Remarks in Downingtown, Pennsylvania

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Oct 25, 2004

October 21, 2004

The President. Thank you all for coining. I appreciate you all being here. Thanks for coining. Thanks for coming. I appreciate such a warm welcome. I'm proud to be back in Chester County, Pennsylvania. I'm here to ask for your help. We're less than two weeks away, when the people get to go express their opinion in the polls. And I believe with your help, we're going to win the State of Pennsylvania.

I know a lot of people are working hard in this campaign, and I am here to thank you. I want to thank you for putting up the signs. I want to thank you for making the phone calls. I want to thank you for reminding our fellow citizens we have a duty to go to the polls in a democracy. And when you get them headed to the polls, remind them if they want a safer America, a stronger America, and a better America, to put me and Dick Cheney back in office.

So ever since Barbara and Jenna were young, I've been telling them we're going to go on the great family camping trip. [Laughter] I'm sure they envisioned the Colorado River or the wilds of Alaska, but no, the great family camping trip turned out to be the campaign of 2004. And I can't tell you--I cannot tell you how great it is to have my daughter introduce me in front of you all. I'm proud of Barbara. I love her dearly. And I thank you for joining me, darling.

My only regret, which is I'm sure your regret, is that Laura is not here--and Jenna, of course, but she's with Laura. See, when I asked Laura to marry me, she said, "Fine, I will marry you, so long as I never have to give a speech." [Laughter] I said, "Okay, you've got a deal." Fortunately, she did not hold me to that deal. Laura is giving a lot of speeches, and when she does, the American people see a warm, compassionate, strong First Lady.

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

The President. Thank you all.

I am proud of my runningmate. I met with the Vice President this morning at our national security briefing. It--taking a look at him reminded me I didn't pick him because of his hairdo. [Laughter] He does not have the waviest hair in the race. [Laughter] But I picked him because of his experience and sound judgment. He's doing a great job for the American people.

By the way, a fellow you trained is doing a great job in Washington, and that would be your former Governor, Tom Ridge. He is a fine member of a very strong Cabinet. And he is doing a fine job of helping protect this homeland.

I want to thank your two United States Senators for their service to your State. First, I hope you put Arlen Specter back into office. He's a good Senator. And I'm proud to work with your other Senator, Rick Santorum.

I want to thank Congressman Jim Gerlach for his service to this district. I appreciate you, Congressman. He's somewhere around here. Where--there you are, Congressman. Good to see you. I see you're sitting next to a good fellow in Congressman Joe Pitts--appreciate you coming, Joe. And Congressman Tom Feeney from the State of Florida is with us. Feeney--yes, what are you doing here? Get back to your district and turn out the vote. [Laughter] I'll see you down there Saturday. [Laughter]

I want to thank all the local folks who are here. I want to thank my friend Man Novak, who is the party chairman. I want to thank--[applause].

Barbara and I just had a chance to meet with four doctors from the area and a patient, Charlene Ware. And the does were all telling me you got a problem here. We're going to talk about health care here today. I want to thank the does for taking time to visit with me to share their concerns. And part of my address today is to share their concerns with you, because in order to make sure we've got a good health care system, we've got to make sure you have good professionals remain right here in your neighborhood to help solve the problems you have.

We have a lot at stake in this election. There are big issues that we're discussing. When I ran for President 4 years ago, none of us could have ever envisioned the horror of September the 11th. Since that day, I have led a comprehensive strategy to defeat the terrorists, to keep the homeland safe and secure. I pledged to the American people, we would be resolute and determined and do our duty to protect you, and I kept my pledge.

Our economy has been through a lot. When you're out rounding up the vote, remind people about what we have been through. The stock market was in serious decline 6 months prior to my arrival in Washington, DC. And then we went through a recession. We had some corporate scandals. We passed tough laws, by the way. We have made it abundantly clear we will not tolerate dishonesty in the board rooms of America. And then we got attacked. It cost us about a million jobs in the 3 months after September the 11th. I pledged to the American people, we would reduce your taxes to get our economy going again. I kept my word. Our economy is strong, and it is getting stronger.

I promised to reform our public schools and to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations. I kept my word. We passed the No Child Left Behind Act, and we're closing an achievement gap all across America. And we're not going to go back to the days of mediocrity and low standards.