For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 29, 2002
President's Remarks at Sanford for Governor Luncheon
Remarks by the President at Sanford for Governor and South Carolina Republican Party - Victory 2002 Luncheon
North Charleston Convention Center
Charleston, South Carolina
12:30 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you, Governor. (Laughter and
applause.) I want to thank you all for coming. I'm really glad to be
back in South Carolina. I've got a lot of fond memories here, if you
know what I mean. (Laughter.) And we've got a lot of friends here,
too. It's a great state. After all, it's a state -- it's the state
where my mother went to high school. (Applause.)
But it's an honor to be here to work for the next governor of the
State of South Carolina. I want to thank you all very much for
supporting Mark. You know that when you find a good one, you've got to
help him. And you've found a good one in Mark Sanford. (Applause.)
I particularly thank those who are going to put up the signs and
lick the envelopes and make all the phone calls, those tireless workers
at the grass-roots level who can decide the fate of an election.
You've got a vibrant Republican Party here in South Carolina; you've
got a lot of folks who never get thanked enough. And so not only do I
want to thank those who have helped Mark financially, I want to thank
those of you who are going to put some shoe leather out there to work
hard to make sure that you turn out the vote next November. It's
important for our country, it's important for this state that this good
man become the next governor of the state of South Carolina.
(Applause.)
And I love a family man. They started coming through the photo op
line, I never thought the Sanford kids were going to stop. (Laughter.)
But it was an honor to meet Marshall, Landon, Bolton and Blake, but
more importantly, the mom, Jenny Sanford, the great future First Lady
of the state of South Carolina. (Applause.)
We both married above ourselves. (Laughter.) I'm sorry the First
Lady is not here with me -- she's hiking. But I can't tell you how
proud I am of her. She's doing a fabulous job as the First Lady of the
United States. (Applause.) Who would have thought a former public
school librarian, who didn't like politics or politicians --
(laughter) -- would be where she is? Thank goodness. She's doing
great.
A lot of you who I met earlier said they're praying for me and
praying for my family. It's the kindest gift you can give a President
and his family. And I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart
for your prayers. (Applause.)
I want to thank members of the fine South Carolina delegation who
are here. That would be Congressman Henry Brown, right here from
Charleston. (Applause.) Congressman Joe Wilson, I first met him one
time when I was marching with him in the Okra Strut, in Irmo.
Congressman Jim DeMint, from up north. (Laughter and applause.) And
the next United States Senator from South Carolina, Lindsey Graham.
(Applause.)
I appreciate some of the state folks showing up, too. There will
be two former governors here, Carroll Campbell and Jim Edwards. I want
to thank them both for being here. (Applause.) And Mark, when you
win, you need to ask their advice -- they were great governors for
the great state of South Carolina. I also want to thank Iris for being
here, as well. Iris, it's great to see you again. And I want to thank
Ann Edwards, as well.
I also want to thank my friend, the Lieutenant Governor, Bob
Peeler, for being here as well. Thank you for coming, Bob.
(Applause.) And I want to thank you and the Attorney General, Charlie
Condon, for working hard to unite the Republican Party. (Applause.)
And I know the Speaker is here.
MR. WILKINS: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Speaker -- oh, there you are. (Laughter.) I
appreciate you coming. It's great to see you again Susan; great to see
your great wife. Tell those boys of yours hello for me. I also want
to thank Gresham Barrett, who's going to become the -- who is the
Republican candidate for the 3rd congressional district. We're pulling
for you, Gresham. We wish you all the best. Thank you for being
here. (Applause.)
I think it's fairly important to have somebody who is going to be
your governor who is willing to change the tone if the tone is
divisive. See, what we need is more people in public office who
understand it's important to unite people to get things done. And
there's nothing worse than old-style politics, the politics that wants
to pit one group of people against another; the politics that says it's
much better to call somebody names than to lead.
And when Mark says he wants to change the tone in the statehouse in
South Carolina, I believe him. And I believe it will be important for
the people of South Carolina to have a change of tone in the capital,
so he can get some things done on behalf of all the people of this
state. Not just the Republicans, but all the people of South Carolina
need a governor who's willing to set big goals, a strong agenda,
willing to bring people together to work toward those goals.
And there's nothing more important than to making sure that every
single child in this state gets a good, quality education.
(Applause.) We passed some good legislation in Washington. And one of
the things that legislation does is passes power out of Washington, so
that the local folks can figure out the path to excellence for every
child. And I'm confident in saying to the people of South Carolina,
flexibility, with Mark as the governor, will it make more likely that
every child in this state will be educated.
It also means you better have somebody as the governor who believes
every child can learn. It means setting the highest of high
standards. You see, I found out as the governor of Texas, and I have
learned as the President, if you set the bar low, if you don't believe
everybody can learn, you're going to get bad results. If you have low
standards for every child, if you believe, oh, there are some kids in
my state who can't learn -- guess what's going to happen? Certain of
the children won't learn. And the people will be satisfied with just
passing kids through the system, as if they don't matter.
No, I believe it's important to put people in office who set the
highest of high standards, who believes every single child can learn,
and who's willing to measure to determine they are. I think it's so
important to have a governor who believes in strong accountability, who
wants to measure early whether or not children can read and write and
add and subtract -- and if they can't, do something about it early,
before it's too late.
It is so fundamentally important that we view each child as a child
of potential, and that we determine whether or not the child is
learning. And if they are, praise the teachers. But if we find
children trapped in schools that won't teach, and in schools that won't
change, you better have a governor who's willing to blow the whistle on
failure. Every child matters, and no child in South Carolina or no
child in America should be left behind. (Applause.)
I appreciate having a man who understands the money he's spending
as your governor is not the government's money. (Applause.) It's the
people's money. And he's a man who set a good example. I was
impressed when I read that he held his office expenses down, maybe
thought the government was writing too big a check for the expenses
there when he was a Congressman, saved a million and a half dollars of
taxpayers' money, and gave it back into the till, put it back in.
He understood that when he got a pay raise, that rather than
accepting the raise, he'd give it to charity. He's a man who leads by
example. And I think the people of South Carolina ought to pay
attention to that example. Because I know firsthand that there's
always a budget crisis -- if you have a governor who's saying
everything matters, we're not going to set priorities. It's important
to have somebody who's fiscally sound with the people's money, who
understands whose money it is and is willing to set priorities.
We need a little of that in Washington, D.C. It seems like every
program that comes along is something that needs a little extra money.
In order to make sure that we hold the line in Washington, or hold the
line in South Carolina, that's why they give the chief executives the
veto. And I'm confident this man will use his powers wisely to protect
the taxpayers' money, for the good of all people who live in the state
of South Carolina. (Applause.)
And so I'm proud to be here to support Mark. And I ask you to work
hard. It's a tough run when you're running against somebody who has
been there for a while. It's never easy. But I'm convinced he's going
to win. And I want to thank you for helping him win.
We've got a big -- we've got a lot to do in Washington. Before
they run me out of here, I'd like to tell you how I think things are
going in the nation's capital. First, I know there's a lot of concern
about our economy. After all, if somebody wants to work and can't find
a job, can't find work, that's a concern. It's a concern of mine to
know that there are Americans who are still looking for a job and can't
find one. And we need to do something about it.
We need to make sure that the foundation that we've put in place
for job creation remains strong. And I believe the foundation is
strong for economic growth. After all, inflation is down and interest
rates are low. We've got wise monetary policy. I strongly believe the
fiscal policy we put in place -- which is giving people some of their
own money back so they can spend it, as opposed to the government --
made eminent sense for economic vitality and job creation. And the
Congress now needs to make those tax cuts permanent so people can
plan. (Applause.)
The Senate, when they get moving, is going to get me a trade bill
so we can open up markets, which will create jobs for workers all
across the country. We need to get a terrorism insurance bill out that
doesn't reward the trial lawyers, but in fact encourages construction
projects to go forward that can't get insurance.
And tomorrow I'm signing a good bill. It's a bill overwhelmingly
embraced by Republicans and Democrats that says loud and clear to
corporate America, we expect you to be responsible. We expect you to
be responsible with the people's money. We expect you to be
responsible for the shareholders and your employees. And if you're
not, we're going to investigate you, arrest you, and prosecute you if
you don't uphold your responsibilities. (Applause.)
I'm optimistic about our economic future. And I'm optimistic about
the security of our homeland as well. You need to know that we face an
enemy that are -- cold-blooded killers, the best way I can describe
them. These are people that hate freedom. They hate what we stand
for. And they can't stand the fact that we are tolerant of each other,
that we worship freely and speak our minds. They hate that. And,
therefore, so long as we're willing to defend our freedom, they'll come
after us.
But they also didn't understand America. I just can imagine their
meetings. They must have sat around saying, well, we attack them, they
probably won't do anything, it's such a materialistic society. You
know, Americans are so self-absorbed, so selfish, so worried about
their own bottom line that they'll just -- oh, they may file a
lawsuit or two -- (laughter) -- but that's all they'll do.
They didn't understand the nature of this country. They didn't
understand that when somebody attacks our freedoms, when somebody tries
to take away the values that we hold dear, we're plenty tough, we're
plenty resolute, and we're plenty strong. (Applause.)
At home we're doing everything we can to protect the homeland by
chasing down any kind of lead, any kind of hint, any kind of -- any
bit of evidence that somebody might be trying to do something to the
American people. Our most important priority in Washington is to
protect the innocent lives of the American people.
As you know, after a lot of thought and study, I decided to form
what I call the Department of Homeland Security. And the reason I did
is because there's hundreds -- over a hundred agencies all involved
with securing the homeland in Washington. They're scattered all over
the place up there. And when you've got so many agencies, it makes it
awfully hard to hold people accountable.
I believe in aligning authority and responsibility in order to get
good results. And so I've asked Congress to join me in setting up a
Department of Homeland Security so we can better coordinate the efforts
to secure the homeland.
You see, we need to know who's coming in our country, and why
they're coming in, and what they're bringing in, and if they're leaving
on time. So we need to reform the border security of the United States
of America. (Applause.)
We need to have an effective strategy dealing with the heroic
first-responders, in South Carolina and all across America -- those
would be your police officers and your firefighters and your EMS teams
-- so that if there's an emergency, there's an adequate response.
We need to better deal with the potential threat of weapons of mass
destruction. And we need -- we need to be able to take all the
intelligence gathered from different agencies and analyze them, and
address vulnerabilities to the United States of America. That's what
we need.
We need somebody who I can hold accountable. We need to be able to
say to the American people, we understand our most important priority
is to protect our country, and therefore we formed a Department of
Homeland Security with a variety of agencies underneath the umbrella
-- all of which have got one responsibility, a primary
responsibility. And that's to protect the homeland.
And I want to thank the House for moving, and I hope the Senate
gets me a bill soon which will give me the ability to run the
department, and give me the ability to be able to say to the American
people, we put politics aside and focused on securing our homeland as
the most important priority in Washington, D.C. (Applause.)
But the best way to protect our homeland is to hunt them down one
by one and bring them to justice. And that's what our country is going
to do. (Applause.)
And we're making progress. This isn't one of those wars where, you
know, you can watch everything on TV, or a war where they will
eventually study, they've had mass movements of infantry and artillery,
and squadrons of aircraft flying all over the place from one point to
another. This is a war where we're literally chasing them down and
treating them like they are, which is international criminals. That's
all they are.
And we're making pretty good progress. We've -- we, when I say
"we", we've got a mighty coalition of freedom-loving countries who've
joined us, and others who have heard the message -- either you're
with us, or you're with the other ones. And by the way, that doctrine
still holds. Either you're with the United States, or you're not.
(Applause.)
Over a couple of thousand of them have been captured. And just
about that many weren't as lucky. And our friends are still -- still
understand the stakes.
You know, I was a little worried about, the farther we got away
from September the 11th, the more likely it is people would forget the
horror. But the coalition is still strong. And the reason it's strong
is because the American people are strong, the American people are
united, the American people are resolved. The American people
understand the stakes: that we're fighting for freedom itself, that
we're fighting for civilization.
A good example of that came in the Philippines a while ago. The
President of the Philippines asked for some help. Would we help her
-- she asked if we'd help her train some of her troops, and I said, you
bet. Either you're with us or you're with the other guys, and we're
willing to help. And as a result of the bravery of the Philippine
troops, and the skill of our troops training them, they brought to
justice, in the ultimate way, the leader of the Abu Zubaydah group,
which is an al Qaeda-related organization. In other words, what I'm
telling you is, is that we're denying them sanctuary.
We routed them out of -- we routed the Taliban. If you harbor a
terrorist, you're a terrorist. The Taliban found out what we meant.
We got them on the run. Sometimes they light, and we figure out where
they are, and the brave United States military will chase them down.
Sometimes they're scrambling around. But wherever they try to go,
we're going to get them, no matter how long it takes. Because you see,
history has called us into action. This is a defining moment. The
21st century will be decided as to how the United States responds. And
so long as I'm the President, we're going to respond in a determined,
focused, effective way -- by defending freedom, no matter what the
cost. (Applause.)
And that includes understanding we cannot let the world's worst
leaders blackmail the United States or our friends and allies with the
world's worst weapons. And so I want to share with you my thinking.
My thinking is we owe it to our children and our grandchildren to do
everything we can to disrupt known terrorist groups, to find folks that
think they want to team up with terrorist groups -- that we owe it to
our future to use our standing and our might and our wealth to define
the 21st century as one which will be peaceful, and hopeful, and, most
importantly, free.
Out of the evil done to America is going to come some incredible
good, I truly believe that. I can say that with confidence. I believe
that when we remain strong and forceful and tough, and resolved, that
we can bring peace not only to the United States, but into parts of the
world which may never dream they'll have peace. I believe by the
United States taking a leading role and standing on principle, and
speaking clearly, that we can help achieve peace in the Middle East, or
in South Asia.
You need to go home and tell your kids or your grandkids that the
reason we fight the way we fight is because of peace. And this can
happen, and I believe it will happen.
And here at home, you've got to understand -- and I know you do
-- that in spite of our wealth, in spite of our prosperity, there are
pockets of despair and pockets of hopelessness, pockets of addiction;
pockets where people say, America's not meant for me.
But I believe out of the evil done to America, this good will
happen: that our fellow citizens will understand that by loving a
neighbor like they'd like to be loved themselves, they can help
eradicate that despair; that by unleashing the great faith-based
institutions which exist all across America, we can bring hope where
there's darkness; by calling upon the best of America, the great
character of the American citizens, the understanding that when one of
us suffers, all of us suffers, that we can change this country one
heart, one soul, one conscience at a time.
You saw the great spirit of America recently in Pennsylvania. When
their miners were trapped, people prayed for their deliverance.
Americans spent hours trying to figure out how best to save those
miners, came up with a plan, successfully got each and every one of
them out.
I want to thank God for the prayers of the American people for
helping them, and thank God for their savior -- their saving. That's
the kind of country we live in. It's a country fundamentally strong
and great.
I believe out of the evil done to America, the culture of our
country is changing from one which has said if it feels good, go ahead
and do it, to -- if you've got a problem blame somebody else, to a
culture, to a culture which says each of us are responsible for the
decisions we make in life.
You see, there's an understanding after September the 11th, after
the evil people hit us, that serving something greater than yourself is
a part of being a patriotic American. That came home most clearly to
me, most vividly to me, when I heard the story of Flight 93, where
average Americans were flying across the land. They found out their
plane was going to be a weapon. They told their loved ones they loved
them. They said a prayer. One guy said, Let's roll. They took the
plane in the ground, to serve something greater than themselves in
life.
That example will shine brightly for a lot of Americans, including
me -- that in order to be an American, in order to understand and help
people realize the full potential of our country, it's important to
serve something greater than yourself.
Now, out of the evil done to America is going to come incredible
good, because this is such a good, and compassionate, and decent
country.
Thank you all for coming to help Mark. May God bless you all, and
may God bless America. (Applause.)
END 12:56 P.M. EDT
|