Remarks in Greenwood Village, Colorado

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Sept 20, 2004

September 14, 2004

The President. Thank you .all. Thanks for coming. Thank you all for coming. Listen, I'm here in Colorado asking for the vote. I'm proud to be back in this beautiful State. Matter of fact, it's nice to be out West, where the cowboy hats outnumber the ties. I appreciate you being here. I'm honored to be introduced by the man who led "the drive." Now I'm glad he's helping my drive. [Laughter] John Elway is a class act. I'm proud to call him friend, and I'm proud to call him supporter.

I'm also here asking for your help. See, I think we have a duty in this country to vote. I'm asking you to register your friends and neighbors to vote. And as you register people to vote, make sure you don't overlook discerning Democrats like Zell Miller. There's a lot of Democrats and independents understand that when you put Dick Cheney and me back in office, this country is going to be safer, stronger, and better for every American.

I'm sorry Laura is not here. She's a wonderful wife, a great mom. You know, when I asked her to marry me, she was a public school librarian in Texas. She said, "Fine, I'll marry you, so long as I don't have to give any political speeches." [Laughter] I said, "Okay, you won't have to give any." Fortunately, she didn't hold me to my word. [Laughter] She gave a great speech in New York City. The American people saw her heart, her compassion, her steady demeanor, her calm. I love her dearly. I'm going to give you some reasons to put me back in, but perhaps the most important one of all is so that Laura is the First Lady for 4 more years.

I want to thank my friend Governor Bill Owens. He's one of the finest Governors in the State of in this country, and he's represented the State of Colorado so well. I'm honored First Lady Frances Owens is with us today as well. Frances, thank you for coming. We're proud to call you friend.

I want to thank my friend Ben Nighthorse Campbell for being here. I was a little hot at old Ben when I heard he was retiring, because he's such a fine Senator, but I feel a lot better knowing that Pete Coors is going to be the U.S. Senator following him.

Audience members. Pete! Pete! Pete!

The President. I want to thank Lieutenant Governor Jane Norton. Speaking about Nortons, Gale Norton is doing a heck of a good job in my Cabinet. I appreciate so very much the wonderful job she's doing. She was here in Colorado yesterday designating our newest national park, the Great Sand Dunes National Park. Doing a fine job.

I want to thank Mayor Nancy Sharpe for coming today. Madame Mayor, I appreciate you coming. Thank you for serving. I want to thank Senator Hank Brown. Appreciate him being here. He's a fine man.

I thank 'all the statehouse folks who are here and the courthouse folks who are here. Thanks for coming. Thanks for serving. I want to thank John Lynch of the mighty Denver Broncos for joining us today. Danny Kanell is with us today. I appreciate Danny coming. I want to thank Tom Nalen, center of the Denver Broncos, for joining us today. I want to thank my fellow Texan Dan Neil for joining us today. I don't know if you remember me when I was the Governor, but I remember you. [Laughter] Great to see you again.

Most of all, I want to thank you all for coming. I want to thank the grassroots activists. I want to thank the party officials who worked hard to put up the signs and make the phone calls. I urge you and encourage you to continue to work hard. With your help, we will carry Colorado again and win a great victory in November.

I'm looking forward to this campaign. I like to get out amongst the people. I'm going to tell the people where I stand, what I believe, and where I'm going to lead this Nation for the next 4 years.

I believe that every child can learn and every school must teach. I went to Washington to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations. So we're raising standards. We're measuring early so we can solve problems before they're too late. 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 to Washington to fix problems. Medicare was not modernizing the way medicine was. See, we would pay for a $100,000 heart surgery in Medicare but would not pay for the prescription drugs that could prevent the heart surgery from being needed in the first place. That didn't make any sense for our seniors, and it didn't make any sense for our taxpayers. We have strengthened Medicare for our seniors, and we're not turning back.

I believe in the energy and innovation and spirit of our small-business owners, our farmers and ranchers and our workers. 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 people that our economy has been through a lot. We've been through a recession. We had corporate scandals. We passed tough laws, by the way, in Washington that make it abundantly clear, we will not tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of America. The attacks on our country hurt our economy.