Remarks at a Victory 2004 reception in Denver, Colorado

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, June 7, 2004

June 1, 2004

Thank you all. Thanks for coming. I appreciate you all being here. I want to thank you all for coming tonight. What we have done is we have made sure we're going to carry Colorado again. I love coming to this State. It's a State where the cowboy hats out-number the ties. It's great to be here, and I cannot tell you how grateful I am that you all have taken time to come by to say hello.

I bring greetings from First Lady Laura Bush. She is a fabulous First Lady, and she is a wonderful wife. I was a lucky guy when she said yes. There I was on bended knee in Midland, Texas. I said, "Would you marry me?" She said, "Just so long as you don't get into politics." [Laughter] She is--she's come to realize what I know, that in this job you can do things to help influence people's lives in such a positive way. She speaks clearly about literacy. She's got a passion for helping people learn to read.

I'll never forget the time she did the radio address, the Presidential radio address, and she spoke to the hopes and aspirations of the women in Afghanistan. And the feedback she got was such incredibly positive feedback. People said--people from that desperate part of the world sent word back that they so appreciated the fact that Laura lifted their souls and sights and spirits with just some kind and gentle words. I think there's a lot of reasons you need to put me back in office, but perhaps the most important is so that Laura can be the First Lady for 4 more years.

I look forward to working with the Vice President for 4 more years. I'm very proud of the job that Dick Cheney has done. He's steady. He's strong. He's reliable. He is an excellent Vice President. I used to say he's the best Vice President we ever had, until one day Mother yelled out, "Wait a minute, buster." [Laughter] But he's a good, solid friend and a good man.

I really appreciate Governor Owens. He's one of the most articulate spokesmen for compassionate conservatism in the country. I'm proud to call him friend. I'm proud that Frances is here along with him. I appreciate your service, Governor, and thank you very much for what you've done for the State.

I want to thank Benson--Bruce Benson. I knew he would amount to something one of these days. [Laughter] Thank you very much for leading this effort, Bruce. You and Marcy have been longtime friends, and I appreciate that. You know, in this line of work, if you can't count on your friends, it's going to be an empty journey. And the Bensons have been long-time friends, for which I'm grateful.

I want to thank my friend Mercer Reynolds from Cincinnati, Ohio, who has been in charge of the Bush-Cheney fundraising effort and is now in charge of raising money for the Victory committees. Victory committees mean that we're going to have a little water in the bucket to water the grassroots, to turn out the vote. And for those of you who are what they call grassroots activists, I want to thank you for what you're fixing to do, which is to put up the signs, find the voters, and turn them out--find out who they are and say, "You owe it to our country to participate in democracy."

And don't be afraid to talk to discerning Democrats and independents too, because we've got a good, positive message. We've got something that lifts--our message lifts the spirits of this country. First, when you're convincing them, remind them that this administration has confronted serious challenges. We--when we came to office, the stock market was in decline and the economy was headed into recession. But we acted. We delivered historic tax relief. And over the past year, this economy of ours is the fastest growing of any industrialized--major industrialized nation in the world.

We uncovered corporate crimes. Those corporate crimes affected the American people. And we worked with Congress to pass tough laws--I mean, tough laws-and made it abundantly clear we're not going to tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of America.

We saw war and grief arrive on a September morning, and so we have pursued the terrorist enemy across the world. We have been steadfast and strong in our--doing our duty, which is to protect America. We've captured or killed many of the key leaders of the Al Qaida network, and I assure you, the rest of them know we're on their trail.

We confronted the dangers of state-sponsored terror and the spread of weapons of mass destruction. We ended two of the most violent and dangerous regimes on Earth. And now, thanks to our brave troops and coalition troops, 50 million people live in freedom.

When we got to Washington, the military was underfunded and not very well appreciated. We anticipated the problem. We worked with Congress to pass robust defense budgets. And today, no one can question the skill or the strength or the spirit of the United States military. And tomorrow I look forward to going to the Air Force Academy to congratulate the newest class of Air Force officers and to thank them on behalf of a grateful nation for the service they're going to render.