    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [June 24, 2000]
    [Pages 1249-1253]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the Democratic National Convention 2000 Host Committee
    Breakfast in Los Angeles
    June 24, 2000

        Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. And
    Nancy, thank you for having us in your
    home. Since you said I had done pretty well for a young fellow from
    Arkansas, I can't resist--I have a lot of friends here, but I cannot
    resist the temptation at this apt moment in history

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    to introduce another contribution that my State made to your success:
    Mr. Derek Fisher of the Los Angeles Lakers. I
    was watching one of the Lakers games, actually, one of the games against
    Portland. And Derek comes in at the end, steals the ball five or six
    times, and confuses everybody. And somebody says, ``God, that guy is
    aggressive.'' I said, ``If you come from Arkansas, you have to be.''
    [Laughter] It's just sort of our deal. You did us proud, and
    congratulations.
        I want to thank the host committee, every one of you. And I thank my
    good friend Terry McAuliffe. And I thank
    Secretary Daley--I don't know why I'm
    thanking Secretary Daley for leaving my administration; he was doing
    such a great job. But he's doing--it's a very important thing for us to
    continue our work, and I thank him for taking over the leadership of the
    Vice President's campaign.
        I want to thank Joe Andrew and all the
    people here from the Democratic Party and recognize two of my very old
    friends, Henry and Mary Alice
    Cisneros. Thank you for the help you've
    given us on the convention, and thank you for being my friends, and
    congratulations on being new grandparents--most important thing. They
    will shamelessly show you the pictures if you ask. [Laughter]
        I also want to congratulate Governor Roy Romer
    on his new job here in Los Angeles and thank him. When this was
    announced, I told--Hillary and I were talking. I said, ``This is really
    what Romer's always wanted to do. He's the only guy I ever knew who ran
    for Governor and served 12 years just so he could be a school
    superintendent.'' [Laughter] But you could go all the way across the
    country and not find a single human being who wants to do the right
    thing by our children and prove that our schools can work for all kids
    more than Roy Romer.
        And what I want to tell all of you is, I've been in a lot of Los
    Angeles schools, and I've been in some that are working very, very well,
    indeed. And I've been all across this country, and when several of us
    who are involved in this--and Secretary Riley and I, we go back to the
    seventies; we were involved in school reform. And Hillary and I rewrote
    all the school standards in Arkansas nearly 20 years ago now. There was
    a long period of time when everybody thought they knew what the answer
    was to failing schools and how to help kids in poor neighborhoods,
    sometimes in very difficult family situations, or just people whose
    first language was not English, learn up to world-class standards. But
    the truth is we didn't know as much for a long time as we thought we
    did.
        That's not true anymore, and we now have--this is the most exciting
    and important time in modern American history to be involved in the
    education of children from kindergarten to the 12th grade, for two
    reasons. One is, for 2 years we've had, for the first time, a group of
    schoolchildren bigger than the baby boom generation. It's the biggest
    group of kids ever in school. And those of us among the baby boomers,
    which are basically people today between the ages of 36 and 54 years
    old, we were the biggest group of people ever in school until this
    crowd. And this group is far, far more diverse racially, ethnically,
    religiously, culturally--much more diverse. So, obviously it's
    important--self-evidently.
        But the second thing you need to know is, we actually do know how to
    provide excellence in education to all kinds of children in all kinds of
    circumstances. And so now the question is how to replicate what works
    somewhere everywhere. But there's no excuse anymore; we really do know
    how to do it.
        I was in a school in Spanish Harlem the other day, appearing on the
    ``Today Show'' for the VH1 music-in-schools program. Some of you may
    have seen it, where I tried to help VH1 get instruments donated, money
    donated to start school music programs again, because a lot of them were
    lost in the schools over the last 20 years, along with, I might add, the
    physical education programs for people not involved in team sports.
        And so, we were working on it. And in this school, I met this
    magnificent principal. Now 2 years ago, this
    grade school, P.S. 96 in Spanish Harlem in New York, had 80 percent of
    the kids--80 percent--reading and doing math below grade level--2 years
    ago. Today, 74 percent of them are doing reading and math at or above
    grade level--in 2 years.
        I was in this little school in Kentucky the other day in this real
    poor area, where more than half the kids are on free or reduced lunches.
    Four years ago, it was supposed to be one of the worst schools in
    Kentucky. Today, it's one of the top 10 or 20 grade schools in the
    entire State. Listen to this; in 3 years this is what they did. They
    went from 12 percent of the kids reading at or above grade level to

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    57 percent; from 5 percent of the kids doing math at or above grade
    level to 70 percent; from zero percent of the kids doing science at or
    above grade level to two-thirds--3 years. And I can tell you there are
    hundreds of stories like this.
        So I want all of you to support your school system. We need to put
    this beyond partisan politics; we need to put this beyond everything
    else. But you do need to know that it can happen. And I have seen it
    with my own eyes in every conceivable different kind of circumstance. It
    can happen, and you can do it.
        Now, in 1991, before I had decided to run for President, as chairman
    of the Democratic Leadership Council, I came to Los Angeles to look at
    an anticrime program. And they had arranged for a young student who came
    from the East but who was studying out here in California, named Sean
    Landress, to drive me around. You might be interested to know he
    subsequently went to divinity school, got a graduate degree, studied in
    Romania, talked about how to rebuild the economies of central and
    eastern Europe. He's a remarkable young man. He was 20 years old at the
    time and had been in school at Columbia in New York.
        So we're driving across Los Angeles on one of these beautiful days,
    when I then did not have the benefit of not having to stop for the
    traffic. [Laughter] So this 20-year-old young guy that I'd never met
    before looks at me, he says, ``Well, let's get right down to it. Cut it
    out. Are you going to run for President or not?'' I'd never seen this
    kid before in my life. I said, ``Well, I don't know. Maybe.'' He said,
    ``Well, if you do, here's what your theme song ought to be.'' [Laughter]
    So he puts this tape in the tape deck--we didn't have CD players in cars
    back then--and it's Fleetwood Mac's ``Don't Stop Thinking About
    Tomorrow.''
        And so we asked them later if we could do--I said, ``That's sounds
    pretty good.'' So I decided to run for President, and I asked Fleetwood
    Mac, and whoever we contacted had the same attitude that President Bush
    used to express, that I was just a Governor from a small southern State;
    why should I use their song? [Laughter] I was so naive I thought that
    was a compliment, being a Governor, and I still do. But anyway,
    eventually we found them, the Fleetwood Mac people, and they said okay,
    so that became the theme song of the '92 campaign.
        And I just want to pick up on something Terry said about Los
    Angeles. The best elections are always about the future. No matter how
    good a job you've done, they're always about the future.
        I remember once when I was trying to decide whether to run for my
    fifth term as Governor in Arkansas, I went out to the State Fair. And I
    used to have a booth at the State Fair, and I'd just sit there and talk
    to people, anybody that wanted to come up. And everybody in the State
    comes to the State Fair, in a little State like that.
        This old boy in overalls came up to me, and he said, ``Bill, are you
    going to run for another term?'' And I said, ``Well, I don't know. If I
    do, will you vote for me?'' He said, ``Yes, I guess I will. I always
    have.'' And I said, ``Well, aren't you sick of me after all this time?''
    He said, ``No, but everybody else I know is.'' [Laughter] And I got kind
    of hurt. I said, ``Well, don't they think I've done a good job?'' He
    said, ``Oh, yeah, they think you've done a good job, but you did draw a
    paycheck every 2 weeks didn't you?'' He said, ``That's what we hired you
    to do, a good job.'' [Laughter]
        And so I say that to make this point. I think the record of our
    administration is a relevant consideration in this election but mostly
    because it's evidence of whether we will keep the commitments we make to
    the American people, or whether the Vice President will, and what we will do in the future.
        But one reason I wanted to be in the millennial year in Los Angeles
    is that you do represent the future. And you've got all the challenges
    and all the opportunities of the future within 20 miles of where we're
    having breakfast today. And that's what I want you to help us show
    America. I want America to see the future, the diversity, the youth, the
    vibrancy, the technology, the creativity, the whole 9 yards.
        I'm a little superstitious about things, and I'm--one of the things
    I'm happy about is the Lakers won in the Staples Center. And 4 years
    ago, we met in Chicago right after the Bulls won in the United Center.
    So I think if we can just keep this basketball-Democratic Party
    partnership going, we're in pretty good shape. [Laughter]
        But I hope you will think about this. Many of you, in ways that you
    can't even imagine now, will come in contact with people from other
    States, people from other countries, the

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    thousands of people that will be here for the media. And I hope that you
    will say that, because the thing that's most important to me right now--
    and I admit it's self-serving--but the thing that's most important for
    me right now is that the American people make the right decision in
    trying to figure out what this election is about.
        My experience in life is that a lot of you get--the answers you get
    sometimes depend on the questions you ask. So when people say, ``Well,
    who do you think's going to win this or that other election?'' I often
    say, ``Well, what's the election about?'' What the election's about
    depends on--will determine in large measure who wins.
        And we've got this enormous opportunity now to give America a gift,
    which is an honestly positive election, not a saccharine election, not a
    ``let's all just kind of wander through in a fog'' election, but an
    election that is a genuine debate about the future of the country, at
    the time of the greatest prosperity and social progress we have enjoyed
    in my lifetime, with the absence of dramatic internal crises or external
    threats. And a time like this comes along once in 50 years, sometimes
    once in 100 years. And I think it is a very stern test of the judgment
    and character of the American people, what we do with this moment of
    prosperity.
        You know, when I came here in '92--you heard the mayor talking about
    it--I mean the economy was in the tank. You'd had riots in Los Angeles.
    The people in Washington were--had what I call the combat mentality.
    ``I've got an idea. You've got an idea. Let's fight. Maybe we'll both
    get on the evening news.'' [Laughter] And people didn't worry about what
    was going to happen.
        So it was--to be fair, you didn't have to be a rocket scientist to
    figure out we needed a new economic policy, a new social policy, and a
    new way of doing politics. And we brought our ideas to the table, and
    thankfully, they worked out pretty well for America. And I am very
    grateful for the chance I have had to serve.
        But I, too, think this election is about tomorrow. And I've worked
    as hard as I could to help turn this country around, and I'm very proud
    of where we are. And I'm proud of the Vice President for running, and I'm very proud of my wife for running for the Senate in New York, and
    I'm proud of all these people who want to keep doing, keep the direction
    going that we have worked on.
        But for you, whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, what you
    should want now is for the American people to come out of Los Angeles--
    because it will be the second convention--thinking this is great, the
    country's in great shape, and we now have the opportunity and the
    responsibility to chart a course for the future, to think about the big
    issues.
        Now, I'll just mention some of them: What are you going to do when
    all of us baby boomers retire and there's only two people working for
    every one person on Social Security? What are you going to do to make
    sure all these kids do get a world-class education? What are you going
    to do to deal with the fact that we have a lot of people that have jobs
    in America today who still can barely pay their bills and have a hard
    time raising their children, because our country does less than other
    countries to help people balance work and childrearing?
        What are we going to do about the fact that global warming is real?
    These environmental challenges are real, and we have to find a way to
    grow the economy and improve the environment at the same time. What are
    you going to do about the fact that we still do have hate crimes in
    America? We had kids shot at a Jewish community center here; a Filipino
    postal worker killed--clearly, the person who went after him thought he
    had a two-fer, an Asian and a Federal Government employee; a former
    basketball coach at Northwestern, an African-American man killed by a
    fanatic in the Midwest who then went and shot a young Korean Christian
    as he walked out of his church. The guy said he didn't believe in God,
    but he did believe in white supremacy, and he belonged to a church that
    elevated it. So we still have these.
        How are we going to build one America? How are we going to build a
    global economy that has a human face, that gives everybody a chance to
    participate? How are we going to make sure that the people and places
    who have not fully been part of our economic recovery get a chance to
    share in the prosperity? That helps the economy grow and keeps the
    recovery going.
        What's your position about what we should do with this projected
    surplus? They now say the projected surplus will be huge--I'm going to
    talk about it the day after tomorrow. And the Republicans say we should
    spend way over

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    half of it in a tax cut and spend the rest of it on the cost of
    partially privatizing Social Security and building a missile defense
    scheme and other things, and it will materialize.
        We say--even though I think our economic policy has produced this
    happy projection--that we shouldn't spend our money before it
    materializes, that we ought to save a good portion of it, pay down the
    debt, keep interest rates down, protect Medicare, and give a tax cut,
    but keep it within bounds in case all this money doesn't come in.
    Because once you cut taxes, if we don't have this projected surplus,
    we'll be back in the soup--old deficits, old interest rates, California
    1991-1992.
        Anyway, these are big issues. And when you're getting ready to do a
    convention you think about, well, who's going to do the party; what is
    the entertainment; how are we going to work out the security; what are
    we going to do if all the people who think the global economy is
    terrible show up and demonstrate? You've got all these practical
    problems to work out. But what I want you to remember is, how they're
    worked out and the spirit in which you work them out and what you say to
    people you come in contact with will determine what people think of Los
    Angeles but also what people think the election is about right now.
        I trust the American people to get it right; nearly always, they get
    it right. Otherwise we wouldn't be around here after over 200 years. If
    the alternatives are clear and they have time enough to digest it and
    hear both sides, they nearly always make the right decision. And what my
    mission is going to be is to make sure people understand this is a very
    big election, that we have an enormous responsibility to deal with the
    big challenges and opportunities facing the country, that there are
    dramatic differences between the two parties and we don't have to
    badmouth our opponents to say that--that we can just say, let's lay the
    differences out there, and you decide what you want for the future of
    America.
        And Los Angeles can help us do that. You can embody the future and
    clarify the choices to be made. And you can do it and have a heck of a
    good time doing it. I told the staff at the convention yesterday, I've
    been to every Democratic Convention since 1972; makes me feel kind of
    old. And what I think is important is that there be competence, a sense
    of mission, a sense of energy, and a sense of joy and pride. Our country
    has got a lot to be proud of; this State and this community have a lot
    to be proud of. I want you to have a good time. I want you to help
    everybody else have a good time. But never let people forget, it's still
    important to think about tomorrow.
        Thank you very much.

     Note:  The President spoke at 11:10 a.m. at a private residence. In his
    remarks, he referred to Mayor Richard J. Riordan of Los Angeles, and his
    wife, Nancy Daly Riordan; William M. Daley, general chair, Gore 2000;
    Terence McAuliffe, chair, Democratic National Convention Committee 2000;
    Joseph J. Andrew, national chair, and Los Angeles Unified School
    District Superintendent Roy Romer, former general chair, Democratic
    National Committee; former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry
    G. Cisneros and his wife, Mary Alice; and Victor Lopez, principal,
    Joseph C. Lanzetta School (Public School 96), New York City.