    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book II)]
    [November 4, 2002]
    [Pages 2019-2025]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks in St. Louis, Missouri
    November 4, 2002

        The President. Thanks for coming. And Laura
    and I are sure glad we came. We're wandering our way back to Texas. See,
    tomorrow is election day, and we intend to vote. And we're not
    undecided. [Laughter] And I'm not undecided who ought to be the next
    United States Senator from Missouri, and that ought to be Jim
    Talent.
        It's good to be here in St. Charles County, and to be with a lot of
    our friends from the St. Louis area. We appreciate you taking this
    election seriously. See, that's part of the American spirit. It's the
    spirit which is strong today. It's the spirit that says, no matter what
    the cost, we'll defend our freedoms. It's the spirit that says part of
    being a patriot is to serve something greater than yourself in life.
    It's the spirit that says, if you love freedom, then you have an
    obligation as a citizen of this country to participate in the elections.
    If you believe in freedom, then you have a responsibility to maintain
    that democratic system by doing your duty.
        And so I'm here in the State of Missouri to urge all folks,
    Republicans and Democrats and independents, to go to the polls. And when
    you get in that box, I've got

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    a suggestion: For the good of Missouri and for the good of the United
    States of America, Jim Talent is the man for
    Senate. Laura and I are really proud of the
    campaign he has run, and we're really proud of the fact that he and
    Brenda hold family values dear to their heart.
        I'm also proud to be up here with a Senator who's done a fine job on
    behalf of all the citizens of Missouri, a man I'm proud to call friend,
    and that's Senator Kit Bond. I know
    we've got some Members of Congress here: Todd Akin and Jo Ann Emerson and Kenny
    Hulshof. They're fine members of the United
    States congressional delegation. I'm proud to call them friends. I'm
    proud to call them ally.
        See, that's what I'm looking for, some allies, somebody who we can
    count on to do the right thing for America, somebody whose vote we can
    count on to do the right thing to make sure this country is strong and
    safe and a better place.
        I want to thank John Lewis for running for
    the State senate. I wish John all the best. Particularly proud to have
    met Carole Buck, the wife of the great voice of
    the Cardinals, Jack Buck, a fine man and a fine American.
        Thrilled to know that our family friend is here, the man who can
    really sing. I wish I'd have been here to hear him sing. I'm a country
    and western fan, and one of my favorites is Randy Travis. I'm proud that Randy is here, and Elizabeth is here--Randy is here, and Elizabeth, and a
    friend, Jay Shields, is with them. I'm honored
    they're here. I appreciate them coming to support this good man.
        But most of all, I want to thank you all for coming, the grassroots
    activists. I want to thank you for what you have done in the past, but
    more importantly, I want to thank you for what you're going to do today
    and tomorrow, and that is to turn out the vote. This man has been working hard all over this State, putting out a
    positive message, and now he needs your help to gather up Republicans
    and discerning Democrats--[laughter]--like-minded independents and get
    them to the polls. Tell them they have an obligation. They have an
    obligation to vote, and they have the obligation to support the best
    candidate. And that best candidate, without a doubt, for the sake of the
    future of this country, is Jim Talent.
        He's shown on this campaign that he can
    bring dignity to a process that needs dignity, that he's not going to
    fall prey to the same old, tired politics of tearing somebody down to
    get ahead. He's treated his opponent with respect because he believes
    strongly in what he stands for. He stands on solid ground with ideology
    and principle. And therefore, he doesn't need to resort to the old-style
    politics. He is a breath of fresh air, and believe me, we need some
    breaths of fresh air in Washington, DC.
        And he's got a record. He's an
    accomplished man. He served in the Congress, and when he did, he was the
    leader about promoting small business. And we need people up there who
    understand how jobs are created. The role of Government is not to create
    wealth; it's to create an environment in which a small business can grow
    to be a big business, in which the entrepreneurial spirit can flourish.
    And Jim Talent understands that. He understands the importance of
    entrepreneurship in our society.
        And we need that kind of understanding in Washington because we got
    some problems with our economy. It's not strong like it should be. I
    like to say it's just bumping along. And therefore, there are too many
    people looking for a job who can't find work. I need to have allies in
    the United States Senate who understand growth and job creation. And one
    way to help people find work is to let people keep more of their own
    money.
        See, when you've got more of your own money in your pocket, you're
    likely to demand an additional good or a service. And when you demand a
    good or a service, somebody is likely to produce the good or

