Remarks at a rally in New York City: September 20, 2004

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Sept 27, 2004

The President. Thank you all for coming.

Audience members. Viva Bush! Viva Bush! Viva Bush!

The President. Thank you all. Thanks for coming. Thank you all for coming. So I said to Pataki, try introducing me at the convention. If it works out well, you can introduce me here tonight. [Laughter] He gave a great introduction at the convention, for which I am grateful. And I appreciate his leadership, and I appreciate his friendship.

I also appreciate the friendship of Rudy. I had the privilege of traveling with Rudy in New Mexico. They've even heard of him there. [Laughter] And he did a great job. It was a lot of fun. Thanks for coming.

So when I asked Laura to marry me, she said, "Fine, just so long as I never have to We a speech." [Laughter] I said, "Well, okay, you'll never have to give a speech." Fortunately, she didn't hold me to that promise. The American people got to see a compassionate, strong, kind person.

I want to thank--I also want to thank Libby and Emily Pataki for joining us, and Judith Giuliani for joining us as well. I wish Howard Mills all the best in his race for the United States Senate. I want to thank Lew Eisenberg for his hard work to make this event successful, I want to thank Al Hoffman for his hard work. I want to thank my friend Mercer Reynolds, Sandy Treadwell, Mike Long. Most of all, I want to thank you all for coming. Vito Fossella is here. Where is old Vito? Somewhere around here. He's a Congressman. He's a great guy.

Thanks for coming. My spirits are high. I'm honored you're here. I appreciate the support we receive here in the great State of New York. And a couple of folks slid across the border from New Jersey and Connecticut as well. [Laughter] I'm proud you're here. I'm not much of a prognosticator, but things seem to be going awfully well in the three States I just mentioned. I'm enjoying myself on the campaign trail.

We've got a great country, and I love to get out amongst the people. Laura and I are traveling a lot. The crowds are huge. Enthusiasm is high. We're going to win in November.

Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

The President. Thank you all. I'm ready for the stretch run. I know where I want to lead the country. I look forward to telling the people what I believe. I believe that schools can do a better job of teaching our children. Listen, I went to Washington to challenge tiffs practice of just shuffling kids through schools year after year, grade after grade. It's what I call challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations.

We've raised the bar. We've increased funding. But in return, we're now saying, "Why don't you measure early so we can correct problems early, before they're too late." And the achievement gap in America is closing, and we're not going to torn around. We're not going to go backwards. We're going to stay on this path to excellence for every child, por cada nino, por cada nino.

I went to Washington to fix problems. I believed that we needed to fix Medicare. You know, medicine has changed; Medicare hadn't. We would pay $100,000 for heart surgery but not a dime for prescription drugs that might prevent the heart surgery from being needed in the first place. We used to call it "Mediscare," because politicians were afraid to talk about it. I'm not afraid to take on the tough issue. We've modernized Medicare. Our seniors are going to get prescription drug coverage in 2006, and we're not going to turn back.

I believe the role of Government is not to create wealth but an environment in which the entrepreneurs can flourish. I believe that good Government policy unleashes the innovation and energy of our farmers, ranchers, small-business owners, dreamers, doers. And that's why we unleashed that energy with the largest tax cut in a generation.

Listen, we've been through a lot when it comes to this economy. I don't need to tell people in New York what it's been like. We had a recession. We had some corporate citizens forget what it means to be responsible citizens, and they didn't tell the truth. That affected our economy, by the way. We passed laws that now say, "We're not going to tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of America, pure and simple." The attacks on this city hurt us. They say we lost about a million jobs in the 3 months after September the 11th, but we've overcome these obstacles. This economy of ours is growing at a rate as fast as any in nearly 20 years. The national unemployment rate is 5.4 percent, which is lower than the average of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Over the past year, 47 of the 50 States have added jobs, including the great State of New York. This economy is strong, and it is getting stronger.

A President's most solemn duty is to protect the American people. And here's what I believe: I believe if we show any uncertainty or weakness in this decade, this world will drift toward tragedy. This will not happen on my watch.

I've got a clear and positive plan to build a satyr world and more hopeful America. I'm running with what I call a compassionate conservative philosophy that Government should help people improve their lives, not try to run their lives.