For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
October 14, 2004
Vice President's Remarks at a Victory 2004 Rally in Ft. Myers, Florida
Florida Gulf Coast University
Fort Myers, Florida
12:38 P.M. EDT
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you very much.
There's a sign back there says, Casper, Wyoming, NCHS -- (Laughter.)
MRS. CHENEY: That's our high school.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's the high school Lynne and I attended
when she knew me when I was 14 but wouldn't go out with me until I was
17. (Laughter.) I like to tell people that we actually got married
because Dwight Eisenhower got elected President of the United States --
because in 1952, I was a youngster living in Lincoln, Nebraska with my
folks. Dad worked for the Soil Conservation Service. Eisenhower got
elected, reorganized the government, Dad got transferred to Casper,
Wyoming, and that's where I met Lynne. And we grew up together, went
to high school together, and recently celebrated our 40th wedding
anniversary. (Applause.) I explained to a group the other night that
if it hadn't been for Dwight Eisenhower's election victory, Lynne would
have married somebody else. (Laughter.) And she said, right, and now
he'd be Vice President of the United States. (Laughter.) Certainly
true.
Well, I can see by the looks of this crowd today, Fort Myers must
be Bush-Cheney country. (Applause.)
Like most of you, Lynne and I watched the debate last night and
thought the President did a fantastic job. (Applause.) And now with
19 days left in the campaign, the choices in this election are very
clear. The stakes are very high, both at home and abroad. And I
believe on November 2nd, the American people are going to make George
Bush President for four more years. (Applause.)
This state has been through a lot in recent weeks -- Hurricanes
Charley, Jeanne, Frances, and Ivan. I was here in Fort Myers just a
week ago, and, of course, President Bush has toured the damaged areas
many times. We want you to know that the federal government is doing
absolutely everything possible to help the people of Florida recover
from those storms. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you. We love you.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: This very arena -- you want to say that
again? (Laughter.)
AUDIENCE: Yes.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: No, I won't -- never mind. I've got -- I got
to concentrate on my speech here. (Laughter.)
This very arena provided shelter for hundreds of residents during
the hurricanes and for evacuees. And right here in Fort Myers, FEMA
opened two of its Disaster Recovery Centers. Personnel at these
centers are helping families and businesses apply for grants, for low
interest loans, and other assistance. President Bush has now approved
$13.6 billion to help Florida recover, including $11.6 billion in
additional funds just yesterday. (Applause.)
The whole nation has been impressed by the way Florida residents
have pulled together. It's a story of endurance, compassion, and in
many cases great courage. Florida has been well served by state and
local officials, by FEMA personnel, by members of the National Guard,
and first responders. And the state has been fortunate, as well, to
have a superb executive in charge in Governor Jeb Bush. (Applause.)
The President and I have been to Florida many times over the last
few years, and we appreciate the strong support we have throughout the
state. Florida has a first-class tradition of representation in
Washington. Congressman Porter Goss, a close friend of mine, has
served your state well for the last 16 years. (Applause.) And the
President and I are now delighted to have him on our team as the new
director of Central Intelligence. (Applause.) What the 14th district
needs now is another representative who shares the President's
commitment to keep America safe and to keep our economy strong. And
the man for that job is Connie Mack. (Applause.) Connie has a trusted
name in Florida politics, and I'm so old I got to Congress before his
dad did. (Laughter.) But I want to thank him for his kind words
today. He is an experienced public servant who knows the district. He
is ready to stand up for your values in the Nation's Capital. The
President and I look forward to working with him when he arrives in
Washington as your new congressman. (Applause.)
And we're also proud to be on the ballot with your Senate
candidate, Mel Martinez. (Applause.) I campaigned with Mel last
Saturday, and come January, I will as President of the Senate, swear
him in as the new Senator from Florida. (Applause.)
Now, let me go back to last night's debate for just a minute
because I thought that what you saw last night was the character and
the vision of our President. He's a man of loyalty and kindness who
speaks plainly and who means what he says. He sets clear goals and
carries them forward. He puts the country first, and his deepest
commitment is to making us safer, more prosperous, and more secure.
And you saw something quite different in his opponent. You saw a
man who will say and do anything in order to get elected.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: And I am not speaking just as a father here --
though I am a pretty angry father -- but as a citizen. (Applause.)
I've watched over this election campaign as John Kerry has turned his
back on the troops he voted to send into combat because he thought it
was to his political advantage to do so. Senator Kerry, remember,
voted in favor of using force against Saddam Hussein, but then during
the Democratic primary, when it came time to vote for funds that would
provide our fighting men and women with body armor, ammunition, spare
parts, Senator Kerry voted no.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: He offered a ridiculous explanation for his
action saying, and I quote, "I actually voted for the $87 billion
before I voted against it."
AUDIENCE: Flip-flop! Flip-flop! Flip-flop!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: But the real reason -- the real reason he
turned his back on our troops was Howard Dean. Dean was the anti-war
candidate, and Dean was surging ahead in the polls. And so John Kerry,
in order to advance himself in the Democratic primaries, turned his
back on our troops.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: He said his vote was complicated, but, my
friends, supporting American troops in combat should never be a
complicated question. (Applause.)
John Kerry will say and do anything in order to get elected. He
will attack the Patriot Act -- after he voted for it. He will attack
the No Child Left Behind Act -- after he voted for it. And most of
all, he will try to disguise his 20-year Senate record which clearly
shows him to be a tax-and-spend, soft-on-defense liberal.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: The President did a superb job last night of
pointing out John Kerry's record. (Applause.) The President noted
that the Senator has voted to raise taxes 98 times; voted against tax
reductions 127 times; and voted to bust the budget cap 277 times. Not
what I'd call a fiscal conservative. (Laughter.)
John Kerry has talked a lot about middle class tax relief, but
President Bush has provided it. (Applause.) Our tax package increased
the child tax credit and reduced the marriage penalty, provided a new
10-percent bracket -- all significant reductions for the middle class.
And Senator Kerry voted against them.
Senator Kerry tries to make it sound like he's in the mainstream,
but as the President pointed out last night, the Senator is really on
the "far left bank." (Applause.)
Because -- because of John Kerry, Ted Kennedy is the most
conservative senator from Massachusetts. (Applause.) John Kerry is
trying very hard to hide that, making promises he can't keep about
health care, being totally deceitful when it comes to medical liability
reform. He says he has a plan to reform the medical liability system.
But you know what his plan is? Put the trial lawyers in charge.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: The record John Kerry is trying hardest of all
to hide is the one on national security. He first ran for Congress
advocating the idea that we should only deploy American troops under
the authority of the United Nations.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: He ran for the Senate on the platform that we
should dismantle most of the major weapons systems that allowed Ronald
Reagan to win the Cold War.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: In 1991, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait
and stood poised to dominate the Gulf, John Kerry voted against America
sending troops to expel him. He voted against Operation Desert Storm.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: In the first debate this year, Senator Kerry
said that America had to meet some kind of quote, "global test" before
we could take military action. The President and I know better than
that. We know that our job is not to conduct international opinion
polls -- our job is to defend America. (Applause.)
You saw John Kerry last night trying to back and fill on the idea
of a global test. Now that notion fits with his whole career, but he
doesn't want us to know about his whole career. He's trying to hide
it, to cover it up by using a little tough talk during the course of
this campaign. But you can't do it. It won't work. To use a phrase
that we like in Wyoming, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still
a pig. (Applause.)
What last night so clearly revealed is that John Kerry is not a man
of strong character. He is not a steadfast leader. Our President is.
(Applause.) And let me tell you why that matters. A county can never
know what a President will be called upon to do, think of the last four
years, think of the challenges of 9/11, and the global war on terror,
and because our President is a man of strong character and steadfast
determination, he's led us very well. (Applause.) At the Republican
Convention -- at the Republican Convention, Rudy Guiliani told the
story of how on 9/11 he turned to Bernie Kerik, his police commissioner
and said, thank God George Bush is our Commander-in-Chief.
