[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
[March 3, 2000]
[Pages 376-380]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Dinner in
San Francisco
March 3, 2000

    Thank you very much. Well, first of all, I want to thank 
Sandy and Jeanne for having me back in this wonderful old home, which I 
love so much. And I thank the 
Staglins for cohosting this event and for the 
wine, which I could not resist tasting even though I've been up since 3 
o'clock in the morning your time. And I was glad Dianne sort of gave you a little profile of my day, so that 
if I collapse while speaking, you will be generous enough to make a few 
exceptions for me. [Laughter] And thank you, Eric, for the great time we had earlier in the day with the 
Aspen Institute over at Novell.
    Tonight I'm--here and at the next stop I have to make, I'm trying to 
help the people who, unlike me, will be running for office in 2000. And 
I normally get a laugh when I tell people that. Sometimes I wonder why 
I'm doing this; I'm not running for anything anymore, and most days, 
it's okay with me.
    But I'm here tonight because I want to see the work we've done for 
the last 7 years and a couple of months continue. I'm here because I 
remember what California was like in 1991 when I came here, and I see 
what it's like today. But I also see underneath that the

[[Page 377]]

continuing challenges that Dianne mentioned and others, but let's just 
take the two she talked about: the challenges of the children in the 
schools and how it manifests itself, ultimately, in your needing 280,000 
high-tech workers you can't get; and the challenge of the safety of our 
streets and our neighborhoods, our homes and our schools.
    Let me say, I'd like to make a couple of points very briefly. With 
regard to education, I've been working on this stuff for over 20 years 
now, proudly. I was first elected Governor--in 1979 I became a Governor. 
And I just had the Governors to the White House. It was my 20th 
Governors' conference, as both a Governor and a President. I never got 
tired of being Governor, either. I loved it. But when we started out, I 
think it's fair to say that we didn't really know what it would take to 
turn these schools around. We don't have that as an excuse anymore.
    Dianne talked to you about Chicago. In the Robert Taylor Homes 
project, which is the poorest part of Chicago, there is an elementary 
school that has had all the things you talked about, where the 
district--you heard her say the district has increased its scores by 12 
and 14 percent. The poorest schools in 2 years have doubled their 
reading scores and tripled their math scores. And they were at a very 
low base, but the point is, that's quite astonishing.
    And it is true that in Los Angeles--it's not practical to just ban 
social promotion anywhere unless you can find the resources to give 
every child who needs it an after-school program and every child who 
needs it a summer school program. In Chicago, if they tell you--if you 
fall within the social promotion standard and you can't be promoted, you 
do have the option of going to summer school. And you, in all 
probability, based on their experience, won't be held back if you go to 
summer school. The summer school in Chicago is now the sixth biggest 
school district in the United States of America--the summer school.
    Now, the point I want to make is that, simply--or let's take--Dianne 
mentioned the charter schools. When I became President, there was one 
charter school in all America, in Minnesota. And we began to promote 
them, and we began to provide funds for States to start them. And now, 
there are about 2,000. And my goal was to have 3,000 in America by the 
end of this year; I think we're going to make it.
    But we also know we're going to have 2 million teachers retire. What 
she said about paying the teachers more is absolutely right. There is a 
National Board of Professional Teaching Standards that certifies master 
teachers. My goal is to get one in every school building in America. If 
we could do that, we could change the culture of teaching. But they 
should be paid much more.
    When I started the NetDay, the effort to hook all the schools up to 
the Internet--the Vice President and I were out here in '94--only 3 
percent of our classrooms were hooked up to the Internet; today, 63 
percent are; 11 percent of our schools then, today 90 percent of our 
schools. But there are schools so old and decrepit they can't even be 
wired. And there are other schools--I visited an elementary school in 
Florida that had, count them, 12 housetrailers out behind it--12, not 1 
or 2, 12--full of kids.
    That's why it's so important that you pass this proposition 26. We 
need to do more at the national level, but you do, as well.
    Now, what's all that got to do with this election season? Because we 
could talk about all this stuff until the cows come home. The important 
thing about every election is that it is a job interview. But the 
difference is that the people have to redefine the job at every 
election. So that, in a way, the person they select for the job depends 
upon how they define the job.
    Whenever anyone comes to me and says, ``Mr. President, should I run 
for this, that, or the other job?'' I say, ``Why do you want it, and 
what would you do?'' It's a job interview. That's what an election is. 
And when you get it, it's a job. I told the group that we were with 
earlier that one of the reasons I'm a huge fan of Senator 
Feinstein is that she really thinks she has 
a job to do. You heard her up here talking. She is what they derisively 
refer to as a policy wonk in Washington, as opposed to a talk show 
maven. And that's what I love about her. That's why the first--you know, 
she's been in the Senate just a couple of years, and she succeeded in 
passing that California desert protection legislation and saving the 
redwoods and passing the assault weapons ban--because she works.
    So the first thing I would like to suggest to you, the most 
important thing you can do as citizens this year is to figure out what 
you want to do with all this prosperity we have. What

[[Page 378]]

do you think the big challenges of America are? What do you think the 
big opportunities are? If somebody asked you tomorrow why you came here, 
are you going to say that ``the sponsors made me,'' or ``I owed it to 
them,'' or ``I wanted to see this house,'' or ``I want to see Clinton 
one more time before he rides off in the sunset''? [Laughter] I mean, 
what reasons will you give?
    Think about this. This is very important, because the movement of 
democracy through time depends upon people taking these moments at 
election time to be heard. And the choice of the American people for 
President, for Senator, for Representative, for the Governors, it 
depends upon what you think it's about.
    And the whole reason I ran for President in '91 and '92 is I thought 
that Washington had become clueless. It had become sort of turned in on 
itself, obsessed with who was up, who was down, who was in, who was out. 
You had to have a liberal position or a conservative position or a 
Republican position or a Democratic position, never the twain will meet. 
``For goodness' sake, don't confuse me with new ideas, and just give me 
my 15 seconds on the news at night.''
    And it might have been very satisfying for the people who played the 
political game inside the beltway, but it wasn't working very well in 
California or Arkansas or any place else I could see. So we did some 
really dramatic things. We put arithmetic back into the budget. Somebody 
asked me what was the main economic contribution I made to America in 
this high-tech age. I said, ``I restored arithmetic to Washington.'' 
[Laughter]
    But I think it's very important that you think about this. And what 
I would like you to at least think about saying to people, if they ask 
you tomorrow why you came, is that you care about what happens in this 
election and you believe in some ways this election is more important 
than the two that preceded it, because of our prosperity and because our 
prosperity has given us the opportunity and the responsibility to define 
and build the future.
    I mean, in '92, let's face it, folks, we just had to stop the ship 
from sinking. It took 2 or 3 years to quit bailing out of the ship and 
then to turn it around, to turn the ship of state around. But no one 
seriously thinks our country will become--so just take the two issues 
Dianne talked about--until we can give all of these kids a world-class 
education, have some standards, have some accountability, have adequate 
support. We know what works. We don't have an excuse anymore. It's just 
a question of whether we're going to do it.
    No one seriously thinks we'll be what we ought to be as a nation 
until we're much, much safer. And we have to face the fact that a big--
and I have worked hard to put 100,000 police on the streets. I'm trying 
to put 50,000 more out there today in the high crime areas. Dianne and I 
had an announcement out here in California several years ago on zero 
tolerance for guns in schools. We've spent fortunes of your money 
helping schools establish school safety programs.
    But it is not rational that we continue to be in the grip of an 
ideology and a political interest group that says that you can't even 
put child trigger locks on guns; that you can't extend the background 
check law, that applies if you go to buy a handgun in a gun store, to 
gun shows that occur on the weekends at these urban flea markets; that 
we can't have automatic, large capacity ammunition clips made in 
America, but we can import all the ones we want and hook them up to our 
guns; that you have to get a license that proves you can drive a car, 
but you don't have to get a license that proves you've got a clean 
background and you know how to use a gun. I mean, these things don't 
make sense, not if you really want a safe country.
    But the larger generic question is, what do you propose to do with 
our prosperity? And I'm as interested in this election as a citizen as I 
am a President, because I'll be a citizen after the next election. And I 
feel very privileged to have served, to have played a role in this, to 
have had something to do with establishing the conditions within which 
so many of you have built a new economy. You're trying to give Americans 
the tools to succeed in that new economy, to balance work and family.
    We've at least pointed the Congress in the direction of what it 
would take to get the country out of debt, to save Social Security and 
Medicare for the baby boom generation so we don't bankrupt our kids and 
our grandkids, to grow the economy and improve the environment and meet 
the challenge of global warming, to maximize the impact of science and 
technology, to deal with the challenges I talked about out at 
Eric's place today, to the Aspen Institute,

[[Page 379]]

about how do you preserve privacy and security of certain records and 
still lead to entrepreneurial genius, the Internet--all these big 
questions.
    But I hope you will say, ``Look, I'm more interested in politics 
than ever, because I think we have a special obligation to make the most 
of this prosperity and a special opportunity to do this.'' I mean, 
aren't you proud that you've got a Senator that could go all the way to 
Chicago, look in a poor school just to see whether what works there 
might work for kids in California? I mean, see, that's what Senators are 
supposed to do, not scream at people at 9 decibels and--it's like a 
version of space aliens, some of these talk shows here. [Laughter]
    I mean, that's what public service is all about. So I hope you will 
say that. It's obvious, I think, to you what I--I believe our approach 
is good. I think saying the role of Government is to provide conditions 
and give people the tools to make the most of the new economy, to keep 
us moving forward, to help balance work and family, to get rid of 
poverty among children, to make this the safest big country in the 
world, to prove we can improve the economy and improve the environment, 
and indeed, that we have to, that the two will become more and more 
interdependent.
    You think I was right in Kosovo? You think I was right in Bosnia? 
What do you want the next President to do about that? What are our 
obligations to stand against racial and religious and ethnic and tribal 
hatred and slaughter? Think I did the right thing to send helicopters to 
help those people clinging to life on those trees in Mozambique? If you 
do, that's all part of your world view, what you want America to be like 
in the 21st century.
    And Dianne talked about what I said before. I won't try to replicate 
the speech I gave, but what moved the audience--and I will say it in 
less eloquent terms here, because I want you to think about this. The 
thing that bothers me about this election, I listen to the Republican 
debate, you know, and I think all four of the candidates that are left 
in this race crossed the real threshold, the first threshold, which is, 
could you look at these people and imagine them being President? The 
answer to that is yes. I mean, these are people with some achievement 
and some real seriousness, and they lived lives that are worthy, nearly 
as I can tell, you know, even the ones that say bad things about me 
because they have to, to get votes on the other side. [Laughter] Okay, 
so they crossed the threshold. Then the whole issue is, your employment 
decision here is based on what you think this election is about, because 
in theory you could hire any of them.
    And I'm telling you, the point I tried to make earlier tonight--I'll 
just leave you with this--is that I think this should be a time of 
urgency. I think it should be a time where the American people say the 
only way we can keep doing well is if we keep trying to do better, if we 
keep trying to expand the circle of opportunity, to deepen the meaning 
of freedom, to strengthen the bonds of our community. That's the only 
way we can keep doing well because the times are dynamic and because 
everyone who has lived any length of time knows that life can get away 
from you in a hurry.
    And what I said that got the crowd's attention was that when we were 
celebrating this last month, in February, the fact that this is now the 
longest economic expansion in our Nation's history, I said, ``Well, I 
want to go study the last longest expansion, you know, the one whose 
record we broke.'' And it was the 1960's, 1961 through 1969.
    I graduated from high school in '64. President Kennedy had been 
killed; the country was heartbroken. We united behind President Johnson. 
There was enormous optimism. We were passing civil rights bills right 
and left in the Congress. The Vietnam war was not yet dividing our 
people, and everyone assumed that the economy would go on forever, high 
growth, low unemployment, low inflation. Everybody assumed we'd solve 
civil rights in the Congress. And of course, everybody assumed we'd 
prevail in the cold war without dividing the country.
    A year later, Watts; 2 years later, demonstrations in every major 
city in the country. Four years later, I said, when I graduated from 
college, it was 2 days after Bobby Kennedy was killed, 2 months after 
Martin Luther King was killed, 9 weeks after Lyndon Johnson couldn't run 
for reelection. Every city in the country was divided right down the 
middle over the Vietnam war. Richard Nixon got elected then a few months 
later, as the candidate of the Silent Majority, which meant those of us 
that weren't for him were in the loud minority. It was the first 
election between ``us'' and ``them,'' a tactic that people have 
perfected since then, dividing the electorate between ``us'' and

[[Page 380]]

``them.'' No more ``we'' in American politics; you ``us'' and ``them.'' 
That was the salience of this whole Bob Jones University thing in the 
primaries--for those of us that are southerners, anyway, that went 
through that.
    And what's happened? We've been living with that legacy ever since. 
And one of the reasons that I ran for President is I didn't like ``us'' 
and ``them'' politics. I didn't mind disagreeing with the Republicans, 
but I don't think I should have to demonize them, and I don't think I 
should ever shut my door to them. And if they've got a good idea, I 
don't think I ought to run away from it. And I believe we ought to build 
this country with anybody's new ideas, as long as you believe everybody 
counts, everybody should have a chance, everybody's got a role to play, 
we all do better when we help each other. That's what I think.
    And the point I was trying to make today, I'll just make it to you--
I want you to think about this tonight. I'm telling you in 1964 when I 
graduated from high school, we thought we were on automatic. We thought 
that sucker was going to fly. And it came apart. The wheels came off in 
no time. And every one of you, if you've lived long enough, can remember 
a personal incident in your life or your business life when the wheels 
came off because you thought everything was going so well, nothing bad 
could happen.
    This is a time for vigilance, for devotion, for patriotism in the 
best sense. I've waited for 35 years for this, and I've worked hard for 
7 years to give you the chance to finish building this bridge to 
tomorrow, building the future of our dreams for our children. But just 
as a citizen, I think America got a second chance in my lifetime. That's 
what this election is about. That's why you want people like her in 
office, people that know it's a job; it's about ideas; it's about work; 
it's about people; it's about giving everybody a chance.
    And if you define the election in the right way, with a sense of 
urgency, you will predetermine the winner. This election cycle--you mark 
my words, from President through all the congressional races down to 
every other one, the winner will be determined by how the employers--
that's you, now--define the job.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 9:40 p.m. at a private residence. In his 
remarks, he referred to dinner cohosts Sanford R. and Jeanne Robertson 
and Garen and Sheri Staglin; and Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer, 
Novell. The President also referred to California's proposition 26, 
School Facilities Local Majority Vote, to permit a simple majority for 
school bond issues as opposed to the super majority currently required.