[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000-2001, Book III)]
[November 3, 2000]
[Pages 2441-2445]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at a Get Out the Vote Rally in Oakland, California
November 3, 2000

    The President. Thank you. Good morning.
    Audience members. Good morning.
    The President. Thank you for the wonderful welcome. We've got people 
all the way back here, two or three blocks, people all the way down 
there, two blocks, even people who are separated from the rest of us, 
way back in the back. Hello back there.
    I first came to Oakland in 1971. I liked it then, but it is amazing 
the progress that has been made, and I want to thank all of you for 
making this a magnificent city. I also want to thank my good friend 
Governor Gray Davis, who has done a wonderful job 
leading this State and been a great partner to me and such a strong 
supporter of Vice President Gore.
    Thank you, Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante. Thank you, Attorney General Lockyer. Thank you, Senator Barbara Boxer, for what you do in Washington. And Congressman George 
Miller, thank you for the work you've done, 
especially for the environment. Thank you, Secretary Norm 
Mineta, former California Congressman, the 
first Asian-American ever to serve in the President's Cabinet, and a 
great, great friend of mine. Thank you, Mayor Jerry Brown, my friend of now over 20 years. He's made

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me think about my next career. Maybe somebody will let me be a mayor 
somewhere; I like this. I like this.
    I must say, too, I want to thank one person who is not here, 
Barbara's predecessor, Ron Dellums, a great 
friend of mine. Look at this building here. If I had known retired 
public officials could get buildings like this, I might have retired 
years ago. Look at that. [Laughter] It's a beautiful, beautiful building 
and a fitting tribute to Ron, who did such a good job for you and for 
our country.
    I want to thank the Speaker, Bob Hertzberg, who is here; and the State Board of Equalization member, 
John Chung; your California State party chair, 
Art Torres; and all the other officials who are 
here.
    But let me say a special word of thanks to Barbara Lee. What a job she has done in the Congress! We've worked 
together on so many projects affecting Oakland, from the harbor to 
housing to education to health care to base closure and renewal. And 
boy, she's done a good job. And I really am impressed with the fact that 
she has also shown an interest in dealing with the AIDS crisis, not only 
here but in Africa and throughout the world. The United States needs to 
be a leader in dealing with that, and so I thank her for that.
    I also want to say, more than anything else, a simple thank you to 
the people of Oakland and northern California and this entire State. You 
have been so good to me and Hillary and Al and Tipper Gore these last 8 
years. I couldn't have become President without you. I couldn't have 
succeeded without you. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
    You know, one of the things that concerns me about this election is, 
especially for younger voters, I'm afraid a lot of people will go to the 
polls or maybe even not go because they now can't remember what it was 
like 8 years ago. The unemployment rate in California was 9.7 percent. 
Today, it's about half that. It's a different country than it was 8 
years ago. The society was divided. There were riots in L.A. The crime 
rate was going up. The environment was deteriorating. The number of 
people without health insurance was going up. People were giving up on 
our schools. And the political system in Washington seemed tone-deaf to 
you and to ordinary Americans all across this country, from all walks of 
life.
    Well, we've worked hard to change that. Today we got some more good 
economic news. For the second month in a row, the Nation's unemployment 
rate was 3.9 percent, the lowest in 50 years--30 years. Wages and 
incomes continue to rise across the board. I want to say more about that 
in a minute, but listen to this. The most important thing about our 
recovery is that for the first time in 30 years, everybody's been part 
of it--everybody. Yes, the rich got richer, but so did the middle class, 
so did working families. The poverty rate is the lowest in 20 years. 
Child poverty dropped 30 percent. We're moving forward together. Listen 
to this. Eight years ago, the Hispanic unemployment rate was 11.8 
percent. This morning, we learned that it dropped last month to 5 
percent, the lowest on record. African-American unemployment is half 
what it was 8 years ago, also the lowest on record.
    But America is always about tomorrow--always. And in just a few 
days, we're going to have another election and another choice. And it is 
so important for the success of the direction of this country and our 
candidate that we do well here and that everybody who can vote, does 
vote.
    What I would like to say to you all today--I know I could just give 
you one applause line after another, and we could have a great time. But 
I believe that this election is every bit as important as the one in 
1992. And I know that every one of you who is here today has a lot of 
friends, some of whom live here in Oakland; some live in Barbara's congressional district; others may live in the 
districts that we're fighting hard to win. We have a chance to win five 
in California, if we work hard at it.
    And so you've got a lot of friends who will never come to an event 
like this, don't you? Most of you have tons of friends who have never 
been to hear a President speak or a Governor or maybe even never been to 
a city council meeting; they don't do this. But they love our country, 
and they care about your community. And if they believe it matters, they 
will show up and vote. And if they understand the choice and the 
consequences, they will vote for our side.
    So what I want you to do is just let me take a couple of minutes to 
tell you what I would tell you if each of us were alone in a room 
together and you said to me, ``What's this election about, anyway?'' 
Now, listen to this.

