Friday, August 27, 2010

Bret Fires Back!

Is this saga getting interesting or what?

How long will the GOP want to remember Christie's $400 million debacle?

Effective Government?

In an ironic twist of fate, the Christie Administration today released guidelines for the Best Practices toolkit initiative to bring greater accountability, responsible budgeting and management and cost controls to local governments throughout New Jersey.

Given Christie's massive $400 million debacle, perhaps the Governor should start with guidelines aimed at effective governance within his own administration!

Christie owes the President an Apology!

On Wednesday, Governor Chris Christie blamed the Obama administration for being too rigid and not accepting the verbal confirmation of correct figures that would have led to NJ receiving $400 million in "Race to the Top" education funding. As you will see from this video, Christie’s criticism was founded on a lie told to him by Education Commissioner Bret Schundler. Schundler has since been fired.

The next step in the process would be for Christie to publicly APPOLIGIZE to the President.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Commiteeman Howard Popper a Birther?

Confirming he has poured himself a tall glass of "birther" Kool-aid, Washington Townshiop Committeeman Howard Popper made the following posting on a resident's FaceBook page:
"Just as Obama never served a day in the private sector. Barry also applied for aid in college, swearing he was foreign born student."
My reply to Howard was simple and direct: What is your source for this information about the President applying for a college aid as a foreign born student?

Howard's reply:

"Source: School Transcripts Ordered released by the Courts. The group "Americans for Freedom of Information" Released copies of President Obama's college transcripts from Occidental College . The transcript was released by Occidental Col...lege in compliance with a court order in a suit brought by the group in the Superior Court of California. The school’s transcript reveals that Obama, under the name Barry Soetoro, received financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia as an undergraduate. The transcript further shows that Obama (Soetoro) applied for financial aid and was awarded a fellowship for foreign students from the Fulbright Foundation Scholarship program. To qualify, for the scholarship, a student must claim foreign citizenship."
This would seem like a winning point for Howard if only it were true. Unfortunately for Howard, the source for this bogus information was discredited as an April "Fools" Day hoax over a year ago.

After pointing out to Howard how his source was an April Fools Day hoax, here is the response I received:
"Kevin, I have some questions only you can answer.

1. How does it feel to be the town pariah? You are despised by Republicans, Democrats and Independents a like. Everyone who in any way associates with you, dislikes you. How can that be? How does that make a true narcissist feel? Though, I think you are more a sociopath and could care less.

2. How does it feel to be criminal defendant?

Ps – Remember the Mayor's Kevin Nedd Rule – no one was to contact the town atty because you ran the bill sky high with your personal problems. I still have the invoices… Also, Snopes is more liberal bullshit, i.e., a liberal California husband and wife sitting in their living room providing talking points. Snopes is incredible"
Bottom line: Committeman Howard Popper clearly has issues!  Give credit to Washington Township Republicans who demonstrated political wisdom by showing him the door in last June's GOP Primary.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

CBO projects stimulus benefits

In what is certainly a blow to the GOP's false argument that the stimulus bill wasn't effective in boosting the economy, the CPO has come out with a report shooting down such nonsense. 

I bet you won't see this or the news of the governeor's massive $400 million dollar screw up on Eric Frenchman's Facebook page!

Christie's $400 Million Screw-up

From the looks of this you would think Ken Short has some how moved on to Trenton and is working in the Christie administration!

Friday, August 20, 2010

Lucky $7,000

Funny how the figure $7,000 keeps popping up!

$7,000 is the amount of funding the Washington Township will received form Califon for hosting and maintaining its official website.

$7,000 is also the amount of money that would have saved this year's National Night Out, which was cancelled due to the Township Committee’s decision to cut the funding in this year’s municipal budget.

$7,000 is the amount of taxpayer dollars the Township Committee wasted on a school auditor (despite having three committeemen with WTBOE experience) who failed to provide a single written recommendation.

Finally, $7,000 is the amount of money Committeeman Jim LiaBraaten refuses to pay back to taxpayers who were left holding the bag for legal fees as a result of his bogus school ethics complaint against former high school board member Jeff Emery. The reason should pay has to do with the fact he voted for a resolution asking a resident to pay back legal cost his board incurred as a result of a dismissed school ethics complaint against then WTBOE member Jim Harmon.

Ken Short's Stupidity Never Ceases to Amaze!

In this OT story, Mayor Ken Short has somehow managed to convince himself the recently cancelled DARE program doesn't "affect health, safety and the public welfare". My goodness, is there a dumber man on the planet???

In the context of "scarce resources", it is important to keep in mind the $7,000 of taxpayer funds the Township Committee wasted this year on a school auditor that failed to provide a single written recomendation.

Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program cut

By BOB THOMAS, Staff Writer
Published: Aug 20th, 7:10 AM

WASHINGTON TWP. – One of the most popular anti-drug abuse programs in the nation, offered since 1991, has fallen to the budget ax.

A combination of budget cuts and police retirements and cancellation of the community policing unit has forced Chief Michael Bailey to end the often-praised Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program.

The end of DARE programs came during a transition year in which the main course would be switched from fifth to sixth grade. As a result, this year’s incoming sixth grade class at Long Valley Middle School will be the first that won’t get the comprehensive DARE impact.

“The impact won’t be instant,” said Police Chief Michael Bailey. “It will take a while, I think. You never really know how much help the program has been until much later in life.”

Bailey, a former DARE officer, said he’s had many people call to thank him for the program.

“Life is so busy, most people never really reach out. As to how many you’ve influenced and how it has affected them, you never really know,” Bailey said.

The presence of uniformed officers in the schools has been one of the secondary benefits from DARE classes.

“I think it is more effective than the same lesson coming from a regular teacher that you see all day. When police teach the classes, it’s somebody new and different and the kids paid attention,” Bailey said.’

The chief said the program gave police the chance to show they want to help.

“Ask any DARE officer and they’ll tell you that the kids had trust in them and would come to them when they had something troubling them,” Bailey said.

Sgt. Doug Compton has been the police liaison with the six schools in the township. He also had developed a separate program for Califon School, a small, grades K-5 elementary school with one classroom per grade.

“It took two of our guys to run the whole program, including after school and late nights,” said Bailey. “It came under community policing and there was a plethora of programs from seniors to pre-kindergarten that they were responsible for.”

DARE Officers John Wurtemberg and Kirk Griffin also gave seminars to senior citizens on scams such as phony contractors, covered some of the after-school traffic direction on Four Bridges Road and were responsible for much of the National Night Out planning.

When two patrol officers left the department in 2009, one to retirement and the other to another municipality, it meant Wurtemberg and Griffin had to be transferred back to road patrol duties.

“Community policing was a full-time job for two people, it had been three people at one time,” said Compton.

Mayor Kenneth Short said only about $5,000 was saved by the elimination of community policing, not including personnel.

“We asked all the departments to cut 20 percent of their budgets,” Short said. “How he manages the officers is up to the chief. If the chief decides he needs the men on the road, I back him up on that.”

Short said deciding on where to cut is a matter of priorities.

“In tough economic times like these, certain programs have to go that don’t affect health, safety and the public welfare,” said Short.

He said the township had received no compensation from the township or Califon school districts for the program.

In its last year, DARE included two lessons a year for kindergarten classes, five lessons taught between September to December for grades one to four and visitation lessons for one week per month per grade.

The full course was never instituted at the middle school, but it was planned to offer the DARE program to sixth graders in 2010-11 with 14 lessons, one a week, from January to June. A DARE officer would have been at the school three days a week for that part of the year.

School officials, including Superintendent Jeffrey Mohre, Assistant Superintendent Richard Papera and Long Valley Middle School Principal Mark Ippolito were either unavailable or did not return telephone inquiries.

At West Morris Central High School, a community policing officer would have taught an elective course in legal concepts, which would have included instruction on criminal justice, state permits, motor vehicle laws, vehicle stops and more. The class would have been offered for two semesters at a time, either in the fall or from January to June.

Police Cutbacks

With the department cut back to 28, Bailey said there are times when the force has only three patrol cars on the road to cover Califon and the 46 square miles of Washington Township.

“There should be four on a squad but with vacations, we’re down to three a lot during the months of May through August,” Bailey said. “We only allow one on vacation from a squad at a time.”

Patrol officers work two days on, two days off, three days on, two days off on 12 hour shifts.

Only additional funding could help restore the DARE program, Bailey said.

