    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [February 27, 2000]
    [Pages 325-326]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at the National Governors' Association Dinner
    February 27, 2000

        The President. Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. We will follow
    our custom tonight, which means that Governor Leavitt and I will give toasts, after which there will be no more
    duties, and we'll have a good time. [Laughter]
        I want to welcome Governor and Mrs.
    Leavitt, Governor and Mrs. Glendening,
    and all of you to the White House, the 93d meeting of the National
    Governors' Association. I feel like I've been to most of them.
    [Laughter] Actually, we were thinking tonight, Secretary/Governor
    Riley and Secretary/Governor
    Babbitt, when we leave this year, will have
    attended 16 of these dinners. And I figure Governor Thompson and Governor Hunt are
    about that many. But I will have attended 20. And I told Governor
    Kempthorne tonight that he made a good swap
    when he left the Senate and became Governor; I told him I never got
    tired of being Governor. And I always look forward to your coming here.
        Two hundred years ago exactly this year, Thomas Jefferson became the
    first Governor to be elected President. One of the central principles he
    carried with him, from the writing of the Declaration of Independence to
    the statehouse to the White House, is that the role of Government can
    never be fixed in time or place; it must remain fluid while anchored to
    firm principles. Jefferson said, ``Laws and institutions must go hand in
    hand with the progress of the human mind. As new discoveries are made,
    new truths disclosed, institutions must advance also and keep pace with
    the times.''
        Well, today, 200 years later, in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson,
    our Nation's Governors are keeping pace with the times. This year your
    theme is ``Strengthening American States in the Global Economy.'' It is
    truly a new economy. It has changed not only the way people make a
    living but the way we live and relate to each other and to people all
    around the world.
        For 7 years now, you and I have worked as partners to give the
    American people the conditions and tools they need to make the most of
    this new world, with a Federal Government that is smaller, less oriented
    toward regulation, and more committed than ever to achieving high goals.
    With your help and hard work, America has made great strides in these
    last 7 years, cutting crime, cleaning the environment, improving
    education, moving millions from welfare to work, building the longest
    prosperity in our Nation's history.
        For your role in all these achievements and for the work that you
    will do with us in this millennial year, I thank you. It has been a
    great joy and a great honor for me to serve as President and especially
    to work with the Governors.
        I leave you with only this thought. In my lifetime, our country has
    never had the opportunity we now have to build the future of our dreams
    for our children. The longest expansion in American history before this
    one was in the decade of the 1960's. I graduated from high

    [[Page 326]]

    school in 1964. President Kennedy had been killed. The country was
    heartbroken, but we united behind a new President. We believed at the
    time that the economy, which was booming, would go on forever; that we
    would solve our civil rights challenges peacefully, through laws and
    courts; and that we would prevail in the cold war without particular
    incident.
        Two years later, riots were starting in the streets. And 4 years
    later, 2 days before I graduated from college, Senator Kennedy was
    killed. That was 2 months after Martin Luther King had been killed and 9
    weeks after President Johnson said he could no longer run for
    reelection, and our country was divided along partisan and cultural
    lines in ways that still manifest themselves.
        I say that not to be somber but just as a cautionary reminder that
    it's easy to assume, when things are going well, that it is part of the
    natural order of things and that it will always be so, without regard to
    what actions we take, what words we speak, what hopes we harbor in our
    hearts. In a year, I will be a private citizen; most of you will still
    be serving. Remember that. We have the chance of a lifetime, and I, for
    one, have waited 35 years for my country to have that chance. It's a
    great honor for all of us to serve.
        I offer you a toast and the fond hope that you will make the most of
    it.
        Thank you very much.

    [At this point, the participants drank a toast.]

        The President. Governor Leavitt, the podium is yours.

    Note: The President spoke at 8:38 p.m. in the State Dining Room at the
    White House. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Michael O. Leavitt of
    Utah, chairman, and Gov. Parris N. Glendening of Maryland, vice
    chairman, National Governors' Association, and their wives, Jacalyn and
    Frances, respectively; and Governors Tommy G. Thompson of Wisconsin,
    James B. Hunt, Jr., of North Carolina, and Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho. The
    transcript released by the Office of the Press Secretary also included
    the remarks of Governor Leavitt.