[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book II)]
[September 1, 2000]
[Pages 1749-1751]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Dinner for Hillary Clinton in Syracuse, New York
September 1, 2000

    Thank you very much. Well, first, I want to thank Duke and Billie for having 
us here. I want to thank the neighbors in the back for putting up the 
bathrooms. [Laughter] And I want to thank the neighbors across the 
street for putting up with the sound. Hello, folks! How are you over 
there? You get to hear my pitch for free. I want you to vote for 
Hillary, too. [Laughter]
    We've all had a good time, and I want to hear the musicians some 
more. And we've got a magician, and I want to see this. I spent 8 years 
trying to be one. [Laughter] So I just want to say a couple of words 
here.
    First of all, I want to thank the people of New York, including the 
people of Syracuse and central New York, for being so good to me and 
Hillary and Al and Tipper Gore for the last 8 years. It's meant a lot to 
me. Secondly, I want to thank my buddy Terry McAuliffe and his family for being like a second family to 
Hillary and me. And little Jack is out there 
passing out Hillary stickers. He even gave me one. He wasn't sure who I 
was for. [Laughter] And he wanted to make sure I didn't go soft on him 
between now and election day, so I appreciate that.
    I don't know what I can say to you, because you know where I stand 
on this election. But

[[Page 1750]]

I think there are a couple of points I'd like to make that I know. First 
of all, you should know that to an extraordinary extent, Hillary has 
played a substantive, positive role in the work we've done over these 
last 8 years. Everything we've done in education, health care, and 
helping people balance work and family and taking care of kids, she's 
had a hand in--from the family and medical leave law in 1993 to our 
efforts right through this year to promote adoption and to take better 
care of foster kids and to take care of those kids that go out on their 
own in the world with nobody to take care of them--and I'm really proud 
of that--to getting 2 million kids health insurance to all the things 
we've done to open the doors of college for all. We now have 10 million 
people getting tax credits for college education today. And she has 
fought for every single one of those things. I'm very proud of her.
    The second thing I want you to know is, because economics is an 
issue in central New York and north of here, when I was Governor of 
Arkansas for 12 years, we had to completely turn the economy around. We 
did not have an unemployment rate below the national average, until I 
ran for President in 1992, for a decade. And we worked for 10 long 
years.
    During that time, my wife went on the boards of three Arkansas 
companies--or two Arkansas companies and one other company--and learned 
what it would take to get people to invest money and to bring jobs to 
places that had been left behind. And I'm just telling you, of your 
choices in the Senate race, you've got one person that spent a serious 
10 years working to redevelop the economies of places that aren't doing 
as well as they ought to be doing. And that's experience. It's money in 
the bank for you, and you ought to take advantage of it.
    Now, the third thing I want to say is, I think she can have an 
enormously beneficial impact for New York all around the country and all 
around the world. She can help you in all kinds of ways. One of the 
reasons that I--I wanted her to run for the Senate if she wanted to--who 
am I to ever tell anybody not to run for anything? But I said, ``You 
know, you've got to be willing to pay the price. I'm going to India and 
Pakistan, and you can't go. I'm going to Africa, and you can't go. I'm 
going to Colombia, and you can't go.'' So everywhere I go in the world, 
people I don't even know come to me and say--everywhere in the world--
say, ``I am pulling for your wife. I'm sorry she can't be here.''
    At the state dinner the other night in Nigeria, the President of 
Nigeria, one of the most highly regarded 
leaders of any developing country in the world, a decorated army 
general, gets up in the state dinner and says, ``I'm really sorry your 
wife is not here, but I'm glad she's home, and I hope she wins her 
election.'' Not normally said at state dinners.
    I was in Bombay with my daughter, in 
India, and this woman who spends her life going out into villages trying 
to help millions, literally, of women who have been left behind figure 
out how to borrow money, start businesses, and take better care of their 
kids--all she talked about to me was Hillary.
    And I'm telling you that because there is a reason that the people 
that are running against her spend all their time trying to run her 
down. Because they know if the people of New York ever figure out who 
she is, what kind of person she is, what she's done, and what she can do 
for them, she will win in a walk. That's what I want you to do in this 
election.
    I thank you for your contributions, but the most important thing is 
that you realize that elections are decided by people who don't know the 
candidates, not by people who do. And she is running a campaign based on 
the issues and the honest differences between her and her opponent.
    And you know, their campaign is basically try to paint a--try to do 
reverse plastic surgery on her. Right? I mean, let's face it. So you 
gave her the money, and I thank you for that. And she'll spend it well. 
But I want you to go out and take some time every day between now and 
November to tell people you came here; you saw this woman; you like her; 
you admire her; she'd be good for you, good for your kids, good for your 
future, and great for New York. If you'll do that, she will win on 
election day.
    Thank you, and God bless you.
    I've got to say one other thing. This is flat pander, but I'm not 
running for office, so I can get away with it. I have, for the last 27 
years, eaten barbecue for a living. I come from a place where barbecue 
is not food; it is a way of life. [Laughter] It is a philosophy of human 
nature. I have rarely had any as good as this. These people are great, 
and I thank you very much.

[[Page 1751]]

Note: The President spoke at 8:35 p.m. at a private residence. In his 
remarks, he referred to dinner hosts John (Duke) and Billie Jean Kinney; 
2000 Democratic National Convention chair Terence McAuliffe and his son, 
Jack; and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria.