[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
[September 12, 1996]
[Pages 1561-1563]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Democratic Dinner in Beverly Hills, California
September 12, 1996

    Thank you very much. Thank you, Hillary. I'm glad you had a good 
day. [Laughter]
    I want to thank all of you for being here, but let me say a special 
word of thanks to Ron and to Jan Burkle for opening their home to us. 
We've made a lot of jokes about it tonight, but this place is a national 
treasure, and it's a great honor for us to be here. And I'm grateful for 
their friendship. Thank you, Ron, so much for everything.
    Thank you, David Geffen, for telling us the story of your mother, 
for living the dreams of your parents, and for being not only a great 
citizen but an honest and true friend--always

[[Page 1562]]

tells me exactly what you think--[laughter]--always in the spirit of 
friendship and loyalty to your country. And I thank you so much.
    I thank the Hollywood Women's Political Committee for your role in 
this evening. I want to thank everyone who worked on this event, all the 
stagehands and everybody else who made Tom Hanks miserable up here. 
[Laughter] Did you love seeing Tom Hanks? I visualized him, fistfuls of 
Oscars, miserable up here with nothing happening. [Laughter]
    Tom, you have suffered so much tonight it's okay with me if you go 
and do ``Primary Colors'' now. [Laughter] As a matter of fact, I'd like 
to see somebody make some money out of that thing using their own name. 
[Laughter]
    Thank you, Chicago. Thank you, Tom Scott. Thank you, Paula 
Poundstone, you were especially good tonight. I thank Aaron Neville and 
his brothers and his band. I thank the Eagles for helping us to live in 
the present and the past at the same time.
    Thank you, Maya, you were magnificent as always. I don't know why 
anybody would want to take ``I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'' out of 
the library. I think every child's heart would sing more who read it and 
the brave story of this remarkable woman.
    And thank you, Barbra, for being my friend and for sharing your 
extraordinary gift. I remember once when I was a young man, I always 
wondered what it would be like to really be friends with someone who had 
been given a gift from God that was truly breathtaking, you know, to 
have moves like Magic Johnson, or do things that the Olympic champions 
do. I think it's remarkable that Barbra Streisand loves her country and 
is a good friend to so many of us but especially to me, for doing this 4 
years ago and coming back tonight. I think it's a good luck charm, and I 
thank you.
    Ladies and gentlemen, you came here tonight; you have generously 
contributed. There are many people here from our campaign and from the 
Democratic Party; I won't mention them all. I will say that this is our 
chairman, Don Fowler's birthday, and this is the best birthday party 
he's had in a long time. [Laughter] And the rest of us will be miserable 
thinking of an encore next year. You've earned the right to be liberated 
from a speech, and I'm about to do it for you.
    But I do want you to think about this: We are living through a time 
of unbelievable change in the way we work and we live and we relate to 
each other and the rest of the world. Just, every one of you, think how 
much what you do for a living has changed with technology, with the 
explosion of discoveries in the last few years.
    And the thing that bothered me most in 1992, more than the stagnant 
economy, more than the rising crime rate, more than the threat of even 
the social divisions, was that people's hearts were hardening about 
America. This is a place that depends upon faith and hope and 
imagination. It is an idea. And we've been around for 220 years 
struggling to inch closer and closer and closer to what's in the 
Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence, 
because there's always been enough faith and hope and vision to go on. 
And it seemed that people were really beginning to lose that.
    What I want you to do tonight is to leave here feeling good, because 
I've just been on a train trip; I've just been on another one of our bus 
trips with Hillary and Al and Tipper, where he was doing his macarena 
thing. And thank you, Tom Hanks, for all the wonderful things you said 
about unquestionably the finest Vice President who ever served this 
country. Thank you.
    But on this train trip in these little towns there would be 
thousands of people coming up, cheering and singing and waiving their 
flags. And whenever we stopped, in all the stops we made, there were 
only two crowds of under 10,000 and there were several of 20,000 and 
more. On Labor Day I went to De Pere, Wisconsin, a relatively small 
community of under 30,000, but there were more than 30,000 people at our 
Labor Day rally there in the suburb of Green Bay.
    And today, just today I finished a swing out West at the Morris 
Dailey Elementary School in Fresno, and the Chaffey Community College in 
Rancho Cucamonga--I thought I'd never say it. [Laughter] And there were 
not only large numbers of people there, but they were all different 
kinds of people, proud to be together, believing in the future of their 
children, believing in their own future--young people. At this community 
college, there must have been about 20,000 people there, and they were 
on fire because they know that this is a country in better shape than it 
was 4 years ago. They know that we have a path to the future that we can 
go.

[[Page 1563]]

And they know we can go there together. And that's just the way they 
want it. And I'm convinced the majority of our people believe that.
    So what you have done tonight is to make it possible for us to carry 
on that fight not just in the race for the Presidency but in all the 
others that embody the choice between building a bridge to the future 
and trying to build one to the past. We are just 4 years away from a new 
millennium, 4 more years away from proving that America has an unlimited 
capacity to be forever young and to keep its best days in front of it. 
And you have made it possible for us to pursue that with vigor and 
confidence and good heart.
    And I just want you to think about those children who were up on the 
stage tonight, because whenever I finish speaking and I go down to those 
crowds and I look at young people who believe in their own potential and 
who do not like the idea that we have to be divided and we have to leave 
some behind and who do believe it takes a village to make the most of 
all of our lives, I know why we're all doing this.
    That's why you're here tonight. And from the bottom of my heart, I 
thank you. And I ask you to remember that there are still 54 more days 
before anybody can celebrate anything--54 more days of fighting for the 
future of the children who closed this wonderful performance tonight.
    Thank you all, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:05 p.m. at the Burkle residence. In his 
remarks, he referred to recording and film executive David Geffen; actor 
Tom Hanks; musical groups Chicago, the Aaron Neville Band, and the 
Eagles; saxophonist Tom Scott; comedienne Paula Poundstone; author Maya 
Angelou; singer Barbra Streisand; NBA basketball player Earvin (Magic) 
Johnson; and Donald L. Fowler, national chairman, Democratic National 
Committee. A tape was not available for verification of the content of 
these remarks.