Remarks in Johnstown, Pennsylvania

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Sept 13, 2004

September 9, 2004

The President. Thank you all. Thank you all very much. Thanks for coming. You know, it turns out I am the first sitting President to have visited Johnstown in more than 30 years. All those other Presidents sure missed out. Thanks for coming. I'm proud you came out. I'm honored you are here. I'm pleased to be with the good folks here in Johnstown. I know you like to hunt and fish. So do I. I know you care about your neighbors. I appreciate that. I know you take your baseball seriously. And from the looks of things, with your help, we'll carry Pennsylvania in November.

I'm here to ask for your vote. And I'm here to ask for your help. We have a duty to vote in this country, and I'm here to ask you to register your friends and neighbors and encourage them to do their duty. And when you're out registering people, don't overlook discerning Democrats. You might remember my friend Zell Miller. He represents a lot of folks who understand that when you put Dick Cheney and me back in office, this country will be safer, stronger, and better for every American.

My regret is that Laura didn't come with me today.

Audience members. Aw-w-w!

The President. She was a public school librarian when I asked her to marry me. And she said, "Fine, I'll marry you, so long as I don't have to give a political speech." [Laughter] I said, "Okay." Fortunately, she didn't hold me to that promise. You saw her the other night in New York City. You saw how gracious she is, how strong she is. I love her dearly. I'm going to give yon some reasons why I think you ought to put me back in office, but perhaps the most important one of all is so that Laura is First Lady for 4 more years.

I'm proud of my runningmate, Dick Cheney. I admit it, he doesn't have the waviest hair on the ticket. [Laughter] I didn't pick him for his looks. I picked him because he's a man of sound judgment and great experience and can get the job done for the American people.

I appreciate Congressman Bill Shuster joining us today. He's been telling me all along I need to come to Johnstown, Pennsylvania. When I showed up, he said, "You finally made it." I said, "I made it just in time to rally these folks to get ready to win this election come November."

I want to thank your mayor, Don Zucco, for joining us today. Mr. Mayor, I'm proud you're here. Sometimes they say, "Well, do you ever have any advice for the local officials?" Mr. Mayor, fill the potholes. [Laughter] I appreciate you coming, Mayor.

I want to thank all the State and local officials who are here. I want to thank my friend Victor Raia. He heads Veterans for Bush. And I want to thank all the veterans who have joined us here today as well.

I want to thank the Wil Gravatt Band. I appreciate them playing here. I appreciate the high school band that's here tonight. Thank you for coming. I'm going to try to keep my speech short so you can get home and do your homework. [Laughter]

I want to thank all the grassroots activists who are here, the people who put up the signs and make the phone calls. I really appreciate your help. I know you're working hard, but keep working. And I'll be working right alongside of you.

I'm looking forward to the campaign. I'm going to tell the people where I stand, where I--what I believe, and where I'm going to lead this Nation. I'm going to tell them that I have a plan to keep this country of ours safer and a more hopeful America. I'm running on a compassionate conservative philosophy that says, "Government ought to help people, not dictate to people."

I believe every child can learn. That's what I believe. I went to Washington to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations. We've raised standards. We're measuring early to solve problems before it is too late. We're ending that old practice of just shuffling the kids through the system year after year without learning the basics. We trust the local people to make the right decisions for the schools. We're closing an achievement gap in America, and we're not turning back.

I believe we have a moral responsibility to honor our seniors with good health care. I went up to Washington to fix problems. We had a problem with Medicare. Let me give you one example. Medicare would pay tens of thousands of dollars for the heart surgery, and that's okay. But it wouldn't pay for the medicine to prevent the heart surgery from happening in the first place. It didn't make any sense for our seniors to have a Medicare system like that, and it certainly didn't make sense for the taxpayers. We have modernized Medicare. Our seniors will get prescription drug coverage, and we're not turning back.

I believe in the energy and innovative spirit of the American worker and farmer and small-business owner. And that's why we unleashed that energy with the largest tax relief in a generation. When you're out rounding up the vote, remind your friends and neighbors that we've been through a lot. This economy of ours has been through a lot. See, 5 months before I got into office, the stock market had begun to decline. We had a recession. We had corporate scandals, which affected our economy. And of course, we had the attacks on our country. But we've overcome all these obstacles because we've got good workers, good small-business owners. We've overcome them too because of well-timed tax cuts.