[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book II)]
[November 1, 2003]
[Pages 1446-1449]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks in Gulfport, Mississippi
November 1, 2003

    The President. Thank you all very much. Thanks for coming. I'm proud 
to be here in southern Mississippi. Thanks for your time. It's a 
beautiful night to be with the next Governor of the State of 
Mississippi.
    I'm here to say it as plainly as I can say it. The right man to be 
the Governor of Mississippi is Haley Barbour. 
We've known each other a long time. Even when he was in high cotton--
[laughter]--running with the big shots--[laughter]--he always talked 
about Mississippi. He loves this State, and he loves the people of 
Mississippi. I think he's going to be a great Governor because he's 
going to be the Governor of everybody. He's not going to be the Governor 
of one political party or another. He's going to represent every single 
person who's fortunate enough to live in the great State of Mississippi.
    He's going to be a fine Governor because 
he's an optimist. He's got a clear and optimistic and positive vision 
for this great State. He believes in the potential of the State because 
he believes in the people of Mississippi. Haley Barbour is a family man, 
a man of faith. There is no doubt in my mind he is going to be a great 
Governor of this big State.
    Plus, he married well. [Laughter] 
Marsha is going to be a great first lady. And 
speaking about great First Ladies, I'm sorry Laura is not with me today. I know it; you got the short 
straw. [Laughter] But after I shake enough hands, I'm going to head back 
to Crawford, and I'm going to tell her that there's no doubt in my mind 
that the people of this great State support Haley Barbour to be the next 
Governor.
    And the definition of support means not only coming out to a big 
rally like this; it means doing your duty to vote. In our free society, 
you have a duty and an obligation to go to the polls. I'm asking you to 
ask your friends and neighbors to go to the polls as well. Don't be 
afraid to talk to that disenchanted Democrat--[laughter]--or the 
discerning independent. They want good government too. And Haley 
Barbour is going to give them good government. 
Turn out that vote. Work hard to get this man into office.
    I'm proud to be onstage as well with your Lieutenant Governor, Amy 
Tuck. She's a woman of conscience. She made a tough 
decision. She decided she wanted to be a principled politician. 
[Laughter] That's what you need. That's what you want in your 
statehouse. You want a principled Governor, and you want a principled 
Lieutenant Governor, and you'll have a principled Lieutenant Governor in 
Amy Tuck.
    I appreciate so very much Tricia Lott being 
here. She's a great friend of mine and Laura's. 
She married well--[laughter]--Senator Lott, who 
does a fantastic job

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for the people of Mississippi. He came out to the airport. He said, 
``Look, I've heard you speak before.'' [Laughter] He's heading north--
[laughter]--to rally the vote for Haley. I 
said, ``You've got an excused absence just so long as you send your 
wife.'' [Laughter]
    I appreciate so very much Congressman Chip Pickering and his wife, Leisha, for being here as well. Chip's one of the rising stars 
in the United States House of Representatives, a good, honorable, decent 
family man who cares deeply about the people of this State.
    I'm also honored to here with Margaret Ann Pickering. She is the wife of Charles Pickering, Judge Pickering. You may have--[applause]. My 
job as the President is to find good, honorable citizens to serve on the 
high courts. When I picked Charles Pickering to serve in the high court, 
I picked a smart, intelligent, perfectly capable judge. It is time for 
some of the Members of the United States Senate to stop playing politics 
with American justice.
    I want to thank Scott Newton, who's 
running for the attorney general. I appreciate you coming, Scott. Don't 
forget him when you get in the booth.
    I want to thank the mayors who are here and the local officials. I 
particularly want to thank the Lynyrd Skynyrd band.
    But most of all, I want to thank you all. It's got to make a 
candidate that's coming down the stretch feel great to see so many 
people. They've been working hard and knocking on doors and making the 
phone calls, and here you all show up and give them extra energy, and I 
want to thank you for coming.
    It's important to have the right platform when you're running for 
Governor. You've got to believe in something. You can't get by just on 
your pretty looks. [Laughter] Well, in Haley's 
case--[laughter]. You've got to stand for something, and I appreciate 
what he stands for.
    First of all, he shares the same concerns 
I have. When we hear that a fellow citizen is looking for work and can't 
find a job, that says we've got a problem. We want all our people 
working. We want people to be able to put bread on the table for their 
families. We want people to realize their ambitions. It's important to 
have a Governor who understands the role of government is to create an 
environment for small businesses to grow to be big business, to create 
an environment which is pro-growth and pro-jobs. Haley Barbour 
understands that.
    You know, we face an issue in Washington, and that is the country 
was in recession just about the time we arrived. Then the enemy hit us. 
That hurt our economy. We had some of our citizens forget to tell the 
truth. They forgot what it means to be a responsible citizen, so they 
kind of--they fudged the books a little bit. They're weren't open and 
honest with their employees and shareholders. They now know what it 
means to be held accountable.
    War, a national emergency, and a recession all affected our economy. 
That's why I went to the United States Congress, not once but twice, and 
said, ``Let's let the people keep more of their own money. If you're 
interested in job creation, if you want economic growth, have tax cuts 
for the American people.''
    And the economy is beginning to recover, thanks to the hard work of 
the American people. You need to have you a Governor in the great State 
of Mississippi who understands what it means to create an environment 
for job growth, who hurts when he hears people are working, and that man 
is Haley Barbour.
    It's also important, if you want to have a good economic environment 
so people can find work, that you have a Governor who will manage the 
budget well. And that starts with having somebody who understands whose 
money government spends. We don't spend the government's money in 
Washington or here in Mississippi, see. We're spending the people's 
money. And Haley Barbour understands that. 
He'll be

