Former Sen. Rick
Santorum
Primary Night
Manchester, NH
January 10,
2012
[Transcript DEMOCRACY IN ACTION]
...Thank you very, very much. Thank you, Dan and for all of the
folks up here, I want to thank you very much for everything you've done
in New Hampshire.
You know we came up here just about ten days ago. The polls were
having us
about one or two percent; after Iowa, the most recent poll was three
percent. We have depending on your math, either ten times, five
times or three times where we started and that's what we wanted to
do. We wanted to respect the process here. We wanted to
respect the fact that we were going to campaign in every single state,
states that you know were good for us and states that may be a little
tougher. When you're running in a state like New Hampshire that
you know had a lot of folks here and spending a lot of time here and a
lot of money, we knew it would be tough, but you know what? The
message we had of going out and believing, believing in the American
people. Believing that we needed to have opportunity not just for
some in America, but we needed someone who was going to go out and
speak for all Americans to be able to have the
opportunities to rise in society.
And we took that message here to New Hampshire. We took it,
talking about our manufacturing plan, talking about what we were going
to do to grow this economy, and we took it to talk about faith and
family as the bedrock of our society. [
cheers,
applause]
And by your work and the grassroots effort and the crowds that we had,
we built, we built this campaign here in New Hampshire in just a very
short period of time. We didn't spend a lot of money, but we put
a lot of effort into this and we put our message out there. We
came where the campaign was, and we delivered a message not just for
New Hampshire, but we delivered a message for America. That we
have a campaign here, yeah... [
applause]
that
we
have a campaign that has a message and a messenger that can
deliver what we need, which is first and foremost to defeat Barack
Obama, number one. [
cheers, applause]
It's a message as I mentioned in Iowa from the grandson of a coal
miner, someone who believed deeply that the responsibility he had as
someone who risked his life for a sovereign, a king when he served in
the Austrian army
during World War I and he fought on the Russian front. And if it
wasn't for the aid of a friend in the middle of the night crawling out
from a foxhole and
pulling my wounded grandfather back into that foxhole I wouldn't
be here today. He fought for someone who didn't care about him or
his freedom or his children's freedom. And so he came to America
because he wanted to make sure that his children would be in a free
country and his grandchildren would be in a free country.
Ladies and gentlemen, that is our charge and that is what is at stake
in America today. [
cheers, applause]
Let me assure you. He was not deterred by temporary
setbacks. He believed in the greatness of this country and he
believed in the freedom of opportunity that this country presented.
We are going to go on to South Carolina. For those... [
cheers, applause] For those
who would like to think that somehow or another that this race can be
over
in one or two states, states that have been well let's say the backyard
and the home of a certain candidate. [
laughter] Who by the way I
want to absolutely congratulate Mitt Romney for a great victory
tonight. [
applause] He
worked hard in this state; he invested in this state, and the people of
New Hampshire gave him a very hard-earned victory, and I spoke with
Gov. Romney and congratulated him on that win and said that I'm looking
forward to engaging on the subject matter on issues, talking about
records, talking about how we're going to best put the best foot
forward
and put the best person forward to deliver a message to the American
people that can unite us.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have an opportunity in this race. We
have an opportunity to be the true conservative, the true conservative
who can go out and do what's necessary, not just to win this race—and
we can win this race [
cheers, applause]—but
to
be the conservative who understands that at the foundation of our
country are institutions that are crucial for us to be a successful
nation.
Families, families that are bonded together as the
foundation that instill virtue and faith in our children to build
strong communities and build a great nation from the bottom up.
That's the message. Along with a government that understands that
we have to create a playing field for all Americans of a variety of
different skill sets to be able to be successful in this country.
We have a message that can appeal not just in South Carolina, but
across this nation and in particular in the states that are necessary
for us to win this election—in the states that are the swing states
like Pennsylvania and Ohio and Indiana and Michigan. The states
that I've been successful, like in Pennsylvania, in winning elections.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are not only going to go out and deliver a
message of the basic, the basic structure and the foundation of our
country being faith and family and an opportunity society, but we're
going to do so understanding that with faith in the American people we
can not only wipe out this deficit, we can not only rebuild this
economy, we can not only have a strong America which stands up for the
values that I just talked about, but we can do so in a huge victory
that will rally this country to take on the great challenges we have
before us. [
cheers, applause]
On to South Carolina. Thank you and God bless you.
[mic. picks up Santorum's wife saying, "You didn't introduce us."
Santorum responds, "I'm sorry about that."]
[
Chants: "We pick Rick"]
###
Transcript Copyright
©
2012
Eric
M.
Appleman/Democracy
in
Action.
All
rights
reserved.