Remarks in Miami, Florida

QUESTION: Hi. I own a beauty salon. I am a single parent with three children. Their ages are 15, 16 and an 18-year-daughter that just started college. And I would like to know how your tax reform would help me.

DOLE: Is this working? Make it a little lower? Thank you.

Let me first say I appreciate the warm welcome, and I'm happy to be here again. The campaign is down to about 40 days, and we feel very good about it. And we feel particularly good about our economic package. We've been talking about it everywhere we've gone.

And I know that somebody was here earlier, some reporter saying, well, these are all staged. Who's going to do this, who's going to do that? And I think he must have left disappointed because it's not staged, not rehearsed.

We're here to talk about America, about your business, about your family, about the future of children. And so I'll address that question.

Under our economic plan, in addition to a 15 percent across-the-board tax cut and a 50 percent reduction in the capital gains rate, which will create more jobs and more opportunities, this is a family economic growth program. It's not Wall Street, it's family-oriented.

Five-hundred dollars per child tax credit for each child under 18. Now you have one getting over the 18 mark, so that would be $1,000 credit. And I think that's very important. That's about, over a six-year period, about $132 billion of our total tax relief package. And we will do this and we will balance the budget by the year 2002, and we will push for a balanced budget to the Constitution, a constitutional amendment.

And in addition, we have...

[applause]

And I might add that President Clinton twisted enough arms to see that didn't pass before. We believe it's a discipline that Congress needs, and certainly we think 80-some percent of the American people can't be wrong when they say we need a balanced budget.

But let me mention one other thing, because you mentioned children. We also have in our economic package an educational item called Opportunity Scholarships.

Opportunity Scholarships, which will be directed to low-income parents and low middle-income parents who have the same right as anybody with power or prestige or money to get the best education possible for their children. And so we will provide up to $500 K through eight, $750 in high school, and the state will match that. We'll give that money to the parents, not to the school, but to the parents, and they will then pick out the school of their choice.

[applause]

And this, to me, is very, very significant. If we want to get a handle on drugs or crime or all the other things that plague young people, we better make certain they get a good education, starting with kindergarten, starting with kindergarten.

And we're going to make certain that happens.

[applause]

And I know the labor leaders at the NEA don't like it, the National Education Association.

DOLE: We're not concerned about them, we're concerned about your children and your grandchildren, and we're going to make it work.

[applause]

And again, President Clinton, his hands are tied, because 99.5 percent of all the money raised by this big union goes to Democrats, nearly — one out of eight of their delegates went to the Democratic convention — one out of eight of the delegates there were members of the NEA.

And so all the president talked about is he's opposed to truancy, which takes a lot of courage.

He's opposed to truancy, said it without taking a poll, what a courageous stand, the president took. He's also for a national curfew, when it comes to fundamental change and reform, we're talking about it.

We're talking about children of low-income parents in Florida in Miami, wherever, and we're going to make it work, because we believe the future belongs to the children and nobody should have to go to a bad school in Florida or anywhere else in America.

[applause]

MODERATOR: All right on this side, who would like to ask the first question, I'll take the one on my right.

QUESTION: I would like to ask you a question. As a banker I'm very concerned about the small business in America, particularly, in Dade County and the area of Hialeah.

I would like to know your stance on Small Business Administration, what are your plans to increase the funding for the guarantee which is what helps the small business in America?

DOLE: We understand the importance of small business because three out of four jobs in the future are going to be created by small businessmen and small businesswomen. One thing we're going to do is restore the home office deduction so that women with children can work at home and have the office deduction.

Americans with disabilities can work at home and have the office deduction.

[applause]

And we think it ought to happen.

[applause]

And we want to take a look at the small business administration, particularly, the set aside provisions which now, I think discriminate against women. So, we're going to look at it, we're going — if you have a — there's a lot of talk about affirmative action, a lot of talk about quotas and preferences.

But if it's an economic disadvantage, nothing changes, and that's what the SBA should be about. If somebody's trying to start up and they don't have money, than that's still going to be permitted. But we want to make certain that it doesn't, the program does not discriminate against women.

MODERATOR: Thank you, who else? You go first, please.

QUESTION: Yes.

MODERATOR: Go ahead.

UNKNOWN: You need a mike?

MODERATOR: Absolutely.

QUESTION: OK, welcome to Miami, Senator Dole, on behalf of the Community Relation Board. There are many — I know you're schedule is full — but there are many supporters in Miami that would like to demonstrate to you that they are for your platform.

Would you consider coming back after your first debate so that working people can get together and show you that we are for you, our next president of the United States?

QUESTION: Will you come?

[applause]

DOLE: The colder it gets, the more times I'll be back in Florida.

It's starting to get chilly up in the north. But seriously, Florida is a very key state. My wife was here last week. Jack Kemp will be here next week and I'll probably be here the next week. In fact, I'll be here for the next couple of days working on the first debate which will be in Hartford, Connecticut. I will be happy to come and sit down and visit with small business men and women, the backbone of America, small business, small

[audio gap]

... right here. This is what happens in the United States of America.

[applause]

But if I could just expand on that a bit. Another part of our program is regulatory reform.

I remember talking to a lady in Colorado Springs about a month ago who had 63 employees in here business. She finally gave it up and one of the reasons was the regulations and the paper work.

We passed in Congress what was known as the Paperwork Reduction Act but President Clinton exempted the IRS which creates three-fourths of the paperwork. So, it didn't do much good.

Regulations cause the average family in America about $7,000 a year. And we think we ought to go back and take a look at the regulations and make certain they are cost effective. Sunset some of these regulations that don't do anything. We want to protect the air and the water and everything else. But we also want to protect small business men and women who have to deal with these regulations.

Also, frivolous lawsuits, we ought to stop frivolous lawsuits. I'll tell you how bad it is.

[applause]

Some of you may have witnessed me out in Chico, California going over the rail.

The first call I got was from a trial lawyer, you know, maybe I got a case here, maybe the railing was weak, I don't know. But in any event, we need to stop some of these frivolous lawsuits and put a cap on punitive damage because they're going after a lot of small business men and women and virtually putting them out of business.

[applause]

MODERATOR: Thank you, Senator. I think you came to the right place to tell us about lawsuits. We've just gone through some and we appreciate your words.

Who would like to ask a question?

QUESTION: My husband is a doctor and I'm the office manager. And I'd like to say that throughout the times our women have been great administrators and budget managers in their own homes.

MODERATOR: And there's a lot of talent out there, and I think there will be — I mean, you can look around this room — great assets for your Cabinet if you're elected.

And would you consider appointing more women?

Thank you.

DOLE: Let me say, I'm very proud of my — record. I'm married to Elizabeth and that's — she's been very, very effective. My colleague in the Senate was Senator...

[applause]

... Kassebaum, so...

[applause]

The first woman secretary of the Senate in history was appointed by Bob Dole. The first majority leader chief of staff female was Bob Dole's — Sheila Burke.

And I have a great — the people who do our tax work, Nina Oviedo — a woman, so we are scattered around my — my office represents the hopes and aspirations of women all across America. No doubt about it — they do very good work.

And the answer is yes. We're looking at — I won't say looking now, I don't want anything to happen here, but we're already considering what might happen in January of 1997, and obviously, we're going to have a strong Cabinet, a Cabinet you can be proud of, and a Cabinet that will help move America into the next century.

[applause]

MODERATOR: Hello, hello. Now we are on the right track. I don't want anybody to think that women do not know how to do things right.

OK. Who else wants — OK. Let's go this way.

Stand up because that way everybody could see you.

QUESTION: Hi. We're in the hotel business, run two hotels in Fort Lauderdale beach.

The Family Medical Leave Act, I know there was an editorial in our paper today and it portrays you as this mean villain.

And I know that's not the case. Could you please explain your vote on that for us, please?

[applause]

DOLE: Well, obviously, I spent a lot of time in hospitals myself so I know the importance of hospital — or leave, family leave, and I know the importance of visiting your children if there's adoption or a birth or your mother's ill or your grandmother's ill, but I've never fully understood why the federal government should reach all the way across America and tell someone with 50 or more employees — 50 or less it doesn't apply — that the federal government will tell you what the leave policy should be.

I mean, it seems to me, if we really believe in sending power back to the states — and I carry this little copy of the Tenth Amendment around with me, and it's been around for over 200 years. It's part of our Constitution. It's part of our Bill of Rights.

It's Article X. And what it says, in effect, unless the federal Constitution gives the power to the federal government or denies it to the states, it belongs to the states and to the people.

DOLE: Now, obviously we believe good employers are going to make certain that there's family leave when the, compassionate leave, call it what you will, but I doubt in the long run whether the federal government is going to, whether the federal government can solve every problem.

I mean our view is send the power back to the states, and many states have these programs, back to the employers. If employers want to keep a good working force, they better provide health care and all the other benefits, including family leave. So I would just suggest that I didn't think in that case the federal government should get involved.

And I know the president's around here telling everybody that he's really not a liberal. Well, this, every time there's another federal power grab, that's a liberal policy.

Now, your husband's a doctor? Whose husband was a doctor? Your husband's a doctor. Well, remember it was only about three years ago when they had this big power grab, trying to take over the entire health care system in America. One-seventh the economy, 17 new taxes, 50 new bureaucracies. Would have cost $1.5 trillion dollars.

And remember the big, big tax increase after he promised you a tax cut, $265 billion in new taxes? And then he says he's not a liberal? That's not the way I read it. Another definition would tell you that he is a liberal. He's trying to get through this election by deceiving the American people.

[applause]

MODERATOR: This is the example of sharing. I'm making do. And we women are very good at that, Senator.

Who else wants to ask a question?

QUESTION: Senator Dole, I'm Phyllis Setters and I work for Baptist Health System. It's a not-for-profit community hospital group. And we are beginning to take a lot of attack from for-profit, Wall Street hospital chains, and women and children that are uninsured end up in our hospitals, and I was wondering if you have a position in terms of keeping the tax exempt status for community hospitals, if you support community hospitals.

DOLE: The answer is yes. In fact one of my, again, my advisers, Sheila Burke, who's a registered nurse and worked long in health care, along with Vicki Hart , and we've looked, it's an area that I know a little about, and these hospitals are very, very important. And there may be some abuses in some areas. You know, I'd have to double check everything. But it seems to me that you're performing a service that somebody else might not be able to perform.

We may also have to expand Medicaid to pick up some people that don't have insurance, and one way to do that is through an expansion of Medicaid rather than have a government takeover of health care. Thank you.

[applause]

MODERATOR: We have a lot of businesswomen here that would like to ask you questions regarding business opportunities, et cetera.

MODERATOR: And I have four that came to me and said I would like to question. I don't know how long this is going to last, how long the Senator can stay here, but I know that you want to ask certain questions now that are important to you, and everybody's very concerned. And would you like?

QUESTION: Hi, I work for Mrs. Diaz, and we're concerned with the oil company and how they falsely create polyethylene increases, pass them on to the manufacturers, who in turn pass them on to the distributors, like us, and we in turn, have to pass them on to the consumers.

After you're elected president, how would you deal with these oil companies and the inflation they seem to create in the marketplace?

DOLE: Well, I'm not certain I can answer the precise question. It's something I'd have to check on.

But obviously, oil companies have the same responsibility as anybody else. Right now we're dependent on foreign oil about 50-50 — about 50 percent comes from overseas. And, of course, that's what makes the Mid-East so important — Saudi Arabia and several other countries in that area.

What we'd like to do is create more incentives for the independent oil and gas producer — the small producer — around my part of the country and other parts — Texas — so they go out and create more jobs and more opportunities. Because many of the major companies have left some of the states and have gone overseas.

Obviously, they have a responsibility to be a good corporate citizen. I'd have to check the facts and see what precisely has happened. And if we found out there was an evasion or some infringement on the law, we would have to deal with that when it happened.

[applause]

QUESTION: I would like to ask a question on behalf on two people that are sitting here right now that are business owners and would like to know, Senator, what could you do to help women when you become president of the United States?

It's very difficult for women to get financing without the right collateral. They know that you have always worked for women while at the Senate.

What do you plan to do when you become president of the United States?

DOLE: In fact we're going to have a — one thing we're going to do to address that and other questions is a White House conference on women to address some of the issues that — women are out there creating jobs and opportunities — 8 million — 8 million — big time.

And my view is that we've got to encourage it, because they have the capability, they have the potential, and sometime financing is a problem.

Now this is a reason — another reason for our entire economic growth package, get this economy moving now. It's as dead as it's been in the last 100 years. And they've announced some "good news" today which is really bad news in the state of Florida because the poverty level is up and family income is down, and in my view, is sort of mixed news.

DOLE: Well, what we will do is create a better climate for everybody, men or women who want to get into business. We're going to lower the capital gains rate, which is going to lower the cost of capital. We're going to balance the budget, which will lower interest rates by about 2 percent.

[applause]

We're going to have some of you — nobody here worried yet about a estate tax relief, but you probably know somebody where the husband's worked, the wife has worked, the kids have worked and somebody passes away, and you got to sell off part of the assets to pay the estate tax. We're going to start providing estate tax relief for families in America, because you ought to be able to keep your business or keep your farm or whatever and not have to sell it to pay the estate taxes.

This is the United States of America.

[applause]

So our economic package is worker-friendly. We think it's employer friendly, as far as start-ups are concerned. We're going to have spousal IRAs for women who want to stay home, and the homemakers, they get the same advantage as somebody in the work force. There are a lot of things in our package that are directed — targeted directly at women.

And we're anxious, and we're going to get it passed. We're going to get it done. And I know that President Clinton says it can't be done. I don't think he can do it either. That's why we need a new president. We'll get it done, and we'll get it done right.

[applause]

And I might add, we're — I think this book is on the bookshelf today. It's called "Trusting the People." You see, we start out with a premises that it's your money. It's not my money or his money, it's your money. And we trust the people, and I think he trusts the government.

So it seems to me, it doesn't take long to read this book. I'll leave this copy here, probably pass it around. You could all read it before you've left. In any event, it tells about our plan in more detail, and you can almost look at it, look at your business and see what it's in it for you.

But let me give you one real example. A real example. A family of four making $30,000 under our plan would have a tax savings of $1,261. Now maybe to some in the audience, that's not a lot of money. But if you're making $30,000, that's a lot of money.

That's four or five months' day care. It may be a personal computer if you're a child. It may be a down payment on a car, or a down payment on a house. It's your money. And the alternative is to send that $1,261 to the IRS. What we want to do in our second phase of our program is to have a flatter, fairer, simpler tax and end the IRS as we know it. That's what we'll do.

[applause]

MODERATOR: I believe there's a question right here.

QUESTION: I have a foreign policy question for you. It seems today that — I'm sorry — it seems today that the U.S. is involved in just about every trouble spot across the world, except of course, Cuba, which is 90 miles from our shore.

My question for you, I guess, is how would you handle foreign policy differently than President Clinton has? And what are your proposed solutions for what's going on in Cuba?

[applause]

DOLE: Well, let me first say, it wouldn't be very difficult to handle it differently than he has. And let me give you some examples. We'll start with Somalia, which started out as a humanitarian mission.

Let's face it, we're a humanitarian nation, people were starving. The Americans were there. We were there first. And we did our bit.

But then the United Nations had what we call "mission creep." And we didn't have any active, but we just followed what Boutros-Boutros Ghali had to say. And we were involved in mission creep and then one sad day, as you know, 18 Americans were killed and we were out of there.

We spent about $2.5 billion in Haiti and I know Haiti is the poorest country in this hemisphere and they all deserve our help. Now, we've had to send down more troops in the last couple of weeks to help the president there. I mean, it seems — that's about 2.5, as I said, three billion dollars.

In Bosnia, where, had we lifted the arms embargo, as President Clinton told you in Florida he would do in 1992 when he was a candidate, we wouldn't have had to send thousands of American troops to Bosnia. But he didn't do that.

Once he was elected, he changed his mind. I think we ought to lift the embargo, let them defend themselves. They want to defend themselves. That's a basic right people have in the United States of America.

[applause]

The president signed the Helms-Burton-Dole Act but then he had to waiver, postponed any suits you can bring until after the election, till next February. So, if they've confiscated your property, you can't do anything. He pulled the teeth out of the Lieber-Todd Act. He pulled the teeth right out of the act.

I'm not going to do that. I think, when Castro's gone, the world's going to be a better place. My view is we ought to make it tougher on him, not try to make it easier on him. And that will happen in a Dole administration.

[applause]

MODERATOR: The Senator is in a very tight schedule and we have asked a lot of questions. This will be our last for today. But when he...

DOLE: No, let — I'll just give shorter answers. So, take...

[laughter]

MODERATOR: OK. Thank you.

[applause]

I was going to say that when you become president, he will come back here. It will be during the winter. We will have a lot more air. It will be colder and we'll have a lot of sessions with him as president of the United States.

OK, quickly, let's see. Let me ask you.

QUESTION: Senator Dole, not minimizing the importance that we have for foreign relations, but I'd like to come back home. We've had a problem in the last two or three years regarding drugs, something that we thought that we were going to solve. And it has increased tremendously.

QUESTION: Do you have any plans, specific plans, aggressive ones, regarding this?

DOLE: Well, let me say, I will...

