    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [November 5, 1996]
    [Pages 2080-2083]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Victory Celebration in Little Rock, Arkansas
    November 5, 1996

        My fellow Americans, thank you for being here. Just 4 years from now
    we will enter a new century of great challenge and unlimited
    possibility. Now, we've got a bridge to build, and I'm ready if you are.
        Today the American people have spoken. They have affirmed our
    course. They have told us to go forward. America has told every one of
    us, Democrats, Republicans, and independents, loud and clear: It is time
    to put politics aside, join together, and get the job done for America's
    future. In the last 4 years we've made remarkable progress, but in our
    schools, our families, our workplaces, and our communities, our journey
    is not done. My fellow Americans, we have work to do, and that's what
    this election was all about.
        I want to say to all of you here and to all of the American people,
    no words can convey the gratitude I feel tonight for the honor that has
    been given to me. It is an honor that belongs to many: first to my
    family, to my wonderful wife of 21 years, who from the day I first met
    her began teaching me that it does take a village to raise our children
    and build our future; to our daughter, Chelsea, for understanding the
    work we have done together, the burdens it has imposed. Today I went
    down to the train station to vote in the last election in which I will
    appear on the ballot. And as I have done in every year since she was
    born, I took Chelsea to the ballot with me. And as we looked at the
    ballot together and discussed the issues there, I thanked God that I was
    born an American.
        I thank the members of my wonderful family who are here, my
    stepfather Dick Kelley, my wonderful mother-in-law, Dorothy Rodham, and
    all the others. And I thank my beloved mother who is smiling up there
    and said, ``I never had a doubt, I always knew it would be this way.''
        I thank the friends of my lifetime. There are people who have stood
    with me through thick and thin, who started with me in grade school, in
    junior and senior high school, in college, and all across the years
    since, friends who knew me and knew my dreams and stood as a powerful
    force against those who sought to stop America's progress with the
    politics of personal destruction. Thank you, my friends. Thank you for
    what you did for America.
        I thank the people of my beloved native State. I would not be
    anywhere else in the world tonight. In front of this wonderful old
    capitol that has seen so much of my own life and our State's history, I
    thank you for staying with me so long, for never giving up, for always
    knowing that we could do better.
        I thank the finest Vice President this country has ever seen.
    Because of Al Gore, we have a stronger and more secure relationship with
    a democratic Russia; we are exploring the wonders of new technologies
    for the benefit of America; we are protecting our environment; and we
    have reinvented America's Government so that it does more with less,
    thanks to his leadership. It is a legacy unique in the history of this
    Republic.
        I thank Tipper for her friendship, for her crusades on behalf of our
    children and the mental health of the American people, and for always
    standing with us, along with her children and her family.
        I thank the members of our administration, the Cabinet members, the
    members of the White House staff. I thank all those who are

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    part of the permanent service to the President at the White House, the
    medical staff. I thank especially my Secret Service detail that has been
    so challenged by a President determined not to be isolated from the
    American people.
        I thank the members of our campaign staff, all those who have served
    in this election and the work you have done. I thank the leaders of our
    party in the Congress, in the statehouses. I thank all those who stood
    for what we believe in in these elections today, those who won and those
    who did not. You did a service to America by raising the things in which
    we believe. And I thank you all and wish you Godspeed.
        I want to thank the employees of the Nation's Government. They have
    had to do a remarkable job. We have reduced the size of our Government
    to its smallest point since President Kennedy served, and yet they have
    continued to serve the people better year-in and year-out. They had to
    do it in the face of enormous challenges and outright hatred for
    momentary periods. They have had to live with the horror of Oklahoma
    City and the difficulties that came along the way. But the people who
    serve us deserve our thanks, and I thank them.
        I thank those who served this administration and our cause who are
    no longer here tonight. And one especially I must thank, my friend and
    brother Ron Brown. You're looking down on us, and I know you're smiling,
    too.
        On a purely personal note, I must thank my pastor, Rex Horne, who
    prayed with me before I came out here tonight, and all the ministers and
    people of God who prayed for me and with me over these last 4 years.
    There were a few especially, and they know who they are, who came to the
    White House time after time, in good times and bad. When the times were
    bad, they reminded me that God gave Saint Paul a thorn in his flesh so
    he would not become exalted in his own eyes. And that certainly was not
    a problem for me in the bad times. [Laughter] When the times were good,
    they reminded me that humility is always in order in the Presidency, for
    in this life we see through a glass darkly, and we cannot know the whole
    truth of our circumstances or the motives of those who oppose us. I
    thank them all for bringing me closer to God and to the eternal wisdom
    without which a President cannot serve.
        I would like to say a special word of thanks to Senator Dole, and I
    ask you to join me in applause for his lifetime of service to the United
    States. [Applause]
        And I thank Jack Kemp for his service to America and his devotion to
    the proposition that this is a country in which everyone should have a
    chance to live free and equal and to have a chance at success.
        Let me say, I had a good visit with Senator Dole not too long before
    he went out to speak. I thanked him for his love of our country, for his
    years of service. I applauded the campaign that he fought so bravely to
    the very last minute. I thanked him for the work we did together to
    advance the common cause of America. And on behalf of all Americans, I
    wish him well and Godspeed.
        Four years ago, on these very steps, we set forth on a journey to
    change the course of America for the better, to keep the American dream
    alive for everyone willing to work for it, to keep America the world's
    strongest force for peace and freedom and prosperity, to come together
    as one American community. The time was one of widespread frustration
    and doubt about our economic and social problems, about our ability to
    deal with the vast sweep of change that was all around us. The scope and
    pace of those changes were threatening to many, and our values seemed to
    be under attack on all sides. But together, you and I vowed to turn our
    country around, with a strategy to meet our challenges and protect our
    values: opportunity for all, responsibility from all, an American
    community of all Americans.
        We have worked hard to end the politics of who's to blame and
    instead to ask, what are we going to do to make America better? Tonight
    we proclaim that the vital American center is alive and well. It is the
    common ground on which we have made our progress. Today our economy is
    stronger, our streets are safer, our environment is cleaner, the world
    is more secure, and thank God, our Nation is more united.
        To all the men and women across this country who have created our
    jobs, taught our children, patrolled our streets, and kept America safe
    throughout our world, I say America's success is your success; this
    victory is your victory. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
        Now, my fellow Americans, a vast new century lies before us. It will
    be a time more full of opportunity for people to live out their dreams
    than any in human history. We have committed this night to continuing
    our journey,

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    to doing the hard work that will build our bridge to the 21st century,
    to give the young people here and those all across America the America
    they deserve and their children and their children's children.
        But we have work to do. We have work to do to keep our economy
    growing steady and strong, by balancing the budget while we honor our
    duties to our families, our parents, and our children, and our duty to
    pass on to our children the Earth God gave us. We have work to do to
    give all of our children the gift of an education, to make sure every 8-
    year-old can read; every 12-year-old can log on to the Internet; and
    yes, every single 18-year-old in this country willing to work for it can
    have a college education.
        We have work to do to make the permanent under class in this country
    a thing of the past, to lift our fellow citizens who are poor from the
    degradation of welfare dependency to the pride and dignity of work. We
    have work to do to strengthen our families; to help our parents succeed
    at home and at work; to keep our children safe from harm in their
    schools, their streets, their homes, and their communities; to clean up
    our environment so that our children grow up next to parks, not poison;
    to tell them that drugs are wrong and illegal and they can kill them; to
    teach them right from wrong.
        My fellow Americans, I will do all I can to advance these causes.
    But all our citizens must do their part to continue the upsurge of
    personal responsibility that in the last 4 years has brought crime to a
    10-year low, child support collections to an all-time high, and reduced
    the welfare rolls. Will you help me do that? [Applause] We must do it
    together.
        We must make our democracy stronger by enacting real, bipartisan
    campaign finance reform. Talk is no longer enough; we must act and act
    now. And the American people will be watching the leaders of both
    parties to see who is willing not just to talk but to act. I am willing
    to act, and I ask others to join me.
        And we must keep America the world's indispensable nation, finishing
    the unfinished business of the cold war, meeting the new threats to our
    security through terrorism and the proliferation of dangerous weapons,
    and seizing these extraordinary opportunities to extend our values of
    peace and democracy and prosperity.
        Every American here tonight and every American within the sound of
    my voice can take pride in the fact that in these last few years, for
    the first time in all of human history, a majority of the human beings
    living on this globe live under democracies where the people rule.
        The challenges we face, they're not Democratic or Republican
    challenges, they're American challenges. What we know from the budget
    battles of the last 2 years and from the remarkable success of the last
    few weeks of this Congress is the lesson we have learned for the last
    220 years: What we have achieved as Americans of lasting good, we have
    achieved by working together.
        So let me say to the leaders of my Democratic Party and the leaders
    of the Republican Party, it is time to put country ahead of party. We do
    not know the final outcome of the congressional elections, but we know
    this: the races are close; the American people have been closely
    divided; the Congress, whatever happens, will be closely divided. They
    are sending us a message: work together, meet our challenges, put aside
    the politics of division, and build America's community together.
        On this beautiful night, when we have shared so much joy and so much
    music and so much laughter and so much pride, it is hard for me to
    believe that it was 23 years ago when I first began to go to the people
    of Arkansas to ask for their support. The most lasting and important
    thing that I have learned in all those 23 fleeting years is this: When
    we are divided we defeat ourselves, but when we join our hands and build
    our families and our communities and our country, America always wins.
    What we need to do is to do the work of America the way we seek to do
    the work of raising our children and doing our work and supporting our
    religious institutions and our community institutions. If we would
    simply be Americans, the way we seek to live in all of our other roles,
    there is no stopping America. Our best days are still ahead.
        And so I say, when we look into our hearts and simply ask what is
    right for the American people and the future of our children, when we
    set aside our differences and build on our shared values of faith and
    family and work, when we roll up our sleeves and work together, America
    always wins. And my fellow Americans,

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    America is going to keep winning these next 4 years.
        Let me say that, as all of you here from my native State know, I
    believe this and I have tried to live by it because there is no person
    in America who has been given more gifts than I have; there is no person
    in America tonight who feels more humble in the face of this victory
    than I do. Fifty years ago, when I was born in a summer storm to a
    widowed mother in a small town in the southwest part of our State, it
    was unimaginable that someone like me could have ever become President
    of the greatest country in human history. It has been, for me, a
    remarkable journey, not free of failure but full of adventure and wonder
    and grace. I have worked hard to serve, but I did not get here on my
    own.
        Every step along the way, for these last 23 years and long before,
    there was a teacher, a doctor, a neighbor, a parent, a friend, a wife, a
    daughter who always had time to care, who always tried to give me
    instruction and encouragement, and who never gave up. I got here
    tonight, my fellow Americans, because America gave me a chance.
        That is what all the children of America deserve. Our people have to
    give them the tools to give them not a guarantee but that real chance to
    live up to their God-given potential. And I ask you to join me in that
    commitment. Every child deserves the main chance that I was given.
        And so I say, again, let us resolve to run our country the way we
    try to run our lives. Whether you are the party of Thomas Jefferson or
    the party of Abraham Lincoln, whether you're an independent or
    unaffiliated, remember that we all belong to the greatest Nation in
    history. To us much has been given and much is still expected. We must
    rise to the challenge of building that bridge to the 21st century.
        Tonight is a night for joy not just for us here but for all
    Americans. For the 53d time in our history our people have made their
    quiet and deliberate decision. They have come together with their
    powerful voice and expressed their will. Tonight we celebrate the
    miracle of America. Tomorrow we greet the dawn and begin our work anew.
        I am more grateful than I can say. You have given me an opportunity
    and a responsibility that comes to few people. I will do my best. And
    together, we will--we will--build that bridge to the 21st century.
        Thank you. Good night, and God bless America. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:10 p.m. on the steps of the Old State
    House.