Well, thank
you all for coming. Well, of
course, the first thing I have
to do is to thank my great wife,
Karen, for the fact that she
has, I mean, she has endured my
political career and also of
course accentuated it. There’s
nobody like Karen. She’s
charismatic. She walks into a
room and people fall in love
with her. You know, when she
appeared on Anderson Cooper,
John Weaver commented, and Beth
Hanson commented, that if we had
only run Karen, we would have
been a lot more successful. I
happen to agree with that.
And, and
you know, Em and Reese showed
up, and they’re unbelievable.
They’re just so beautiful, and
they’ve been so supportive, and
they’ve traveled with me around
the country as well, and it was
always such a delight to have
the family on the road. And as
their principal had said, don’t
let education get in the way of
learning, and I think that they
learned a great deal. And of
course I want to thank the
Worthington Christian staff and
particularly Buzz Inboden for
their patience and willingness
to kind of look after our
family. It was terrific.
Our staff,
nobody has ever done more with
less in the history of politics
than what this staff has done. I
mean, it’s kind of always been
this way. It’s been a mystery to
me other than to say that I like
to think that they think that
they’ve been part of something
bigger than themselves, and we
all want to be part of something
bigger than ourselves, and I
think we do it with honesty and
integrity and as a result I
think I know and I sure hope and
pray that they feel that this
experience that they have had in
this, in this campaign has
improved and in some way changed
their lives for the better. So
I’m looking forward to being
able to spend more time with
them.
The
volunteers, just amazing. I
don’t know how many, 800 people
we had, is it 800 people that
went to New Hampshire, people
who went to Michigan, people
were in South Carolina. I mean,
I would show up places and there
were like people I knew, and I’m
like, why are you here? And, but
they were, they were believers.
And I could never thank them
enough, for the long car rides
and in the snows of New
Hampshire they knocked on doors
and in the rain of South
Carolina they knocked on doors.
They really gave of themselves.
My mother
used to always say, never forget
the volunteers, Johnny. And they
were always ones that have given
me the octane, the fuel, to be
able to carry out my purpose,
and I want to thank the people
who gave the money, the
financial resources.
We never
had all the money we wanted. We
were probably outspent by 50 to
1, but we were never ever
daunted in that, and we just got
up every day and did the best we
can, and of course a big thank
you goes to Beth Hanson who was
the campaign manager and did
everything that she could
possibly do.
And my
dear, dear friend Doug Price
who, well, we start getting into
these names, but as I mentioned,
I think Emma said, well, Mr.
Doug, didn’t you travel with my
daddy for like a year and a
half? And Reese looked at him
and said, how did you ever do
that?
But we had
a great time and we’re going to
have a lot more fun in the
future, and of course the
kitchen cabinet, I look at
Joanne Davidson and Bob Clavky
and Tim Trapepi, who the only
guy I know that carried more
luggage than an entire circus
crew. I mean, it was just
unbelievable.
So, and I
know I’m leaving some people
out, but I want to thank every
one of you.
You know, I
visited these beautiful,
beautiful towns in New
Hampshire, and people had really
counted me out in New Hampshire,
but when we hit our 100th town
hall it was, it was remarkable,
those beautiful towns. I will
never forget the people of New
Hampshire.
We moved
from New Hampshire, you know, in
the far east, all the way to the
excitement of California, even
being able to sit in traffic in
Los Angeles. It was a big part
of and I just love California
and what it means to our country
and the excitement that it
breeds.
Yeah, I
remember we were in the upper
peninsula of Michigan. Never
knew where it was, heard about
it all my lifetime. I never knew
it was actually located above
Wisconsin. And we landed, and I
remember everybody was looking
at their phones, and I said,
would you all please put down
your phone, because this is a
winter wonderland. This is
magical what we’re seeing here,
what the good Lord has given us.
To the
energy of Miami Beach, Florida,
for one of the last debates and,
you know, it was interesting,
they didn’t think I could make
any debate, and I made all 13 of
them, in fact, won a couple of
them.
As for my
beloved Ohio, the people here, I
cannot tell you how much I
appreciate the opportunity that
you’ve given me to be a leader
in this state. The people of
Ohio have given me the greatest
professional experience of my
lifetime. I’ve tried to pay them
back. And last night in
Cleveland a woman,
African-American woman, said,
you made promises and you kept
them, and that’s why I’m here
tonight, because I believe in
you. That you brought our people
together.
Well, it
only happened because the people
gave me a chance, and everywhere
I went in America, everywhere I
went in America, I told the
people about our beautiful,
beloved state and held Ohio
high, and I think gave people an
impression from one end of
America to the other, that Ohio
is a special place, and I expect
we’re going to have more visits
as a result. And I marveled at
my colleagues who held public
office. They knocked on doors,
they made phone calls. And I
mean, these are people who came
from the legislature. I mean,
when you’re an executive and you
have to deal with the
legislature, it’s not always,
it’s not always peaches and
cream, but yet these
legislators, the leaders, the
speaker of the House, the
president of the Senate, some of
my statewide colleagues like the
attorney general, just
incredible that they would have
come out and honored me.