[applause]

I keep thinking I'm still in the Senate. That's why I talk so long. So I'll give a short answer. I'm not in the Senate anymore.

I said before, the record for talking is held by Senator Thurmond, who spoke for 24 hours and 17 minutes.

So he probably won't be with me very often — but in any event, drugs.

And I know there was a piece today in one of the papers sort of defending Bill Clinton.

Drug use has doubled in the last 44 months. I wasn't the president. George Bush wasn't the president. Bill Clinton was the president of the United States.

[applause]

He was the president of the United States.

[applause]

And I know the elitist press will cover up for him. But here's another example — he put all his money on treatment and cut interdiction to the bone. There's a big headline in another paper how they tried to suppress this White House report showing how much they cut from interdiction.

When I'm president of the United States, we're going to try to stop the stuff from getting into the country, and if necessary, I'll use the National Guard to stop it from getting into the country.

[applause]

You know, we spend — we send troops all over the world to protect people. What about our children? What about protecting our children?

[applause]

Protecting our children.

[applause]

Now the president's, of course, now asking for more money, more this, more this — remember the surgeon general he appointed who wanted to legalize drugs or considered legalizing drugs?

This is the record — all the cuts he made in interdiction, all the cuts he made in the drug control policy office, but now he wants you to believe — 40 days before the election — that he's been standing at the dike trying to hold back the flood.

But the facts are — the facts from his administration — will not bear him out, so my view is let's get tough. Let's get — these are your children...

[applause]

They're your grandchildren.

[applause]

And it's no different than some missile coming into America. We try to shoot it down but we can't because you won't have a missile defense system under Clinton. You will have under Bob Dole.

We tried to stop it somehow.

What about our kids? What about our kids?

And if they can get up to age 19 or 20, they'll never use drugs. We've got to get them through that 12 to 17 year period. That's when it starts.

[applause]

QUESTION: Good afternoon, Senator Dole. I would like to welcome you very much to All-American Containers. We haven't said that yet.

[laughter]

My question is the following. As exporters, we are really concerned with the amount of duties that our overseas customers have to pay upon receipt of merchandise in those countries. And at the same time, if a manufacturer of such country ships into the United States, they actually pay no duties or minimal ones, and that is a disadvantage to the economy of the United States.

As the president, what do you suggest we could do to balance that? We need more money into the country.

DOLE: Let me have the first part of that, again, I'm not certain I've. Can you just sort of restate the question?

QUESTION: My question was that we are not having a balanced duty payment.

In other words, customers overseas, they have to pay even up to 30 percent on some of the commodities and then the same commodity being brought into the United States...

DOLE: There's no duties.

QUESTION: There is practically free or minimal. That's not fair.

DOLE: That's not fair. You know, I supported NAFTA. I think without my support, it probably wouldn't have happened. I supported President Clinton, I supported the president on the GATT agreement, which would have happened without my support.

I know that wouldn't have happened. Well, what's happened since we've had these agreements signed. We haven't enforced the agreements, that had an impact on Florida agriculture, on tomatoes, on the duties that you mentioned and everything else.

If we're going to have a training partners we want a level playing field, we can't go uphill all the time. It's got to be level. We've got to enforce it. That's a problem in this administration. They talk about trade, the trade deficits as big it's been in seven years.

That means you're losing jobs, you're losing business, the trade deficits going up and up and up. And my view is we got to be more aggressive.

We've got to look the other country in the eye and say wait a minute. If you're going to do this, we'll do this.

Now, if we want to do it together, OK. But we're not going to be the patsy anymore. We're not going to be the punching bag for everybody else in the world.

[applause]

MODERATOR: We have so many people that want to ask questions and we don't have enough time. Let's see, one, two, three — one, two — OK let's go.

DOLE: There's one right there. I'll get it. You didn't ask one yet, did you? You're next.

QUESTION: Senator Dole, As a Cuban-American elected official, and as the mayor of a small municipality composed mainly of Cubans and Nicaraguans, or Cuban Americans and Nicaraguan Americans today.

DOLE: Right.

QUESTION: There are many of our constituents and I think that this goes through all of the county that are very much afraid of what could happen with the immigration laws. And as an elected official, I will also be afraid for my city on the burden that it will put on our city if those people are not taken care of.

What is your plan for that?

DOLE: Well, my view is if you're fleeing someone like Castro than you ought to be entitled to be here, or someone like they did in Nicaragua. We're not going to change the laws in that regard.