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    a service. And when somebody produces a good or a service, guess what
    happens? Somebody is more likely to find work. The best thing we did to
    help job creation was to cut your taxes. And we need to have a United
    States Senator from Missouri who will join Kit Bond in making the tax cuts permanent.
        Jim's got a record on important
    legislation. He wrote the welfare reform bill, and that's an important
    piece of legislation. It's a great accomplishment because it helped a
    lot of people move from dependency upon Government to independence,
    moved people from being dependent upon the Government check to realizing
    their own worth because they were able to earn their own check. The core
    ingredient to successful welfare that he saw then--and I need his help
    to make sure we continue to see it in Washington--is to help people find
    work, is to train them for work, find work, and encourage them to work.
    And that's the best way to have welfare dependency reduced in America.
        I look forward to working with Jim on
    some--a couple of other keys issues. On education--I have a passion for
    education, and he shares that passion. We've raised the standards in
    America. See, that's what we need to do. We've raised the bar because we
    want to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations. We believe every
    child can learn in America. We understand that if you have low standards
    and lousy--low standards are going to get lousy results. If you have low
    expectations, that's what you're going to get. And so we passed an
    education reform bill that sets the highest of high standards.
        Inherent in that bill is the great trust in the citizens of
    Missouri. See, we believe in local control of schools. The people who
    care more about the children of Missouri are the citizens of Missouri,
    not bureaucrats in Washington, DC. But what's important in this bill is
    that we're sending a lot of money back home, but we expect results for
    that money. For the first time we started asking the fundamental
    question, can our children read and write and add and subtract--finally
    asking that question. If we believe they can, then it would make sense
    to ask the question.
        And when we find children in schools that are doing well, we're
    going to praise the teachers and the principals and the parents. But we
    need allies in Washington who are not so beholden to special interests
    that when we find children trapped in schools that won't teach and won't
    change, that we do not accept the status quo. No child should be left
    behind in the State of Missouri.
        I look forward to working with Jim Talent and Kit Bond to make sure
    our health care system works better. We've got too many lawsuits, too
    many junk lawsuits that are clogging our courts, so that if you've got a
    legitimate claim, you can't get in front of a judge. But those junk
    lawsuits are also running up the cost of medicine for you, and they're
    driving good docs out of business. We need medical liability reform in
    Washington, DC.
        We need to make sure Medicare works. We made a promise to our
    seniors, and we need to keep that promise. Medicine has changed. It's
    modern. Technologies have changed. There's new discoveries which have
    made medicine more effective. Yet Medicare is stuck in the past. It's
    been used as a political football. We need to get people in the Senate
    with whom I can work to modernize Medicare, which means prescription
    drugs for every senior in the State of Missouri.
        And I'll tell you another big issue and another big difference in
    this campaign, and that has to do with our Federal judiciary. I have a
    responsibility to name good people to the bench. I've named a lot of
    really good people to the bench, but the bunch running the Senate has
    done a lousy job on my nominees. You need to know the facts. The facts
    are, we've got too many vacancies on our Federal bench because they're
    playing politics. And sometimes

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    they're distorting the record of these good people I've named. We need
    to get rid of all that stuff, for the sake of our solid judiciary. I've
    been naming good, honorable, honest people, but they don't like the fact
    that the people I named will not use the bench from which to legislate;
    they will use the bench to strictly interpret the United States
    Constitution. And I know I'll be able the count on Senator Jim
    Talent's support for putting up judges that
    you'll be proud of, judges whose philosophy the vast majority of the
    people of this State of Missouri support.
        But the biggest issue we'll be working on together is going to be to
    protect you from further attack. That's the biggest issue we face in
    America. And we face it because we haven't finished bringing the
    terrorists to justice. They're still out there, and they still hate.
    They hate because of what we love. They're motivated by hate. We're
    motivated by the love of freedom. We love our freedoms. We love the fact
    that people can worship freely in America. We love the fact that people
    can speak their mind freely. We love a free press. We love every aspect
    of freedom, and we're not going to change.
        Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
        The President. So long as there's an active enemy out there, we've
    got to be on alert here at home. Listen, we got notified; they put us on
    notice. And so, therefore, there's a lot of good people working on your
    behalf to protect you--people at the Federal level, the State level,
    people at the local level--a lot of really fine, fine American people
    doing everything they can to run down any hint, any piece of evidence
    that somebody is thinking about doing something to America, we're moving
    on it. We're disrupting. We're denying. We're doing everything we can.
        But I went to Congress because I think there's a better way to even
    further our ability to protect the homeland, and that is to set up a
    Department of Homeland Security. I went there because I understand in
    Washington there's over 100 agencies involved with your protection, the
    protection of America. I felt, since this is the number one priority of
    our Government, that they ought to be under one agency to help set
    priority and, if need be, to change culture so people get the message
    that we're still under threat and we have to do everything we can to
    help you.
        The House of Representatives responded quickly with a really good
    piece of legislation, which I can tell you will enable this President
    and future Presidents to better do a job of protecting America. But the
    bill is stuck in the Senate. And I need Senators like Kit Bond and Jim Talent who
    will work with me to have a Department of Homeland Security which will
    meet your expectations.
        The reason the bill is stuck in the Senate is because some of the
    Senators there want to take away power that every President has had for
    the last 40 years, which will allow a President to suspend certain
    collective bargaining rules in any Department of the Federal Government
    when our national security is at stake. In other words, if there are
    work rules that stand in the way of our capacity to deal with an enemy
    which is trying to hit us, then I ought to be able to suspend those work
    rules. I ought to be able to do what is necessary to protect the
    American people. Unfortunately, they--some in the Senate have been
    captured by special interests. The main interest I have in mind is the
    security of the American people. I am not going to accept a lousy bill
    from the United States Senate. And one way to make sure I don't get a
    lousy bill is to send a man up there who understands what I'm talking
    about, and that man is Jim Talent.
        But the best way to protect America, short-term and long-term, is to
    find these killers, no matter where they hide, and bring them to
    justice. And that is what we're doing. And that's what--sometimes you'll
    see, and sometimes you won't. But

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    you just got to know that the United States is on the hunt.
        And we're on the hunt after an enemy which is a little different
    from any enemy we've ever faced. See, in the old days, you would get
    their tanks and their airplanes, and you knew you were making progress.
    These folks hide in caves. They hide in kind of the dark corners of
    cities around the world, and then they send youngsters to their suicidal
    deaths. There's a difference of attitude, of course, because in America
    we value every life. We say, ``Everybody is precious. Every life
    counts.'' And the enemy we face, they've hijacked a great religion. And
    they don't care about life. They murder. And they're tough, but they're
    not as tough as the United States of America.
        And I know I'll be able to count on Jim's support, just like I could count on Kit's and the Members' of Congress support, to make
    sure that our military has the best training, the best pay, and the best
    possible equipment. I signed the biggest increase in defense spending
    since Ronald Reagan was the President for that reason. But there's
    another reason why. I wanted to send a message to friend and foe alike
    that we're in this deal for the long haul. There's not a calendar on my
    desk in the Oval Office that says, by such-and-such a date, you've got
    to quit. That's not the way we think in America. It doesn't matter how
    long it takes. When it comes to the defense of our freedoms, we will
    stay the course.
        And we're working with other nations. The doctrine that says,
    ``Either you're with us, or you're with the enemy,'' still stands. That
    doctrine still is relevant. And so there's a lot of folks joining in
    this hunt. And we got them on the run, and we're going to keep them on
    the run until we bring them to justice. That's what we owe this
    generation of Americans. That's what we owe future generations of
    Americans.
        But as we're thinking about Al Qaida, we've also got to look at all
    threats. See, the world changed on September 11th this way. It used to
    be oceans could protect us, or at least we thought so--if we saw a
    gathering threat overseas, that we could pick and choose whether or not
    we wanted to deal with that threat because there was two oceans. By
    geography, America was safe, we assumed. The battlefields would be
    elsewhere. Sometimes we decided to deal with the threat to freedom and
    democracy; sometimes we didn't. But we were comfortable.
        It's important, after September 11th, to realize that oceans no
    longer protect us. Therefore, every threat matters. And we've got to
    assess every threat. We've got to be cold-eyed realists about the world.
    We must have people in Congress and in Washington who see the world
    exactly the way it is, not the way we would hope it would be. If we're--
    if our number one priority is to protect you, then we've got to take
    every threat seriously.
        And that's why I started the dialog on Saddam Hussein. He's a threat. He's a threat to our country because of
    his--the nature of his regime and the nature of the man, himself. He's a
    man who said he wouldn't have weapons of mass destruction, but he's
    denied and deceived the world for 11 years. A while ago we discovered
    that he was close to having a nuclear weapon. We don't know how close he
    is today, but a Saddam Hussein with a nuclear weapon is a true threat to
    America and our friends and allies.
        He said he wouldn't have chemical
    weapons. He's got them, but even more amazingly, he's used them. And
    he's used them not only on his neighbors, but he's used them on his own
    people. This is a person who is willing to gas his own citizens. This is
    a man who can't stand America and what we believe in. This is a man who
    hates some of our closest allies. This is a man who has had Al Qaida
    connections. I want you to think about a scenario in which he becomes
    the arsenal and the training grounds for shadowy terrorists so that he

