[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
[June 23, 1997]
[Pages 808-810]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Reception in Los 
Angeles
June 23, 1997

    The President. Thank you very much. Just a minute, I have to ask 
Senator Boxer a question. [Laughter] She said, ``You don't really have 
to say anything, it's just''----
    Senator Barbara Boxer. No, I didn't, I said we want you to. 
[Laughter]
    The President. She said, ``I've been up here working for you for an 
hour, keeping the crowd''--[laughter]--I was back there working for her 
for an hour. [Laughter]
    Ladies and gentlemen, in the interest of campaign reform and full 
disclosure--[laughter]--the real reason I'm here is that Barbara Boxer's 
first grandchild is my second nephew; it's just a family thing. 
[Laughter] It doesn't have anything to do with party or loyalty or 
agreement or anything. That's not true. I mean, it's true, but it's not 
the reason I'm here. [Laughter]
    I'm so glad to see all of you here. I'm glad to see this enthusiasm 
for the person who is clearly the most enthusiastic member of the United 
States Senate. I'll tell you something, if the best Democrats in every 
State where there's a Senate race where we don't have a seat woke up 
tomorrow with a combination of Barbara Boxer's enthusiasm, self-
confidence, and courage, we would win the Senate in a walk in 1998.
    And I want to thank you for being here for her for a lot of reasons, 
but I would like to just emphasize two or three. I know Barbara gave her 
speech, and I know essentially what she said, even though I was in there 
working for her, but I want to remind you of a couple of things. When I 
took office in 1993, this State was not in good shape. Even more 
importantly, the politics of our country was dominated essentially by 
rhetorical and ideological name-calling, and the whole drive of every 
election was basically to see how people could be divided in a way that 
advantaged the candidate who was trying to do the dividing. And most 
people just thought, well, it just doesn't matter. No one can seriously 
assert that now.
    I said, if you'll give me a chance to serve, and you give her a 
chance to serve, we'll change the economic direction of this country and 
this State. We'll get rid of trickle-down economics. We'll replace it 
with an invest-and-grow strategy. We'll cut the deficit, invest in our 
kids and our future, invest in the environment and technology and 
medical research, still reduce the deficit. We'll expand our trade 
around the world. And we'll be stronger.
    And when Barbara Boxer cast the decisive vote for my economic 
program in 1993--it passed by one vote, including the Vice President--as 
he said, ``Whenever I vote, we win.'' [Laughter] I mean, the things that 
our friends on the other side said were just unbelievable. They said the 
sky would fall, the end of the world was here, nothing good would ever 
happen in America again. And we now know what happened. This is not a 
matter of dispute anymore.
    Five years later, we have over 12 million new jobs, the lowest 
unemployment rate in 24 years, the lowest inflation in 30 years. The 
stock market has more than doubled. And something that's very important 
to us as Democrats, because you contribute to come here in large measure 
on behalf of those who cannot afford to be here: We've had the biggest 
decline in inequity among working people in over 30 years--in over 30 
years. And none of that would have happened if California had sent 
Barbara

[[Page 809]]

Boxer's opponent to the Senate in 1993, because we would have been one 
vote short. None of it would have happened. And I could go through 
example after example after example of that. So I say to you, for the 
following reasons, you must make sure she wins again.
    Number one, she was right when you needed it, and California's back, 
and that's important. Number two, she always sticks up for what she 
believes in, and she's the same every day. She's the same in public and 
in private. She has integrity in the best sense: Her mind and her spirit 
and her words are always in the same place at the same time. And we need 
more of that in public life. And third, and maybe most important, as Bob 
Torricelli said earlier today and may have said here before I got here, 
she is really the greatest spirit in the Senate. And let me tell you 
something, after all this time I've spent in Washington, I still 
remember back before I moved there when I had a life. [Laughter] And, 
you know, back where people of different parties spent more time 
figuring out how they could work together than how they could bad-mouth 
each other, back where people were hired to be mayors and Governors and 
they were evaluated based on whether they got results, not how well they 
could keep people torn up and upset all the time.
    And that's what I tried to bring to this country. And it's amazing. 
There are people in Washington--I think that it really makes them sad 
that America's doing so well. They wake up every day trying to think of 
some way to put us down, this whole country, and get us back to being 
angry and mad with one another. And I just keep trying to get everybody 
to look on the bright side and go forward. She is exhibit A. Barbara 
Boxer is exhibit A.
    And if you think about the kind of challenges we're facing for the 
future, with all the things that are going well here, we still have some 
significant challenges. Can we really do what we need to do with the 
environment and still grow the economy? Yes, but we'll have to work 
together and be in the right frame of mind so we can have honorable, 
principled, and honest compromises.
    Can we really find a way to stop talking about and actually do 
something about the real and physical isolation of the poorest of our 
children who have not been touched one whit by this recovery? Yes, but 
not if we think we can win elections by quick slogans instead of 
actually doing something about it and not if we think we can do it as 
one party or one small group, instead of as an American commitment.
    Can we really become the world's first truly great multiracial 
democracy where no race is a majority? That's about to happen here in a 
generation, about to happen here in California within 3 to 5 years. Yes, 
we can, but only if we have a certain largeness of spirit where we 
respect our honest differences of opinion, where we relish our 
diversity, but where we know underneath our basic humanity unites us and 
is more important than anything that divides us.
    Now, when this election develops and the people that run against 
Barbara Boxer try to turn her into some kind of cardboard cookie cutout 
of who she really is and try to sort of perform reverse plastic surgery 
on her, you remember that when California was in need, she was there. 
You remember that every day she is up there actually getting things 
done. And remember most of all, she has the sort of spirit, quite apart 
from any vote on any issue, that is the precondition of America 
finishing the job of preparing this country for the 21st century and 
giving all our children the chance to live out their dreams and getting 
people to be responsible and to serve their communities and to be good 
citizens and bringing us together as one community.
    California will send a signal to America about whether we can do 
what we need to do in the 21st century because you are already largely 
there, in ways that are all positive and ways that are somewhat 
negative. And you have to decide how you will approach what is left to 
be done. And I'm telling you, this country needs somebody in the United 
States Senate like Barbara Boxer, somebody who no matter how tough it 
gets, won't wilt; somebody who will be the same every day; and somebody 
who will treat her adversaries with dignity and decency and will wake up 
in a positive frame of mind, because that is a precondition for solving 
any problem that is fundamentally a human problem. And most of the 
problems we have left start as an affair of the heart.
    So stick with her. I'm glad you're here for the kickoff. I want you 
to be there in the middle. And I want you to be there at the end. And I 
want to see you on television celebrating on election night.

[[Page 810]]

    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 8:05 p.m. at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.