    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book II)]
    [July 29, 2002]
    [Pages 1313-1318]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Luncheon for Gubernatorial Candidate Mark Sanford in Charleston
    July 29, 2002

        The President. Well, thank you, ``Governor.'' [Laughter] I want to
    thank you all for coming. I'm really glad to be back in South Carolina.
    I've got a lot of fond memories here, if you know what I mean.
    [Laughter] And we've got a lot of friends here, too. It's a great State.
    After all, it's the State where my mother went to high school.
        But it's an honor to be here to work for the next Governor of the
    State of South Carolina. I want to thank you all very much for
    supporting Mark. You know that when you find a good one, you've got to
    help him, and you've found a good one in Mark Sanford.
        I particularly thank those who are going to put up the signs and
    lick the envelopes and make all the phone calls, those tireless workers
    at the grassroots level who can decide the fate of an election. You've
    got a vibrant Republican Party here in South Carolina. You've got a lot
    of folks who never get thanked enough. And so not only do I want to
    thank those who have helped Mark financially, I want to thank those of
    you who are going to put some shoe leather out there to work hard to
    make sure that you turn out the vote next November. It's important for
    our country; it's important for this State that this good man become the
    next Governor of the State of South Carolina.
        And I love a family man. They started coming through the photo op
    line; I never thought the Sanford kids were going to stop. [Laughter]
    But it was an honor to meet Marshall,
    Landon, Bolton,
    and Blake, but more importantly, the mom,
    Jenny Sanford, the great future first lady of
    the State of South Carolina.
        We both married above ourselves. [Laughter] I'm sorry the First
    Lady is not here with me. She's hiking. But I
    can't tell you how proud I am of her. She's doing a fabulous job as the
    First Lady of the United States. Who would have thought a former public
    school librarian, who didn't like politics or politicians--[laughter]--
    would be where she is? Thank goodness. She's doing great.
        A lot of you who I met earlier said they're praying for me and
    praying for my family. It's the kindest gift you can give a President
    and his family, and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for
    your prayers.
        I want to thank members of the fine South Carolina delegation who
    are here. That would be Congressman Henry Brown, right here from Charleston; Congressman Joe Wilson--I first met him one time when I was marching with
    him in the Okra Strut in Irmo; Congressman Jim DeMint, from up north--[laughter]--and the next United States
    Senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham.

    [[Page 1314]]

        I appreciate some of the State folks showing up, too. There will be
    two former Governors here, Carroll Campbell and Jim Edwards. I want to thank
    them both for being here. And Mark, when you win, you need to ask their
    advice. They were great Governors for the great State of South Carolina.
    I also want to thank Iris for being here as
    well. Iris, it's great to see you again. And I want to thank Ann
    Edwards as well.
        I also want to thank my friend the Lieutenant Governor, Bob
    Peeler, for being here as well. Thank you for
    coming, Bob. And I want to thank you and the attorney general, Charlie
    Condon, for working hard to unite the
    Republican Party.
        And I know the speaker is here.
        David H. Wilkins. Yes, sir.
        The President. Mr. Speaker--oh, there
    you are. [Laughter] I appreciate you coming. It's great to see you
    again, friend, great to see your great wife. Tell those boys of yours hello for me.
        I also want to thank Gresham Barrett,
    who's going to become the--who is the Republican candidate for the third
    congressional district. We're pulling for you, Gresham. We wish you all
    the best. Thank you for being here.
        I think it's fairly important to have somebody who is going to be
    your Governor who is willing to change the tone if the tone is divisive.
    See, what we need is more people in public office who understand it's
    important to unite people to get things done. And there's nothing worse
    than old-style politics, the politics that wants to pit one group of
    people against another, the politics that says it's much better to call
    somebody names than to lead.
        And when Mark says he wants to change the tone in the statehouse in
    South Carolina, I believe him. And I believe it will be important for
    the people of South Carolina to have a change of tone in the capital, so
    he can get some things done on behalf of all the people of this State.
    Not just the Republicans but all the people of South Carolina need a
    Governor who's willing to set big goals, a strong agenda, willing to
    bring people together to work toward those goals.
        And there's nothing more important than to--making sure that every
    single child in this State gets a good, quality education. We passed
    some good legislation in Washington. And one of the things that
    legislation does is passes power out of Washington, so that the local
    folks can figure out the path to excellence for every child. And I'm
    confident in saying to the people of South Carolina, flexibility, with
    Mark as the Governor, will make it more likely that every child in this
    State will be educated.
        It also means you better have somebody as the Governor who believes
    every child can learn. It means setting the highest of high standards.
    You see, I found out as the Governor of Texas, and I have learned as the
    President, if you set the bar low, if you don't believe everybody can
    learn, you're going to get bad results. If you have low standards for
    every child, if you believe, ``Oh, there are some kids in my State who
    can't learn,'' guess what's going to happen. Certain of the children
    won't learn. And the people will be satisfied with just passing kids
    through the system, as if they don't matter.
        No, I believe it's important to put people in office who set the
    highest of high standards, who believes every single child can learn,
    and who's willing to measure to determine they are. I think it's so
    important to have a Governor who believes in strong accountability, who
    wants to measure early whether or not children can read and write and
    add and subtract and, if they can't, do something about it early, before
    it's too late.
        It is so fundamentally important that we view each child as a child
    of potential, and that we determine whether or not the child is
    learning. And if they are, praise the teachers. But if we find children
    trapped in schools that won't teach and in schools that won't change,
    you better have a Governor who's willing to blow the whistle on

