    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [March 12, 1998]
    [Pages 369-370]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner
    March 12, 1998

        Thank you very much. Thank you, Steve,
    and thank you all for being here. I would just like to briefly make a
    few points. I've seen almost everybody around this table in the last few
    weeks, and I wouldn't think of putting you through another speech.
    [Laughter] But I would like to say a couple of things.
        First of all, I want to thank you for your extraordinary labors on
    behalf of our party. Second, I want to say that I believe the upcoming
    150th anniversary of our party is a great opportunity for us to send a
    signal to America that we expect to be around for another 150 years by
    continuing to press our country forward into the future together.
        I spent a lot of time in the last few weeks reading about the
    beginning of the Democratic Party and Andrew Jackson's Presidency and
    all the things he did right--and one or two things he probably did wrong
    in the light of history. [Laughter] But I have very strong convictions
    now, that are stronger than they were when I came here even, that our
    party has shed a lot of the baggage that was holding us back in public
    perception. We have proved that together we can take the country into
    the future with a strong economy, a declining crime rate, a mending
    social fabric, a strong position in the world, and that we have a great
    obligation at this good time for our country to bear down and press
    forward. And I hope we can all do that around the 150th celebration.
        Steve mentioned the victory of Lois Capps in
    California in the remarkable special election for Congress. Let me say
    it was a truly remarkable victory because I think that that seat, which
    was previously occupied by her husband, was one of only three Democratic
    seats in the country where Al Gore and I did not win in '96. I think we
    lost by a point because of the Ralph Nader vote, but nonetheless, we
    didn't quite win it.
        The overwhelming lion's share of credit goes to Lois Capps, who is a remarkable person. Many of you know that her
    daughter, Laura, works for me and has for some
    time. A lot of the credit goes to the feelings that the voters in that
    district have about her late husband, Walter, who was also an
    astonishing human being. But I think that she ran the race in the way
    that I think that the Democrats ought to run their races. She ran a
    grassroots campaign, a local campaign. She did not ask for it, nor seek
    any outside politician to come in and tell the people of her district
    how to vote.
        In so doing, she did exactly what I did when
    I was Governor of my State. For nearly 12 years, I felt the same way.
    But she embraced the issues that were reflected in my State of the Union
    Address and that our party is advancing this year. And she was able to
    do it because that's what she heard people talking to her about. In
    political terms in the way people write about these races up here,
    perhaps one of the most significant things is that she was able to win
    with a torrent of so-called independent third party expenditures against
    her on any number of issues. But she did it with old-fashioned
    grassroots campaigning, common sense, a great heart, and a real fidelity
    to the kinds of issues that I think we have to continue to press,
    including the Patients' Bill of Rights, the whole range of educational
    issues, and the resolution of the tobacco litigation in a way that helps
    to protect our children from the dangers of tobacco.
        It was a very impressive campaign. It is a mark, if you will, of the
    future of what we could do all over the country this year. But if we
    want to do it, we have to do what she did. We have to have good
    candidates. They have to be closely tied to the people. They have to be
    interested in grassroots work and not ashamed to get out there and
    really hustle and listen to people and work with them. They don't have
    to have more money than their opponents,

    [[Page 370]]

    but they have to have enough money to have their message heard and to
    answer whatever onslaught is put against them. And if we do that, I
    believe we have a good chance to win, because I think the tide of public
    opinion is moving our way because of the level of confidence people have
    in our country and where we are, and the sense that they have,
    notwithstanding that confidence, that we have great challenges to face
    and we need to embrace them.
        So I feel wonderful about this race, both personally because Hillary
    and I care so much for Laura, Lois's daughter,
    and because I cared so much about her husband as well as our new
    Congresswoman from California. But I think it
    bodes well for the Democrats if we are prepared to realize that politics
    is not about what has been said and done in Washington, politics is
    about what is said and done and felt passionately in the neighborhoods
    of this country.
        Finally, let me say that this is an interesting time for me. We are
    trying to--and for our country now--we are trying very hard to work out
    an agreement that would pass comprehensive tobacco legislation. I know
    you're all seeing the press reports of it. There are obstacles. There
    are differences, but I think we've got a good chance to pass it. And
    there are only 68 days left, work days left in this session of Congress.
    And that doesn't sound like a lot of time, and it isn't. But I think it
    would be unbelievable neglect for the Congress to leave this year
    without passing that tobacco legislation.
        A thousand children a day have their lives shortened because,
    illegally, they began to smoke in response to advertising campaigns and
    other inducements--1,000 a day. That's too high a price to pay to fool
    around and wait until next year just because this is an election year
    and people have other things to do. So that's the first thing I wanted
    to say; we're working on that.
        Secondly, I am about to leave on a trip for Africa, and I'm going to
    countries that no sitting President has ever visited before. No
    President's ever made a serious trip to Africa. And I think it is very
    important for our economy, very important for our foreign policy, very
    important for our efforts to protect the global environment and to deal
    with the spread of disease and other major global issues we'll all be
    facing together. We can build a great partnership there. I'm excited
    about that.
        When I get back, I then have to go on a long-planned trip to South
    America to the second Summit of the Americas. We had the first one in
    Miami 4 years ago, and we are looking forward to continuing to work in
    our hemisphere. Every country but one is a democracy. Our fastest
    growing trading partners are our neighbors in our hemisphere. And the
    fact that the United States has reached out and tried to build economic
    and other partnerships with these good people who share our part of the
    globe is an important thing.
        I'm then going in May to meet with the other leaders of the largest
    seven economies, and our political partnership with Russia, in England.
    And then I just announced that I have moved up my trip to China for late
    June because of the strong recommendations of our people and the
    progress we're making in working with the Chinese on a whole range of
    subjects. And obviously, the welfare of the American people in the 21st
    century will be shaped in large measure by the partnerships we have with
    the largest country in the world.
        So this is a good time. We're working; we're doing remarkably well
    as a country. But I want to say, as I say every time, the Democratic
    Party is not the party of self-congratulation; it is the party of
    forward motion. We have no business engaging in self-congratulation
    except to cite it to the voters as evidence that we can be trusted to do
    more, even better, if we're given the chance to do it. We should be
    worried about the future; that's what elections are about. We should be
    grateful for the conditions that exist today. We should recognize there
    are a whole range of challenges out there, and we should be intensely
    focused on meeting them. Because of your help, that's exactly what we're
    going to be able to do.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:30 p.m. in the Balcony Room at the
    Sheraton Luxury Collection. In his remarks, he referred to Steve
    Grossman, national chair, Democratic National Committee; and Laura
    Capps, Staff Director for the Office of Speechwriting at the White
    House.