John Lake didn’t hesitate when he got the call saying that the president of the United States might want to give a speech at his company.

“If the president of the United States called you and wanted to come by your house, I think you’d say that’s OK, wouldn’t you?” said the president of Rain for Rent, a Bakersfield irrigation equipment rental company, in an interview with The Rip.

John Lake shared the stage with President George W. Bush on March 2 at Rain for Rent headquarters on State Road in front of about 1,000 people. Air Force One landed at Meadows Field at 9:20 a.m. and the president arrived at the company shortly after.

Part of the president’s speech was devoted to recognizing a local volunteer with the Keep Bakersfield Beautiful organization.

“I want to thank a lady named Dana Karcher, who came out to the airport. I don’t know if you know Dana or not. You probably don’t, but she is a volunteer in your community. Thank you Dana,” said Bush.

Karcher said she felt honored being recognized by the president.

“It was really unbelievable,” she said after the event. “I’m extremely honored but there are thousands of volunteers in this community who do good work and to be singled out is just amazing. I hope I represent them well.”

The president spent most of his time on stage discussing the economy.

During what was dubbed as a “Conversation on the Economy,” he said he is optimistic because he has seen what the nation has been through in the last three years.

“First we went through a recession. That means we were going backwards. We weren’t rolling,” he said. “That means there’s a lot of uncertainty … We started to come out of that recession and the enemy hit us on September 11, 2001. The attack hurt. The attack hurt our economy. The attack also changed our psychology in a way. We used to think oceans could protect us from harm but we learned a tough lesson that day.”

Following 9/11, came corporate scandals, he said.

“Then we had to deal with another problem here in America and that is we had some of our fellow citizens who forgot what it meant to be a responsible citizen,” he said. “Corporate CEOs wouldn’t tell the truth to their shareholders and their employees.”

He said that those CEOs need to pay a price for their irresponsibility.

“We want to set a clear example. In America we’re not going to tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of our country,” he said.

He then discussed his decision to go after Saddam Hussein.

“After September 11th it was time to disarm him so the threat wouldn’t materialize. He said forget it. He chose defiance. Then I had a choice. Do I trust the word of a mad man or do I make the decision to defend America? I’ll defend America every time,” he said.

The crowd unanimously applauded this statement.

Bush said that his tax relief policies are helping small businesses grow throughout the country, saying it has “invigorated them.”

He talked about how the child tax credit was increased to $1,000 and how the marriage penalty tax was reduced. Bush said higher taxes will weaken the economy.

“For the sake of America’s families, for the sake of jobs, Congress must not raise the taxes on the hard-working people of America,” he said.

He then turned to Lake and other business people onstage..

Bush asked Lake if he was going to hire anybody this year.

“Yes sir,” Lake replied. “Right now we’re looking for 46 more people. Actually, we’ve grown 24 percent since 9/11.”

Leslie DenHerder of Victory Circle, a chassis design and fabrication company, talked to Bush next.

“Any chances of hiring anybody this year? Bush asked during the converstation. DenHerder replied, “We’re probably going to hire two or three people this year,” explaining that he has 14 employees now.

“There are a lot of companies, a lot in America, with 20 or fewer employees and that he says he is going to hire two more is really good news,” Bush said.