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SENATOR BOB KERREY OF NEBRASKA
WITHDRAWAL FROM PRESIDENTIAL RACE
Thursday, March 5, 1992
Well, first of all, [spectator comment] You talking to me now?
Well, first of all I must confess I feel a little badly about the race,
coming to an end, but I don't feel nearly as badly as I do for Dave Kotok
out there, with the Omaha World Herald, he's got to go back to Omaha and
cover a county commissioner's race now. But at least he gets to go back
home.
After New Hampshire I was delighted, or at least I appeared delighted,
to say that I had won a bronze. Then went on to South Dakota and was happy
to be able to say that I won a gold. But after Tuesday I feel a little like
the Jamaican bobsled team. We had a lot of spirit, but unfortunately we
didn't get a lot of medals. About the only good news for me came on Tuesday
in the state of Colorado. I'd like to have done better in Colorado, but
when you're a Cornhusker from Nebraska, any time you get twelve points on
the road in the state of Colorado, you've done pretty well.
At the end of the campaign we were ready to go full throttle, but
unfortunately we ran out of gas. While we have plenty of potential, plenty
of enthusiasm, unfortunately we do not have plenty of money. So it is with
regret, but with great pride for all that we have done together, that I am
here this morning to end my candidacy for President of the United States
of America.
But make no mistake, this is no retreat, Bruce Springsteen's words,
this is no retreat and this is no surrender. For me the fight simply is
going to move on to a new arena.
I thought last night for a moment that I might go on in the race
simply by changing my name to Bob "Uncommitted". Then I thought better of it.
I want to first of all congratulate all the other candidates, the four
remaining Democratic candidates who did win. And I want to wish them well.
I know there's a long road ahead, and there's a lot of work for all of them,
and I might have exercised some political hyperbole on a number of
occasions, and called them unelectable, but with each passing day it is
clear to me that the only unelectable politician running for President of
the United States is George Bush.
As to my own campaign, while my candidacy for President of the United
States is over, the cause of the campaign, the urgent need for fundamental
change, is not over. I will continue to struggle to describe the course
I believe America should set in the uncharted waters of the post cold-war
era. And I will continue to fight to make the changes needed to move in
this new direction.
Paraphrasing the late Lou Gehrig, `As you may have heard I've got some
bad breaks, most of the self-inflicted, but today I consider myself the
luckiest man on the face of the Earth.'
I lucky for having a state like Nebraska, that would give me its
faith and encouragement. I lucky for the opportunity I've had these past
five months to lay out my views before the wisdom of the American people.
And I'm lucky for the thousands who have supported me with their confidence,
idealism, money, time and effort.
I want to especially as well thank my colleagues who stood in with me
through thick and unfortunately, mostly thin. Stayed with me from beginning
to end, I'm very grateful for their support, their friendship. I wish I
could say that I'm enthusiastically looking forward to getting back to Strom
Thurmond's filibuster, but I will do the best I can.
I'm also very grateful and indeed very moved by the support and
friendship, the love in fact, given to me by my fellow comrades in arms from
the Vietnam era. I hope, that as much as the war was slightly opened during
this campaign, that America understands that Vietnam is no longer the issue.
The issue instead is the eagerness and the sense of purpose with which Vietnam
veterans return to political life. I take as a sign of hope that my campaign
has awakened in thousands of Vietnam veterans the realization that their
government is no longer an enemy. That government can be an instrument of
power which can, after all, be used wisely, if only one gets involved in
defining the mission.
The point must be made this morning that too many Americans feel like
their government cannot be used wisely for anything. Two Americans in three
are afraid they may lose their jobs in the coming year. Perhaps the strongest
message of this campaign is that job security in Washington DC must be
reduced if we ever hope to reverse the uncertainty everywhere else in this
country. Americans are full of doubt about the future, anger about the
present, and longing for the past.
The buzzword for the 1990's, `down-sizing', has ripped through American
confidence like a chainsaw. For forty five years, two generations, this
nation knew where we were going. We were containing Soviet Communism abroad
while we were building increased prosperity here at home. Suddenly, Soviet
Communism has vanished, and prosperity, long assumed to be ever growing,
and ever-satisfying, is now seen to be leaving.
America's leaders need to wake up. As leaders, we need to awaken to
the new world and the new possibilities in it. In the old era, we contained
a clear enemy. Now we must contain the more elusive enemy. Of hatred,
violence, bitterness, selfishness, intolerance, and ignorance. We must
control as well and fight as well the desire to punish, discourage, subdue,
or terrorize the human spirit.
As this moment between the world of the known past and the unknown
future, we are called upon as Americans and we have a duty to answer this
question: What is going on in our country, anyway?
Here's how I see it: We need a massive economic conversion from an
economy that produces weapons the world fears to an economy that produces
goods and services that the world wants to purchase.
We need to begin with fundamental change in the way we finance health
care. Soon, within two years in fact, we will be spending a trillion dollars
a year in America for health care, financing a system that does not provide
continuous health care for our children, and continues to place a penalty on
job mobility and re-training.
We need fundamental change in the way we treat our children. America is
no longer the land built on the dreams and values of our parents. In city
streets, teenagers no longer play stick ball or kick-the-can on hot summer
nights. Instead, they prowl in war-like gangs with cheap handguns and semi-
automatic weapons. Our 350 billion dollar annual investment in the ordeal
known as primary and secondary education resembles an assembly line in
reverse. The finished product is not inquisitive, excited children, but
instead is disassembled parts; dull, lost and frightened teenagers.
We need to shake our federal government to its core. Not timid change;
not change at the margins; but radical change; to restore a sense of purpose
and mission to our experiment in self-government. We need fundamental change
in America. Fundamental change in our foreign policy, to build a new world
economy and move one step closer to the elusive goal of world peace.
Fundamental change in our domestic policy to restore America's health.
Fundamental change in our values to give hope to our children; they were the
reason for my running for President. And they will always be my compass to
guide me in the fight ahead.
This is the end of a single presidential campaign -- unfortunately,
my own. But it is not a surrender or a retreat.
As I look back on my campaign, difficult though that might be to do,
I feel neither regret nor disappointment. I am proud of the effort and
more committed than ever to carrying on the fight.
The President of Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel, recently observed that
the end of Soviet Communism was as much a victory of the human spirit over
the tyranny of government as it was a military victory. Just as they were
inspired by our example, we should be inspired by theirs.
Our government also stands between us and a new world of freedom,
exploration and progress. It is time for Americans to rise up with a full
spirit of our indominatable nature to seize this moment and build the
nation and world of our dreams.
Thank you all very much.