[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2006, Book II)]
[September 21, 2006]
[Pages 1683-1688]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Reception for Gubernatorial Candidate Charles J. Crist, 
Jr., and the Republican Party of Florida in 
Orlando
September 21, 2006

    The President. Thank you all. Thanks for coming. I appreciate you 
all being here. Thanks for your time. From ``Chalkboard Charlie'' to 
``Governor Charlie.'' Thanks for helping this good man. He's a good, 
decent man. He's had plenty of experience. He knows what he needs to do. 
He's been the commissioner of education; he's been your attorney 
general; he's been a State senator. He's the right guy for the job, and 
I want to thank you very much for standing strong when you find somebody 
who is decent and honorable, willing to serve the State of Florida, and 
that's Charlie Crist.
    And you're right, Charlie, you're following a good man. He's made our family proud. But more importantly, he's 
done a fine job for the people of Florida. He's the kind of guy--
[applause]--and, Charlie, I know you'll follow this example about you--
he doesn't need a poll or a focus group to tell him what to think.
    And that's what is necessary to make the hard decisions when you're 
the chief executive officer of a State, or in my case, the United 
States. I'm proud to be here with Charlie. I know something about being 
a Governor; I was one once. It requires a man with vision and a person 
who knows how to set the right priorities for a State. There's no doubt 
in my mind Charlie Crist will make a great Governor for the State of 
Florida, and I want to thank you for helping him.
    And my wife feels the same way. If you were 
smart, Charlie, you'd get Laura down here to campaign for you. She sends 
her love; she sends her love to Jeb; and she sends 
her love to our friends here in Florida. And we've got a lot of friends. 
We've been blessed in this great State to have made a lot of friends. 
And I want to thank all my buddies who were there when nobody thought we 
could win in 2000, and then came back through in 2004. Now you're back 
in 2006, and I'm grateful. It's for a good cause.
    I want to thank Jeff Kottkamp, the 
next Lieutenant Governor of the State of Florida, who is with us today. 
I, too, encourage you to vote for Katherine Harris for the United States Senate. Welcome, Katherine.
    One of my long-time friends here in Orange County is a guy whose son 
made him famous--[laughter]--a while ago. You might remember the 
incident. I was up there giving one of my best speeches. [Laughter] I 
was putting 100 percent into it. I thought I had the crowd on their 
feet, until I looked behind me. And Crotty's son was sound asleep. [Laughter] So, Crotty, you tell him, stay awake the next time he comes to 
one of these things. It kind of hurts an old guy's feelings. But I'm 
glad to be here with Rich Crotty. He's doing a fine job in Orange 
County.
    I want to thank all the other State and local officials who are 
here. I want to thank the party activists who are here, starting with 
Carole Jean Jordan, who is the chairman of 
the Republican Party of Florida, and my friend Al Austin, who is the finance chairman of the Republican Party of 
Florida.
    And raising money is one thing, and tonight is an extraordinarily 
successful event, and I thank you. I know it takes a lot to organize one 
of these events, and you've done a marvelous job. But I also want to 
remind you, in order for Charlie to win, he's going to need people to 
put up the signs and make the phone calls and stuff the envelopes--those 
quiet heroes of grassroots politics. So for those of you who have been 
involved with grassroots politics here in Florida, thank you for what 
you have done and thank you for what you're going

[[Page 1684]]

to do to help this good man get elected Governor of the State of 
Florida.
    You know, it's--one of the big issues that faces our country and 
your State is the issue of taxes. I think you're taxed too much; so does 
Charlie. And I think there's going to be a clear difference in this 
race, and there's certainly a clear difference nationally. You know, 
the--we share a philosophy, and that is, the role of Government is not 
to try to create wealth, but the role of Government is to create an 
environment in which the entrepreneurial spirit flourishes and which 
small businesses can grow to be big businesses. It's an environment in 
which people get to keep their own money. And the fundamental question 
facing this Nation and this State is, who best to spend your money? We 
believe the best people to spend your money is you.
    The Democrats believe they can spend it better than you can.
    Audience members. Noo!
    The President. And it's a fundamental, philosophical difference. I 
aim to make taxes a key issue across this country, and we've got a good 
record on taxes, and so does Brother Jeb, and so 
will Governor Crist.
    I was proud to sign the largest tax relief since Ronald Reagan was 
President of the United States. I did so because I felt we had enough 
money to spend on your behalf in Washington, DC, and I knew that if you 
had more money in your pocket to save, invest, or spend, this economy 
would grow.
    There's a fundamental difference in Washington. When we cut the 
taxes on child care, most Democrats voted against--on the child credit, 
most Democrats voted against it. We tried to get rid of the marriage 
penalty. It's a simple concept, by the way. You shouldn't penalize 
marriage in the Tax Code; you ought to encourage--most Democrats voted 
against it. When we tried to get the death tax on the road to 
extinction, most Democrats voted against it. We've got a record of 
cutting taxes, and they've got a record of opposing tax cuts. It's night 
and day. It is a clear example of the philosophical difference that 
divides Republicans and Democrats.
    I remember in 2003 when we cut the taxes, one of the leading 
Democrats stood up and said, ``Cutting taxes 
will do nothing to create jobs.'' Well, since that person uttered those 
famous words, our economy has added 5.7 million new jobs. This economy 
is strong.
    This economy is strong because we let you have more of your own 
money, and we intend to keep it that way. Just the other day, a top 
Democrat--the top Democrat on the House 
tax writing committee--that's called the Ways and Means Committee; 
they'll be the people who decide whether or not your taxes go up or 
down--said this, ``I can't think of one of our tax cuts that should be 
extended.''
    Now let me try to boil down Washington-speak for you. If the tax 
cuts are not extended, your taxes go up. It's kind of like an employer 
saying, you know, ``I'm not going to extend your pay raise,'' see. And 
so if they're going to say, ``Well, we're just not going to extend the 
tax cuts,'' that means they're going to run up your taxes. Running up 
your taxes would be wrong for our economy, and it would be wrong for the 
working families of the United States.
    So I asked Charlie, I said, what's he making a priority? He said, 
``I'm making property taxes a priority in the State of Florida.'' You 
put him in office, he's going to cut your property taxes, and you can 
take that to the bank.
    You know, we enacted some good legislation when it came to making 
sure our seniors have got good health care. You might remember, the 
Medicare program had gone a little stale. We would pay for surgeries but 
not for the prescription drugs that would prevent the surgery from being 
needed in the first place. And that didn't make any sense. My attitude 
is, if you're going to provide a service for our seniors, let's provide 
a good service.

[[Page 1685]]

    And so we modernized Medicare, and today, the bills that seniors pay 
for prescription drugs is way down, and the days of seniors--poor 
seniors having to choose between food and medicine, those days are over. 
And I'm going to need a Governor, just like Jeb 
did, to make sure the modernization of this Medicare program is 
available for all of Florida's seniors.
    When I was the Governor of Texas, I used to say, education is to the 
State what national defense is to the Federal Government. I think it's 
the most important priority of a State, is to make sure the public 
school system insists upon excellence for every single child. And that's 
what Charlie thinks too. That's why I called him ``Chalkboard.'' 
[Laughter] He understands that a Governor, just like your Governor has done, needs to lead when it comes to challenging 
mediocrity when we find it in the public schools.
    It's essential that our public schools work. It's essential that we 
set high standards and measure to make sure children are learning how to 
read and write and add and subtract. And if we find it early, we'll 
correct problems early so no child is left behind in America or in the 
State of Florida.
    These are the issues that the people of Florida are going to have to 
decide upon, you know: taxes, fiscal sanity, making sure the health care 
system works, and making sure every single child gets educated. And I 
think if Floridians of all parties--or even if they're not of a party--
pay attention to the debate, they'll find that Charlie Crist stands with 
them. He'll be a people's Governor. He likes to shake hands; he likes 
people. That's the kind of Governor you want. You want somebody who 
feels comfortable with the people of a State, somebody who can make 
decisions, and somebody who can set a clear vision on behalf of this 
vital State. And that's Charlie Crist.
    I want to talk a little bit about the stakes of the world in which 
we live. We're at war. We're at war with a group of ideologues that use 
murder as a weapon to intimidate and create fear. I wish I could report 
otherwise.
    I vowed after September the 11th, 2001, that I would use every one 
of our national assets in order to protect you. The most important job 
of any government in this day and age is to protect the American people 
from further attack. That starts with making sure our homeland is secure 
and making sure those on the frontline of protecting you have the tools 
necessary to be able to protect you. We have to find out what the enemy 
is thinking in order to stop attacks. If an Al Qaida or an Al Qaida 
associate is making a phone call into the United States, we need to know 
why in order to be able to protect you from further attacks.
    If somebody is moving money around to finance a terrorist operation, 
we want to know why they're moving money around, to protect you. If the 
CIA and the FBI need to be able to share information to protect you, we 
need to make sure those walls are permanently torn down. In order to 
protect the United States of America, we must give those on the 
frontline that are protecting this Nation the tools necessary to do so 
within the Constitution of the United States, and that is precisely what 
this administration is doing.
    But the facts are these: The enemy only has to be right one time to 
protect you--to hurt us, and we've got to be right 100 percent of the 
time to protect you, which means that the best way to protect the 
American people is to stay on the offense against these killers, defeat 
them overseas so we do not have to face them here at home, and bring 
them to justice before they hurt us again.
    And that's exactly what the United States of America is doing, with 
a lot of other nations. We're keeping the pressure on them. It's hard to 
plot and plan when you're on the run. And that's what we have been doing 
for 5\1/2\ years, and that's what we will continue to do so long as I'm 
your

