Blood, Sweat, and Gore: A 2008 Election Game by Aaron and Dat (user search)

John McCain Announces Presidential Campaign

Country First

McCainInDenverMay29Of2008
T toes / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

Phoenix, Arizona

Friends and my fellow Americans, I thank you all for joining me today on this journey. After consulting closely with my family and friends, I am proud today to announce my candidacy to be the next President of the United States.

What this country needs now is leadership. After fifteen years of the same tired leadership, the same ideas and the same talking points, this country needs straight talk, honest answers, and real leadership. I’ve been across this country, and wherever I go I hear the same call from Americans of all walks of life; this country wants, and more than that it deserves and needs a President willing and ready to step up and face the challenges we as a country face. There is no limit to what we can achieve when we harness the energy and spirit of the American people. I know, and the people of America know, that with the right leadership this country will not only overcome her greatest challenges, but can reach for a brighter future for all her citizens.

Friends, our political system is broken. Fifteen years of obfuscation, spin, double talk, back room wheeler dealing, and out of control pork barrel spending have seriously damaged Washington’s ability to get anything done for the American people. President Clinton promised that the “era of big government was over”, and yet today under President Gore we have more red tape, more pork barrel spending, and more waste than when the Democrats took office. President Gore promised to keep us safe, but al-Qaeda remains ever committed in its efforts, aided by its Taliban protectors, to attack our country and to kill innocent civilians. Presidents Clinton and Gore promised to work to reduce global stockpile of nuclear weapons, yet today in Iraq and Iran we have regimes, dangerous, radical, anti-American and authoritarian regimes, working to develop not only nuclear, but likely biological and chemical weapons, ignoring UN Resolutions and US sanctions. President Gore promised us a recovery and a more equal America, but today we see record inequality and sluggish job growth. We were promised “a new day” for the middle class, and instead they have been left behind.

The problems of the past and present do not determine our country’s future, what we do in the next few years will. I ask all of you today to join me in my campaign to provide America with the leadership it will need to proudly and confidently face the future, with all its challenges and promise. I know that with the right leadership we can create the jobs of the future, face the growing threat of authoritarianism abroad, and make Washington work for the American people again. We can, working together, ensure that every American lives to their fullest potential. As your President, I will work tirelessly to restore our American dream, revitalizes our nations economy, and protect our country from the growing threats it faces. I will, as President, restore that offices prestige at home, and restore the faith of the entire world in American leadership.

I am running for President not for glory or honor of that office, but rather to work for the American people. Throughout my career I have always sought to put my country first, and I shall take that creed to the White House. I spent 23 years serving this country in the United States Navy, six of those years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. Like hundreds of thousands of young men, I watched our nation change over those years. When I graduated from Annapolis in 1958, we were a segregated nation, soon to be bitterly divided on issues of all kinds. While I was flying off Aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean, a young President was shot in Dallas, shaking the moral core of our nation. When I was taken prisoner, our nation was growing ever more divided, as protests against the war, against our government, grew. In what may be one of the greatest regrets of my life, I sat in a dark prison cell in North Vietnam when this nation landed the first man on the moon. Shortly after I cam home, a President resigned and fractured our nation's trust in government. By the time I left the Navy, however, Ronald Reagan was President, and we as a country began to mend, began to rediscover our faith in the institutions of government and the promise of America. I became a Republican, and sought to continue my service to this nation in Congress, because I firmly felt that President Reagan was right, and like him whenever I look out at America, whatever our present troubles, I see a boundless and limitless future.

What we need now is to rediscover that faith and that promise once again. As President I will work to pass a middle class and small business tax cut to revitalize main street America. I will end pork barrel spending and cut the ever growing waste that is bloating departmental budgets. As the people of Arizona will tell you, I have worked tirelessly towards these aims in the Senate. I have led the fight for campaign finance reform, worked to make our government more transparent, and have fought to ensure that our nation's military is ready to defend us and serve the world when needed.

I am more than pleased to be here today, in sunny Phoenix, as I announce my candidacy for the Presidency of the United States. The people of Arizona, more than anyone else, know my character and my commitment to the values that have made this nation great. I thank you all for your support over these many years, and ask you once again to support me as I seek this nation's highest office.

Thank you all, and God Bless the United States of America!

After his announcement, Senator McCain mixed with the crowd in Phoenix, taking pictures and signing books, before departing for a flight to Manchester, New Hampshire where he met with campaign staff there and discussed strategy.

(For my one free endorsement, I will take Senator Judd Gregg if he is available)

	Welcome, Guest. Please login or register. Did you miss your activation email? April 30, 2024, 05:59:12 AM

News: Election Simulator 2.0 Released. Senate/Gubernatorial maps, proportional electoral votes, and more - Read more