    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [August 10, 1999]
    [Pages 1426-1427]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Gore 2000 Reception
    August 10, 1999

        The President. I was back there deep in conversation. [Laughter] Let
    me, first of all, say to all of you how glad I am to see you, how
    pleased I am that you're here, and how much I appreciate your support
    for the Vice President. I will be very brief.
        When it was apparent that I was going to become the nominee for the
    Democratic Party in 1992, I had Warren Christopher, the person I probably trusted most in the world, organize
    a Vice Presidential search for me. And we went through all the
    candidates, and I said, ``Well, what do you think?'' He said, ``I don't
    think you have a choice.'' He said, ``I think Al Gore is much better
    than all the others.'' And I said, ``I agree.'' And I said, ``You
    realize they'll all say we're crazy. I mean, we're the same age; we're
    from the same part of the country; we're more or less from the same wing
    of the Democratic Party.''
        The Vice President. Not quite the same wing. [Laughter]
        The President. Not quite the same wing of the party, not quite the
    same. Yes, and I can't climb Mount Rainier. [Laughter] And if I could, I
    wouldn't. [Laughter]
        So, anyway, we did it. It violated all the sort of conventional
    wisdom. And I made a lot of decisions in the last 8 years, some of them
    were good and some of them weren't, but none were better than that one.
        And I just want to say--basically say three things about it. Number
    one, in all the success this administration has had, from the economic
    renewal to the decline in welfare rolls, to the decline in crime, to the
    efforts to make our air and water cleaner and our food safer, to our
    search for peace around the world, and managing our big, difficult
    relations with Russia and China, reaching out to Africa in a
    comprehensive way, really, for the first time for any administration,
    right across the board, every single success we've had is a success that
    belongs not just to me but to the Vice President. If he hadn't cast the
    deciding vote on the economic plan, I'm not sure any of us would be here
    tonight having this conversation. So the first thing I want to say is,
    the record of this administration is his record.
        The second point I want to make is that he has made it clear what he
    would do if he got the job to a greater degree and in greater detail
    than anyone else running. Even though, arguably, he should have to do
    less since people know more about him; that's not what he did.
        The issue in this election will not be whether we should vote for
    change or not. The issue is what kind of change we'll vote for. We're

    [[Page 1427]]

    living in an inherently dynamic time. You know, each year, as all of you
    know who follow this, I try to lay out an agenda to the Congress and the
    American people in the State of the Union Address that continues to push
    the envelope, that continues to push the boundaries of change, that
    continues to challenge the people and public servants to do what needs
    to be done.
        The first 4 years of this new millennium will be dramatically
    different from 5, 10 years ago. The way we work and live and relate to
    each other 20 years from now will be almost unrecognizable from what we
    were doing on the day I first took the oath of office. So the issue is
    not whether we will change, it is what kind of change. Are we going to
    build on what we've done that works? Are we going to take the evidence
    of success and then build on that and go beyond it? Are we going to
    revert to policies that we know don't work from hard experience?
        I think one of the reasons that we've had some success in this last
    6\1/2\ years is because I took the time to think through what I would do
    if I got the job, and I told the American people in greater detail than
    any American candidate had up to that point what I would do if I were
    hired. Then when Al joined the ticket, we sat down together and reissued
    our economic program and thought it all through again in great detail.
        And a lot of people said, ``These guys are crazy. They're being so
    specific. Why are they doing this? It violates all conventional
    wisdom.'' But you'd be amazed how much it helps when you get a job if
    you've actually told people what you'd do if you got it. So I think the
    fact that he's laid out a program is profoundly important.
        The third thing I want to tell you is that we have been together
    under all kinds of circumstances. You know some of them. Some of them
    were highly public and political. There were times of great elation,
    times of great triumph, times of defeat, times of frustration, times of
    intense difficulty. But we've also been together in personal ways. I've
    talked to him about everything. Both of us have lost a parent since
    we've been here in the White House. We've been through a lot of
    challenges. We've talked about our children and our hopes for them. And
    I can tell you that he is a good human being. He is a profoundly good
    man.
        So if you've got a person with a stunning record, a great program,
    who's a good person, a proven leader, I think that's a pretty good
    decision. That's a decision that I hope for my daughter's sake and the
    next generation's sake, the American people will make this year. And
    you're helping them to make it, and I thank you very much.
        The Vice President of the United States.

    Note: The President spoke at 6:57 p.m. at the Hay Adams Hotel. In his
    remarks, he referred to former Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher.