Over democratic nominee george mcgovern, carrying 49 states. The president of the United States [applause] mister chairman, delegates to this convection convention, my fellow americans, four years ago, standing in this very place, i proudly accepted your nomination for president of the United States. And with your help and with the votes of millions of americans, we won a great victory 1968. Tonight, i proudly accept your nomination for president of the United States. Let us pledge ourselves to win an even greater victory this november, in 1972. [applause] i congratulate chairman forward. I congratulate chairman dull, armstrong, the hundreds of others who have laid the foundation for that victory by their work at this great convention. Our platform is a Dynamic Program for progress for america and for peace in the world. [applause] and speaking in a very personal sense, i express my great gratitude to this convention for the tributes you have paid to the best campaigner in the nixon family, my wife pat. In honoring her, you have honored millions of women in america who have contributed in the past and will contribute in the future so very much to better government in this country. And again, as i did last night when i was not at the convention, i express the appreciation of all of the delegates and applause an all america for letting us see Young America at its best at our convention. [applause] four more years four more years four more years as i express my appreciation to you, i want to say that you have inspired us with your enthusiasm, with your intelligence, with your dedication at this convention. You have made us realize that this is a year when we can prove the experts predictions wrong because we can set as our goal winning a majority of the new voters for our ticket this november. [applause] and i pledge to you, i pledge to you all of the new voters in america who are listening on television and listening here in this convention hall, that i will do everything that i can over these next four years to make your support be one that you can be proud of, because as i said to you last night, and i feel it very deeply in my heart, years from now i want you to look back and be able to say that your first vote was one of the best votes you ever cast in your life. [applause] mister chairman bulb, i congratulate the delegates to this convention for a renominating as my running mate the man who has just so eloquently and graciously introduced me, Vice President ted agnew. I thought he was the best man for the job four years ago. I think he is the best man for the job today. And i am not going to change my mind tomorrow. [applause] and finally, as the Vice President has indicated, you have demonstrated to the nation that we can have an open convention without dividing americans into quotas. Let us commit ourselves to rule out every vestige of discrimination in this country of ours. But my fellow americans, the way to end discrimination against some is not to begin discrimination against others. [applause] dividing americans into quotas is totally alien to the american traditions. Americans dont want to be part of a quota, they want to be part of america. [applause] this nation proudly calls itself the United States of america. Lets reject any philosophy that would make us the divided people of america. [applause] and that spirit, i address you tonight, my fellow americans, not as a partisan of party, which would divide us, but as a partisan of principles, which can unite us. Six weeks ago, our opponents at their convention rejected many of the great principles of the democratic party. To those millions who have been driven out of their home in the democratic party, we say come home. We say come home not to another party, but we say come home to the great principles we americans believe in together. And i ask you my fellow americans tonight, to join us not in a coalition held together only by a desire to gain power. I ask you to join us as members of a new american majority bound together by our common ideals. [applause] i asked everyone listening to me tonight, democrats, republicans, independents, to join our new majority, not on the basis of the party label you wear in your lapel, but on the basis of what you believe in your hearts. And in asking for your support, i shall not dwell on the record of our administration, which has been praised perhaps too generously by others at this convention. We have made great progress in these past four years. It can truly be said that we have changed america and that america is changed the world. [applause] as a result of what we have done, America Today is a better place and the world is a safer place to live in then was the case four years ago. We can be proud of that record, but we shall never be satisfied. A record is not something to stand on, it is something to build on. And tonight, i do not ask you to join our new majority because of what we have done in the past. I ask you support of the principles i believe should determine americas future. The choice, the choice in this election is not between radical change and no change. The choice in this election is between change that works and change that wont work. [applause] i began with an article of faith. It has become fashionable in recent years to point up what is wrong with what is called the american system. The critics contend it is so unfair, so corrupt, so im just, that we should tear down and substitute Something Else and its place. I totally disagree. I believe in the american system. [applause] i have traveled to 80 countries in the past 25 years and i have seen communist systems, ive seen socialist systems, i have seen systems that are half socialist and half free. Every time i come home to america i realize how fortunate we are to live in this great and good country. [applause] every time, i am reminded we have more freedom, more opportunity, more prosperity than anyone in the world. We have the highest great of rate of growth and then industrial nation. That american some more jobs and higher wages than in any country in the world. That our rate of inflation is less than any of an industrial nation. Then comparable productivity of americas farmers has made it possible for us to launch a winning war against hunger in the United States, and the productivity of our farmers also makes us the best fed people in the world with the lowest percentage of the Family Budget going to food of any country in the world. [applause] we can be very grateful in this country that the people on welfare in america would be rich in most of the nations of the world today. Now, my fellow americans, in pointing up those things, we do not overlook the fact that our system has its problems. Our administration, as you know, has provided the biggest tax cut in history, but taxes are still too high. That is why one of the goals of our next administration is to reduce the property tax, which is such an unfair and heavy burden on the poor, the elderly, the wage earner, the farmer and those of mixed income. Those on fixed incomes. As all of you know, we have cut inflation in half in this administration, but we have to cut it further. We must cut it further so that we can continue to expand on the greatest accomplishment of our new economic policy. For the first time in five years, wage increases in america are not being eaten up by price increases. [applause] as a result of the millions of the new jobs created by our new economic policies, unemployment today in america is less than the peacetime average of the sixties, but we must continue the unparalleled increase in their so that we can achieve the great goal of our new prosperity, a job for every american who wants to work, without war and without inflation. [applause] the way to reach this goal is to stay on the new road we have charted to move America Forward and not to take a sharp detour to the left, which would lead to a dead end for the hopes of the american people. [applause] this points up one of the clearest choices in this campaign. Our opponents believe in a different philosophy. There is is the politics of paternalism, where master planners in washington make decisions for people. Ours is the politics of people, where people make decisions for themselves. [applause] the proposal that they have made to pay 1000 dollars to every person in america insults the intelligence of the american voters