Hi, I’m Marco Rubio.  First let me thank you for this opportunity to address you.  I’m sorry I can’t be there in person with you this year.  My duties have me back in the State of Florida, working, I’m visiting Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, throughout the next few days, really getting in touch and making sure that the people of Florida know that I have their full-time attention and that in Washington, DC they have someone fighting not just for the future of our country, but for Florida’s role in the future of our country.

With that being said, I want to first thank you for the warm reception you gave me a year ago at CPAC.  At this time last year, I was an underdog.  No one thought I had a chance to win.  I was still down in many polls and badly outraised by my primary opponent.  But CPAC believed in me, so many of you believed in me.  Just the invitation to speak alone instantly gave me credibility and in many respects, it was one of the real launching points for our campaign.  We all want to know what happened after that.  The end result was that I got elected to the United States Senate, in no small part to the support of so many of you involved in CPAC, both as volunteers and as contributors.  For that, I am grateful and I will always work hard to be worthy of your support.

I also think it’s appropriate we come together this year in the 100^th anniversary of the birth of Ronald Reagan.  In my mind, perhaps the greatest leader in modern American history.  Some of who I grew up under.  Basically, when Ronald Reagan became president, I was 8 years old and the most formative years of my life were spent under his presidency and we learned so much during that time.  And the one thing Reagan always reminded us, was that America was the single greatest country in all of human history.  He also reminded us that a strong, vibrant America made the world a better place.  Those lessons are still true.  Unfortunately, this country today is being run by an administration that does not have a fundamental understanding of what it is that makes America great.  The greatness of our country has never been our government; it’s been our people, their hopes, their dreams and their willingness to work hard for them.  That’s still true.

Unfortunately, we have a government today that keeps getting in the way of people, standing in the way of progress, of real upward mobility, of real economic opportunity.  And that’s why the battles we’re fighting today are as important as the ones that Ronald Reagan fought in the 1980’s.  In many respects they’re even greater.  The national security threats that our country face today are as great or greater than the ones that existed during the Cold War.  Back then the world was a lot simpler.  There was the United States and there was the Soviet Union.  Today, our enemies, they don’t wear uniforms.  They operate in caves in the mountains of Pakistan, Afghanistan and in other parts of the Middle East, and they plot every single day to strike at our interests both at home and abroad.  So the world continues to be a dangerous place and continues to need a strong and vibrant America.

Sadly, the majority leadership in both the Senate and in the White House don’t understand what it is that makes our economy grow.  And sometimes, through their actions, lead us to believe they don’t understand how important it is for America to remain vibrant and strong.  But CPAC understands and the groups involved with CPAC understand and all of you understand and that’s why we have the opportunity not just now in the next two years to influence public policy in Washington, but ultimately in 2012, to win back the White House and win majorities in the United States Senate.  If we can do that, then we can hopefully elect people to come up to Washington, DC and fight for the things that we know have made our nation the greatest in all of human history.

Let me conclude by congratulating a few people.  I want to congratulate David King for his service, his hard work in building CPAC to the next level as he’s been able to do.  I want to congratulate a fellow Floridian Al Cardenas on his new role with CPAC.  I know he’ll do a great job.  And finally I want to congratulate another fellow Floridian, and that’s the blogger of the year, Javier Manharris and the Shark Tank who covered our race from the very beginning and believed we had a chance to win when others did not.  He along with other key members of the bloggers’ community were a key part of our success.  Congratulations, Javier and to all of you.  And next year, I’ll see you in person.  Thank  you, CPAC.  God bless America.  God bless all of you.

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