[[Page 1686]]

President. The most important job we have is to protect the American 
people.
    You know, there's an enemy that still wants to strike. I mean, it 
should be clear to the American people, particularly after we recently, 
working with the Brits, foiled suicide attacks, bombing these airplanes 
when they're flying into the United States. These are ruthless people. 
You cannot negotiate with them; you can't hope that their ambitions go 
away; you can't try to--you know, therapy won't work. [Laughter] The 
only thing that matters is to bring them to justice. And make no mistake 
about it--[applause].
    And so our strategy is twofold. On the one hand, we'll protect you 
by staying on the offense. But we've got another weapon beside a 
fantastic military and great intelligence people, and another weapon is 
liberty and freedom.
    First, let me talk about the first part of our strategy. One is that 
when the President says something, he better mean it. And when I said, 
``If you harbor a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist or house a 
terrorist, you're equally as guilty as the terrorist, and you will be 
held to account.'' That's why we removed the Taliban that was providing 
safe haven for Al Qaida, from Afghanistan. Twenty-five million people 
now are free.
    The second part of the strategy is, when you see a threat, you must 
take threats seriously before they come and hurt us in the United 
States. It's a different doctrine than we had in the past, but these 
threats are different than the threats we've had in the past.
    I want to remind you that--what the world was like in 2001. In Iraq, 
there was a state sponsor of terror. There was a tyrant who brutalized his own people. This man was the sworn 
enemy of the United States of America. He paid suicide--families of 
suicide bombers to attack young democracies, for example. He had used 
weapons of mass destruction. He was a threat.
    Now, before the President commits troops, he must try diplomacy. I 
want you to walk back in that period of time and remember resolution 
after resolution after resolution that came through the United Nations, 
and yet the tyrant didn't change his mind. 
Saddam Hussein chose war, and war he got, and the world is better off 
without Saddam Hussein in power.
    And now Iraq is the central front on the war on terror. I hear 
people in the United States, ``Well, that's not true.'' My advice to 
them is to listen carefully to the words of the enemy. Usama bin 
Laden has called Iraq world war III. He and 
Mr. Zawahiri, the number-two man in Al 
Qaida, have made it clear that their intention is to drive us out of 
Iraq. They want the death and suffering we see on our TV screens to 
cause us to abandon the 12 million people who said, ``We want to be 
free.''
    And they want us to leave because they want to topple moderate 
governments in the region. They want to get a hold of oil resources. 
Imagine these radical jihadists, these extremists who've subverted a 
great religion, controlling oil. They would--they would love to create 
economic havoc on the United States of America. They have clearly stated 
their ambitions. The Commander in Chief must always take the words of 
the enemy seriously. And like them, I see Iraq as the central front in 
the war on terror, and unlike them, however, I refuse to yield to their 
barbarism. And we're going to stand strong with the 12 million Iraqis 
and help that young democracy survive for the sake of peace for our 
children and our grandchildren.
    And it is hard work, but America has done this kind of work before. 
I believe we're in a great ideological struggle. It's the ideological 
struggle of the 21st century. On the one hand, you have reasonable 
people--moms who want their children to grow up in a peaceful world; 
decent people who can't stand terror and violence and who long to be 
free--versus ideologues, people bound together by a common philosophy 
who use murder as a weapon. These are the stakes of the 21st century.

[[Page 1687]]

And I'm confident we will prevail, because I believe that liberty, 
liberty and freedom have got the capacity to overcome the dark vision of 
these ideologues.
    We've seen it happen in our history before. We have seen liberty 
triumph over hopelessness and despair. See, in the short run, we will 
stay on the offense, and we will help those brave souls who want to 
fight the enemy overseas so we don't have to face them here. In the long 
run, we will lay the foundation of peace for our children by spreading 
liberty.
    Now, one way to make this point to you and to the American citizens 
is to remind people about an interesting experience that I just had, 
when I flew to Memphis, Tennessee, with the Prime Minister of 
Japan. Prime Minister Koizumi and I went 
to Elvis's place. [Laughter] It was an interesting experience. I chose 
to go for three reasons: One, I had never been to Elvis's place--
[laughter]--and I thought that would be fun to do; plus, Laura wanted to go to Elvis's place. [Laughter] Secondly--and 
secondly, the Prime Minister wanted to go to Elvis's place--[laughter]--
because he's a big Elvis fan. He loved Elvis Presley. Isn't that 
interesting? The Prime Minister of Japan thought Elvis was ``It.''
    But I also wanted to make a point to the American citizens, and it's 
this: My dad, and many of your relatives, 
fought the Japanese. They were the sworn enemy of the United States of 
America. And yet his son had invited the Prime Minister of the former sworn enemy to travel to Elvis 
Presley's place. And on that plane going down there, we talked about 
peace. We talked about what we could do, working together, to deal with 
Kim Jong Il in North Korea. We talked about the 
fact that Japan had 1,000 of her troops alongside our brave troops in 
Iraq to help this young democracy defeat the forces of hatred. We talked 
about HIV/AIDS on the continent of Africa and how the United States and 
Japan can work together to save lives. We talked about feeding the 
hungry. We talked about helping the fledgling democracy in Afghanistan 
survive against the Taliban's attempts to overthrow them.
    Isn't it interesting? My dad fought the 
Japanese--or our dad fought the Japanese, and his son is now talking 
about the peace with the sworn enemy. Can you imagine somebody in 1948, 
after this terrible war, with all the hatred and bloodshed, standing up 
in front of the country and saying, ``I predict an American President 
someday will be taking a leader of the sworn enemy to the singer's 
house.'' [Laughter] They would have run him out of town. [Laughter]
    But it happened; it happened because Japan adopted a Japanese-style 
democracy. And the lesson of history is that liberty has got the 
capacity to change enemies into allies. Liberty has got the capacity to 
lay the foundation of peace. Someday, an American President will be 
sitting down with duly elected leaders in the Middle East talking about 
the peace, and a generation of Americans will be better off.
    These are trying times for our country. We've got a lot of stuff 
going for us, though, you know. We've got a fantastic military. And I 
will assure you this, that our military will have whatever it takes to 
do their job and defend this country.
    But we also have a lot of people who understand that liberty is not 
just an American concept. Liberty is universal. I personally believe 
there is an Almighty, and I believe that that Almighty's gift to each 
man and woman on the whole face of the Earth is the desire to be free. 
And I know that when people are able to realize that ambition, no matter 
what their religion, no matter where they live, the world will become a 
more peaceful place.
    It's an honor to be the President of a country that has got such 
good values, determined country, a country that knows that history can 
repeat itself with perseverance and strength of character. No, these are 
challenging times, but out of these times will come a more secure 
America and a more peaceful world.

[[Page 1688]]

    Thanks for helping Charlie. May God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 5:55 p.m. at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando. In 
his remarks, he referred to Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida; Mayor Richard T. 
Crotty of Orange County, FL, and his son, Tyler; former President Saddam 
Hussein of Iraq; Usama bin Laden, leader of the Al Qaida terrorist 
organization; and Chairman Kim Jong Il of North Korea.