[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book II)]
[July 30, 1998]
[Pages 1378-1379]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to an Overflow Crowd in Raleigh
July 30, 1998

    Thank you. We wanted to come by and thank you. I know that you had 
to come here; you didn't get in the other room. You had to listen; you 
couldn't see. But if it's any consolation, you are much, much cooler 
than anybody in that other room is right now.
    And I just want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for 
being so good to me and the First Lady and the Vice President over the 
last 5\1/2\ years, for the support that I've gotten from people from 
North Carolina, especially from my number one North Carolinian, Erskine 
Bowles, who has been a wonderful Chief of Staff.
    I want to thank you for your commitment to John Edwards. And I want 
to ask you--you know, you heard us talking in the speeches about his 
proposal today to Senator Faircloth that they give up the ads and just 
spend all their money paying for honest conversations with the people of 
North Carolina. I think that's a good idea.
    You just think about how it would change politics in America forever 
if North Carolina had an election in which there were no 30-second 
attack ads and the two candidates sat down around a table or maybe had 
20 or 30 or 50 citizens sitting with them and honestly discussed the 
issues on television where everybody could be a part of it, write them, 
tell them what they thought, decide what they agree with, what they 
disagree with. Think about it. It would recreate old-fashioned 
citizenship again.
    Now, if you like that, don't let it be one letter in one statement 
in one day. Go out tomorrow and talk about it and the next day and talk 
to your friends and neighbors about it and get a little ground swell 
built up about it, because I can tell you that I think that this 
candidate will be much more eager to do this than his opponent. But it's 
the right thing to do for the folks.
    So stay with us; keep working. We're going to keep moving this 
country forward. Remember the last thing I said in there: Times are good 
now, and I'm grateful for that. But that's not a time to sit on your 
laurels and sit back and congratulate yourself. When America is going 
into a new century and things are changing as

[[Page 1379]]

they are, we should use the confidence of these good times to take on 
those big long-term challenges. And that's what you have to think about 
with these elections coming up.
    Who do you really want to be dealing with the challenges of saving 
Social Security and Medicare for the 21st century? Who do you really 
trust to do more to build the best public schools in America for all of 
our children, without regard to their income, their race, or their 
region of the country? Who do you believe is more likely to get quality, 
affordable health care for all Americans and say to the HMO's and to the 
managed care people, ``We want managed care, but we don't want 
accountants making decisions doctors should make. We want people to get 
in the emergency room, to see the specialists, to have quality health 
care when they need it''? The answer is John Edwards. And I'm honored to 
be in North Carolina with him tonight.
    Thank you, and God bless you all. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 8:15 p.m. in Dorton Arena at the North 
Carolina State Fairgrounds.