Smith's barbecue stump speech

ryanteaguebeckwith — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:50:00 -0500

Description

A stump speech given by state Sen. Fred Smith at a barbecue in the Smithfield-Selma High School in Johnston County on Feb. 11, 2008. From a transcript.

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February

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Transcript

Thank you so much for coming out tonight. The most important thing I want to tell you tonight is I came home to tell you today I filed to be the next governor of the state of North Carolina. I'm happy to have my family here, my lovely wife Ginny and my mother, Eudell Smith, and other members of my family. If y'all would stand up, I want to recognize all of you, thank you for being here tonight. And [State Rep. <a href="http://ncleg.net/gascripts/members/viewMember.pl?sChamber=House&nUserID=26">Leo Daughtry</a>] and [State Rep. <a href="http://ncleg.net/gascripts/members/viewMember.pl?sChamber=House&nUserID=482">James H. Langdon</a>], thank you for your friendship and those kind words. I hope I won’t let you down; you’ve always been there when I needed you, and I appreciate that. I brought the sheriff to make sure that if you didn't do right, he would take you down to the jail. Sheriff, I appreciate you being here, and I've seen my fellow commissioners, there’s so many of them I don't know if I can know all of them or not. Cookie if you're here I want to recognize you. You know this is barbecue No. 89 for me, we've been all across this state having barbecues, and we've run a campaign for governor. And I want to tell you how we're running that campaign and why we're running it the way we're running it. I want to recognize two people here tonight, who had a big impact on my political life and were there at the very beginning. Where's the [Johnston County] register of deeds, Craig Olive? Stand up, Craig. And where's Linwood Parker? Linwood's in the back. I was just moving along in life trying to run a business. And about eight or nine years ago some things began to bother me. I've never been to a political meeting, never been to a party meeting. And one night I called Ginny into the living room, and I said, "Ginny, I’ve been complaining about what's going on in the public square. And I'm either going to get in the public square or I'm going to shut up." And I said, "I don't know what to do or how to do it, but I know Craig Olive." So we called Craig Olive and asked him to come over and have dinner with us one night and Craig was nice enough to come over one night, and he sat there and he said, "Fred let me tell you, if you’re going to get involved in politics in Johnston County I need to take you to see Linwood Parker." And so he set up a meeting, and I said, "Linwood Parker who's Linwood Parker?" So Craig made it available for me to go see Linwood Parker and I went to Linwood's office. I had these big, grand ideas about what I wanted to do, and Linwood said, "Son let me tell you something," he said, "if you want to get in politics you need to be a county commissioner first and then you can understand what local government is all about." And so I listened to Linwood and that's some of the best advice I ever had. I ran to be a county commissioner, which was one of the greatest experiences I ever had with J.H. who without a doubt has been the best chairman of any board I've ever served on. J.H. Langdon was a great leader of the county commissioners here in Johnston County, and I respect him so much and learned so much from him. But then Linwood, as he taught me what it meant to be in politics. I know he thinks I didn't always listen to him. But I did. And Linwood told me two things, two things I learned here in Johnston County from Linwood Parker. And I'm telling you, I’ve talked to consultants in Washington, D.C., I've talked to consultants in Raleigh, North Carolina. I've talked to a bunch of them. And all of those people haven't come close to having the impact on me and my way I campaign as Linwood Parker has. He told me two things, and I still campaign all across this state based on those two things. And you saw one of them in the video. And the first one is that a campaign ought to be a conversation with the people. That you need to go talk to the people and find out what the people want. And that's why I've had a barbecue in almost every county in this state, will have a barbecue in every county in this state. Because I've gone out and talked to people, because as a businessman you need to go talk to your customers, and if you want to be the governor of this state, you need to go talk to the people of this state. And the second thing Linwood taught me, he said, 'Fred don’t ever let your opposition paint your barn. You paint your own barn and people can decide whether they like the color or don’t like the color.' Those are the two things I've done, that's why I wrote my book, 'A Little Extra Effort.' I wanted to paint my own barn, people can look at the color, they can decide whether they like it, they can decide whether they don't like it, but it’s my color and I painted it. And I wrote my book and I got that from Linwood Parker. And I want to thank Linwood for the influence he's had on my political life. Linwood thank you so much for what you've done for me.And Leo. Leo, I did play some on Saturday. I just want you to know, I played some on Saturday. But Leo and I have been together for a long time in college and law school and everything. But folks like I said this is my 89 barbecue, people say, "Fred why are you doing that?" As you saw in my video it's because I want to have a conversation with the people, I don't believe those political analysts who say you just need to go to a few high population counties and run a few TV ads. I don't believe that, and I think we're going to prove them wrong. But you know if you have to go to 100 counties that takes hardwork and that’s what we do and that’s what we believe in. And one of the great things about going all across this state is you see what a beautiful state we have, all the way from the mountains of Cherokee and Clay County, all the way to the crystal coast of Carteret County. And you get to meet the people of this state, and we have good people, kind people. People who have values, and I've talked to them about their values and what they believe in. And as I've talked to them about what their vision is for this state. They're upset, they’re upset that this state and their government in Raleigh is not executing according to the vision they have in their minds. And they're ready for a change of management in Raleigh. I want to ask you a question: Are you ready for a change of management in Raleigh? And I could go on a long list of things that are wrong in Raleigh but I'm not going to do that. Some nights I would, but we're a little short on time tonight so I'm not going to do that. But I'm going to tell you we're going to change management in Raleigh, and we've got to offer the people of this state, a bold clear choice, a bold clear conservative choice. People in eastern North Carolina will vote for a Republican if he is a conservative, and I am a conservative. I am a social conservative, and I am a fiscal conservative. And we need to offer that choice and then offering that choice, what I think my strategic plan in this campaigning is to draw a line in the sand. And then paint two bold colors on both sides of that line, on one side is the vision and the belief of the liberal Democrats as to what they think the strength of this state is and that is government, big government, more government, the need for government, more taxes and more central planning. That's what they believe the strength of our state is. And that's why the people of the Democratic Party are running for government, because they want to be the governor of the government, not the governor of the people. And I want to contrast that on the other side of the line with what I believe the strength of our state is. And that's our people. Free, hardworking, risk-taking, god-loving, family-oriented people. Family farmers, entrepreneurs, small businessmen and women. That's the strength of our state, it's always been the strength of our state, and I think that will always be the strength of our state. And that's why I'm running to be the governor of the people, not the governor of the government. Now if we're going to do that we've got paint our own barn, as I said. We've got to tell people what we stand for, and that's why we wrote our book. And in my book I tell you about my mom and dad. My mom who's here tonight who left Appalachian State with nothing but the clothes on their back and worked in the Methodist orphanage in Raleigh and served. I'll tell you about my dad and I getting up at 4:30 every morning and carrying newspapers to Cameron Village since I was in elementary school. And then Dad would come home and teach school all morning then go work on the orphanage farm, and then come home and coach football, baseball, and basketball. He worked around the clock to serve those orphanage boys.And then my mom who took care of 24 orphanage boys as their house mom, and when I say take care of, I mean find clothes for 24 boys, wash clothes for 24 boys, bathe 24 boys, make sure they go to study hall and make sure they have devotionals every night. My mom and dad showed me through their life what service to others was at the Methodist orphanage, and they also taught me something else, which I talk about in the first chapter of my book. They taught me that everybody matters; it doesn't matter whether you have parents or don't have parents. It doesn't matter what your ZIP code is, what the color of your skin, it doesn't matter your economic conditions. Everybody matters and I learned that, and that's why I'm involved in public service.And I told you in my book about long days on the football field at Wake Forest University and long nights in the law school library. I told you about serving my country for four years in the U.S. Army JAG corps. And I told you about learning to manage the ups and downs and struggles of starting a family business from scratch that today employs over 600 hardworking, tax-paying citizens. I learned, and Leo said, what it means to sign a paycheck on the front and not on the back. If you read my book carefully you'll know that sometimes when I sign that paycheck on the front I wasn't sure there was going to be enough money in the bank when that paycheck got there. Those experiences have forged my character. They've made me who I am today. You know it's only through life's experiences — whether it be in the government or the private sector or whether it be in big businesses or small businesses — that we learn the lessons that teach us what it means to be a leader and throughout my life I've learned the number one thing that leadership is not and that is just talking. Talk is easy, talk is cheap. There even some say we have so much talk on Jones Street in Raleigh it's just a bunch of hot air. The thing that I've learned and the thing that I believe is that Teddy Roosevelt got it right, that the credit belongs to the man who's in the arena, whose face is marred by sweat and dust and blood. Who strives valiantly to achieve great things I believe the reason that president Roosevelt said that was he understood that it was only in the doing that hopes and dreams come to life. It's only when we do things that hopes and dreams come to life. And that's why government is about more than some program or some policy, government is about how things affect people's lives. And when I think about that I think about one of my favorite books entitled "The Called" by Os Guinness. And in that book Os Guinness talks about the difference between dreamers of the day and dreamers of the night. And he says dreamers of the night are people who dream with their eyes close and they wake up the next morning and all is vanity and all is forgotten. But dreamers of the day are different people. Dreamers of the day are dangerous people because they dream with their eyes wide open. They have a vision and they have a dream and they look out and they see what can be, what might be, and what should be to make peoples lives better, to make their organizations better. That's what leaders do. And once they see what their vision and dream is and they look at their current reality they start closing the gap little by little to accomplish their dream or their vision. That's what we need in Raleigh we need leaders who understand that. We need leaders who understand. And we need a governor who understands that we need to empower people and not bureaucrats. We need an ed. System that treats the child as the customer. We need to understand, or have a governor who understands that the private sector creates 83 percent of the jobs and we've got to get a handle on out of control government spending. When need a governor to understand we need to build roads, we’ve got to have infrastructure in this state, and that’s why I propose a $4 billion good roads, safe bridge bond that we could issue without raising anyone’s taxes if we took the revenue and fees we get from transportation related goods and services and spend all of that on roads and stop transferring $172 million out of the Highway Trust Fund into the General Fund. Imagine if we had a governor who understood that we need to protect people and not bigger and more intrusive government. When I talk about protecting people, sheriff, I’m talking about government's number one responsibility and that is safe streets, safe homes and safe schools. And if we're going to do that we've got to do all across the state what [Sheriff Steve Bizzell's] doing here in Johnston County and that's to fight the scourge of drugs and meth on our society.David you're doing the same thing I know too. And we've got to make sure that every sheriff's department in this state has the chance to be part of the 287(g) program to catch, detain and deport illegal aliens who are violating our criminal laws. And you saw those four beautiful granddaughters on the screen there in Stanford that Ginny and I have. And we think they're the four most beautiful granddaughters in the world and to think that we go to Raleigh and don’t pass the strongest possible Jessica's law to protect those young among us, I can’t understand it, I don’t understand it, and I can promise as your governor that will be one of the first things I do to make sure that North Carolina has one of the strongest possible Jessica's laws in the US of A.Imagine if we had a governor who understood that we need to have accessible and affordable health care and to do that we’ve got to pass medical liability reform so doctors are not practicing defensive medicine.Imagine if we had a governor who understood that private property is the basis for our freedom and the basis of our economic system and we’ve got to protect private property and never let government take private from one person and give it to another private entity just because they want more tax dollars. Imagine if we had a governor that understood that government needs to reflect the values of its people and what I think about that, I think about the makeup of our society. My friends we all are descendants of immigrants who came to this country. Our forefathers went through something we call the melting pot and you can't tell me today what an American looks like. We're all different just like we used to sing in bible school, yellow, red, black, or white we’re all different, but we all share certain common characteristics, we all have red white and blue pumping through our veins, we all believe in freedom, we believe in the rule of law. We believe that we are as our national motto says one nation under God. And we believe we ought to speak the English language, and the problem we have today is we have illegal aliens coming to this country with such velocity that they're overwhelming our melting pot and the reason for that is the federal government has let us down on border security, the fed government