Nov. 1 / Administration of Barack Obama, 2009 voice will get Jon Corzine 4 more years as Audience members. Ready to go! Governor of New Jersey. And he and I will The President. Fired up? partner with you to make sure that every child Audience members. Fired up! gets a good education, everybody has health The President. Ready to go? care, everybody has a job that pays a living Audience members. Ready to go! wage. That’s what we’re fighting for. I need The President. Let’s get to work. Thank you, you to work, so I’m going to ask you, Camden, everybody. God bless you. are you fired up? Audience members. Fired up! NOTE: The President spoke at 1:35 p.m. at the The President. Ready to go? Susquehanna Bank Center. In his remarks, he Audience members. Ready to go! referred to New Jersey gubernatorial candi- The President. Fired up? date Christopher J. Christie; South Carolina Audience members. Fired up! State Rep. J. Anne Parks; and Edith Childs, The President. Ready to go? city council member, Greenwood, SC.

Remarks at a Campaign Rally for Governor Jon S. Corzine in Newark, New Jersey November 1, 2009

The President. How’s it going, New Jersey? that it’s a tough time for New Jersey and it’s a Thank you. Thank you. Yes we can! tough time for America. I don’t have to tell Audience members. Yes we can! Yes we can! you that. You see it in your own lives, you see it Yes we can! here in Newark, you see it all around the coun- The President. Thank you. Thank you. It’s try: too many folks out of work, too many hard- good to be back in Jersey. I told you I was working families who are seeing their costs of coming back. You can’t keep me away. And everything go up and seeing their wages that’s because that we’re just 2 days away from shrink, their hours reduced. giving 4 more years to my good friend and You’ve got men and women who’ve been your Governor, Jon Corzine. working all their lives, working hard, and We’ve got some other outstanding public somehow they’re worried about whether they servants in the house. I just want to mention can retire with dignity and respect. They’re them: a trifecta of outstanding Members of worried about whether they can send their Congress—Donald Payne, Frank Pallone, Bill kids to college. They’re wondering whether Pascrell, and Steve Rothman—I actually have they can be the kind of providers, the kind of four of them. The—one of the finest mayors husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, they not just in New Jersey, but all throughout the hope to be because of economic factors out of country, Cory Booker’s in the house. Essex their control. County Executive Joe DiVincenzo is in the Audience members. We love you, Obama! house. And Jon Corzine’s partner who’s going The President. I love you back. But I’ve got to help lead this State to 4 outstanding years of an important message here. But listen up, lis- additional prosperity, Loretta Weinberg is in ten up. You know, when you’ve got seniors the house. worried about retirement, you got young peo- Now, look, at this point in the campaign, ple worried about their ability to pay for col- you’ve heard all the arguments. You’ve seen all lege, you know these are challenging times, the ads. In fact, you’re tired of all the ads. and so you want somebody who is in politics [Laughter] You know that Jon Corzine’s run- for the right reason. ning for reelection. You know that the other Jon Corzine’s in politics for the right reason. guy doesn’t seem to have a very proactive He knows folks are hurting. But here’s what I agenda other than going after Jon. You know know: For the past 4 years, you’ve had an

1620 Administration of Barack Obama, 2009 / Nov. 1 honorable man, a decent man, an honest man at sick loved one because of paid sick leave signed the helm of this State during extraordinary into law by Jon Corzine. times. You’ve had a leader who’s put the inter- When it comes to the issues that matter ests of hard-working New Jersey families ahead most—the issue of jobs—Corzine was at the of self-interest and ahead of politics. He’s forefront. He worked with me to develop the fought for what matters to ordinary folks. That’s Recovery Act. He was the first Governor in the the kind of Governor Jon Corzine has been, and country to pass a recovery plan to get this if everybody in this auditorium works hard in State’s economy moving again. Listening to the next 2 days, that’s the kind of Governor he’s Jon’s opponent, you’d think New Jersey was the going to be for another 4 more years. only State going through a tough time right Let’s look at the record. Don’t worry about now. I have something to report. We had the all that political nonsense that’s out there, all worst financial crisis since the Great Depres- the negative ads. Let’s look at the record. sion. By the way, that didn’t start under Jon’s There’s a tendency among politicians to distort watch. That didn’t start under my watch. I their opponent’s record in the heat of the cam- wasn’t sworn in yet. paign. We understand that. Jon’s a tough guy. You got a little bit of revisionist history, a lit- But let’s look at the record. Jon Corzine is a tle selective memory going on, a little amnesia Governor who’s provided more property tax re- about how we got into this mess. This crisis that lief than any Governor in New Jersey’s history. we are digging ourselves out of came about be- He’s the first Governor in 60 years who’s actual- cause of the same theories, the same lax regula- ly reduced the size of government in this State. tion, the same trickle-down economics that the Now, so when you hear the other side talking other guy’s party’s been peddling for years. about how Jon Corzine’s a tax-and-spend Dem- And you know, look, we’re not interested in ocrat and all that stuff, just look at the record. relitigating the past here, and I’m more than He’s done what they couldn’t do, and what they happy to go ahead and do the work that’s re- didn’t do. But here’s what’s important, and quired to get this economy moving again. I Cory Booker will testify, he—folks here in think about it every day. Jon Corzine thinks Newark with testify. He has been prudent with about it every day. Essentially, we don’t mind your taxpayer dollars, but he’s protected the cleaning up after somebody else’s mess. things that matter the most. Now, the one thing I’d say, though, is, if I’ve Here’s a guy who’s stood up when they want- got the mop and I’m cleaning up after that ed to cut education. Jon Corzine stood up. Cor- mess, and Jon’s got the mop and he’s cleaning zine expanded early childhood education for up after somebody else’s mess, the least these more than 5,000 children. He understood pre- other folks can do is not stand there and say, K isn’t babysitting, it’s a pathway to success for “You’re not holding the mop the right way. our young people. That’s the kind of Governor You’re not mopping fast enough. You’re using a you need. socialist mop.” Let me tell you something, just At a time when the other guy doesn’t have pick up a mop. Let’s help clean up this country too much to say about health care, Jon Corzine, and make it work for ordinary people right here under his leadership, saw the Children’s Health in New Jersey. Insurance Program expand by nearly 100,000 We don’t need politicians who are more in- more kids. Think about that, a hundred thou- terested in scoring points than solving prob- sand kids who got health insurance because of lems. We don’t need politicians who are offer- the work of this Governor and his partners. ing the same half-baked approaches that got us Jon Corzine’s looking towards the future. into this mess in the first place. We don’t need And so he’s made New Jersey a clean energy politicians who would rather stand on the side- leader because he knows that’s where the jobs lines and point fingers instead of offering an- are going to come from, jobs that can’t be out- swers and solutions. What we need are leaders sourced, that pay a good wage. Working fami- who are committed to moving this country for- lies can spend time with a newborn baby or a ward, who are committed to moving New

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Jersey forward, who’ve got your interests in foreign oil. We know how much work has to be mind. And that’s who Jon Corzine is, and that’s done. You know how much work has to be why he deserves another 4 years as Governor done. And here’s the question—is, how do we of New Jersey. respond at this moment? Let me say this: I know this man. When I You know, last year when we had the elec- was running for the United States Senate, be- tion, everybody was excited, everything felt fore anybody knew my name, Jon Corzine of- fresh and new, and we had a—we were going fered his support. I served with him in the to turn the page. And because of you, because United States Senate, where I learned about of your extraordinary efforts, because you be- his service as a United States marine. I learned lieved, because you had confidence, because about how he worked his way up from a mid- you knew that there was this gap between dle class family and wants to make sure every what America should be and what it was, and American has the same ladders to opportunity we could close that gap by working harder and that he had. working smarter and having a Government He partnered with me in developing our that was more transparent and more trustwor- Recovery Act so that we gave New Jersey the thy, because of you, we succeeded at a time kind of help it needed during the downturn, when nobody believed we could. making sure that all across America, but right Now, I thank you for that: It wasn’t because here as well, we prevented police officers and of me, it was because of you. But here’s the firefighters and teachers from being laid off. thing. Here’s the tough part. Here’s the time We made sure unemployment insurance was when it’s not as sexy, it’s not as flashy. You available to hundreds of thousands of folks know, this is when governing comes in, and here in New Jersey. We made health insur- we’ve got to make tough choices. And progress ance, through COBRA, available for those isn’t always as quick as we want it. And we still folks who had lost their jobs so they wouldn’t got to negotiate with an intransigent opposi- have to worry about their families’ well being. tion. We gave a middle class tax cut to 3 million And after a while, people start feeling, folks right here in New Jersey. “Well, gosh, I thought after we elected Those are the kind of changes we brought Obama, suddenly everything would be just about. That’s what Jon Corzine’s committed fine, and suddenly kids would stop dropping to. But we also understand that our work is not out of school and everybody would be em- yet done. Our work is not yet done. We are ployed, chicken in every pot.” [Laughter] Lis- digging ourselves out of a hole, and we’ve be- ten, I want you to remember, when I ran for gun to pull ourselves back from the brink. We election, I did not say—[applause]—wait, just found out the economy’s growing again, wait, wait—when I ran for election, I did not and that means that people pretty soon are go- say this was going to come overnight. I didn’t ing to start seeing jobs again. say this was going to be easy. I didn’t say you But we’ve got a long way to go. We are not were going to be able to just put your feet up going to rest until we make sure that every- and turn on the TV and kind of watch every- body who wants a job can find a job that pays a thing magically get better. living wage. We’re not going to rest until we Change is hard. People resist change. The make sure every child in New Jersey and all special interests resist change. Jon Corzine, across America gets a world-class education when he was elected Governor, he did not from the day that they walk into preschool to promise it was going to be easy. What he the day they graduate from college. We will promised was that he would wake up every not rest until we’ve got health care reform in single day thinking about you. What he prom- America, because we don’t want families to be ised was that you’d have a government that bankrupt when they get sick. We are not going was committed to making sure that families to rest until we’ve got a clean energy economy got a fair shot in life. What he promised was that helps free ourselves from dependence on that he would be willing to take good ideas

