Movie Speech: The American President

Made in 1995, The American President is a romantic comedy with Michael Douglas portraying US President Andrew Shepherd and Annette Benning playing Sydney Ellen Wade, a lobbyist. Shepherd, a widower, falls in love with Sydney Wade when she lobbies to have a crime control bill passed.

With an election in the offing, Presidential hopeful Bob Rumson (Richard Dreyfus) uses the relationship to attack Shepherd, including releasing to the press photos of Sydney Wade at a demonstration years ago where an American flag was burnt. She was an activist and is a member of the ACLU. Rumson also publicly criticises the relationship, intimating that Sydney Wade has loose morals. Each public utterance by Rumson is concluded by the words “I’m Bob Rumson and I’m running for President.”

Shepherd refuses to respond to the personal attacks, maintaining that he does not want to get in the gutter with Rumson arguing such matters. He prefers dignified silence. His popularity declines and, to secure votes for passage of a bill that he wants, he breaks his agreement with Sydney Wade relative to passage of her crime bill. She is fired by the people who had engaged her as a lobbyist and she breaks it off with Shepherd.

In the following scene, President Shepherd, having lost Sydney, having supported a bill he does not believe in whilst having dumped a bill that had merit, delivers a speech in the Press Room different to the speech he has prepared:

For the last couple of months, Senator Rumson has suggested that being President of this country was, to a certain extent, about character and, although I have not been willing to engage in his attacks on me, I've been here three years and three days, and I can tell you without hesitation: Being President of this country is entirely about character.

For the record: yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU. But the more important question is why aren't you, Bob? Now, this is an organisation whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it naturally begs the question: Why would a senator, his party's most powerful spokesman and a candidate for President, choose to reject upholding the Constitution? If you can answer that question, folks, then you're smarter than I am, because I didn't understand it until a few hours ago.

America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing centre stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free".

I've known Bob Rumson for years, and I've been operating under the assumption that the reason Bob devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn't get it. Well, I was wrong. Bob's problem isn't that he doesn't get it. Bob's problem is that he can't sell it! We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family and American values and character. And wave an old photo of the President's girlfriend and you scream about patriotism and you tell them, she's to blame for their lot in life, and you go on television and you call her a whore. Sydney Ellen Wade has done nothing to you, Bob. She has done nothing but put herself through school, represent the interests of public school teachers, and lobby for the safety of our natural resources. You want a character debate, Bob? You better stick with me, 'cause Sydney Ellen Wade is way out of your league.

(Pauses)

I've loved two women in my life. I lost one to cancer, and I lost the other 'cause I was so busy keeping my job I forgot to do my job.

Well, that ends right now.

Tomorrow morning, the White House is sending a bill to Congress for its consideration. It's White House Resolution 455, an energy bill requiring a 20 percent reduction of the emission of fossil fuels over the next ten years. It is by far the most aggressive stride ever taken in the fight to reverse the effects of global warming.

The other piece of legislation is the crime bill. As of today, it no longer exists. I'm throwing it out. I'm throwing it out writing a law that makes sense. You cannot address crime prevention without getting rid of assault weapons and handguns. I consider them a threat to national security, and I will go door to door if I have to, but I'm gonna convince Americans that I'm right, and I'm gonna get the guns.

We've got serious problems, and we need serious people, and if you want to talk about character, Bob, you'd better come at me with more than a burning flag and a membership card. If you want to talk about character and American values, fine. Just tell me where and when, and I'll show up. This is a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up.

My name is Andrew Shepherd, and I am the President.