Crowd cheers Cheney defense speech
Candidate calls national security highest priority

By THOMAS FRANCIS
Valley Press Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Vice presidential nominee Dick Cheney strode onto a stage adorned with images of the hottest high-flying hardware in America's aerospace inventory, telling a cheering Antelope Valley throng that helped build much of the arsenal that the GOP offers the best chance to keep the nation safe.

Cheney, stumping Wednesday for himself and Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the former secretary of defense who helped win the Persian Gulf War promised to treat the armed forces with the respect their sacrifice deserves.

In the "Aerospace Valley," the message was warmly received. About 1,000 people, many of whom were aerospace workers and military veterans, crowded the Essex House Convention Center on 10th Street West in downtown Lancaster to hear Cheney speak.

It was a standing-room-only crowd, with hundreds more waiting outside who listened to the speech on a remote hookup.

Joining Cheney on the lectern were Valley "right stuff" aerospace pioneers, including Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin; space shuttle veteran Gordon Fullerton; test pilot Fitz Fulton; globe-girdling flight legend Dick Rutan; and Valley state Sen. William J. "Pete" Knight, who earned astronaut wings and flew into the history books aboard the X-15 rocket plane.

They walked onto a stage adorned with pictures and models of Global Hawk, the U-2, the space shuttle, the F-22 Raptor and other Valley birds.

Upon the arrival of the "right stuff" gang, first the crowd stood. Then they cheered. Then they roared in a spontaneous outpouring of admiration and love for the Valley's homegrown heroes.

"These individuals," said Cheney of the men who shared the limelight with him, "had 'The Right Stuff,' but they also had the right support."

For Cheney, it was the beginning of a heartening day on the campaign trail.

In the Valley, a bastion of conservatism and unfettered patriotism, Cheney found a place to deliver the GOP message.

"I wish every day of my campaign started out like this," he told his GOP campaign troops.

Outside the conference center, a few Democrats held up "Gore-Lieberman" posters, but that was about all the message they could carry amid Wednesday's crowd.

Inside the center, Bush promised a Bush-Cheney administration would "recapitalize and reinvest" in a military he said has deteriorated since President Bill Clinton took office.

Highest priority

"I'm going to talk this morning about what I consider to be the most significant responsibility of the president and the vice president of the United States," Cheney said. "That's providing for the nation's security."

With thousands of the region's jobs tied in some way to the aerospace industry, his remarks drew frequent cheers and unprompted applause.

The Bush-Cheney ticket has made military overhaul a large plank on their campaign platform and hopes it will help them gain ground on the Al Gore presidential campaign, which leads slightly in most national polls and enjoys a nine-point advantage in the latest California poll.

Assemblyman George Runner - who worked with his wife, Sharon and local GOP activist Frank Visco to organize the day's event - forecast that California is a battleground state that will decide the presidency.

For Cheney, it was a day to refine the GOP message and stay with it.

Cheney and Bush lament what they say is a loss of morale among military personnel during Clinton's presidency, a stretch during which the armed forces shrank by 40% and global policing actions and deployments abroad increased 300%.

"We have let down the troops during the last eight years, because we have not provided the kind of leadership and the kind of resources our men and women need if we're to expect them to do the job," Cheney said.

A Bush-Cheney administration would stand in marked contrast to the Clinton-Gore administration in its handling of the military, Cheney said.

His campaign is suggesting broad, fundamental enhancements of the armed forces, which Cheney says will anticipate the next generation of warfare.

"There will be a higher premium in the future on information, on stealth technology and on precision-guided munitions," Cheney said.

"For all we do to improve and replace existing equipment, the real goal is to move beyond marginal improvement and, whenever possible, move ahead to the next generation of technology."

He added that the military is "like any other enterprise - it wears out, you have to replace it."

Past investment in the armed forces, Cheney pointed out, gave way to the invention of the Internet and countless other modern amenities one would not normally associate with military origin.

More spending on research and development projects, Cheney continued, would lead to the rejuvenation of a stagnating military.

Comprehensive review

"It will require, as Gov. Bush has proposed, a comprehensive review of our military - the structure, the force, our overall strategy and determined priorities, and it will require new resources with a goal not just to spend more but to spend more right," Cheney said.

He suggested spending $20 billion over the next five years to promote research and development.

Asked after his speech about the joint strike fighter project, an estimated $750 billion defense contract, and whether his "administration would consider building it here (at Air Force Plant 42)," Cheney said it was still too early to tell.

"I know generally about the program's importance ... but I don't know too much about who is going to win the contract," said Cheney, of the battle between lead aerospace firms Lockheed Martin Corp. and The Boeing Co., both of which are building prototypes of the JSF.

"In the end, it will be up to the (Defense) department and the winning contractor."

Asked later whether there were any projects that might be of positive impact to those employed in the Valley aerospace industry, Cheney again said it would be premature to speculate, but did say that, generally, the workforce could be more certain of their jobs if he and Bush are elected.

"I'm comfortable saying to somebody in the industry who is concerned about that, that you're more likely to see a more robust program of future military capabilities out of the Bush-Cheney administration than you will under the Gore-Lieberman administration," Cheney said.

"The increased research and development activities (that Bush is proposing) will presumably impact an area such as this, but it also depends on who the contractors are and what the projects are we decide to go with, and that has to be a competitive process."

Getting the Republican vice presidential candidate to speak in the Antelope Valley was a competitive process in its own right.

In opening the event, Runner, R-Lancaster, credited his own wife, Sharon Runner, a leading figure in the Bush campaign in the Los Angeles region, as well as Lancaster businessman Frank Visco, for landing the Cheney speaking engagement at such a hot time in the campaign.

Sharon Runner said that the event "just totally exceeded my expectations," adding that the 30minute Cheney speech moved many among the audience to immediately enlist as Bush campaign volunteers.

"A tremendous amount of people said, 'I'm so excited he came to town. What can I do? ' " Sharon Runner said. "People have been coming in nonstop since the event. They want to volunteer to call, go door-to-door, whatever they can."

After his speech in Lancaster, Cheney flew to Bakersfield to speak at a luncheon.