Text 13, 359 rader
Skriven 2004-10-31 23:33:24 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0410317) for Sun, 2004 Oct 31
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Remarks by the Vice President at a Victory 2004 Rally
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
October 31, 2004

Remarks by the Vice President at a Victory 2004 Rally
Los Lunas High School
Los Lunas, New Mexico



5:04 P.M. MST

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you very much for that warm welcome.
It's good to be back in the Land of Enchantment. (Applause.) And New Mexico
looks like Bush-Cheney country. (Applause.)

Well, it's true Lynne has known me since I was 14 ,but she wouldn't go out
with me until I was 17. (Laughter.) I explain to people that we got married
because Dwight Eisenhower got elected President of the United States.
(Laughter.) In those days I was a youngster living in Nebraska with my
folks. Dad worked for the Soil Conservation Service. Eisenhower got
elected, reorganized the government, Dad got transferred to Casper,
Wyoming, where I met Lynne. 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
Eisenhower's victory, Lynne would have married somebody else. (Laughter.)
And she said, right, and now he'd be Vice President of the United States.
(Laughter.) Yes, indeed.

Well, I don't know how much you've noticed about our opponent, Senator
Kerry, of course. He went goose hunting the other day in Ohio. (Laughter.)
He wore a new camouflage jacket for the occasion -- (laughter) -- which
made me wonder how often he'd been goose hunting before. (Laughter.) My
personal opinion is his camo jacket is an October disguise. (Laughter.)
It's an effort he's making to hide the fact that he votes against gun
owners every chance he gets. You want my opinion of the whole thing: John
Kerry's goose is cooked. (Laughter and applause.)

With just two days left in the campaign, the choice in this election could
not be more clear. The stakes are very high, both at home and abroad. And I
believe on Tuesday, the American people are going to make George W. Bush
President for four more years. (Applause.)

It's a pleasure to be with you today in Los Lunas. The President and I have
a good feeling about this area, indeed, about the entire state because with
your help, we're going to carry New Mexico on Tuesday.

I also want to thank Pete Domenici for those kind words, and for joining us
today. (Applause.) Pete and I have known each other for 30 years, and he is
a superb senator not only for New Mexico, but the entire country. He takes
care. (Applause.) And although he could not be here today, I want to put in
a good word for your Congressman, Steve Pearce. (Applause.) He does a great
job, and I know he's on his way to another term in the U.S. House of
Representatives. (Applause.)

But I also want to thank everybody who has helped with this campaign,
putting up yard signs, making the phone calls, doing the door-to-door work,
helping turn out the vote. This campaign has the greatest ground game in
American political history, and I want to thank you for being a part of it.
(Applause.)

New Mexico voters understand the importance of steady, principled,
consistent leadership in the White House. This is no ordinary time for
America. We've all seen the recent tape of Osama bin Laden. It's a reminder
that we're engaged in a global war on terror. This is a conflict we did not
choose, but it is one that we will win. (Applause.)

Over the course of the last four years, I think people have seen very
clearly the character and the vision of our President. He's a man of
loyalty and kindness who speaks plainly and means what he says. He's a man
of conviction, who puts his country above himself. He works with steadfast
purpose to do what's right for America.

For John Kerry it's all about politics rather than principle. After the bin
Laden tape aired the other night, John Kerry's campaign ran a poll to see
what his response should be. (Laughter.) He put his finger in the air to
see which way the wind was blowing. My friends, let me say that George Bush
doesn't need a poll to know where he stands in the war on terror.
(Applause.)

Shameless as John Kerry's response to the Osama bin Laden tape was, it
should not come as a surprise. Just over a year ago, John Kerry looked at
the poll results and turned his back on our troops. Senator Kerry you will
remember voted in favor of using force against Saddam Hussein, but then
during the primary season when it came time to vote for funds that would
provide our men and women with the body armor, ammunition, jet fuel, and
spare parts they needed, Senator Kerry voted "no."

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: He offered a ridiculous explanation which, frankly, I
think will go down in the history of American politics. He said, and I
quote, "I actually voted for the $87 billion before I voted against it."
(Laughter.)

But the real reason he turned his back on our troops was Howard Dean --
Dean was the antiwar candidate; Dean was surging ahead in the polls; and so
John Kerry in order to advance himself in the primaries, turned his back on
our troops. He said his vote was "complicated." (Laughter.) But, my
friends, supporting American troops in combat should never be a complicated
matter. (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'll attack the No Child Left
Behind Act -- after he voted for it. He'll try to scare young people by
raising the specter of the draft ?- when he knows the only people who have
supported the idea of bringing it back are two members of his own party.
Nobody but those two Democrats wants to change the all-volunteer force
because it's the finest military the world has ever known. (Applause.)

John Kerry will say and do anything to get elected. America's military men
and women have liberated 50 million people in three years. In Afghanistan,
they managed to do in two months what the Soviet Union could not do in 10
years. (Applause.) In Iraq, they toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in
just three weeks. (Applause.) But instead of praising their achievement,
John Kerry harps away at phony charges. He says we took our eye off the
ball at Tora Bora, a charge that General Tommy Franks, who commanded our
forces, has totally refuted. Given a choice between John Kerry's opinion
and General Tommy Franks, I'll go with General Franks every time.
(Applause.)

John Kerry has spent a lot of this campaign playing armchair general, and,
frankly, he's not very good at it. (Laughter.) This shouldn't surprise us
given his weak record on national security. He first ran for Congress
advocating the idea that we should deploy American troops only with the
authorization 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 Ronald Reagan --

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: -- that Ronald Reagan used to keep the peace and win
the Cold War. In 1991, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and stood poised
to dominate the Persian Gulf, John Kerry voted against Operation Desert
Storm.

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: In the first debate this year, Senator Kerry said
America had to meet some kind of global test before we could take military
action. The President and I know better than that. We know that it is not
our job to conduct international opinion polls, our job is to defend
America. (Applause.)

Now in the closing days of the campaign, John Kerry is running around,
talking tough. He's trying every which way to cover up his record of
weakness on national defense. But he can't do it. It won't work. As we like
to say in Wyoming, you can put all the lipstick you want on that pig, but
it's still a pig. (Laughter and applause.) That's my favorite line.
(Laughter.) You want to hear it again?

AUDIENCE: Yes!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: As we say in Wyoming -- (laughter) -- you can put all
the lipstick you want on that pig, but at the end of the day it's still a
pig. (Applause.) All right, I've got to concentrate here. (Laughter.)

John Kerry does not have the judgment or the conviction that America needs
in a President. He is not a steadfast leader.

AUDIENCE: No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Our President is.

AUDIENCE: Yes! (Applause.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT: And let me tell you why that matters. A country 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 character and steadfast
determination, he's led us very well.

At the Republican Convention, former Mayor Giuliani told how on 9/11 he
turned to his police commissioner, Bernie Kerik, and said, Thank God,
George Bush is our Commander-in-Chief. (Applause.)

Under the President's leadership, we have reached around the world to
capture and kill thousands of al Qaeda. In Afghanistan, the camps where
terrorists trained to kill Americans have been shut down, the Taliban
driven from power. In Iraq, we dealt with a gathering threat and removed
the regime of Saddam Hussein. Nineteen months ago, he controlled the lives
of 25 million people. Tonight, he sits in jail. (Applause.)

Because of President Bush's determination in the war on terror, leaders
around the world are getting the message. Just five days after Saddam
Hussein was captured, Moammar Ghadafi in Libya agreed to abandon his
nuclear weapons program and turn the materials over to the U.S. (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 the 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. And the world is safer as a
result. (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
when Senator Kerry recently said he wanted to lead America back to the
place where we were -- to a time when terrorism was, in his word, a
"nuisance."

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: 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 just a nuisance four years ago, when the USS Cole was attacked and
almost sunk and we lost 17 sailors?

AUDIENCE: No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Was it a nuisance six years ago when they attacked two
of our embassies in East Africa and killed hundreds of people?

AUDIENCE: No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Or 11 years ago when the World Trade Center in New York
was first bombed?

AUDIENCE: No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Or 16 years ago when Pan Am 103 was blown out of the
skies over Lockerbie Scotland?

AUDIENCE: No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Or 21 years ago, when a suicide bomber in a truck
loaded with explosives drove into our barracks in Beirut and killed 241
Marines?

AUDIENCE: No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: My friends, there never was a time when terrorism was
just a nuisance. (Applause.) There never can be a time when terrorism is
just a nuisance. Our goal is not to reduce terror to some acceptable level.
Our goal is to defeat terror, and with George Bush as President, that's
exactly what we will do. (Applause.)

These are not times for leaders who shift with the political winds, or who
fail to understand the nature of the struggle we're 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 -- fortunately on matters of national security, his views
rarely prevail. But the presidency is an entirely different proposition. A
senator can be wrong for 20 years, without consequence to the nation. But a
President -- 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. (Applause.) I want to thank
them, their families, and all our veterans here today for what they've done
for all of 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, our economy was sliding into
recession. Then terrorists struck on 9/11 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 the economy. We've created jobs for 13 consecutive
months -? a total of over 1.9 million new jobs during that period. Here in
New Mexico, nearly 42,000 jobs have been added since '01. (Applause.) The
President's tax cuts are allowing more people to live out the dream of
owning their own business. And in the last four years, the number of
Latino-owned small businesses has increased 33 percent to nearly 2 million.
(Applause.) The President's policies have helped bring home ownership,
another piece of the American Dream, within reach of more Americans. We're
working to close the home ownership gap. I'm proud to report there are more
minority home owners today than ever before in history. (Applause.)

We're also seeing record exports for farm products. Farm income is up. Our
farm economy is strong and that's good for the entire nation. (Applause.)
Our economy is growing and in a second term, we'll keep moving it in the
right direction by making the Bush tax cuts permanent. (Applause.)

We'll also work to end lawsuit abuse. We know it's easier for America's
businesses to hire new workers if they don't have to keep hiring lawyers.
(Applause.)

We'll continue to work to help parents and teachers improve our public
schools. With high standards in place, the achievement gap is closing. I
know you're as proud as I am that last school year New Mexico children from
every background improved their overall performance. (Applause.)

We'll work for medical liability reform so that America's doctors are able
to spend their time healing patients, not fighting off frivolous lawsuits.
(Applause.)

President Bush and I will also continue to defend our society's fundamental
rights and values. (Applause.) We stand for a culture of life and 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 our nation is "one
nation under God." And we believe Americans ought to be able to say so when
we pledge allegiance to the 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. (Applause.) 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. That's not going to happen because we're going to win this
election. (Applause.)

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 American people. The signs are good -? here in New Mexico, 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. (Applause.)

President Bush and I are honored to have the support of that police officer
-- (laughter) -- and of Democrats, Republicans, and independents from every
calling in American life. We're grateful to our many friends across the
great state of New Mexico. I want to thank you for the tremendous welcome
this evening. We're proud to have you on the team. (Applause.) And
together, on November 2nd, we'll see our cause forward to victory.

Thank you very much. (Applause.)

END 5:24 P.M. MST
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