    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book II)]
    [November 6, 2006]
    [Pages 2034-2039]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Florida Victory 2006 Rally in Pensacola, Florida
    November 6, 2006

        The President. Thank you all very much. He just yelled, ``Happy
    birthday,'' to Laura--and happy anniversary.
    Imagine, in a short period of time, a birthday and anniversary and
    Republican victory on Tuesday.
        I appreciate you recognizing Laura. No doubt
    about it, she is the A Team in my family, and she's a great First Lady
    for the United States. And Jeb Bush has been a
    great Governor for Florida, and I want to thank you for standing with
    him during 8 years in which he worked hard to improve the lives of every
    single citizen in this State, regardless of their political party. Jeb
    is the kind of fellow who did in office what he said he was going to do,
    and he's going to go down as one of the great Governors in your State's
    history.
        I'm proud to be here with Senator Mel Martinez, one of the fine United States Senators. Tomorrow
    you get to vote for a new Governor, and I strongly suggest you vote for
    Charlie Crist to be Governor of the State of
    Florida. He's experienced; he's compassionate; and he'll work hard on
    behalf of all the citizens of this important State. And while you're in
    there voting for Charlie, vote for Katherine Harris for the United States Senate and Bill
    McCollum to be the attorney general; Tom
    Lee to be the chief financial officer. And if you
    know anything about agriculture, you're going to want Charlie
    Bronson to be your secretary of agriculture.
        I'm proud to be here in the district of a fine United States
    Congressman, Congressman Jeff Miller. I want to
    thank you and Vicki for being here. Miller
    always talks about the good folks in this district. Every time I see him
    he's saying, ``Don't you forget the people in the panhandle.'' And I
    say, ``Congressman, how could I forget them; I wouldn't be President
    without them.''
        We're 24 hours away from voting. Some of the folks in Washington
    already think they figured out the results.
        Audience members. Boo!
        The President. That's what happened in 2004. [Laughter] Some of them
    up there started listening to the prognosticators and started picking
    out their offices in the West Wing. [Laughter] Then the people in
    Florida voted, and the people around the country voted, and the movers
    weren't needed. The same thing is going to happen tomorrow. Republicans
    are going to turn out. It's going to be a great victory on November the
    7th.
        And I thank you all for coming out today. I thank you for your
    interest. I thank you for what you have done to help these candidates,
    and I thank you for what you're going to do for the next 24 hours.
    You're going to pick up the phone; you're going to make the phone calls;
    you're going to turn out your friends and neighbors; and we're going to
    win.
        We're also going to win because over the past 5 years, we have
    accomplished great things. Together, we have taken an economy from
    recession to strong and lasting growth. Together, we have risen to the
    test of September the 11th and have taken the fight to the terrorists
    all across the world. Together, we found a calling for a generation of
    Americans, a freedom agenda to replace tyranny with liberty, oppression
    with democracy, and an ideology of hate with an ideology of hope.
        History has called upon our generation to lead, and we have led.
    We're also going to win this election because Republicans understand the
    values and the priorities of the American people. We don't need an
    opinion poll to tell us what we believe. Our principles are rock solid.
    We're going to win because we have a hopeful, optimistic agenda.

    [[Page 2035]]

        I knew we were going to finish strong because I knew that when the
    American people paid attention to the two most important issues, they
    would understand we stand with them. And the two most important issues
    is, how much money are you going to have in you pocket--in other words,
    the size of the taxes--and which group of folks can best win the war on
    terror.
        Let me start with taxes. See, our philosophy says, you can spend
    your money better than the Federal Government can. Our philosophy says
    when you have more money in your pocket to save, invest, or spend, the
    entire economy benefits. The Democrat philosophy is, they can spend your
    money better than you can, and that's why they want more of it.
        Audience members. Boo!
        The President. Oh, you might remember the debates that we had in
    Washington. They said the tax cuts--the Democrats said the tax cuts
    wouldn't increase job growth; it wouldn't increase wages; it would cause
    the deficit to explode. Well, the facts are in. Our economy is strong.
    Americans are working. The national unemployment rate is down to 4.4
    percent. The unemployment rate in this great State is 3.2 percent. Real
    wages are going up, and we cut the deficit in half 3 years ahead of
    schedule.
        People are beginning to pay attention to this election, and they
    understand that if the Democrats win, they're going to raise your taxes.
        Audience members. Boo!
        The President. Oh, I know they don't want you to know that. See,
    they're going to say everything they can to make sure you don't
    understand that reality. Matter of fact, I want you to listen to the
    words of the top Democrat leader in the House of
    Representatives. They asked her about tax cuts;
    she said, ``We love tax cuts.'' Well, given her record, she must be a
    secret admirer. Every tax cut we passed--and by the way, they're the
    largest tax cuts since Ronald Reagan was the President. Every tax cut we
    passed, whether it be increasing the child tax credit, or reducing the
    marriage penalty, or putting the death tax on the road to extinction, or
    cutting taxes on capital gains or dividends, or reducing all income
    taxes for people who pay taxes, she was against. And so were the
    Democrats in Washington. If that's their idea of love, I'd hate to see
    what hate looks like.
        Now here's the way this works. See, if the tax cuts we passed are
    not made permanent or are not extended, your taxes are going up. And so
    they asked the man who thinks he is going
    to be the head of the tax writing committee--he's not, but he thinks
    he's going to be--they said, ``Can you think of one of the tax cuts that
    you would extend?'' He said he couldn't think of one. See, rather than
    saying, ``I'm looking forward to raising the taxes on the American
    people,'' this Democrat shows a different way of saying he's going to
    raise taxes on--he just said, ``I can't think of one of the tax cuts
    that I would extend.'' So, for example, the child tax credit will go
    from $1,000 a child to $500 a child.
        Audience members. Boo!
        The President. And if you've got four kids--right there. I'm going
    to use you as an example, if that's all right. So when you get to dinner
    tonight and you're sitting around the table, you go, one, two, three,
    four, and multiply that by $500 a child. That's $2,000. You'll be paying
    $2,000 more in taxes if people across this country vote Democrat. The
    best way for you to keep your taxes low is to vote Republican.
        There are clear differences on this important issue. The Democrats
    want to raise taxes when you're born, when you're working, when you're
    retired, and when you die. [Laughter] In other words, the Democrats'
    philosophy is this: If it breathes, tax it. [Laughter] And if it stops
    breathing, find their children and tax them. [Laughter] Our philosophy
    is, we want you to have more of your own money because we know the tax
    cuts have worked to keep this economy strong.

    [[Page 2036]]

        These are historic times. When our children and grandchildren look
    back on this period, there will be one overriding question; one question
    will overwhelm all the rest: Did the United States do everything in our
    power to win the war on terror? I wish I could tell you we weren't at
    war, but we are. We face a brutal enemy that has an ideology, an
    ideology so backwards that many of our citizens can't possibly
    comprehend it. See, we believe in basic freedoms; they don't. We believe
    in the freedom to worship; they don't. We believe in freedom to dissent;
    they don't. We believe in freedom of a press; they don't.
        And because we stand in the way of their ambitions, which is to
    spread their vision as far and wide as possible, they want to hurt us.
    And so my most important job--when it all boils down to Washington, DC,
    my most important job, and any of us in Washington's most important job,
    is to protect you. You can't negotiate with these people. You cannot
    hope for the best with these people. The best way to protect you is to
    find them and bring them to justice before they have a chance to hurt
    us.
        And we've got to make sure we're doing everything at home to protect
    you. The enemy has got to be right one time, and we've got to be right
    100 percent of the time to do our job to secure this country. And so
    that is why I worked with the Congress to tear down walls that prevented
    our intelligence services from talking to law enforcement. It probably
    didn't make any sense to you that's what happened, but that's the case.
    And so I asked Congress to pass the PATRIOT Act. And they did. But when
    it came time to be renewed, the overwhelming majority of the Democrats
    in the House and in the United States Senate voted no.
        Audience members. Boo!
        The President. And the reason I'm bringing this up to you is that
    there is a different mindset in Washington, DC, than what I believe.
    See, I believe our professionals have all the tools necessary to protect
    you; Democrats don't. There's an attitude up there that says, ``Well,
    we'll respond after we're attacked.'' My attitude is, we're going to
    respond before we're attacked.
        I felt it was important if Al Qaida or an Al Qaida affiliate was
    making a phone call into the United States that we knew why. In this
    different kind of war, we must understand what the enemy is thinking, if
    our job is to prevent an attack. When that bill came up in front of the
    United States House of Representatives, the vast majority of Democrats
    voted against it.
        I felt it was important that when we picked somebody up off the
    battlefield that we had an opportunity to question that person. See, we
    picked up Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who
    our intelligence services think was the mastermind of September the
    11th. Here's my way of thinking: If he knew about one attack, he might
    know about another attack. When this bill came up in front of the House
    and the Senate, the overwhelming majority of Democrats voted no. If the
    people of this country expect their Government to do its most important
    job, you better elect people who will give our professionals the tools
    necessary to protect you, and those people are Republicans.
        We're involved in a global struggle, and we will face the enemy
    where we find them, no matter what the theater of war is. The most
    important theater, however, is Iraq. See, one of the lessons of
    September the 11th is that when we see a threat, we have got to take
    that threat seriously. I saw a threat in Saddam Hussein; Members of the United States Congress in both
    political parties saw the same threat; the United Nations saw the
    threat. My decision to get rid of Saddam Hussein was the right decision,
    and the world is better off for it.
        Audience members. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
        The President. On Sunday, we witnessed a landmark event in the
    history of Iraq.