    [[Page 1315]]

    failure. Every child matters, and no child in South Carolina or no child
    in America should be left behind.
        I appreciate having a man who understands the money he's spending as
    your Governor is not the government's money. It's the people's money.
    And he's a man who set a good example. I was impressed when I read that
    he held his office expenses down, maybe thought the Government was
    writing too big a check for the expenses there when he was a
    Congressman, saved a million and a half dollars of taxpayers' money and
    gave it back into the till, put it back in.
        He understood that when he got a pay raise, that rather than
    accepting the raise, he'd give it to charity. He's a man who leads by
    example. And I think the people of South Carolina ought to pay attention
    to that example, because I know firsthand that there's always a budget
    crisis if you have a Governor who's saying, ``Everything matters. We're
    not going to set priorities.'' It's important to have somebody who's
    fiscally sound with the people's money, who understands whose money it
    is and is willing to set priorities.
        We need a little of that in Washington, DC. It seems like every
    program that comes along is something that needs a little extra money.
    In order to make sure that we hold the line in Washington or hold the
    line in South Carolina, that's why they give the chief executives the
    veto. And I'm confident this man will use his powers wisely to protect
    the taxpayers' money, for the good of all people who live in the State
    of South Carolina.
        And so I'm proud to be here to support Mark. And I ask you to work
    hard. It's a tough run when you're running against somebody who has been
    there for a while. It's never easy. But I'm convinced he's going to win,
    and I want to thank you for helping him win.
        We've got a big--we've got a lot to do in Washington. Before they
    run me out of here, I'd like to tell you how I think things are going in
    the Nation's Capital. First, I know there's a lot of concern about our
    economy. After all, if somebody wants to work and can't find a job,
    can't find work, that's a concern. It's a concern of mine to know that
    there are Americans who are still looking for a job and can't find one.
    And we need to do something about it. We need to make sure that the
    foundation that we've put in place for job creation remains strong. And
    I believe the foundation is strong for economic growth. After all,
    inflation is down, and interest rates are low. We've got wise monetary
    policy. I strongly believe the fiscal policy we put in place--which is
    giving people some of their own money back so they can spend it, as
    opposed to the Government--made eminent sense for economic vitality and
    job creation. And the Congress now needs to make those tax cuts
    permanent so people can plan.
        The Senate, when they get moving, is going to get me a trade bill so
    we can open up markets, which will create jobs for workers all across
    the country. We need to get a terrorism insurance bill out that doesn't
    reward the trial lawyers but in fact encourages construction projects to
    go forward that can't get insurance.
        And tomorrow I'm signing a good bill. It's a bill overwhelmingly
    embraced by Republicans and Democrats that says loud and clear to
    corporate America, we expect you to be responsible. We expect you to be
    responsible with the people's money. We expect you to be responsible for
    the shareholders and your employees. And if you're not, we're going to
    investigate you, arrest you, and prosecute you, if you don't uphold your
    responsibilities.
        I'm optimistic about our economic future, and I'm optimistic about
    the security of our homeland as well. You need to know that we face an
    enemy that are--coldblooded killers, the best way I can describe them.
    These are people that hate freedom. They hate what we stand for, and
    they can't stand the fact that we are tolerant of each

    [[Page 1316]]

    other, that we worship freely and speak our minds. They hate that. And
    therefore, so long as we're willing to defend our freedom, they'll come
    after us.
        But they also didn't understand America. I just can imagine their
    meetings. They must have sat around saying, ``Well, we attack them, they
    probably won't do anything. It's such a materialistic society. You know,
    Americans are so self-absorbed, so selfish, so worried about their own
    bottom line that they'll just--oh, they may file a lawsuit or two''--
    [laughter]--``but that's all they'll do.'' They didn't understand the
    nature of this country. They didn't understand that when somebody
    attacks our freedoms, when somebody tries to take away the values that
    we hold dear, we're plenty tough; we're plenty resolute; and we're
    plenty strong.
        At home we're doing everything we can to protect the homeland by
    chasing down any kind of lead, any kind of hint, any kind of--any bit of
    evidence that somebody might be trying to do something to the American
    people. Our most important priority in Washington is to protect the
    innocent lives of the American people.
        As you know, after a lot of thought and study, I decided to form
    what I call the Department of Homeland Security. And the reason I did is
    because there's hundreds--over 100 agencies all involved with securing
    the homeland in Washington. They're scattered all over the place up
    there. And when you've got so many agencies, it makes it awfully hard to
    hold people accountable. I believe in aligning authority and
    responsibility in order to get good results. And so I've asked Congress
    to join me in setting up a Department of Homeland Security so we can
    better coordinate the efforts to secure the homeland.
        You see, we need to know who's coming in our country and why they're
    coming in and what they're bringing in and if they're leaving on time.
    So we need to reform the border security of the United States of
    America. We need to have an effective strategy dealing with the heroic
    first-responders in South Carolina and all across America--those would
    be your police officers and your firefighters and your EMS teams--so
    that if there's an emergency, there's an adequate response. We need to
    be able to better deal with the potential threat of weapons of mass
    destruction. And we need to be able to take all the intelligence
    gathered from different agencies and analyze them and address
    vulnerabilities to the United States of America. That's what we need.
        We need somebody who I can hold accountable. We need to be able to
    say to the American people, ``We understand our most important priority
    is to protect our country, and therefore we formed a Department of
    Homeland Security with a variety of agencies underneath the umbrella,
    all of which have got one responsibility, a primary responsibility. And
    that's to protect the homeland.''
        And I want to thank the House for moving, and I hope the Senate gets
    me a bill soon which will give me the ability to run the Department and
    give me the ability to be able to say to the American people, ``We put
    politics aside and focused on securing our homeland as the most
    important priority in Washington, DC.''
        But the best way to protect our homeland is to hunt them down one by
    one and bring them to justice, and that's what our country is going to
    do. And we're making progress. This isn't one of those wars where, you
    know, you can watch everything on TV or a war where they will eventually
    study--they've had mass movements of infantry and artillery and
    squadrons of aircraft flying all over the place from one point to
    another. This is a war where we're literally chasing them down and
    treating them like they are, which is international criminals. That's
    all they are.
        And we're making pretty good progress. We've--we, when I say ``we,''
    we've got a mighty coalition of freedom-loving countries who've joined
    us, and others who have

    [[Page 1317]]

    heard the message, ``Either you're with us, or you're with the other
    ones.'' And by the way, that doctrine still holds. Either you're with
    the United States, or you're not. Over a couple of thousand of them have
    been captured. And just about that many weren't as lucky. And our
    friends are still--still understand the stakes.
        You know, I was a little worried about, the farther we got away from
    September the 11th, the more likely it is people would forget the
    horror. But the coalition is still strong. And the reason it's strong is
    because the American people are strong. The American people are united.
    The American people are resolved. The American people understand the
    stakes, that we're fighting for freedom itself, that we're fighting for
    civilization.
        A good example of that came in the Philippines a while ago. The
    President of the Philippines asked
    for some help, would we help her--she asked if we'd help her train some
    of her troops, and I said, ``You bet. Either you're with us, or you're
    with the other guys, and we're willing to help.'' And as a result of the
    bravery of the Philippine troops and the skill of our troops training
    them, they brought to justice, in the ultimate way, the leader of the
    Abu Sayyaf* group, which is an Al Qaida-related organization.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        *White House correction.
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        In other words, what I'm telling you is, is that we're denying them
    sanctuary. We routed them out of--we routed the Taliban. If you harbor a
    terrorist, you're a terrorist. The Taliban found out what we meant. We
    got them on the run. Sometimes they light, and we figure out where they
    are, and the brave United States military will chase them down.
    Sometimes they're scrambling around. But wherever they try to go, we're
    going to get them, no matter how long it takes, because you see, history
    has called us into action. This is a defining moment. The 21st century
    will be decided as to how the United States responds. And so long as I'm
    the President, we're going to respond in a determined, focused,
    effective way--by defending freedom, no matter what the cost.
        And that includes understanding we cannot let the world's worst
    leaders blackmail the United States or our friends and allies with the
    world's worst weapons. And so I want to share with you my thinking. My
    thinking is, we owe it to our children and our grandchildren to do
    everything we can to disrupt known terrorist groups, to find folks that
    think they want to team up with terrorist groups, that we owe it to our
    future to use our standing and our might and our wealth to define the
    21st century as one which will be peaceful and hopeful and, most
    importantly, free.
        Out of the evil done to America is going to come some incredible
    good. I truly believe that. I can say that with confidence. I believe
    that, when we remain strong and forceful and tough and resolved, that we
    can bring peace not only to the United States but into parts of the
    world which may never dream they'll have peace. I believe, by the United
    States taking a leading role and standing on principle and speaking
    clearly, that we can help achieve peace in the Middle East or in South
    Asia. You need to go home and tell your kids or your grandkids that the
    reason we fight the way we fight is because of peace. And this can
    happen, and I believe it will happen.
        And here at home, you've got to understand--and I know you do--that
    in spite of our wealth, in spite of our prosperity, there are pockets of
    despair and pockets of hopelessness, pockets of addiction, pockets where
    people say, ``America's not meant for me.'' But I believe out of the
    evil done to America, this good will happen: that our fellow citizens
    will understand that by loving a neighbor like they'd like to be loved
    themselves, they can help eradicate that despair; that by unleashing the
    great faith-based institutions which exist all across America, we can
    bring hope where there's

    [[Page 1318]]

    darkness; by calling upon the best of America, the great character of
    the American citizens, the understanding that when one of us suffers,
    all of us suffers, that we can change this country one heart, one soul,
    one conscience at a time.
        You saw the great spirit of America recently in Pennsylvania. When
    their miners were trapped, people prayed for their deliverance.
    Americans spent hours trying to figure out how best to save those
    miners, came up with a plan, successfully got each and every one of them
    out. I want to thank God for the prayers of the American people for
    helping them, and thank God for their savior--their saving. That's the
    kind of country we live in. It's a country fundamentally strong and
    great.
        I believe out of the evil done to America, the culture of our
    country is changing from one which has said, ``If it feels good, go
    ahead and do it,'' to--``If you've got a problem, blame somebody else,''
    to a culture which says, ``Each of us are responsible for the decisions
    we make in life.''
        You see, there's an understanding after September the 11th, after
    the evil people hit us, that serving something greater than yourself is
    a part of being a patriotic American. That came home most clearly to me,
    most vividly to me, when I heard the story of Flight 93, where average
    Americans were flying across the land. They found out their plane was
    going to be a weapon. They told their loved ones they loved them. They
    said a prayer. One guy said, ``Let's roll.'' They took the plane in the
    ground to serve something greater than themselves in life. That example
    will shine brightly for a lot of Americans, including me, that in order
    to be an American, in order to understand and help people realize the
    full potential of our country, it's important to serve something greater
    than yourself. Now, out of the evil done to America is going to come
    incredible good, because this is such a good and compassionate and
    decent country.
        Thank you all for coming to help Mark. May God bless you all, and
    may God bless America.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:30 p.m. at the North Charleston
    Convention Center. In his remarks, he referred to Iris Campbell, wife of
    former Gov. Carroll Campbell of South Carolina; Ann Edwards, wife of
    former Gov. Jim Edwards of South Carolina; David H. Wilkins, speaker,
    South Carolina House of Representatives, and his wife, Margaret Susan
    Wilkins; Gov. Jim Hodges of South Carolina; and President Gloria
    Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines.