    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [July 2, 1996]
    [Pages 1062-1064]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the Chicago '96 Dinner
    July 2, 1996

        Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, before I say anything I
    want to, by way of introduction and being true to my past--back when I
    had a life and I did other things--I want to say that I enjoyed the
    music that this fine orchestra has given us tonight, and I think we
    ought to give them a hand. [Applause] Thank you.
        It is wonderful to be back in Chicago tonight. I want to thank all
    of those who have spoken before and those whom they represent, and all
    of you for your contribution to help make our convention a success.
        I thank Leslie Fox and I want to thank Dick Notebaert, who has done
    many, many commendable things for our country as CEO for Ameritech, but
    helping to make sure we have a good convention in Chicago is one that I
    will especially long remember.
        I want to thank my good friend Bill Daley for his fine work. He's
    always there when you need him. He even came to the White House when I
    needed him to help me pass NAFTA, and this country is in a lot better
    shape because of it. And I thank you.
        I want to thank the mayor, who, along with many other gifted public
    officials in this area, including my friend and fellow Arkansan John
    Stroger--thank you, sir. I think the mayor has made a special point of
    trying to do what works and trying to make Chicago into a big family. He
    and Mrs. Daley come from big families, so they can set a good example
    for the rest of us. But I also believe they've tried to make Chicago
    into a family.
        When I first met Hillary, a long time ago now, and she began to talk
    to me about Chicago, and then I got to know her family and I began to
    spend a lot of time here, I realized that this was truly a unique city,
    in some ways perhaps our most American city. I was at an event for
    Congressman Durbin a few moments ago, and he was talking about his
    mother being a Lithuanian immigrant. And I said to the group there that
    when I talked to Hillary last night--we were in France together for the
    annual meeting of the seven largest industrial nations and Russia, and
    afterward she stayed on to visit, I think, seven or eight countries in
    Central and Eastern Europe. She just finished the day in Romania. And so
    she was bragging on her day in Romania. She said, ``Well, I've been in
    Romania. I'm going to the Czech Republic. I'm going to Hungary. I'm
    going to Poland. I'm going to Estonia.'' And she said she was going to a
    couple other places. And I said, ``Well, I'm going to Chicago, and I'll
    see people from all those places with just one stop.'' And I said, ``You
    could have stayed home and done all that with a lot less effort, you
    know.'' [Laughter] I'm very proud of her, and I'm glad she is doing this
    for our country. But it makes the point about Chicago.
        I'd like to thank Debra DeLee, our convention coordinator, and all
    of the people here who have worked here on our behalf and on the
    Democratic Party's behalf. You all know that I'm also indebted to
    Chicago for a lot of things. My campaign in 1992 got off to a real jump-
    start here. When I spoke to the leaders of the various State Democratic
    parties in 1991 here at this very Navy Pier, I announced that David
    Wilhelm would be my campaign manager, and

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    I know he and Deegee are here somewhere tonight, and I want to thank
    them.
        I have been blessed by a lot of people from Chicago who have helped
    me immensely: Avis LaVelle and Amy Zisook who are here tonight, and a
    lot of others of you who have been with me, and I thank you for that.
        So this is a special place. It was on Saint Patrick's Day in 1992
    that I was essentially declared the nominee of the Democratic Party
    because of our victories in Illinois and Michigan. And I have a picture
    in my private office in the White House of Hillary and me, in green,
    under the confetti in Chicago on Saint Patrick's Day in 1992. I will
    always remember that.
        You know, I think that this great city has hosted more conventions
    than any city in American history. It has also hosted more Presidents.
    According to the notes I have here, it says they include Presidents
    Lincoln, Grant, Garfield, Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, Harding,
    FDR, and Eisenhower. I hope that if your luck holds, I'll make the
    Democratic line on that list a little longer than it was.
        Throughout the history of this great city, from its days as a
    railroad center to its days as an industrial powerhouse and an ethnic
    melting pot to its offering a haven of opportunity to African-Americans
    from the South, including so many from my home State, to the efforts it
    has made to transform itself as the economic realities of our country
    has forced those changes, Chicago has time and again come back, always
    stronger, always better, always proving that it is the city that works.
        Mr. Mayor, you and your late father and your mother and all your
    friends and your colleagues in this city, from all different walks of
    life and all different racial and economic backgrounds, deserve a lot of
    credit. You are proving that the cities of this country have a great
    future in making America what it should be, and I thank you for that.
        I also want to thank you all, without regard to your political
    party, for opening your hearts and minds and your pocketbooks to make
    this convention a success. This country works best when it has two
    competing visions, two competing approaches, an honest and open debate,
    and people who are empowered by that debate to make decisions about what
    they want for themselves and their families and their future. You have
    given us a chance to show the Democratic Party at its best. And I think
    that is important.
        For the last 3\1/2\ years I have tried to break out of this debate
    that dominated our political life for too long, because it seemed to
    have no relationship to reality: one side saying Government is the
    problem, another side saying Government is the solution. I think the
    solution is to do what works. That's what Chicago does: what works to
    give people opportunity, what works to reinforce responsible behavior,
    and what works to bring us together as a community. And if we do that we
    will be rewarded.
        We are going to have the opportunity as a people to actually decide
    which road we want to walk into the 21st century, and I think that is
    very exciting. And I hope that the American people will get caught up in
    the spirit of that in this election year and not be diverted by the
    politics of division and destruction that too often dominate the easy
    moments in the headlines.
        For there are fundamental questions we have to come to grips with.
    What's the best way to guarantee opportunity for every American willing
    to work for it? If we have come to the end of the industrial era and we
    are living in a world dominated by information and technology, if the
    cold war is being replaced not just by a global economy but a global
    society, how are we going to guarantee that everybody has a chance to
    live out their dreams? Not to guarantee a result, but a chance. If the
    world is being dominated on every continent, it seems, by new security
    problems from terrorism to organized crime, abusing the openness of a
    global society, how are we going to keep this most diverse of all of the
    world's democracies from being consumed by the kind of ethnic and
    religious and racial conflicts that are literally destroying countries
    and peoples all over the world? In other words, how are we going to
    bring out our best and beat back the darker impulses that are latent in
    every society?
        I believe with all my heart that the best days of this country are
    still ahead of us. And when I imagine what I want America to look like
    when my daughter is my age and, hopefully, I've got a whole nest of
    grandkids to worry about, when I've long since forgotten about politics,
    I want it to be the most peaceful period in world history. I want it to
    be a period where people compete with one another in economics,
    education, and athletics, and not in military contests.

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        I want it to be a period when we are making unprecedented efforts to
    solve the remaining mysteries of biochemistry so that we can unlock the
    terrible problems that still plague us, that take too many people away
    from this life before their time. I want it to be a period where people
    in this country without regard to their racial or religious background
    or their gender or wherever they start out in life actually have a
    chance, if they work hard and behave in responsible fashion, to dream
    their own dreams and live them out. And I believe there is a very good
    chance that we can achieve that.
        I want it to be a place where we have at least learned to work with
    our friends and neighbors to limit terrorism and limit organized crime
    and limit the spread of weapons of mass destruction from abroad. And in
    this country we have worked to bring safety and sanity back to our
    streets and neighborhoods.
        And Mr. Mayor, I just want to say, you mentioned the crime bill. One
    of the things that I believe is critical to the success of our democracy
    is making families believe that they can actually bring children into
    this world and raise them in their neighborhoods and send them to school
    every day with a reasonable expectation of safety. It is not true that
    the crime problem is insoluble. We can make it better. We are making it
    better. And if we keep working on it we will return to the days when we
    are actually surprised when we see the evening news lead with the report
    of a serious crime. That's when we'll know we have won. But we can do
    that, and that is an important part of the 21st century we should all be
    trying to build as well.
        When my daughter is my age, I want us to have unraveled the great
    mystery that we must unravel if we're going to continue to grow and see
    all these developing countries, particularly the populous ones like
    China and India, grow, which is how can we grow the economy and enhance
    the environment instead of destroying it. We don't want global warming.
    We don't want more greenhouse gases. But we do want more growth, and we
    want our neighbors around the world to have more growth so they can buy
    more of our products. We have to make a commitment as an American people
    together to the cause of environmental enhancement and economic growth.
    And no one has solved it entirely yet. I want America to lead that
    fight. And we'll be in a position to do it.
        These are the things I think about when I imagine what I want our
    country to look like. And my goal is to have a convention here in
    Chicago that will enable the American people to know the vision we
    started with; what we, as a party, have achieved; what we stand for and
    what we believe the honest, important differences are between ourselves
    and the Republicans. And then I want us to go out of Chicago and give
    this election back to the American people, on the big, sweeping issues
    that will help all of us to answer the question, what do we want our
    country to look like 20 years from now?
        If Chicago can give that gift to America it will be in part because
    I will be looking to Chicago to illustrate what happens when you have an
    effective crime bill, what happens when you have effective strategies to
    open educational opportunities to people, what happens when you have
    effective strategies to try to give private sector investors an
    incentive to invest in neighborhoods that have been long since
    forgotten. In other words, how do you make America work?
        You are a shining example of that. I believe all America will be
    very proud of you when this is over. And I believe if we can prove that
    Chicago is working and that there is a partnership involved in that, as
    the mayor said, then we have a much better chance of having too much
    when America debates the big important issues and people are really free
    to ask and answer that question: What do I want my country to be like
    for my children and my grandchildren? What do I believe America should
    stand for 20 or 30 or 40 years from now? That is the question we will
    decide in this election, whether we do it consciously or unconsciously.
    Chicago will help us to do it with a clear head and a strong heart. And
    for that, I thank you very much.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:20 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom at the Navy
    Pier. In his remarks, he referred to Leslie Fox, executive director,
    Chicago '96, host committee for the 1996 Democratic Convention; Richard
    C. Notebaert, cochair, Chicago '96; Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago
    and his wife, Margaret; John Stroger, president, Cook County Board of
    Commissioners; Avis LaVelle, former press secretary to Mayor Daley; and
    Democratic fundraiser Amy Zisook.