    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [September 6, 1996]
    [Pages 1502-1504]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Reception for Representative Pete Peterson in Panama City
    September 6, 1996

        Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for being here. Thank you
    for waiting for us. You have no idea how hot it was in that rally.
    [Laughter] I'm surprised we've got the skin on our--[laughter]--it was
    wonderful. It was wonderful, as Lawton said, seeing the crowds coming
    in.

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        Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to know I came here for three
    reasons. I know no sitting President has been here before. The others
    didn't know what they were missing. But I came here, first of all,
    because Joe Chapman is my friend and he wanted me to come, and because
    his mother is the best politician I know and I wanted to see her, see if
    I couldn't get a few pointers.
        The second reason I came here is that I did not want Pete Peterson
    to leave the Congress without my having a chance to come to his district
    and thank the people of his district for sharing him with the Nation and
    giving him to the Congress. He is a perfectly wonderful man.
        I was really honored when he agreed to let me present his name to be
    the first Ambassador to Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam war. You
    can only imagine how momentous that appointment is, not only in our
    country but throughout Asia. The coming together of these countries, our
    effort to establish some decent and normal relations with them, our
    success in getting them to account for those people whom we still
    haven't accounted for who served in Vietnam and who are still missing,
    this is a huge emotional event for our country but also there. And it
    also has enormous political and commercial implications for our country
    over the long run. And I think there is no one in America who will serve
    our country better in every way and will embody everything that is best
    about America like Pete Peterson will. And I'm very grateful for this.
        Third reason I'm here is, like Lawton said--what did you say? I want
    to try to remember what he said; it was one of those ``he-coon'' things.
    I think he said that no redneck wants a dog that won't bite. [Laughter]
    I think that's what he said.
        I came here because the people that live up here are pretty much
    like the people that I represented for 12 years as Governor. They're
    better off than they were 4 years ago because of the policies we've
    pursued. Their children are going to have a better future if the path
    that I've laid out to build that bridge to the 21st century is followed
    than if the other people win. And I think the people here ought to be
    given a chance to sort of drop their blinders and join us and go on into
    the future together.
        And I'm glad to fight. I'm going to fight for Florida. I'm going to
    fight for north Florida. I'm not going to give up any place. And I want
    you to help me win this State, and I hope you will, for yourselves and
    your children.
        Let me also tell you that when I saw those people on the street
    today--and I knew that our loyal opposition had taken out a big
    newspaper ad and asked all the folks to come down and get signs and say
    I shouldn't be here, you know--there were a few of them on the road.
    They did a pretty good job, but they were just overwhelmed by real
    people. [Laughter] You know, I mean, other citizens. They did a good
    job.
        But I want to tell you, there is something going on in this country.
    When Hillary and Chelsea and I went to Huntington, West Virginia, to
    start to take that train to the Democratic Convention, there were about
    20,000 people in Huntington, West Virginia. And we made I think 11 or 12
    or 13 scheduled stops, something like that, in 3 days and a late
    afternoon and a night. We had 2 crowds with fewer than 10,000 people
    there. We had 4 crowds with 20,000 or more.
        We got to East Lansing, Michigan, where Michigan State is. There are
    a lot of young people there. But they were having a Crosby, Stills, and
    Nash concert there that night, and there were 10,000 young people in
    that concert. There were still over 20,000 people there in this huge
    field when we stopped the train. We had over 30,000 people in Michigan
    City, Indiana, a State that a Democrat hasn't carried in forever. And
    there were thousands of people along the road. We would slow down in
    these little towns with 2,000 people and not even stop the train, and
    there would be 1,000 people there at 11 o'clock at night, kids out there
    waving their flags.
        And the same thing on the bus tour: where we wouldn't even stop,
    these people would just be along the road, and we didn't have time to
    stop everywhere.
        I went to De Pere, Wisconsin, for Labor Day. It's a suburb of Green
    Bay, which itself is not a very big town. And that's the most Republican
    part of Wisconsin. The suburb has 22,000 people, population. There were
    over 30,000 people around the lake that day for this rally--that we
    magged, that we magged and counted.
        Now, I think people are coming out because they know we're better
    off than we were 4 years ago. They know we're on the right track. They
    know there is a clear choice, and they're pre-

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    pared to fight for it and for their children's future. And that's what
    I'd like to ask you to do.
        It is no accident that it's been 50 years since a Democratic--60
    years, 60 years since a Democrat won a second term, when President
    Roosevelt won in 1936. And then, of course, he won two more terms, and
    the war came. And it hasn't happened since then. That is not an
    accident.
        And the Republicans have been very skilled in their Presidential
    campaigning, and in times past they have been very skilled at demonizing
    us and making us look like we didn't represent mainstream values. But
    you know, families are stronger. There are more jobs. The streets are
    safer. The environment is cleaner. And our future is brighter than it
    was 4 years ago. And the policies we followed were almost all--not all
    but almost all opposed by the leaders of the other party, including
    Senator Dole.
        And if you look at the future and what the two of us propose,
    building a bridge to the future is a lot better way to get there than
    building a bridge to the past. It just is; it is a better way to get
    there. And it is true that we've got some problems today we didn't have
    30 or 40 years ago. It's also true that there are a lot of things that
    are better today than they were 30 or 40 or 50 years ago.
        It is also true that there is literally--this is something I know,
    not something I believe, something I know and something that as
    President I am in a position to know--there is no nation in the world
    today as well-positioned as the United States to move into the next
    century, none--no country that has our combination of entrepreneurial
    skills, our research and technology base, our outward-looking contacts
    with the rest of the world, our work ethic, and our diversity. Nobody
    has got all of that in any other country.
        And what we have to do is, as I have said until I'm blue in the
    face, build a bridge to the future that gives opportunity to everybody,
    expects responsibility from everybody, and then says, if you are willing
    to share our values and play by the rules, we don't care anything else
    about you. You don't have to tell us anything else. We don't care about
    what your race is, whether you're a man or woman, whether you're old or
    young, whether you've got a disability. We don't care. If you're willing
    to do your best and be a part of this, our bridge is going to be big
    enough for you to go across, because we'll all be better off if you're
    better off. And we're going to have an American community. And my wife
    is right: It does take a village. And we are going to do it together.
        Now, what I want to ask you is, I want to ask you to forget about
    the polls. There's a lot of elections where they could have a bonfire on
    election night burning the polls that turned out to be wrong. If all the
    polls had been right, Lawton wouldn't be Governor. [Laughter] And a poll
    is a picture of a horserace that's not over. That's all it is. But the
    people now are voting their hopes, not their fears. The people are now
    voting the facts, the evidence, the ideas, not the insults, the
    innuendoes, the assaults. That's what they're doing.
        We really have succeeded in replacing the politics of blame in
    Washington with the politics of what are we going to do about it, and
    that's good. But we've got 60 days to go. And if you want 4 more years,
    and if you want us to go into the 21st century with the American dream
    alive for everybody, and if you're willing to rear back and fight, then
    remember this: You cannot have 4 more years without 60 more days.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at approximately 7:30 p.m. in the Student
    Union East Building at Gulf Coast Community College. In his remarks, he
    referred to area businessman Joseph Chapman III and his mother, Gladys,
    Bay County supervisor of elections.