    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [January 15, 1999]
    [Pages 53-56]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner
    January 15, 1999

        Thank you very much. Robert left his cards up here, so I'm going to
    take them home and put them in my keepsake album. [Laughter] If he ever
    gets mad at me, I'll call him on the phone and read this speech back to
    him. [Laughter]
        I want to thank all of you for being here and for being there for
    Hillary, for me, for Al and Tipper, for our administration over all
    these last years and especially during the last year. I'm going to miss
    Steve Grossman and his team at the DNC. I
    thank Len Barrack. I thank Carol

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    Pensky; this is her last event. And I thank Steve. They took the helm of
    a party that was troubled and made it far from troubled in 2 years.
        I want to thank all the staff members who have been here. I have in
    some ways the most sympathy for this group of people because they have
    to hear me give the same speech over and over and over again. [Laughter]
    And I want to thank the members of the administration who are here, and
    Congressman Dingell and Debbie, thank you for being here; Governor Ann
    Richards, who made some of my campaign stops in
    the '98 campaign even more memorable than normal. [Laughter]
        I want to say a special word of thanks, as Hillary did, to Sheryl
    Crow, who is a good friend, a good Democrat, and
    an unbelievable artist. And she's getting better every single year--
    unbelievable.
        Hillary said that we met Robert and
    Lynda in 1983, actually just before they got
    married, at the Kentucky Derby. It was an amazing event. I'd never been
    before and actually have never gotten a chance to go back since. But it
    was the last year in office of Governor John Y. Brown; all of you will remember how sort of staid and laid
    back John Y. Brown is. [Laughter] He had Al Hirt playing at the
    breakfast before the--``My Old Kentucky Home.'' And all I remember about
    the Kentucky Derby is that I was perfectly sure what horse would win,
    and the only person in this vast party John Y. Brown had assembled who
    would bet on the horse I recommended was Lynda Carter. And I have been
    for them ever since, whatever the issue is. [Laughter] Oh, and the horse
    won by three lengths.
        I really admire them both for so many reasons. It's not easy to do
    this--to sort of get out front, get your friends here. Some of you came
    all the way across the country to be here because they asked you. And I
    appreciate that and hope the weather is not so bad you can't get back.
    Those of us who are in Washington don't want anybody to be trapped here
    who doesn't want to be. [Laughter] We all came here voluntarily, but we
    want you to be able to leave and come, to go as you please. [Laughter]
        Finally, let me say, you can't imagine--you know, Al and Tipper and
    Hillary and I, we've done a lot of campaigning together. We did in '92;
    we did in '96; we do a few events together now, even though our lives
    are considerably busier, and often with conflicting schedules. But I
    think that one of the real secrets of whatever success that we've had
    for the American people has been that we have really tried to be a team;
    we've tried to be friends; we've tried to be family; and we've tried to
    be frank with each other. And each person has made a unique
    contribution. And then we've tried to model that in dealing with the
    Democratic Party and the House and the Senate groups and all of our
    friends around the country that are involved in whatever initiative
    we're involved in. It seems to me that's the way people ought to live,
    but it turns out it's a fairly effective way to do business.
        And I think it's fair to say that Tipper Gore has given the mental health issue more visibility than
    it's ever had on the national stage, and it will have an enduring,
    positive impact. I think it's clear to anybody who has looked at it that
    whatever even my harshest critics would have to say, that the Vice
    President has been far and away--not even
    close--the most influential person in his position over more issues,
    achieving more for the American people than anyone who has ever held his
    position in the entire history of the Republic. Not only that, as you
    will hear me say increasingly in the months ahead, and any mistakes we
    made were my fault. [Laughter]
        Of course, I don't even know how to talk about what I believe
    Hillary has meant to the success of
    our endeavors. She's been on every continent. She's gone to places most
    people in her position don't go, both in America and beyond our borders,
    into little villages in Africa and Asia and Latin America and the Indian
    subcontinent, to talk to women and their children, especially their
    daughters, about what their lives can be and what we should do to help
    them. She's gone all over America to save the Star-Spangled Banner and
    Thomas Edison's lab and Harriet Tubman's home and the national treasures
    that we believe we should hold close to our hearts as we move toward the
    millennium. And just a thousand other things. And she has done it under
    circumstances I think are probably more difficult than anyone who has
    ever done it before. I love her for it, but our country should love her
    for it as well. It's been remarkable.
        You know, I keep hearing that books and books and books will be
    written on how we won seats in the midterm election in 1998. Since

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    the Civil War, the President's party has only won midterm elections
    under Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, each in their first midterm
    election--and, as you heard, not since 1822, in the sixth year. And I
    can save you a lot of reading--it is not complicated. We showed up for
    work every day, and we remembered who we were working for. And we wanted
    power not to just have it and exercise it against anybody but just to
    use it for a little while to advance the American people's dreams.
        It is not complicated. And we had people like you who helped us
    raise enough money that even though we were outspent by $100 million, we
    at least had enough to get our message out. And we said, ``Look, we work
    for you. Here's where our country is; here's where we're going; here's
    what we'd like to do.'' It was not complicated.
        We're proud to be members of our party, but we believe progress
    should take precedence over partisanship. We believe unity should take
    precedence over division. We believe political power should be used with
    purpose to advance the lives of people only. And if you give us a little
    help, we will, now that the country is working again--and the economy is
    perhaps the best in history and the welfare rolls are the lowest in 29
    years, and the crime rate is the lowest in 28 years, and we've got the
    lowest peacetime unemployment since 1957--now that the country is
    working again, we would like to look to the long-term challenges of
    America.
        We would like to deal with the aging of America by saving Social
    Security and Medicare and thinking about other things so that we baby
    boomers don't have to burden our children and our grandchildren when we
    retire. We would like to look to the flowering of our children, the
    largest and most diverse group of schoolchildren we've ever had, and
    make sure that every one of them has a chance to have a world-class
    education.
        We would like to look to the strength of our families and make sure
    that they have health care that is adequate, affordable, and quality
    health care, which is why we want this Patients' Bill of Rights. We
    would like to continue to grow the economy under increasingly
    competitive and difficult conditions. We would like to remain the
    world's strongest force for peace and freedom and prosperity. And we
    think we have the obligation to do that, which is what our efforts in
    the Middle East and Northern Ireland and Bosnia and Kosovo and other
    places in the world are all about.
        And if that's what you want us to do, we're ready to try harder, but
    we need a little help. That's what we said.
        Now, on Tuesday night I will be given the great honor that comes to
    the President once a year to report on the State of the Union and then
    to amplify in greater detail what this agenda means and what I hope we
    can accomplish in a bipartisan manner in the Congress in the coming
    years. But when you go home tonight and you ask yourselves why you came
    and what you believe in, I hope--whether it was worth your time and your
    money--I hope you will be proud of what has happened in these last 6
    years. But I hope you'll also be determined to make the most of the days
    ahead.
        This 6-year thing is arbitrary. It gets in people's minds, gets in
    administrations' minds, and they think, ``Oh, well, I'm 75 percent
    through.'' I think there's still 25 percent of the time left. Just a
    question of how you look at it. And in the rhythm of life, it seems to
    me that you get hired to show up every day. And I get the same daily
    wage now I did on the first day I was President, so it seems to me I
    ought to put in the same level of effort.
        But if I could say in a more serious vein in closing, there are many
    reasons that I am a member of this party, besides the fact that my
    granddaddy would turn over in his grave if I weren't. [Laughter] And we
    could talk about that all night. But on the eve of the new millennium,
    when we're living in a new world economy and an increasingly new world
    society, when you are communicating with each other in different ways
    and people are living and working in different ways, when there are vast
    prospects for us coming together with different kinds of people, and
    also new threats because of our increasing openness and interconnection
    with the rest of the world, there are three basic things I'd like for
    you to remember, because I hope it says what we're about.
        One is, we honestly believe that no person is better than any other
    and that every child in this country, without regard to race or religion
    or station in life or circumstance, ought to have the chance to live up
    to his or her God-given abilities. And the role of government should be
    to create the conditions and give them the tools, and give their parents
    the support, so that they have a chance to do it.

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        Two is, we honestly believe that none of those individuals can make
    the most of their lives alone and that our membership in a community
    will enrich our own lives as it enriches others.
        Today was Martin Luther King's 70th birthday. Some of the most
    brilliant things he ever said were about the importance of community;
    about how, no matter how brilliant you are, no matter how strong you
    are, no matter how rich you are, no matter how whatever you are, your
    life can only take on full meaning and texture if you are part of a
    community. And that's why I have worked so hard against all the
    divisions of the country, to make us one America.
        And number three is that the essence of our democracy is that the
    people rule, and those of us who are elected are literally
    representatives of them. Whether in a representative branch of Congress
    or in the executive branch of the President, the power we exercise every
    day is not ours. We exercise it on behalf of the country as a whole. And
    its only legitimate purpose is to advance all those little children out
    there and living up to their God-given abilities, and advance our
    efforts to come together as one America, and to advance our efforts to
    meeting the challenges and seize the opportunities of our time.
        Our administration has been about that. Every day has been a joy.
    Even the bad days have been an honor. And I believe America is better
    off. And Tuesday night I'm going to ask the country to go back to work,
    because we've still got a lot to do.
        Thank you, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:30 p.m. in the foyer at the Corcoran
    Gallery of Art. In his remarks, he referred to event hosts Robert Altman
    and his wife, Lynda Carter; Steve Grossman, national chair, Leonard
    Barrack, national finance chair, and Carol Pensky, treasurer, Democratic
    National Committee; Deborah Dingell, wife of Congressman John D.
    Dingell; former Gov. Ann Richards of Texas; and musician Sheryl Crow.