Are you having a good time? You know they told me I had ten minutes to tell you how I am going to turn this country around, balance the Budget, get out of Iraq, National Health Care Plan but I can do it in four words, elect a Democratic President. I want you to know that, I know you have seen all the candidates, the best set of candidates we have ever had. And I want you to know that any of these candidates could serve in the White House as my Vice-President. I want to just thank you South Carolina for not just shining nationally, I want to thank South Carolina State University for hosting a first class debate. I especially want to acknowledge the students of that historically black college, the Civil Rights legacy of that community. I just wish in that debate there had just been one question on education, just one, there were none. You know if you look at all the political journals they call South Carolina a red state but we know that the heart and soul of South Carolina is blue. But you know, I would just as soon, as a candidate for President, I just as soon not call America a red or blue state because America needs to come together. The war, immigration, the middle class striving to get higher wages, healthcare, pensions, we are divided in this country and we need somebody that can heal, we need somebody to bring us together to get things done. We need somebody internationally that can talk the regimes that are bad and don't like us because we are today internationally and domestically a nation that is no longer a leader. I want to reflect on the debate. I was asked, what would you do in your first day in office as president and what I said, the first day in office I would get us out of the Iraq and I said that because I know Iraq. I was your Ambassador at the United Nations and we dealt 80 percent of the time on Iraq. I have been to the region; I have been Secretary of Energy. I was just in North Korea where we brought the remains of six of our service men back from the Korean War. I know foreign policy and we can come back and get out of Iraq this calendar year with no residual troops if we have diplomacy, if we have diplomacy to bring the various religious sects together, if we have diplomacy to bring peace keeping forces that are Muslim, international forces. Iraq needs to take care of its own security and I worry about our troops not just because they don't have enough armor but because when they come home our veteran system is not responding to our veterans. And I would promise you as President, I recall as Governor of New Mexico, what a Governor has to do many times as call those parents that lose a child in the war. You call because you are Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard and many of our troops there are guards and I remember my first, my very first week I went to a funeral of a young man and I remember seeing the mother come up to me. She looks so young, so young and she said governor my son was 17, he was a Marine. This is all he ever wanted to do and that was to serve his country. And I just received the check from the United States government for $11,000 as a death benefit for our family and I said to myself this is wrong. If this is all America can do and I knew the Congress was thinking of increasing the Life Insurance benefit. I went back to my state legislature and my state was doing well, we had extra reserves and I said to the New Mexico legislature, the Federal Government is not going to step up, the state will and we passed legislation that gave to all our 4722 national guards man a Life Insurance Policy of $400,000 each and then 33 states have followed us and I was proud to do that. The second day, the second day as President, I would announce a plan for energy independence. It would be a plan that I would dub a Manhattan Apollo plan led by a President and involving all our citizens. I would ask you as citizens to be part of the community, to sacrifice a little bit because our dependence on foreign oil is 65 percent and it's unhealthy because its nations that are not friendly to us. And I would say that we need to go from 65 percent to ten years, an Apollo program like when President Kennedy said we have got go to the moon and we got to shift from fossil fuels to renewable technologies, to renewable fuels, to solar, wind, biomass distribute a generation, fuel cells, and I would ask out a whole country to turn green. Buildings, lightings, air-conditioning 50 miles per gallon. We would make sure in 10 years we achieve that goal and we would say we are going to save the planet and we are going to save the global climate change, that in the year 2050 we are going to reduce our green house gas emissions by 90 percent. Al Gore was right and we have to find a way to lead that effort. And I would ask every American, every American to be part of this. The future is in renewables, the future is in being green and this is not a mater of energy efficiency its also national security. The third day, the third day in office, I would announce a plan to revitalize American education. We never talk about education and we should. As Governor of New Mexico we have initiated plans that have moved our schools and teachers forward. We would have, as President, early childhood pre care for every child. We would have full day kindergarten; we would have a national goal that in science and math American kids, who today are testing less than China and India, that we would become first in the nation again, first in the world in science and math. I would have a minimum wage for our teachers. Our teachers do not get paid what they deserve. But there would be accountability; we need the find ways to deal with the drop out rate. Why is that one out of every two African American or Hispanic kid don't get out of high school? We need to have programs that foster on after school, on parental involvement, on mentoring. We need to find ways that America says to those that have been left behind that were going to give you a fair shot and you are going to get some help. Today in America if I have the $500 billion, that we are spending in Iraq and that we spent in Iraq, money that is gone to the Halliburton's and the contractors that are not dealing with the issues that rebuild Iraq, I would use that money on domestic needs, on healthcare, on education. But our education system needs to be revitalized. We need to make our schools better to compete in the future. We need, in South Carolina, to make sure that the students here prepare for the jobs of the future. While manufacturing and textiles have gone down we need to build jobs that reflect on the strength of this community. In energy, in hi-tech, in telecommunications, high paying jobs so the kids here in South Carolina stay in their communities and don't have to go out of state. I would, on the fourth day in office as President; I would take the day off, it's too much. On the fourth day I would announce a plan of universal health care, I believe it's the right of every American. A universal health care plan that first helps children, children under five every child should be insured. Then we should go towards working adults and working families, then the uninsured and the unemployed. But I would change our system with creative, new policies. The best health care plans in this country are held by members of Congress in the Senate. I would allow any American to purchase or any business to purchase the health care plan that our President and Congress has, if it's good enough for them it should be good enough for everybody. I would also lower the Medicare eligibility to 55 so that Americans 55 and over can get into Medicare. I would say to our veterans I would say to our veterans you don't have to go a 100 miles to the next VA Hospital. You can go across the street and pick any doctor you want. And I know how we could pay for this. We can pay for it by diverting some of the funds from Iraq. We could pay for it by saying that everybody shares in insurance and health care costs. Everybody shares, the worker, businesses, the state and the Federal Government. I believe that we can do this. 31 percent of our health care goes into administration 31 percent, one third; it doesn't go end it direct care, its bureaucracies, its Medicaid programs, the fact that we don't have electronic records so that doctors and patients in various hospitals can communicate. We can reduce some of this waste and inefficiency. Why is it that there is a CEO of a health care company who makes $125 million a year. This is wrong. This would cover 34,000 Americans. We have to shift priorities in this country. The fifth day, the fifth day I am on a roll now, I don't know what I do the rest of the four years. The fifth day I would announce a plan for jobs in this country. A jobs program that says I am a Democrat, but I cut taxes, I have done it New Mexico. I have given tax incentives to companies that come to the state and if they come to a poor county, if they pay over the prevailing wage, we give them a tax incentive. We should get rid of the tax incentives for companies that ship our jobs overseas and they have them. Any future trade agreement in this country, any future trade agreement should respect international labor rights. Collective bargaining, child labors, slave labor, freedom of association, environmental standards, environmental quality, that's what America should do. My last point, the sixth day, we are we are a party of Civil Rights. We are a party of affirmative action. We are a party that allows a woman the right to choose. We are a party that doesn't discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. We are a party that affirms our long standing tradition that America, that everybody deserves a fair shot. And I would appoint Supreme Court Justices that uphold the Constitutional Rights of all Americans. And so and so now I have to go. And I am sticking to my 10 minutes my ninth minute. But I wanted to say to South Carolina, I know I am a new face. I just got in this race. I know that there are candidates with a lot more money than I have. I know there are candidates that are rock stars and I am not but I am working on it. But I hope that when you decide, and this race is 10 months away, I am a grass roots campaigner. I want to go to every community in your state. Give me a chance, stay open, keep your powder dry. Find out what candidates have the most experience. And my difference, if there is any with many of the candidates, is everybody talks about creating jobs. I have done it. Everybody talks about bringing countries together, I have done it. Everybody talks about rescuing hostages and American service men, I have done it. Everybody talks about being energy independent, I was Secretary of Energy. And I have been able, in my state, to make us the clean energy state. I have said that New Mexico's electricity by the year 2020, 20 percent has to be renewable energy. And we need to do that in America. We have done it in New Mexico. I am a CEO of a state, I run a state, I balance budgets. That's the Congress and the Presidents should learn those three words, balance the budget, I have to do it. I run a bureaucracy. Our ranks of Presidents have come from the Governor's chairs. Clinton, Carter, Reagan, Bush well maybe that wasn't good example. So so thank you for your hospitality, thank you for your great reception. Today, and yesterday and the last three days you have been the leading force, the leading light in American politics. And I want to say to you that even though I may not know every thing about South Carolina because years ago the Secretary of energy, and by the way Robert Hooke who was my chairman said to me from South Carolina, he said you ought to tell these folks that you when you were Secretary of Energy you brought $1.5 billion in jobs, in energy jobs, to Savannah River. And you did it with Governor Hodges. And you stood with Governor Hodges to prevent wastes from coming into South Carolina. But you should tell people that. You should tell that and especially in Aiken County and Savannah River well I checked the registration figures and I find, maybe this is very good for South Carolina, but I find that in Aiken County, there are only three Democrats. I am just kidding I am just kidding I know you are there. We got to get more Democrats in Aiken County. Thank you again. I am going to be back. Keep your powder dry. Vote on who can win also, we are from the South West, where a candidate that has a record that can appeal to this nation. I believe I can bring this country together. I believe that foreign policy is going to dominate this election. I know how to do it. I believe we need somebody that can manage and can bring us together. God bless you South Carolina. Thank you.
member. 
