[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 27 (Monday, July 8, 1996)]
[Pages 1180-1183]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Chicago '96 Dinner

July 2, 1996

    Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, before I say anything I 
want to, by way of introduction and being true to my past--back when I 
had a life and did other things--I want to say that I enjoyed the music 
that this fine orchestra has given us tonight, and I think we ought to 
give them a hand. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you.
    It is wonderful to be back in Chicago tonight. I want to thank all 
of those who have spoken before and those who they represent, and all of 
you for your contribution to help make our convention a success.
    I thank Leslie Fox and I want to thank Dick Notebaert, who has done 
many, many commendable things for our country as CEO for Ameritech, but 
helping to make sure we have a good convention in Chicago is one that I 
will especially long remember.
    I want to thank my good friend, Bill Daley, for his fine work. He's 
always there when you need him. He even came to the White House when I 
needed him to help me pass NAFTA, and this country is in a lot better 
shape because of it. And I thank you.
    I want to thank the Mayor, who, along with many other gifted public 
officials in this area, including my friend and fellow Arkansan, John 
Stroger--thank you, sir. I think the Mayor has made a special point of 
trying to do what works and trying to make Chicago into a big family. He 
and Mrs. Daley come from big families so they can set a good example for 
the rest of us. But I also believe they've tried to make Chicago into a 
family.
    When I first met Hillary, a long time ago now, and she began to talk 
to me about Chicago, and then I got to know her family and I began to 
spend a lot of time here, I realized that this was truly a unique city, 
in some ways, perhaps our most American city. I was at an event for 
Congressman Durbin a few moments ago, and he was talking about his 
mother being a Lithuanian immigrant. And I said to the group there that 
when I talked to Hillary last night--we were in France together for the 
annual meeting of the seven largest industrial nations and Russia, and 
afterward she stayed on to visit, I think seven or eight countries in 
Central and Eastern Europe. She just finished the day in Romania. And so 
she was bragging on her day in Romania. She said, ``Well, I've been in 
Romania. I'm going to the Czech Republic. I'm going to Hungary. I'm 
going to Poland. I'm going to Estonia.'' And she said she was going to a 
couple other places. And I said, ``Well, I'm going to Chicago, and I'll 
see people from all those places with just one stop.'' And I said, ``You 
could have stayed home and done all that with a lot less effort, you 
know.'' [Laughter]
    I'm very proud of her. I'm glad she is doing this for our country. 
But it makes the point about Chicago.
    I'd like to thank Debra DeLee, our convention coordinator, and all 
of the people here who have worked here on our behalf and on the 
Democratic Party's behalf. You all know that I'm also indebted to 
Chicago for a lot of things. My campaign in 1992 got off to a real jump-
start here. When I spoke to the leaders of the various State Democratic 
parties in 1991 here at this very Navy Pier, I announced that David 
Wilhelm would be my campaign manager, and I know he and Deegee are here 
somewhere tonight, and I want to thank them.

[[Page 1181]]

    I have been blessed by a lot of people from Chicago who have helped 
me immensely: Avis LaVelle and Amy Zisook who are here tonight, and a 
lot of others of you who have been with me, and I thank you for that.
    So this is a special place. It was on St. Patrick's Day in 1992 that 
I was essentially declared the nominee of the Democratic Party because 
of our victories in Illinois and Michigan. And I have a picture in my 
private office in the White House of Hillary and me, in green, under the 
confetti in Chicago on St. Patrick's Day in 1992. I will always remember 
that.
    You know, I think that this great city has hosted more conventions 
than any city in American history. It has also hosted more Presidents. 
According to the notes I have here, it says, they include Presidents 
Lincoln, Grant, Garfield, Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, Harding, 
FDR, and Eisenhower. I hope that if your luck holds, I'll make the 
Democratic line on that list a little longer than it was.
    Throughout the history of this great city, from its days as a 
railroad center to its days as an industrial powerhouse and an ethnic 
melting pot, to its offering a haven of opportunity to African-Americans 
from the South, including so many from my home State, to the efforts it 
has made to transform itself as the economic realities of our country 
has forced those changes, Chicago has time and again come back, always 
stronger, always better, always proving that it is the city that works.
    Mr. Mayor, you and your late father and your mother and all your 
friends and your colleagues in this city, from all different walks of 
life and all different racial and economic backgrounds, deserve a lot of 
credit. You are proving that the cities of this country have a great 
future in making America what it should be, and I thank you for that.
    I also want to thank you all, without regard to your political 
party, for opening your hearts and minds and your pocketbooks to make 
this convention a success. This country works best when it has two 
competing visions, two competing approaches, an honest and open debate, 
and people who are empowered by that debate to make decisions about what 
they want for themselves and their families and their future. You have 
given us a chance to show the Democratic Party at its best. And I think 
that is important.
    For the last 3\1/2\ years I have tried to break out of this debate 
that dominated our political life for too long, because it seemed to 
have no relationship to reality: one side saying Government is the 
problem, another side saying Government is the solution. I think the 
solution is to do what works. That's what Chicago does: What works to 
give people opportunity, what works to reinforce responsible behavior, 
and what works to bring us together as a community. And if we do that we 
will be rewarded.
    We are going to have the opportunity as a people to actually decide 
which road we want to walk into the 21st century, and I think that is 
very exciting. And I hope that the American people will get caught up in 
the spirit of that in this election year and not be diverted by the 
politics of division and destruction that too often dominate the easy 
moments in the headlines. For there are fundamental questions we have to 
come to grips with: What's the best way to guarantee opportunity for 
every American willing to work for it?
    If we have come to the end of the industrial era and we are living 
in a world dominated by information and technology, if the cold war is 
being replaced not just by a global economy but a global society, how 
are we going to guarantee that everybody has a chance to live out their 
dreams? Not to guarantee a result, but a chance.
    If the world is being dominated on every continent it seems by new 
security problems from terrorism to organized crime, abusing the 
openness of a global society, how are we going to keep this most diverse 
of all of the world's democracies from being consumed by the kind of 
ethnic and religious and racial conflicts that are literally destroying 
countries and peoples all over the world? In other words, how are we 
going to bring out our best and beat back the darker impulses that are 
latent in every society?
    I believe with all my heart that the best days of this country are 
still ahead of us. And when I imagine what I want America to look like 
when my daughter is my age and, hope- 

