For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
April 3, 2002
Remarks by the President at Fisher for Governor Reception
Four Seasons Hotel
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
6:03 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very
much. Well, Governor, thank you for
those kind words.
(Applause.) I want to thank you all for coming, and thanks
for that warm welcome. It's good to see so many
friends. I want to thank
you all for supporting the next Governor from Pennsylvania.
(Applause.) I've been here quite a
bit since I've been President, but I
learned a new fact recently that made me
a little nervous. I didn't
realize this, but Pennsylvania has
more pretzel bakeries -- (laughter)
-- than any state in the
Union. (Laughter.) So I decided to take a risk.
(Laughter.)
I love coming to Philadelphia. I love the history of
Philadelphia. I
love the fact that Philadelphia
is the cradle of freedom, that's what I love. (Applause.)
Mike mentioned Tom Ridge.
You know, my biggest job is to defend
freedom, is to protect our
homeland. And you know better than anybody, I picked a
really good man to lead the homeland defense of the United States.
(Applause.) I want to thank you for
letting Tom cut his eye teeth here. (Laughter.) He did a
great job as Governor. He's doing a really good job in
Washington.
And I want to thank Mark Schweiker, as
well. He's doing a fantastic
job as Governor. (Applause.) Thank
you, Mark. Pennsylvania has had two
fine Governors. It's time to make three
Governors in a row. (Applause.) I'm proud to be here on
stage with Mike and the future Lieutenant Governor. There's no doubt
in my mind they will both do a fine job, an excellent job, for the
people of Pennsylvania.
I'm also honored to be here with your senior
Senator, Arlen Specter. Thank you very much,
Arlen, for coming. (Applause.) I had the
privilege of traveling from the
University of Pennsylvania, in Delaware County, to
the hotel with Jane Earll.
She's solid on the issues. She knows what she's talking
about.
I'm also honored to be here with David
Girard diCarlo and Manny
Stamatakis. (Applause.) These guys were my
friends before I was somebody. (Laughter.)
And I'm proud to call them friend. I want to
thank them for
their hard work, and I want
to thank you all for contributing your hard earned dollars to this good
candidate.
I also want to thank the
leaders of the political party here, the
chairman and the national committee man and
national committee woman, all
of whom are willing to provide the grassroots support
necessary for
candidates like me and Mike to succeed.
You know, fundraising is an integral part of politics, but so is
getting out the vote. So is those who are willing
to spend a lot of time putting out the yard signs, dialing the phones
and doing all the hard work necessary to make candidates
viable. On behalf of a grateful
President, and a soon to be grateful Governor, thank you for the
grassroots politics here in Pennsylvania. (Applause.)
I also want to thank Carol Fisher, Mike's wife, for her willingness
to
make a huge sacrifice, on
behalf of a good man running for governor. I
know something about good wives. I'm
very fortunate to have a good wife, myself.
(Applause.)
Laura is doing a great job as
our First Lady. (Applause.) She is a steady
hand. She was a public school librarian when
I married here, and really wasn't all
that keen on politics. And if the
truth be known, she wasn't
all that thrilled about knowing politicians, either.
(Laughter.)
But she is where she is,
thank goodness. Thank goodness for my
family, and thank goodness for the country. The American
people have gotten to see why I asked Laura to
marry me. There's still a
lot of doubts in people's minds as to why she
said yes. (Laughter.) But
I'm proud of her, and I want you to
know she's doing great, and so is my family. (Applause.)
I think there's a lot
of reasons for the people of Pennsylvania to
support Mike. First, he's done a good job as the
Attorney General. He's
been given a huge responsibility, and
he preformed. He's one of these
fellows that does in office what he said he would do, and
that's refreshing.
Mike has led the fight against drugs, and he's made a
difference. As
I understand it, there's been over 6,000 arrests made to
make sure Pennsylvania streets are safe from those who would sell
drugs. But he also
knows what I knew, that
we've also got to work on demand. We've got to make sure our
youngsters understand that drugs will destroy their lives and
ruin their hopes. Mike can take this to the
Governor's office, and make a huge difference for the citizens of
Pennsylvania.
He also has been making sure
Pennsylvania stays safe. He's a tough
crime fighter.
He makes it clear that
there are consequences for bad
behavior in the state of
Pennsylvania. And that will stand him in good stead when he
becomes the Governor, as well.
We had a chance to talk
about education today, in the car. I was
promoting an early childhood reading
initiative here in the Philadelphia area.
Mike knows what I know, that we must set high
standards for every
child, that we must expect the best
from every single child, and that we
must hold people accountable for
results. It's fine for states and the
federal government to spend money, but for that money
we expect our children to learn how to read and write and add and
subtract.
And if the status quo is unacceptable, if children are not learning
to read and write and add and subtract, it's important to have somebody
in the Governor's office who is willing to say, that is not good
enough. The fact that children can't read and write and add
and subtract is not satisfactory
to me, because every child counts in
America and no child should be left behind. (Applause.)
It is important to have a governor who sets high standards and
expects the best, and a governor who is willing
to challenge a system that simply
shuffles children through.
During the campaign, I called that the soft
bigotry of low expectations.
Mike understands that we must hold people
accountable, that we must insist upon basic
education. We must challenge failure wherever we find it, in
order for the American Dream to reach every neighborhood and every
community and every state of our nation. And I want to thank
Mike for that. (Applause.)
I had the honor of working on
and signing a substantial piece of
education legislation, a significant reform.
I was able to work with Senator Kennedy and Senator Gregg
and Congressmen Boehner and Miller to get
this done. The federal government spends a lot of
money on education, and
finally we're beginning to say,
what are the results? Can our children actually do what we
expect them to do?
In that bill, not only do we insist upon strong accountability to
show
us whether or not we're
achieving standards, but we pass a lot of power
back to the states, where power
belongs. I fully recognize one size does
not fit all when it comes
to public education all across America. It's
important for governors to be empowered,
to meet high standards. And,
therefore, it's important to have good governors,
who understand high standards and accountability in the
governors' offices all across America. Mike Fisher will be such a
governor. (Applause.)
And as Mike said, he understands
the importance of empowering the
private sector in order to create
jobs. Governments don't create wealth,
governments must create an environment in which the
entrepreneurial spirit flourishes. Mike believes in lower
taxes, and so do I.
You might remember, I came to Pennsylvania a
lot, saying if you give
me a chance to be your
President, I will work with Congress to cut the
taxes on the people who work in
America. And that's exactly what we did.
And not only did we do
that, we did it at the right time in Washington,
D.C. (Applause.)
You see, when the economy slows down, like it
had, it's important to let people have more of their own money, so they
can spend it. When people
have more of their own money, it
creates demand. And when people demand more goods and
services, somebody will produce the goods and services. And
when somebody produces the goods and services, somebody can find
work. The best way to make
sure America goes back to work is to trust the American people with
their own money.
Now, there are some in Washington who don't understand
that. But they read a different
textbook than Mike and I do. There are some who say the
more money the federal government has,
the better off America will be. That's not the
way I think. That's not the way Mike thinks. And
history
will prove us right.
By cutting taxes, we saved
the country from a significant recession. (Applause.)
I remember campaigning in Chicago
one time, and the guy said, would
you ever deficit spend?
I said, well, only if we were at war, or the
country was in recession, or there was a national
emergency. (Laughter.)
I didn't realize we were
going to get the trifecta. (Laughter.) We're
dealing with the issue of our economy,
and I want you to know that we're dealing with the issue of war and our
national emergency, as well.
I mentioned Tom.
Our job is to make sure that if anybody hits us
again, the nation can respond.
We've got a great first
responders initiative. I had the honor of meeting the fire
chief of Philadelphia, and
leaders of the Philadelphia police
force. Those who lead -- the brave men
and women who are on the front line of dealing not only with crime, but
with any emergency that may come, we've got a
significant amount of money in our budget to protect the American
people.
Not only are we going to bolster our first responders, to provide
them more training and more equipment in order to
respond, we're going to make sure our border security is
better. We want to know who's coming into the
United States, and why they're coming
in, and if they're leaving, when they're supposed to be
leaving. (Applause.)
We've got a bioterrorism initiative to put in place
a response mechanism if the enemy were to use a biological weapon or a
chemical weapon on America. In other
words, we're buttoning up the homeland security of
the country. You also need to know that any time
we get any kind of hint that somebody may try to
harm Americans, we will respond. We've got much
better dialogue between our federal
and state and local law enforcement officials. Our
intelligence gathering is better than it's ever been. Our
information sharing is very sound.
I wake up every morning and I
get into the great, beautiful Oval
Office, and I read a threat
assessment. It reminds me that we're still
threatened. But I'm here to tell you,
our country is responding. We're diligent, we're
alert. We know our mission, and we know our
priority. But the best way to defend
the homeland, the best way to make sure our little
ones can grow up in a peaceful world, is to find
the enemy, wherever they try to hide, and bring them to
justice. (Applause.)
When our -- when the enemy hit
us, I couldn't understand what was
going through their mind.
They must have thought our
nation was so self-absorbed and so materialistic that all we
would do would be to file a
lawsuit. (Laughter.) They sure were wrong.
I said some things, and I meant them. I said
to those nations around the world, if you think
you can hide one of those terrorists or feed them or harbor them,
you're just as guilty as the terrorists. And thanks to the
United States military, and a vast coalition of freedom-loving nations,
the Taliban found out exactly what I meant. (Applause.)
Every chance I get, I try
to stress, particularly to the young in America, that ours
is a nation that doesn't seek revenge; we seek justice.
And that we went into a country like Afghanistan not as
conquerors, but as liberators.
I want to remind you all that, as a result of
our military action in
Afghanistan, we saved thousands of people from starvation.
And, as importantly, schools opened up
to young girls. For the first time, many young girls got to
go to school.
I'm so proud of the compassion of America. I'm proud of
our strength,
but I'm equally as proud of the compassion of this great nation.
(Applause.)
But we're just starting in
Afghanistan, and there's still a lot of
work to be done there.
Afghanistan is still a dangerous
place, and wherever we find them bunched-up or
wherever we find their leaders, we're in hot pursuit.
We're teaching these people -- treating
these people the way they
need to be treated.
You need to understand, these
are cold-blooded killers.
These are people who hijacked a
religion so they can kill for
means which freedom-loving people can't
understand. They hate America. They hate what we stand
for. They cannot stand the thought that we worship
freely in America.
They hate the thought that there's viable political
discourse. They can't stand the
thought that we're a free country, that everybody has got an equal
chance in America. And so they want to harm us.
We're going to treat them as international
crooks and we're going to get them on the
run. And, like you read in the newspapers or saw on your
TV screens, we're hunting them down
one by one. Our nation is resolved.
Our nation is united. Our
nation understands that we're in this for the
long haul.
History has called us into action.
History has said to
America, are you going to defend
freedom or not? And the answer clearly is, you bet we're
going to defend freedom. (Applause.)
And that's why I've submitted a budget to the
United States Congress
that significantly increases our defense spending.
It's the largest increase in 20
years. And here's why. First, this is a long
struggle and
it's not an easy struggle.
And, secondly, any time the United States
commits our troops into harm's way, they must have the best
equipment, the
best training, the best possible
pay. The price of freedom is high, no
question about it.
But it is not too high, as
far as I'm concerned. (Applause.)
The world watches America very closely. They
want to know are we serious, are we determined, will we tire
and grow weary? Because if we do
grow tired and grow weary, others will, as
well. They're going to find a determined administration who
leads a determined country to defend freedom.
And I believe, as a result of being steadfast and strong
and determined, we can achieve the peace. I long
for peace. But I understand
the road to peace can be really hard.
But if America is strong and determined, and we constantly keep the
pressure on terrorist activities and
terrorism, we can bring peace
to places in the world that never thought they could have peace.
I've got a vision for the Middle
East that says that Israel must be
allowed to exist and be at peace with
its neighbors. (Applause.) I
appreciate the fact that Saudi Arabia
spoke clearly about the need for
Israel to be able to have
normal relations with its neighbors, so that Israeli boys and girls can
grow up in a peaceful society.
I feel the same thing about the
Palestinians. I hope that they can have their own
peaceful state, at peace with their neighbor,
Israel -- a self-governing country, a
country in which there is economic prosperity to end the hopelessness
of many of the citizens who live there.
But there are those who want to destroy that
vision. There are those who want to murder, to make sure
that vision never comes to be. The United
States of America will stand strong and continue
to insist that those who yearn for peace in the Middle East
and other regions around the world must do everything they can to stop
the terrorist activities all aimed at making sure that peace does not
exist. (Applause.)
Now, out of this evil is going to
come some good. A strong America
will lead to a more
peaceful world. And at home, we can fight evil, as
well. People say to me, what can I do? What is
it that I can do to help?
Well, you can love a neighbor like
you'd like to be loved yourself. You
see, in order to fight evil, this
country can gather millions of acts of
kindness and put a compassionate, kind
face on our country. In order to fight evil, in
order to stand squarely in the face of evil, we can let our hearts
flow.
It doesn't take much, it really
doesn't. Mentoring a child, teaching
a child to read, or telling a child you love
them, a big brother or a big sister, a Boys and Girls Club member, is
all part of defining the true face of America.
You know, if you want to fight against the war on terror, if you walk
across the street to a shut-in and simply say, can I talk with you
today?
That, in itself, is part of
defining the true character of our country.
The way to fight evil is to help build character in our
children. The way to fight evil is to tell your
children you love them every single day; is to remember the most
important job you'll ever have, if you happen to be
a mom or a dad, is to love your son or
your daughter with all your heart
and all your soul.
This country is going to win the war against evil
because not only are we militarily strong and determined, but because
we're a nation that is so compassionate and so kind and so loving.
There is a new culture evolving in
America. It's a culture that is shifting away
from "if it feels good do it," and "if you've got a problem,
blame somebody else," to a culture in which each
of us understand that we
are responsible for something greater than ourself. That
was clearly defined on an airplane that crashed in Pennsylvania, when
several people on that plane told their loved
ones goodbye, they told them they loved them,
they said a prayer, they said, let's roll, and
drove an airplane into the ground to save other people's
lives. It is a symbol of what is possible in
America. It is a sign that there are people in this nation
willing to make a sacrifice to help a neighbor in need, willing to make
a sacrifice to make their community a better place.
That's how you win the war on terror. You
understand that there is a
responsibility that comes with living in the
greatest country on the face of the earth. The great news is
America is rallying to the cause. I can't
tell you what an honor it is to be the President
of a nation full of such
great and decent and compassionate and
tough and firm and freedom-loving human beings.
I want to thank you all for coming.
I want to thank you for
supporting Mike Fisher. May God bless
you all and may God bless America. (Applause.)
END 6:28
P.M. EST
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