eleanor

=Richard Nixon by Eleanor=

Good afternoon my fellow Americans! My name is Richard Nixon. I come before you a new man, a changed man, a man ready for a changing nation. I am ready to lead this nation into a new, prosperous, and stable era.

Who is this Richard Nixon, you may be asking yourself now, and you have every right to know. I am a man of modest means, born in Yorba Linda, California in 1913. I was not born into wealth, privilege, or politics. I do not smoke cigars with other senators in back rooms. I am your brother, your husband, your father.

What I plan to do is energize our faltering nation. I plan to unite in this time of division and fragmentation. I believe that the problems of our nation lie primarily in the federal government; it is huge and bloated, collapsing on its own weight. We are teetering on the brink of socialism. We must revive the nation with New Federalism, and channel money into state governments, which will be better able to address the problems of the people. We must increase the equality of our citizens, so that every person, black or white, male or female, may be protected by the law. We cannot have deadweight citizens who are not fully participating dragging our country down. We must cut into the decadence, the uncontrolled spending, and emphasize fiscal efficiency.

But the problems are not purely in our own backyard. We must look across our oceans to China, to the Soviet Union, and of course to Vietnam. We must neutralize these red menaces with cordiality and friendship. By fostering friendly relations with China and the USSR, we will increase trade, a globally beneficial occurrence. We must end this terrifying hoarding of nuclear weaponry. This nation will not sustain itself on fear and on hate. Moreover, we must, my fellow Americans, disentangle ourselves from Vietnam; we must win peace. Vietnam is sucking lives and hope from our nation, chipping away at our country’s youth. But we must not, of course, ignore the Communist threat. We should replace the lives we sacrifice there with money and arms. We have money to spare, but we may not spare any more American lives.

I have confidence in our future, America. I have confidence in change, and in national strength. Have confidence in me.

"Richard M. Nixon." __American Experience: the Presidents__. 2003. PBS. 10 Dec. 2007 .