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McCain Unveils New Presidential Campaign Web
Page
April 30, 1999
(WASHINGTON, DC) -- Republican presidential candidate
U.S. Senator John McCain today unveiled his Presidential campaign
web page. The site is located at www.mccain2000.com.
"I'm excited my campaign is making use of the cutting edge in
communications technology," said McCain, who yesterday also
participated in the first online chat of his campaign. "My web site
offers the latest features to help supporters, committed or
potential, as well as reporters, students and the just plain
curious."
"The Internet provides us with a new and exciting opportunity to
communicate directly with voters," said McCain. "Each of us can now
become better informed and more closely involved with candidates and
their positions on the issues. Using sites like mine, citizens young
and old can find the information they need to make more educated
choices about their leaders."
McCain's site offers biographical video of the Senator's stirring
life story, as well as clear statements of his stands on the
important issues of the day. Major speeches as well as the Senator's
campaign schedule and press releases are also available at the site.
Supporters will also able to volunteer their time, donate money and
request campaign paraphernalia.
McCain, Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation
Committee, has been a national leader on communications technology
policy and last year he spearheaded the successful Internet tax
moratorium. He currently is sponsoring legislation to address the
Y2K bug.
Following is the text of Republican
presidential candidate U.S. Senator John McCain's announcement
speech.
September 27, 1999
I have the privilege of beginning my campaign with
you here in New Hampshire, but I began this day as I began my career
of service to our nation...in the company of United States Naval
Academy midshipmen.
Whenever I see those young men and women, and think of their
dedication and the purposeful careers on which they will soon
embark, I am reminded of how lucky I was to have been one of them.
So there is no more appropriate place
for me to have begun this mission than Annapolis.
I do not announce my candidacy to satisfy my personal ambitions. My
life has already been blessed more than I deserve.
I don't begin this mission with any sense of entitlement. America
doesn't owe me anything. I am the son and grandson of Navy admirals,
and I was born into America's service. It wasn't until I was
deprived of her company that I fell in love with America. And it has
been my honor to serve her and her great cause - freedom. I have
never lived a day since that I wasn't thankful for the privilege.
It is because I owe America more than she has ever owed me that I am
a candidate for President of the United States.
I run for President because I want to return our government back to
whom it belongs—the people. So that Americans can believe once again
that public service is a summons to duty and not a lifetime of
privilege.
I run because I believe deeply in the greatness of America's destiny
and in the goodness of our cause. We are a lantern of freedom and
opportunity to the world, the bright beacon of hope that our fathers
died to bequeath us,
and our children will be asked to defend.
Unless we restore the people's sovereignty over government, renew
their pride in public service, reform our public institutions to
meet the demands of a new day, and reinvigorate our sense of
national purpose we will deny
our destiny, we will abandon the cause our founding fathers called
glorious.
The first responsibility of the next president will be keep our
country safe so that we might secure for ourselves and humanity a
future worthy of our highest aspirations. That obligation requires a
commander-in-chief who has the experience to understand and lead a
volatile and changing world.
Although the next century will hold many dangers for America and our
cause, it will, more than ever, be an age of untold possibilities
for good. It is our destiny to seize this opportunity to build a
safer, freer and more
prosperous nation and a world free of the tyranny that has made the
passing century such a violent age.
This is a great and worthy cause that beckons us all. It is bigger
than any one of us. It is larger than personal ambition. It is more
important than self-seeking.
At a young age I discovered how liberating it is to sacrifice with
others for a cause greater than self-interest. I run for President
because I want the next generation of Americans to know the sense of
pride and purpose of serving a cause greater than themselves.
I entered politics with the same expectations I had when I was
commissioned an ensign in the Navy. First among them was my belief
that serving my country is an honor, indeed, the most honorable life
an American can lead.
As a candidate, I will campaign with respect for the dignity of the
office I seek and the people I seek to serve. On my honor, I swear
to you that from my first day in office to the last breath I draw, I
will do everything
in my power to make you proud of your government.
Something has gone terribly wrong when parents no longer want their
children to grow up to be President. That shames me, that shames me.
And I want to do something about it.
When our government has been taken from us by the special interests,
the big-dollar donors, pride is lost to shame. When our politics are
corrupted by money and lies, trust is lost to cynicism.
We have a choice. We can continue to watch as the American people
grow ever more alienated from the practice and institutions of
democracy. We can continue to tolerate a government that has become
little more than a spectacle of selfish ambition, a government
auctioned to the highest bidder.
Or, we can take a stand.
We can stand together to take up our country's cause. We can fight
together to reclaim our government from those who corrupt it; to
rescue our political system from those who debase it; to defend the
proposition that democracy is
not only the most effective form of government, but the only moral
government.
This is our New Patriotic Challenge. It is a challenge to each of us
to join in the fight against the pervasive cynicism that is
debilitating our democracy, that cheapens our public debates, that
threatens our public institutions, our culture and, ultimately, our
private happiness. It is a
fight to take our government back from the power-brokers and special
interests, and return it to the people, and the noble cause of
freedom it was created to serve.
If we are to meet the challenges of our time, we must take the
corrupting influence of special interest money out of politics.
Restoring honesty to our political system is the gateway through
which all other policy reforms must pass.
To make our schools better, we must reduce the influence of the
teachers unions and their lobbyists.
To improve our health care system, we must rein in the power of
trial lawyers and the influence of insurance companies.
To relieve the tax burden imposed on working families we must
eliminate the special interest loopholes and pork barrel spending
that are the result of a campaign financing system that is nothing
more than a sophisticated
influence peddling scheme.
And once we win our government back, there is no limit to what we
can accomplish.
If elected President, I will not allow your Social Security money to
be used for any purpose except Social Security -- no ifs, ands, or
excuses.
Social Security money will be taken completely off budget - every
single dollar. So politicians can't get their hands on your
retirement money to finance another big government scheme.
I will keep the promise that Bill Clinton broke. I'll reserve more
than sixty percent of the surplus to save Social Security. And I'll
do it in the first year of my presidency. It won't be easy, but
being President isn't
supposed to be easy.
My commitment to save Social Security will not prevent me from
providing vital tax relief to the millions of Americans who have
been overcharged by government for years. I will cut taxes, not for
the special interests and
the big-dollar donors, but for the working men and women of this
country.
I will repeal the indefensible tax penalty that punishes couples who
want to get married.
I will slash the inheritance tax that penalizes those who wish to
leave the fruits of their labor to their children.
I will end the earnings test penalty for seniors that taxes their
income twice and denies them the self-respect that comes from
working.
And I will dramatically increase the number of Americans who qualify
for the lowest tax rate of fifteen percent by raising the eligible
income to $70,000 per couple.
I'll pay for middle class tax relief by using the surplus funds not
needed to save Social Security, and with the money saved by
eliminating tax loopholes and corporate welfare that serve powerful
special interests at
your expense.
Day after day, I have fought to stop Congress from treating your
money like lottery winnings. I want you to know, what every member
of Congress knows, that if I am President, I will refuse to sign any
pork barrel bill that crosses my desk. And if Congress overrides my
veto and tries to force me to waste your money, I'll make sure you
know who they are - every single one of them.
Fixing a broken political system is the key to necessary reform in
almost every area where the government touches your life. But
nowhere are the stakes greater than in the education of our
children.
First and most importantly let's return control of education back to
parents and teachers. We can do this by sending ninety percent of
all federal education dollars back to community classrooms rather
than wasting it on
Washington bureaucrats. Let's put your child's education back in the
hands of someone who knows your child's name.
It's time that we encourage and reward excellence, for students and
teachers alike.
There's no reason on earth that a good teacher should be paid less
than a bad Senator. But all pay should be based on merit, and
teachers should be periodically tested for competence. Parents
demand it; now they will finally
have the control to require it.
Every child in every classroom deserves a teacher who is qualified
and enthusiastic about teaching. Some people just aren't meant to be
teachers, and we should help them find another line of work. Because
if teachers can't teach, our kids can't learn.
Our children deserve the best education we can provide to them,
whether that learning takes place in a public, private or parochial
school. It's time to give middle and lower income parents the same
right wealthier families
have -- to send their child to the school that best meets their
needs. It's time to conduct a nationwide test of school vouchers.
It's time to democratize education.
I have fought to make sure that every American child has access to
the technological wonders that are remaking our world. Some day very
soon every school in America will be wired to the Internet. Children
on the Navajo reservation in Northern Arizona and children from the
wealthiest
neighborhoods will have access to the same information.
The blessings of technology give us the means to breach the walls of
ignorance and isolation. At the dawn of a new American century we
face the prospect of reaching the full promise of our founding ideal
that all men are created equal by giving all Americans access to
information and knowledge, and an equal opportunity not only to
pursue, but to attain happiness.
Education is the great equalizer and used wisely, the information
revolution will hasten the end of a two-tiered society of haves and
have nots, and advance human freedom into the even the darkest
corners of tyranny.
Our ideals have made much progress in the world. But if they are to
advance further we will need the service of all our children, not
just the sons and daughters of a privileged elite. We need capable,
committed leaders from
every part of American society to continue the American experiment
and promote the American cause in a still dangerous world.
There is no safe alternative to American leadership. The history of
this violent century has surely taught us that. We cannot hide
behind empty threats, false promises, meaningless rhetoric, and
photo op diplomacy. We must confidently defend our interests and
values wherever they are threatened. And the first priority of our
world leadership is to protect our own security.
As President, I won't ask how much security we can afford. I'll ask
how much security do we need, and I will find the resources to pay
for it. But I won't tolerate one dime of our defense budget being
wasted to re-elect shortsighted politicians who put their own
ambitions before the national
interest.
I believe that President Clinton has failed his first responsibility
to the nation by weakening our defenses. But he's not the only one
to blame. Both parties in Congress have wasted scarce defense
dollars on unneeded weapons
systems and other pork projects while 12,000 enlisted personnel,
proud young men and women, subsist on food stamps.
And we shortchange those priorities most vital to our security,
including training, missile defense, weapons modernization, and
counter-terrorism.
My friends, our nation has a unique place in the world. We are the
greatest force for good on earth. We chart history's course. Yes, we
must be involved in the destiny of other nations. But that does not
mean we have
relinquished our sovereignty. It means we have persuaded much of the
world to share our ideals. And that's not a cause for concern. It's
a cause for hope.
We Americans are a strong confident people. We know that in open
competition our ideals, our ingenuity, and our courage ensure our
success. Isolationism and protectionism are a fool's errand. We
should build no walls in a futile attempt to keep the world at bay.
Walls are for cowards, not for us.
We are the world's only superpower. We must accept the
responsibilities along with the blessings that come with that
distinction. And if America is to lead, then America's leader must
be prepared for that challenge. The most
solemn responsibility given the President is the role of
Commander-in-Chief.
When it comes time to make the decision to send our young men and
women into harm's way, that decision should be made by a leader who
knows that such decisions have profound consequences. There comes a
time when our nation's
leader can no longer rely on briefing books and talking points, when
the experts and the advisors have all weighed in, when the sum total
of one's life becomes the foundation from which he or she makes the
decisions that determine the future of our democracy.
When a President makes life-and-death decisions he should draw
strength and wisdom from broad and deep experience with the reasons
for and the risks of committing our children to our defense. For no
matter how many others are
involved in the decision, the President is a lonely man in a dark
room when the casualty reports come in.
I am not afraid of the burden. I know both the blessing and the
price of freedom.
I am not afraid. I have faith in my country and the good men and
women of every American generation who know the honor of defending
our cause.
I am not afraid. I learned long ago how powerful America is when she
has the courage of her convictions.
I am not afraid. My life has taught me that the strength and courage
of others will always help sustain me in an hour of need.
I am not afraid, because I know that, as we prepare to take on the
challenges of the next century, enough Americans will serve together
a glorious cause greater than our narrow self-interests.
There are have always been those who question the moral imperative
of American government and diplomacy. They are profoundly wrong. We
embrace the virtues of inclusion in our party and in politics but we
hold firm to our core national values.
We are all part of a great experiment: that people who are free to
act in their own interests will perceive their interests in an
enlightened way, and will gratefully accept the obligation of
freedom to make of our wealth and power a civilization for the ages,
a civilization in which all people share in the promise of freedom.