“Over the years we have had private donations from people to the program,” he said. “You just hope that the money becomes available in the future. Like most programs, once you lose it, it will be difficult to get it back.”

Bailey said the general thinking is that the program won’t be restored soon.

“If a huge need became obvious, I think the (Township) committee would look at it again,” he said.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Law & Order...

With the brazen burglary of a home in the Woods at Long Valley, the police seem to think it’s a young offender with a known drug or alcohol problem. The person may have a prior arrest record. I know of at least two offspring of local WT GOP operatives who fit this M.O. I hope they have solid alibis.

Friday, August 13, 2010

PBA Sets the Record Straight!

In this OT letter to the editor, the PBA sets the record straight as to why this year's National Night Out was cancelled.

Once again, Mayor Ken Short has been shown to be the pathological liar we have all come to know.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

More stupidity from David X. Johnson

As follow-on to my posting on the President's use of an "automobile transmission" analogy, which brought laughs at a recent DNC fundraiser, leave it to Long Valley’s David X. Johnson to respond with his usual over the top "protect the constitution" tea party inspired drivel.

Here is David's response, which we should expect from a lame, cowardly, angry white male, who never had the balls to served his country:

"The Marxist in Chief said, the other day, that politics is like driving a car: “You want to go forward, what do you do? You put it in ‘D’. When you go backward, what do you do? You put it in ‘R’”, he said, according to the Washington ComPost. Other than being the kind of cutesy rhetoric you’d expect from a “community organizer”, it’s also plagiarism. It's the same old, lame, oft-repeated joke from the 2000 primary election.

I think you got it wrong, comrade Obama. What you, Pelosi and Reid have been doing is driving the nation down a dead end road toward a cliff. If you want to do that, then strap in the passengers, lock the doors, put it in ‘D’ and stomp on the accelerator. But, if you want to back away from the precipice, put it in ‘R’.

Actually, I don’t like all this blind devotion to partisan bullshit. Considering that both parties are more-or-less the same damned big-government, progressive disease. I have a different, less partisan version of this clunker of a joke:

Realizing that you have to put it in ‘N’ on your way from ‘D’ to ‘R’ ... put it in ‘D’ if you want to destroy the Constitution, but put it in ‘N’ to nullify the overreach of the Federal Government, and then put it in ‘R’ to restore the Constitution.

Vote the bums out and replace them with representatives who will honor their oath of office and uphold the Constitution
."

Friday, August 6, 2010

Another Ken Short Screw Up!

In this OT article, Mayor Ken Short claims the reason we have no National Night Out this year is because the PBA wasn't able to come up with the funding to support the event. That's seems like a poor excuse, especially when you consider how the Township has provided the majority of funding for this event in the past along with the simple fact the Township Committee wasted over $7K of taxpayer money for a school budget “auditor” who failed to provide written recommendations; despite the lie the Committee told when the resolution authorizing the "auditor" was adopted. Bottom Line: With our tax dollars being wasted by the minute, how long can Long Valley afford Ken Short's incompetence?

Thursday, August 5, 2010

The President tells it like it is....

I love the portion highlighted in bold text.

Remarks by the President at a DNC Finance Event in Atlanta, Georgia

Hyatt Regency Hotel

Atlanta, Georgia


12:50 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Everybody, please have a seat. Have a seat.

Well, we have some just extraordinary leaders here today. I want to acknowledge a few of them. First of all, please give another round of applause to your outstanding young mayor, Kasim Reed. (Applause.) Three wonderful members of Congress who are fighting day in, day out, on behalf of the people of Georgia but also on behalf of people all across this country -- Congressman Sanford Bishop -- (applause) -- Congressman David Scott -- (applause) -- and one of the genuine heroes of this country, Congressman John Lewis. (Applause.)

Our Labor Commissioner and U.S. Senate candidate Michael Thurmond is in the house. (Applause.) Attorney General Thurbert Baker -- (applause) -- I think is here. If not, give him a round of applause anyway. Ag Commissioner Tommy Irvin. (Applause.) State party chair Jane Kidd. (Applause.) And the DNC Southern finance chair Daniel Halpern is in the house. (Applause.)

So, Atlanta, it is wonderful to be here, wonderful to be among so many good friends. A lot of people here worked hard on behalf of my campaign. I am reminded of the story President Lincoln told about one of his supporters who came to the White House seeking some patronage, seeking a job. And apparently in the outdoor reception area, he said, look, I want to see Lincoln personally because I’m responsible for him getting that job. Nobody did more than me. It’s payback time. So Lincoln lets him into his office. He says, sir, I understand that you take responsibility for me having this job. The guy says, that’s right. And Lincoln says, you’re forgiven. (Laughter.)

Look, we all know that the last few years have been extraordinarily challenging for the United States. Eighteen months ago, I took office after nearly a decade of economic policies that gave us sluggish growth, falling incomes, and a record deficit, and policies that culminated in the worst financial crisis that we’ve seen since the Great Depression. In the last six months of 2008, three million Americans lost their jobs. The month I was sworn, January of 2009, 750,000 Americans lost their jobs; 600,000 were lost a month later. All told, 8 million jobs lost as a consequence of this crisis.

Now, we didn’t get here by accident. We got here after 10 years of an economic agenda in Washington that was pretty straightforward: You cut taxes for millionaires, you cut rules for special interests, and you cut working folks loose to fend for themselves. That was the philosophy of the last administration and their friends in Congress. If you couldn’t find a job or you couldn’t go to college, tough luck -- you’re on your own. But if you’re a Wall Street bank or an insurance company or an oil company, then you got to write your own ticket and play by your own rules. And we know how this turned out.

So when I took office, because of the help of some of the people in this room, we put forward a new economic plan -- a plan that rewards hard work instead of greed; a plan that rewards responsibility instead of recklessness; a plan that’s focused on making our middle class more secure and our country more competitive in the long run -- so that the jobs and industries of the future aren’t all going to China and India, but are being created right here in the United States of America.

Instead of spending money on tax breaks for folks who don't need them and weren’t even asking for them, we’re making smart investments in innovation and clean energy and education that are going to benefit all of our people and our entire economy over the long run. (Applause.)

And instead of giving special interests free reign to do whatever they want, we’re demanding new accountability from Wall Street to Washington -- so that big corporations have to play by the same rules that small businesses and entrepreneurs do.

Now, because the policies of the last decade got us in such a deep hole, it’s going to take some time for us to dig ourselves out. We’re certainly not there yet. But I want everybody to understand, after eighteen months, I can say with confidence we are on the right track. (Applause.)

When we were -- instead of losing millions of jobs, we have created jobs for six straight months in the private sector. Instead of an economy that is contracting, we’ve got an economy that is expanding. So the last thing we would want to do is go back to what we were doing before.

And I want everybody in this room to understand, that is the choice in this election. (Applause.) The choice is -- the choice is whether we want to go forward or we want to go backwards to the same policies that got us into this mess in the first place.

Now, understand, it’d be one thing if the Republicans had seen the error of their ways. (Laughter.) Right? I mean, if after the rejections of 2006 and 2008, realizing, gosh, look at this big disaster that we caused and taking record surpluses into record deficits and causing all this hardship -- we’re going to rethink our approach and go out in the wilderness for a while, come back with some new ideas. (Laughter.)

But that’s not what happened. It’s not like they’ve engaged in some heavy reflection. They have not come up with a single, solitary, new idea to address the challenges of the American people. They don’t have a single idea that’s different from George Bush’s ideas -- not one. (Applause.)

Instead, they’re betting on amnesia. (Laughter.) That’s what they’re counting on. They’re counting on that you all forgot. They think that they can run the okey-doke on you. (Laughter.) Bamboozle you. (Laughter.)

I mean, think about it, these are the folks who were behind the steering wheel and drove the car into the ditch. So we’ve had to put on our galoshes, we went down there in the mud, we’ve been pushing, we’ve been shoving. They’ve been standing back, watching, say you’re not moving fast enough, you ain’t doing it right. (Laughter.) Why are you doing it that way? You got some mud on the car. Right? (Applause.)

That’s all right. We don’t need help. We’re just going to keep on pushing. We push, we push. The thing is slipping a little bit, but we stay with it. Finally -- finally -- we get this car out of the ditch, where we’re just right there on the blacktop. We’re about to start driving forward again. They say, hold on, we want the keys back. (Laughter and applause.) You can’t have the keys back -- you don’t know how to drive. (Laughter and applause.) You don’t know how to drive.

