    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [August 7, 1999]
    [Pages 1401-1402]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Gore 2000 Meeting in Little
    Rock, Arkansas
    August 7, 1999

        The President. Thank you. Well, Myreon,
    you did a great job. I don't know what you're running for, but you've
    got a good chance. [Laughter] Congratulations.
        Let me thank all of you for coming here on this hot summer Saturday
    afternoon. Especially, I want to thank Congressman Bill
    Jefferson, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice
    Johnson, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson
    Lee, Congressman Bennie
    Thompson for coming from out of State to
    join our Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln and Congressman Marion Berry
    back there. And I believe Congressman Vic Snyder
    is here. And also, a former Governor of Tennessee, Ned
    McWherter, our great friend, thank you for
    being here, sir.
        I thank all the pastors and educators and businesspeople and
    community activists who are here. Many of you have been my friends for
    over 20 years, and all of you helped me to be elected President, with my
    friend and partner Al Gore. And then you helped us to be reelected for
    the first time a Democrat had done that in 60 years. And we know it
    could not have happened without your support.
        I want to say just a couple of things and turn the microphone over
    to the Vice President. Oh, let me also thank our Secretary of
    Transportation, Rodney Slater, who's from
    the Arkansas Delta. We're glad that he's here.
        When we took office--a lot of people have forgotten what it was like
    when we took office. We had high unemployment, low growth, increasing
    social division, and gridlock in Washington. It was not a good time. We
    had social unrest in Los Angeles. A lot of you remember that. And we
    decided that we could pull this country together and turn it around if
    the people would help us.
        Now, 7 years later we've got--yesterday we announced over 19 million
    new jobs, the longest peacetime expansion in history, the lowest
    minority unemployment rate ever recorded, the highest homeownership ever
    recorded, a 30-year low in unemployment, a 32-year low in the welfare
    rolls, and a 26-year low in the crime rate. And I think that's a pretty
    good record.
        Now, I want to say two things to you about that. First of all, I
    could not have accomplished anything I have as President without the
    absolutely unprecedented role that Vice President Gore played. A year
    ago--6 years ago the day before yesterday, he cast the deciding vote on
    our economic plan, which all the Republicans said would ruin the
    country, and they used their fear tactics to take over the Congress. And
    that's what has given us the biggest surplus in history and this strong
    economic recovery. And he did it, and you should know that.
        He has supported efforts to help families and communities. A lot of
    the pastors here appreciate the fact that he helped--he actually was our
    leading person in developing the television rating system and the
    Internet--the video game rating system and the V-chip for families.
        He has led all our efforts in technology. We passed the
    Telecommunications Act, which has already produced over 300,000 new jobs
    for America. And he led the way in saying, we cannot let America get
    caught on a digital divide. We have to have an E-rate, a special rate,
    so that the poorest schools and libraries and hospitals in America--like
    those in the Mississippi Delta--have to be able to get big discounts so
    poor children can have those computers in schools, too, and have access
    to everything kids in the richest part of America do. Al Gore did that
    for America and for its future.

    [[Page 1402]]

        He has managed much of our difficult relationships with Russia, much
    of our promising future with South Africa. He has been involved in every
    good thing we have done, from restoring democracy to Haiti to ending
    ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo.
        I know a little bit about American history, and I can tell you that
    whatever anybody thinks about whether I was right or wrong about a given
    issue, when the history of the last 6\1/2\ years, and the next year and
    a half, is written, there is one thing that no one will be able to
    question, and that is that Al Gore was, by far, the most influential and
    effective and productive Vice President in the history of the United
    States of America.
        Now, here's the second thing I want to say. I think one reason we
    succeeded in helping the country is that when we asked you to hire us
    back in 1992, we put out a detailed plan of what we'd do if you gave us
    the job. An election is a job interview. He wants you to hire him.
    [Laughter]
        The Vice President. I do. Absolutely.
        The President. Okay? And all these other people that are running are
    perfectly nice people, but all of them are saying, you know, hire us,
    too; we want to be President, and sooner or later we'll get around to
    telling you why. [Laughter]
        You already know more about him than anybody else running. But in
    spite of that, he said, here's my economic program; here's my crime
    program; here's my program to help attack social problems by working
    with faith-based institutions more in the community; here's my program
    to conquer cancer and other medical problems by increasing our efforts
    in medical research. Vote for me, and here's what I'll do.
        And the third thing I want to say to you is this: Everybody always
    says they want change. Change is a good thing. We have been in
    continuous change. The next 4 years will be different than the last 4.
    We will have to change. The question is not whether we will change, but
    how we will change.
        Don't listen to those folks who want to change by taking us back to
    what we tried before that got us in the ditch. What we want to do is to
    change in a way that goes beyond what we've done. And when 2000 rolls
    around, I'll be just a voter like every ordinary citizen. But I want you
    to know, too, finally, that this man is a good and decent man. He is a
    good man.
        And he has been with me through thick and thin, through light and
    dark. I've seen him deal with the challenges of raising his children
    under the scrutiny of the spotlight. I've seen him work with his
    wonderful wife in helping to make us think about things like mental
    illness, that we normally never wanted to talk about before. And I am
    telling you--everybody knows he's got a good mind--I'm telling you he's
    got a heart of gold, and he deserves your support.
        And for a long time now, he's been at my back, and I intend to be
    with his. Thank you.
        The Vice President of the United States.

    Note: The President spoke at 6:37 p.m. in Hall One at the State House
    Convention Center. In his remarks, he referred to student Myreon Coleman
    of Marianna, AR, who introduced the President.