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a good steward of the people's money. He will set priorities for the 
people of Mississippi. He won't play politics with the people's money.
    In order to make sure people can find work, you better have a legal 
environment that is reasonable. People need to be able to have their day 
in court. The problem is, frivolous and junk lawsuits clog up the 
dockets. They make it hard for employers to hire people who are looking 
for work. You need a Governor who is strong enough to stand up to the 
personal injury trial lawyers, a Governor who is tough enough to insist 
upon medical liability reform for the people of Mississippi.
    I used to say, when I was the Governor of Texas, education is to a 
State what national defense is to the Federal Government. It's the top 
priority. That's the way it ought to be here in Mississippi. You'll have 
you a Governor, Haley Barbour, who will set 
education as the top priority for this State, and that's the way it 
should be.
    Haley will stand with the hard-working 
teachers all across the State of Mississippi. Haley will stand with the 
parents of the schoolchildren all across the State of Mississippi. Haley 
will stand with the schoolchildren by challenging the soft bigotry of 
low expectations, by raising the bar, by insisting upon standards and 
insisting upon curriculum that will teach our children how to read and 
write and add and subtract.
    No, Haley's got a good, strong platform. 
And he understands what I understand, that amidst our plenty there are 
broken hearts, there are people who hurt, there are people who are 
addicted or homeless, there are people who need to be fed. He also 
understands that government can hand out money--sometimes we do a pretty 
good job of it--but what government cannot do is put hope in people's 
hearts or a sense of purpose in people's lives. That is done when 
somebody who has heard the universal call to love a neighbor just like 
you'd like to be loved yourself puts their arm around somebody who needs 
love.
    Government should never sponsor religion, and religion should never 
try to be the state. But it's essential to make sure America is hopeful, 
that government not fear the role of faith in the lives of providing 
compassionate help for people who hurt. I look forward to working with 
Governor Haley Barbour to make sure the Faith-
Based Initiative, which will come out of Washington, DC, is implemented 
in such a way that people have got hope for the future.
    I look forward to working with Haley Barbour to make sure that the homeland security initiative is 
well implemented, to make sure there's good coordination between the 
Federal Government and the State government and the local governments, 
to make sure our first-responders, the brave police and firefighters and 
emergency squads, have got the help necessary to do their job here in 
Mississippi.
    But he and I understand this: The best way 
to secure the homeland is to chase the killers down and bring them to 
justice, which is exactly what America will do. We must never forget the 
lessons of September the 11th, 2001. America cannot afford to sit back 
and hope for the best. In order to make America secure, we must stay on 
the offensive. This country will not tire; we will not rest until the 
danger to civilization is removed.
    A lot of people support the military here in this part of our 
country, and I want to thank you for that. A lot of you have got 
relatives who wear the Nation's uniform. When you e-mail them or write 
them a letter or talk to them on the phone, you tell them the Commander 
in Chief is incredibly proud of the sacrifice and service they're giving 
to this Nation.
    We'll stay on the offensive. We'll do what it takes to keep this 
country secure. But I want you to know, I fully understand the best way 
for long-term security is for this Nation to work to spread freedom 
around the world. See, free nations don't attack their neighbors. Free 
nations don't

[[Page 1449]]

develop weapons of mass terror to blackmail or threaten the world. 
That's why we will succeed in Iraq. A free Iraq, a free and peaceful 
Iraq, is in this national--is in our national interests. It's in the 
interests of our children and our grandchildren. Can you imagine what 
will take place, the change that will take place when democracy 
flourishes in the midst of a part of the world that has been an area of 
hate and violence?
    I also understand this, that freedom is not America's gift to the 
world, freedom is the Almighty's gift to every person who lives in this 
world.
    I want to thank you all for taking time out of your Saturday 
evenings to come out here. You're showing a strong commitment to your 
State, and I'm proud for that. You're showing a strong commitment of 
what it means to be a citizen living in a democracy. I'm going to ask 
you to take it a little extra farther.
    Audience members. [Inaudible]
    The President. Thank you. [Laughter] If you love me so much, make 
sure you turn out to vote. [Laughter] Make sure you go to the polls. 
Make sure you put this good man in office. 
Mississippi can do better, and Haley Barbour will lead Mississippi to 
that day.
    Thanks for coming. May God bless. Thank you all.

Note: The President spoke at 6:28 p.m. at Jones Park. In his remarks, he 
referred to gubernatorial candidate Haley Barbour and his wife, Marsha; 
Amy Tuck, incumbent candidate for Mississippi Lieutenant Governor; 
Representative Charles W. ``Chip'' Pickering, Jr., of Mississippi; 
Charles W. Pickering, Sr., nominee to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the 
Fifth Circuit; and rock music group Lynyrd Skynyrd.