[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 44 (Monday, November 4, 2002)]
[Pages 1868-1874]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in Phoenix, Arizona

October 27, 2002

    Thank you all. Governor, thanks for that kind introduction. You 
know, it wasn't all that long ago that a lot of people were saying, 
``Old Matt Salmon doesn't even have a chance.'' A lot of the pundits 
here in the State of Arizona had written this good man off, but it looks 
like to me they might have wasted a little ink.
    A lot of people were saying, ``Well, he's just not going to get 
there.'' My fellow Americans and the good folks from Arizona, with your 
help, with your hard work, with your turning out the vote, with your 
joining this good man and his good wife, Matt Salmon is going to be the 
next Governor of Arizona. And I am proud to be here as one of his 
strongest supporters.
    I'm not as strong a supporter as the next first lady from Arizona. 
I'm proud that Nancy is here. She's going to make a great first lady. 
Old Matt and I married above ourselves. [Laughter] Laura sends her best. 
She sends her best regards to the Salmons. She knows what it's like to 
be running for office. She knows what it's like to be a first lady of a 
State. She's got all the confidence in the world, as do I, in the Salmon 
family. They will represent you with dignity. They'll represent you with 
class. They'll do a great job for everybody who lives in the State of 
Arizona.
    I'm also proud to be up here supporting Rick Renzi for the United 
States Congress. I like a man who believes in family values--all 12 of 
them. [Laughter] I had the privilege of campaigning with Rick in 
northern Arizona, the heart of his district. He's well liked there. 
People understand him. He's going to make a fine United States 
Congressman. No question in my mind, with your help, he is going to win.
    I want to thank one of my Cabinet Secretaries for joining us today, 
Mel Martinez from the Housing and Urban Development. Let me tell you 
about Mel. He's from Florida. There's another Governor's race over there 
I'm paying attention to, I might add. [Laughter]
    A long time ago when Mel was a little fellow, his parents made a 
difficult decision. They sent him to the United States from Cuba. They 
sent him in what they call Operation Pedro Pan from an island controlled 
by a dictator to the land of the free. They put their young lad--let him 
go--they stayed behind for a while, not certain if they could get out--
because of what America stood for. And here is that little man. That 
Pedro Pan, years later, is now in the Cabinet of the President of the 
United States, doing a fabulous job on behalf of America. The American 
Dream is alive and well, and Mel Martinez represents it all.
    I'm honored to be here with my good friend the Governor of Arizona; 
I appreciate her service to your State, and I appreciate her friendship 
to Laura and me--Jane Dee Hull. Thank you, Governor.
    I want to thank Cindy McCain for coming. She didn't bring John. She 
brought Jack. [Laughter] Senator McCain is out working hard to make sure 
that we change the leadership in the United States Senate. I appreciate 
John McCain and Jon Kyl's good work on behalf of the American people. 
And there's a lot of reasons why we need to change the Senate--no more 
clear reason than to make sure the good, honest judges I put up for the 
Federal bench get a good hearing.
    We've got some of the members of the mighty Arizona congressional 
delegation who are here with us. One man not with us, but a man who's 
done a fabulous job on behalf of the people of Arizona and the people of 
the United States, is the chairman, Bob Stump. He served with 
distinction. He served with class. And of course, we all wish Bob all 
the very best.
    I'm so proud to be up here with John Shadegg and Jeff Flake and big 
J.D. Hayworth. I told J.D., those of us in the political world make a 
living by shaking hands, and I'm not shaking his anymore. [Laughter]
    I also want to thank Trent Franks, who's running for the United 
States Congress, for joining us today. For those of you in Trent's

[[Page 1869]]

district, give this good man your hard work. Thanks for coming, Trent.
    I know we've got the mayor here, Skip Rimsza, from the city of 
Phoenix. I want to thank you for coming, Skip. I'm proud to--I don't see 
you anywhere, but I'm proud that you're here. You're not Skip. 
[Laughter] You're not even old enough to vote. [Laughter] But if you're 
wise, you'll follow in his footsteps and serve your community, like he 
does. But thank you, Mr. Mayor, for coming today.
    I want to thank the Mountain View High School Band for being here on 
a Sunday afternoon; thank you all. I appreciate you all coming. I'll try 
to keep my short--my speech short, so you can go back and study. 
[Laughter]
    I want to thank all those of you who are involved in the political 
process for being here today. Obviously, you're interested; otherwise, 
you wouldn't have come. But a lot of you are the folks at the grassroots 
level who make a tremendous difference as to whether or not a candidate 
has a chance of winning or not.
    For those of you who are at the grassroots, I want to thank you for 
what you're doing and going to do, which is to man the phones, put up 
the signs, send the letters, remind your friends and fellow Arizonians 
they have an obligation to America to vote. If you're living in this 
country, you have an obligation as a citizen to exercise this wonderful 
freedom. Go to your houses of worship and your community centers and 
your coffee shops and talk it up. Talk it up about Matt Salmon and your 
congressional candidates. Don't be afraid to talk to good Democrats, 
either. Listen, a good Democrat knows the difference between a tax 
raiser and a tax cutter. These candidates are going to win, and they're 
going to win because of you all. So thanks for coming, and thanks for 
your interest.
    The Governor's race of any State is really important. It's important 
to have somebody who's going to do in office what they say they're going 
to do, not somebody who kind of walks around taking a poll here and 
running a focus group there, trying to figure out what position to take, 
not somebody who will take a position one day, and then the butane gets 
turned up and changes their mind. That's not the kind of Governor you 
need. You need somebody who's steady, somebody who knows what he 
believes, somebody like Salmon that, when he went to the United States 
Congress, he said he was only going to serve three terms, and then did 
what he said. That's the kind of Governor you need, somebody whose word 
you can trust.
    You must have a Governor who's got the right priorities. Educating a 
child is the right priority, and that's Matt Salmon's priority. 
Education is to a State what national defense is to the Federal 
Government, by far the most important priority. And this Governor 
understands that.
    But a good Governor is someone who also has the right frame of mind 
when it comes to education. And that frame of mind starts with realizing 
every child can learn and believing that every child can learn, a frame 
of mind that is willing to set high standards and therefore challenge 
what I call the soft bigotry of low expectations; somebody that 
understands that if you set the bar low, you're going to get bad 
results.
    It's that type of attitude, by the way, the people that set the bar 
low or those who are willing just to write off certain children who are 
hard to educate--you see, it's much easier to walk into a classroom full 
of children whose parents may not speak English as a first language and 
say, ``These kids can't learn. Let's just move them through.'' You've 
got to have a Governor who's willing to challenge the status quo, who's 
willing to say that it is unacceptable to socially promote children who 
may be hard to educate, a Governor whose vision for their State says 
every child can learn, not just those in good suburban districts but 
every single child can learn.
    You've got to have a Governor who also understands that 
bureaucracies don't set the path to excellence for every child, that 
you've got to have local control of schools, that one size doesn't fit 
all. And you've got to have a Governor who's willing to ask the 
fundamental question, is every child learning in Arizona? See, if you 
believe every child can learn, then you've got to ask the question. Show 
me. And therefore you must have accountability.
    And with Matt Salmon as the Governor, when he finds children in 
schools that are

