[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.