    [[Page 2037]]

    Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced to
    death. We congratulate the Iraqi people. We appreciate the fact that
    they're converting their country from a rule of a tyrant to rule of law.
    And as we congratulate the Iraqi people, we've got to remember that
    there was a lot of brave men and women who wear our uniform that made
    sacrifices necessary so that Iraq got to that position in the first
    place.
        In our efforts to protect you, Iraq is now the central front. Oh,
    you hear them all the time in Washington say, ``Well, Iraq isn't the
    central front in the war on terror,'' or, ``Iraq is a distraction from
    the war on terror.'' I don't think it is, our troops don't think it is,
    and neither does Usama bin Laden. He has
    said that the fight in Iraq is the third world war. He has said that
    victory for the terrorists in Iraq will mean America's defeat and
    disgrace forever. That's what he said.
        Oh, you hear them in Washington say, the Democrats say, that because
    we're fighting them in Iraq, we're creating more enemies. Well, Iraq is
    not the reason that the terrorists are at war with us. We weren't in
    Iraq when they bombed the World Trade Center in 1993. We weren't in Iraq
    when they attacked our Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. We weren't in
    Iraq when they attacked the USS Cole. And we were not in Iraq on
    September the 11th, 2001. You do not create terrorists by fighting the
    terrorists. The best way to protect you is to stay on the offense and
    defeat the enemy overseas so we do not have to face them again here at
    home.
        Our goal in Iraq is victory, and victory means a country that can
    sustain itself and defend itself and govern itself and a country which
    will be an ally in the war on terror against these extremists and
    radicals. And we've got a lot going for us. First of all, we have a plan
    for victory. I have given our commanders on the ground all the
    flexibility and all the tools they need to be able to stay ahead of the
    enemy. And we got a fighting force equal to none. We got the finest
    United States military ever.
        I understand a lot of citizens don't agree that Iraq is important
    for your security, but our troops understand it. Morale is high. They
    understand what's going on in this combat zone. They understand the
    stakes. And therefore, those of us in government have the full
    responsibility to give them all the tools they need to do the jobs that
    I've asked them to do. And you don't have to worry about
    Martinez and Miller. They understand that when we've got a man or woman in
    harm's way, he or she deserves all the full support of the Federal
    Government.
        We've got something else going for us, and those are brave Iraqis.
    These folks have suffered unspeakable violence, and yet they're still
    committed to a government of, by, and for the people. You know, when
    they went to the polls and defied the car bombers and assassins, I was
    pleased, but I wasn't surprised. And the reason I wasn't surprised is
    because I believe in an Almighty, and I believe a great gift of the
    Almighty in each man and woman's soul is the desire to be free. I
    believe in the universality of freedom. It shouldn't surprise you when
    people say, ``I'd rather be free than live under the hand of a tyrant.''
        So we'll help the Iraqis. We'll help them politically; we'll help
    economically; and we will continue to train their security forces so
    they get to take the fight to the enemy. And I want you to know, if
    you've got a loved one in uniform, if you've got a loved one in Iraq, I
    would not have your loved one there if I didn't believe that the cause
    was noble and just and that victory was attainable. As a matter of fact,
    the only way we will not win is if we leave before the job is done.
        This is an important part of this campaign. It's an important part
    for your future. And if you listen for the plan of the Democrats, there
    isn't one. Oh, they've got some ideas. Some of them say, ``Get out right
    now.'' Some of them say, ``Get out

    [[Page 2038]]

