For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 4, 2002
Remarks by the President in Texas Welcome
Southern Methodist University
Moody Coliseum
Dallas, Texas
6:08 P.M. CST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, all. It's nice to be home. I want to
thank you all for coming. Laura and I are working are way across the
country to get back to Texas so we can vote, and I want to tell you,
we're not undecided. (Laughter and applause.) For the sake of Texas
and for the sake of America, vote John Cornyn for the United States
Senate. (Applause.)
And for the sake of the taxpayers of Texas and for the sake of the
school children of Texas, elect Rick Perry as the governor of Texas.
(Applause.)
No, we're looking forward to getting -- we're looking forward to
getting into that voting booth tomorrow morning. And I hope you are,
as well. I hope all of Texas takes their responsibility serious. You
see, we live in a land of freedom and, therefore, we have an obligation
to participate as free citizens. If you're eligible to vote, you
should vote. I don't care whether you're Democrat or Republican,
independent or could care less about a political party -- you have an
obligation in a free society. (Applause.)
You know, Laura went to SMU. (Applause.) They didn't have a
course on how to be a First Lady when she went here. (Laughter.) But
if they had, she'd have gotten an A-plus. (Applause.) I'm really
proud of the job she's done.
THE AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!
THE PRESIDENT: I'm proud to be up here with some fine public
servants; really proud of the job that Senator Kay Hutchison is doing
on behalf of all of Texas. (Applause.) She's a strong leader in the
United States Senate. She's a strong leader. She's doing a fabulous
job. I'm proud to call her friend and I'm also --
AUDIENCE MEMBER: (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: I'm also -- I'm also here to honor Senator Phil
Gramm, who has done a great job on behalf of Texas. (Applause.)
I appreciate so very much Congressman Henry Bonilla's hard work in
the Texas Victory Committee. That's the committee that's going to --
(applause.) That's the committee that is going to turn out the vote.
See, that's what we're here to talk about. We're here to talk about
how to turn out the vote, how to get people to the polls.
I want to thank you all for what you have done. I want to thank
you for what you're going to do, which is to find good Texans and get
them to vote, turn them out to vote and get them to vote for this
ticket. (Applause.)
These are candidates we can be proud of. These are people that you
can have confidence in. So work hard. And, by the way, I'm pretty
familiar with Texas politics. You know, there's a lot of discerning
Democrats who are going to support this ticket. Don't be afraid to
talk to those good Democrats. (Applause.) Don't be afraid to talk to
independents. Our candidates can reach across party line, because
they've got a positive vision for the future of this state and for the
future of our country. (Applause.)
I'm proud to be up here with a great statewide ticket. I know them
all well. I can vouch for their integrity and their talents. The next
Lieutenant Governor, David Dewhurst. (Applause.) The next Attorney
General, Greg Abbott. (Applause.) A lady who has two sons working in
my administration, that would be Carole Keeton Rylander. (Applause.)
Jerry Patterson and Susan Combs and Michael Williams, all great
candidates, all people you can trust. (Applause.)
I want to appreciate the members of the United States Congress who
are here today. We've got a great congressional delegation from the
state of Texas -- Sam Johnson and Pete Sessions -- (applause) -- Joe
Barton and Kay Granger. (Laughter.) I'm proud to call them friends.
I appreciate working with them. Any time there's any doubt about my
stance on some of these Texas congressmen, if they're voting with me,
I'm for them. (Laughter.) And they're voting with me. They're solid
friends. And we need Jeb Hensarling and the rest of the people running
for the United States Congress in Washington, D.C., too. (Applause.)
I want to thank the bands who are here tonight, the Waxahachie High
School Band. (Applause) Is the courthouse still standing?
(Applause.) That's good. Lake Highlands High School band, I appreciate
you all coming. (Applause.) If you're 18, you've got to vote now; if
you're 18, you've got to vote.
The SMU band is here. I appreciate them coming. (Applause.) I
know you're 18. (Laughter.) Eric Orson Band (phonetic), I appreciate
them coming as well. I'm sorry we weren't here in time to hear the
music. We had to stop in Arkansas on the way down. (Applause.)
They're fixing to reelect a governor and you're fixing to elect a good
man to governor of Texas. That man is Rick Perry. (Applause.)
He knows what he's doing. He knows how to manage the budget. He
understands public schools. He understands jobs. he is the absolute
right man for the job of Governor of Texas. (Applause.) And, like me,
he married well. (Laughter.) Anita is a great first lady for Texas.
(Applause.)
I can't be any stronger for John Cornyn than this: it is the right
thing to do for America, to put John Cornyn in the United States
Senate. (Applause.) I know him. I trust him. And we can work
together on some big issues on behalf of all of Texas and all of
America. And there are some big hurdles facing this country.
First of all, this economy isn't doing as good as it should be
doing. It's bumping along. And, therefore, there's some people
looking for work who can't find work. And any time somebody is looking
for work who can't find work, it says to me that we've got to figure
out how to continue to increase the job base of America.
But there's a fundamental difference of opinion in Washington,
D.C., as to how to do that. The page of the economic textbook that
we've read from says that if you let a person keep more of their own
money, they're more than likely to demand an additional good or a
service. (Applause.) They're likely to demand a good or a service, and
when they do that, somebody is likely to produce the good or a
service. And when somebody produces the good or a service, it's more
likely somebody is going to be able to find a job. (Applause.)
And, therefore, the tax cuts we pass in Washington came at the
exact right time in economic history. (Applause.) And I need a
senator who will stand strong on this issue. I need a senator with
whom we can work to make the tax cuts permanent. And that senator is
John Cornyn. (Applause.)
I look forward to working with John on a lot of issues. On
education, and on Medicare. Listen, medicine has changed and Medicare
hasn't. Medicine has become modern; technologies have changed, there's
new discoveries. But Medicare is stuck in the past. I need to work
with Kay Hutchison and John Cornyn and members of the Congress to
modernize Medicare, which means prescription drug benefits for our
seniors. (Applause.)
And we've got another problem with health care. There's too many
lawsuits. There's too many junk lawsuits that are running up the cost
of medicine. (Applause.) They're filing suits all over this country,
which means good, honest people who have got a claim can't get to the
judges, can't get into the courthouse. It means that people aren't
going to have accessible and affordable health care. Excessive
lawsuits run up the cost of medicine, and they're driving docs out of
the practice of medicine. We need a Senate who will join me in passing
federal medical liability reform. (Applause.)
And I need a senator from Texas with whom I can work, to help
fulfil one of my most serious responsibilities, and that is to put good
people on the federal bench. (Applause.) There is a vacancy on our
benches. There is vacancies all around the country, because the bunch
that's running the Senate right now won't give my nominees a fair
hearing. And when they do give them a hearing, some of them have their
records distorted. I need a United States senator who will stand
strong for what most Texans want, and that is a judiciary full of
honest and honorable people who will not use their bench from which to
legislate, but to interpret the Constitution of the United States.
(Applause.)
You may remember what happened to one of our finest Texans,
Priscilla Owen. I picked Priscilla to serve on one of our top
benches. I did so because she's a brilliant lady, she's an honest
person, she finished tops in her law school, she was ranked by the ABA
as one of the top picks. She is backed by Republicans and Democrats
from the state of Texas. She ran statewide and was overwhelmingly
elected. I put her up there. Because these people are playing
politics, petty politics, with the nominees I've picked, her record was
distorted and she was denied a seat. She was grossly treated. I can
assure you that with John Cornyn in the Senate he would be a strong
supporter of Priscilla Owen and my judges. (Applause.)
There's a big difference in this race between the two running for
the United States Senate. And that Priscilla Owen case is a clear
example of what I'm talking about. There's going to be a lot of issues
we'll work on together. The biggest issue we've got is to protect
America, to protect you from further attack, to do everything we can to
prevent an enemy from hitting this country again. (Applause.)
It's still a problem for us, because there's an enemy lurking out
there which hates us. And they hate us because of what we love -- we
love our freedom. We love the fact that people can worship freely in
America. We love the fact that people can speak their mind in this
country. We love a free press. We love every aspect of our freedom,
and we're not going to change. (Applause.)
So long as we take that stand, they're going to try to hurt us.
And therefore, we've got to do everything we can to protect you. And
there's a lot of good people doing that. I mean, listen, we're on
notice. We remember, we remember, remember what happened. And
therefore, there's a lot of good people working overtime to run down
every hint, any idea, any suggestion that somebody is fixing to or
thinking about doing something to America, we're moving on it. It is
our most solemn obligation.
I think we can do a better job of protecting you, and that's why I
went to the United States Congress, to join me in the creation of a
Department of Homeland Security. It needs to be a department that
brings agencies together, to focus their attention, to change culture
if need be, so that people who are working hard on your behalf get the
message that this is our number one job and number one priority.
And the House of Representatives responded. And I want to thank
the House members who are here. But the bill got stuck in the Senate.
Here we are with an enemy lurking out there, and the bill got stuck in
the Senate because some Senators want to take away power from the
Presidency. They want to take away what every President since John F.
Kennedy has had, and that is the capacity to suspend certain collective
bargaining rules for the sake of national security. In other words, if
there's some rules that prevent me from putting the right place --
people at the right place at the right time, to protect you, I ought to
be able to suspend those rules. But not according to these people.
(Applause.)
No, the special interests have grabbed them up there. They want to
micro-manage the process. I need John Cornyn in the Senate to make
sure we get us a good homeland security bill. (Applause.)
But the best way to protect the homeland is to hunt these killers
down, one at a time, and bring them to justice. (Applause.) That's
what we have to do. And that is what we're going to do. And that is
why I went to the Congress and asked for a substantial increase in
defense spending, as a matter of fact, the largest increase since
Ronald Reagan was the President. (Applause.) And I want to thank
Senator Hutchinson, and I want to thank the members of Congress for
backing me on that request. And there's two messages in that bill that
I want to share with you. One, any time this country puts any of our
youngsters into harm's way, they deserve the best pay, the best
training and the best possible equipment. (Applause.)
And the second message is equally important. And that is, we're in
this deal for the long haul. See, when it comes to the defense of our
freedoms, it doesn't matter how long it takes. We're going to do the
job. We're going to defend freedom. (Applause.) We're going to do a
responsibility so future generations of Americans will know we answered
the call. It just doesn't matter how long it takes. There's not a
calendar on my desk in that wonderful Oval Office that says on
such-and-such a date, haul them home. That's not the way I think.
And we're making progress in this different kind of war. In the
old days, if you knocked down an airplane or sunk a ship, you could say
you're making progress. This group we fight now hides in caves or kind
of slithers around the dark corners of the world and they send their
youngsters to their suicidal deaths. We value life in America. We say
everybody is precious. These folks have hijacked a great religion and
don't care who they kill. And that's the nature of the enemy. They're
tough -- we're tougher. (Applause.)
Slowly but surely -- slowly but surely we're dismantling the
terrorist network. It's important for us to be realistic here in
America about the threats we face. It's essential we see the world the
way it is, not the way we hope it would be. Because the stakes changed
dramatically after September the 11th, 2001. Prior to that date, we
had oceans that we thought protected us; that if there was a gathering
threat somewhere around the world we could either deal with that threat
or ignore it, because we were safe at home. Geography kept us safe.
After September the 11th, 2001, geography doesn't keep us safe. And,
therefore, in my judgment, we've got to be cold-eyed realists about
threats as they emerge and deal with each one of them according to the
level of threat.
There is a threat to the United States and our close friends and
allies in Iraq. The leader of Iraq is a man who for 11 years has
deceived the world. He said he wouldn't have weapons of mass
destruction -- he has weapons of mass destruction. At one time we know
for certain he was close to having a nuclear weapon. Imagine Saddam
Hussein with a nuclear weapon. Not only has he got chemical weapons,
but I want you to remember, he's used chemical weapons.
He's used weapons on people in his neighborhood, he's used weapons
on people in his own country. This is a man who cannot stand America,
he cannot stand what we stand for, he can't stand some of our closest
friends and allies.
