As Governor, I could think of only one way to unify our State that was made up of so many different climates, political beliefs and people, and that was our music.
President Bush and I had asked Congress to appropriate a half-billion dollars to school vouchers. We didn't get it, and we were disappointed. But we did not go out and form a corporation to pay for it. That would have been a problem.
When I was governor, I was looking for a way to unify our state. I realized music is about the only thing that unifies Tennessee.
We hear a lot about rebuilding Detroit, and we just spent $70 billion to bail out the auto industry - well, they need to be cost competitive, too. If they have high-cost energy, those suppliers are going to move to Japan or Mexico instead of Michigan and Tennessee.
Sooner or later, I need to begin to do what any candidate does in a presidential race; I need to begin to win.
There are a growing number of conservatives and Republicans who, while they support the president and support the war in Iraq, wonder how many of these nation-building wars we're going to engage in and what the parameters of that are.