    at a fixed date,'' even though the job hasn't been done. One of them
    said, ``Let's move our troops to an island some 5,000 miles away.''
        Audience members. Boo!
        The President. They don't have a plan, but they've got a principle
    around which they're organized, which is: It's too tough; get out before
    the job is done. That's what they believe. I'm not saying they're
    unpatriotic; I'm saying they're wrong. They have taken a calculated
    gamble. They believe the only way they can win this election is to
    criticize and offer no plan. It's a huge election issue, and they don't
    have a plan. So if you happen to bump into a Democrat candidate, you
    might want to ask this question: What is your plan? If they say they
    want to protect the homeland but opposed the PATRIOT Act, ask them this
    question: What's your plan? If they say they want to uncover terrorist
    plots but opposed listening in on terrorist conversations, ask them this
    question: What's your plan?
        Audience members. What's your plan?
        The President. If they say they want to stop new attacks on our
    country but opposed letting the CIA detain and question the terrorists
    who might know what those plots are, ask them this question: What's your
    plan?
        Audience members. What's your plan?
        The President. If they say they want to win the war on terror but
    call for America to pull out from what Al Qaida says is the central
    front in the war on terror, ask them a simple question----
        Audience members. What's your plan?
        The President. They don't have one. [Laughter] I want you to remind
    your fellow citizens when you ask them to go vote, harsh criticism is
    not a plan for victory. Second-guessing is not a strategy. We have a
    plan for victory, and part of that plan is to make sure Republicans
    control the House and the Senate.
        Retreat from Iraq before the job is done would embolden the enemy
    and would make this country less secure. In this war, if we were to
    leave before the job is done, the enemy would follow us here to America.
    If we leave before the job is done, it would enable these radicals and
    extremists to be able to recruit. If we leave before the job is done, it
    would dash the hopes of millions upon millions of people in the Middle
    East who simply want to live a peaceful existence. It would condemn them
    to the violent ideology of these haters. And if we were to leave before
    the job was done, it would dishonor the sacrifice of the men and women
    who have worn our uniform.
        The stakes in this fight in Iraq are important, not only for today's
    generation but for future generations. See, the enemy has made it
    abundantly clear that they believe we'll leave because we're soft. They
    believe if they can put enough unspeakable violence on the TV screens
    that America will lose its nerve. They don't understand; we don't run
    from thugs and assassins. They believe it's a matter of time for us to
    leave, and they want us to so they can have safe haven from which to
    launch further attacks. This is what they have said. They have said that
    they want us to leave so they can have room to topple moderate
    governments, to begin to expand their ideological vision.
        Can you imagine a world in the Middle East in which they controlled
    oil resources? And then they would say to the West, ``Abandon your
    alliance with Israel, abandon your alliance with moderate governments,
    withdraw; otherwise, we'll bring you to your knees, economically.'' And
    you couple that with a country with a nuclear weapon that doesn't like
    us, and people will look at this period of time and say, ``What happened
    to them in 2006? How come they couldn't see the impending danger? What
    clouded their vision?'' I want to assure you, I see the danger. That is
    why we will stay in Iraq, fight in Iraq, and win in Iraq.
        One of my favorite stories that I like to share with our fellow
    citizens is the story about the time when Laura
    and I went

    [[Page 2039]]

    to Elvis's place with sitting Prime Minister Koizumi of Japan. People say, ``What the heck did you go
    there for?'' [Laughter] I said, ``Well, I hadn't taken Laura on a
    vacation for a while.'' [Laughter] Koizumi himself wanted to go because
    he was an Elvis fan. [Laughter] But it also tells an interesting story
    about the power of liberty, about the capacity of liberty to change for
    the better.
        See, the Japanese attacked us, and thousands of young Americans,
    like your relatives and our dad, said, ``I
    volunteer. I volunteer to fight for the country.'' It's happening today,
    by the way. Thousands are doing the same thing. And he went, and
    thousands went, and thousands died in a bloody war. And yet his son is
    on Air Force One flying down to Memphis, Tennessee, talking about the
    peace, talking about peace on the Korean Peninsula, talking about the
    fact that Japan had 1,000 troops in Iraq. The Prime Minister and I understand we're in an ideological struggle
    between extremists and people who want a better life than what they
    offer. And the best way to defeat the ideology of hate is with an
    ideology of hope. We were talking about the admonition, to whom much is
    given, much is required, and that's why we'll continue to lead the fight
    against the pandemic of HIV/AIDS. We were talking about our global
    responsibilities to foster peace.
        Isn't that interesting? Our dad fought
    the Japanese, and one of his sons is talking about keeping the peace.
    Something happened. Japan adopted a Japanese-style democracy. The lesson
    is that liberty has got the capacity to transform an enemy into an ally;
    liberty has got the capacity to transform a region of the world that is
    resentful and full of hate to a region of the world full of hope.
    Someday, an elected leader from the United States will be sitting down
    with elected leaders from the Middle East talking about the peace, and a
    generation of Americans will be better off for it.
        And those are the stakes in this election. I urge our fellow
    citizens to go to the polls. I urge you to do your duty in this great
    democracy, and that is to exercise your right as an individual to
    determine the course of this Nation. And as you're going into those
    polls, remember, if you want your taxes low, vote Republican. And as you
    go to the polls, remember, we're at war. And if you want this country to
    do everything in its power to protect you and, at the same time, lay the
    foundation of peace for generations to come, vote Republican.
        Laura and I are so pleased you're here. Thank
    you for coming out. Thank you for your interest. May God bless you, and
    may God continue to bless the United States.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:24 p.m. at the Pensacola Civic Center. In
    his remarks, he referred to former President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; and
    Usama bin Laden, leader of the Al Qaida terrorist organization.