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You heard what Gray Davis said. Are you better off than you were 8 years 
ago? That's the first question. But the most important question is this: 
Do you want to keep this prosperity going?
    Audience members. Yes!
    The President. Do you want to extend it to the people, to the 
neighborhoods, to the places that have still been left behind?
    Audience members. Yes!
    The President. Then you only have one choice: Al Gore, Joe Lieberman, and the 
Democrats. Why? Because they want to build on what is working. They want 
to keep paying down the debt. They want to invest in education and 
health care and the environment. They want to give families a tax cut we 
can afford, for child care, for long-term care for the elderly and 
disabled, for college tuition, and for retirement.
    Now, why is that important? Why in the world would a President come 
to Oakland, with the reputation of being a liberal Democratic city, and 
say we ought to pay the debt down? I'll tell you why. Because in the 
modern world, where money can run all across the globe in the click of a 
mouse--a trillion dollars crosses national borders every day--to have 
conservative budget policies makes it possible to have liberal 
progressive social policies. Why? Because the best thing we can do for 
you is guarantee that you've got a job and to have low interest rates 
for car loans, for college loans, for home loans, for credit card loans, 
for business loans.
    Now, here's the issue. Look, this is simple math. Al Gore has come before you and said, ``Look, I'd like to 
give you a bigger tax cut, but this is all we can afford. But it will 
take care of college tuition, long-term care, child care, and retirement 
savings. I can't do more because we've got to have some money to invest 
in education, health care, the environment, and the national security of 
the country, and because we've got to keep paying the debt down.''
    Now, the surplus is supposed to be $2 trillion. I doubt if it will 
be that much, but let's just give our Republican friends that. And 
forget about the zero. Let's just say 2. That's the surplus, okay? Now, 
they want to spend over three-quarters of that on a tax cut and the 
interest costs. It's $1.6 trillion--that's their tax cut. And most of 
you would actually get more under Al Gore's 
tax cut than theirs. And when I get out of office, I get more under 
theirs, but it's not right. [Laughter]
    So 1.6. Now, listen--arithmetic, okay? So we start with 2. Then, 
they want to give 1.6 for the tax cut. Then, they want to privatize 
Social Security. And that's real expensive. It costs $1 trillion. Why is 
that? Because if all you young people take your payroll out of Social 
Security and put it in the stock market, and all of us who are older 
retire, they've still got to pay us our benefits. You can't just make 
this money up. I mean, you've got to come up. So, 1.6 and 1. And then 
they have promised some spending, about $500 billion. So you add it up: 
1.6 plus 1 plus .5 equals 3.1. That's the problem with their economics: 
$3.1 trillion is bigger than $2 trillion.
    Now, what does that mean in Oakland? I mean, look at all these 
buildings here. Somebody had to borrow the money to build these 
buildings. Somebody's got to make the mortgage payment on these 
buildings. Somebody's got to make enough profit to pay the payroll for 
the people working in Starbucks and McDonald's and all these other 
stores up and down here. If you vote for Al Gore and Joe Lieberman, 
interest rates will be lower for you on your home mortgage, on your car 
payment, on your college loan payment, on your credit card payment, for 
the business loans. It means more jobs, higher incomes, a better stock 
market. We'll all keep doing better together.
    You don't have any choice. If you want to build on the prosperity, 
you've got to vote for Gore and 
Lieberman and the Democrats.
    Now, question number two. We're not just a better-off country; we're 
a better country. The crime rate is down. Drug abuse among young people 
is down. The number of people without health insurance in this country 
is down for the first time in 12 years, thanks to the Children's Health 
Insurance Program. The environment is cleaner--much cleaner: 43 million 
more Americans breathing clean air; cleaner water, safer drinking water, 
safer food; 3 times as many toxic waste dumps cleaned up as in the 
previous 12 years under the 2 Republican administrations, and more land 
set aside in perpetuity than any administration since Teddy Roosevelt, 
almost 100 years ago. It's a cleaner environment.
    And the schools are better. You know, I hear people talking about an 
education recession. Here are the facts. In America, in the last 7 
years, for our children across all races: Math scores are up; science 
scores are up; reading scores are up; the dropout rate is down; the

