I appreciate all the local and state officials who are here today. I particularly want to point out one person — Staff Sergeant John Forbess. I had the honor of meeting John at the base of Air Force One. He was severely wounded in a helicopter crash in Iraq in 2003. Yet, despite his wounds, he volunteers in the Fisher House.

Social Security is in pretty good shape for baby boomers. As a matter of fact, we're the problem. We're getting ready to retire — just so happens I turn 62 in 2008, which is a convenient age.

The reason why the border is necessary is because there's suiciders coming in from Syria into Iraq.

We are dismantling the operators. And when we find them, we bring them to justice as quickly as we can. That's the short-term strategy. There's also the strategy of making it clear, if you harbor a terrorist — the short-term strategy of dealing with threats before they come to hurt us — I say, before they fully materialize.

It seems like to me that if somebody is talking to Al Qaeda, we want to know why.

In order to safeguard the civil liberties of the people, we have this [NSA domestic eavesdropping] program fully scrutinized on a regular basis. It's been authorized, reauthorized many times. We got lawyers looking at it from different branches of government.

I fully expect in a democracy — I expect and, frankly, welcome the voices of people saying, you know, Mr. President, you shouldn't have made that decision, or, you know, you should have done it a better way. I understand that. What I don't like is when somebody said, he lied. Or, they're in there for oil. Or they're doing it because of Israel. That's the kind of debate that basically says the mission and the sacrifice were based on false premise. It's one thing to have a philosophical difference — and I can understand people being abhorrent about war. War is terrible. But one way people can help as we're coming down the pike in the 2006 elections, is remember the effect that rhetoric can have on our troops in harm's way, and the effect that rhetoric can have in emboldening or weakening an enemy.

A lot of us are getting ready to retire. We're called baby boomers. See, my retirement age happens to be in 2008, I reached retirement age in 2008, which is a convenient year for me to retire.

There is a baby boomer generation getting ready to retire. I'm pretty aware of that. I am one.

Saddam Hussein said, I'm not going to expose my weapons, I'm not going to get rid of my — I'm not going to allow inspectors in, he said. But this is the same man who had used them. So I had to make a decision — do I trust the word of madman, or do I remember the lessons of September the 11th?

Laura reminded me, in July of 2002, on the television screens came to the notation, "America is Marching to War."

[The estate tax is] on its way to being put to extinction. I say, on its way — you'll hear me talk in a minute that these — some of these taxes don't really go away. It's like they go away for a period of time, but they come back.

I want to send the signal to our enemy that you have aroused a compassionate and decent and mighty nation, and we're going to hunt you down.

And [the terrorists] understand one thing about us, too — when we need to be plenty tough, we're going to be plenty tough. And they're learning another thing about America. When we need to be compassionate and loving, we can be compassionate and loving, too.

We value a free press. We value freedom. And the more we value freedom, the more they hate us. That's why. That's why the enemy still exists.

We've got a fabulous United States military, and they're on the hunt.

The facts are, this is a man who gassed his own people, has invaded two countries, a person who stiffed the international organization time and time again.

You need to tell your loved ones, the little ones in particular, that when they hear the President talking about Al Qaeda, Iraq and other places, I do so because I long for peace.

And then you say, well, why, Mr. President, do you need to talk about making the tax relief permanent? Because a quirk in the law in the United States Senate says that you won't — we're going to cut your taxes, but in 10 years it will have come back. It's hard for me to explain. I mean, how can you say, on the one hand, we're cutting your taxes, on the other hand, it goes away after 10 years?

It's — this fundraiser is going to be history in about 30 minutes — or if I keep it shorter than that, about 20 minutes.