[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
[August 18, 1996]
[Pages 1307-1308]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Democratic National Committee 50th Birthday Gala for the 
President in New York City
August 18, 1996

    The President. Thank you. First of all, I just want to say I hope 
all of you have had just half as good a time tonight as I have. I want 
to thank my friend Whoopi Goldberg and all the other magnificent 
entertainers and Jeff Margolis, who did the production; let's give him a 
hand. He was great. [Applause]
    I know the hour is late, but I'd like to say just a thing or two. I 
mean, I only turn 50 once, you know. [Laughter] First of all, I feel an 
overwhelming sense of gratitude tonight. A lot of times some of you will 
come up to me somewhere around the country when something is not going 
so well. You ask me how am I doing, and I've tried to develop the 
discipline of saying----
    Audience members. Shame! Shame! Shame!
    The President. Okay, okay. We hear you. You want to hear them 
anymore?
    Audience members. No-o-o!
    The President. Okay, we've heard your message now. Thank you very 
much. All right, give them a hand as they exit, will you? We heard them. 
Give them a hand. Give them a hand. [Applause] Be nice to them; don't be 
rough. They don't have a right to do this, but they don't have a right 
to be roughed up. Just show them to the door.
    Thank you.

[The demonstration continued.]

    The President. You know, one of the greatest things about this 
country is you can say whatever is on your mind, and nobody can shut you 
up. On the other hand----
    Audience members. Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!
    The President. Thank you. Four years from now some of them will come 
back and say, ``You know, you were right about that, Mr. President. You 
were right about that.''
    Let me say just one or two things if I might----

[The demonstration again interrupted the President's remarks.]

    Audience member. Throw them out!
    The President. Relax. Relax. Lay back.
    Anyway, even now, what I was going to tell you is I've tried to 
develop the discipline, when somebody comes up to me and says, ``Well, 
how are you doing,'' and something is not going very well, of saying, 
``Better than I deserve, thank you.'' And you ought to think about it.
    Because I was looking at all those decades pass by--I don't know 
where all the time went--and I was thinking of all the gifts that I have 
been given. I thank God for my family, for those who are here and those 
who aren't. I wish my brother could have been here tonight, but his wife 
and his son are here. I wish my wonderful father-in-law were still 
living; I miss him. And Lord, I miss my mother. She liked a good party, 
you know, and she would have liked this tonight. But I thank them. I 
mean, who could have thought it, where we all started.
    And I thank my friends. Some of them have been subject to ridicule, 
you know. FOB's has become, I don't know, an epithet in some quarters. 
But I wouldn't be here today without them, and all of you who were there 
with me in each step along life's way, I thank you. I thank all of those 
who worked with me in every job I ever had, and all of you who helped me 
to come to this point. I just feel a great sense of gratitude.
    I'd also like to make just two other observations in closing. The 
first is that I appreciate what Hillary said. I'm sure I'm not the best 
man she's ever known, but I sure have loved her and my wonderful child, 
and I thank them.
    There's something that's happened in our country in the last few 
years that I don't think

[[Page 1308]]

is very good. And that is that a lot of people in public life have taken 
to trying to show how good they are by showing how bad the people who 
disagree with them are, and I don't think that's a very good thing. And 
I have my mother to thank for that attitude, because she taught me never 
to resent anyone else's success, never to look down on anybody else, and 
never, ever to think I was better than anybody else, that it was a hard 
enough job in life just to be a good person yourself without trying to 
lift yourself up in putting somebody else down. And I'd like to see more 
of that in our country. I think it would be more civil and a better 
place.
    The second thing I'd like to leave you with is the image of those 
children that were up here behind us. You know, we have debates from 
time to time--were they right or am I right about the welfare reform 
issue. And I disagree with my opponent, Senator Dole, on so many things. 
But let me ask you this: Just think about your own life here and ask 
yourself, why are we doing this? Why are we here? The purpose of 
politics is nothing more or less than to enable more kids like those 
kids that just sang on the stage to live their dreams the way I got to 
live mine. There is no other purpose here.
    And I thank God for everybody I've ever been able to work with, 
those of you who are here. A lot of them are gone too, now. I miss my 
friend and brother, Ron Brown. He would have liked this tonight, and 
what a wonderful job he would have done.
    I started out my Presidency with one of the greatest men I ever met 
in my life, the late Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin. I miss him 
so much. There are a lot of people I miss, and I'm sorry they had to 
leave this Earth before I did. But you know, all of us left ahead, 
because we got to live out our dreams. And most of us here, truth were 
known, we'd have to say we've done better than we deserved. And I would 
like for every child in this country and every child in this world to be 
able to say that more than they can say it now when our time here is 
done.
    We have to get this country ready for the next century. It will be 
the time of greatest possibility in all of human history. More of our 
kids, without regard to their race, their gender, their station in life, 
will have a chance to live their dreams if we do our job. That is really 
what we're here about.
    I've been luckier than most people because I had family who loved 
me, friends who took care of me, folks who worked with me and made me 
look better than I deserved, and a chance to do work I loved. But in the 
end, all that matters is whether, when we finish, we have made it 
possible for more people to be what God meant them to be. And you have 
helped to give me that chance, and that is the best birthday present of 
all.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 9:25 p.m. at Radio City Music Hall. In his 
remarks, he referred to comedienne Whoopi Goldberg and the late Ronald 
H. Brown, former Secretary of Commerce.