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    can attack somebody he hates and not leave any fingerprints behind. He
    is a threat. He's also a threat to whether or not an international body
    can perform its duty to keep the peace.
        I went to the United Nations, and I said to the United Nations, ``We
    want you to succeed. It will make it easier to keep the peace when
    nations are bound together. It will make it much easier for us to defend
    freedom if we need to, with the new threats we face in the 21st century.
    But for 16 resolutions, this man has defied
    you. Not one resolution, not five resolutions but resolution after
    resolution after resolution, he has defied you.''
        I said to the United Nations, and I'm saying it today, ``You have a
    choice. You have a choice to show the world whether you have the
    capacity to work together to disarm Saddam Hussein for the sake of peace, whether you'll be an effective
    United Nations, or whether you'll be like one of your forerunners, the
    League of Nations, an empty debating society.'' It's their choice to
    make.
        And Saddam Hussein has a choice to make:
    For the sake of peace, he must disarm like he said he would do. But my
    fellow Americans, just as the Congress spoke the other day about my
    attitude, I want to share it with you: For the sake of our freedoms, for
    the sake of doing our duty to address serious threats in a serious way,
    and for the sake of world peace--and I mean that--for the sake of world
    peace, if the United Nations will not act, and if Saddam Hussein will
    not disarm, the United States will lead a coalition of nations to disarm
    him.
        Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
        The President. I can't imagine what was going through the mind of
    the enemy when they hit us. They must have thought that materialism was
    our national religion, that people were so self-absorbed and selfish in
    America, that after 9/11/2001, we might file a lawsuit or two--
    [laughter]--but that's about all we had in us, that's all we--they don't
    understand us. They don't realize what I know, that out of the evil they
    have done to America is going to come some good. Out of the evil done to
    this great country is going to come some good. And one of the good
    things that's going to happen, if we stay the course, if we're strong,
    if we speak clearly, if we're decisive, if we understand that freedom is
    not America's gift to the world but is God's gift to the world--if we
    understand those values, if we stay true to our beliefs and true to our
    responsibilities, we can achieve peace. We can achieve peace not only
    for our country; we can achieve peace for parts of the world that have
    quit on peace. I believe that. I believe that history has given us a
    chance, and this great country is going to seize the moment.
        And here at home, it's important to realize that we have a chance to
    make America a better place, that while we work to make America a safer
    and stronger place, we can work to make America a better place as well.
        And Government can help. We can pass law or we can work to make the
    public school systems work better or the welfare laws work better, make
    sure the health care systems function. But there's a lot of people that
    that's not going to matter to because they're hopeless, they're
    addicted, they're lost. You say ``American Dream,'' they have no idea
    what you're talking about. Amongst our plenty, there are pockets of
    loneliness and despair. And if any of us hurts, we all hurt, as far as
    I'm concerned.
        And the best way to deal with those folks, the best way to help them
    is to remember that Government cannot put hope in people's hearts or a
    sense of purpose in people's lives. The best way to help them is to
    rally the true strength of America, the heart of America, and encourage
    people to put their arm around somebody who hurts and say, ``I love you.
    What can I do to help you? How can I make your life a better life?'' And
    that's part of the

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    American spirit that is so strong and alive today, the fact that people
    all across this country understand that serving something greater than
    yourself is part of being an American patriot.
        Today I met Tim Mosier from the USA Freedom
    Corps. He has been a law enforcement guy, been involved in emergency
    management. And he takes time now to volunteer, teaching citizens in
    Pettis County emergency response and preparedness skills. That's one way
    somebody can help, and we can help all kinds of ways. You can mentor a
    child, run a Boy Scout troop or a Girl Scout troop. You can feed the
    hungry. You can find shelter for the homeless. There's all kinds of ways
    to help change America, one heart, one soul, one conscience at a time.
        No, the spirit of America is alive and well in this country. People
    have taken a step back and have assessed their life, and they realize
    that service to a country, service to a cause, service to something
    greater than yourselves is part of that American experience.
        I want the youngsters here to remember the story of Flight 93, one
    of most profound parts of this entire history--of the recent history
    we've been through, profound because it's a story of the American
    spirit. People flying across the country on an airplane, they learned
    that the plane was going to be used as a weapon. They were on the phones
    to their loved ones, said, ``Goodbye. I love you.'' Somebody said a
    prayer. A guy said, ``Let's roll.'' They took the plane into the ground
    to save lives, to serve something greater than themselves.
        No, the enemy hit us. When the enemy hit us, they had no idea--they
    had no idea who they were hitting. Out of the evil done to America is
    going to come a peaceful world. And I will boldly predict to you, out of
    the evil done to America will come a better country for all of us,
    because this is the greatest country, full of the finest people on the
    face of this Earth.
        I'm honored you're here. Thanks for helping Jim. May God bless you, and may God bless America.

    Note: The President spoke at 12 p.m. at the Family Arena. In his
    remarks, he referred to senatorial candidate Jim Talent and his wife,
    Brenda; entertainer Randy Travis and his wife, Elizabeth; and President
    Saddam Hussein of Iraq.