[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 44 (Monday, November 1, 2004)]
[Pages 2634-2641]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Remarks in Findlay, Ohio
October 27, 2004
The President. Thank you all for coming. You know, it is such a
beautiful day in Flag City, I think I'll just take off my jacket and
stay a while. Thanks for coming out. You are lifting our spirits. We're
honored you're here. And Laura and I have come with the great
[[Page 2635]]
Senator from Georgia to not only ask for your vote but to ask for your
help. We need your help coming down the stretch to get your friends and
neighbors to go to the polls.
We have a duty in our democracy to vote. We have an obligation to
vote. So I'm asking you to tell your friends and neighbors about that
obligation. Get our Republicans to go out there. Get independents to go
out there. And find those discerning Democrats like Zell Miller and head
them to the polls. And when you get them to the polls, remind them, if
they want a safer America and a stronger America and a better America,
to put me and Dick Cheney back in office.
Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
The President. I have been traveling your State a lot, and I enjoy
it. I have had a chance to say hello to a lot of the citizens from Ohio.
And I've been telling them why they ought to put me back in office. But
perhaps the most important reason why I ought to have 4 more years is so
that Laura is the First Lady for 4 more years. I'm sure some will be
able to relate to this story. You know, Laura and I went to the seventh
grade together in San Jacinto Junior High in Midland, Texas. We became
reacquainted. She was a public school librarian, and when I asked her to
marry me, she said, ``Fine, but make me a promise.'' I said, ``Okay,
what is it?'' She said, ``Promise me I'll never have to give a political
speech.'' [Laughter] I said, ``Okay, you got a deal.'' Fortunately, she
did not hold me to that promise. She is giving a lot of speeches, and
when she does, the American people see a warm, compassionate, strong
First Lady.
I'm looking around. I see some people out there who are follically
challenged. [Laughter] And think about that, it reminds me of my Vice
President. [Laughter] Dick Cheney is a great Vice President. He does not
have the waviest hair in the race. [Laughter] But you all will be
pleased to hear, I didn't pick him because of his hairdo. I picked him
because of his judgment. I picked him because of his experience. I
picked him because he's getting the job done for the American people.
It's a joy to travel with my friend Zell Miller. He's strong. He is
courageous. He puts party aside and puts his country first, and for
that, I am grateful.
I call him Ox; you call him Congressman. Mike Oxley is as fine as
they are in the House of Representatives. He's a good man, and I
appreciate his service. And I want to thank his wife, Pat, for joining
us as well. And I am proud to be up here, or close by, with the fine
United States Senator, Michael DeWine. He's doing a good job for the
people of Ohio, as is George Voinovich. Make sure you put George back
in. And I appreciate Fran DeWine joining us.
I want to thank Congressman Paul Gillmore for being here today.
I want to thank your Governor, Bob Taft, for joining us today. Mr.
Governor, I appreciate your service to the State of Ohio. I want to
thank Jennette Bradley for joining us today, the Lieutenant Governor of
the State of Ohio.
I appreciate Mayor Iriti for joining us today. Mr. Mayor, you didn't
ask me for any advice, but I'm going to give you some: Fill the
potholes. Mayor Iriti is a good man, and I appreciate him being here.
And I want to thank you, Mr. Mayor, for serving. I want to thank all the
other State and local officials.
I want to thank the Findlay High School Marching Band for joining
us. I want to thank Wil Gravatt Band for joining us today.
Most of all, I want to thank you all. I want to thank the grassroots
activists, the people who are putting up the signs, the people making
the phone calls, the people who have worked so hard to make this rally
such a successful rally. I want to thank you for what you have done, and
I want to thank you for what you are going to do, which is turn out that
vote. And with your help, there is no doubt in my mind, we'll carry Ohio
again and win a great victory on November the 2d.
This election comes down to some clear choices for America's
families, choices on issues of great consequence. The first clear choice
is the most important because it concerns the security of your family.
All progress on every other issue depends on the safety of our citizens.
This will be the first Presidential election since September the 11th,
2001. Americans will go to the polls in a time of war and of ongoing
threat unlike any we have faced before. The terrorists who kill
[[Page 2636]]
thousands of innocent people are still dangerous, and they are
determined to strike. The outcome of this election will set the
direction of the war against terror. The most solemn duty of the
American President is to protect the American people. If America shows
uncertainty or weakness in this decade, the world will drift toward
tragedy. This will not happen on my watch.
Since that terrible morning of September the 11th, 2001, we have
fought the terrorists across the Earth, not for pride, not for power but
because the lives of our citizens are at stake. Our strategy is clear.
