Excerpts from Remarks in Beaver, Pennsylvania

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Did you hear what Senator Biden said at a fundraiser on Sunday? He guaranteed, Senator Biden guaranteed, that if Barack Obama is elected that our country will face an international crisis within the first six months of their administration. He told a democratic donor group to mark his words that there were at least four or five scenarios that would place our country at risk in an Obama administration. We have to say first thanks for the warning, Joe. If you think this is just another case of Joe getting carried away at the podium, we also heard from former Secretary of State, Madeline Albright. She was asked if it was true, so we should expect an international crisis with an untested man, Barack Obama, in the White House. Well, she said, I think it is a statement of fact.

And I guess the looming crisis that most worries the Obama campaign right now is Joe Biden's next speaking engagement. And just yesterday, just yesterday, we got a sample of how Barack Obama would handle trouble when he hastily assembled the press to remind them that, quote, "Joe sometimes engages in some rhetorical flourishes." Now here his own running mate has just warned America and not for the first time. Remember the warnings came in the primaries, also in debate. He has warned us throughout the primaries that the election of Barack Obama will invite a dangerous international crisis because he's just untested and Barack Obama just brushes it off as rhetorical flourish.

Now, we can all concede that Barack Obama knows a thing or two about rhetorical flourishes. . . .dismissing Joe Biden's moment of truth telling as nothing more than a social embarrassment. Senator Obama's own running mate, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has informed us that a serious international crisis is certain if Obama is elected, and he is not ready to deal with it. And America doesn't need smooth talk that glosses over that question. We need straight talk that answers it.

Our country is facing tough economic times and now more than ever we need someone tough as president. We need a leader with experience, and courage, and good judgment, and truthfulness. We need someone with a bold, and free, and fair plan of action to get our economy back on track and get our country moving in a new direction. We need John McCain.

With our economic plan, John and I will help families keep their homes and help our retirees keep their savings and those investments they worked so hard for all their lives. And then they trusted other people to manage those investments and because of corruption on Wall Street and in Washington D.C., there has to be worry, we will help them keep those savings and investments. We will help all of us afford healthcare coverage. And we are going to help our students pay for college. Our plan will help this economy get put back on the right track. We are going to bring tax relief to every American and every business.

Now, speaking of businesses, I know that we have small business owners right here in this crowd. Raise your hand if you are small business, small business employee. You all, you are the backbone of Pennsylvania and of America's economy, small business owners. And we are going to let you keep more of what you earn so that you can hire more people. That's how jobs are created. That's how the economy is put back on track. John and I will lower your income taxes, and will double the child tax deduction for every family, and will cut capital gains tax, and we will cut the business taxes in America. You know, U.S. business tax is the second highest in the world? We will cut that tax to help keep American businesses in America.

You know, when it comes to taxes, you have a real choice on November 4th. This is a clear choice on taxes. I want to talk about this for a minute because our opponent is not being candid with you about his tax plan. And it is not mean spirited. It is not negative campaigning to call someone out on their record and their plan.

So, Pennsylvania, we are going to keep calling him out because it is in fairness to you, you the voter. We have to really listen to our opponent's word. You have to hear what he's saying. He is hiding his real agenda of redistributing your hard-earned money. He said he is for a tax credit, which is when government takes your money to give it away to someone else according to a politician's priorities.

John McCain and I, we are for a real tax cut. Simply when the government takes less of your earnings in the first place. You know, we really got to hand it to Joe the Plumber over there in Toledo, Ohio. He somehow, Joe the Plumber, accomplished something that none of the rest of us have been able to do. He somehow got our opponent to finally state his intentions in plain language. Senator Obama says now he wants to spread the wealth, which means government taking your hard-earned money and doughing it out however the politician sees fit, and Barack Obama calls it spreading the wealth and Joe Biden calls higher taxes patriotic. Joe the Plumber said it sounded to him like socialism. So when he left Joe's neighborhood in Toledo, our opponent didn't seem really pleased. It seemed that their staged photo opp got ruined by a real person's question. And, you know, he just wanted more than a handshake and a campaign button. He wanted some answers. So he asked our opponent a simple and straight forward question, and he spoke for so many Americans. The Obama campaign, they didn't appreciate it, and now they are investigating and attacking Joe the Plumber for asking a question.

A lot of folks around the country, they identify with Joe. And just the other day in New Mexico I saw a sign that said, "And the dairyman," and at a rally for Senator McCain in Virginia -- hey, there is Bill the Mechanic. I need to warn you, the press knows who you are now. You better duck, Bill the Mechanic.

So, there in Virginia we met a man there, his name was Tito Munoz. Senator McCain saw his sign. He owns a small construction business, so we call him Tito the Builder. Now, Tito is not happy with how the Obama campaign and media friends have been roughing up Joe the Plumber.

So Tito has a question of his own, and Barack Obama isn't going to like this one either. Tito wants to know, and I quote, "Why the heck are you going after Joe the Plumber?" Joe has an idea. He has a future. He wants to be something else and why is that so wrong? Tito isn't -- so Tito, he is an immigrant from Colombia and he also had this reminder for us. Tito says, Everything is possible in America, and I made it, and Joe the Plumber can make it even bigger than I did. Tito said, Everything is possible in America. I was born in Colombia, but I was made in the USA. Tito isn't the only McCain supporter who feels that way. We have seen signs, Bill the Bricklayer, and Clark the Cook, and Thomas the Teacher the other day. You know, I guess you work hard, and you want to get ahead, and you believe that America is the land of opportunities, and you don't want your dreams dashed by the Obama tax plan. And if you don't like the way our opponents have treated a guy who asked a simple question then you are Joe the Plumber, too. We are all in this together know that we have other Joe the Plumbers in the house, in this audience today, and it doesn't sound like many of you are going to be supporting Barack the Wealth Spreader in this election.

Pennsylvania, you are the people that understand. You understand that his tax plan to redistribute wealth will ultimately punish hard work. Especially our young people need to realize this, too. It discourages productivity. That kind of tax plan will stifle the entrepreneurial spirit that has made this country the greatest country on earth. Our opponent's plan is just for the government and bigger government, that's the problem, not the solution. So instead of taking your hard-earned money and spreading your wealth, John McCain and I want to spread opportunity so people like you and Joe the Plumber can create new wealth, new opportunities. Our opponent, we just don't know quite what to make of him.

I know that here in Beaver County...we still don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they're listening and then talk about how bitterly they, quote, "Cling to their religion and guns," in another city. We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Beaver County and another way in San Francisco.

As for John McCain, you can be certain wherever he goes, whoever is listening, he is the same man. That is because John is his own man. He doesn't run with the Washington herd. And if you give us the chance, he is going to put government back on the side of the people. He will always put his country first. That is what we need to do and we will do this, and confront the ten trillion dollar debt that the federal government has run up. Ten trillion dollars that we are expected to hand to the next generation of Americans. That's not right. That's not fair. Not on our watch. It will not happen.

John and I will impose a spending freeze to cover all the vital functions of government. You can count on us to follow through on our promises because we're the only candidates in this race with the track record of reform. We have not been just talking the talk. We have been walking the walk. As a Senator, John McCain has confronted wasteful spending and abuses of power, and as he will tell you, he has the scars to prove it. And as president, he is going to end those abuses once and for all. Whatever it takes, he will end the abuses on Wall Street and in Washington.

And let me tell you a little bit about my own track record, so you know where I am coming from and what I will help to do when we ask you to hire us. Let us work for you. As a mayor in Alaska, I eliminated personal property taxes and allowed small business to come back in. We wanted to make our town a place where businesses are welcome, where they can grow and thrive. We wanted more jobs created. We said, Hang that shingle outside our city door that said, literally, We are open for business. And it worked. It was wonderful economic indicator of success, our community took off.

Then as governor, I took the veto pen to nearly half a billion dollars in wasteful spending, and we suspended the state fuel tax, and we are returning a chunk of our state surplus right back to every single person that lives in Alaska, because it is their money and they can spend it better than government can spend it for them.

In Alaska, we went back to basics. We put government back on the side of the people, and John and I will use the same approach to reform Washington in our administration. We will never forget the people who hired us. We will be there to work for you, the good people of America.

So Pennsylvania, will you hire us? Well, good, it's a deal. We will take the job. John and I too, we will set this country firmly on a path for energy independence. . . energy sources and we'll tap into the ones we already got, like our oil, and clean natural gas, and our coal. Our energy plan will bring hundreds of thousands of jobs and John and I, what we will do is adopt an all of the above approach to meet America's great energy challenges. And that is part of the alternative sources like wind, and solar, and biomass, and geothermal. We will develop clean-coal technology and we will be looking to you here in coal county to help us achieve that goal. And we will safely drill for the billions of barrels of oil that we have underground. We will drill, baby, drill and mine, baby, mine. This is for the sake of our nation's security. We are currently circulating hundreds and billions of dollars, U.S. dollars, into foreign countries asking them to ramp up energy production for us and we purchase it from them. We have a hold in this country from volatile regimes, countries that do not like America. That is ridiculous. We should be circulating those dollars here creating jobs.

See, some of these countries use energy as a weapon and they can use it against us, so it is for our nation's security and for our future prosperity. We need American energy resources brought to you by American ingenuity and produced by American workers.

So, John and I have talked a lot already about the missions that we are going to work on together, those he would like me to focus on, and his energy independence, and government reform. But there is another mission there too that is especially close to my heart. That is to help families who have children with special needs.

Mother Teresa once said that God has created each one of us, every human being, for greater things-to love and to be loved. And, Pennsylvania, really no matter what our party affiliation is, or our background, or our faith, or our gender, there is a voice of humanity there in Mother Teresa's words that speak to us.

John and I have a vision of America where every innocent life counts, where everyone is given a chance to contribute, and every child is cherished, and that is the spirit I want to bring to Washington.

As governor, we secured more funding and more assistance for students and students with special needs. But as vice president, I want to do so much more there. I want to make sure that you have that spirit ushered into Washington. I want to make sure that all of our families know they have a friend and an advocate in the White House.

So, Pennsylvania, November 4th is coming so soon. It's going to be a close race and it's coming down to the wire. What it's going to come down to on November 4th, Pennsylvania, is what we believe in. And what John McCain and I believe in is what the Skipper, what Ronald Reagan believed in. We believe in a forward movement of freedom and not the constant expansion of government, and we believe that the virtues of freedom are worth fighting for. And we believe that the best of America is not all gathered in Washington D.C. It is here. It is in the kindness, and goodness, and the courage of every-day hardworking American people. Those of you who are running our factories, and growing our food, and teaching and coaching our kids, and fighting our wars. Those of you who protect us and protect those virtues of freedom, that is the goodness and courage. That is where the best of America is. It is right here.

We believe in the promise of this country, and in all the opportunities, and the freedom and the equality that we wish for ourselves and each other, and our sons and our daughters. And we believe that America is not the problem. America is the solution.

We still believe too that America is that shining city on the hill that Ronald Reagan used to speak of and I thank God that we have a man who is ready and worthy to lead it. He is someone who inspires with heroic and trustworthy deeds, and not just words.

So if you believe in what we believe in, and if you are ready to shake things up in Washington, and clean up Wall Street, and you are ready to get our economy back on track, and to win the war then John McCain and I, we are asking for your votes.

Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, from now until election day you are going to hear reporters go on and on in all the speeches how they will claim to fight for you. But since he usually won't say this on his own behalf, I am going to say it for him, for my running mate, in this campaign there is only one man who has ever really fought for you, and he is the man with the courage to keep on fighting for you. That man is John McCain. God bless America and Thank you.