Washington, DC
August 8, 2008

Mayor Manny Diaz, our President, is running “The Third Campaign” in this 2008 election year. He has charged that Washington is asleep and he has charged that neither Senator Obama nor Senator McCain are talking about and offering bold solutions to America’s national problems. He says, “America’s problems demand America’s investments.”

Mayor Diaz knows he won’t take the oath as President January 20. He wants to make certain that when McCain or Obama puts his hand on the Bible – and moves forward to his 100-day agenda, the next President will boldly propose for enaction of the Congress and Executive Actions for his Cabinet – a nationally mandated metro-urban agenda. Manny Diaz’s “Third Campaign” will deliver to the next President the political mandate to think big, act boldly to lead this nation from the economic quagmire and the loss of confidence the American people have toward Washington.

Manny Diaz’s message is a message that is targeted to the people. The voters are lined up with the message of Diaz and with the nation’s mayors more so than ever in our history.

Manny Diaz’s message is a message of truth, grounded from his own life and personal American experience of leaving his home of Cuba on his mother’s lap at the age of six, fleeing a country occupied and ruled by a Communist dictator, Fidel Castro, where basic human rights and the opportunity to work and succeed were denied to his family. And coming to a country named America where all could have the opportunity to be the best and most successful at whatever they wanted to be. He tells the story to the national press of how poor he was but he goes on to say he never knew it. His mother and father believed in the American dream. They washed dishes, waited tables and did menial jobs to provide a secure and promising life because they believed that in America, if you worked hard, had good schools, safe neighborhoods, anyone no matter what class or economic standing you could make it and he did. And so as a young man, he worked, starting with his first job as a CETA worker making $1.10 an hour as a janitor; there were other jobs too all along the way, got a good education and rose to a successful businessman, a lawyer, a mayor and today at the pinnacle of his life, he is the President of The United States Conference of Mayors.

He raises the basic question of whether or not a young boy of six years old today in 2008 with working parents will have a better life in front of him than he had. He talks to the working mothers and fathers of America’s children today and raises the question as to whether our working people today have the choices for the quality of life in America for their children today as he had as a six-year old years ago.

He cites the problems people face each day in cities - crime, polluted environments, traffic, children killing children, unaffordable housing, rising gas and food costs, reading levels below grade level, schools that bleed from drop-out rates. He charges that Washington has abandoned us and our people. He cites Katrina, the hundreds of broken bridges like the one in Minneapolis, as examples of Washington inaction.

He announces in his “Third Campaign” that he will go forth supporting the Mayors 10-Point Plan centering on a national metro urban agenda in five major areas: environment, crime, poverty, arts and infrastructure. He goes through each of the five subjects and afterwards, looks into the audience, “Is crime a local problem or America’s problem?” – the same question inserting one after another the five critical areas. He calls for his March for America in five cities by October 2 with two stops to raise his demands for action to the national Democratic and Republican Conventions. He demands that the next president must give us the national metro-urban agenda within his first 100-day agenda.

He addresses the National Urban League in Orlando last week with his message demanding American investments. He blitzes the Washington, DC press and media corps. He speaks English and Spanish eloquently, never a pause – it’s music. It’s different. You realize he speaks through the TV to the nation and the world. Flashes come from the still cameras. The red light comes on in the digital video cameras. It’s working. Pencil press are writing. Questions come in English and Spanish. This is good. This is big.

He hits the National Press Club. He tells them all – who live, work and drink here – that Washington is asleep, while mayors work it 24-7, wide awake hitting it and producing for the 85 percent of our people now living in our metro cities.

He leaves Washington and first stop is Philadelphia where America was born. It is his first ‘08 Mayors Action Forum on Crime. This time it’s mayors and police chiefs. Not many winded speeches. They are focused. He is confronting the mayors; his and our Chief Timoney hits the chiefs. It is happening; they are pumped; they are brilliant.

Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson gives a lucid narrative of his direct talk to Bill Clinton on Air Force One, telling the President to get off health care, which is not going anywhere and he needs to help the chiefs and mayors stop the violence. Helicopter lands at White House. Clinton says, let’s work with Jerry and the chiefs on the crime and violence. White House senior staff are elated. And say “Finally, we are going to do something about violence. Thank you, Mr. Mayor!”

I am at a poster board with a magic marker. We are getting it. Mayors are talking about what they know about -- fighting street crime. Without a safe city, they know all else fails. It stops you dead still. AK47s, gangs, more technology, cops plus expert personnel. There is consensus here. The federal government has abandoned them too. They want a President and Attorney General who will work with them. They continue to work. The poster boards are filling. They know it is real. We are going to be working with a new Washington team soon. The chiefs want what the mayors want, not a helping hand but a working hand.

Senator Biden flies on red-eye from Los Angeles to spend time with us, gaining tremendous support for his mayors/police chiefs crime legislation.

All are strong at the Press Conference. Echoing what Mayor Diaz said, we have 40 cities coming forth backed up by a 124 city crime survey demanding that America’s problem with crime calls for a new President and Attorney General to work with us.

The Philly press conference was focused and reporters are finally not talking about Britney Spears or Brett Favre, who is real and who is not. The press is told that they must step up and challenge the candidates as members of the fourth estate. And Diaz lets them know that this is just the beginning of his “Third Campaign” to wake up Washington and demand of both Obama and McCain bold proposals for a great nation named America, full of people coming to live, work and play every day in her cities. An America that touched a boy’s heart with a mother who held his hand and a father and relatives who told him every morning, day and night time too – “Go forth, in America you can be anything you want to be.” Trained by the Jesuits, steeped in word, versed in the literature and political writings of the ages, awashed in philosophy and logic and reason, truth found in perusing science and history, passion in his heart, toughness from the athletics, a fire in his belly, guided by the eyes to develop the political mind that all gives him courage to still believe in the America for today’s generation. It comes from what he and his mother saw and felt when they stepped off the freedom flight airplane and walked in America growing up in Little Havana-Miami. He rejects those who talk, write and accept the notion of “a lost generation.” He sees the 6 year old boys and girls of America. He will use his energy and leadership to ask the question, will they be able to make it in America as I did. His Third Campaign is about a bold advocacy for American mayors and American cities but his eyes, mind and heart are focused on the 6 year old boys and girls. He speaks against injustice and what he believes is right as he pushes the candidates of both parties to answer his call. He will continue to awaken Washington asking them to stop the bickering and act like adults. His “Third Campaign” is your campaign, the campaign for metro-urban Americans and mayors who are awake, who are doing today what needs to be done to keep America strong for our cities, our families, our children and our people.

The moment is ours. He needs you with him. Join us in “The Third Campaign.” Manny Diaz needs you as he says the America he still believes in wants and demands in 2008 that the next President must put before the American people a national metro-urban agenda that demands American investments in our cities, large and small, and all our people.