[applause]

They're going to stay the same. When you flee for fear of your life, of persecution, that's one thing. And my view is that should not change. What we'd like to do with a lot of this policies is get more power back to the governors again, but, in that one there's no question about it.

[applause]

MODERATOR: You're going to just go ahead and stay standing up.

DOLE: No, no I'm just going to take the next question.

MODERATOR: I know, but I realize you don't want to sit down anymore, you just want to stand up and talk about it.

DOLE: No, I'm going to stay up here yet. I'm not used to that much exercise.

QUESTION: Senator, I own two small businesses here in Miami. And we certainly need a president who understands that to be a capitalist and a capitalist in a capitalistic society is not a bad thing.

QUESTION: My question to you is, the Tax Act, The Reform Act of 1986 eliminated and severely restricted a lot of incentives for people to invest and do business. What provisions of that act do you feel should be reinstated or changed and brought back to stimulate business in this country?

DOLE: You talking about real estate, specifically, or?

QUESTION: Not only real estate, all business. Not your ability to offset certain losses against your ordinary income et cetera, et cetera.

DOLE: Oh. I see what you're talking about. Well, what we have in mind, probably, is even broader than that. We believe that, you know, there are 400 and — I think 408 — different tax forms. Plus there are 208 forms to tell you how to fill out the 408 forms. I mean, it's gotten so complicated.

What we want to do, as I said in Phase 2. What we want to do in Phase 1 is to cut the capital gains rate. That's going to be a big, big help to business. It's going to reduce your cost to capital. It's going to be able to create more jobs and more opportunities.

It's going to be 28 percent, going to go down to 14 percent. I'm told by Wayne Angell, a former member of the Federal Reserve, that there's 7 trillion — $7 trillion — in assets locked up all across America.

You lower that capital gains rate. Now you have to wait until death to get a better tax rate. And that's not a very good option. So, you lower that rate, it's going to create a lot of activity, a lot of jobs all across America. That's Phase 1.

Phase 2. As I said, is to have a flatter, fairer, simpler tax. Flatter, fair or simpler and end the IRS we know it would take a lot of people off the tax roles. Simply the returns. My view that's going to be as much help along with the regulatory reform and litigation reform than some of the tax benefits you may have gotten in the past.

[applause]

(UNKNOWN): Last question. She has been asking since she arrived today. She wanted to ask you a question, Senator Dole.

DOLE: Make it an easy one.

QUESTION: Senator Dole, forgive me for not standing up. Like you, I'm a little physically challenged. I'm Pamela Wilds-Cole . I think I'm happy to have the chance to ask the last question.

What it really amounts to is this. I listened to your program. I listened to President Clinton's program. I believe that this election hinges on one thing.

And I know that from being physically challenged myself that I believe I face everyday what you face. I believe I have some knowledge and understanding of the various difficulties and obstacles that you've overcome — if I may say for a longer period than I have nevertheless with greater strength — but, I believe that, please, the difference between Hillary and Bill and you Liddy is character, is decency, honor and character.

[applause]

And I don't mean to steal the microphone or your time from you, but I think that we're all here — we in Florida I speak for, I think, all the women here — all over Florida, America is that the fundamental choice that you represent to us besides the issues — which are real but people don't take the time, honestly to read.

QUESTION: You're not going to get up on MTV and play a saxophone, but when you're in the White House you're going to be honest, disinterested, no ties to anybody, true to yourself, true to your background, true to your morals, and true to your decency. And I believe that that is the fundamental choice that we are given in voting for you.

[applause]

DOLE: Well, let me say, first of all, I'm happy that we didn't stop taking questions earlier. But in any event, I appreciate that very much.

But let me just say one thing. I think you do gain a lot of strength through adversity. You've learned that, I've learned that, other people in the audience have learned it. And I'm not going to get into all that because the press might think I was trying to gain some sympathy.

I'm very lucky. When I first came back, the place we landed was Miami. I was in a Miami hospital. I came back from Italy to Africa to Miami. So I sort of claim Florida as another home state. This is Bob Dole's home state.

I landed here long before a lot of you did, a long, long time ago. Of course, I came by air. You came different ways probably. But this is the land of hope, this is the land of opportunity.

I remember calling my parents the first night I was in Miami. It was a very, a very emotional time, but it was exciting because I was back in America, the greatest country on the face of the Earth, and we're going to keep it that way in a Dole-Kemp administration.

[applause]

Thank you and God bless America.

MODERATOR: Thank you, thank you.

[applause]