
(APPLAUSE)
Tonight, I say together, let’s make a much different
choice. Tonight, we are speaking up for ourselves and stepping
up. Tonight, we’re beginning to do what is right and necessary
to make America great again.
(APPLAUSE)
We are demanding that our leaders stop tearing each other
down and work together to take action on the big things facing
America. Tonight, we will do what my mother taught me. Tonight,
we are going to choose respect over love.
(APPLAUSE)
See we are not afraid. We are taking our country back
because we are the great-grandchildren of the men and women who
broke their backs in the name of American ingenuity, the
grandchildre of the greatest generation, the sons and daughters
of immigrants, the brothers and sisters of everyday heroes, the
neighbors of entrepreneurs and firefighters, teachers and
farmers, veterans and factory workers and everyone in between
who shows up, not just on the big days, or the good days, but on
the bad days, and the hard days. Each and every day. All 365
of them.
You see, we are the United States of America.
(APPLAUSE)
Now — now — now it is up to us. We must lead the way our
citizens live, to lead as my mother insisted I live, not by
avoiding truths, especially the hard ones, but by facing up to
them and being better for it.
We can’t afford to do anything less. I know this because
this was the challenge in New Jersey. When I came into office,
I could continue on the same path that the wealth and jobs and
people leaving our state. Or I could do the job the people
elected me to do, to do the big things.
Now, there were those who said it could not be done, that
the problems were too big, too politically charged and too
broken to fix. But we were on a path we could no longer afford
to follow. Now, they said that it was impossible — this is
what they told me — to cut taxes in a state where taxes were
raised 115 times in the eight years before I became governor.
That it was impossible to balance the budget at the same
time with an $11 billion in deficit. But three years later, we
have three balanced budgets in a row with lower taxes. We did
it.
(APPLAUSE)
They said it was impossible to touch the third rail of
politics, to take on the public-sector unions and to reform a
pension and health benefits system that was headed to
bankruptcy. But with bipartisan leadership, we saved taxpayers
$132 billion dollars over 30 years and saved retirees their
pensions. We did it.
(APPLAUSE)
They said that it was impossible to speak the truth to the
teachers’ union .
(LAUGHTER)
They were just too powerful. Real teacher tenure reform
that demands accountability and and ends the guarantee of a job
for life regardless of performance, they said it would never
happen. But for the first time in 100 years, with bipartisan
support, you know the answer. We did it.
(APPLAUSE)
Now the disciples of yesterday’s politics, they always
underestimate the will of the people.
CHRISTIE: They assumed our people were selfish. The
difficult problems, the tough choices and the complicated
solutions, but they would simply turn their backs. That they
would decide it was every man for himself. They were wrong.
(APPLAUSE)
The people of New Jersey stepped up. They shared in the
sacrifice. You know what else they did? They rewarded
politicians who lead instead of politicians who pandered .
(APPLAUSE)
But you know, we shouldn’t be surprised. We shouldn’t be
surprised, we’ve never been a country to shy away from the
truth. Our history shows that we stand up when it counts. And
it’s this quality that has defined America’s character and our
significance in the world.
Now, I know this simple truth and I am not afraid to say
it. Our ideas are right for America and their ideas have failed
America.
(APPLAUSE)
Let me be clear with the American people tonight. Here is
what we believe as Republicans and what they believe as
Democrats.
We believe in telling hardworking families the truth about
our country’s fiscal realities, telling them what they already
know, the math of federal spending does not add up.
With $5 trillion in debt added over the last four years, we
have no other option but to make the hard choices, cut federal
spending and fundamentally reduce the size of this government.
(APPLAUSE)
Want to know what they believe? They believe that the
American people want to hear the truth about the extent of our
fiscal difficulties. They believe the American people need to
be coddled by big government. They believe the American people
are content to live the lie with them. They are wrong.
We believe in telling our seniors the truth about our
overburdened entitlements. We know seniors not only want these
programs to survive, but they just as badly want them secured
for their grandchildren.
Our seniors are not children.
