Former Gov. Mitt Romney
RNC Winter Meeting
U.S.S. Midway
San Diego, CA
January 17, 2015

 [Democracy in Action TRANSCRIPT / C-SPAN video]

Mitt Romney: Wow, what great friends, thank you.  This is a friendly crowd.  It's nice to appear at crowds like this, I gotta tell you.  Thank you.  Please.  Thank you.  Ann, why don't you say hi?  I'm with the better half tonight.

 Ann Romney: Again, it's just with gratitude that we express such deep appreciation for all that you have done to try and promote democracy and good will, and winning elections, and we were so thrilled, Mitt and I, to have been watching the television sets in 2014, the night of that big win, and we knew that all of you had had a big part in that, and we appreciate all the work that you do in your states and all the work you did in your states for us.  And I'm here to just express deep gratitude for all of that and to just express our love and appreciation.  Thank you.

Mitt Romney: Thanks sweetie.  Thank you. She's quite a person I'll tell you; that's quite a woman.

Gosh it is good to be back with so many friends. It is like coming back to high school reunion to see all my friends here.  Y'all look so young.  Everybody's lost weight you know and grown more hair.  As I get older my eyes get a little weaker, but it's sure wonderful to see you.  And what a generous welcome.  We've been able to say hi to so many of you and get some selfies taken and some other pictures, and it really touches my heart.

And congratulations in a historic election, re-election of Reince Priebus.  What an extraordinary chairman.  I mean you know this, he has, I mean he came in at a difficutl time.  We had a financial deficit at the RNC.  We had a technology deficit.  He's helped to erase that, and now he is leading the effort to make sure that we have a financial advantage and a technological advantage.  This is an extraordinary man, and he and the entire team that's been elected today and over the last few years deserve the extraordinary support you've given them.  Just a wonderful, look forward as we think about his continued leadership.

I also want to congratulate you as Ann did on the successes in 2014.  That was, I mean I know you hear that time and time again, but I had the chance to visit with a number of the people who were running for office, and, you know this, it's a very impressive group of men and women who you have helped to elect to the Senate and to Congress and to governors' offices and to state offices and national offices across the country.

I mean I was, I can't possible think of all the names to name, but some of these folks you meet them and it's like wow, this is an amazing person.  Tom Cotton, background in the military, Thom Tillis, just, Dan Sullivan, you know, Doug Ducey, Mia Love in my state of Utah, my governor of Massachusetts, a Republican governor of Massachusetts, Charlie Baker.  Gosh.  And how about Joni Ernst; isn't she an amazing person and a great leader?  Ahh, just something else. 

You know there's some people that not only impress me but also inspired me.  I mean Martha McSally.  I imagine you know Arizona, you know her story, I mean this is a young woman who, fighter pilot, Air Force fighter pilot in combat, and she comes back and runs for Congress and believes she wins.  They send her to Washington for the briefings to meet the other members of the incoming class in 2012, only to find out by recount she didn't win.  She has to go home, having thought she'd been elected, and she decides to go at it again and gets elected and comes--  She is an extraordinary person, a rising star.

And then some of the people who've served in the military, who've gone out and fought for our nation despite having extraordinary academic credentials and career opportunities, they went to the military and then have come back and are now serving in Congress and in the Senate.  It's really quite a story.

Now I want to congratulate you also on the work you've done to improve the primary process, to change the date of the convention, to limit the debates and rein them in.  I think these are things which you've considered at great length, and I think you ought to be proud of doing that kind of work.

But a particular thank you to you for your help to me in 2012.  You were hardworking, dedicated; you went all over the country for me.  You should know that from our perspective, and I mean the Romney family and also from the perspective of our campaign, everything worked seamlessly between the RNC and our campaign.  And that's the way it should be for whoever the nominee is year to year you really want to have those work hand and glove as we did, and your leadership and this group deserves great credit.  We all pulled I'm sure for different people, but we came together once I became the nominee and it was an extraordinary blessing for me.  And you should also know this, which is no greater honor has been bestowed upon me than to become the nominee of the Republican Party for the president of the United States, and I owe you a great debt of gratitude.  Thank you.

Now there's some speculation about whether I about to embark on a political endeavor in which I've been previously unsuccessful.  Let me state unequivocally that I have no intention of running for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts.  That's--

Seriously, for our party and for the nation 2016 is not going to be about the Obama years; it's going to be about the post-Obama era.  And in the post-Obama era conservative principles are needed as perhaps never before during our lifetime.  And I realize this isn't the right venue tonight for me to go on and lay out all the policies that might be appropriate for our party and for people who represent our party, but I do want to mention three principles that I think should form part of the foundation of what we take to the American people.

First, we have to make the world safer.  Second, we have to make sure and provide opportunity for all Americans regardless of the neighborhood they live in.  And finally, we have to lift people out of poverty.  If we communicate those three things effectively, the American people are going to be with us and with our nominee and with our candidates across the country.

Now let me take a moment and elaborate on those.

First, making the world safer.  The world is not safer six years after Barack Obama has been in office.  There's no question about that.  And I used to joke during the campaign that President Obama didn't have a foreign policy.  And of course that was a joke because he did have a foreign policy, and the foreign policy was one that was crafted by he and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and their foreign policy was based in part on the premise that if we're friendly enough to other people and if we smile broadly enough and we press the reset button that peace is going to break out around the world.  This is a foreign policy that said we should walk back from red lines.  This is a foreign policy that said that we should lead from behind.  It's a foreign policy which was characterized by speaking loudly and carrying a small stick.  It was a foreign policy that somehow felt that America and our friends like Israel were the problem rather than the solution. 

And the results of the Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama foreign policy have been devastating, and you know that.  Terrorism is not on the run.  As a matter of fact the radical violent jihadists in their various forms are terrorizing and brutalizing people all over the world.  Just in these last several days, tragic events in Paris, in Nigeria, in Yemen.  Hundreds of lives, possibly thousands of lives, taken needlessly.  It's extraordinary.  And of course we also see in the Middle East and North Africa turmoil.  The Syrian tragedy races on.  Liberia is in disarray; Libya, excuse me, I meant, is in disarray.  Iraq is under siege.  Iran is rushing to become a nuclear nation.  This is a difficult time for the world.  And then of course you have Russia having invaded Ukraine, taking Crimea.  You have China saying that they own the South China Sea effectively.  You have the bolivarian alliance in South America continuing to expand and receive support there. 

This has not been a good time for American foreign policy.  And so in my view, to make the world safer for Americans and for good people all over the world and to make the world safe for freedom, our party must stand for making the world safer and our principles will do that, and we have to make that point loud and clear.

So in the post-Obama era, I think we have to use our strength to anticipate events, to shape events rather than just to react to them.  And when I say our strength, I mean our economic strength and our diplomatic strength primarily.  Those will be the sources that we will be able to rely upon to provide a safer world.  So number one safety for the American people and for freedom and for freedom-loving people all over the world.

Number two, I believe we have to communicate to the American people that our principles are principles that will bring opportunity to every American.  This is the land of opportunity, and regardless of where you live in this land, you ought to know that your future can be brighter and your kids' future will be brighter.  And we have the principles and the vision to do that for the American people.

Look, it's a tragedy, a human tragedy that the middle class in this country by and large doesn't believe the future will be better than the past or their kids will have a better future than their own.  We haven't seen rising incomes over decades.  The American people are struggling to make ends meet.  And so our policies in this regard are designed to help create economic growth and put people back to work and to get rising wages.  People want to see rising wages and they deserve them.  They're working hard.  They're using technology.  They face competition from around the world.  And the kind of policies that we're going to be talking about I'm sure in Republican campaigns all over the country will be education, they're going to be dealing with legal reform, job training, tax and regulatory reform, energy policy, immigration policies.  It also means if we want to see real growth we're going to have to limit the size of government, and balance the budget, and by the way finally repeal and replace Obamacare so that we can get some real growth again. 

So number one, safety, and number two, opportunity for all Americans.

And then number three, we have to lift people out of poverty.  We're an abundant nation.  We have the resources and the capacity intellectually, mentally, financially to lift people out of poverty.  Look it was how many years ago, fifty years ago, Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1964-65 declared the war on poverty.  His heart was in the right place but his policies didn't work.  We haven't won that war.  As a matter of fact under President Obama the rich have gotten richer, income inequality has gotten worse and there are more people in poverty in America than ever before.  Under this president.  His policies have not worked.  Their liberal policies are good every four years for a campaign, but they don't get the job done.  The only policies that'll reach into the hearts of the American people and pull people out of poverty and break the cycle of poverty are Republican principles, conservative principles.  They include family formation, an education and good jobs and we're going to bring them to the American people and finally end the scourge of poverty in this great land.

And so I believe in the post-Obama era we need to stand for safety and for opportunity for all people regardless of the neighborhood they come from, and we have to stand for helping lift people out of poverty.

Now I should tell you that in the last few days the most frequently asked question I get is, what does Ann think about all this?  And she believes that people get better with experience, and heaven knows I have experience running for president. 

And by the way, she knows my heart in a way that few people do.  She's seen me not just as a business guy and a political guy, but for over ten years as you know I served as a pastor for a congregation and for groups of congregations.  And so she's seen me work with people who are very poor to get them help and subsistence.  She's seen me work with folks that are looking for better work and jobs, and providing care for the sick and the elderly.  She knows where my heart is, and I love her and appreciate her support.  She is my strongest advocate in almost every single thing I can imagine. 

And me, I'm giving some serious consideration to the future.  But this I know.  We can win in 2016 as a party, in the House, in the Senate and in the White House if we communicate a clear vision of where we're taking this country, what we believe in.  Those principles I've described are among those that we're going to be fighting for, and we're going to win.  And I can tell you this as well.  Regardless of what happens in the primaries and the political process that goes on, Ann Romney and I are going to be fighting for our nominee and make sure we win back the White House because the American people deserve it.  And we're going to make it happen.  Thanks you guys.  Great to be with you.  Thank you so much.

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TRANSCRIPT © 2015 Democracy in Action