GIVE HIM A GOLD STAR:

President Bush Implements Key Elements of his Faith-Based Initiative (George W. Bush, 12/12/02, Downtown Marriott Hotel, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Every generation of Americans must rise to its own challenges, and the challenges facing this generation are very clear. We must overcome great
dangers to our country, wherever they gather. We're waging a war -- we're waging an unrelenting effort in this war to dismantle a terrorist network which has attacked America.

I have no greater obligation than to protect our country and to defend our freedoms. We will confront outlaw regimes which hate our country and arm to threaten civilization, itself. We have that obligation, to recognize the world changed for America on September the 11th, 2001. Before that date, it seemed like we could use the oceans to protect us from gathering dangers. We could be confident that nobody could possibly hurt America -- hurt Americans on America soil. And that changed. And, therefore, our government and your leadership must have a realistic assessment of the dangers we have faced and we will face. We have acted, and we will act again, to protect the American people and to keep the peace. (Applause.)

We must also rise to a second challenge facing our country. This great and prosperous land must become a single nation of justice and opportunity. We
must continue our advance toward full equality for every citizen, which demands the guarantee of civil rights for all. (Applause.) Any suggestion that the segregated past was acceptable or positive is offensive, and it is wrong. (Applause.)

Recent comments -- recent comments by Senator Lott do not reflect the spirit of our country. (Applause.) He has apologized, and rightly so. Every day our nation was segregated was a day that America was unfaithful to our founding ideals. (Applause.) And the founding ideals of our nation and, in fact, the founding ideals of the political party I represent was, and remains today, the equal dignity and equal rights of every American. (Applause.)

And so the -- and this is the principle that guides my administration. We will not, and we must not, rest until every person of every race believes in the promise of America because they see it in their own eyes, with their own eyes, and they live it and feel it in their own lives.

Between this triangulating speech (Patrick Ruffini had the best line, calling it W's Sister Souljah moment); the Faith Based regulations themselves; announcement that the administration has reached a Free Trade agreement with Chile; and Colin Powell's speech on democratizing the Middle East; this is probably the best day any American president has had in my lifetime. With these four initiatives he got to reach out to the Party's most ardent foes (black voters), his most loyal base (religious conservatives), the business/libertarian Right, and, in an extraordinary bankshot, both Muslims and neocons. The only folks shut out were the rank and file Democrats. Not bad, eh? Posted by Orrin Judd at December 12, 2002 6:37 PM