Speech in Cleveland Showcases Bush's Optimism

MARCH 17, 2004
By GREGORY J. RUMMO

     IT ALMOST DOESN'T matter what your political persuasion is—Democrat, Republican, liberal or conservative—in forming an opinion about both the tone and the content of speeches given by President Bush and his presumptive challenger, Senator John Kerry.

Bush is positive. He speaks confidently about America and its people. And he has taken the high road in the debate thus far, avoiding criticism of both his opponent and his Oval Office predecessor.

In contrast, John Kerry is negative. He is always railing about some imagined, horrendous inequity. Nothing good is happening in America in this man’s opinion. Yet, as a Senator for several terms, it strikes me as humorous that he is indicting himself. It’s not as though he’s been an outsider with no power or influence in Washington for the last decade.

Compare the words of a recent speech the president gave on March 15 at the Women's Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century Forum in Cleveland, Ohio with one of Kerry’s hysterical outbursts right around the same time.

As the senator was busy characterizing Republicans as "the most crooked ... lying group I've ever seen," George W. Bush was addressing the woman’s group in Cleveland saying “This is a land of great wealth, and it's a land of great opportunity, and you're seizing the opportunity. Through the hard work of our people, the innovation of our businesses, and the good policies now in place, we have put a recession behind us.”

The president made no mention of this being the “Clinton recession” which it in fact was. While the good times were rolling in the Oval Office, the NASDAQ had tanked, demolishing 401-K plans along with it. Gasoline prices had spiked, Internet companies that had employed hundreds of thousands of high-tech professionals during the 90’s had vanished overnight along with their bloated payrolls and corporate malfeasance was occurring behind the scenes to an extent we only learned about from Justice Department prosecutions under the Bush administration.

Again Bush was kind to his predecessor: “…We learned about fraud and wrongdoing in corporate America. And that hurt our economy, as well. There were scandals that were in the years in making, shook the energy industry; it affected the telecommunications industry; it hurt the accounting profession, and other key sectors of our economy.”

Next, Bush talked about the effect of 9/11 on the economy.

“…The enemy hit us on September the 11th, 2001. It was a day of terrible loss, deep mourning. It was also a serious blow to our economy. The attacks closed the New York Stock Exchange for nearly a week…after September the 11th, the economy lost nearly one million jobs.”

But then instead of blaming Clinton, under whose watch the terrorists conceived their monstrous plan, the president continued, “The enemy hurt us. But we're plenty tough and determined as a nation. And as a result of the American people's resolution and determination, we began to recover.”

These are the challenges our president has faced head on. He has made difficult, politically non-expedient decisions in dealing with both terrorism and the economy, which are inextricably linked to each other. Doubters can ponder the market’s recent swoon in the face of the terrorist attacks in Spain on their “3/11.”

As he has done since assuming the Oval Office, President Bush forges ahead, confident in his plan for America. He is a leader with convictions—something that flummoxes Democrats who are used to wetting their fingers and sticking them in the air to determine which way the political winds are blowing.

“We faced challenge after challenge during the past three years, and we're overcoming them all,” the president added. “Inflation is low; interest rates are low; manufacturing activity is up; home ownership is at an all-time high. The unemployment rate today is lower than the average rate in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Thanks to our productive workers, thanks to business leaders such as yourself, the United States of America is the fastest-growing major industrialized economy in the world.”

This is the kind of a man who deserves to be our president for another four years. I don’t want some mean-spirited hypocrite who thinks nothing of changing his stripes for the sole purpose of political expediency.

After months of the media’s love fest covering the Democratic caucuses, John Kerry has now become their center of attention. And by featuring his steady drone of negative rhetoric, criticizing President Bush and bashing America instead of offering his own creative solutions, he’ll rally the Bush haters.

But I think come November, enough Americans will vote for the candidate who continues to see optimism in America’s future, despite the fact that we are struggling through one of the most difficult times in our nation’s history. n

Gregory J. Rummo is a syndicated columnist. Read all of his columns on his homepage, www.GregRummo.com. E-Mail Rummo at  [email protected]