[[Page 1870]]

working, he'll praise the teachers, and we need to praise the teachers. 
But the thing I appreciate about this good man is, when he finds 
children trapped in schools that will not teach and schools that will 
not change, this is a man who will challenge the special interests of 
Arizona with one interest in mind, the children. He will challenge the 
status quo because he believes, like I believe, that no child should be 
left behind in the State of Arizona.
    I appreciate so very much that Matt understands the role of 
Government is not to create wealth. The role of Government is to create 
an environment in which the small-business owner and the entrepreneur 
can flourish. Seventy percent of new jobs in America are created by 
small-business owners, and you better have you a Governor who 
understands the role of small business in our society. And Matt Salmon 
understands that. When he says he's not raising taxes, book it.
    I look forward to working with Matt when we get a welfare 
reauthorization bill through the Congress, one that says that we're 
going to help people find work. The best welfare program is a program 
which incorporates work so that people have the dignity of being able to 
put food on their own table.
    I look forward to working with Matt to make sure our health care 
system works. And I look forward to working with Rick and the other 
Members of Congress and the two United States Senators to make sure our 
health care system works. Medicine has changed. Medicare hasn't. 
Medicine is going modern. Medicare is stuck in the past. For the sake of 
our seniors, for the sake of the quality of life for those who depend 
upon the Federal Government when it comes to Medicare, we need to 
modernize Medicare, reform Medicare, and include a prescription drug 
benefit for Arizona's seniors.
    Now, there's a lot of issues that we can work on together. The 
people of Arizona will understand when Matt becomes the Governor that 
he's going to work to change the tone. He's going to elevate the 
discourse, that he's not politics as usual, that he's here to serve the 
good people of the State. He's not going to be one of these fellows that 
says, ``Well, did you vote for me? I'm going to be your Governor. If you 
didn't vote for me, I'm not.'' His intention is to represent every 
single person in Arizona, and he will do so with distinction and with 
class.
    I keep talking about Renzi. One reason I'm anxious to get Renzi up 
there is because I want to make sure Denny Hastert remains the Speaker 
of the House. The leadership of the House of Representatives and the 
Members of the House of Representatives from the Republican Party have 
done a really good job on behalf of America. They've had a very strong 
agenda. They passed a lot of legislation that has been positive for our 
country.
    I can't say the same thing for the United States Senate. A lot of 
good legislation is stuck--no more important piece of legislation than 
the homeland security bill. The reason why we need a homeland security 
bill is because there's an enemy out there which hates America; enemy 
out there still lurking around; enemy out there that hates us because of 
what we love. And we're not changing what we love. We love freedom.
    We love the idea of our fellow Americans being able to worship an 
almighty God any way you see fit. We love that. We love our democracy. 
We love our free press. We love every aspect of our freedom. And so long 
as we hold those freedoms dear to our heart, there's an enemy out there 
which is trying to hurt us. And so our biggest job now is to protect the 
American people. I take that seriously. It's a solemn obligation. 
[Applause] You all go ahead and sit down.
    It's even more solemn now that--that we're no longer protected by 
two oceans. It used to be, of course, that we could depend upon our 
geography to protect us from hatred, that there might be a turmoil 
somewhere in the world or there might be a threat somewhere in the 
world, and we could contain that threat if we choose to do so, or we 
could be involved in the conflict if we chose to do so. But we felt 
pretty comfortable about our security because of our--because of the two 
oceans which protected us.
    And we learned a rough lesson on September the 11th, 2001, that when 
there's hatred and people trying to hurt us, the battlefield can end up 
right here at home. And we've always got to remember that. I'm certainly 
going to remember that, that the stakes

[[Page 1871]]

