    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [December 11, 1996]
    [Pages 2184-2191]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Democratic Leadership Council Luncheon
    December 11, 1996

        Thank you. The last person clapping is my first new Ambassador in
    the new term. [Laughter]
        Thank you, Bernard Schwartz, for that wonderful introduction and for
    your life of private and public achievement. I was hearing you say all
    those terrific things, and I thought to myself, I'm glad you did what
    you did, but I'd like you even better if you owned a newspaper.
    [Laughter]
        I want to thank my longtime friend Senator Lieberman and Governor
    Romer for their work for the DLC. And I see my predecessors as chairs
    out there, Senator Chuck Robb and Congressman Dave McCurdy. I thank them
    for the work they did at the DLC.
        I brought a number of people from the administration here who were
    early DLC members, including Mack McLarty, who started with me back in
    '85; Bruce Reed and Linda Moore and Elaine Kamarck and Don Baer, my
    Communications Director. I'd also like to say a public word of thanks to
    Mark Penn, who did the research that all of you I think have been given,
    for the fine job that he and his partner, Doug Schoen, did in our
    campaign.
        You know, I went jogging with Al From this morning. And the original
    theme of my speech was the era of big Government is over. The new speech
    will be the era of big Al is over. [Laughter] He's lost 75 pounds in 15
    months. If that's not enough to make you optimistic about America, I
    don't know what is. [Laughter]

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        I want to thank all the Members of Congress and the newly elected
    Members of Congress who are here. I'm hesitant to mention any names
    because I can't see everyone who is here, but I know that Allen Boyd and
    Cal Dooley and Sandy Levin and Karen McCarthy and Bill Luther and Jim
    Moran, Tim Roemer, Debbie Stabenow, and Ellen Tauscher are here. There
    may be others, but if you're here, I thank you for being here, because
    this organization fought for the life and the future of the Democratic
    Party as it fought for the life and the future of America for a very
    long time. And all of us need to be continually open to the new ideas
    which are always debated here with such vigor and such careful
    forethought. And so I thank the Members and the newly elected Members
    who are here, and I hope more of your number will be coming to these
    events in the future.
        I thank the business and community leaders who are here. Many of you
    have been with us for some time; some of you are coming in. But we need
    the kind of fermenting dialog that we have here from locally elected
    officials, from community leaders, and from the truly stunning array of
    business leaders who are here today. I thank you.
        A year ago when I spoke here, our Nation was facing a time of great
    decision. That day the congressional majority was pressing its budget
    plan upon the Nation, and I told you why I didn't like it but why I
    hoped we could pass a balanced budget. That night at midnight the
    Government was shut down. It was a moment of fundamental decision about
    the direction of our Nation, the role of our Government in this age, the
    strength of our values. That day I said the great question before us
    was, can the center hold?
        So today, the clamor of political conflict has subsided. A new
    landscape is taking shape. The answer is clear: The center can hold, the
    center has held, and the American people are demanding that it continue
    to do so.
        By the stands that we have taken, the battles we've waged, the
    record that has been built, we've helped to forge a new American vision,
    a new consensus that can govern our country and move us all forward. The
    ground has shifted between our feet--beneath our feet, but we have
    clearly created a new center, not the lukewarm midpoint between
    overheated liberalism and chilly conservatism but instead a place where,
    throughout our history, people of good will have tried to forge new
    approaches to new challenges; the vital center the DLC has been trying
    to forge with new ideas and mainstream values for more than a decade
    now; the vital center that has brought so much progress to our Nation in
    the last 4 years; the vital, dynamic center from which we now must
    finish the work of preparing America for the 21st century.
        In this rare and fleeting moment of opportunity, we still have work
    to do, for while the era of big Government is over, the era of big
    challenges is not: achieving educational excellence, finishing welfare
    reform and our campaign for safe streets, helping families to succeed at
    home and at work, balancing the budget, keeping America strong and
    prosperous, reforming campaign finance, and modernizing Government
    operations so that, together, we can meet the challenges and seize the
    opportunities of this remarkable time.
        Our bridge to the 21st century must connect our newest challenges to
    our oldest values: opportunity for all Americans, responsibility from
    all Americans, a national community of all Americans, a national
    commitment to American leadership as the indispensable nation in the new
    world unfolding before us.
        We all know how quickly this world is changing. We were smiling when
    Senator Lieberman was trying to describe the things that Bernard
    Schwartz has done in the area of technology. It's changing the way we
    work and live and relate to each other and to others around the globe.
    As in every other time of profound change, we must follow Lincoln's
    admonition to think anew and act anew. And as in every such time, the
    American people must come to a common understanding about how to proceed
    before we can hope to succeed.
        Today, I believe we have come to such an understanding. Today, a
    century after the Progressives, six decades after the New Deal, after
    half a century of cold war, we have once again been called upon to forge
    a new approach, to forge solutions to meet the challenges of today, not
    those of yesterday. That is what you and I have fought to do for several
    years now.
        As I said before the DLC in Cleveland in 1991, our agenda isn't
    liberal or conservative, it's both and it's different. And we're not
    just out to save the Democratic Party, we're out to save the United
    States of America.
        We said in 1991 we would offer opportunity for all, demand
    responsibility from all, build a

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    stronger American community. We said that this era requires a Government
    that neither attempts to solve problems for people nor leaves them alone
    to fend for themselves. Instead, we envision a Government that gives
    people the tools to solve their own problems and make the most of their
    own lives.
        When I became President, I was determined to bring this philosophy
    to our National Government. I didn't much care on what part of the
    political spectrum a minimum wage came from, or NAFTA, or family leave,
    or changing but not completely ending affirmative action, or banning
    assault weapons, or fighting to stop the advertising and sale of tobacco
    to our young people, or doing national service, or promoting charter
    schools, or promoting the reinventing Government effort, or so many
    other of the things we've done. They were hard to pigeonhole, and I
    think that made it frustrating for those who were trying to communicate
    to the larger citizenry about what it was we were about.
        But the issue was not whether these things were from the right or
    the left of the political spectrum but whether, instead, they were the
    right things to do. The issue is not what is liberal or conservative but
    what will move us forward together. These are ideas at the vital
    American center, ideas that have broken the gridlock that gripped
    Washington for too long. For years politicians treated our most vexing
    problems here, like crime and welfare and the budget deficit, as issues
    to be exploited, not problems to be solved. That's why they went on and
    on and on.
        Before we passed the crime bill it had been debated in Washington
    for 6 years. Meanwhile, there was plainly at the grassroots level a
    consensus among people in law enforcement and the community groups
    working with them for safe streets about what ought to be done. We tried
    to change all that. We worked hard at it. And we have succeeded in many
    areas.
        After decades in which the welfare system was trapped, generation
    after generation in a cycle of dependency, we said we had to replace
    welfare checks with paychecks and make responsibility a way of life. We
    said we would end welfare as we know it, and we have. Last week we
    learned that there are 2.1 million fewer people on welfare today than on
    the day I took office. That is the biggest drop in history.
        After decades in which criminals occupied our streets, we said we
    needed a new approach to fighting crime, and we have provided it:
    tougher punishment; better prevention; above all, more police. Crime is
    down all across America for 4 years now.
        After decades of debate over the size and scope of Government, we've
    reduced the size of the Federal Government by over 10 percent;
    eliminated hundreds of programs, thousands of pages of regulations;
    privatized more operations than any previous administration; and cut the
    deficit by 60 percent in 4 years. We also worked very hard to devolve
    more responsibilities, in a spirit of partnership, to State and local
    governments and to community groups. I want to pay special tribute in
    that regard to two of my Cabinet members, one of whom is here today, the
    HUD Secretary, Henry Cisneros, and the Secretary of Transportation,
    Federico Pena, two former mayors who brought that spirit to our National
    Government. Thank you very much.
        Both parties now agree that we must balance the budget and both
    parties now agree that we can only do it in a way that reflects our
    deepest values and garners support from members of both parties.
        In each of these areas, we simply stopped asking who's to blame and
    started asking, what are we going to do. As a result, America is moving
    forward. And now we must capture that momentum and use it to finish the
    work of preparing our people for the new century. Let us commit together
    to mobilizing that vital center. Let us spend the next 50 months to
    prepare America for the next 50 years.
        Now, our first task is to finish the job of balancing the budget. As
    we've cut the deficit by over 60 percent, the corresponding drop in
    interest rates has powered our economy--nearly 11 million new jobs now
    in less than 4 years. To keep the economy growing, we must finish the
    job. I'm determined to work with Congress to agree to a bipartisan
    balanced budget plan that does reflect our values.