(Applause.) I know that all of you here know exactly what he meant.
Under the President's leadership, we have reached around the world
to capture and kill hundreds of al Qaeda. In Afghanistan, the camps
where terrorists trained to kill Americans have been shut down, and the
Taliban driven from power. In Iraq, we dealt with a gathering threat,
and removed the regime of Saddam Hussein. Eighteen months ago, he
controlled the lives of 25 million people. Today he sits in jail.
We are also helping the people of Iraq and Afghanistan build
representative governments. In Afghanistan, 10 million people
registered to vote, nearly half of them women. (Applause.) And just
last Saturday, they held elections -? the first in the 5,000-year
history of that country. (Applause.) In January, there will be
elections in Iraq. And the world is better as these countries move
towards self-government, and we are safer because freedom is the best
antidote to terrorism. (Applause.)
President Bush's determination in the war on terror has sent a very
clear message. Just five days after Saddam Hussein was captured, the
government of Libya agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons program and
turn the materials over to the United States. (Applause.)
The biggest danger we face today is having nuclear weapons
technology fall into the hands of terrorists. The President is working
with many countries in a global effort to end the trade and transfer of
these deadly technologies. The most important result thus far is that
the black-market network that supplied nuclear weapons technology to
Libya, as well as to Iran and North Korea, has been shut down. The
world's worst source of proliferation is out of business. (Applause.)
We could not have succeeded in these efforts without the help of
dozens of countries around the world. We will always seek
international support for international efforts, but as President Bush
has made very clear, there is a difference between leading a coalition
of many nations and submitting to the objections of a few. We will
never seek a permission slip to defend the United States of America.
(Applause.)
The clearest, most important difference in this campaign is simple
to state: President Bush understands the war on terror and has a
strategy for winning it. Senator Kerry does not. All doubt on that
matter was removed this past weekend, by comments Senator Kerry made to
The New York Times. The Senator said he wanted to lead America "back
to the place where we were" -- to a time when terrorism was, in his
word, a "nuisance" like illegal gambling or prostitution. That's the
comparison he made. When I read that, I thought to myself: When was
terrorism only a nuisance? Was it a nuisance four years ago this week
when the USS Cole was attacked; we nearly lost the ship and we did lose
17 sailors? Was terrorism just a nuisance 11 years ago, when the World
Trade Center was first bombed in New York? Or maybe 16 years ago, when
flight -- Pan Am Flight 103 was blown out of the skies over Lockerbie,
Scotland? Or maybe 21 years ago, when a truck bomb hit our barracks in
Beirut and killed 241 American servicemen? Ladies and gentlemen, there
never was a time when terrorism was just a nuisance. (Applause.)
There never can be a time when terrorism is a nuisance. Our goal is
not to reduce terror to some acceptable level. Our goal is to defeat
it. And with George W. Bush as President, America will stay in the
fight until the fight is won. (Applause.)
These are not times for leaders who shift with the political winds,
or fail to understand the nature of the struggle we are in. Our
troops, our allies, and our enemies must know where America stands.
The President of the United States must be clear and consistent. In
his years in Washington, John Kerry has been one of a hundred votes in
the United States Senate ?- and fortunately on matters of national
security, his views rarely prevailed. But the presidency is an
entirely different proposition. A senator can be wrong for 20 years,
without consequence to the nation. But a President always casts the
deciding vote. And in this time of challenge, America needs ?- and
America has ?- a President we can count on to get it right.
(Applause.)
President Bush knows that our dedicated servicemen and women
represent the very best of the United States of America. I want to
thank them and all of the veterans with us here today for all they've
done for us. (Applause.)
Our country requires strong and consistent leadership for our
actions overseas, and the same is true for our policies here at home.
When President Bush and I stood on the inaugural platform on the west
front of the Capitol and took the oath of office, the economy was
sliding into recession. Then on 9/11, terrorists struck and shook our
economy once again. We faced a basic decision -? to leave more money
with families and businesses, or to take more of the American people's
hard-earned money for the federal government. President Bush made his
choice. He proposed and he delivered tax cuts for the American people
not once, not twice, but four times in four years. (Applause.)
Every American who pays federal income taxes benefited from the
Bush tax cuts -? and so has our economy. (Applause.) We've created
jobs for 13 consecutive months -? a total of over 1.9 million new jobs
during that period -? including almost 100,000 new jobs last month
alone. Here in Florida, more than 300,000 jobs have been created since
December of 2001. Mortgage rates, interest rates, inflation are all
low. Consumers are confident, businesses are investing, and families
are taking home more of what they earn.
We're seeing record exports for farm products. Farm income is up.
Our farm economy is strong and that's good for the entire nation.
We know there are still challenges. The President and I will not
be satisfied until every American who wants to work can find a job.
But this is a strong, growing economy. The Bush tax cuts are working.
(Applause.)
Our accomplishments these past four years have made America safer,
stronger, and better. In our second term, we will keep moving forward
with a pro-growth, pro-jobs agenda. We will work to make the Bush tax
cuts permanent. And to help families and small businesses, we will
lead a bipartisan effort to reform and simplify the federal tax code.
We will work to end lawsuit abuse. (Applause.) We know it's a lot
easier for America's businesses to hire new workers if they don't have
to keep hiring lawyers.
And we will work for medical liability reform because we know the
cost of malpractice insurance is creating a crisis, not only in
Florida, but across the nation. (Applause.) America's doctors should
be able to spend their time healing patients, not fighting off
frivolous lawsuits. (Applause.)
President Bush and I will also continue to defend society's
fundamental rights and values. We stand for a culture of life, and we
reject the brutal practice of partial birth abortion. (Applause.) We
stand strongly for the Second Amendment and will defend the individual
right of every American to bear arms. (Applause.) We believe that our
nation is "one nation under God." (Applause.) And we believe
Americans ought to be able to say so when we pledge allegiance to our
flag. (Applause.)
There shouldn't be any question about this -? and there wouldn't be
-- if we had more reasonable judges on the federal bench. The
Democrats in the Senate have been doing everything they can -?
including using the filibuster ?- to keep the President's sensible,
mainstream nominees off the bench.
AUDIENCE: Booo!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: They are hoping to wait the President out.
But I've got news for them.
AUDIENCE: Four more years!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's not going to happen because we're going
to win this election. (Applause.) And a good way to deal with the
problem of the Democratic filibuster in the Senate is to elect good
Republicans like Mel Martinez. (Applause.)
My friends, the differences between the President and his opponent
are as sharp as they can possibly be, and the consequences for the
country are enormous. On vital matters of national security, Senator
Kerry offers a record of weakness and a strategy of retreat. President
Bush offers a record of steady purpose and resolute action, and a
strategy for victory. Senator Kerry wants to empower government;
President Bush will use government to empower people. (Applause.)
John Kerry seems to think that all the wisdom is found in Washington,
D.C.; George Bush trusts the wisdom of the American people.
(Applause.)
Under President Bush's leadership, we will use America's great
power to serve great purposes, to protect our homeland by turning back
and defeating the forces of terror, and to spread hope and freedom
around the world. Here at home, we'll continue building prosperity
that reaches every corner of the land so that every child in America
has a chance to learn, to succeed, and to rise in the world.
The President and I are honored by your commitment to the cause we
all share. President Bush and I will wage this effort with complete
confidence in the judgment of the American people. The signs are good
?- here in Florida, and even in Massachusetts. (Applause.) According
to a news account, people leaving the Democratic National Convention in
July asked a Boston policeman for directions. He replied, Leave here
-- and go vote Republican. (Laughter and applause.)
President Bush and I are honored to have the support of that police
officer, and of Democrats, Republicans, and independents from every
calling in American life. We're grateful for our many friends across
the great state of Florida. I want to thank you for this tremendous
welcome this morning. We're proud to have you on the team. And
together, on November 2nd, we'll see our cause forward to victory.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
END 1:04 P.M. EDT
|