    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [October 22, 1996]
    [Pages 1902-1904]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner in Miami
    October 22, 1996

        The President. Thank you.
        Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
        The President. Thank you. Thank you so much. Well, this crowd's a
    little rowdy tonight. But it's only 2 weeks until voting time; it's
    about time to get a little rowdy. So I'm glad to see you.
        Let me ask all of you to join me in once again expressing our
    appreciation to the wonderful, wonderful entertainment we had tonight.
    [Applause] Thank you, Peabo Bryson. You were fabulous. Thank both of you
    so much. Thank you.
        I am so glad to see you here. I'm glad to be up here with Buddy
    MacKay and Lawton Chiles and Bob Graham. We've all been friends a long
    time. We've worked together on so many things for so long, we read each
    other's mind. I think we can say each other's speeches. [Laughter]
    Tonight I was kind of tired. I thought, maybe I could be Lawton; he
    won't talk very long. [Laughter] Then maybe I can be me and not talk
    very long--who knows. [Laughter]
        Let me say to all of you, I expect to be back in Florida before this
    election is over, but--and I have worked hard for this State for 4 years
    and with your leaders for 4 years in trying to help you overcome the
    impacts of the hurricane, in trying to help deal with the challenges of
    education and health care, in trying to help you grow your economy, in
    trying to help you save your environment, in trying to help you save and
    enhance the State's program.
        This is my last election, unless I run for the school board someday.
    [Laughter] For me, as Lawton Chiles said, it all started in Florida in
    December of 1991. You gave me the first step up on the road to the White
    House, and I will never forget that. I will always love you for it and
    always be grateful. And I'd sure like to go out with a victory in
    Florida.
        We have worked together to try to seize the future not only on the
    things I mentioned but the Summit of the Americas, which Senator Graham
    spoke about; the extra efforts we have made over the last 4 years to try
    to bring freedom to Cuba; the work that we must do--the work that we
    have done and must continue to do to shore up democracy in the rest of
    our hemisphere and our neighborhood.
        But tonight I just want to ask you very briefly--this will be
    brief--to take some time when you go home tonight--I hope you will pat
    yourself on the back for the contributions you have made and the efforts
    you have made, and then I hope you will redouble your efforts in the
    next 2 weeks. And I think you can do it if you go home tonight and go
    through an exercise that I frequently go through myself, if you ask
    yourselves before you go to bed, ``What do I want my country to look
    like when we start the 21st century just 4 years away? And what do I
    want my country to be like when my children are my age? What do I want
    it to be like when my grandchildren are my age?''
        We are going through one of those periods of profound change in how
    we work and live, how we relate to each other, how we relate to the rest
    of the world. You know it here in Florida and particularly here because
    you're on the cutting edge of so many of those changes. It is not as if
    we have an option to repeal those changes. That's nothing I can take
    credit for. These changes are big, deep, historical currents. The issue
    is, how will we respond to these challenges? How will we make these
    changes our friend? How will we be able to meet the challenges and
    preserve our values?
        For me, the answer has always been very simple. It's the thing that
    got me into the Presidential race in 1991. It has driven our
    administration every day for the last 4 years. It is, what can we do to
    make sure that when we start that new century in a new millennium,
    oppor-

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    tunity is still alive for every single person in this country who's
    willing to be responsible and work for it? What can we do to make sure
    that the United States continues to lead the world toward peace and
    freedom and prosperity? And what can we do to make sure America
    incorporates all these vast changes in a way that strengthens our
    American community, that brings us together instead of driving us apart?
    How can we learn to help people succeed more at home as parents and in
    the workplace? How can we live in greater harmony with our natural
    environment? And how can we live in greater harmony with each other, in
    spite of all of our differences?
        And I have worked very hard, and I'm proud to be able to say that
    compared to 4 years ago, in virtually every category of measurement, by
    those standards, we are better off than we were 4 years ago. We are on
    the right track to the 21st century.
        You know, in nearly every election and in too many over the last 10
    years or so, as you get along toward the end of the election, things
    tend to get sometimes harsh and personal. And many of you said to me
    tonight--I appreciate it--that you liked the way I avoided that in the
    second debate. I thank you for your comments about that. But let me say
    that to me it is not necessary to do that, and in fact, doing that
    undermines what I think we ought to be doing, which is to look at the
    fact that we have two candidates and two philosophies here that are very
    different about how to reach the 21st century. And they are so different
    and clear a vote should be easy to cast, and no one should be willing to
    stay home, because the consequences are so significant for how we'll
    have to live.
        I believe that the human dimension is very important. And you know,
    as I've said repeatedly, I had a good personal relationship with Senator
    Dole when he was the Senate majority leader. I had a good personal
    relationship with him when I vetoed the budget he passed. It wasn't
    personal. I realized that he thought it was a good thing to cut
    education by $30 billion and get rid of the national service program and
    undermine our environmental protection programs. He thought it was good
    because he thinks the Government is a disembodied, bad force in our
    lives. And I honestly disagreed.
        He wants to say that we're the party of Government, but you know,
    our Democratic administration reduced the number of people working for
    the Government, the number of regulations on the books, and eliminated
    more programs than they did in 12 years when they had the White House.
    This has nothing to do--[applause].
        The central question here is, do you believe there are some things
    that we must do as partners together because we can't do them on our
    own? I went out to the largest community college in America today--the
    president of that college, a Cuban-American who came here 33 years ago
    to start his life, now heading the largest institution of its kind in
    our entire country--and I looked out at that college and I said, ``You
    know, this is the way America ought to work. This is a flexible,
    nonbureaucratic, high-performance organization committed to the
    realization of everyone's potential. But they give you no guarantees.
    You have to work. All you get is a chance. But on the other hand,
    everybody gets a chance. Nobody gets filtered out because they're in
    some special category. All you have to do is to show up and be willing
    to work.'' And that's the way America ought to work. And that's what I
    believe we should be working for.
        So that's the big issue. Should we build a bridge to the 21st
    century wide enough and strong enough for everybody to walk across, or
    should we say that, ``In order to do that, I'll have to undermine your
    freedom. So there's the 21st century and there's a big deep valley and
    there's a big high mountain. I hope you get across, good luck.'' Should
    we say to people, ``You're better off on your own,'' or should we say
    Hillary was right, it takes a village to raise a child and build a
    country?
        I don't feel that it is necessary to believe that people who
    disagree with me on this are bad people. I do believe the consequences
    would be bad. I think we were right, for example, to take more chemicals
    out of the air and raise the standards of our food and strengthen
    environmental enforcement in a way that grew the economy--didn't
    undermine the economy. We've had more new businesses start in
    environmental technology, hiring more people, by far than anyone can
    reasonably claim jobs have been lost because we fought for clean air,
    clean water, and the preservation of our natural resources. I believe we
    were right. But you have to decide.

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        You know, most of us will do fine no matter what happens in terms of
    educating our children. But I believe we're going to do better if we
    pass our program to open the doors of college education to all Americans
    and let everybody have access to at least 2 years of education after
    high school and give everybody some sort of tax deduction for the cost
    of college tuition up to $10,000 a year. I think we'll all be stronger
    if everybody gets a good education. That's what I believe.
        So you have to decide that. But I believe we must remain an
    aggressive, forward-looking, reformist country committed to meeting
    these challenges and meeting these changes. And I know we can do it. I
    think you know we can do it.
        That's the last thing I want to say. This election is not over. It
    has not even occurred yet, except among those of you who have voted
    absentee or if you live in one of those States where they let you vote
    for 3 weeks. Otherwise all these polls are pictures of horseraces that
    aren't over. Now, I know there are no gamblers in this audience.
    [Laughter] But if there were people who had ever been to horseraces in
    this audience, chances are that several of them held winning tickets on
    horses that were ahead at the three-quarter turn. Some of them held
    tickets on horses that were ahead in the stretch. But the only tickets
    they collected on were the horses that were ahead at the finish line.
    The finish line is November 5th. And I want you to be there. I want you
    to bring people there. And I want you to help us build that bridge to
    the 21st century.
        Thank you, and God bless you all. Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:03 p.m. in the courtyard at the Biltmore
    Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to singer Peabo Bryson.