[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000-2001, Book III)]
[January 17, 2001]
[Pages 2943-2945]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the Community in Little Rock
January 17, 2001

    The President. Thank you very much. Thank you. I want to----
    Audience member. We love you!
    The President. That's what I want to say, too. I want to thank you 
for coming, and I want to thank you for waiting. We had a wonderful 
moment in the Arkansas Legislature. I got to speak to the legislature 
and see a lot of my old friends. And you know, with term limits there's 
been a lot of turnover, and about a third of the legislature, as nearly 
as I can tell, got their start working in one of my campaigns. 
[Laughter] So I had a wonderful time.
    Thank you, Mayor. I want to thank Rodney 
Slater and Hershel Gober. for doing a great job in the President's Cabinet and being 
part of this vast array of Arkansans who came down here with me today. 
Thank you, Vic Snyder, for your friendship and 
support. Thank you, Mike Ross, for making the 
campaign and going to Congress. We're proud of you.
    Thank you, Senator Pryor, for coming home 
today so we could be together on my last trip to Arkansas. Maybe by the 
time I get around to writing a book, I'll be able to do some justice to 
the absolutely essential personal and political role David Pryor played 
in the success of this administration in the last 8 years. And I'm very 
grateful to him.
    I want to thank all the State officials who came out. Thank you, 
Sharon Priest. Thank you, Jimmie Lou and Charlie, 
Gus, Mark Pryor. I want 
to thank Little Joe and the BK's. It's just like being home. And I want 
to thank the Trumpet and Zion Church choir.
    You know, Jim Dailey said about everything I could think of to say. 
And he gave a terrific speech, and I hope somebody for me still got it 
on tape. I'm going to play that some day

[[Page 2944]]

when I'm feeling down, you know? [Laughter] I want to thank him for his 
friendship.
    Chelsea and I are delighted to be 
here today. I wish Hillary could be here 
but, you know, she's otherwise occupied. And I could tell you one thing. 
She won that thing because she worked harder, and she learned to do that 
here. And I was very proud of her. I think the day she was sworn into 
the United States Senate, I honestly believe, was the happiest day of my 
life since Chelsea was born. It was an amazing thing and a real tribute 
to her and to all of you who have helped her along life's way.
    I was thinking that it was about 8 years ago that I had my farewell 
rally to Arkansas when I left to become President in this very place. 
And I was looking out across this sea of faces, thinking how many of you 
were there then and how many of you were there 10 years ago and 20 years 
ago and, in some cases, 27 years ago, when I first started.
    I got tickled when I was walking out of the legislature tonight. I 
ran into a guy named Red Milligan from Marion County, and in 1974, early 
'74, I went up and hunted him up because somebody told me he could get 
me some votes. And I asked him to be for me. And he got a guy named 
Carnie Carlton, and he said, ``Well, we're going to drive you out in the 
country.'' He said, ``You need to know our county has more dirt roads 
than any other county in Arkansas. And we're going down to Leon 
Swaford's store''--I still remember this, 1974--which is just about at 
the four corners of Marion and Searcy and Boone and Newton Counties. You 
can't get there from here, even today. [Laughter]
    I got in the truck. We're driving down the road. He drives me about 
20 minutes. We hadn't seen another living soul. They stomp on the 
brakes; the cab of the truck fills with dust. He whips out this bag of 
Redman--[laughter]--it's a true story--he said, ``Son, I don't know if 
you can make it or not. You know, you're a university teacher and all 
that.'' He said, ``I'll tell you what. If you'll chew this Redman, I'll 
be for you.'' [Laughter] ``And if you don't, I'm going to kick you out 
and see if you can find your way back home.'' [Laughter] And I looked at 
him, and I said, ``Open the door.'' [Laughter] True story.
    And he told it again today, and he started laughing. He said, 
``Well, if that's the way you feel about it, I guess I'll be for you, 
anyway.'' [Laughter] It was those kind of encounters that helped me 
learn a little bit about human nature and public life and politics, the 
kind of thing that's hard to learn if you start out in a big place, 
where you don't have time to listen to people and see how they live and 
go down every little backroad. I made a lot of backroads with a lot of 
you in this audience today, and I just want to thank you.
    I also want to say that if anybody had told me when I left here 8 
years ago that I could come home with my country having the longest 
economic expansion in history and the largest number of new jobs in this 
period of time; where we'd actually be paying down $600 billion of the 
national debt in the last three budgets of my administration; that we'd 
have all-time high homeownership, minority business ownership, college-
going rate, welfare rolls cut by 60 percent, the lowest crime rate in 25 
years--I could go on--if anybody told me that all these ideas that I 
talked so passionately about in the campaign of '92, that I thought 
would work because they were beginning to work in Arkansas, I would have 
said, ``I'll take that right now. For my country and our future, I'll 
take it right now.'' I never would have dreamed that it would have 
worked out as well as it has.
    And I just want you to know that I know perfectly well I never would 
have been President if it hadn't been for the people of Arkansas. I told 
somebody yesterday that I know a little bit about American history and a 
lot about how a lot of people got to be President, and of all the ones 
that I know at least, I'm the only one that I can honestly say got to be 
President because he had personal friends who stood up, traveled the 
country, fought, spoke up, and determined to make the campaign go.
    And because of you, I was able to make some other friends and see 
some other people and learn some things about this country of ours. It's 
quite an interesting place, America, growing more diverse every day; 
we're growing more independent every day; we're growing more connected 
to the rest of the world every day. And I did my best to prepare this 
country for this new century and this whole new way of living and 
working and relating to each other.
    And when I leave office at noon on Saturday, I will leave with a 
heart filled with gratitude, happy and pleased that all the options are 
open for the American people; that choices still have to be made, but we 
actually have it within our

[[Page 2945]]

grasp to make America debt-free this decade, for the first time since 
1835; to give every child in this country a world-class education; to 
bring free enterprise and opportunity to people and places that have 
been left behind, something that's very important to us here in 
Arkansas, because we have people, and we still today have people who 
haven't been part of this prosperity; to give the working families of 
this country that don't have health insurance access to health coverage 
for the first time in our country's history; to secure Medicare and 
Social Security for the baby boomers' retirement; and to continue to be 
a huge force for peace and freedom throughout the world. I couldn't have 
asked for more.
    I'd also like to say that I'm well aware that I've just been the 
captain of this team, and without a team, you don't win in public life. 
It really is a team sport, public service. Jim Dailey mentioned some of the Arkansans that have served with me, 
and I mentioned some more when I was over at the legislature, because a 
number came down today. But I want you to know that over 460 of your 
fellow citizens from this State have worked in our administration in 
these last 8 years, and America is better because of what they did.
    And finally, let me say I'm looking forward to being here and 
building my library and center. I believe it will be the most important 
educational institution as a library, a museum, a tourist destination, a 
learning site, of any that have been built, just because I have the 
benefit of coming into my own as a former President and building this 
library when all this wonderful technology is out there. I hope you like 
the building design. I worked hard on it, myself, for a year. It will be 
like a bridge out into the Arkansas River, and I think it will be a real 
beacon for people all around the country, and I expect people from all 
around the world to come here. I'll get it up quick as I can.
    We'll have an educational program and offer a graduate degree in 
public service, which I hope will inspire other young people to spend at 
least some of their life in public service, which has been so good to me 
and which I have found so richly rewarding. So I'll be around quite a 
bit.
    I want to say, too, when I came in from the airport, we passed two 
of Chelsea's schools, Mann and the Booker 
Arts Magnet School. And I'd like to thank, since she came home with me, 
all the people here in Little Rock and throughout the State who were so 
good to her during her growing up, and her teachers and all the others. 
It means a lot to me.
    I've got a daughter about to graduate 
from college and a wife going into 
the Senate. It seems to me that one of the things I'll have to do is go 
to work--[laughter]--which won't do me any harm. But between my larger 
public service and doing what I can to support my Senator and my 
daughter, I will be here a lot, and we'll have a chance to do a lot of 
things together, to reminisce over old times.
    But the main thing I want to say to all of you is, I want you to be 
proud that we proved that national politics and National Government and 
the direction of this Nation is not the private province of some elite 
somewhere in some big, distant place; that people with common sense, 
with basic American roots anywhere in the country, who have the right 
vision and the right ideas and are willing to work in good faith with 
all different kinds of people, can move this country forward.
    And I want you to know, too, for all the storms and all the 
sunshine--I said this to the legislature, and I want to say it again 
because it's absolutely true--there has never been a day--and tonight 
will be the same way when I get home--that I haven't landed on that 
helicopter on the back of the White House lawn and not felt a thrill, 
not felt like a 17-year-old boy looking at the White House for the first 
time.
    And when I walk out of the White House for the last time and I sit 
at the Inauguration of my successor and I leave this office, I will 
leave more idealistic and more hopeful about my country than the day I 
took the oath of office 8 years ago. And that's the way you ought to 
feel. That's the way you ought to feel. And none of it would have been 
possible without you. I love you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 5:28 p.m. in hanger 1 at Adams Field 
Airport. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Jim Dailey of Little Rock; 
former Senator David H. Pryor; Arkansas Secretary of State Sharon 
Priest; State Treasurer Jimmie Lou Fisher; Commissioner of State Lands 
Charlie Daniels; Auditor of State Gus Wingfield; and State Attorney 
General Mark Pryor.