1622 Administration of Barack Obama, 2009 / Nov. 2 wherever they came from, including from the any endorsements and the pundits in Washing- other party, as long as they improved the lives ton were writing me off, something about her of New Jersey families. saying “fired up” got me fired up. Something And here’s what I know, is that this guy has about her saying “ready to go” got me ready to been working as hard as he promised. And so go. now the question is, how do you respond? We And it goes to show how one voice can will not lose this election if all of you are as change a room. And if one voice can change a committed as you were last year. So I want ev- room, it can change a city. And if it can change a erybody in this auditorium to make a pledge city, it can change a State. And if it can change a that in these next 48 hours, you will work just as State, it can change a nation. And if can change hard for Jon as you worked for me. That you’ll a nation, it can change a world. Your voice can knock on just as many doors, that you’ll make change the world. Your voice can change the just as many phone calls, that you’ll be calling world. your friends and your neighbors, your cowork- ers. You’re going to be grabbing that—those If you are out there working hard, if Newark relatives who don’t vote all the time—Cousin votes like it voted last year, if New Jersey votes Pookie, you’re going to be calling him like it voted last year, if all those folks who had over—[laughter]—“Pook, you got to come vote, felt disenfranchised and felt forgotten are re- because your voice matters.” minded of the incredible power of ordinary When Jon came out here, he asked if you people, the ability to do extraordinary things, if were fired up. And I told this story about how I you will let your voice shine through, then I got—that story was actually from me traveling guarantee that you will not only reelect Jon to South Carolina, and there was a city council- Corzine for 4 more years, but you are going to woman there who, at a meeting that I was hav- put New Jersey on a path for success for years ing at a time when my campaign was really just to come. And I can’t wait to see it, Newark. getting started and nobody knew who I was and I love you. God bless you. God bless the nobody believed I could win, she looked at me, United States of America. and she said, “Fired up!” Audience members. Fired up! NOTE: The President spoke at 3:39 p.m. at the The President. She said, “Ready to go!” Prudential Center. In his remarks, he referred Audience members. Ready to go! to State Sen. Loretta Weinberg of New Jersey; The President. And even though there were New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Christo- only 20 people in the room, even though I was pher J. Christie; and Edith Childs, city council tired and had been rained on and didn’t have member, Greenwood, SC.

Remarks Prior to a Meeting With the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board November 2, 2009

All right. Hello, everybody. I am pleased to I’ve said before, but I think it bears repeat- be joined this morning by my Economic Recov- ing, that we have come a long way since Janu- ery Advisory Board. Each of these men and ary, when at that time we were losing 700 women have extraordinary and diverse exper- jobs—700,000 jobs per month and across the tise in the economy. I want to especially thank political spectrum, I think, there was fear of the Paul Volcker, who has been a terrific adviser to possibility of another great depression. We have me since the transition and has continued to pulled the economy back from the brink. We help steer this group in ways that are providing got good news last week showing that for the us some very practical advice as we move for- first time in over a year the economy was actual- ward. ly growing once again. And we have seen some

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