Remarks at a Campaign Event in Denver, Colorado

Thank you, Denver, Colorado. You guys are the best! What a welcome. Thank you! [applause] And thank you to Joe Dee for kicking things off for us tonight. And we have some special guests here tonight, as you know. I just want to go through a couple of names. You've got some congressmen here, Congressman Mike Coffman, Congressman Cory Gardner, Congressman Doug Lamborn, Congressman Scott Tipton and also some candidates for U.S. Congress, one from right here, of course, Joe Coors in the 7th district. [applause] And from the 7th district, Kevin Lundberg, and from the 1st district, Danny Stroud. And by the way, Bob Beauprez who got things started today, it's his birthday. Happy birthday, Bob. [applause]

And it's good to be here in the home of the Jaguars. Congratulations, you guys. [applause] What a beautiful place this is. Well, I'll tell you what, this is has been an interesting week. The president was being interviewed and I guess he said something a little unusual. He said, you know, you can't change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside. We're going to give him that chance on November 6th. [applause]

And you know, now and then when I go to various rallies like this, there'll be a couple of people who will start chanting four more years, four more years. That's fine. They can express their First Amendment right. But I usually follow up with asking these questions. Do you want four more years of 8 percent or higher unemployment?

AUDIENCE: No!

MR. ROMNEY: DO you want four more years with 23 million Americans struggling to find a good job?

AUDIENCE: No!

MR. ROMNEY: Do you want four more years where every single year median incomes go down?

AUDIENCE: No!

MR. ROMNEY: Do you want four more years where half the kids coming out of college can't find a college-level job?

AUDIENCE: No!

MR. ROMNEY: Look, it's very clear. We can't afford four more years like the last four years. That's why we're going to get change finally in Washington, what the people of America deserve. [applause] Now, I happen to think that this election is going to be an election of a very clear choice of two very different paths for America. And on one hand, you have the president's choice which is a choice of status quo which is saying he's going to continue the policies of the last four years. He calls his campaign slogan "forward." And I think forewarned is a better selection.

And because what he's promising is the things he's done before. He's promising another stimulus. He wants to do that. He wants to pick winners and losers with investments in various businesses like he did last time. He's promised he's going to raise taxes. He's done that before. He wants to do that again. And so these promises he's made, we don't have to guess what the results will be. We've seen the results. We don't like the results. That's why that man needs to get out of that office and let someone get there who will take America on a different course. [applause]

You've heard what he's said before. And now, it's very clear. He's out of ideas and he's out of excuses and November, we'll get him out of office. So we've got that work to do. And this is the state to do it. I'm counting on Colorado. This could be the state that takes it over the edge. This is the state that could get us the electoral votes we need to win this. [applause]

Now, I take a very different path. His choice is status quo. My choice and the path I would take is bold new ideas to deal with an economy that's very different than what we've experienced before. My choice will lead us on a path that creates 12 million new jobs and rising take-home pay. And people say, how are you going to do that. Let me tell you — five key steps.

One, we have kind of an ace in the hold that came along to us because someone learned how to drill into the earth not just vertically but horizontally and so they can — and so they can tap into oil and gas and so we have extraordinary resources in both of those sources of energy. And so my plan is to make sure we take full advantage of oil, gas, coal, nuclear, renewables and get America — North American energy independence in eight years. [applause]

And we know how to do that. The president has cut in half the permit and licenses on federal land and federal waters. I will double those licenses and permits. I will — I'll make sure we drill in the outer continental shelf and drill in Alaska and I'll bring in that pipeline from Canada and keep that oil from going to China. [applause]

Number two — number two, we have to make sure that trade works for us and opening us new markets for trade in Latin America and around the world. It's a good thing for a nation like us that's highly productive. At the same time, we have to recognize that if there are nations that cheat on trade, we have to hold them accountable. China has cheated. I will stop them from cheating and stealing American jobs. [applause]

Number three — number three, we have to give our workers the skills they need for the jobs of today. But we also have to make sure that our young people get the skills they need for the jobs of tomorrow and that means we cannot sit still with our schools performing nationwide in the bottom third or bottom quartile of world competition.

This is the nation that invented public education. We have to be the nation that lifts up the quality of our education. We know how to do it. We know what the key is. And the key is this. Put our kids and their parents and our teachers first and put the teachers' union behind. [applause]

So number one — number one is energy. Number two is making sure that we have trade that works for us. Number three is getting the skills we need to succeed. And number four, if we're going to get entrepreneurs to start up enterprise and put people to work or if we're going to have some big company decide to build a new factory and put more people to work, they're going to have to believe that we're not on the road to Greece.

But this president with trillion-dollar deficits has put us on that road. And if I'm president, what I will do is I'll cut federal spending, I'll cap federal spending as a percentage of the economy and I will finally get us on track to a balanced budget. [applause] And number five, I want to champion small business.

I want to make it — [applause]. I want to make it easier for people in small businesses to grow and expand and hire more people. This is a jobs plan. These five steps are designed to create more jobs and small businesses where two-thirds of the jobs were created over the last 15 years. And yet, the president has a different plan. He plans on raising taxes on a million small businesses from 35 percent to 40 percent.