are different and that they're higher. In order to protect the American 
people, we must see clearly the threats we face. We can't have any 
fuzziness anymore, because the oceans aren't there.
    And there's a true threat that we face in the form of Saddam 
Hussein. It's a real threat; it's not an imagined threat. It's a 
threat--it's a threat because he's shown the world what he's like.
    He said he doesn't have any weapons of mass destruction, said he 
wouldn't have weapons of mass destruction, and he does. He's not only 
got weapons of mass destruction; he's used weapons of mass destruction. 
He's used them against his neighbors. He's used them against his own 
citizens. This is a man who can't stand America and what we believe in. 
Nor can he stand some of our friends and allies. He's a danger; he's a 
threat.
    And so I went to the United Nations, and I said, ``You've told this 
guy for 11 years in 16 different resolutions to disarm, and he hasn't 
done it. And for the sake of world peace, why don't you show us whether 
or not you're going to be a body which can act in the name of peace, or 
whether you're going to be something like the League of Nations. You 
have a choice to make,'' I said to them. ``Show us whether or not you 
can be effective. We want you to be effective in the name of peace. We 
want you to have people listen to your word. If you say, `Disarm,' we 
want people to disarm. If you come together as an organization that puts 
out a decree that the free world speaks, we want you to be effective.'' 
I think it's going to make the world a more peaceful place as we head 
into the 21st century, particularly as we face these new threats. I's 
their choice to make.
    And at the same time, we said the same thing to Saddam Hussein: 
``You said you would disarm. Now disarm. The choice is yours.''
    But my fellow Americans, for the sake of peace and security, for the 
sake of making sure the Middle East is peaceful, for the making sure 
that the true threats don't come to our shore in the form of a terrorist 
organization which may have obtained weapons of mass destruction from 
this man, I believe we owe it to our children and our children's 
children to lead a coalition. If the U.N. won't act, if Saddam Hussein 
will not act, if he continues to defy the world, the United States, in 
the name of peace, will lead a coalition to disarm Saddam Hussein.
    No, the threat is real. The threat is real. It's important to be 
clear-eyed. It's also important to do everything we can here at home to 
protect you, and a lot of good people are working hard to do so. Anytime 
we find a hint, any kind of evidence of a plot, we're doing everything 
we can to disrupt or deter or deny. We've got a lot of good people at 
the Federal level and the State level and the local level working a lot 
of long hours.
    You see, we are on alert; we're aware. We weren't aware prior to 
September the 11th about this enemy that--how evil they are. But now we 
know they're out there. And we're doing good things here at home, but we 
can do better. And that's why I've asked the Congress to join me in 
creating this Department of Homeland Security, so that the agencies 
involved with protecting you have got the capacity to have as their 
number one priority and their number one focus and a culture which says 
protecting America is the most important thing we'll do.
    And the House of Representatives passed a good piece of legislation 
that enables this administration and future administrations to be able 
to have the management capacity to protect the homeland. The Senate is 
stuck. See, they want me to give up some power, power that has been in 
the Presidency since John Kennedy was the President, the ability to 
suspend work rules in the name of national security, the capacity to say 
it's in our national interests to suspend certain work rules so that you 
put the right people at the right place at the right time to protect the 
American people. And I'm not going to accept a lousy bill out of the 
United States Senate.
    And the reason why is, this is a task that we'll be involved with 
for a while. And so the best way to protect the homeland is to hunt 
these killers down, one person at a time, and bring them to justice, 
which is exactly what the United States of America is going to do.
    Last week I signed a defense bill which is the biggest increase in 
defense money

[[Page 1872]]