        We can and we must work together to reform Medicare and Medicaid so
    they continue to meet the promise to our parents and our children and
    continue to expand health care step by step to children in working
    families who don't have it. We can do that and balance the budget and
    take advantage of the fact that new models are clearly making it
    possible to lower the rate of medical inflation in a way that ad-

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    vances the quality of health care as well as the quality of our long-
    term objectives in balancing the budget and investing in the future of
    America. I know it can be done, and I am determined to get it done.
        Second, we must give our young people the best education in the
    world. We must dramatically reform our public schools, demanding high
    standards and accountability from every teacher and every student,
    promoting reforms like public choice, school choice, and charter schools
    in every State.
        Let me just say a word here especially with respect to Governor
    Romer. We've worked hard to support local control of the schools. We've
    worked hard to reduce the paperwork and the regulations that were
    unnecessary. Secretary Riley has done a fine job of giving more
    discretion to promote grassroots reform to local school districts. But
    we have largely local control in America. And yet, we do not have today
    recognized national standards in every critical area of study and a
    recognized measurement that can go across the Nation, that can tell us
    how all of our children are doing. I am for local control; I am not for
    Federal Government national standards. But I am for national standards
    of excellence and a means of measuring it so we know what our children
    are learning.
        We must open the doors of college so that the 13th and 14th years of
    school, at least 2 years after high school, are as universal in 4 years
    as high school is today.
        We must modernize our system of training, collapsing overlapping and
    outdated training programs into a ``GI bill'' for America's workers,
    something the DLC has long advocated, so that all working people who
    need it have access to the skills they need in a changing workplace.
        The third thing we have to do is to bring the under class into the
    American mainstream, breaking the cycle of dependence and poverty.
    Already, over 4 years, the welfare rolls have been reduced by 2.1
    million, partly, of course, because of the improving economy but largely
    because we have worked with the States of this country to forge new
    approaches to move people from welfare to work, recognizing that most
    people on welfare want to get off and want to go to work, and
    recognizing that responsibility should be a way of life and welfare
    should be a second chance.
        The welfare reform legislation I recently signed is just the next
    step, not the end of the road. We have a moral obligation now, all of us
    particularly in the DLC who fought for welfare reform for so long, to
    make welfare reform work, to end the culture of isolated, permanent
    dependency. We have demanded responsibility of welfare recipients;
    indeed, we have written it into the law. And now we must meet our
    responsibilities by providing them the opportunity to work. We must
    bring the freshest ideas to bear on how we can bring the power of
    private business to the inner city, where today there are simply not
    enough jobs for those who will no longer be eligible for permanent
    welfare.
        Last year in Chicago, for example, there were six job applicants for
    every entry-level job opening. In St. Louis, there were nine job
    applicants for every entry-level job opening. These jobs we know,
    because of the conditions of the Federal budget, must come primarily
    from the private sector, with incentives from the Government like tax
    credits and wage and training subsidies.
        Now, how can we do this? Can we do it? I believe we plainly can if
    all of you will help. And I think it is a good thing that people will
    not be moving from welfare to work where they'll only be working with
    large numbers of other people who are on welfare in large-scale public
    works projects, because we want, again--the rolls have been reduced by
    2.1 million, so a lot of the easy work has been done. Now we have to go
    out and give people a chance to move from a culture of isolated
    dependence into the mainstream of American life.
        But if you look, for example, at the Kansas City model, where they
    have set up a full employment council where the business community and
    the service providers and the educators and welfare recipients are all
    represented, and where under an agreement with our administration, the
    State of Missouri says to employers, ``If you will hire someone off
    welfare, we will give you the welfare check as a wage and training
    subsidy for up to 4 years, and we will give you, if you don't provide
    health insurance for your employees, the opportunity for this person to
    keep the Medicaid not just for a year but for up to 4 years. And if you
    want, you can have this slot for 10 years. We'll tell you right now, we
    want you to participate in this program, so when you move somebody from
    the welfare slot into a higher wage category, we'll let you have another
    person. And we'd like you to participate''--now, think what this means.
    This means small busi-

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    ness, medium-sized and big businesses can all participate. And it is
    working.
        I met a man who had a business with 25 people in it, filling an
    interesting little niche; he stores data for the Federal Government.
    Even Washington, with all its buildings, can't hold all the data of the
    Federal Government. Five of his 25 employees are former welfare
    recipients. Many of them fit a profile where you would say they're the
    least likely people we could get into the work force. They are doing
    well.
        And you think about it--if every State will authorize--and they
    don't have to ask me for permission anymore. That's what the welfare
    bill does. The welfare bill basically says, we'll have a national
    guarantee of nutrition and health care for poor families and the
    children, but that portion of the Federal Government's money that used
    to go with the State government's money into a welfare check now will be
    given to the State, and they can decide what to do with it.
        So now it's up to the States. And this welfare reform movement has
    to shift in large measure to an argument at every State level. But if
    you've got a system like this one in Kansas City--and we know that's
    what the laboratories of democracies are supposed to do, we know this
    will work--then there is no excuse for every State not to do that.
        Yes, I'm going to try to get Congress to pass some more tax credits
    to give further incentives. Yes, I'm going to try to get Congress to set
    aside some funds for the cities where unemployment is critically high
    and there are more and more and more job applicants for the jobs that
    are open, to give some other kinds of work to people when their welfare
    time limit has run. But the main answer to this is for small, medium-
    sized, and large businesses all across America to examine themselves and
    say, ``If I were to get this sort of help, shouldn't I stretch and put
    somebody on and give them a chance to move into the American
    mainstream?'' And the DLC ought to lead the fight because you've been up
    here, along with me, screaming for welfare reform for a decade. You have
    it. Now we have to do something with it, and I challenge you to do so.
        The fourth thing we have to do is to press our fight against gangs
    and guns and drugs and violence by finishing our community policing
    project, finishing the job of putting 100,000 police on the street,
    getting guns off the street and out of the hands of children, cracking
    down on violent teen gangs, and teaching our children that drugs are
    wrong, illegal, and dangerous.
        Fifth, we must strengthen our families and help our people to
    succeed at home and at work. You know, when I go across the country and
    I talk to people from all walks of life, this is the one theme that
    continually comes up: How can I do a good job raising my children and a
    good job at my work? We have an obligation to help parents do that,
    first, by supporting them as they try to pass along their values to
    their children in an age in which children at younger and younger ages
    are exposed to different kinds of values.
        I think we should expand family leave in a very limited way so that
    parents can take some time off to go to regular parent-teacher
    conferences at school and to take their children to regular doctor's
    appointments, not just when they're desperately ill. I think we should
    give workers the choice of more flextime, so that when they work
    overtime they ought to have the choice to take the overtime in cash or
    time at home with the family if they need it.
        I believe we have to continue to help parents protect their children
    from harmful outside influences, whether they come from tobacco or
    television violence. I think we must fight continually, as we have, to
    protect the water our children drink, the air they breathe, the food
    they eat. And especially we must clean up two-thirds of the most
    dangerous toxic waste sites in the country over the next 4 years so that
    our children will be growing up next to parks, not poison.
        Sixth, we have to renew our democracy and--you want to clap for
    that? I'll stop. [Applause] Thank you. These embassies are going fast.
    [Laughter]
        The sixth thing we have to do is to renew our democracy and restore
    the confidence of the American people in their Government by passing
    meaningful campaign finance reform legislation and modernizing
    Government operations. This will require consistent, disciplined, and
    honest effort. We know that the thing which has driven the cost of
    campaigns through the roof is the cost of communications, primarily
    television advertising, also radio advertising, direct mail, and other
    forms of communicating with the voters.

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        We know that the actual enterprise of raising the money and the
    burden of spending it threatens to overwhelm other aspects of our
    electoral system. Anyone who has been part of this system, in a moment
    of candor, must accept some responsibility for this and agree that it
    needs to change. There simply is too much money in our politics; it
    takes too much time to raise, and inevitably, it raises too many
    questions.
        We know from bitter experience, however, that this is one of these
    things that everybody's for in general but few are for in particular. We
    know from bitter experience that delay is the enemy of reform. Now,
    Senators McCain and Feingold have a plan that is real, bipartisan, and
    tough. Six times in recent years, just since I've been President,
    reasonable campaign finance reform has been killed by Senate
    filibusters. Now Congress should go on and pass campaign finance reform
    and pass it without delay. And we need a bipartisan coalition of
    business and community leaders to support the Congress and to demand
    that it be done. There are no more excuses. The people are finally
    focused on it; let's get the job done.
        But let me also say we cannot minimize the other reform effort that
    must continue, and that is the reinventing Government effort that has
    been headed so brilliantly by Vice President Gore for the last 4 years.
    The DLC was one of the first organizations to focus on the possibility
    of actually reforming our Government so that it could be downsized and
    improve the quality of its operations at the same time. That has largely
    been achieved because of the disciplined, sustained efforts that we have
    made. And I thank Elaine Kamarck in particular for her leadership in
    that regard.
        But we have more to do. We have some new tools, like the line item
    veto, which can be helpful in that regard. But this is hard work. And it
    is not headline-grabbing work, but it makes a huge difference to whether
    we can balance the budget and have the funds to invest in our future and
    inspire confidence in the American people. So I urge the DLC to continue
    your emphasis on reinventing Government. It will never be a headline-
    grabbing issue, but it will always be an important part of what we are
    trying to do to prepare our country for the 21st century and to continue
    to increase the confidence of the American people that they're getting
    their money's worth from their investment in their National Government.
        Seventh, we must harness the remarkable forces of science and
    technology that are remaking our world. We must continue our mission to
    connect every classroom and library to the information superhighway by
    the year 2000. We must press on to develop the next generation of the
    Internet, to let universities send data to each other 1,000 times faster
    than today. We must continue to expand the mission of our laboratories
    and make sure they have a strong peacetime mission that is contributing
    to America's future. And we must continue to invest and do more in
    medical and scientific research so that we can do great things that are
    plainly within our grasp, like finding cures for cancer and AIDS. We can
    make this age of science and technology a true age of possibility for
    all the American people, but we must invest in it and do it wisely if we
    expect to get a return.
        Finally, we have to finish the mission of building new structures of
    peace and security around the world. We must complete the unfinished
    business of the cold war, building an undivided Europe of democracies at
    peace, with an expanded NATO and a strong NATO-Russian partnership;
    meeting the challenge of change in Asia with strength and steadiness;
    strengthening the hands of peace and democracy from Bosnia to the Middle
    East to Africa.
        We must combat the new threats we face in terrorism, international
    drug running and organized crime, the proliferation of weapons of mass
    destruction. And we cannot weaken in our efforts to open more of the
    world's markets to our goods and services, from Asia to Latin America.
    American trade is at an all-time high, with over 200 new trade
    agreements in the last 4 years alone--21 with Japan where our exports in
    those 21 areas have gone up 85 percent in 4 years--GATT, NAFTA, and many
    others.
        Our work now is no less important than the work that was done by the
    generation after World War II. We must create the structures of peace
    and security and the partnerships for peace and security and prosperity
    that will permit the American people to make the most of the 21st
    century.
        Again, let me say the DLC can play an important role here. I think
    Senator Robb would admit that sometimes one of our most frustrating
    efforts as Democrats has been to convince our fellow Democrats that
    trade, if it's free and fair, is good for all the American people, and
    it's essential for America's future. Another frus-

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    tration we have had is trying to get the public at large, that has shown
    so much interest and so much sophistication in economic and social
    issues, to understand the connections between our foreign and our
    domestic policies, our security policies and our economic policies.
        There are no more simple dividing lines between foreign and domestic
    in the world we're living in. We need your help to continue to raise
    public awareness of these fundamental facts, so that when decisions have
    to be taken in the area of foreign affairs they will resonate at home in
    the way that so many of the DLC ideas have resonated with the American
    people in domestic policy. And I hope you will pay some attention to
    that in the next year.
        Well, these are the great goals that I believe we must pursue if we
    are to prepare America for the 21st century. They must not only be
    pursued, they must be achieved. And what I want to say to you is, they
    can be achieved. But they can be achieved only if there is a vital
    American center, where there is cooperation across lines of party and
    philosophy.
        This is an irreplaceable moment for breaking new ground in America.
    All our political leaders say we will work together. The public wants us
    to work together. And our progress demands that we work together. I
    stand ready to forge a coalition of the center, a broad consensus for
    creative and consistent and unflinching action. And I invite people of
    good will of all parties, or no party, to join in this endeavor. I have
    spoken to Majority Leader Lott and Speaker Gingrich on several occasions
    since the election; I believe they share this mission. All of us have
    heard the voters' mandate in this election; we heard it again yesterday
    loud and clear in Texas. But it is not enough to hear; now we must act.
        Let me make this final point. Now that the era of big Government is
    over, we clearly need a new kind of national leadership, leadership that
    does not rely alone on Washington's answers because the changes in the
    economy, the changes in technology, the changes in information and
    communication make it possible for people to be more empowered at lower
    levels of government and lower levels of business, indeed, individually
    and in their own families. But we must also recognize that the very
    changes that are empowering people to move apart from each other require
    us to work together in teams if we are to maximize the benefits of the
    opportunities before us.
        Therefore, our Nation's leaders must chart a new course that calls
    upon people to think about their own responsibilities more and what new
    patterns of partnership we will have. Among other things, we have got to
    make a decision to cherish and respect our diversity instead of using it
    as a wedge to divide the American people. That is killing other
    countries, and we cannot tolerate it here.
        For all of our differences, we have to identify the challenges we
    face in common as Americans and find ways to go after them in common. We
    must mobilize people in every walk of life to meet those challenges, and
    we must shine a spotlight on what works anywhere in America so that it
    can be adopted everywhere in America. And all of our citizens must be
    willing to serve. The nearly 70,000 Americans who have served in
    AmeriCorps, the national service program so long championed by the DLC,
    have proven that we can do great things together. If we are all willing
    to serve, we will build a new faith in ourselves and in our ability to
    meet our challenges and protect our values. In so doing, we will build a
    new faith in America.
        Today I pledge to you that I will do everything in my power to
    summon that sense of responsibility from our people. My job does not end
    in Washington; it only begins here. So when business and communities
    join together to provide jobs for welfare recipients, I will be there as
    I was in Kansas City to tell every American community they must do the
    same. When parents and State legislators work to establish and uphold
    the toughest standards for our schools, I will be there. When
    communities band together to bring values, discipline, and hope to their
    children through school uniforms or imposing curfews or enforcing
    truancy laws, I will continue to be there.
        I intend to spend the next 4 years doing everything I can to help
    communities to help themselves, to educate all Americans about what is
    working, and to create, in the process, a national community of purpose.
    The progress we have made already should prove to all of us that when we
    apply our oldest values to our newest challenges, we can master this
    moment of change.
        It will require us, however, to believe that our fellow Americans
    are capable of doing this. National standards and local reform requires
    you

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    to believe all children can learn. Welfare reform requires you to
    believe that everybody is capable of being responsible and working if
    they have the mental and physical wherewithal to do it.
        And I just want to leave you with this little story. Before I came
    over here this morning, I had the national advisory committee--that was
    actually started under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson--on mental health
    come in and give me two of their reports. John Kennedy, Jr., was one of
    the members. But the most impressive member today was a young woman from
    New Hampshire with Down's syndrome. And I appointed the first two people
    with mental retardation to the board.
        So this young girl comes in, shakes my hand, tells me where she's
    from, gives me a letter, gives me a resume, tells me what I need to do,
    and then says, ``And I want you to have one of my buttons.'' And it
    said, ``Down's syndrome'' on it, and ``Down'' was marked out, and it had
    ``Up'' on it. Does that person have limits on what she can achieve?
    Sure, there are some. So do I. So do you. But if you spend all your time
    thinking about it, you won't think about what will be up instead of
    down. You must believe in the potential of the American people. We
    cannot afford to patronize each other with cynicism.
        And finally, we cannot afford to continue the politics of personal
    destruction and division that have taken too much of the lifeblood of
    this country already. Shortly before he died, the late Cardinal
    Bernardin, who Hillary and I had the privilege to know and revere, gave
    a remarkable speech about reconciling the conflicts within the Catholic
    Church over great issues in a way that would permit people to disagree
    honestly to try to preserve reconciliation. And he said this, knowing
    that his death was imminent: ``It is wrong to waste the precious gift of
    time given to us on acrimony and division.''
        My fellow Americans, for all the problems of this country, we have
    been given more from God than any nation in history. And at this moment
    in history, we have more opportunities and more responsibilities than
    ever before. To make this democracy work, we must create a vital and
    dynamic center that is a place of action. We cannot waste the precious
    gift of this moment.
        You have worked hard to create that vital center. Anchored by our
    oldest convictions, strengthened by our newest successes, certain of our
    national purpose, let us go forward from that center to build our bridge
    to the 21st century.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:50 p.m. at the Sheraton Washington
    Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Bernard Schwartz, event chairman;
    Gov. Roy Romer of Colorado; Al From, executive director, Democratic
    Leadership Council; and Mark Penn and Doug Schoen of Penn+Schoen
    Associates.