AUDIENCE: Boo!

MR. ROMNEY: That'll kill jobs. He also has a massive regulatory burden that keeps on crushing a lot of our small businesses. And then he has a very special idea which is he wants to take away the rights of American workers to decide by secret ballot if they want a union or not. He wants these unions to be imposed on them. Look, my agenda is to do everything I can to help small business, to encourage small business, to allow it to grow and put more people to work. We do those things, we'll create 12 million jobs. [applause]

Now, I have to tell you I've seen American entrepreneurship and innovation at work as I've gone across America and had a chance to meet a number of you at events like this. I've had the experience of meeting some entrepreneurs and been very impressive. I find people — I was with a woman who said to me that she had her own business. I said, well, how'd you get started. She said, well, my husband lost his job and he took a class in upholstering. And she said, because I was the better business mind in the family, I started the company and hired him as my first employee.

And then she went on to hire 39 more people as upholsterers. And so she has the leading upholstery business. She saw an opportunity and she built an enterprise that employs people. I met another guy —

AUDIENCE MEMBER: She built it!

MR. ROMNEY: Yeah, and she built it. She built it. That's exactly right. She built it. [applause] I met Sara Frye from Illinois, by the way, another woman entrepreneur. And she came to a big fundraising event of mine. I said, you know, how did you begin your business. She said, well, I began at age 16 selling pumpkins from the trunk — excuse me, from the back of my pickup truck. She now sells more pumpkins and melons than any other organization in the United States of America. It's absolutely amazing, entrepreneurs. She built it too, didn't she? Yeah, exactly right.

I'll mention — let me mention another one that I saw. Jim Liautaud — Jim is from Central Illinois. And he graduated second in his high school class — second from the bottom, that is. Don't take too many lessons from this, young people. But he graduated second from the bottom and he decided that college was not likely to be part of his future. So he went to his dad and said, can I get a loan from you and if I can we'll split the business 50/50. He wanted a food business of some kind.

And his dad agreed and then he went out and priced the equipment he wanted, the hamburger griddle, those rollers that heat up hot dogs and, you know, the exhaust fan and all that. And by the time he'd priced it out he realized he couldn't possibly pay for it with the money he had. So he concluded the only thing he could do with the kind of money he was able to borrow was to make sandwiches because sandwiches don't take a lot of equipment.

So he set up some stainless steel tables in the garage and made sandwiches and then delivered them to people at work. And now, Jimmy John's has 1,500 restaurants. [applause] And employs 60,000 people and, you're right, he built it. [applause]

If we do those five things, because I know the entrepreneurial, innovative spirit is still alive in America, you're going to see this country come roaring back. I understand what it is that made America's economy work from the very beginning. The Founders recognized something profound, inspired, wise. And that was that our rights came not from the king but our rights came from God Himself. [applause] And among those rights — and you know them — among those rights were life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

We would be free that — you know, we trip off that last phrase sometimes without thinking about it very much. But we would be free in America to pursue happiness as we choose. We would not have a massive government taking more and more from us, telling us what kind of doctor we could have or what kind of insurance we must have. We would not have a government telling us that we had to join a union whether we wanted to vote for them or not. That's not what America was in their minds.

Instead, we should have individuals pursuing their own dreams. This is a nation of dreamers, dreamers who came here, dreamers who still come here from other places legally, those who are already here. We built this country. We built this economy. This is what America is. This is what will keep us strong. [applause] And sometimes — sometimes I think our president and the people with him just don't understand the power of these entrepreneurs, of these dreamers, of a free enterprise system.

They don't understand what it takes to get this economy going. They don't understand small business. I do, not because I studied it but because I lived it. You have to be in business to understand how to create jobs. [applause] Now, there's one more degree in which there's a dramatic choice between us and that relates to our role in the world. The president has a foreign policy that's been characterized as leading from behind. By the way, that's another word for being a follower.

And he has in place some plans for our military that are consistent with that kind of vision. His plan is to cut our military by about a trillion dollars over the next decade.

AUDIENCE: Boo!

MR. ROMNEY: And this is at a time when the world is not safer. The world continues to be a very dangerous place, as we learned time and time again. We have heavy hearts as we lost diplomats overseas in Libya. We have heavy hearts as we see our flag being torn and burned. This is a challenging time as we look around the world. So I believe we need to have a military that's so strong no one would ever think of testing it. [applause]

I do not want to be at the mercy of events. I want to make sure America can help shape events in the world. And for that to be the case, we're going to have to lead. I was lucky enough to be in Poland a few weeks ago and I met a world hero, one of my heroes — Lech Walesa. [applause] And what a guy. I mean, you think about that. It's almost hard to imagine. But the Soviet Union had come into his country, had executed some 20,000 leaders of the country. And despite that background, he as a factory worker, a shipyard worker at Gdansk shipyard, stood up and said no to the Soviet Union.