since Ronald Reagan was the President. People ought to read two things 
in that defense bill. One, anytime we put our troops into harm's way, 
they deserve the best pay, the best training, and the best possible 
equipment. We owe that to our troops, and we owe that to the loved ones 
of the troops. And for those of you who have got a relative in the 
military, you've just got to know, this Commander in Chief has all the 
confidence in the world in the men and women who wear our uniform.
    It's a different kind of war--oh, the second message that we're 
sending, by the way, is that we're in this deal for the long haul, that 
there's no time certain where we've got to quit. In other words, this 
isn't a--defending freedom doesn't have anything to do with the 
calendar; it has everything to do with success. And so we're going to 
stay the course until we defeat the agents of terror.
    The coalition is strong. The doctrine still stands that says, 
``Either you're with the United States and freedom-loving people, or 
you're with the enemy.'' That doctrine still stands. And the message of 
that defense bill says it's going to stand for quite a while.
    And we're making progress--we're making progress. It's a different 
kind of war we fight. So I like to spend time, whether it's in the midst 
of the campaign, or Governor Salmon's time, or any other speech, to help 
educate the American people about the nature of this war.
    The best way I like to describe it is, in the old days, you could 
determine whether or not you were making progress against the enemy by 
the number of tanks that you destroyed or the number of aircraft you 
shot out of the air or the number of ships you sunk. This bunch we 
fought, they don't have ships. They hide in caves and send youngsters to 
their suicidal death. These are the kind of people that have hijacked a 
great religion. They have no regard for innocent life, and they're 
nothing but a bunch of coldblooded killers, and we're going to treat 
them like that.
    So we're after them. We're after them one at a time. And that's why 
intelligence-sharing is incredibly important. That's why it's important 
to work with others to cut off their money. I just came up from Cabo San 
Lucas, where I was meeting with APEC nations. These are nations that 
border the Pacific. And yesterday the first agenda amongst the leaders 
was terrorism, counterterrorism. I was the first speaker. I reminded 
them that the war goes on. I reminded them they have an obligation to 
join with us. And when we find somebody that we know is a part of this 
terrorist network, they go get them, or we go get them. Either case, 
we're going to get them.
    The other day, one guy popped his head up. His name was bin al-
Shibh. He's not a problem anymore to America. He's now--he was--this is 
the person that was going to be the 20th hijacker, and he was in 
Pakistan, hiding. But we found him. See, there's no cave deep enough to 
hide. There's no corner of the world dark enough. Slowly but surely, 
America and others who love freedom are hunting them down. We've 
probably hauled in a couple of thousand of them so far. A like number 
wasn't as lucky.
    And it's going to take a while. It's going to take a while. We've 
got brave troops still on the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. 
They've got--I was with--I talked to the President of the Philippines, 
Gloria Arroyo, who has been such a strong supporter. I said, ``We'll 
continue to provide you help, and thanks for going to get the head of 
the Abu Sayyaf,'' who was the person that led a group of killers that 
kidnaped Americans and just tried to wreak havoc--they're terrorists.
    Slowly but surely, we're going to bring these people to justice. 
There's no doubt in my mind. See, the enemy didn't understand who they 
were hitting. They thought they were hitting somebody that--somebody 
that was so selfish and materialistic and so self-absorbed that, after 
September the 11th, 2001, we'd take a step back and file a lawsuit or 
two. [Laughter] That's what they thought. And they found out something 
differently. They found out the mighty United States of America loves 
freedom, and we're relentless when it comes to the pursuit of justice. 
And we're not backing down.
    I believe strongly that out of the evil done to America is going to 
come some good. I believe that because we're such a great nation and a 
strong nation and a compassionate

[[Page 1873]]

