| Old B&W footage of a baseball game. Bush voice over, then on camera. | GWB: I was a baseball
card collector and I used to send 'em to the different players and say,
"Hello, I'm George Bush from Midland, Texas; would you sign the card and
please send it back to me." And I still got some of 'em.
|
| Montage of Bush and ranch scenes. | Music |
| Signature Music | |
| Bush driving pickup truck and talking to the camera; a dog is on his lap looking out the window. | GWB: I think in order
to be a good president, first and foremost you have to know where you want
to lead. I want to lead America to a day that everybody in this country
feels that the great American Dream belongs to them as much as anybody
else and that they're willing to work for it.
|
| Voice over | It was the kind of life that I think that
a lot of Americans feel is slipping away--safe for kids everywhere and
baseball, barbecues, football games after church.
|
| Bush seated next to wife Laura, outdoors; branches of a tree blowing in the background. | Midland's out in the middle of nowhere,
really. It's kind of on the edge and, uh, I know this may sound trite
but in the 50s people who went to Midland were pretty daring and were kind
of pioneers, entrepreneurial pioneers in many ways. There used to
be a slogan in Midland that said, "The sky's the limit," which really is
such an optimistic slogan. It's how I feel about America really.
|
| BB
indoors, seated at table.
tragedy |
Barbara Bush: The kids all were
the same. They all went to public school and then on to high school,
and when Robin died, Jebbie was just about three or four months old and
George was seven.
|
| GWB: It was a tough time.
The thing I've come away from that is that marriages face stressful situations
and sometimes a stressful situation like that can wreck a marriage.
In this case it made my mother and dad's marriage that much stronger and
brought them together and brought our family together.
|
|
| Barbara Bush: But he compensated
by trying to make me feel better. And for about six months George
kept big George and me laughing or playing with us or doing things with
us, and we on the other hand were trying to do things with him so he wouldn't
feel neglected, when suddenly one day I heard him out the window say to
Mike Procter, a friend of his, "I'm sorry Mike, I can't come out and play,
I have to play with my mother." And I realized that that caring little
boy had, he'd really been entertaining me; I hadn't been entertaining him
at all. So I had to let him go.
|
|
| love | Laura Bush: We met in Midland in
1977. George had moved back in 1975.
|
| Barbara Bush: He fell so madly
in love with her, so quickly.
|
|
| Laura Bush: It was a whirlwind
romance. I was a school librarian then in Austin, Texas and I came
home for a couple weeks in the summer to stay with my parents, and George
and I met then.
|
|
| Barbara Bush: And George knocked
on the door and he said, "Mother I want you to meet Laura Welch.
She's the girl I have to marry." And I said what. And he meant
"I'm going to marry."
|
|
| Laura Bush: Married right away
and then I moved back to Midland. And that was a very sweet time
in our lives. That was when we had our children.
|
|
| responsibility | GWB: It was a great moment when
they were born and, uh, I was in the delivery room and it was just an incredible
feeling of life and the preciousness of life and I realized I was responsible.
I was responsible for helping them grow up in a safe and secure home, that
I was responsible for loving them with all my heart and all my soul, that
I was going to be responsible for helping them get a good education.
And these girls mean more to us than anything. They've just graduated
from high school and it just seems like yesterday that we were at the hospital
having birth,...[GWB and Laura Bush laugh].
|
| pickup
truck footage
self-deprecating humor |
GWB: I like to laugh
and I like to laugh with people and you know sometimes I find myself you
know I need to laugh at some of the things I say. I'm a person who
likes to smile.
|
| appeal to Hispanics and Democrats; invokes the "family values" theme | Carlos M. Ramirez, Mayor of El Paso,
Democrat: The governor has family values that are very dear to Hispanics.