We have strengthened the protections for the homeland. We're reforming
our intelligence capabilities. We're transforming the United States
military. We will keep the All-Volunteer Army an all-volunteer army.
There will be no draft. We are relentless. We are determined. We are
staying on the offensive so we do not have to face these terrorists here
at home.
And we're spreading freedom and liberty. Some amazing things have
happened in a short period of time. I want the youngsters here to
understand what has happened in the world. In Afghanistan, 3\1/2\ years
ago, young girls couldn't go to school. And if their mothers did not toe
the line of the ideologues of hate who ran that country, they were
whipped in the public square, sometimes executed in a sports stadium. We
acted to defend ourselves. We upheld the doctrine that said, ``If you
harbor a terrorist, you're equally as guilty as the terrorist.'' And in
so doing, we liberated people from the clutches of those barbaric people
called the Taliban. Millions of people went to vote in a Presidential
election. The first voter was a 19-year-old woman. Freedom is on the
march.
It's never easy to go from tyranny to liberty, but that's where
we're headed. There will be elections in Iraq. Think how far that
country has come from the days of mass graves and torture chambers. I
believe everybody in the world yearns to be free. I believe people deep
in their soul want to live in a free society. I believe that because
freedom is not America's gift to the world; freedom is the Almighty
God's gift to each man and woman in this world.
A President must lead with consistency and strength. In a war,
sometimes you have to change your tactics but never your principles.
Americans have seen how I do my job. Even when you might not agree with
me, you know what I believe, you know where I stand, and you know what I
intend to do. On good days and on bad days, whether the polls are up or
the polls are down, I will do everything we can do to defend the
American people and win this war against the terrorists. And I will
always support the men and women who wear our Nation's uniform.
We have got a great United States military. And I am proud to be
their Commander in Chief. I want to thank the families of those who wear
our Nation's uniform. I want to thank you for your sacrifices. I want to
thank the veterans who are here today for having set such a great
example for those who wear the uniform.
As I've told families all across this country, we will make sure
your loved ones have the support necessary to complete their missions.
And that's why I went to the United States Congress and asked for $87
billion of supplemental funding in September of 2003, necessary funding,
important funding to support our troops in harm's way. And we received
good support for that. As a matter of fact, the support was so strong
that only 12 Members of the United States Senate voted against funding
for our troops, 2 of whom were my opponent and his runningmate.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. Now, I would like for you to share this startling
statistic with your friends and neighbors as you get them going to the
polls: There were only 4 Members of the United States Senate--4 out of
100--that voted to authorize the use of force and then voted against
supporting our troops in harm's way, and 2 of those 4 were my opponent
and his runningmate.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. Now, you might remember his--Senator Kerry's
explanation about that vote. He said, ``I actually did vote for the $87
billion, right before I voted against it.'' Now, I haven't spent much
time in the coffee shops of Findlay, but I suspect you're not going to
find many people in this part of the world who talk that way.
[[Page 2637]]
They kept pressing him about it. He's given four or five different
explanations about the vote. One of the most interesting ones of all
that speaks to my opponent, said, ``Well, the whole thing was just a
complicated matter.'' [Laughter] There's nothing complicated about
supporting our troops in harm's way.
After repeatedly calling Iraq the ``wrong war'' and a ``diversion,''
Senator Kerry, this week, seemed shocked to learn that Iraq was a
dangerous place full of dangerous weapons. [Laughter] The Senator used
to know that, even though he seems to have forgotten it over the course
of the campaign. But that's why we went there. See, Iraq was a dangerous
place run by a dangerous tyrant who hated the United States. And he had
a lot of weapons. And we've seized or destroyed more than 400,000 tons
of munitions, including explosives at thousands of sites. And we're
continuing to round up weapons nearly every day.
Now, I want to remind you all, if Senator Kerry had had his way, we
would still be taking our ``global test.''
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. And Saddam Hussein would still be in power, and he
would control all those weapons and explosives and could have shared
them with a terrorist enemy. Now, the Senator is making wild charges
about missing explosives. One of his top foreign policy advisers admits
he doesn't know the facts. He said, ``I don't know the truth,'' end
quote. Well, think about that. The Senator is denigrating the actions of
our troops and commanders in the field without knowing the facts. Our
military is now investigating a number of possible scenarios, including
that the explosives may have been moved before our troops even arrived
at the site. This investigation is important, and it is ongoing. And a
political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts
is not the person you want as the Commander in Chief.
