Andrew Shepard's Speech From The American President

The last couple of months,

Senator Rumson has suggested that being president of this

country was to a certain extent about character.

And although

I've not been willing to engage in his attacks on me,

I've been here

3 years and 3 days.

And I can tell you without hesitation,

being president of this country

is entirely

about character.

For the record,

yes,

I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU,

but the more important question is,

why aren't you,

Bob?

Now this is an organization

whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights,

so it naturally begs the question,

why would a senator,

his party's most powerful spokesman

and a candidate for president

choose to reject upholding the Constitution?

Now, if you can answer that question,

folks,

then you're smarter than I am because

I didn't understand it until

a few hours ago.

America isn't easy.

America

is advanced citizenship.

You've got to want it bad

because it's gonna put up a fight.

It's going to say, "You want free speech."

Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil,

who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that

which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.

You want to claim this land as the land of the free,

then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag.

The symbol also has to be one of its citizens

exercising his right to burn that flag in protest.

Now show me that,

defend that,

celebrate that in your classrooms.

Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.

I've known Bob Rumson for years and I've been

operating under the assumption that the reason Bob devotes

so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn't get it.

Well,

I was wrong.

Bob's problem isn't that he doesn't get it.

Bob's problem is that he can't sell it.

We have serious problems to solve,

and we need serious people to solve them.

And whatever your particular problem is,

I promise you,

Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it.

He is interested in two things,

and two things only,

making you afraid of it

and telling you who's to blame for it.

That ladies and gentlemen,

is how you win elections.

You gather a group of middle aged,

middle class,

middle income voters who remember with longing an easier time,

and you talk to them about family and

American values and character,

and you wave an old photo of the

president's girlfriend and you scream about patriotism.

You tell them she's to blame for their lot in life.

You go on television,

and you call her a whore.

Sydney Ellen Wade has done nothing to you,

Bob.

She has done nothing,

but put herself through school,

represent the interests of public school teachers,

and lobby for the safety of our natural resources.

You want a character to debate,

Bob,

you better stick with me

because Sidney Ellen Wade is way out of your league.

I've loved two

women in my life.

I lost one to cancer.

And I lost the other because I was so busy keeping my job.

I forgot to do my job.

Well, that ends right now.

Tomorrow morning,

the White House is sending a bill to Congress for its consideration.

It's White House resolution 455,

an energy bill

requiring a 20% reduction of the emission of fossil fuels over the next 10 years.

It is by far the most aggressive stride ever taken

in the fight to reverse the effects of global warming.

The other piece of legislation is the crime bill.

As of today,

it no longer exists.

I'm throwing it out.

I'm throwing it out and writing a law that makes sense.

You cannot address crime prevention without getting

rid of assault weapons and handguns.

I consider them a threat to national security,

and I will go door to door if I have to,

but I'm going to convince Americans that I'm right,

and I'm going to get the guns.

We've got serious problems

and we need serious people.

And if you want to talk about character,

Bob,

you better come at me with more than a burning flag and a membership card.

If you want to talk about character and American values,

fine.

Just tell me where and when and I'll show up.

This is a time for serious people,

Bob,

and your 15 minutes are up.

My name is Andrew Shepherd and I am the president.