has let us down on upholding the rule of law and that’s going to leave it to the states and the state of North Carolina to put a Band-Aid on this problem. And as governor I would do four things. The first is I would try to make sure that every sheriff's department had a chance to be a part of the 287(g) program to catch, detain, and deport illegal aliens violating our laws. Second, if you get a driver's license you be legally entitled to get a driver's license in this state. Common sense says if that's what they do in Mexico that's what we ought to be able to do here in North Carolina. The third thing, we need to pass illegal immigration reform like the states of Georgia, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Colorado, have to say if a government agency or institution is going to give a benefit they must enforce federal law which they ask are you legally entitled to this benefit. And fourth we need to have a voter ID card to protect the integrity of our voting system. If we do those four things we can start solving illegal immigration problem in this state. Imagine if we had a governor that understood this.There's an envelope on your desk, and it's there for a lot of reasons. But one reason is there at the bottom we ask you what you're most interested in or what you're most concerned about. And we keep these up; this is part of our conversation with the people. nd we keep these to see what the people believe is most important. And when we did that, we thought that it would be either immigration or education. Or a tax policy would be the most important thing, but we were wrong. And we missed it by a mile. The No. 1 thing that people in this state say they want is honest government.They want honest government where their leaders go to Raleigh act with integrity and is transparent and I can assure you as your governor we will post on the Internet how every taxpayer dollar is spent so you can keep up with where your taxpayer dollars go. I think that's what we need to do for the citizens of this state.Imagine if we had a governor who understood that government needs to reflect the values of people of faith and when I talk about values of people with faith I'm talking about an honest day's work for an honest day's pay. Every person ought to be able to improve their and their family's lot in life in they work hard get a good education, and make good decisions. That's always happened in our state and we need to continue to make that happen. Values such as we don’t cheat, lie and steal. Values such as God created all people and all people are entitled to mutual respect and trust and that includes the elderly and the unborn. We need to love and care for our neighbors. These values are what has made our state great and where do these values get taught and where do these values get passed down. They get taught and passed down in the family. The family is the basic unit of a strong society and if we're going to have a strong society we got to have strong families and if we're going to have strong families we’re going to have strong marriages and I'm talking about marriage between one man and one woman. And that's why [Sen. <a href="http://ncleg.net/gascripts/members/viewMember.pl?sChamber=Senate&nUserID=28">James Forrester</a>] and I introduced legislation that would give you, the people of this state a chance to vote on this important issue and make it a part of your constitution like every other southern state has had. Why do we want to do this, because when the people make it a part of their constitution, a liberal Superior Court judge or the next meeting of the General Assembly cannot change the definition of marriage in this state.But my friends if were going to have a government that we imagined and talked about, we’ve got to have leaders who understand that doesn't just happen, you've got to have a plan, you've got to have a vision that goes beyond the next election. You know I tell the folks in my companies, if you don't know where you’re going any road will take you there. We got to know where we're trying to go as a state, but once we have a plan, that's not enough by itself. We have to execute that plan with tenacity; we've got to have leaders who understand that being governor of this state takes hard work, it takes making tough decisions, it takes tenacity. I want to tell you in closing tonight where I've learned this. Some of you have heard this story, if you’ll just stick with me again I want to tell it to those who haven't heard it. As I've told you, my father was the football coach of the Methodist orphanage and when I was in middle school he changed jobs and became the manager of the Baptist assembly in Fort Caswell in Southport, N.C. And we lived in Raleigh for nine months and we would go down to Southport to live in the summer for three months and dad would leave out on Monday mornings and come home of Friday afternoon. Well, one Thursday afternoon when I was playing football for Josephus Daniels High School. And we had these drills where the linemen had to pair off and hit each other and my partner and I decided we’d be lazy and just sort of act like we were doing it and just lean up against each other. And that's what we did, and we figured ht coach would never find out and never know about it. And sure enough we got it through and I was walking off the field thinking I had gotten away with that and I looked up and my dad was walking across the field. He had come home one day early to watch me practice football and I knew that wasn't a good thing at that time. And so after a long quiet ride home, dad said son I want you to go out in the garden and I want you to weed the garden as you saw in that video we always had a garden so I learned what weeds were. And so after about an hour he came out to talk to me. And he brought one of his coaching books a book written by coach "Biggie: Munn of Michigan State and my dad sat down and had a teaching moment with me that changed my life. He showed me in that book where Coach Munn said that the difference between good and great was just a little extra effort and because he got me to understand that, I started working hard and was able to get a football scholarship to Wake Forest which otherwise I would not have been able to go. And it's because of the education I got there that I have the chance to stand before you tonight. But the next week after dad taught me that I went to my industrial arts class and I made a plaque, a 16-by-16 plaque. I routed it out, I filled it with putty and I shellacked it. And that plaque said the difference between good and great is a little extra effort. That plaque has been with me for over 50 years it's either been in my dorm room or on my wall behind my desk. You saw that plaque in the video tonight. And I'm here to tell u tonight that’s true, extra effort trumps everything, it trumps money, it trumps ability, and it’s the same across the board. Whether it’s the relationship with your spouse, the relationship with your children, the relationship with your employees or your service as a government official. Extra effort is what it takes to get the job done, and I want to promise you tonight and I want you to understand that I'm going to put forth extra effort everyday all day during this campaign to make sure that we elect a Republiacn governor here in the state of North Carolina.But folks I got to tell you one more thing. That's not good enough I don't care who you are, I don't care how much money you have, I don't care smart you are, I don't even care how good looking you are. You cannot get elected governor in this state by yourself. Politics is a team sport and that's where you come in. I'm here tonight to ask you are you willing to put forth a little extra effort to change government in Raleigh? It's going to take you putting forth extra effort if we're going to get this job done. This is my home county. I've got to do well in Johnston County, Johnston County today has 35,000 registered Republicans we have 17,000 registered independents, that's 52,000 potential votes and I want to tell the Democratic friends I have in this room, and I know I've got some of you here, you can't do me any good in a primary as a Democrat, you need to, as Sean Hannity says, I just need three hours a day. I'm telling my Democratic friends I just need 30 days to change your registration to unaffiliated so you can vote for me in the primary. But we’ve got a potential of at least 52,000 votes in this county. In the last gubernatorial election this county cast 4,900 votes. That's not going to get the job done; I’m telling you if you cast only 4,900 votes my golf game is going to get better. I've got to have u put for the extra effort, I’ve got to get at least 10,000 votes in this primary and we can do it if your willing to put forth extra effort. If you're willing to go home and call 10 of your friends and tell them, I'm supporting Fred Smith and I want you to support Fred Smith and I want you to call your friends. If you do that we can get over 10,000 votes in this county. Are you willing to put forth the extra effort to put a bumper sticker on your car? Are you willing to put forth the extra effort to take a yard sign tonight? Folks I can't do it by myself. This election is not about Fred Smith, this election is about you and what you want and do you want change in Raleigh; I’m just a vehicle to try to help make that happen. Only together can we get the job done. We all have to be like the man in the arena if we want to get the job done. And I think its important I really think it's important that we get the job done and give the people of this state the government in Raleigh they deserve. You know we’re a state of 9,000 people moving to a state of 12,000 people by 2030. And we all live together from the mountains to the coast. But we’re all different: Some of us live in urban areas and some of us live in rural areas, some of us are white, some of us are black some of us are rich, some of us are poor, and some of us are very successful and some of us are still struggling, but we all share one thing in common, we all live together. Under the same sun that rises on the Atlantic ocean and sets on the Appalachian mountains and only by working together can we make a great state, only by working together can we build a better state and a brighter future for our children and our grandchildren. I promise you tonight that I'm going to put forth extra effort to make that happen and I ask you to join me in that worthwhile endeavor. Thank you for coming tonight. God bless you and God bless our great state. Thank you.

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Smith's barbecue stump speech

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