I have passed from a young man to an old one in the service of my
country. When my time is over, I want only the satisfaction of
knowing I was true to the faith of our fathers; true to the faith of
a young Czech student who ten
years ago stood before a million of his countrymen, while a hundred
thousand Soviet troops occupied his country, and read a manifesto
that declared a new day for the people of Czechoslovakia. But he
began that new day with borrowed words, when, trembling with
emotion, he proclaimed:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness."
I want to be President to protect, until my life's end, our
magnificent dream of freedom - God's great blessing to the world.
And with your help I will.
Thank you.
Following is the text of U.S. Senator
John McCain's campaign suspension
March 9, 2000
We knew when we began this campaign that ours was a difficult
challenge. Last Tuesday, that challenge became considerably more
difficult as a majority of Republican voters made clear that their
preference for President is Governor Bush. I respect their decision
and I am truly grateful for the distinct privilege of even being
considered for the highest office in this, the greatest nation in
the history of mankind.
Therefore, I announce today, on this fine Arizona morning, and in
this beautiful place, that I am no longer an active candidate for my
party's nomination for President. I congratulate Governor Bush and
wish him and him family well. He very well may become the next
President of the United States. That is an honor accorded to very
few, and it is such a great responsibility that he deserves the best
wishes of every American. He certainly has mine.
I am suspending my campaign so that Cindy and I can take some time
to reflect on our recent experiences, and determine how we can best
continue to serve the country, and help bring about the changes to
the practices and institutions of our great democracy that are the
purpose of our campaign. For we believe these changes are essential
to ensuring the continued success of the American experiment, and
keeping America in this new century as bright a beacon of hope for
mankind as it was in the last.
I hoped our campaign would be a force for change in the Republican
Party, and I believe we have indeed set a course that will
ultimately prevail in making our party as big as the country we
serve. Millions of Americans have rallied to our banner, and their
support not just honors me, but has ignited the cause of reform, a
cause far greater and more important than the ambitions of any
single candidate. I love my party, it is my home. Ours is the party
of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan. That is good company for any
American to keep. And it is a distinct privilege to serve the same
cause that those great Americans dedicated their lives to.
But I am also dedicated to the necessary cause of reform, and I will
never walk away from a fight for what I know is right and just for
our country. As I said throughout the campaign, what is good for my
country, is good for my party. Should our party ever abandon this
principle, the American people will rightly abandon us, and we will
surely slip into the mists of history, deserving the allegiance of
none.
So, I will take our crusade back to the United States Senate, and I
will keep fighting to give the government back to the people; to
keep our promises to young and old alike by paying our debts, saving
Social Security and Medicare, and reforming a tax code that benefits
the powerful few at the expense of the many. And with your help, my
fellow Americans, we will keep trying to force open doors where
there are walls to your full participation in the great enterprises
of our democracy; be they walls of cynicism, or intolerance, or
walls raised by a self-interested elite who would exclude your voice
from their highest councils of our government.
I want to take a final moment to speak to all those who joined our
party to support our campaign, many of whom voted in this election
for the first time. Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my
heart. Your support means more to me than I can ever say. But I ask
from you one last promise. Promise me that you will never give up,
that you will continue your service in the worthy cause of
revitalizing our democracy. Our crusade will never accomplish all
its goals if your voices fall silent in our national debate. You are
and always will be the best thing about this campaign, and the best
hope for our country's future success. Stay in this fight with us,
we need your service as much as ever.
Millions of Americans over the years have by their example showed us
that America and her causes are worth dying for. Surely she is worth
living for. That is what I ask all of Americans who found in our
campaign an expression for their patriotism. I am so proud of you,
and so grateful for your company. I have been in my country's
service since I was seventeen years old. I neither know nor want any
other life, for I can find no greater honor than service. You served
your country in this campaign by fighting for the causes that will
sustain America's greatness. Keep fighting, my friends, keep
fighting. America needs you.
Thank you, my friends, thank you so much for helping me remember
what it means to be a public servant in this, the most blessed, and
most important nation on earth. It has been the greatest privilege
of my life.
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