Unfortunately, that is part of a pattern. My opponent is throwing
out the wild claim that he knows where bin Laden was in the fall of 2001
and that our military passed up a chance to get him at Tora Bora. You
might remember that. He kept repeating that in the debates. Well, this
is unjustified criticism of our military commanders in the field. This
is the kind of--worst kind of Monday morning quarterbacking, what we've
come to expect from him, however.
In fact, our commander in Afghanistan, General Tommy Franks,
recently wrote this about Tora Bora: ``The Senator's understanding of
events does not square with reality.'' He went on to say--the General
says, ``American Special Forces were actively involved in the search for
the terrorists at Tora Bora'' and that ``intelligence reports at the
time placed bin Laden in any of several countries.'' That's what Tommy
Franks, who knew what he's talking about, said.
Poor Senator Kerry got into political difficulty and revised his
views. He saw our actions in Tora Bora differently. In the fall of 2001,
on national television, he said this about Tora Bora: ``I think we've
been doing this pretty effectively, and we should continue to do it that
way.'' At the time, the Senator said about Tora Bora: ``I think we have
been smart. I think the administration leadership has done it well, and
we are on the right track,'' end quote. All I can say about that is, I
am George W. Bush, and I approve of that message.
The security of our families is vital, and it's important to our
people of this country to understand the records. Senator Kerry's record
on national security has the far deeper problem than election-year flip-
flopping. On the largest national security issues of our time, he has
been consistently wrong. When Ronald Reagan was confronting the Soviet
Union at the height of the cold war, Senator Kerry said that President
Reagan's policy of peace through strength was making America less safe.
History has shown that Senator Kerry was wrong and President Ronald
Reagan was right.
When former President Bush led a coalition against Saddam Hussein in
1991, Senator Kerry voted against the use of forces to liberate Kuwait.
History has shown that Senator Kerry was wrong and former President Bush
was right.
In 1994, just one year after the first bombing of the World Trade
Center, Senator Kerry proposed massive cuts in America's intelligence
budget, so massive that even his
[[Page 2638]]
Massachusetts colleague, Ted Kennedy, opposed them. History has shown
that Senator Kerry was wrong and--we have got to be fair--that Senator
Kennedy was right.
During the last 20 years, in key moments of challenge and decision
for America, Senator Kerry has chosen the position of weakness and
inaction. With that record, he stands in opposition not just to me but
to the great tradition of the Democratic Party. The party of Franklin
Roosevelt, the party of Harry Truman, the party of John Kennedy is
rightly remembered for confidence and resolve in times of war and hours
of crisis. Senator Kerry has turned his back on ``pay any price'' and
``bear any burden,'' and he has replaced those commitments with ``wait
and see'' and ``cut and run.''
Many Democrats in this country do not recognize their party anymore.
And traveling Ohio, I want to speak to every one of them: If you believe
that America should lead with strength and purpose and confidence in our
ideals, I would be honored to have your support, and I'm asking for your
vote.
Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
The President. The second clear choice in this election concerns
your family's budget. When I ran for President 4 years ago, I pledged to
lower taxes for American families. And I kept my word. We doubled the
child credit to $1,000 per child to help our families. We reduced the
marriage penalty. I believe the Tax Code ought to encourage marriage,
not penalize marriage. We dropped the lowest bracket to 10 percent. We
reduced income taxes for everybody that pays income taxes. After-tax
income--that's money in your pocket--has gone up by about 10 percent
since I became your President.
And I want you to remind your friends and neighbors, when you're out
there getting people to the polls, what this economy has been through.
Six months prior to my arrival, the stock market was in serious decline.
Then we had a recession. Then we had corporate scandals. But we passed
what's called the Sarbanes-Oxley bill, a bill that makes it abundantly
clear that we will not tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of America.
And I want to thank Congressman Oxley for authoring this legislation.
And then we got attacked on September the 11th. Those attacks cost us
about a million jobs in the 3 months after that fateful day.
But our economic policies have led us back to growth. Our economy is
growing at rates as fast as any in nearly 20 years. Homeownership in
America is at an alltime high. We saw a lot of good farmland, flying in
today. The farm incomes are up all across America. Our small businesses
are flourishing. The entrepreneurial spirit is strong. We've added 1.9
million new jobs since August of 2003. The national unemployment rate is
5.4 percent. Let me put that in perspective for you: That's lower than
the average rate of the 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s.
I know there are placed hurting here in Ohio. I've traveled into
those neighborhoods. I've talked about an economic plan to continue
growth. But I want to remind you that just last month, the unemployment
rate in the State of Ohio went from 6.3 percent to 6 percent, and this
great State added 5,500 new jobs in 1 month. We're on the move. We're
moving forward.
My opponent has very different plans for your budget. He's going to
take a big chunk out of it.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. He voted against the child tax credit. He voted
against marriage penalty relief. He voted against lower taxes. And if
his way had prevailed, the average family in America would have been
paying 2,000 more in taxes to the Federal Government.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. That may not seem like a lot to folks in Washington.
It means a lot to people in Findlay, Ohio.
He served in the United States Senate for 20 years, and he's voted
for higher taxes 98 times. That's five times every year he served in the
Senate. I would call that a predictable pattern--[laughter]--a reliable
indicator. [Laughter] When a Senator does something that often, he must
really enjoy it. [Laughter] Around the campaign, he's been promising
$2.2 trillion in new Federal spending. That's trillion with a ``T.''
That's a lot even for a Senator from Massachusetts. [Laughter]
So they asked him, ``How are you going to pay for it?'' And he said
that same old, tired line you've heard over and over again,
[[Page 2639]]
``We're going to tax the rich.'' Well, there's a problem with that. When
you run up the top two brackets, you only raise between 600 and 800
billion dollars. That's far short of the 2.2 trillion he has promised. I
would call that a tax gap. And guess who gets to usually fill that tax
gap?
Audience member. We do!
The President. You do. The good news is we're going to carry Ohio,
and we're not going to let him tax you.
The third choice in this election involves the quality of life for
our Nation's families. A good education and quality health care are
important for your future. As a candidate, I pledged to end the soft
bigotry of low expectations by reforming our public schools. I kept my
word. We passed a really good piece of reform legislation. We're raising
the standards. We've increased Federal spending, but now we're asking
for results. We want to measure. See, you can't solve a problem unless
you've diagnosed the problem. And we're diagnosing problems all across
America, and we're beginning to solve them. Our test scores in reading
and math are up. We're closing achievement gaps for minority students
all across America. We'll build on these reforms and extend them to our
high schools so that no child is left behind in our country.
We'll continue to improve life for our families by making health
care more affordable and accessible. We'll make sure the poor and the
indigent get health care in what's called community health centers.
We'll make sure our low-income--our program for low-income--children in
low-income families is fully subscribed so they get health care. To make
sure health care is affordable, we'll help our small businesses. We'll
allow them to pool together so they can spread risk and buy insurance at
the same discounts big companies are able to do. We will expand health
savings accounts, which will help our families and small-business
owners.
Let me tell you what else we need to do. We need to do something
about these frivolous lawsuits that are running up the cost of medicine
and running good doctors out of practice. I was in Canton the other day
talking to a ob-gyn who got run out of business because these lawsuits
made her premiums too high to practice medicine. And I met too many
citizens not only in your State but across the country, too many moms,
expectant moms, who are worried about their health care and the health
care of their baby because these lawsuits have made ob-gyn care more
scarce. This is a national problem. You cannot be pro-doctor, pro-
patient, and pro-plaintiff-injury-attorney at the same time. You've got
to make a choice. My opponent made his choice, and he put a personal
injury trial lawyer on the ticket.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. I have made my choice. I'm standing with the doctors
of Ohio. I'm standing with the patients of Ohio. I'm for medical
liability reform--now.
In one of our debates, my opponent looked straight in the camera
when they asked him about his health care plan, and he said, ``The
Government doesn't have anything to do with it.'' I'll be frank with
you, I could barely contain myself. The Government has got a lot to do
with his plan. Eighty percent of the people who sign up on his plan
would end up on the Government. See, if you make it easier for people to
sign up for Medicaid, it means small businesses are likely not to
provide insurance for their employees because the Government will
provide insurance for their employees. That's logical. And when the
Government starts writing the checks, the Government starts making the
rules. And when it comes to health care when the Government's making the
rules, the Government starts making decisions for you and decisions for
your doctor. The wrong prescription for health care in America is to
increase the role of the Federal Government. In all we do to improve
health care, we'll make sure the decisions are made by patients and
doctors, not by officials in Washington, DC.
The fourth clear choice in this election comes to your retirement.
Our Nation has made a solemn commitment to America's seniors on Social
Security and Medicare. When I ran for President 4 years ago, I promised
to keep that commitment and improve Medicare by adding prescription drug
coverage. I kept my word. We have modernized Medicare for our seniors.
Beginning in 2006, all seniors will be able to get prescription drug
coverage under Medicare.