And I do want to point out, when you get in your car, when you go forward, what do you do? You put it in “D.” When you want to go back, what do you do? (Laughter.) You put it in “R.” We won’t do want to go into reverse back in the ditch. We want to go forwards. We got to put it in “D.” (Applause.) Can’t have the keys back. (Laughter.)

The choice in this election is between policies that encourage job creation here in America or encourage jobs to go elsewhere. That’s why I’ve said instead of giving tax breaks to corporations that want to ship jobs overseas, we want to give tax breaks to companies that are investing right here in the United States of America. (Applause.) And by the way, we’ve already cut taxes for businesses eight times since I’ve been President -- eight times. And we want to do more, because small business owners are the lifeblood of this economy. (Applause.)

Right now, as we speak -- as we speak, there’s a bill in the Senate that would cut taxes for small businesses, would help them get the loans they need to hire again. The members of Congress who are here, they already voted on this. They already passed this bill. And by the way, this is a bill that's based on Democratic and Republican ideas. It’s been praised by groups like the Chamber of Commerce. They never praise me. (Laughter.) The National Federation of Independent Business. It’s a bill that’s fully paid for, doesn’t add to our deficit.

So you would think -- Republicans say they're the pro-business party, isn’t that what they say? You would think this is a bill that they would want to pass. And, yet, day after day, week after week, they keep on stalling this bill and stonewalling this bill and opposing this bill. Why? Pure politics.

They're more interested in the next election than the next generation. And that's why they can’t have the keys back -- because we need somebody who is driving with a vision to the future. (Applause.) That's what we’ve been doing over these last 20 months.

We’re also jumpstarting a homegrown, clean energy industry -- because I don’t want to see the solar panels and the wind turbines and the biodiesel created in other countries. I don't want China and Germany and Brazil to get the jump on us in the industries of the future. I want to see all that stuff right here in the United States of America, with American workers. And the investments we’ve made so far are expected to create 800,000 jobs by 2012 -- 800,000 jobs in an industry of the future. (Applause.)

We want to create the infrastructure for the future -- not just roads and bridges -- but also the broadband lines and the smart grid lines that will ensure we stay competitively on top for years to come, creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs all across the country in the process. So that's our plan to create jobs right here in America -- not just short term, but long term.

But the fact is, most of the members of the other party voted no on each and every one of these initiatives. No on tax cuts to small businesses. No to clean energy jobs. No to the railroad and highway projects.

Now, I want to point out that doesn’t stop them from showing up at the ribbon-cuttings. (Laughter and applause.) John, you notice that? They’ll be voting no -- no, this is Obama’s -- no, we don't believe in recovery, we don't believe in all this. And then you show up at that ribbon cutting, and they're all there right in the front. Cheesing and grinning. (Laughter.) Sending out press releases. (Laughter.)

So a few weeks ago, the Republican leader of the House was asked, what’s your jobs plan if your party takes control of Congress next year? He said, well, you know, our number one priority -- he was asked what’s your jobs plan -- your number priority is to repeal the health care bill.

Now, this is a bill that makes sure that insurance companies can’t deny you coverage if you’ve got a preexisting condition, makes sure that young people can stay on their parents’ insurance till they're 26, provides a 35 percent tax credit to small businesses that are doing the right thing, giving their employees health care, makes sure that companies can’t drop you when you get sick.

Now, I have no idea why you would want to repeal that in the first place, but I sure don't understand how repealing it would create jobs, unless it’s for some folks in the insurance company who are being hired to deny you your claims. But that can't be a real jobs plan.

Now, look, I may be wrong. Maybe they know something I don't, or no other economist or expert understands. And if you think that's a good idea, then you should vote for them.

But I’ve got a different view. The health insurance reform we passed isn’t just preventing insurance companies from denying you coverage -- it’s making the coverage that you got more secure, and is ultimately going to lower costs for all Americans. And one of the most important things we can do to reduce our budget deficit is to get control of health care costs.

These guys don't have a plan for that. They just have a plan to say no because they're thinking about the next election instead of the next generation. And that's the choice that we’re going to be making in this next election. The choice in this election is between policies that strengthen the hand of the special interests or strengthen America’s middle class.