He said no and others joined him and he began a movement that changed Europe and changed the world. Extraordinary man — I came in to see him and he said, you've come from America. You must be tired. You sit, I'll talk, you listen. [applause] And so I did. And when Lech Walesa tells you to sit and listen, you do.

And so I sat down and he began to speak. And for about 15 minutes he said this time and time again: where is American leadership, the world needs American leadership. He said, America is the strongest nation, the only superpower on Earth. And he talked about a region and he talked about the Middle East or he'd talk about Iran or he'd talk about Asia.

And he said, where is American leadership. We need American leadership. I am committed to American leadership which includes — [applause] — which starts — that American leadership starts with strong principles and values and the conviction that our rights do come from the Creator and it continues with a strong economy, so strong that we can lift the American families and we can also build a military so strong we will recognize it as the greatest ally peace has ever known. I will keep America strong. We will lead. We will lead in favor of freedom. [applause]

Now, I have something — I have something I need you to do. I can commit to you that with every ounce of my energy, when I become president of the United States — when I become president of the United States — [applause] — I will get America strong in our homes, in our economy and in our military. And I need you to commit to do something. I need you to each find at least one person who voted for Barack Obama last time and convince — oh they're just fine. We need them to come vote for me this time.

So I want you to find them and talk to them and ask them whether they can vote in favor of someone who will bring real change and strengthen America again and bring back good jobs and rising incomes and I'll do it. I need your help to do it because this is the state that could decide it. And I want to tell you one more thing.

And that is I get the chance on occasion to tell a story or two. And I saw that film that you watched of me and my family and it began with some video of the Olympics in 2002.

And I wanted to share with you something I don't often do at a rally like this but you've been here a long time and this happens to be one of my favorite life experiences because it related to those Olympics. I had the occasion, as you know, to help organize the Olympic Winter Games in 2002. And at the closing ceremonies, Vice President Dick Cheney came. President Bush came for the opening, Vice President Cheney for the closing. And the vice president asked me to choose an American athlete to sit next to him to represent all the athletes that had performed in those games.

And so I chose Derrick Para. Derrick is Hispanic American, born in Los Angeles. And he's about 5'4. He was a roller-blader. His friends said to him, you know, if you ever want to get an Olympic medal, you're going to have to pick up another sport because they don't have roller-blading. And so, Derrick — Derrick went to one of the local arenas that had ice there, a skating club and went out and skated. And sure enough, Derrick was fast. And he worked like the dickens and went out and competed I presume against the big guys in Michigan and Minnesota and Montana — not Montana, they don't have as much, but maybe Montana, I don't know.

But all these guys of the big skating states, Wisconsin, and he beat them. And he became a member of the United States speed skating team. And so he came out to our games in Salt Lake City and skated his heart out and I believe it was in the 5,000 meters he got a silver medal and then in the 1,500 meters he got a gold medal — fastest man in the world on ice. So I said, Derrick, you come in and sit with the vice president and represent all our athletes.

And as he was coming in to the box, I stopped him and I said, Derrick, what was the most memorable experience for you in these Olympic Winter Games. And it wasn't the silver and it wasn't the gold. He said it was being honored to carry in the American flag that had flown above the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, into the opening ceremonies. He was one of eight athletes who was chosen by his peers to carry in this flag. It's about 8 feet by 12 feet and as you can imagine, it's badly torn and burned. So you can't put it up on a flagpole. You've got to carry it horizontally.

And he and these other athletes did. And he said, as we had the flag waiting to come into the stadium, the announcer said, ladies and gentlemen, the flag that flew above the World Trade Center on September the 11th is coming into the stadium. And he said he expected the audience to burst into cheers. But instead, total silence, complete reverence. And he said, so we began marching the flag in and they stopped in front of the choir.

And they began performing the national anthem. And he said, Mitt, it was hard to hold on to my emotions as they were singing those words as I was holding that flag. And then he said the choir did something I hadn't expected.

Now, I knew it was coming because as the guy in charge of the Olympics, I chose the version of the national anthem they sang. And I chose a version from the 1930s by Robert Shaw. And in this version, you repeat the last line as a reprise and the sopranos go up an octave and the orchestration is much greater — o say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And he said, this time, Mitt, as those words were sung a second time, a gust of wind blew in the flag and lifted it in our hands. And he said, for me, it was as if the spirits of all those that had fought and died for American liberty had just blown in that flag. And he said, so the tears began running down my face. And as he told me that story, tears filled my eyes. We're a patriotic people. We love this country. We recognize it is an exceptional nation. [applause]

This is a nation that needs a leader that will not just talk about unity but that will live unity, will bring our people together to help us overcome the challenges we have, to keep our homes strong and help our schools become the best in the world again, to make sure we have an economy that puts our people to work in the jobs they deserve and who will keep our military strong. I will do that with every ounce of my energy.

I need your help. We have got to stand together. We've got to work together. We're taking back America. We must keep this nation the hope of the Earth. Thank you so very much. It's an honor to be with you. Thank you! We've got to work to win this one! Thank you! [applause]