[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
[May 23, 2000]
[Pages 1016-1017]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner
May 23, 2000

    Thank you to the modest Mr. McAuliffe. 
[Laughter] There's one other person I'd like to thank. I'd like to thank 
Abe Pollin for making this place available to us 
tonight. Thank you. And your reward for raising all this money is

[[Page 1017]]

that you don't have to listen to me give a long speech tonight. You've 
heard it all.
    But I want you to know that I am profoundly grateful. And when we 
started this campaign year, I was very, very worried that we would be, 
in this period between April the 1st and August the 1st, swamped by the 
Republicans financially. And it didn't work out that way, partly because 
they had a rather competitive primary. And then the idea--and I've been, 
as you know, I've been exerting some modest efforts, with a lot of your 
help, to raise money for our party and for our Senate campaign committee 
and our House campaign committee.
    But this is a truly wonderful thing. You know, we'll still have to 
go out and raise some hard money and do some things. But this really 
puts the Democrats in a competitive position between now and November. 
And the gift you're giving the Vice President is, I think, inestimable, and I'm grateful to you for 
that.
    I just want to say one thing. A lot of you have heard me say this 
before, but I want to say it one more time: The test of a country when 
times are good may be more severe than the test when times are tough. We 
don't know when again in our lifetimes, any of us, we will have at once 
so much economic prosperity and social progress and national self-
confidence.
    But there are huge, huge questions out there. We saw today, Governor 
Bush outlined one. You know, both candidates 
want to reduce the number of nuclear weapons, but one is not so sure we 
need either the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty or the Anti-Ballistic 
Missile Treaty. Most Americans don't know there's a big difference there 
and don't understand what that means for their children's lives. But 
it's huge.
    You know, what does national security mean in the early part of the 
21st century? How are we going to keep the economy going? And should we 
pay down the debt, or risk a tax cut that will put us in debt again? 
What are the consequences of either course? Do you think you can grow 
the economy and make the environment better, or do you think that's some 
sort of a subversive plot to destroy free enterprise? Do you believe 
that we will have to make further efforts, like employment 
nondiscrimination and hate crimes legislation, to be one community in 
the diversity of the 21st century or not? How are we going to put a 
human face on the global economy? What's the best way to deal with the 
aging of America? These are big questions.
    And I say this repeatedly, but anybody over 30 years old can 
remember at least one time in your life when you made a huge mistake, 
personally or professionally, not because times were so bad but because 
they were so good you thought there was no incentive to concentrate and 
no consequence to the failure to do so.
    This is a major election. I'm grateful for this dinner. I'm grateful 
that you're honoring me. I'm grateful for your extraordinary efforts and 
for Terry's indefatigable energy. But the 
purpose of all this is to build the future of our dreams for our kids. 
So I want us to have a huge, good time tomorrow night. And then I want 
us to go out and spend this money in the wisest possible way to make 
sure that all the work we've done in the last 8 years is not squandered 
but instead built upon.
    And I thank you for helping the Vice President. I believe he is going to win, and I believe he's going to 
be a wonderful President. But it's going to be a lot more likely after 
tomorrow night.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 8:55 p.m. in the Capital Club at the MCI 
Center. In his remarks, he referred to Terence McAuliffe, former finance 
chair, Democratic National Committee; Abe Pollin, owner, National 
Basketball Association Washington Wizards and MCI Center; and Gov. 
George W. Bush of Texas.