Remarks in a discussion in Canton, Ohio

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Nov 1, 2004

October 22, 2004

The President. Thank you all for coming. Go ahead and be seated, please. We've got some work to do. Thank you all for coming today.

First of all, George, thank you for that strong endorsement. I am proud to have George in my corner, just like I'm proud to have thousands of Democrats all across the State of Ohio who understand if they want a safer America, a stronger America, and a better America to put me and Dick Cheney back in office. Thank you, sir.

I'm keeping mighty good company today. So I don't know if you know this or not, but Laura and I were in the seventh grade together at San Jacinto Junior High in Midland, Texas. And then we became reacquainted when she was a public school librarian in Texas. I asked her to marry me. She said, "Fine, I will marry you, but make me one promise." I said, "What is it?" She said, "Never make me give a speech." [Laughter] I said, "Okay, you've got a deal." Fortunately, she didn't hold me to that promise. Laura is a great speaker, and when she does, the American people see a compassionate, warm, wonderful First Lady.

So I have been telling the girls, one of these days, we'll take the family camping trip. [Laughter] They envisioned the Grand Canyon, the wilds of Alaska. Girls, this is it, the 2004 campaign. [Laughter] We love them dearly. I'm proud of Barbara and Jenna. Thank you all for campaigning so hard.

Thanks for coming today. I'm back in the great city of Canton because I'm here asking for the vote. I'm here to describe to you what I intend to do over the next 4 years to make this country a better place. I believe you have to get out amongst the people and ask for the vote. We've got a very unusual way of making some points today. As you can see, I've been joined by some citizens from Ohio here on the stage. We will listen to their stories. I think it'll help the people of Ohio understand why I have made some of the decisions I have made.

Before I begin, though, I want to thank your Governor, Bob Taft, for joining us today. Governor, great to see you. I want to thank Jennette Bradley, the Lieutenant Governor. Thanks for coming, Governor. You look great.

Congressman Ralph Regula--appreciate you being here, Congressman. Laura and I were looking forward to seeing the wife, but, no, of course, she's probably out mowing the lawn like you should be doing. [Laughter]

Listen, you've got a great United States Senator in George Voinovich. He doesn't need a poll or a focus group to tell him what to think. He stands on principle. You know where he's coming from. He doesn't shift in the wind like some other United States Senators I know. [Laughter] Put him back in office. And I'm proud of Mike DeWine, a fine United States Senator as well. We're--Laura and I are proud to call both George and Mike friends.

Today, when I landed at the airport, I met Dan Yeric, who's sitting right there. Dan, why don't you wave your hand. Thanks for coming. Dan has been a volunteer at the Akron Children's Hospital for 12 years. The reason I bring him up is the strength of this country lies in the hearts and souls of our fellow citizens. The true strength of America is not our military might; it's not the size of our pocketbook. The true strength of America is in the hearts and souls of citizens who are working to change this country one person at a time, those who've heard the call to love a neighbor just like they'd like to be loved themselves. Dan is a soldier in the army of compassion. Thank you for your example. Thank you for your care.

We're getting close to voting time. Who's counting the days? [Laughter] And I'm here to ask for your help. I believe with your help, we will carry Ohio again and win a great victory in November.

So Laura and I and the girls are here to thank you for what you are going to do over the next less than 2 weeks: call the phone-get on the phone and call the voters; put up the signs; find those discerning Democrats like the mayor, independents, Republicans; get people to do their duty and vote.

And when you do, as you get them out to vote, remind them what this economy has been through. I know there's tough times here in Ohio. Remind everybody what we have been through. You might remind them, starting with this point: The stock market was in a serious decline 6 months prior to my arrival in Washington, DC. And then we had a recession. In other words, that stock market decline was an indicator that the economy was heading south, and it did. And then we had some corporate scandals. We passed tough law to make it abundantly clear we're not going to tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of America. And then we got attacked. And those attacks cost us nearly a million jobs in the 3 months after September the 11th, 2001.

Our economy has been through a lot. But we acted. We cut the taxes to spur consumption and investment, and our economy is growing. We raised the child credit to help people with kids. We lowered the marriage penalty. Listen, we don't want a Tax Code that penalizes marriage. We want a Tax Code that encourages marriage. We reduced rates on everybody who pays taxes. I don't think you ought to be trying to pick and choose winners when it comes to tax relief. If you pay taxes, you ought to get relief. We helped our small businesses. We encouraged investment.