nation, that out of the evil done to the country will come some good, 
starting with peace.
    You've got to understand, and I hope you tell your loved ones, that 
amidst all the talk about war is a deep, abiding desire for peace. I 
long for peace for our own country. But because this Nation says 
everybody matters--in contrast to the enemy, this Nation believes every 
life counts; everybody has worth. I long for peace around the world. I 
long for peace in places where people have quit on peace. And I believe 
we can achieve it. I believe by being strong and tough, by being true to 
our love of freedom and understanding that freedom isn't America's gift 
to the world, it is a God gift, and that freedom is universal, it is 
applied to everybody--if we remain true and strong and diligent, we can 
achieve peace. We can achieve peace.
    And here at home we can achieve a better America, too, an America 
that--that the great hope of America, the great bright light of America 
shines in every neighborhood. See, amongst our plenty, there are people 
who hurt. There are some who say, you say, ``American Dream,'' and they 
don't even know what you're talking about. ``American Dream, what is 
that?''
    And so long as one of us hurts, we all hurt, as far as I'm 
concerned. And we have a chance--we really have a chance. The Government 
can help; we can do things, of course, to make sure that people's lives 
are better. I talked about education. I talked about Medicare. Another 
thing Government can do to make sure lives are better is to make sure 
that tax cuts we passed are permanent. You see, when you let people have 
more money--if you let people have more money in their pocket, it's 
going to encourage economic growth. And so long as somebody is looking 
for work, who wants to work and can't find a job, we've got a problem.
    And therefore, one of the things Government can do is be pro-growth, 
is do everything we can to encourage the vitality of the economy to go 
forward. I'm optimistic about our economy. Interest rates are low. 
Inflation is low. Productivity is up. But in order to make sure small 
business flourishes and the entrepreneurial spirit is strong, Congress 
needs to make the tax cuts permanent. Congress needs to make sure we get 
rid of the death tax, once and for all--another reason to make sure that 
we change the Senate and keep Denny Hastert as the Speaker.
    But one of the things we've got to remember is that Government can 
do certain things. Government can hand out money, for example. And 
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.
    See, we can change America, one heart and one soul at a time, if all 
of us understands that we can make--each of us can make a difference. 
When you put your arm around somebody who hurts and somebody in need--
who's in need, and say, ``I love you,'' you're part of changing America. 
If you're a Boy Scout leader or a Girl Scout leader, you're changing 
America. If you work in a Boys or Girls Club, you're changing America. 
If you're involved in the quality of education in your neighborhood, 
you're changing America. If you just walk into a shut-in's house and 
say, ``I love you; can I help you,'' you're changing America.
    No, the enemy hit us. They didn't know who they were hitting. They 
didn't understand America like I do. Not only are we strong, we are 
compassionate. Many of our fellow citizens have taken a step back, and 
they said, ``What is life all about? What is the true definition of a 
patriot?'' I think we're all beginning to understand, serving something 
greater than yourself in life, serving your Nation by helping a neighbor 
in need, is the definition of the American spirit that is alive and 
well.
    I want the youngsters here to realize that you live in the greatest 
land in the face of the Earth. It's a land that we can never take for 
granted. That's why voting is incredibly important. But as a citizen of 
this land, in order to make sure it continues to remain great, you have 
an obligation--we all have an obligation to do what we can do, to do 
what Government cannot do, and that's to help people, one person at a 
time.
    Perhaps the most vivid reminder--I think history will show this is a 
vivid reminder of what I'm talking about, the American spirit that is 
alive and well--took place on Flight 93. People were flying across the 
country--people were flying across the country that

[[Page 1874]]

day. They weren't sure what was going on. They were on cell phones, 
using the modern technology to learn that the airplane they were on was 
being used as a weapon.
    Some of them didn't panic. Probably all of them didn't. They were on 
the phones to their loved ones. They said goodbye. I'm sure they said, 
``I love you.'' They used the word ``love.'' They said a prayer. One guy 
said, ``Let's roll.'' They took the airplane into the ground to serve 
something greater than themselves in life.
    That's the American spirit that is alive and well and strong. It is 
a spirit of sacrifice. It is a spirit of compassion. It is a spirit of 
decency. And it is the spirit that allows me to boldly predict that out 
of the evil done to America is going to come an America that is more 
hopeful, more decent for every single person who's fortunate enough to 
live in this country.
    No, you're looking at one of the greatest optimists ever to hold the 
office of the Presidency, because I understand America is the greatest 
nation, full of the most decent people on the face of the Earth.
    Thank you all for coming today. May God bless you, and may God bless 
America.

Note: The President spoke at 4:54 p.m. at the Dodge Theater. In his 
remarks, he referred to gubernatorial candidate Matt Salmon, who 
introduced the President, and his wife, Nancy Salmon; Rick Renzi, 
candidate for Arizona's First Congressional District; Gov. Jane Dee Hull 
of Arizona; Cindy McCain, wife of Senator John McCain, and their son 
Jack; Trent Franks, candidate for Arizona's Second Congressional 
District; President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; and Ramzi bin al-Shibh, an 
Al Qaida operative suspected of helping to plan the September 11, 2001, 
terrorist attacks, who was captured in Karachi, Pakistan.