[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 25 (Monday, June 25, 2007)]
[Pages 842-847]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Reception for Senatorial Candidate Jefferson B. Sessions 
III in Mobile, Alabama

June 21, 2007

    The President. Thank you all. Thanks for coming. Thank you for the 
warm welcome. I'm delighted to be here in Mobile. It's an exciting 
place, isn't it?
    Audience members. Yes!
    The President. So I'm flying in with Jeff and Congressman Jo Bonner, 
who, by the way, is doing a fantastic job for you--couldn't wait to show 
me the new building. He said, ``I understand that Laura loves to come to 
Mobile. We'll just rent you a place in it.'' [Laughter]
    I'm excited for you to be living in such a vibrant part of our 
country. For those of you who are creating jobs and helping this part of 
the world grow, thank you for doing what you're doing. And Laura and I 
are really grateful to be with you. She loves coming down here. She 
loves coming to see the Fooses. She's making new friends coming down 
here. And one of these days, I'm going to come down here and get some 
fishing in. But in the meantime, I've got a job to do. [Laughter]
    So we're proud to be with you. I'm really happy to be here with Jeff 
Sessions. He's a unique fellow. He's smart. He's capable. He's down-to-
earth. What you see is what you get. He has done a fabulous job 
representing Alabama, and he deserves to be reelected.
    And I want to thank you for helping him. You know, when you get out 
there as a candidate, sometimes you wonder whether or not anybody is 
going to be for you. Well, it's easy for me to see, Jeff, that in this 
room, there's a lot of people for you. And I thank you for your time to 
help him, and I thank you for your hard-earned money, to make it clear 
to the people of Alabama that this guy is the right man to represent you 
in the United States Senate for 6 more years.
    I'll never forget coming down here for Hurricane Ivan. As you know--
and probably

[[Page 843]]

some of you got hit hard by it. One of the things that struck me about 
Senator Sessions during that time was his great compassion for all the 
people of Alabama. As sure as my memory serves me correctly, he said, 
``When you get back up there and start writing these emergency 
declarations, make sure you don't forget the people from the rural part 
of my State. It's so easy to remember the people living in the big 
cities. But, Mr. President, there's a lot of good folks from Alabama 
that are in rural Alabama, and I want you to remember them when it came 
time for the emergency.''
    See, Jeff Sessions is a big thinker. He just doesn't get caught up 
in one aspect of Alabama society. He thinks clearly and compassionately 
for all people of this State. And so, Jeff, I'm proud of what you told 
me then. I think I listened to you very carefully and wrote those 
emergency declarations just like the way you told me to. [Laughter]
    He's a strong ally on a lot of fronts. We occasionally have our 
differences. [Laughter] I mean, take the immigration bill, for example. 
[Laughter] We both agree we've got a problem. [Laughter] And the 
fundamental question is, how best to fix it?
    I remember--and I'm going to share this with Sessions--I remember a 
political buddy of mine in Texas. He said, if we agreed 100 percent of 
the time, one of us wouldn't be necessary. [Laughter] Well, he's 
necessary in the United States Senate, and I'm proud you're here to back 
him, and thanks for coming.
    I married well, and so did Sessions. [Laughter] And we're proud to 
be here with Mary and the family. I don't know if you know this or not, 
but Abbie Sessions is here. That's Jeff's mom, 94 years young. And Ms. 
Sessions, thanks for coming--as well as his aunt, Mary Powe. She's only 
88. [Laughter] We're glad you all are here. Thanks for raising a good 
boy, Ms. Sessions. And I'm sure, Jeff, your mother is like mine--she's 
constantly telling you what to do. [Laughter] And I hope you're 
listening. [Laughter]
    I'm also proud to be here--I mentioned Jo came down with us, and 
Janee came here as well, the Bonners. Listen, this guy cares a lot about 
the people of Mobile. He is constantly talking about what needs to 
happen down here. You know, ``We've got to get this plan; we've got to 
do this, Mr. President; remember the people down here.'' He's really 
making you a fine hand, and it would be really wise to make sure you 
send him back to the United States Congress as well.
    Alabama Treasurer Kay Ivey is with us. Kay, thank you for joining 
us. Proud you're here. She's from Sessions's hometown. What's the name 
of it again?
    Senator Sessions. Camden.
    The President. Camden. Yeah, Camden. There she is back there. Thanks 
for coming.
    And how many people in your high school class?
    Senator Sessions. Thirty.
    The President. Thirty people in the high school--he finished in the 
top 30 in the--[laughter]. Better than I did. [Laughter]
    We appreciate the fact that Mike Duncan, the chairman of the 
Republican National Committee has come today. Michael, thanks for coming 
down with us; appreciate your being here. Edgar Welden, national 
committeeman from Alabama, and his wife, Louise--appreciate you being 
here, Edgar. Thanks for serving.
    I thank all the grassroots activists who are here. Those are the 
people, Jeffrey, who are going to put up your signs, knock on the doors, 
make the phone calls necessary to do what's right for the country and 
for this State, and that's to put you back in the United States Senate.
    I want to talk about two issues that matter in politics, and it 
matters for this country. That would be peace and prosperity. This is a 
nation at war. I wish I could report to you that it wasn't the case, but 
it is a nation at war. And we better have people in the United States 
Senate who understand that--and Jeffrey understands that--because when 
you understand that, then you understand the most important priority for 
your Government is to protect you. It's the single most important task 
that we have in Washington, DC, is to do that which is necessary to 
protect the American people from an attack.
    And the first thing in order to understand the nature of this war, 
you must understand the nature of the enemy. We are facing ideologues, 
people who have a vision about how they want the world to look. These 
are

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people that do not believe in the same freedoms we believe in.
    One of the great freedoms of America is the ability of the people--
ability for people to worship the way they so choose. These people 
believe that if you don't worship the way they choose, they'll put you 
in harm's way. They can't stand freedom. They can't stand the idea of 
people being able to express their opinions in the public square. They 
have a vision, and that is to spread their ideology as far as they 
possibly can. They want to reestablish what's called the caliphate, and 
they use murder as a tool to achieve their objectives.
    These people are dangerous; they're lethal. You can't make any--
can't talk common sense to them. The only way to protect the American 
people is to stay on the offense and defeat them overseas so we don't 
have to face them here.
    And that is the great challenge facing the United States of America. 
The fundamental question is, will we have people in the United States 
Senate who understand that we're in a global war against ideologues that 
murder the innocent to achieve their objectives? The question is, will 
we have people who understand that their objective is to create as much 
chaos and havoc and cause us to retreat from the world? That's the 
challenge.
    We face threats from around the world. And that's why I call it a 
global war on terror. And some of the lessons of September the 11th must 
never be forgotten. One lesson, of course, is the nature of these 
people. Another lesson is that when we see threats, we must take them 
seriously. Third lesson is, is that we must do everything we can to deny 
safe haven from which these killers could plot and plan attacks on the 
United States of America. And that's precisely the strategy that you're 
seeing unfold.
    In Afghanistan, the enemy had achieved safe haven. We gave them 
ample time to kick the enemy out of the country. They chose not to, and 
we liberated 25 million people as we took the action necessary to 
protect the American people.
    In Iraq, I saw a threat to the United States of America; the world 
saw the same threat. We went to the United Nations, as you might 
remember, and said, ``Disclose, disarm, or face serious consequences.'' 
Saddam Hussein had the choice to make. He defied the world once again, 
and the United States, with a strong coalition, freed the world of the 
dangers of Saddam Hussein, freed the Iraqi people. The world is better 
off without Saddam Hussein in power.
    Jeff Sessions understands that. He understands that the United 
States of America must defend ourselves. And he also understands that 
when we find the enemy overseas, we must deal with them there, 
otherwise, we'll have to face them here. And in Iraq--this is a tough 
fight in Iraq; it really is. It's the kind of battle that has got the 
capability of shaking the will of the American people. We're a 
compassionate people. We care deeply about human rights and human 
dignity. And when we see innocent people lose their life, it makes a lot 
of people wonder whether or not it's worth it, whether or not we can 
succeed.
    I do want to remind you, however, that after living under a brutal 
tyrant, when given a chance, 12 million Iraqis went to the polls. They 
said, ``Let us be free. We want to exercise our right as free 
individuals.'' It seems like an eternity ago, didn't it, when that vote 
took place. But in the march of history, it wasn't all that long. People 
do want to live in a free society. Mothers in the Muslim world want to 
raise their children in peace, just like mothers in Mobile, Alabama, 
want to raise their children in peace. There's something universal about 
the desire to live in a peaceful setting, in a peaceful society. So it 
shouldn't surprise you, as this young democracy begins to emerge, that 
the enemies of freedom have taken actions necessary to stop the 
progress.
    Most of the suicide bombings and the most horrific of bombings are 
perpetuated on the Iraqi people by Al Qaida. Al Qaida is the same bunch 
that attacked us on September the 11th and killed nearly 3,000 people. 
And what's that should tell the American people--it should tell the 
American people that we ought to take the words of Al Qaida seriously 
when they say, ``We're going to drive you out of Iraq so we can have a 
safe haven from which to plot and plan attacks on America.'' The fight 
for freedom in Iraq is the fight

[[Page 845]]

for the security of the United States of America, and we must prevail.
    The President makes decisions. And I made the decision to send more 
troops into Baghdad and Iraq as opposed to pulling out, and I want to 
share with you why. I saw the sectarian violence that was beginning to 
rage. Remember in 2005, we had the elections. The Government was elected 
under the most modern Constitution written in the Middle East. The enemy 
sees the progress; they bombed the mosques; it caused the sectarian 
violence to begin to spill out. And I was deeply concerned about whether 
or not that violence would spill out of the capital into the country and 
into the region. And remember, Al Qaida and the extremists love chaos. 
They're looking for power vacuums into which they can move their 
ideology as well as their strategies.
    I listened very carefully to Senators like Jeff Sessions and 
Senators who didn't agree with what Jeff and I believed was necessary. I 
listened to our military. That's what you want your President doing. 
And, by the way, you want your Senators supporting the United States 
military, which Jeff Sessions really does.
    So I made the decision to name a new commander as well as send 
troops into Baghdad, all aiming to give this young democracy a chance to 
survive the relentless attacks from the extremists and radicals who want 
to prevent their emergence. I knew this, I knew that if we were to 
retreat from Iraq, unlike other wars we have fought, the enemy would 
follow us here. It's one of the primary lessons of the world in which we 
live.
    And we're making some progress in Iraq. It's a tough fight. David 
Petraeus just finally got all the troops he's asked for, this past week. 
And now we're routing out the enemy along with the Iraqis.
    Now, I talked to Prime Minister Maliki last week and made it very 
clear to him that people all around the United States hope they succeed, 
but we understand that they are going to have to do some hard work, that 
they've got to do the political work necessary, that they've got to show 
those moms that a peaceful world will come, and they'll do the political 
work necessary to get it done.
    But I felt it was necessary to give them some space to get that job 
done. And so we're going to--and I want to thank Jeff Sessions. You 
know, it's not necessarily a popular thing to stand up and say, ``I 
support the troops, and I support the reinforcements, and I support 
David Petraeus.'' It may not be popular in certain circles, but it 
certainly brings confidence to the United States military to hear United 
States Senators speak with strength and conviction about the job these 
kids are doing.
    It's tough work, but its necessary work. If we were to leave before 
the job is done, if we were to allow this young democracy to be 
overwhelmed by the extremists and the radicals, people in the Middle 
East would say, ``What's the word of the United States worth?'' There 
would be people who want to live in a peaceful world wondering about the 
great nation of the United States. Al Qaida would be emboldened. It 
would make it easier to recruit. It would cause people who might be 
trying to choose how to--what kind of life they would want to slip into 
the company of these radicals and killers. People would look back 50 
years from now, I'm confident, and say, ``What happened to them in the 
year 2007? How come they couldn't see the impending danger? How come 
they couldn't see the threats that would evolve by enabling radicals to 
be able to emerge? How come they didn't deal with Iran as a perpetuator 
of radical Shiism that would be in competition with radical Sunniism, 
all of which would endanger the United States of America?''
    Well, I'm going to tell you something. I see the danger; I see the 
threat. And I can't wait to continue to lead the United States forward 
to make sure we secure this country for the long time. In the long run, 
the only way to defeat this ideology of hatred is with an ideology of 
hope. And that's an ideology based upon freedom.
    I will tell you what I believe. I believe there is an Almighty, and 
I believe a great gift of the Almighty to each man, woman, and child on 
the face of the Earth is freedom. That's what I believe. And I believe 
it's in the interests of the United States of America to promote freedom 
and democracy as the

[[Page 846]]