(APPLAUSE)
Here’s what they believe. They believe seniors will always
put themselves ahead of their grandchildren. And here’s what
they do. They prey on their vulnerabilities and scare them with
misinformation for the single cynical purpose of winning the
next election. Here is their plan. Whistling happy tune while
driving us off a fiscal cliff as long as they are behind the
wheel of power when we fall.
(APPLAUSE)
Now, we believe that the majority of teachers in America
know our system must be reformed, to put students first so that
America can compete, that teachers don’t teach to become rich or
famous. They teach because they love children.
(APPLAUSE)
We believe — we believe we should honor and reward the
good ones, while doing what’s best for our nation’s future,
demanding accountability, demanding higher standards, and
demanding the best teacher in every classroom in America.
(APPLAUSE)
Get ready. Here is what they believe.
They believe the educational savages will only put
themselves ahead of children, that self- interest will always
trump common sense, they believe in pitting unions against
teachers, educators against parents, lobbyists against children.
They believe in teachers’ unions . We believe in teachers.
(APPLAUSE)
We believe — we believe that, if we tell the people the
truth, that they will act bigger than the pettiness we see in
Washington, D.C. We believe it is possible to forge bipartisan
compromise, and stand up for our conservative principles.
(APPLAUSE)
You see, because it has always been the power of our ideas,
not our rhetoric, that attracts people to our party. We win
when we make it about what needs to be done. We lose when we
play along with their game of scaring and dividing.
(APPLAUSE)
Make no mistake about it, everybody. The problems are too
big to let the American people lose. The slowest economic
recovery in decades, a spiraling out of control deficit, and an
education system that is failing to compete in the world. It
doesn’t matter how we got here. There’s enough blame to go
around. What matters is what we do now.
(APPLAUSE)
See, I know. I know we can fix our problems. When there
are people in the room who care more about doing the job they
were elected to do than they worry about winning reelection, it
is possible to work together, achieve principal compromise, and
get results for the people who give us these jobs in the first
place.
(APPLAUSE)
The people have no patience for any other way anymore. It
is simple. We need politicians to care more about doing
something and less about being something.
(APPLAUSE)
And believe me, believe me, if we could do this in a blue
state like New Jersey with a conservative Republican governor,
Washington is out of excuses.
(APPLAUSE)
Leadership delivers. Leadership counts. Leadership
matters. And here’s the great news I came here tonight to bring
you. We have this leader for America. We have a nominee who
will tell us the truth and will lead with conviction. And now
he has a running mate who will do the same. We have Governor
Mitt Romney and Congressman Paul Ryan to we need to make them
the next president and vice-president of the United States!
(APPLAUSE)
See, I know Mitt Romney, and Mitt Romney will tell us the
hard truths we need to hear, to put this back on a path to
growth and create good paying private sector jobs again in
America.
Mitt Romney will tell us the hard truths we need to year to
end the torrent of debt that is compromising our future and
burying our economy.
Mitt Romney will tell us the hard truths we need to hear to
end the debacle of putting the world’s greatest care system in
the hands of federal bureaucrats and putting those bureaucrats
between an American citizen and her doctor.
(APPLAUSE)
Now we ended an era of absentee leadership without purpose
or principal in New Jersey. I am here to tell you tonight, it
is time to end this era of absentee leadership in the oval
office and send real leaders to the White House. America needs
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan and we need them right now.
(APPLAUSE)
We have to tell each other the truth, right? Listen, there
is doubt and fear for our future in every corner of our country.
I have traveled all over the country, and I have seen this
myself. These feelings are real. This moment is real,and it is
a moment like this where some skeptics wonder if America’s
greatness is over. They wonder how those who have come before
the before us had in the spirit and tenacity to lead America to
a new era of greatness in the face of challenge, not to look
around and say “Not me”, but to look around and say “Yes, me.”
Now, I have an answer tonight for the skeptics and the
naysayers, the dividers and the defenders of the status quo. I
have faith in us. I know.
(APPLAUSE)
I know we can be the men and women our country calls on us
to be tonight. I believe in America and her history, and
there’s only one thing missing now. Leadership. It takes
leadership that you don’t get from reading a poll. You see, Mr.
President, real leaders do not follow polls. Real leaders
change polls.

[there was more than in this transcript - as delivered - but my recording cut off ...]
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