    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [November 6, 1996]
    [Pages 2085-2086]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 2085]]

    Remarks at a White House Victory Celebration
    November 6, 1996

        Thank you very much. Thank you. Well, you know, I really appreciate
    that lesson in history from the Vice President. [Laughter] I'll tell you
    one thing--you remember what John Nance Garner said about the Vice
    Presidency; he said it wasn't worth a warm--what--kettle of spit, or
    something like that. [Laughter] That's before Al Gore got ahold of it.
    Nobody will ever say that again--ever, ever, ever say that again.
        And just for your information, George Clinton of New York, doubtless
    a relative of mine--[laughter]--the only man in America ever to be the
    Governor of a State in excess of 20 years--he served for 21 years as
    Governor of New York. He served 4 years and then laid out and served 17
    years, until he became Vice President. And that's a pretty good record.
    [Laughter] It just sort of runs in the family, you know. [Laughter]
        I want to tell you all--first to the White House staff and to all
    the appointees who are here; to the members of the Clinton/Gore
    campaign, from our wonderful campaign manager, Peter Knight, on down;
    and to the members of--the people who work for our Democratic Party
    campaign. I want to say a special word of thanks to Don Fowler and Chris
    Dodd; they did a wonderful job, all the people at the party. To our
    terrific Cabinet over here on the left--you know, they've labored for 4
    years to uphold the dignity of our Government, and they sort of changed
    their image today. [Laughter] That picture of Warren Christopher in that
    T-shirt gets out--[laughter]--he'll be on Letterman and Leno within 48
    hours. I thank you all so much.
        Last night I had a chance to do something really quite wonderful for
    me. I was able to have a meeting with--when I was home in Arkansas--with
    everybody who ever worked for me there--at least we invited them all--
    the people who worked for me 20 years ago when I was attorney general,
    the people who worked for me during all my five terms as Governor. And I
    told them something I want to tell you; that is, I have always been a
    very hard-working, kind of hard-driving person. I'm always focused on
    the matter before me. Sometimes I don't say thank you enough. And I've
    always been kind hard on myself, and sometimes I think just by omission
    I'm too hard on the people who work here.
        You have accomplished a phenomenal amount in the last 4 years, and
    you have proved that even in this vast country of ours, where the
    Government is only one part of our national partnership and billions
    upon billions of decisions are made every day by people who are not in
    our Government--thank goodness we are primarily a country of free
    individuals with a free enterprise system--but you have proved again
    something that was clearly in doubt in 1992 at election time. You have
    proved that with disciplined, sustained, focused effort, America can be
    changed for the better.
        You have proved that our problems are not all intractable. You have
    proved that we can galvanize the energies of the American people and
    that we can, in fact, bring the deficit down--it's not a permanent
    feature of American life; we can, in fact, grow the economy on a
    sustained basis; we can, in fact, improve the education and the
    educational opportunities of our children; we can, in fact, lower the
    crime rate; and in fact, if people will help us enough in communities
    across the country, we can even help to change some of the very
    difficult cultural patterns that had begun to develop in our country
    over the last several years. You all did that.
        Very often, I get the credit for the work you do, and then when
    something goes haywire, if I make a mistake, you have to try to figure
    out how to clean it up. [Laughter] And I appreciate that. [Laughter] And
    I'm sure I'll give you other opportunities in the year ahead. [Laughter]
        I just want you to know, all of you, from the Cabinet to the staff,
    to the appointees, to all the others who are here, you should be very
    proud of this. This race was won because of the record we made and
    because of the plans we have and because we have established in the
    minds of the American people that it's more than talk with us, that we
    work at it hard every day. All of us, we work hard. And in the end
    that's what sustained us: a vision, a strategy, hard work, and success.
    And we have a lot more work to do. But when our work is done and when
    there is 8 years of sustained, disciplined

    [[Page 2086]]

    effort, we will have gone a long way toward preparing our country for
    this new century.
        I can't even imagine what the world is going to be like, but I try
    to imagine it all the time, 20 or 30 or 40 years from now. And we are
    lucky enough to just be here at a moment in history when it is our
    profound obligation to move the American people closer to what they
    believe by opening up new opportunities for people to live out their
    dreams, and when we have the opportunity to prove that we can actually
    reduce our problems. We have to keep working on that.
        We've got a lot to do. I talked a little about it last night. But I
    begin this new tenure with high opportunity and with renewed energy and
    with profound gratitude to the American people and to all of you. Two
    years ago, not many people thought we would be here. But I believed if
    we just kept doing the right things, kept trying to do them in the right
    way, and kept working hard and refused to be distracted by the things
    which dominate too much of our public life today, in the end the
    American people would render the right judgment.
        I am profoundly grateful for what they did last night and very, very
    grateful to all of you for making it possible.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 4:25 p.m. on the South Lawn at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to Donald L. Fowler, national
    chairman, and Senator Christopher J. Dodd, general chairman, Democratic
    National Committee.