great alternatives to the ideology that inspired 19 kids to come and 
kill nearly 3,000 of our citizens. And that's the real challenge of the 
21st century.
    It's the great challenge we face. And the great challenge is to 
defeat this ideology with something better. And we've done it in the 
past. This isn't the first time the United States of America has had to 
defend ourselves against ideologues. This is--I know there's--some of 
you had relatives who fought in the Pacific in World War II. I did. I 
find it one of the great ironies of history that one of my great friends 
during my Presidency was the Prime Minister of Japan. Isn't that 
interesting? My dad was a Navy fighter pilot who fought the Japanese. 
They were the sworn enemy of our country. Thousands of people died. And 
yet, some 60 years later, his son sits at the table talking about the 
peace with the former enemy, Koizumi and now Prime Minister Abe.
    It startles me every time I think about it, but it gives me great 
faith in understanding the power of liberty to transform the world in 
which we live, to make it peaceful for generations to come. It gives me 
great faith to know that liberty had the capacity to transform an enemy 
into an ally. Liberty has got the ability to lift people's hopes, to 
bring light into society. Liberty has got the capacity to lay that 
foundation of peace for generations to come.
    This is the challenge we face in the 21st century. I am proud to be 
standing with a man who understands the challenges and will do 
everything in his power to help us accomplish our mission, and that's 
Jeff Sessions.
    I want to talk about one other issue, and that's how do we make sure 
this economy stays strong. They're telling me the unemployment rate here 
in Alabama is 3 percent. Something's working. [Laughter]
    The economy is strong around the United States. We created more than 
8 million new jobs over the past 4 years. When I say ``we,'' that's not 
government. Those are small-business owners, entrepreneurs, dreamers, 
doers, risk takers. The economic history, the recent economic history, 
however, of the country hasn't been all that pleasant. You might 
remember, shortly after I got sworn in as President of the United 
States, we went into a recession, and then we had a terrorist attack on 
our country. We had some corporate scandals we had to deal with, which 
created uncertainty. The economic outlook not all that long ago wasn't 
all that bright. It wasn't all that cheery.
    We came together with Members of the United States Senate like Jeff 
Sessions. We said, what do we need to do? How do we need to make sure 
our economy grows? And we put forth an inherent part of our philosophy 
which says this: You can spend your money better than the government 
can. And the best way to create economic vitality and economic growth is 
to cut the taxes on the people who work.
    And this is a big issue for the American people. Taxes has always 
been a big issue, and it will always be a big issue because it is a 
fundamental debate about the proper role of government. It's a 
fundamental debate about understanding how new jobs are created. Most 
new jobs in America are created by small-business owners. When you cut 
the taxes on people, on the individual taxes, you are really cutting the 
taxes on small businesses because most small businesses are limited 
partnerships or sole proprietorships or subchapter S's. When you cut the 
taxes on people who are working, it gives them hope and inspiration. It 
puts that proper balance between government and you.
    Jeff Sessions understands that. I understand it. The best way to 
keep this economy growing is to make sure the Democrats don't run up 
your taxes. And they want to. [Laughter] All you've got to do is look at 
that budget they just submitted--a lot of new spending. You know, you'll 
hear them say, ``Oh, we're just going to raise the taxes on the rich.'' 
Well, first of all, you can't raise enough money on the rich to whet 
their appetite. And secondly, they're going to say, ``We're going to 
raise your taxes, don't worry about it, just to balance the budget.'' 
That's not the way it works in Washington. They will raise your taxes so 
they can spend new money on new programs.
    Make no mistake about it, this is a fundamental divide between our 
two parties. If you want somebody in the United States Senate

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who will keep your taxes low, who understands the proper balance between 
government and entrepreneurship, it is Senator Jeff Sessions.
    Some of you are probably concerned about the budget. You should be. 
But you ought to be pleased with how progrowth economic policies have 
affected the budget. You see, it's interesting. When you keep taxes low, 
it causes the economy to grow. And when the economy grows, it causes 
there to be more tax revenues into the Treasury. And if you're wise 
about spending the money like we have been over the past 5 years, not 
overspending, setting priorities--by the way, we're going to make sure 
our troops get all they need. We'll make sure our veterans are fully 
supported when they take the uniform off. But we've got to set 
priorities in Washington.
    If you're wise about spending the money, it's amazing what happens 
to the deficit. I said, we're going to cut the deficit in half in 5 
years. It turns out, we cut the deficit in half 3 years earlier. I then 
submitted a budget that said, we're going to balance the budget in 5 
years. Our deficit relative to GDP is low. In other words, what's 
happening is, progrowth economic policies are creating plenty of 
revenues. And now the task is to make sure that we keep your spending 
down to a reasonable level, and that's why they got the President the 
veto.
    And one thing is, you can count on Sessions, see. That's the thing 
about it. He understands that we've got to keep taxes low. He 
understands that you've got to make the tough decision when it comes to 
spending money. And he understands we better support our troops. I'm 
proud to be up here with him. I can't think of a better United States 
Senator than Jeff Sessions. You're lucky to have him in Alabama. He's 
lucky to have you as friends.
    Thanks for coming. God bless.

Note: The President spoke at 5:05 p.m. at the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile 
Convention Center. In his remarks, he referred to Gen. David H. 
Petraeus, USA, commanding general, Multi-National Force--Iraq; Prime 
Minister Nuri al-Maliki of Iraq; and former Prime Minister Junichiro 
Koizumi and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan.