    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book II)]
    [October 9, 2003]
    [Pages 1287-1292]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1287]]

    Remarks at a Reception for Gubernatorial Candidate Ernie
    Fletcher in Lexington, Kentucky
    October 9, 2003

        Thanks for coming. It's great to be back in this beautiful State.
    It's good to see a lot of friends. I know something about the culture of
    Kentucky. I know the priorities of this State. I promise you I'll keep
    my speech short so you can get to the football game. [Laughter] All I
    can say is, thank goodness it wasn't basketball season, because nobody
    would be here. [Laughter]
        I appreciate the warm welcome to this former Governor, and I'm proud
    to be here with the next Governor, Ernie Fletcher. For me, politics will
    come in time. I've got a job to do, and it's my honor to lead this
    country. But politics is upon the people of Kentucky, and I'm here
    because I want to make it as clear as I possibly can: In the interests
    of every person who lives in this State, whether they're Republican,
    Democrat, or independent, the best man to be the Governor of Kentucky is
    Ernie Fletcher.
        I know him well. I've worked with him as a United States
    Congressman. The first thing I found out about Ernie is he loves his
    family, and he loves this State. I finally had to tell him to quit
    saying the word ``Kentucky'' every time he lobbied me on an issue.
    [Laughter] He cares a lot about people. He believes in personal
    responsibility, the dignity that comes from hard work, and the
    importance of a good education for every child. There's no question in
    my mind this man has the right values to lead this great State.
        And I appreciate the fact that Ernie picked a good man named Steve
    Pence to be the Lieutenant Governor of this
    State. I picked him first. [Laughter] He was the U.S. Attorney for
    Western District of Kentucky, appointed by President George W. Bush. I
    looked at a lot of candidates. This man was the best candidate for the
    job. I'm proud that he served as U.S. Attorney. I'm proud that he served
    as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves. And I'm proud to be
    standing on this stage with the next Lieutenant Governor of the State of
    Kentucky.
        Ernie and I both married above ourselves. [Laughter] I'm proud to be
    with Glenna and the Fletcher family. I
    want to thank you for your sacrifice and service. Glenna, you'll make a
    great first lady for this State, just like Laura
    has made a great First Lady for our country. I'm really proud of Laura.
    She recently went on a high-level diplomatic mission. She went to Russia
    to help promote a book festival with Lyudmila
    Putin--by the way, came back right after that in Russia and hosted a
    national book festival. She loves books. She loves reading. She wants
    every child to read in America.
        And then she--before she went to Russia, she
    stopped off in France. [Laughter] Now, you may have seen the picture. I
    went to France. [Laughter] I had a nice reception, but I wasn't treated
    like that. [Laughter] No, she's great. I'm proud of her. I can't tell
    you how thankful I am that when I got on bended knee and said, ``Will
    you marry me,'' she said yes. [Laughter] She sends her love and her best
    to all her friends here in the great Commonwealth of Kentucky.
        I also thank Ruth Ann Pence and the Pence
    family for working hard to get the next Lieutenant Governor in office.
    It's a sacrifice for families when somebody makes the decision to run.
    It's a team effort, and I thank the families for what you're doing.
        In our midst is a man who you must send back as the United States
    Senator from this great State, and that is Mr. Jim Bunning. He's strong. He's capable. He's the absolute right man
    for the job.

    [[Page 1288]]

        Speaking about Senators, Mitch's wife
    is in my Cabinet. That would be Mitch McConnell, and I'm speaking about
    Elaine Chao. She's done a fabulous job as the
    Secretary of Labor. Hi, Elaine. Need a ride back? [Laughter] Not much
    air rage on Air Force One, by the way. [Laughter]
        Two Members of the United States Congress are with us today. A great
    Member, a fellow I remember campaigning with for my dad at his house, a
    person who has done a really good job for Kentucky--he is a person who
    is a leader in the House of Representatives, and that's Congressman Hal
    Rogers. As well we've got another fine Member
    from the House of Representatives with us, a good stalwart, a good ally,
    and that's Congressman Ron Lewis. I know the
    current Congressman, soon to be Governor, is really appreciative of the
    Members of the Congress for coming tonight. You know him as well as
    anybody.
        I appreciate the members of the statehouse who are here. It's in
    your interest you're here, because you're going to be working with a
    fine man as Governor. We've got the senator, Dan Kelly, who's the majority leader. You're fixing to have a great
    Governor to work with, Senator. You've got State
    Representative Jeff Hoover, minority leader
    of the statehouse. And I want to thank the other members of the senate
    and the house who are here tonight as well. Help is on the way.
        I know there's a lot of other candidates running for statewide
    office, too numerous to name, but I wish you all the best. I thank your
    families for making the sacrifice. I also want to thank all the
    grassroots activists who are here, people who are putting up the signs
    and dialing the phones and licking the envelopes. You can't win a race
    unless you energize the grassroots.
        And we've got some fantastic leaders of the Republican Party who are
    with us tonight. Ellen Williams, my good
    friend, is the chairwoman of the Republican Party of the State of
    Kentucky. My friend Cathy Bailey, the national
    committeewoman and the State finance chair, by the way, for the Bush-
    Cheney 2004 campaign, is with us tonight.
        But my message to the grassroots folks is it's one thing to come to
    a fundraiser--and that's important, don't get me wrong--but you need to
    go to your coffee shops. You need to go to community centers and your
    houses of worship, and you need to say to people who haven't made up
    their mind, ``You've got a good man in Ernie Fletcher.'' You need to
    spread the word. You need to energize those folks. Find those folks that
    say, ``My vote doesn't matter,'' and look them in the eye and says, ``It
    does matter to have the right kind of Governor in the statehouse.''
        I appreciate Ernie's priorities. The number one priority of any
    Governor ought to be the education of the children of the State in which
    he's the Governor. That ought to be the priority. It's Ernie's priority.
    See, if you can't get education right, there's a dismal future for the
    State. It's essential that you have a Governor who stands tall for every
    child. And that starts with having a Governor who understands the dire
    need to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations. You've got to
    have a Governor that believes that every child can learn and is willing
    to raise the standards, a Governor who believes in the worth and
    potential of every single child in his State. And that's Ernie Fletcher.
        You see, if you do not believe that every child can learn, then
    you're willing to accept a system which simply shuffles children through
    the schools. And that's unsatisfactory. It should be unsatisfactory to
    everybody who lives in the State of Kentucky. It's important to know
    whether or not the children are learning to read and write and add and
    subtract. It's important to hold public schools accountable. That way,
    Governor Fletcher can praise the teachers and principals and parents in
    succeeding schools. And that way, Governor Fletcher can take the
    accountability measures and say, ``We're not doing it right here.'' For

    [[Page 1289]]

    the sake of Kentucky, put a Governor in who's willing to work hard to
    make sure not one single child is left behind.
        Ernie talked about health care. Health care is an issue. It makes
    sense to have somebody who knows something about health care as the
    Governor. He does. I've worked with him closely on key issues. We worked
    on the Medicare bill together. See, we want to make sure the Medicare
    system is modern, so seniors have got choices. I'm not only talking
    about the seniors today; I'm talking about those of us who are fixing to
    be seniors. You've got to have a system that works. Let's make sure we
    have prescription drugs available for our seniors. Ernie has been a
    leader on this issue. He knows what he's talking about.
        And he and I know this, that for the sake of affordable and
    available health care, we need to have medical liability reform. For the
    sake of the working people of this State, you better have you a Governor
    who is strong enough to stand up to the trial lawyers, somebody who is
    going to remind the people of this State that nobody has ever been
    healed by a frivolous or junk lawsuit.
        And that's soon-to-be Governor Ernie Fletcher. We spent a lot of
    time in Washington talking about jobs. See, he and I understand this,
    that things might look okay, but so long as anybody is looking for work
    and can't find a job, it means we still have a problem. We've got to
    work to create the conditions for job growth. The role of our
    governments is not to create wealth--Ernie knows that--the role is to
    create the environment in which small businesses can flourish to be big
    businesses, in which the entrepreneurial spirit is strong.
        We had a problem at the national level. When we came in--Vice
    President Cheney and I came in--the country was
    headed into a recession in the first quarter of 2001. We were in
    recession. The economy started coming around, and then the enemy hit us,
    and that hurt. And then we found out some of our citizens forgot to tell
    the truth. We had some corporate scandals. And by the way, there's no
    excuse for that. They will be held to account. We expect corporate CEOs
    to be responsible citizens in America.
        We vigorously waged the war on terror, and the battles of
    Afghanistan and Iraq affected the confidence of the American people. We
    had an issue with our economy. I went to the Congress. I said, ``The
    best way to get the economy growing again, the best way to make sure
    people can find a job is to return the people's money.'' I proposed
    historic tax relief. We increased the child credit from $600 to $1,000.
    We reduced the marriage penalty. The code ought to encourage marriage,
    not discourage marriage.
        We cut the taxes on everybody who pays taxes. We thought the fairest
    way to deal with tax relief was not to play favorites but to say, ``If
    you pay tax, you get tax relief.'' We provided incentives for small
    businesses to expand, because Ernie and I understand that most new jobs
    in America are created by small businesses. No, we acted. I called upon
    Congress; this good man supported me. The tax relief came at the right
    time for American history.
        Now, I've watched him carefully. He understands what I know: When
    we're spending money at the Government level, we're not spending the
    Government's money; we're spending the people's money. And you'd better
    have a Governor who understands that in your statehouse.
        There's another thing we're working on in Washington to make sure
    our businesses flourish, and that's a reliable source of energy. I look
    forward to working with Ernie on clean coal technology. I want to use
    the resources at hand. You've got some great resources here in Kentucky.
    We've got to use them. We've got to make sure we use our technology so
    that the air is cleaner. But we need an energy policy for the sake of
    economic vitality. And for the sake of national security, we need to be

    [[Page 1290]]

    less dependent on foreign sources of energy.
        We've been working on a jobs plan at the national level, Ernie's
    working on a jobs plan here in Kentucky. He knows what he's doing. He's
    got the right philosophy. If anybody out there is listening and is
    worried about their job, I'd strongly suggest that you make Ernie
    Fletcher your Governor. He knows what he's talking about when it comes
    to job creation for the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
        Another thing I'm looking forward to working with Ernie on is
    homeland security. There's a lot responsibility at the State level when
    it comes to protecting the homeland. Make sure you've got a Governor who
    is well organized, who can make sure that there's a response mechanism
    in case the worst might happen, somebody who supports the first-
    responders, the fire and the policemen and the emergency service squads
    all over your State. I'm confident Ernie can do the job. I've worked
    with him on matters of homeland security.
        The truth of the matter is, the best way to secure the homeland is
    never to forget the lessons of September the 11th, 2001, and chase the
    enemy down, one by one, and bring them to justice.
        One of the big problems we had when we got to Washington was morale
    in the United States military was beginning to suffer. When we showed
    up, there was an issue in the military. So I proposed strong defense
    budgets to meet the threats of a new era. Congressman Fletcher was a
    strong supporter of those defense budgets. And today, thanks to his
    support and the good work of others here in this audience, no one--no
    one in the world--can doubt the strength and the spirit and the
    sacrifice and the class and the technological ability of the United
    States military.
        Thank goodness we did strengthen our military, because we're still
    at war. I knew, after September the 11th, one of the hardest things for
    me to do would be to convince the people that there was a new kind of
    war, and they had to be diligent and patient in order to do our duty, in
    order to answer history and secure our homeland. Ernie Fletcher got that
    right off the bat.
        It's important that our country not forget the lessons of September
    the 11th. The first lesson is the nature of the enemy. These people are
    nothing but coldblooded killers. They've hijacked a great religion.
    They'll kill innocent women and children and men. They care not who they
    kill. They try to create fear and intimidation. Therapy won't work with
    these people. Negotiation won't work with these people. The only way to
    secure America is to stay on the offensive, and this country will stay
    on the offensive.
        We're making good progress against Al Qaida. I vowed that we would
    bring those killers to justice, and we're making good progress. We're
    teaming up with other nations and, slowly but surely, bringing them to
    justice. About two-thirds of the Al Qaida leadership have either been
    killed or captured. And we're after the rest of them. I know we've got a
    family here who grieved because of the bombing in Bali. The
    man who ordered that
    bombing, masterminded the bombing, is now in custody. He's no longer a
    threat. May God rest your daughter. We have a duty, no matter whether
    the citizen lives here in America or elsewhere, to be tough and strong
    and vigilant, to use our resources and capabilities to bring killers to
    justice.
        I also laid out another initiative that's an important lesson of
    September the 11th. It's important for those who harbor a terrorist and
    feed a terrorist and hide a terrorist to understand they're just as
    guilty as the terrorists. And the Taliban in Afghanistan found out
    exactly what we meant. Because of the bravery of the United States
    military and our friends and coalitions, the Taliban is no more. The
    people of Afghanistan are free. Many young girls go to school for the
    first time, thanks to the United States of America.

    [[Page 1291]]

        There's another lesson involved with September the 11th, and that
    is, when we see a gathering threat, we must deal with it. You see, in
    the past, oceans protected us, or so we thought. We felt--thought we
    were invulnerable to attack. So if we saw a gathering threat overseas,
    we might decide to deal with it, or might not. September the 11th
    changed that calculation. The enemy can strike anytime, anywhere in
    America with ruthless fashion. They know no rules. They know no bounds
    of decency. They kill in the name of great religion. And therefore, this
    Nation must deal with gathering threats when we find them.
        And Saddam Hussein was a gathering
    threat. He possessed and he used weapons of mass destruction. He was a
    brutal tyrant and dictator to his own people. We discovered mass graves
    of men, women, and children. He had rape rooms and torture rooms. Words
    cannot describe the tyranny of this brutal man. I was not about to leave
    the security of the United States to the desires and hopes of this
    madman.
        But we weren't alone. The world called for Mr. Saddam
    Hussein to disarm, to prove he had disarmed,
    not once but time after time. The world clearly saw the threat of Mr.
    Saddam Hussein. Last year, you might remember, we passed Security
    Council Resolution 1441. The United Nations said, ``Mr. Saddam Hussein,
    you must declare your weapons. You must disarm for the sake of peace, or
    there will be serious consequences. Your choice.'' He made a bad choice.
    Saddam Hussein is no more.
        Recently, there was a report about Mr. Saddam Hussein's weapons programs. If you read the report, it is
    absolutely clear that he was in defiance of Security Council Resolution
    1441, that he was not only a danger but a deceiver. The United Nations
    was right to demand Saddam Hussein be disarmed, and the United States
    and our coalition was right to remove him from power.
        And we have more work to do in Iraq. See, we're at an historic
    moment. A free Iraq, a peaceful Iraq in the heart of the land of terror
    will change the world and make America and our friends more secure. A
    peaceful Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will change the habits of
    countries that have spawned terrorists. It's essential we succeed for
    the long term. It's essential we succeed for our children and our
    grandchildren in developing a peaceful, democratic country. And make no
    mistake about it, we will succeed.
        We're making great progress. I don't care what you read about. Just
    ask anybody who's been there. They will tell you that the schools are
    opening, the children are getting immunized, the electricity is up,
    water is purified and moving. We're making great progress in helping
    this nation establish itself. The Iraqis want a secure country. They're
    moms and dads just like you all are. They want to live in a peaceful,
    hopeful place. The marketplaces are burgeoning. The entrepreneurial
    spirit is growing. And they'll start taking over their own security. By
    the end of next year, we'll have 40,000 militia trained so they can deal
    with the thugs and the criminals and the Ba'athists who long for Saddam
    Hussein.
        I talked to Bernie Kerik, the police
    chief of New York City, who was the commissioner there during 9/11. He
    went over there in the midst of chaos and set up a 37,000-person police
    force in Baghdad. No, it's different. We're making progress. This
    country is growing. I readily concede it's still hard work. There's
    thugs and killers who can't stand the thought of freedom. Freedom makes
    them nervous. And so, they're going to try to intimidate. See, you've
    got to understand, their goal is to try to frighten the United States of
    America. They want us to leave early. They want to inflict damage so
    that we run. They don't understand our country. We don't run from a
    challenge. We understand the stakes. We will stay the course, not only
    for our own security but for the peace of the world.

    [[Page 1292]]

        I've received great support from the United States Congress on this
    initiative. Ernie Fletcher understands the stakes. He understands the
    historic nature of what we are doing. He understands this war on terror.
    It will be good to have him as your Governor. He has got a vision.
        I also know what he knows, that the true strength of this country is
    not our military might, however, or it's not the size of our wallets.
    That's not the true strength of America. The true strength of this
    country is the heart of the American people. We're a compassionate,
    decent nation. It's very important that you have a Governor who knows
    that Government can hand out money, but it cannot put hope in a person's
    heart or a sense of purpose in a person's life. That comes when loving
    citizens put their arm around somebody who hurts and says, ``I love you.
    What can I do to help you? How can I make a difference in your life?''
    You need to have a Governor who knows that amidst the plenty of this
    great State, there are people who hurt. There are people who cry for
    help. There's homeless people. There's battered women. There's addicted
    people. And the best way to solve that is to rally the armies of
    compassion. Whether it be at the Federal level or at the State level,
    elected officials should never fear rallying faith, no matter what the
    religion, to help people in need.
        No, the greatest strength of this country is the fact that there are
    thousands and thousands of people who have heard the universal call,
    whether they be Christian or Jewish or Muslim, to love a neighbor just
    like you'd like to be loved yourself. Problems will be solved one person
    at a time, one person--one conscience at a time, when our country
    gathers up the true strength, those who have heard the call, and help
    them provide the services that will save lives.
        Ernie Fletcher understands that the people are the strength of this
    State. There's no doubt in my mind he'll make a great Governor. And it's
    my high honor to come and stand by his side and urge the good people of
    this State to vote him into office.
        May God bless you all, and may God bless America.

    Note: The President spoke at 6:11 p.m. in Heritage Hall at the Lexington
    Convention Center. In his remarks, he referred to Glenna A. Fletcher,
    wife of candidate Ernie Fletcher; Lyudmila Putina, wife of President
    Vladimir Putina of Russia; Ruth Ann Pence, wife of candidate Steve
    Pence; former President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; and Bernard B. Kerik,
    former commissioner, New York City Police Department.