CQ Transcriptswire

SEN. OBAMA DELIVERS REMARKS AT A CAMPAIGN EVENT IN IOWA

[*] OBAMA: ... I love these two guys. Attorney General Tom Miller and State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald.

(APPLAUSE)

I see Michael. Where’s Tom at? He must be around here somewhere. There he is. Hey, Tom. Love that guy.

One of the great secretaries of state who’s going to make sure that every vote is counted in Iowa, Michael Mauro.

(APPLAUSE)

An outstanding member of Congress, a great friend, Larry Boswell.

(APPLAUSE)

Our host for today, one of the most innovative mayors in the country, give it up for Frank Cownie.

(APPLAUSE)

I want to thank the Lincoln High School Marching Band.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you.

Those are some spiffy uniforms, by the way. You guys look good.

And finally, we’ve got a soon-to-be member of Congress from Iowa’s 4th District, please send Becky Greenwald to Congress.

(APPLAUSE)

Iowa, I have just two words for you. Four days.

(APPLAUSE)

Four days. After decades of broken politics in Washington, eight years of failed policies from George W. Bush , 21-month of a campaign that’s taken us from the rocky coast of Maine to the sunshine of California, we are four days away from bringing change to America. Four days.

(APPLAUSE)

In four days, you can turn the page on policies that have put greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street before the hard work and sacrifice of folks on Main Street. In four days, you can choose policies that invest in our middle class, create new jobs, and grow this economy so that everybody has a chance to succeed.

From the CEO to the secretary, from the factory owner to the men and women on the factory floor...

(APPLAUSE)

In four days, you can put an end to the politics that would divide a nation just to win an election, that tries to pit region against region and city against town, Republican against Democrat. That asks us to fear at a time when we need to hope.

In four days at this defining moment in history, you can give this country the change we need, Iowa.

(APPLAUSE)

Now...

AUDIENCE: Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can.

OBAMA: Yes, we can.

AUDIENCE: Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can.

OBAMA: Now, think about the journey that we’ve made. We began in the depths of winter nearly two years ago on the steps of the old state capitol in Springfield, Illinois. And our first stop was Cedar Rapids. Then we came to Des Moines. Then we went to Waterloo.

It was cold at every stop. It was 7 or 8 degrees that day. So we started the campaign right here. As I said back then, we didn’t have much money and we didn’t have many endorsements. We weren’t given much of a chance by the polls or the pundits.

We knew how steep our climb would be. But I knew this. I knew that the size of our challenges had outgrown the smallness of our politics. I was convinced that Democrats, Republicans, American of every political stripe, they were hungry for new ideas and new leadership and a new kind of politics that favored common sense over ideology, that focused on the values and ideals that we have in common.

And most of all, I had confidence in you, the American people. I had confidence in the people of Iowa because I knew that the American people are a decent people and a generous people willing to work hard and sacrifice for future generations. And I was convinced that when we come together, our voices are more powerful than the most entrenched lobbyists, or the most vicious political attacks or the full force of a status quo in Washington that want to keep things just the way they are.

Nowhere was that truer than here in Iowa.

(APPLAUSE)

On the day of the Iowa caucus, my faith in the American people was vindicated. And what you started here in Iowa has swept the nation. We’re seeing the same turnout. We’re seeing the same people going and getting in line, volunteers, people participating. A whole new way of doing democracy started right here in Iowa and it’s all across the country now.

(APPLAUSE)

That’s how we’ve come so far, how we’ve come so close because of you. That’s how we’re going to change this country, with your help. And that’s why with four days left, we can’t afford to slow down or sit back or let up one day, one minute, one second in this last week. Not now. Not when there’s so much at stake. We’ve got to go ahead and bring it home. We’ve got to go ahead and win this election. We’re going to do it right here in Iowa, here in Des Moines.

(APPLAUSE)

AUDIENCE: Yes, we can! Yes, we can! Yes, we can!

OBAMA: Now, when we started, we knew times were getting tough for people on Main Street. Family farmers were having a tough time. We knew that wages were stagnant. People were struggling with health care. But it’s -- it’s hard to imagine two years later how bad things have gotten. And we’re in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

706,000 workers have lost their jobs since the beginning of this year. Businesses and families can’t get credit. Home values are falling. Pensions are disappearing. It’s harder and harder to make the mortgage or fill up the gas tank or even keep electricity on at the end of the month.

OK. Well, I can’t work with it right now. I’ve got to get elected first. So let me finish my speech.

OBAMA: All right?

(APPLAUSE)

OK. At a moment like this, the last thing we could afford is four more years of the same tired, worn-out, stale theories that say we should give more and more money to billionaires and big corporations and hope that prosperity somehow trickles down to everybody else. Now, you don’t need to do, you just need to vote.

(APPLAUSE)

The last thing we can afford is four more years where no one in Washington is watching what’s going on on Wall Street because lobbyists have killed common-sense regulations. That theory that you just let the market do whatever it wants and you give more and more to those at the top, that’s the thee that got us into this mess.

It hasn’t worked. It’s time for a change. That’s why I’m running for president of the United States of America.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, John McCain has served this country honorably. You can point to a few moment over the past eight years where he’s broken from George Bush. You know, just this morning the McCain campaign put out an interesting ad. They put out an ad that showed me praising John McCain and Senator Lieberman for their work on global warming as if there’s something wrong with acknowledging when an opponent’s said or done something that makes sense.

I mean, I don’t know exactly what they were thinking, but I do that all the time. I’m happy to -- you know, on torture, I think John McCain has done the right thing. I think we need more of that attitude in Washington. We need more civility in Washington.

(APPLAUSE)

I -- I don’t disagree with John McCain on everything. I respect his occasional displays of independence.

(LAUGHTER)

But when it comes to the economy, when it comes to the central issue of this election, the plain truth is that John McCain has stood with President Bush every step of the way. I mean, he hasn’t been a maverick. He’s been a sidekick.

(LAUGHTER)

When it comes to the economy, he’s voted for Bush tax cuts to the wealthy -- didn’t even -- when they weren’t even asking for them. And that he himself once said it didn’t make sense. He’s voted for the Bush budgets that have taken us from surplus to half a trillion dollar deficit and loaded up about $4 trillion or $5 trillion in extra debt for the next generation.

He’s called for less regulation 20 times -- 21 times just this year. Those are the facts. And now after 21 months and three debates, John McCain has still not been able to tell the American people a single major thing he’d do differently from George Bush when it comes to the economy. Not one.

I challenge you. You’ve seen some of the ads. If you can -- if anybody here can name a single thing that John McCain says that he’d do differently from George Bush when it comes to the economy, I’d be interested. He spends all his time talking about me in not-very- flattering terms.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, John McCain says we can’t spend the next four years waiting for our luck to change, and he’s right about that. But all of you understand that the biggest gamble we can take is embracing the same old Bush-McCain policies that have no worked and expect a different result. We’ve got to do something different.

(APPLAUSE)

When John McCain wants to give a $700,000 tax cut to the average fortune 500 CEO, that’s not change. It’s not change when he wants to give $200 billion to the biggest corporations. $4 billion to the oil companies. Exxon-Mobil announced that it had made $14 billion in profits just last quarter. Broke its own record from the previous when it made $12 billion.

He wants to give them more tax breaks. $300 billion to the same Wall Street banks that got us into this mess. That’s not change. It’s not change when he comes up with a tax plan that doesn’t give a penny of relief to more than 100 million middle-class Americans.

We’ve tried it John McCain ’s way. We’ve tried it George Bush’s way. Deep down, John McCain knows that which is why his campaign said if we keep on talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.

Well, that’s why I keep on talking about the economy.

(APPLAUSE)

So he doesn’t want to talk about the thing that is most important to the American people. And so he has spent the last few weeks of the campaign calling me every name in the book. Every name. Everything but a child of God. That’s right. (LAUGHTER)

Because how you play the game in Washington. When you can’t win on your own ideas, then you try to make up ideas about the other person. You make a big election about small things. So I expect we’re going to see a lot more of that over the next four days. More of the slash and burn, say anything, do anything politics. Throw everything up against the refrigerator; see if anything sticks. A message that’s designed to divide and distract, to tear us apart instead of bringing us together.

You know, a couple of elections ago, there was a presidential candidate who decried this kind of politics and condemned these kind of tactics. And I admired him for it. He said, I will not take the low road to the highest office in the land. Those words were spoken eight years by my opponent, John McCain .

But the high road didn’t lead him to the White House then, so this time, he decided to take a different route. I know campaigns are tough because we’ve got real differences about big issues. We care passionately about this country’s future.

Make no mistake. We will respond swiftly and forcefully with the truth to whatever falsehoods they throw our way in these last four days. The stakes are too high to do anything less.

(APPLAUSE)

But, Iowa, at this moment in this election, we have the chance to do more that just beat back this kind of politics short term. We have a chance to end it once and for all. We have the chance to prove that one thing more powerful than the politics of anything goes, the one thing that cynics don’t count on is the will of the American people.

We have the chance to prove that we are more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are the United States of America. The voters are in a serious mood. They want to talk about the things that are going to make a difference in people’s lives. That’s the kind of campaign we are going to run. That’s how we are going to win on November 4th.

(APPLAUSE)

That’s how we’ll steer ourselves out of this crisis. With new politics for a new time. That’s how we’ll build the future we know is possible, as one people. As one nation. That’s why I’m running for president of the United States.

Now, Iowa, I know these are difficult times. But I also know we’ve faced difficult times before. There are people here who lived through the Great Depression. Who lived through world wars. The American story has never been easy. It’s never been about things coming easy. It’s been about rising when the moment was hard. It’s about rejecting fear and division for unity of purpose.

That’s how we overcame war and depression. That’s how we won the great struggles for civil rights and women’s rights and worker’s rights. That’s how we’ll write the next great chapter in the American story. We just need a new direction. We need new leadership. We need a new president of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

Do you know what else we need, Iowa? And I think the people of Iowa understand this, probably, better than anybody. We need to get beyond the old ideological face that divides us between left and right. Listen, we don’t need bigger government or smaller government. We need a better government.

(APPLAUSE)

We need smarter government. We need a more competent government. We need a government that reflects our values. We don’t have to choose between letting the market run wild and stiffing growth and innovation. We can do both.

I’m going make sure, for example, that our financial rescue package helps stop foreclosures and protects your money instead of enriching CEOs. And I’m going put in place the common-sense regulations that I’ve been call for throughout this campaign so that Wall Street can never cause a crisis like this again. That’s the change we need.

(APPLAUSE)

The choice in this election isn’t between tax cuts and no tax cuts. John McCain and I both want to give tax cuts. It’s about who you want to give tax cuts to.

OBAMA: I believe that we shouldn’t be reward wealth. We should also rewarded workers and the work that creates wealth. And that’s why I’m going to give a tax break to 95 percent of Americans who work every day, get taxes taken out of their paycheck every week.

(APPLAUSE)

I want to eliminate income taxes on social security for seniors make under $50,000.

(APPLAUSE)

I want to give homeowners and working parents more of a break. And I’ll help pay for this by asking the folks who are making more than $250,000 a year to go back to the tax rates they were paying in the 1990’s.

Now, let me just see a show of hands. How many people make less than a quarter million dollars a year? Raise your hand.

(APPLAUSE)

All right. Now, I want you to be very clear here. Here are the facts. There was another report not New York Times this morning that laid out the fact that I give much more relief to middle-income people and also that I want not raise taxes for anybody making under $250,000 a year. Not your capital gains taxes. Not your payroll taxes. Not your income tax. No taxes.

The middle class doesn’t need a tax hike. I want to give you a tax cut. So don’t be confused by what John McCain says. My tax rates will be lower than they were under Ronald Reagan.

(APPLAUSE)

It’s a basic principle of fairness. John McCain called this socialism. Now, I call it opportunity.

(APPLAUSE)

I call it fairness.

OBAMA: And, by the way, 98 percent of small businesses make less than a quarter million dollars a year. And you know what? So do 99.9 percent of plumbers.

(APPLAUSE)

(END OF COVERAGE)

END

Oct 31, 2008 14:45 ET .EOF

SEN. MCCAIN DELIVERS REMARKS AT A CAMPAIGN EVENT, HANOVERTOWN, OHIO

OCTOBER 31, 2008

SPEAKER: SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, R-ARIZ.

[*] MCCAIN: Thank you Ohio. Thank you United Golden Eagles. Thank you for that vote of confidence. Thank you.

That’s what’s going to happen on Tuesday, the votes that took place right here at the home of the Golden Eagles. Thank you so much. I’m grateful.

Senator Lindsey Graham , I know you didn’t understand him very well, but he’s still a good guy. He’s a colonel in the Air Force Reserve; he’s the only United States Senator that is. He goes to Iraq and helps them with the rule of law, helps them with freedom. He serves his country both in uniform and as a United States Senator. Thank you Lindsey Graham , thank you.

Our daughter Meghan McCain who is with us on the campaign trail, the next First Lady of the United States of America, Cindy McCain; thank you, Cindy for everything. Thank you very much.

So a word about America’s mayor. My friends, I’ll never forget going to New York City and seeing the terrible, terrible fires that were still burning, the smoke was still coming out. And this man never missed a funeral, who consoled the families and consoled America. I’ll never forget the way that Rudy Giuliani united America. Thank you, Rudy, we’re grateful to you. Thank you.

My friends, it’s great to be back. It’s great to spend time here in the heartland of America. And again I want to tell you the enthusiasm and the momentum that I feel here in Ohio is going to carry us to victory here in Ohio and throughout this country.

This kind of enthusiasm, my friends -- we’re going to bring real change to Washington, and we need a new direction and we have to fight for it and we’ll fight for it together.

I’ve been fighting for this country since I was 17 years old, and I have the scars to prove it.

Could I say how proud I am to have as my partner in this fight, the great governor of the state of Alaska, Sarah Palin . Thank you for your support. Thank you. She’s been marvelous.

I’m so proud of her. She represents reform. She represents energy, she represents family. She represents everything that’s good and wonderful about America. I am so proud to have her as my running mate. Thank you.

My friends, if I’m elected president, I’ll fight to shake up Washington. I’ll take America in a new direction from my first day in office until my last, and I’m not afraid of the fight. I’m ready for the fight.

I have a plan to hold the line on taxes, cut them to make America more competitive and create jobs here at home. We’re going to double the child deduction for working families. We’ll cut the capital gains tax. We’ll cut business taxes and create jobs and keep American business in America.

Raising taxes makes a bad economy much worse. Keeping taxes low creates jobs, keeps money in your hands and strengthens our economy.

I won’t spend nearly a trillion dollars more of your money. Senator Obama will, and he can’t do that without raising your taxes or digging us further into debt. I’m going to make government live on a budget just like you do.

Friends, we’ll freeze government spending on all but the most important programs like defense, veterans’ care, social security and health care until we scrub every single government program, get rid of the ones that aren’t working for the American people. And my friends, I veto every single pork barrel bill that comes across my desk. You will know their names.

My friends, there’s corruption in Washington. There’s corruption there. We just had a senior member of the United States Senate convicted. We have former members of Congress residing in federal prison. I will clean up this mess and make you proud again of people who serve you in Washington.

I’m not going to spend $750 billion of your money just bailing out the Wall Street bankers and brokers who got us into this mess. Senator Obama will. I’m going to make sure we take care of the working people who were devastated by the excesses and greed and corruption of Wall Street and Washington. And my friends, this crisis started with the housing market.

I don’t have to tell anybody in Ohio. I don’t have to tell you how tough this thing is. We have a plan to fix the housing market so that home value doesn’t go down, when your neighbor defaults and so that people in danger of defaulting have a way to stay in their home.

We go out, we buy the bad mortgages, we give people who are living in their primary residence a new mortgage so they can stay in their home. That’s the American dream, and I’m going to protect it. And this administration isn’t doing enough.

And my friends, when I’m elected president -- we’re going to stop spending -- sending $700 billion a year to buy oil from countries that don’t like us very much.

Now, you know Senator Obama is very eloquent. But listen carefully to his words. He says he will, quote, “consider drilling offshore.” When I’m president, we’ll drill offshore and we’ll drill now. We’ll drill now.

Now, he says that he’s for nuclear power. But he doesn’t want store it and he doesn’t want to reprocess nuclear fuel. How do you get there? It’s beautiful eloquence. But the fact is, there are some navy veterans -- will our veterans please raise your hands so we can thank you for your service to our country. Thank you. Thank you.

Some of these navy veterans will tell you we’ve sailed navy ships around the world for 50 years with nuclear power weapons on them. It’s safe. Senator Obama, it’s safe, let’s do now.

So we will invest in all energy alternatives, wind, solar, tide and safe nuclear power. We will encourage the manufacture of hybrid, flex-fuel and electric automobiles, and we will invest in clean coal technology, my friends.

America, Ohio, Pennsylvania, other parts of America, we sit on the world’s largest coal reserves. My friends, clean coal technology, and we will lower the cost of energy within months. And we will create millions of new jobs in America. And we will not distribute the wealth.

We’ve learned more about Senator Obama’s real goals for our country over the last two weeks and we learned over the past two years. And that’s only because Joe the Plumber asked him the right question right here -- right here in Ohio, that’s when Senator Obama revealed he wants to, quote, “spread the wealth around.”

Now, Joe didn’t ask for Senator Obama to come to his house. He sure didn’t ask to be famous, he certainly didn’t ask for the political attacks on him from the Obama campaign. Joe’s dream is your dream, to own a small business that creates jobs. And the attacks on him are attacks on small businesses all over this nation. We shouldn’t stand for it.

Small businesses employ 84 percent of Americans, and we need to support these small businesses. Taxing small businesses will kill jobs. We can’t let that happen. Senator Obama will tax 50 percent of small business income in America, that’s 16 million jobs.

Now, my friends, Senator Obama is running to be redistributionist-in-chief. I’m running to be commander-in-chief. Senator Obama is running to spread the wealth, to take the money from one group of Americans and give it to another. I’m running to create more wealth. Senator Obama is running to punish the successful. I’m running to make everyone successful.

Now, he’s made a lot of promises. First he said people making less than $250,000 would benefit. Then this weekend he announced in an ad, if you’re a family making less than $200,000 you’ll benefit. This week, the gift that keeps on giving, Senator Biden said tax relief should only go to middle class people, people making $150,000. Get a glimpse of where we’re going, my friends? It’s fascinating how the liberal left’s definition of rich has a way of creeping down.

Senator Obama voted 94 times for tax increases or against tax cuts. It won’t be long -- it won’t be long before Senator Obama is right back to his vote that taxes Americans making just $42,000 a year. Increasing them, we can’t let that happen, my friends.

Thanks to Speaker Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barney Frank we know this Democrat Congress. We know it’s planning all sorts of new taxes. This week we’re hearing they want to tax your 401(k) contributions.

This is a time when we need to encourage more investing, not tax it. We need to protect people’s retirement, not endanger it. Now and here is what’s going on.

And here’s what’s going on, it’s Halloween. So what do the Democrats do? Every four years they run out and they try to scare seniors by saying that Republicans are going to take away their social security or we’re going to take away Medicare. They do it every four years. And, my friends, our Americans have wised up. I’m going to protect Social Security. I’m going to protect Medicare, and I’m not going to let this Congress tax away your retirement savings.

My opponent’s massive new tax increase is exactly the wrong approach in an economic slowdown. The answer to a slowing economy is not higher taxes.

And by the way, did you notice he said it’s going to give a tax cut to 95 percent of the American people; 40 percent don’t pay any income taxes. So what do you do? You take money from one group and you give it to another. But that’s not worked in countries around the world.

The liberal left has tried it before. It will not work in America. I will not allow it to happen.

And what could happen when the Democrats have total control of Washington? We need pro growth and pro jobs economic policies, not pro government spending programs paid for with higher taxes. This is the fundamental difference between Senator Obama who began his campaign in the liberal left lane of American politics and has never left it. It’s not an accident that he’s the most liberal Senator in the United States senate, more liberal than a Senator who used to call himself a socialist.

You know, we both disagree with President Bush on economic policy. The difference is Senator Obama thinks taxes have been too low, and I think that spending has been too high.

We’re going to change Washington. We need a president who was actually fought for change and make it happen. The next president won’t have time to get used to the Office. We face many challenges here at home from many enemies abroad in this dangerous world. And I want to promise you I will bring our troops home, but they will come with victory and honor and not in defeat.

(APPLAUSE)

AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!

MCCAIN: You know, our friend Joe the Biden, again, the other night warned Senator Obama -- this was Senator Biden’s word -- that Senator Obama, because of his youth and inexperience, would be tested with an international crisis. I’ve been tested, my friends. Senator Obama hasn’t.

(APPLAUSE)

Senator Biden referred to how Jack Kennedy was tested in the Cuban Missile Crisis. And I have a little personal experience in that. I was on board the U.S. Enterprise, and I sat in a cockpit on the flight deck waiting to take off. We had a target. I know how close we came to a nuclear war and I will not be a president of the United States that needs to be tested. I know our friends and I know our enemies and they know me. (APPLAUSE)

We know already, as Senator Biden predicted, we know already that Senator Obama won’t have the right response to that test. Because we’ve already seen wrong responses from him over and over during this campaign.

He opposed the surge strategy that is bringing us victory in Iraq, and will bring us victory in Afghanistan. He said he would sit down unconditionally, with the world’s worst dictators. When Russia invaded Georgia, Senator Obama said the invaded country should show restraint. He’s been wrong on all of these.

When I’m president, as I said, we’re going to win in Iraq. We’re going to win in Afghanistan. Our troops will come home with honor. Our troops are succeeding. And when I’m president, they will not suffer defeat. They will come home with victory and they’re the best in the world and the best (inaudible).

(APPLAUSE)

Let me give you a little straight talk today about the state of the race today, if I could. There’s just four days left. The pundits have written us off just like they’ve done before. But we’re closing, my friends, and we’re going to win in Ohio.

(APPLAUSE)

And my opponent is working out the details with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid. Their plans to raise your taxes, increase spending and concede defeat in Iraq. He’s measuring the drapes. And as you notice, the night before last he gave his first address to the nation before the election. And this week he’s settled on a chief of staff. We’re a few points down, but we’re coming back and we’re coming back strong, my friends.

(APPLAUSE)

The other night Senator Obama said that if he lost, he would return to the Senate and try again in four years with a second act. That sounds like a great idea to me.

(APPLAUSE)

Let’s help him make that happen. Let’s help him out.

Finally could I say, my friends, in a little straight talk. I know you’re worried. America is a great country, the greatest nation in the world. But we’re at a moment of national crisis that will determine our future. Let me ask you, will we continue to lead the world’s economies, or will we be overtaken. Will the world become safer or more dangerous? Will our military remain the strongest in the world? Will our children and grandchildren’s future be brighter than ours?

My answer to you is yes. Yes we will lead, yes we will prosper, yes, we will be safer, yes, we will pass on to our children a stronger, better country. But we must be prepared to act swiftly, boldly, with courage and wisdom. I am an American and I choose to fight. Don’t give up hope.

(APPLAUSE)

Be strong. Have courage and fight. Fight for a new direction for our country. Fight for what’s right for America. Fight to clean up the mess of corruption, infighting and selfishness in Washington. Fight to get our economy out of the ditch and back in the lead. Fight for the ideals and character of a free people. Fight for our children’s future. Fight for justice and opportunity for all. Stand up to defend our country from its enemies. Stand up, stand up and fight.

(APPLAUSE)

America is worth fighting for. Nothing is inevitable. We never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history, we make history. Now, let’s go win this election and get this country moving again.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you and God bless you. God bless America. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

END

Oct 31, 2008 13:50 ET .EOF

GOV. PALIN DELIVERS REMARKS AT A CAMPAIGN EVENT, LATROBE, PENNSYLVANIA

OCTOBER 31, 2008

[*] (JOINED IN PROGRESS) PALIN: ... families that, you know, you just want a good job in your own hometown. You’re not asking for much. You want government on your side, good people here, hardworking people. So much patriotism also. And I know that we have here with us today those patriots. Our veterans and those serving in uniform today, if you could raise your hands, we want to thank you. We thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you. For you and for your family, the sacrifice in the service that you’ve provided us, we honor you, we thank you, we owe you. This state is filled with good patriots. Good.

Now this state -- state filled with hardworking people, too, not quite knowing what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on us working people when you’re listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.

(BOOING)

Don’t quite know what to make of a candidate like that. We tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Latrobe and then another way in San Francisco.

As John McCain , as for him, you can be certain, wherever he goes, whoever’s listening, he is the same man, he’s known as the maverick. He doesn’t run with the Washington herd. He’s known as the maverick knowing who it is and he’s accountable to, the people who hire him.

And that’s what John McCain and I are out there looking for right now is Pennsylvania, will you hire us? Will you...

(APPLAUSE)

Good.

(APPLAUSE)

Good. Latrobe, are you ready to help us carry your state to victory?

(APPLAUSE)

Are you ready to make John McCain the next president of the United States?

(APPLAUSE)

Are you ready to send us to Washington to shake things up?

(APPLAUSE)

So Pennsylvania is just four days until the election. Just four days until that time of choosing and our country is facing tough times. And now more than ever we need someone tough as president. We need someone, a leader, with experience and courage and good judgment and truthfulness. We need someone -- we need someone with a bold and a free and a fair plan to get our country moving in the right direction and soon it will be that time for choosing. The choice could not be clearer.

Only John McCain has the wisdom and the experience to get our economy back on the right track because he has a pro-private sector, pro-growth plan that’s going to put government back on your side, and our economic plan will help our families keep their homes, and we’re going to clean up the corruption and the greed on Wall Street and in D.C. that brought us crisis to begin with.

(APPLAUSE)

We’re going to help our retirees keep their investments. Now the esteemed elders in this country. Those who have built our families, built our communities, and then working so hard all of their whole lives for these savings and investments and then trusting other people to manage those dollars for them.

But because of greed and corruption, they’re forced now to feel insecure. Not going to happen on our watch. We’re going to help secure those investments for them, because too many of them were taken advantage of.

Our economic plan, too, will help all of us be able to afford health care. And we’re going to help our students afford college.

(APPLAUSE)

John McCain , too -- he has the guts to confront the $10 trillion debt that the federal government has run up. $10 trillion that we’re expected, we’re expected to hand to our children for them to pay off for us? That’s not right and not fair. That won’t happen on our watch.

We’ll impose a spending freeze to cover all but the most vital functions of government like national defense and taking care of our veterans and worker retraining. Yes.

(APPLAUSE)

We’re going to balance the federal budget by the end of our term. And, Pennsylvania, you count on us to fulfill our promises because John and I are the only candidates in this race who have a track record to prove we can do this, proves reform.

Of course, in the Senate, he’s taken on the wasteful spending and the abuses of power. He’s known as not just the patriot in the Senate, he’s always been known as the maverick, willing to confront the problems and do something about them.

That’s what he’s going to do as president also. We’re going to start with lowering your income taxes.

(APPLAUSE)

And we’ll double the child tax deduction for every family and we’ll cut the capital gains tax.

(APPLAUSE)

And we’re going to bring tax relief to every American and every business because when it comes to the economy, our tax plan reflects the very, very clear choice that you have in this election.

John and I have a very basic and fundamental difference with our opponents on this issue of taxes. Senator Obama has an ideological commitment to higher taxes. And those...

So he seems to adjust his tax plan announcements almost daily now. He’s flip-flopping around on the details. But his commitment to increased taxes never changes. And you just have to look at his record.

Again, let’s look at somebody’s record. There’s nothing mean- spirited or negative campaigning at all about calling someone out on their record, their plans, their associations.

(APPLAUSE)

That’s not negative campaigning. that’s in fairness to all of you, the American electorate. So we’re going to call them out on this record. Barack Obama voted 94 times for higher taxes. He had 94 opportunities to be on your side...

(BOOING)

... 94 times. Instead he was on the side of taking it from you, our businesses and our government. He supported increasing taxes on hardworking middle class Americans making just $42,000 a year. And now he’s committed almost $1 trillion in new government spending, but he won’t tell you where the dollars will come from to pay for those proposals. Got to come from higher taxes. So you can either do the math, or just go with your gut. Either way, you draw the same conclusion -- Barack Obama is for bigger government and he’s going to raise your taxes.

(BOOING)

So Barack calls this spreading the wealth, right?

(BOOING)

And Joe Biden calls higher taxes patriotic.

(BOOING)

But good old Joe the plumber there in Toledo, Ohio...

(APPLAUSE)

... Joe the plumber -- he accomplished what none of the rest of us have been able to accomplish -- the press couldn’t accomplish it either -- to get Barack Obama to finally state in plain language what his intentions are in all of this. And every since good old Joe the plumber just asked a simple straightforward question, bless his heart, he has been investigated and attacked just for asking the question. Joe the plumber said to him, all this talk of Barack Obama ’s tax increases and spreading the wealth, he said, to him, sounds like socialism.

(BOOING)

Now is not the time to experiment with that. They do that in other country where is the people are not free and where work ethic is not rewarded. And when an entrepreneurial spirit is absolutely stifled. and that’s exactly what his plan will do to Americans and to the children who we are trying to teach work ethic and the reward for hard work. Instead, what’s going to happen is that entrepreneurial spirit of America will be stifled, and that is what has built this country into becoming the greatest country on Earth.

(APPLAUSE)

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

PALIN: You have to really listen to our opponent’s words to all this, the nuances that he chooses to use, all the rhetoric. Our opponent says that he’s for a tax credit, which is when government takes hard-earned money to give to somebody else according to a politician’s priorities. John McCain and I, we’re for a real tax cut, it’s simple. It’s when the government takes less of your earnings to begin with.

(APPLAUSE)

Our opponent, his plan is for big government. And too often, government is the problem, not the solution.

(APPLAUSE)

So John and I, we have just the complete opposite commitment in all of this. Instead of taking more from you, from our businesses, and spreading your wealth, we’ll spread opportunities so that you can create new wealth. We do not think that government should take more. We think bureaucracy has got to learn to do more with less so that it is you prospering and thriving.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, bottom line in all of this is that you shouldn’t be working for government. Your government should be working for you.

(APPLAUSE)

And if you share that commitment, and if you want to work hard, if you know what hard work feels like and if you want to get ahead, and you believe that America is the land of possibilities and you don’t want your dreams dashed by the Obama tax plan increases, then Pennsylvania, we’re asking for your vote.

(APPLAUSE)

And -- Pennsylvanians, do you share our commitment and can we count on our vote on November 4?

(APPLAUSE)

Now, John and I, too, we’re going to set this country firmly on a path, finally, towards energy independence.

(APPLAUSE)

And we’re going to develop new energy sources. We’ll tap in to what we’ve already got, our oil, our hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of plain natural gas and our coal. we’ll tap into our coal. You know, there’s more coal -- there’s more coal in this free country than there is oil in all of Saudi Arabia. And, yet, here’s what we’re doing. And this is nonsense -- this failed energy policy of the U.S. We’re -- we’re circulating hundreds of billions of dollars, your dollars, every year, to foreign countries asking them to ramp up production so that we can purchase energy sources for them. Hundreds of billions of dollars to end up in the hands of volatile foreign regimes that do not like America sometimes. And they use energy as a weapon. Now, that’s the national security aspect of it? On the economic front, those hundreds of billions of dollars need to be circulated right here creating jobs for all of you.

(APPLAUSE)

So we’ll adopt an all or the above approach to meet American’s great energy challenge.

And that means harnessing alternative sources of energy too. We have got wind and solar and biomass and geothermal. God has so richly blessed this land with alternative sources also.

(APPLAUSE)

And we will develop clean coal technology and we will drill here and we’ll drill now.

(APPLAUSE)

Drill, baby, drill and, mine, baby, mine. Because, Pennsylvania, this is for the sake of our nation’s security and for the economic prosperity. We need American energy resources brought to you by American ingenuity, and produced by American workers. We can do that.

(APPLAUSE)

So those are a couple of the assignments that we cannot wait to get to work on for all of you, energy independence and reform of government. And then there’s another one that’s especially close to my heart, and that’s to help our families who have children with special needs.

(APPLAUSE) (END OF COVERAGE)

END

.ETX

Oct 31, 2008 14:07 ET .EOF

Source: CQ Transcriptions

© 2008, Congressional Quarterly Inc., All Rights Reserved