We have seen that. He embraces those family values. We have
those family values so we identify with him.
|
| GB indoors, seated at table. | George Bush: But you know they're
the same values that everybody here teaches their own kids. Be honest,
tell the truth, give somebody else credit.
|
| pickup truck footage | GWB [Music swells]: This country
is so...the values are so strong and the concept of entrepreneurship or
family, freedom...such a powerful, powerful part of the American experience
that somebody who's newly arrived to this country can be just as an American
as somebody who's been here for generations.
|
| outside
footage
compassionate conservatism |
GWB: Well, a wonderful man named
John White asked me to come and work with him in a project in the 3rd Ward
of Houston called Project P.U.L.L.; it was a mentoring program.
|
| Ernie Ladd, Co-founder P.U.L.L.:
The meaning of P.U.L.L. was Professionals United Leadership League.
We had professional people who were school teachers, football players,
basketball players, lawyers and doctors involved in helping go into the
community and help minority kids.
|
|
| GWB: I realized then that a society
can change and must change one person at a time and, but it was a place
that was full of activity and energy and kids were, you know kids were
coming from tough circumstances. I saw that first hand one night
when I took a little boy who I took a shining to, named Jimmy Dean, I took
him home and situation I had never seen before. It was a living room
with his mom, looked like she was on drugs and there was a bunch of hanger
on-ers and smoke-filled and this was this boys home, and it was tragic
and sad that he was growing up in such a tough environment, an environment
that where the love that I had known as a child--it seemed like the drugs
and alcohol abuse had replaced that love. And unfortunately the story
ends on a sad note. My little friend was shot when he became a teenager
and
died.
|
|
| God | Ernie Ladd: We are all made in
the image of God regardless of the color of skin and George Bush was a
part of our working in the south of the city of Houston. The city
of Houston can be very well thankful for George Bush and John White.
|
| in
study
voice
over
in study |
GWB: One of the great challenges
of our generation is to assume responsibility and lead.
We started as the if it feels good do it generation. But now we're moms and dads and business leaders and teachers. If we don't help others, if we don't step up and lead, who will? It's one of the reasons I ran for governor
of Texas.
|
| education | Phyllis Hunter READ for Texas:
I have seen a big difference since he has been governor of the state of
Texas in the amount of supports that we have to help us as educators reach
the standards He said if you need it, we'll get it for you.
We have websites, we have grant programs, we have teacher training in the
state of Texas, and we have George leading the way. George W.
People ask me why have I followed him so intently in this education and
reading. I followed him because he has been a leader; he has been
leading the way.
|
| video clip from speech | GWB: Reading is the new civil right,
and inherent in that statement is this profound knowledge, and it's if
you can't read, you can't access the American Dream.
|
| video clip of GWB in classroom surrounded by kids reading from letter | GWB: Dear Governor Bush.
Thank you for coming to our school and for you visit. Thank you for
trying to be our president. We hope that a lot of people vote for
you. --So do I. [laughter]. We hope that you'll make
the world safer and that there will be no more bad guys.
|
| voice
over
inspirational close |
GWB: America's more than just another
country; America's more than just a place. It's an ideal.
|
| video clip from speech | GWB: Teddy Roosevelt said it's
hard to fail but it's worse never to have tried. Our great country
was built by people who never gave up and never gave in.
|
| Ronald Reagan: Mr. Gorbachev tear
down this wall...
John F. Kennedy: Ask not what your country can do for you... Martin Luther King, Jr.: I have a dream that... |
|
| GWB: Dreamers and doers who
took risks and sometimes failed but then rose above failure to achieve
great and good things.
|
|
| Nixon (message to Apollo astronauts):
Because of what you have done the heavens have become a part of man's world.
[Beep].
|
|
| Signature Music | |
| pickup truck footage | GWB: I'm confident I can do the job that people want me to do. I'm a proud member of my party, but I'm more than that; I'm an American. I love my country. I love what America stands for. I'm going to remind people that we're lucky to be Americans. |
| view of the back of the pickup truck as it drives off... | Signature Music concludes |
Bush appears on stage to "We the People" music and applause.