This is a man who has got connections with al Qaeda. Imagine a
terrorist network with Iraq as an arsenal and as a training ground, so
that a Saddam Hussein could use his shadowy group of people to attack
his enemy and leave no fingerprint behind. He's a threat.
I went to the United Nations to make clear a couple of things.
One, he's a threat. And, secondly, that this august body has a chance
to keep the peace. And yet for 16 resolutions -- resolution after
resolution after resolution -- Saddam Hussein has defied the United
Nations. It is now time for the United Nations to choose whether it's
going to be an effective peacekeeping organization, or whether it's
going to be like one of its predecessors, the League of Nations, an
empty debating society. It is their choice to make. (Applause.)
It is Saddam Hussein's choice to make. He's told the world he
would not have weapons of mass destruction, and in the name of peace,
we expect him to honor that commitment. Should he choose not to honor
the commitment, the U.N. is incapable of acting, the United States in
the name of peace, in the name of freedom, will lead a coalition and
disarm Saddam Hussein. (Applause.)
I say, "in the name of peace," because that's what's going to
happen, in my judgment. See, out of the evil done to America is going
to come some good. I don't know what got into the minds of the
terrorists when they hit us, I guess they assumed our national religion
was materialism, that we were so selfish, self-absorbed that after
9/11/2001 we might take a step back and file a lawsuit or two.
(Laughter.)
They don't understand the nature of this great country. They don't
understand the depth of our passion for freedom. If we stay tough when
we need to be tough; stay strong when we need to be strong; speak
clearly about good and evil; if we remember that freedom is not
America's gift to the world, but God's gift to the world, we can
achieve peace. (Applause.)
We can achieve peace here at home, we can achieve peace here at
home. We can achieve peace in parts of the world which have quit on
peace. I believe it. I believe out of the evil done to America is
going to come good abroad, in the form of peace. And I believe it's
going to make America a better place.
I believe I know a lot of our citizens have taken a step back and
taken an assessment about that which is important in their lives. A
lot of people have asked that question, how can I help. Well, I've got
some ideas for you. First, it's important to remember that in the land
of plenty there are people who hurt. There's pockets of despair and
hopelessness and addiction. People, when you say, the American Dream,
they have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. We've got to
remember in this country, when some of us hurt, we all hurt. And
therefore we've got to try to make a difference to improve the lot of
everybody's lives.
And government can help. We'll work on Medicare and we'll work on
education. And government can pass out money. But I want you to
remember what government cannot do is to put hope in people's hearts,
or a sense of purpose in people's lives. People's lives change when
somebody puts their arm around them, and says, I love you, can I help
you, what can I do to make your life a better life? (Applause.)
And that's happening all across America. I'm sure there's mentors
here, people who are saving one child's life at a time. I know there
are people here who feed the hungry, provide housing for the homeless,
or run a Boy Scouts troop or a Girl Scouts troop, or Big Brothers and
Big Sisters.
There's all kinds of ways that you can help change America, one
heart, one conscience, one soul at a time. No, the spirit of America
is strong; it's alive and well. It's a spirit that says, when it comes
to the defense of our freedom, it doesn't matter how long it takes,
we'll defend freedom.
It also says that a true American is somebody who serves a cause
greater than themselves. I want the high school students and
youngsters here to always remember the story of Flight 93. These are
people flying across the country, what they thought was going to be
just an average trip. They learned that the airplane they were on was
going to be used as a weapon. They told their loved ones goodbye.
They said a prayer, asking for guidance from the Almighty. One guy
said, let's roll. They took the plane into the ground to save lives,
and to serve something greater than themselves. (Applause.)
The enemy hit us, the enemy hit us. They had no earthly idea who
they were hitting. They didn't have any idea that the spirit of this
country is strong and alive and vibrant, which allows me to boldly
predict that out of the evil done to America is going to come a more
peaceful world, and out of the evil done to America will come a more
hopeful America, where the great sunshine of hope of this country
shines its light into every corner of this land.
And I can say that with confidence, because this is the greatest
country, full of the most decent and honorable people on the face of
the earth.
Thanks for coming. May God bless. (Applause.)
END 6:36 P.M. CST
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