FIGHTING WORDS; Excerpts From Perot's Concession Speech to His Supporters in Dallas
Published: November 4, 1992
Ross and Margot Perot dancing prior to Perot's concession speech.
Following are excerpts from Ross Perot's concession speech in Dallas last night, as recorded by The New York Times:
I want to thank all of you who are here tonight and all the people who have come together across the nation. Starting last February you did something that everybody said couldn't be done. Millions of you came together to take your country back.
You gave Washington a laser-like message to listen to the people. You have done an incredible job of getting this country turned back around to the type country our founders established, a country that came from the people, and you have changed this country through your massive efforts...
The American people have spoken. They have chosen Governor Clinton. Congratulations. ---- Wait a minute -- oh. No, no. Whoops. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You know some people give up right when they are about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line, right when they are about to score a touchdown. Well, I’ve always said that failures are like skinned knees, painful but superficial…
Now, let's forget, forget this election. Forget the election. It's behind us. The hard work is in front of us. There are more elections in front of us and we must all work together to rebuild our great country...
Now it's just the beginning. But the next step is we need to take all of our energy and harness it. We need to give it a world-class best effort to get these problems solved. Because if we do, you benefit, the country benefits, your children benefits and everybody wins...
The budget must be balanced, the treasury must be refilled, the public debt must be reduced, and the arrogant public officials must be replaced. What this country needs is change...
Now, I urge every one of you. Do not be the man who says the river is dirty, go and be the man who cleans up the river. Run for office like I did. Together we will be the new George Washingtons who can get up under the hood and fix this country...
Tonight we are going to start the process of creating a party for the independent voters. It will be called the Independence Party and it will not be owned by the special interests.