Frankly, I
was so humbled by the fact that
they, that they came and they,
and they love me. They
encouraged me. The people of our
country changed me. They changed
me with the stories of their
lives.
We all
remember that hug in South
Carolina from that young man who
had found despair and then found
hope somehow, and he just wanted
to give me a hug and the country
marveled, but, you know, that
was one of a series of these
things that had happened. A
gentleman showed up in New
Hampshire, he said, I don’t
think I’ve warned my son enough
about the dangers of a certain
type of cancer and now he has
it, and I’m blaming myself, and
he put his arm around me and
cried, and I said, sir, it’s not
your fault. You didn’t do
anything wrong. You’re a great
father. You’ve come here all the
way from New York to tell me
about this. Take the load off of
your shoulders.
He wrote us
a letter saying that that little
conversation made a difference
with him, and when we went to
New York months later, standing
at the rope line, was that man.
He said, I want you to know my
son is doing much better, and I
wanted to be here to thank you
for taking the time with me.
We were in
a hall in Michigan, and a woman
stood up and showed a picture of
her son who had taken his life.
We talked about faith, talked
about her son and where he was
and everybody in that hall
embraced that woman and made her
feel that she was not alone.
See,
stories like this occurred all
across our country. And I think
it’s frankly because for
whatever reason that God gave me
the grace to make people feel
safe and comfortable, and they
came to these town halls which
were, they were absolutely
magic.
You know,
I’ve learned something, folks,
everyone here, that we all need
to slow down our lives, slow
down our lives and listen to
those who are around us.
Look, let
me be clear, we all know that
economic growth is imperative to
the success of our country.
Economic growth gives people an
opportunity to realize many of
their hopes and dreams in life,
and without a job, the family is
weaker, the community is weaker,
the neighborhood is weaker, the
state suffers and our country
struggles.
And I can
tell you that economic growth
can be achieved by our public
officials if they just do their
job, but they have to ignore
polls, they can’t focus on focus
groups, and they have to
overcome the fear of reelection
or criticism. See, the formula
is simple and it works. It is
common sense regulations that
don’t crush our small
businesses, because that’s where
our kids get their work now
increasingly. That’s the fastest
area of job growth. We know we
need to lower taxes for
individuals and we have to cut
taxes for our businesses so they
start investing in America, and
not some country located in
Europe, and we need a realistic
path to balance the budget, and
frankly, nothing more imperative
than a balanced budget amendment
to the Constitution to force the
Congress to do their job.
And we have
to keep in mind that we need to
shift power, money and influence
from government back to the
people wherever we live, and we
have to begin to run America
again from the bottom up.
However,
the spirit, the essence of
America lies in the hearts and
souls of us. You see, some
missed this message. It wasn’t
sexy. It wasn’t a great
soundbite. But I saw a young
lady, I saw a young lady in
Philadelphia who came to me and
said, I’m a producer on a major
cable show and I watch your town
halls and talk about the spirit
of our country and my role, and
she said, you’ve affected my
life.
You see, I
believe we all need to live a
life bigger than ourselves. Yes,
we need to live a life a little
bit bigger than ourselves. We
need to reach out to help lift
someone else, because, you know
what, it comes to us naturally
if we let it. You see, we are as
human being’s kind of hard wired
to want to give someone else a
lift, give someone else an
opportunity, and when we reach
out it’s so interesting and when
we reach out and help someone
else, you see what it does is it
opens us, ourselves, to
recognizing and receiving the
help that we need in our lives.
It’s a virtuous circle. When we
help someone else to rise it
opens us up to receive the
things that we need in our
lives, regardless of who we are.
To
paraphrase an old adage, “I
sought the greatness of America
in her harbors and in her
rivers, and I did not find it. I
sought it in her fertile fields
and boundless forests and did
not find it. I sought her
greatness in her halls of
Congress and I did not find it.”
You see,
after this campaign I see it in
us, when we come together, when
we lift one another with our
eyes on the horizon.
Throughout
my campaign I have said the Lord
may have another purpose for me,
and it set all the pundits
a-twitter. Does that mean he's
not committed or he's not
focused or he’s not energetic?
It showed to some degree how
little they understand about
life. You see, I have always
said that the Lord has a purpose
for me as he has for everyone,
and as I suspend my campaign
today, I have renewed faith,
deeper faith that the Lord will
show me the way forward and
fulfill the purpose of my life.
Thank you
and God bless.