    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [May 1, 1997]
    [Pages 525-528]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner
    May 1, 1997

        Thank you very much. Mr. Vice President, thank you for that overly
    generous introduction. I loved every word of it. [Laughter] That 5
    minutes was the best 5 minutes I ever lost in my Presidency. He hasn't
    been the same person since.
        I want to thank Tipper and Al and Hillary, all of them in their
    various ways for being unique parts of our rather unique team. I want to
    thank Tommy Lee Jones for coming here tonight and for giving that fine
    speech and being loyal to his old friend Al Gore.
        You know, I'm not as mobile as I normally am, and I've been in this
    big old awkward chair, and I heard Tommy Lee's voice sort of booming
    out, you know, and I couldn't decide whether I was the fugitive and I
    ought to be on the run, whether I was Batman and I should duck--I didn't
    know what I should do. [Laughter] You know, I really enjoyed watching
    Tommy Lee and Al's friendship; they have a lot in common.

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    They sort of like to shoot the bull, and when they get around each
    other--they've been friends so long--their accents get thicker, you
    know, and the stories get more embellished. Just like any other two
    rednecks from Harvard you ever met. [Laughter]
        I want to thank our distinguished leaders, Governor Romer and Steve
    Grossman, and the dinner chairs: Abe Pollin, Tommy Boggs, Morty Bahr,
    Janice Griffin, Bob Johnson. Thank you, Alan Solomont and Dan Dutko and
    Carol Pensky. Thanks to the entertainers. But I'd like to ask you all to
    give a special hand to our dinner chairs; they worked like crazy to
    bring this off for us tonight and I thank them for it very much.
        I won't take long tonight, but I want to just reinforce a couple of
    things the Vice President said. Tomorrow we're going to dedicate this
    memorial to Franklin Roosevelt, a man who believed in bold, persistent
    experimentation; a man who became President at the country's lowest ebb
    in this century and whose faith and optimism and determination carried
    us a very long way. When Al Gore and I sought your support and the votes
    of the American people in 1992, we were, thankfully, in nowhere near
    that much trouble. But it was clear that we were in the midst of drift
    and division and deadlock. It was clear that we were going through a
    period of profound change, moving into a new century, a new millennium,
    and a new way of living together, and that we had, as a nation, no clear
    strategy to pursue.
        And I had a simple idea that I wanted my daughter and her children
    to grow up in an America in the 21st century where everyone willing to
    work for it had opportunity; where all citizens recognized that there
    were no rights without responsibility; where we cherish our diversity,
    instead of being torn asunder by it, and we grew together, closer as one
    America; and where we embrace the world, instead of running away from
    it, and we're glad to be still the leading force for peace and freedom
    and prosperity. That is what I want, that is what I wanted, and that is
    what we are going to have in the 21st century, thanks to you and
    millions of Americans like you all across this country.
        And I thought to do it, we would have to experiment. I had some
    ideas that people said were nutty, and they weren't appropriately pure.
    They were not perfectly liberal or perfectly conservative. I had this
    crazy idea that you could reduce the deficit and still increase
    investment in people, in education; that you could actually reduce the
    size of Government but put more money into the things people needed;
    that you could actually help business and labor; that you could actually
    grow the economy and preserve and even improve the environment.
        Now, we started this economic program, and all of our friends in the
    other party voted against it and said it was crazy and it would never
    work. Well, sooner or later, the posturing has to not count nearly as
    much as the results. We've had a record number of new jobs, a record
    number of new businesses. We have the strongest, healthiest economy in
    30 years, and wages are going up and inequality in this country is going
    down among working families for the first time in over 20 years. And you
    should be proud of that because you made it happen. I'm proud of it, and
    I want you to be proud of it.
        I had this idea that crime was not a political football that you
    should position yourself around in Washington with a bunch of rhetoric,
    that it really would make a difference if we put community policing back
    into America's streets, and we put more police on the street. Not just
    Dwayne and Eddie, the two that Al put when he was President, but--
    [laughter]--99,998 more. And we're well on the way.
        And I thought it was silly to say that an American citizen couldn't
    favor the right of sports people and hunters to use their weapons and
    not be for sensible restraints on gun ownership and acquisition by
    criminals, and dangerous people and people who were incompetent should
    not have them. I thought that was wrong.
        When we passed the crime bill, they said, well, it didn't fit into
    anybody's little box. All I know is crime is still going down every
    year; there are more police on the street; America is a safer place
    today because we were interested in what would work to fulfill our
    values. And if people are not secure in America, they are not fully
    free. We were right, and you should be proud of that. I want you to be
    proud of it.
        Well, I could go through a lot of other issues. I'm proud of what we
    did in Haiti and Bosnia and the Middle East and Northern Ireland. I'm
    proud of the way we reached out to Russia and to expand NATO. I'm proud
    of the fact that we said we are going forward as one country, and we
    started the AmeriCorps program

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    to give young people a chance to serve their country and earn some money
    to go to college.
        And as I look back on it, I would have to say that, thanks to all
    those things and the family and medical leave law, the initiative on
    tobacco, and a lot of other things, this country has more opportunity,
    more responsibility, a closer knit community, and is stronger in the
    world in its leadership role than it would have been if we'd stayed the
    course that was dominant in 1992--you were right, and you should be
    proud of it--and a whole lot better off than we'd have been if the
    ``Contract With America'' had not been stopped in 1995.
        Now, in the first 100 days of this administration, Democrats and
    Republicans are working in good faith in the hope that we can reach a
    budget agreement. But what we want is simple and clear: We want to
    balance the budget and invest more in education, extend health care to
    children. Yes, we didn't win the health care fight, but Franklin
    Roosevelt was for experimentation. I'm glad I tried to give the hard-
    working families in this country health insurance. I'm not sorry I tried
    to do that. I think we were right to try, and we ought to at least give
    it to the children of America in this term. We can do that.
        We ought to continue to clean up the environment. Now that we're
    requiring people on welfare who are able-bodied to go to work, we ought
    to make darn sure the jobs are there for them. And we ought to stop the
    punishment--unjust--of legal immigrants in this country who work hard
    and do their part to make our country strong.
        We've got that kind of budget, and I hope we've got that kind of
    budget negotiations going. We've got 20 percent of the country committed
    already in the first 100 days to embracing national standards for
    learning, and for the first time ever in America, having an examination
    of fourth and eighth graders in reading and math. We have got hundreds
    of businesses--hundreds and hundreds--committed to helping us move a
    million people from welfare to work.
        We had Hillary's conference on early childhood and the brain and the
    magnificent Summit of Service in Philadelphia last weekend. That
    embodies what I think America is at its best, putting people first,
    putting our country's future first, not taking cheap shots. And after a
    long fight, we also ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, which will
    take us a long way toward eradicating the threat of chemical weapons
    from the face of the Earth. We are moving in the right direction.
        What I want to say to you tonight in closing are two brief points:
    First of all, it bothers me that members of both parties, at this moment
    of America's greatest influence, most profound economic and social
    renovation, when we are in the greatest position of all to try to bring
    the people of the world together in economic cooperation and
    competition, advancing democracy and human rights, finding ways globally
    to preserve our little planet's environment--that people in both parties
    somehow feel afraid of the future and afraid of the rest of the world
    and don't want to eagerly embrace it.
        If you believe for a moment that we can fulfill the legacy of
    Franklin Roosevelt and continue to lead the world by hunkering down,
    withdrawing, turning our backs on a waiting world that longs for what we
    now almost take for granted, that is wrong. The Democratic Party at the
    end of World War II, under Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, said to
    the rest of the world, ``Come on, we'll all get together and go forward
    together.'' And I want you to be a part of that kind of Democratic Party
    for the 21st century.
        And the last thing I want to say is that Franklin Roosevelt was an
    awfully good politician. After all, he managed to get himself elected 4
    times. He managed to always look happy and strong and confident no
    matter what personal pain he might have endured. And he was marvelously
    successful because he liked people and he liked politics.
        And I hope you're here tonight because you like politics. And I hope
    you never stop liking politics. And I wish that we could have had this
    event tonight in the Lincoln Bedroom, but we did not have enough coffee
    in the White House. [Laughter]
        Now, the next time somebody asks you why you're helping us, tell
    them the stories I told you tonight and think about the people you know
    whose lives have been changed by what we have done in moving the AIDS
    drugs more rapidly to market, in coming out for the family leave law, in
    making college more affordable for people, in creating all these jobs to
    give people the chance to work in dignity, and having the biggest drop
    in welfare rolls in the history of the country. Now, you think about
    that. All

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    that was made possible by the American political system.
        I am proud of you. I want you to be proud of you. And I want you to
    get up tomorrow and say, ``I'm glad I was part of that. America is
    better than it was 4 years ago. It's going to be better 4 years from
    now. And the most important thing is my grandchildren will live in a
    21st century that is worthy of American's glorious past.''
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:20 p.m. at the D.C. Armory. In his
    remarks, he referred to actor Tommy Lee Jones; Gov. Roy Romer of
    Colorado, general chair, Steve Grossman, national chair, Alan D.
    Solomont, national finance chair, and Carol Pensky, treasurer,
    Democratic National Committee; Abe Pollin, owner, NBA Washington Bullets
    and NHL Washington Capitals; Tommy Boggs, attorney; Morton Bahr,
    international president, Communications Workers of America; Janice
    Griffin, vice president, Prudential; Robert L. Johnson, chairman and
    chief executive officer, BET Holdings, Inc.; and Dan Dutko, chair,
    Victory Fund.