FDCH E-Media, Inc. Wednesday, September 1, 2004; 11:19 PM
The following is Vice President Dick Cheney's acceptance speech at the
2004 Republican National Convention:
CHENEY: Thank you.
Thank you.
I'm sure glad Zell Miller's on our side.
Mr. Chairman, delegates, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:
I accept your nomination for vice president of the United States.
AUDIENCE: Four more years. Four more years. Four more years.
CHENEY: Thank you.
I'm honored by your confidence. And tonight I make this pledge: I will
give this campaign all that I have.
CHENEY: And together we will make George W. Bush president for another
four years.
Tonight I will talk about this good man and his fine record leading our
country. And I may say a word or two about his opponent.
I am also mindful now that I have an opponent of my own.
AUDIENCE: Boooo.
CHENEY: People tell me that Senator Edwards got picked for his good
looks, his sex appeal and his great hair. I say to them: How do you
think I got the job?
On this night, as we celebrate the opportunities that America offers,
I am filled with gratitude to a nation that has been good to me, and
I remember the people who set me on my way in life. My grandfather
noted that the day I was born was also the birthday of Franklin Delano
Roosevelt. And so he told my parents they should send President Roosevelt
an announcement of my birth.
CHENEY: Now, my grandfather didn't have a chance to go to high school.
For many years he worked as a cook on the Union Pacific Railroad. And
he and my grandmother lived in a railroad car.
But the modesty of his circumstances didn't stop him from thinking that
President Roosevelt should know about my arrival.
My grandfather believed deeply in the promise of America and had the
highest hopes for his family. And I don't think it would surprise him
all that much that a grandchild of his stands before you tonight as vice
president of the United States.
It is the story of this country that people have been able to dream
big dreams with confidence they would come true, if not for themselves,
then for their children and grandchildren.
And that sense of boundless opportunity is a gift that we must pass on
to all who come after us.
From kindergarten to graduation, I went to public schools. And I know
that they are a key to being sure that every child has a chance to
succeed and to rise in the world.
CHENEY: When the president and I took office, our schools were shuffling
too many children from grade to grade without giving them the skills
and the knowledge they need.
So President Bush reached across the aisle and brought both parties
together to pass the most significant education reform in 40 years.
With higher standards and new resources, America's schools are now on
an upward path to excellence, and not for just a few children, but for
every child.
Opportunity also depends on a vibrant, growing economy. As President
Bush and I were sworn into office, our nation was sliding into
recession, and American workers were overburdened with federal taxes.
Then came the events of September 11th, which hit our economy very hard.
So President Bush delivered the greatest tax reduction in a generation,
and the results are clear to see.
Businesses are creating jobs. People are returning to work. Mortgage
rates are low, and home ownership in this country is at an all-time
high. The Bush tax cuts are working.
CHENEY: Our nation has the best health care in the world and President
Bush is making it more affordable and accessible to all Americans.
And there is more to do. Under this President's leadership, we will
reform medical liability so the system serves patients and good doctors,
not personal injury lawyers.
These have been years of achievement, and we are eager for the work
ahead. And in all that we do, we will never lose sight of the greatest
challenge of our time: preserving the freedom and security of this nation
against determined enemies.
AUDIENCE: Four more years. Four more years. Four more years.
CHENEY: Thanks you all.
Since I last spoke to our national convention, Lynne and I have had the
joy of seeing our family grow. We now have a grandson to go along with
our three wonderful granddaughters...
And the deepest wish of my heart and the object of all my determination
is that they and all of America's children will have lives filled with
opportunity, and that they will inherit a world in which they can live
in freedom, in safety and in peace.
Four years ago, some said the world had grown calm, and many assumed that
the United States was invulnerable to danger. That thought might have
been comforting; it was also false. Like other generations of Americans,
we soon discovered that history had great and unexpected duties in store
for us.
CHENEY: September 11th, 2001, made clear the challenges we face. On
that day we saw the harm that could be done by 19 men armed with knives
and boarding passes. America also awakened to a possibility even more
lethal: this enemy, whose hatred of us is limitless, armed with chemical,
biological, or even nuclear weapons.
Just as surely as the Nazis during World War II and the Soviets during
the Cold War, the enemy we face today is bent on our destruction.
As in other times, we are in a war we did not start, and have no choice
but to win.
Firm in our resolve, focused on our mission, and led by a superb commander
in chief, we will prevail.
CHENEY: The fanatics who killed some 3,000 of our fellow Americans may
have thought they could attack us with impunity, because terrorists had
done so previously.
But if the killers of September 11th thought we had lost the will to
defend our freedom, they did not know America, and they did not know
George W. Bush.
From the beginning, the president made clear that the terrorists would
be dealt with and that anyone who supports, protects or harbors them
would be held to account.
In a campaign that has reached around the world, we have captured or
killed hundreds of Al Qaida. In Afghanistan, the camps where terrorists
trained to kill Americans have been shut down and the Taliban driven
from power.
In Iraq, we dealt with a gathering threat and removed the regime of
Saddam Hussein.
CHENEY: Seventeen months ago, he controlled the lives and fortunes of
25 million people. Tonight he sits in jail.
President Bush does not deal in empty threats and half measures. And his
determination has sent a clear message. Just five days after Saddam was
captured, the government of Libya agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons
program and turn the materials over to the United States.
Tonight, the uranium, the centrifuges and plans and designs for nuclear
weapons that were once hidden in Libya are locked up and stored away in
Oak Ridge, Tennessee, never again to threaten America.
CHENEY: The biggest threat we face today is having nuclear weapons
fall into the hands of terrorists. The president is working with many
countries in a global effort to end the trade and transfer of these
deadly technologies. The most important result thus far, and it is
a very important one, is that the black-market network that supplied
nuclear weapons technology to Libya, as well as to Iran and North Korea,
has been shut down.
The world's worst source of nuclear weapons proliferation is out of
business, and we are safer as a result.
In the global war we are fighting, we owe a mighty debt to the men and
women of the United States armed forces.
CHENEY: They fought the enemy with courage and reached out to civilians
with compassion, rebuilding schools and hospitals and roads.
They have won stunning victories. They have faced hard duty and long
deployments. And they have lost comrades, more than 1,100 brave Americans,
whose memories this nation will honor forever.
The men and women who wear the uniform of the United States represent the
very best of America. They have the thanks of our nation. And they have
the confidence, the loyalty and the respect of their commander in chief.
In this election, we will decide who leads our country for the next four
years. Yet there is more in the balance than that. Moments come along
in history when leaders must make fundamental decisions about how to
confront a long-term challenge abroad or how best to keep the American
people secure at home.
CHENEY: We faced such a moment after World War II, when we put in place
the policies that defended America throughout the Cold War. Those policies
-- containing Communism, deterring attack by the Soviet Union, promoting
the rise of democracy -- were carried out by Democratic and Republican
presidents in the decades that followed.
This nation has reached another of those defining moments. Under President
Bush, we have put in place new policies and created new institutions to
defend America, to stop terrorist violence at its source, and to help
move the Middle East away from old hatreds and resentments and toward
the lasting peace that only freedom can bring.
This is the work not of months, but of years. And keeping these
commitments is essential to our future security.
For that reason, ladies and gentlemen, the election of 2004 is one of
the most important not just in our lives, but in our history.
CHENEY: And so it is time to set the alternatives squarely before the
American people.
The president's opponent is an experienced senator. He speaks often of
his service in Vietnam, and we honor him for it.
But there is also a record of more than three decades since. And on
the question of America's role in the world, the differences between
Senator Kerry and President Bush are the sharpest, and the stakes for
the country are the highest.
History has shown that a strong and purposeful America is vital to
preserving freedom and keeping us safe. Yet time and again, Senator
Kerry has made the wrong call on national security.
Senator Kerry began his political career by saying he would like to see
our troops deployed "only at the directive of the United Nations."
AUDIENCE: Booo.
CHENEY: During the 1980s, Senator Kerry opposed Ronald Reagan's major
defense initiatives that brought victory in the Cold War.
AUDIENCE: Booo.
CHENEY: In 1991, when Saddam Hussein occupied Kuwait and stood poised
to dominate the Persian Gulf, Senator Kerry voted against Operation
Desert Storm.
AUDIENCE: Booo.
CHENEY: Even in this post-9/11 period, Senator Kerry doesn't appear to
understand how the world has changed. He talks about leading a "more
sensitive war on terror"...
...as though Al Qaida will be impressed with our softer side.
He declared at the Democratic convention that he will forcefully defend
America after we have been attacked. My fellow Americans, we have already
been attacked...
AUDIENCE: USA. USA. USA.
CHENEY: We are faced with an enemy who seeks the deadliest of weapons
to use against us, and we cannot wait for the next attack. We must do
everything we can to prevent it, and that includes the use of military
force.
Senator Kerry denounces American action when other countries don't
approve, as if the whole object of our foreign policy were to please a
few persistent critics.
But, in fact, in the global war on terror, as in Afghanistan and Iraq,
President Bush has brought many allies to our side.
CHENEY: But as the President has made very clear, there is a difference
between leading a coalition of many nations and submitting to the
objections of a few.
George W. Bush will never seek a permission slip to defend the American
people.
AUDIENCE: USA. USA. USA.
CHENEY: Senator Kerry also takes a different view when it comes to
supporting our military. Although he voted to authorize force against
Saddam Hussein, he then decided he was opposed to the war, and voted
against funding for our men and women in the field.
AUDIENCE: Booooo.
Flip-flop. Flip-flop. Flip-flop.
CHENEY: He voted against body armor, ammunition, fuel, spare parts,
armored vehicles, extra pay for hardship duty and support for military
families.
AUDIENCE: Booo.
CHENEY: Senator Kerry is campaigning for the position of commander
in chief.
AUDIENCE: Booo.
CHENEY: Yet he does not seem to understand the first obligation of a
commander in chief, and that is to support American troops in combat.
CHENEY: In his years in Washington, John Kerry has been one of a 100
votes in the United States Senate. And fortunately on matters of national
security, his views rarely prevailed.
But the presidency is an entirely different proposition. A senator can
be wrong for 20 years, without consequence to the nation.
But a president -- a president -- always casts the deciding vote.
And in this time of challenge, America needs and America has a president
we can count on to get it right.
AUDIENCE: Four more years. Four more years. Four more years.
CHENEY: On Iraq, Senator Kerry has disagreed with many of his fellow
Democrats. But Senator Kerry's liveliest disagreement is with himself.
His back-and-forth reflects a habit of indecision and sends a message of
confusion. And it's all part of a pattern. He has, in the last several
years, been for the No Child Left Behind Act and against it. He has
spoken in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement and against
it. He is for the Patriot Act and against it.
Senator Kerry says he sees two Americas. It makes the whole thing mutual.
America sees two John Kerrys.
The other candidate in this race is a man our nation has come to know
and one I've come to admire very much. I watch him at work every day. I
have seen him face some of the hardest decisions that come to the Oval
Office and make those decisions with the wisdom and humility Americans
expect in their president.
George W. Bush is a man who speaks plainly and means what he says. He
is a person of loyalty and kindness.
CHENEY: And he brings out those qualities in those around him. He is a
man of great personal strength and, more than that, a man with a heart
for the weak and the vulnerable and the afflicted.
We all remember that terrible morning when, in the space of just 102
minutes, more Americans were killed than we lost at Pearl Harbor. We
remember the president who came to New York City and pledged that the
terrorists would soon hear from all of us.
George W. Bush saw this country through grief and tragedy. He has
acted with patience and calm and a moral seriousness that calls evil by
its name.
In the great divide of our time, he has put this nation where America
always belongs: against the tyrants of this world and on the side of
every soul on Earth who yearns to live in freedom.
Fellow citizens, our nation is reaching the hour of decision, and the
choice is clear.
CHENEY: President Bush and I will wage this effort with complete
confidence in the judgment of the American people. The signs are good,
even in Massachusetts.
According to a news account last month, people leaving the Democratic
National Convention asked a Boston policeman for directions. He replied,
leave here, and go vote Republican.
AUDIENCE: Four more years. Four more years. Four more years.
CHENEY: President Bush and I are honored to have the support of that
police officer and of Democrats, Republicans and independents from every
calling in American life.
We are so fortunate, each and every one of us, to be citizens of this
great nation and to take part in the defining event of our democracy,
choosing who will lead us.
Historian Bernard DeVoto once wrote that when America was created,
the stars must have danced in the sky.
Our president understands the miracle of this great country. He knows
the hope that drives it and shares the optimism that has long been so
important a part of our national character. He gets up each and every
day determined to keep our great nation safe so that generations to come
will know the freedom and opportunities we have known and more.
When this convention concludes tomorrow night, we will go forth with
confidence in our cause and in the man who leads it. By leaving no
doubt where we stand and asking all Americans to join us, we will see
our cause to victory.
Thank you very much.
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