    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [December 2, 1999]
    [Pages 2200-2202]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Dinner for Mayor Edward G. Rendell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    December 2, 1999

        Thank you so much. Thank you, David,
    Bill, Mr. Mayor, ladies and gentlemen.
    It's a great honor for me to be here tonight. You know, I'm preparing
    for what it will be like a year from now when I am just a member of the
    Senate spouses club--[laughter]--when I have to know my place more. And
    I thought that there could be no better preparation than to come be the
    warm-up act for Ed Rendell tonight. [Laughter]
        Let me say, in all seriousness, I am profoundly honored to be here.
    I'll never forget the first time I met Mayor Rendell here in
    Philadelphia in 1992 when I was running for President. And we were
    walking down the streets of a neighborhood where he had an anticrime
    program going. And we shot a few baskets. We made very few, but we shot
    more. [Laughter]
        And I thought that this--I have met a kindred spirit, because not
    only did we agree on so many of the same philosophies on crime, on
    welfare, on the economy, but we agreed on how public life should be
    conducted. I have thought about it so many times since, but I got into
    the political race for President in 1991 at a time when not just
    Philadelphia but the whole country was facing economic distress and
    social division, political drift, and then kind of the whole
    discrediting of the enterprise of government.
        And I was really frustrated, as the Governor of what my
    distinguished predecessor used to refer to as a--of a small southern
    State, when I would see all these people in Washington just

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    sort of throwing brickbats at each other and, you know, struggling to
    get their 15 seconds on the evening news, which they know they could
    always get if they repeated the same thing over and over again and made
    sure there was a real wedge dividing the American people in all kinds of
    ways.
        And it struck me that if we ran our business life or our family
    lives or our personal lives the way we were running our national
    political lives, the country would just run off the tracks entirely. And
    I was determined to try to go to the American people with a unifying
    theory of how we ought to do our common work, to create opportunity for
    everybody responsible enough to work for it, to build a community of all
    Americans amidst all the differences among us, and mostly, to get to
    work on our common challenges. And I went to Philadelphia.
        I had no idea how I'd do here or whether I would be embraced here,
    but I liked it, and I liked Ed Rendell, and I knew that he was committed
    to turning this city around and to moving it forward. And we're walking
    down the street having a discussion, not so much about politics but
    about what it would really take to get the crime rate down, what it
    would really take to give people on welfare the dignity of work without
    forcing them to sacrifice their responsibilities as parents, what it
    would take to bring genuine economic growth back into urban America.
        Ed always says, well, you know, he couldn't have done it without you
    and then he says he couldn't have done it without me, and he talks about
    the Vice President and I putting the empowerment zone here and the 1,000
    police and all that. That's all true. But the success that we have
    enjoyed here in this country would not have happened had it not been for
    leaders like Ed Rendell. And there is nobody in America--nobody--who
    does it better.
        Along the way, we've become very good personal friends. He's always
    been there to try to help raise financial support for me and the Vice
    President, for our party. At a time when he might have been taking at
    least a breath, he agreed to our request to become chairman of the
    national Democratic Party. He has always been there. And I've thought
    about it. Near as I can figure, all I've done in return is make his
    wife a Federal judge, so she can't even
    campaign for him anymore. [Laughter] So I have disabled him as he has
    empowered me. It doesn't really seem fair.
        I would just like to say one other thing. You know, in this
    wonderful life that you have made it possible for me to enjoy--and no
    city in America has been any better to me than Philadelphia, and the
    State of Pennsylvania has been very good to me and the Vice President
    and to Hillary and to Tipper. I have had the enormous privilege to get
    up and to work every day and try to make something good happen in
    America. But I have never been under any illusion that I could do
    anything other than create the conditions and provide the tools for the
    American people who really make this country go every day.
        Today, in this country, the most innovative, the most effective
    public servants are the best mayors, because they understand our common
    humanity and our limitless possibility and because people like you hire
    them to get things done. And I just hope that we can continue to do that
    sort of thing in Washington. People ask me all the time--they say,
    ``Well, you know, it's amazing how well the country is doing, and you
    must be a great politician.'' I said, ``Well, a lot of it was we just
    showed up for work every day.''
        There's a lot to be said for just showing up for work every day and
    keeping your eye on the prize and remembering who the customers are and
    believing in the potential of this country. Philadelphia is at the heart
    of everything that's important about America, our history, our founding
    documents, our spirit. And it is altogether appropriate that in this
    remarkable time for our country, no city was better led, made more
    progress, or proved to be a better partner than the city of
    Philadelphia.
        So I have a lot to be grateful to Ed Rendell for. Most important of
    all, from your point of view, is he proved that the ideas we shared
    would work with hard work and good will. And the results are here for
    all to see, embodied in this beautiful film. He helped to sustain our
    common political efforts, but most important to me, in the good times
    and the dark times, he was always there as a real friend. And when all
    is said and done, that counts most of all.
        Thank you, and God bless you.
        Don't sit down. This is going to be brief. But you see, you can tell
    which one of us is not really term limited. He tried to charge up

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    here to the microphone and was going to deprive me of my one little role
    here of introducing him. But I still have a little capacity to pull
    rank. [Laughter] So this is my job.
        Ladies and gentlemen, the person we all came here to honor tonight,
    Mayor Ed Rendell.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:42 p.m. at the Pennsylvania Convention
    Center. In his remarks, he referred to David Cohen, former chief of
    staff to Mayor Rendell, and H. William DeWeese, minority leader,
    Pennsylvania State House.