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college-going rate is at an all-time high. Thanks to Al Gore and the E-rate program--6 years ago, there were 
only 3 percent of our classrooms hooked up to the Internet; today, 65 
percent are. Ninety percent of the poorest schools in America have at 
least one Internet connection today. We're moving in the right 
direction.
    Now, here's the issue. You want to keep building on the progress of 
the last 8 years?
    Audience members. Yes!
    The President. Then you just have one choice: Al Gore and Joe Lieberman and the 
Democrats. Why? Because they want to build on health care progress, a 
Patients' Bill of Rights, Medicare drugs for all of our seniors, health 
care for all America's children, more neighborhood police force, cleaner 
energy future, funds to help you with school construction, 100,000 
teachers, universal preschool and after-school for all the kids who need 
it, and a way of identifying failing schools and giving them the money 
to turn every single school in America around that's not teaching our 
children as they should be--every single one. That's why Bob 
Chase, the president of the National 
Education Association, is here with us today.
    So if you want to build on that, you only have one choice. Why? 
Because the Republicans, from top to bottom, have committed to repeal 
the 100,000 police program. I had two chiefs meet me at the airport 
today to tell me how much they have benefited from this program. They 
are going to get rid of it.
    They promised to repeal the program to put 100,000 teachers in our 
classes. They are against Federal funds for school construction to build 
or repair schools. They are against the real Patients' Bill of Rights, 
against Medicare drug programs to serve all of our seniors, against 
higher environmental standards. They promise to reverse a lot of what we 
have done in the environment.
    So you've got to go out and tell people, if you really want to build 
on the progress of the last 8 years, you just have one choice.
    Audience members. Al Gore!
    The President. And let me tell you the last thing that matters, and 
to me, it's the most important of all. We've got to keep coming together 
as one national community, as one America. Look around this crowd today. 
We're growing more and more diverse in every way, and it's good for 
America. In a global society, it positions us well to do well with all 
other nations and regions of the world. It also makes life more 
interesting, don't you think? [Applause] We're all different. We can 
appreciate and celebrate our differences, as long as we affirm our 
common humanity.
    How have we done that? Well, we supported affirmative action, hate 
crimes legislation, employment nondiscrimination legislation, raising 
the minimum wage, equal pay for women, civil rights, and a court that 
supports civil rights, human rights, and a woman's right to choose. 
That's what we have done.
    Now, on all these issues bringing us together, our friends in the 
Republican Party have a different view. They disagree with us on every 
issue I just mentioned. So if you want to keep building one America, you 
only have one choice.
    Audience members. Al Gore!
    The President. So I want you to go out the next 4 days, call people 
you know, if you have friends or relatives in these battleground States. 
Call people you know who live in all these congressional districts. Talk 
to everybody you know in Oakland and say, ``Look, there are three things 
you need to think about. Do you want to keep this prosperity going or do 
you want to risk reversing it? Do you want to build on the social 
progress of the last 8 years or do you want to take it down? Do you want 
to keep building one America or go back to the politics of division?''
    Look, just look at what happened in the last week of Congress, where 
the Republican leadership walked away with no education bill, no hate 
crimes legislation. They took down the education bill because one lobby 
group didn't want us to put into effect a worker safety rule. And they 
took the whole thing down.
    Now, when people talk about bipartisanship, let me just tell you 
something. Al Gore and I have worked for bipartisanship. We have a 
bipartisan majority today for a minimum wage increase, for campaign 
finance reform, for an education bill that every American can be proud 
of, for the hate crimes legislation. We can't pass it, not because we 
don't have bipartisanship but because the Republican congressional 
leadership is too far to the right and too tied to special interests.
    And that's another reason to vote for Al Gore. I think we're going to win the House and the Senate. But 
if we don't, someone needs to be doing what I've done for the last 6 
years, which

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is to stop extremism in Washington, DC, and you certainly only have one 
choice: Al Gore.
    You know, I got a good laugh in Los Angeles at the Democratic 
Convention when I reminded people what Harry Truman said, which is that 
if you want to live like a Republican, you've got to vote Democratic. 
[Laughter] But you just think about--go out and talk to the young people 
who have the largest stake in the future. Remember where we were 8 years 
ago. Think where we are today. If you want to build on the prosperity, 
if you want to build on the progress, if you want to keep building one 
America, there's only one choice.
    Audience members. Al Gore!
    The President. He's been the most 
effective Vice President in our history. He is a good man. He makes good 
decisions. He will be a great President. And he needs your help in the 
President's race and in all these races for Congress and the Senate. You 
can do this.
    Look at this crowd. There are thousands and thousands of people 
here. You could contact easily over 100,000 people in the next 4 days if 
every one of you just took 10 people, 15 people, everybody you see. Go 
out and tell them we want to keep the prosperity going, keep the 
progress going, keep building on America.
    Thank you, Oakland. God bless you. Bring it home.

Note: The President spoke at 10:30 a.m. at the City Center. In his 
remarks, he referred to State Attorney General Bill Lockyer of 
California; Mayor Jerry Brown of Oakland; and Speaker Robert M. 
Hertzberg, California State Assembly.