[[Page 2640]]
And we'll keep our promise for Social Security for our seniors, and
we will strengthen Social Security for generations to come. I remember
the campaign in 2000. I remember those ads they were running. You might
remember them. They said, ``If George W. gets elected, the seniors are
not going to get their checks.'' They may be doing it again this year. I
want you to remind your friends and neighbors as you get them to the
polls that George W. did get elected, and our seniors did get their
checks. And our seniors will continue to get their checks. Nobody's
going to take away your check. Baby boomers like me, we're in pretty
good shape when it comes to the Social Security trust. We'll probably
get our checks.
But we need to worry about our children and our grandchildren. We
need to worry about whether or not the Social Security system will be
there for them when they retire. That's why I believe younger workers
ought to be able to take some of their own money--some of their own
payroll taxes--and put it in a personal savings account, an account they
call their own, an account the Government cannot take away.
Now, my opponent takes a different approach. He says he's going to
strengthen Social Security; he's going to protect it. But you might
remember, he is the only candidate in this race who has voted eight
times for higher taxes on Social Security benefits.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. He doesn't like talking about that. He can run, but
he cannot hide.
And he offered nothing for the younger generation in terms of
reform. The job of a President is to confront problems, not to pass them
on to future Presidents and future generations. In a new term, I will
bring Republicans and Democrats together to strengthen the Social
Security system for generations to come.
And the final choice in this election is on the values that are so
crucial to keeping our families strong. And here, my opponent and I are
miles apart. I stand for the appointment of Federal judges who know the
difference between personal opinion and the strict interpretation of the
law. I believe marriage is a sacred commitment, a pillar of our
civilization, and I will defend it. This is not a partisan issue. When
Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act, defining marriage as a
union of a man and a woman, the vast majority of Democrats supported it
and President Bill Clinton signed it into law. But Senator Kerry was
part of an out-of-the-mainstream minority that voted against the Defense
of Marriage Act.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. I believe that reasonable people can find common
ground on difficult issues. Republicans and Democrats came together and
agreed we should ban the brutal practice of partial-birth abortion. I
proudly signed that bill. But Senator Kerry was part of an out-of-the-
mainstream minority that voted against the ban.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. He voted against parental notification laws and
against the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. I will continue to reach out
to Americans of every belief and move this goodhearted Nation toward a
culture of life.
At one point in this campaign, you might remember this: My opponent
said that the heart and soul of America can be found in Hollywood.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. Most American families do not look toward--to
Hollywood as a source of values. The heart and soul of America is found
in communities like Flag City, Ohio.
All these choices make this one of the most important elections in
our history. The security and prosperity of our country, the health and
education of our families, the retirement of our citizens, and the
direction of our culture are all at stake. And the decision is in the
best of hands. It is in the hands of the American people. It is in your
hands. You get to decide. And that gives me great confidence.
See, I'm optimistic about this country and our future. One of my
favorite quotes is from a fellow Texan named Tom Lea. He said this, he
said, ``Sarah and I live on the east side of the mountain. It is the
sunrise side, not the sunset side. It is the side to see the day that is
coming, not to see the day that is gone.'' During the course of this
campaign,
[[Page 2641]]
my opponent has spent much of his campaign talking about the day that is
gone. I'm talking about the day that's coming.
We've been through a lot together. We have been through a lot
together during the last nearly 4 years. Because we've done the hard
work of climbing the mountain, we can see the valley below. The next 4
years, we'll work to protect our families, build our prosperity, and
defend our values. We will work hard to spread freedom and liberty so we
can achieve the peace we want for generations to come.
Four years ago, when I traveled your great State asking for the
vote, I made you this pledge, that if I was elected to the office I
hold, I would uphold the honor and its dignity. With your help, with
your hard work, I will do so for 4 more years.
Thanks for coming. God bless. Thank you all. Thanks for coming.
Note: The President spoke at 4:20 p.m. at the Hancock County
Fairgrounds. In his remarks, he referred to Senator Zell Miller of
Georgia, who made the keynote address at the Republican National
Convention; Fran DeWine, wife of Senator Mike DeWine; Gov. Bob Taft and
Lt. Gov. Jennette B. Bradley of Ohio; Mayor Anthony P. Iriti of Findlay,
OH; country music entertainers the Wil Gravatt Band; former President
Saddam Hussein of Iraq; Usama bin Laden, leader of the Al Qaida
terrorist organization; and Gen. Tommy R. Franks, USA, (Ret.), former
combatant commander, U.S. Central Command.