[[Page 1182]]

fully, I've got a whole nest of grandkids to worry about, when I've long 
since forgotten about politics, I want it to be the most peaceful period 
in world history. I want it to be a period where people compete with one 
another in economics, education, and athletics, and not in military 
contests.
    I want it to be a period when we are making unprecedented efforts to 
solve the remaining mysteries of biochemistry so that we can unlock the 
terrible problems that still plague us, that take too many people away 
from this life before their time. I want it to be a period where people 
in this country without regard to their racial or religious background 
or their gender or wherever they start out in life actually have a 
chance, if they work hard and behave in responsible fashion, to dream 
their own dreams and live them out.
    And I believe there is a very good chance that we can achieve that. 
I want it to be a place where we have at least learned to work with our 
friends and neighbors to limit terrorism and limit organized crime and 
limit the spread of weapons of mass destruction from abroad. And in this 
country we have worked to bring safety and sanity back to our streets 
and neighborhoods.
    And Mr. Mayor, I just want to say, you mentioned the crime bill--one 
of the things that I believe is critical to the success of our democracy 
is making families believe that they can actually bring children into 
this world and raise them in their neighborhoods and send them to school 
every day with a reasonable expectation of safety. It is not true that 
the crime problem is insoluble. We can make it better. We are making it 
better. And if we keep working on it we will return to the days when we 
are actually surprised when we see the evening news lead with the report 
of a serious crime. That's when we'll know we have won. But we can do 
that, and that is an important part of the 21st century we should all be 
trying to build as well.
    When my daughter is my age, I want us to have unraveled the great 
mystery that we must unravel if we're going to continue to grow and see 
all these developing countries, particularly the populous ones, like 
China and India, grow. Which is how can we grow the economy and enhance 
the environment instead of destroying it? We don't want global warming. 
We don't want more greenhouse gases. But we do want more growth, and we 
want our neighbors around the world to have more growth so they can buy 
more of our products.
    We have to make a commitment as an American people together to the 
cause of environmental enhancement and economic growth. And no one has 
solved it entirely yet. I want America to lead that fight. And we'll be 
in a position to do it.
    These are the things I think about when I imagine what I want our 
country to look like. And my goal is to have a convention here in 
Chicago that will enable the American people to know the vision we 
started with; what we, as a party, have achieved; what we stand for and 
what we believe the honest, important differences are between ourselves 
and the Republicans. And then I want us to go out of Chicago and give 
this election back to the American people, on the big, sweeping issues 
that will help all of us to answer the question, what do we want our 
country to look like 20 years from now?
    If Chicago can give that gift to America it will be in part because 
I will be looking to Chicago to illustrate what happens when you have an 
effective crime bill, what happens when you have effective strategies to 
open educational opportunities to people, what happens when you have 
effective strategies to try to give private sector investors an 
incentive to invest in neighborhoods that have been long since 
forgotten. In other words, how do you make America work?
    You are a shining example of that. I believe all America will be 
very proud of you when this is over. And I believe if we can prove that 
Chicago is working and that there is a partnership involved in that, as 
the mayor said, then we have a much better chance of having too much 
when America debates the big important issues and people are really free 
to ask and answer that question: What do I want my country to be like 
for my children and my grandchildren? What do I believe America should 
stand for 20 or 30 or 40 years from now? That is the question we will 
decide in this election, whether we do it consciously or unconsciously. 
Chicago will

[[Page 1183]]

help us to do it with a clear head and a strong heart. And for that, I 
thank you very much.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 9:20 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom at the Navy 
Pier. In his remarks, he referred to Leslie Fox, executive director, 
Chicago '96, host committee for the 1996 Democratic Convention; Richard 
C. Notebaert, cochair, Chicago '96; John Stroger, president, Cook County 
Board of Commissioners; Avis LaVelle, former press secretary to Mayor 
Daley; and Democratic fundraiser Amy Zisook. A tape was not available 
for verification of the content of these remarks.