They want to repeal health care -- we’re not going to let it happen. We want to move forward. They pledged to repeal Wall Street reform. Here we’ve got the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Everybody knows, having looked at it, that the incentives on Wall Street were skewed and people were doing crazy things with other people’s money, making huge, risky bets and then expecting taxpayers to bail them out if it didn’t work out. So after all the hardship we’ve gone through to repair this economy, you’d think it would be common sense to say, let’s have some basic rules of the road in place to ensure that a crisis like this doesn’t happen again.

But what did the other party say? No. They want to go back to the status quo that got us into this same situation. The reforms we passed protect consumers and responsible bankers and responsible business owners. That’s what the free market is supposed to be about: setting some basic rules for the road so that everybody can compete -- not on how to game the system, but how to provide good service and good products to customers.

Make sure that mortgage companies can’t give you a mortgage that you don’t understand. Make sure that credit card companies can’t jack up your rates without providing you some notification -- common sense stuff. But they want to repeal it because they’re more interested in the next election than they are in the next generation. And that’s the choice that we will face in this next election.

If the other party wants to keep on giving taxpayer subsidies to big banks, that’s their prerogative. But that’s not what America is about. That’s not going to move us forward.

I’ll give you another example. We had a law in place when I took office in which the government was guaranteeing student loans, except they were going through financial middlemen who were taking out billions of dollars of profits issuing the loans. But the loans were guaranteed, so they weren’t taking any risks. They were just making billions of dollars of money.

We said, well, that doesn’t make sense at a time when young people are trying to get to college. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to cut out the middle man. We’ve added tens of billions of dollars to the student loans program. More than a million young people are going to get help that wouldn’t otherwise get help because of the decision we’ve made. (Applause.) What side do you think they were on? The other party voted no.

We passed a law to prohibit pay discrimination. My attitude is equal pay for equal work. Women should be paid just like men for doing the same job. (Applause.) They said no. They want to go backwards. We want to move forwards. (Applause.)

They want to extend the Bush tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. Now, I believe in tax cuts for the right folks. I kept my campaign promise -- cut taxes for 95 percent of working Americans. But I don’t understand how do you get up here and talk about how you care so deeply about the deficit, and yet you want to perpetuate a tax cut that costs $700 billion, with a “B” -- $700 billion -- and would not provide the kind of economic growth or benefits for the vast majority of Americans. That’s the choice that we face in this election.

They voted to make sure that oil companies continue to get protected from some liabilities with respect to oil spills. How do you do that? We just spent all this time and energy trying to cap this well in the Gulf. You’d think it would make just common sense to ensure that oil companies are fully accountable. They voted no against that.

When we forced BP to put $20 billion aside to make sure those fishermen and store owners and hotel owners were protected -- (applause) -- and what happened? The guy who would be the chairman of the Energy Committee in the House apologized to BP. Sure did. Apologized. Said we engaged in a shakedown to protect ordinary families from the devastation that had taken place.

So look, you go across the board, Atlanta, there’s going to be a choice in this election. It’s the choice between special interest policies that led us into this mess and policies that are finally leading us out, that are finally helping America grow again, policies that are making middle-class Americans more secure and giving them greater opportunity.

I know this nation has been through incredibly difficult times. And I also know, by the way, that not all the steps we took have been popular. Folks in Washington, these pundits, sometimes they write -- they're all surprised -- “President Obama went ahead with some of these steps like health care reform and helping the auto companies, and those weren’t popular.”

Well, I knew they weren’t popular. I’ve got pollsters too. (Laughter.) You don't think I’ve got polls that tell me what’s popular and what’s not? But for the last 20 months, my job has been to govern.

So when I went to Detroit last week, and I look out and I see plants producing clean energy cars that otherwise would have been shut down, a million jobs that would have been lost, cars no longer made in America because the entire industry had collapsed, and I say, we made the right decision.

And now Ford and Chrysler and GM are all making a profit. They’ve all hired 55,000 workers back. (Applause.) They are on the move. They're about to pay the taxpayers back for every investment that we made. (Applause.) Then I say to myself, I’m not here just to do what’s popular -- I’m here to do what’s right.

And that's the kind of leadership you need and you deserve. That's the choice we face in this election. And, Democrats, if you work hard, as hard as you worked for me in 2008, we’re going to keep going forward. We are not going backwards. (Applause.)

Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. (Applause.) God bless the United States of America. (Applause.)

END

1:15 P.M. EDT