[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 45 (Monday, November 11, 1996)]
[Pages 2343-2346]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Victory Celebration in Little Rock, Arkansas

November 5, 1996

    My fellow Americans, thank you for being here. Just 4 years from now 
we will enter a new century of great challenge and unlimited 
possibility. Now, we've got a bridge to build, and I'm ready if you are.
    Today the American people have spoken. They have affirmed our 
course. They have told us to go forward. America has told every one of 
us, Democrats, Republicans, and independents, loud and clear, it is time 
to put politics aside, join together, and get the job done for America's 
future. In the last 4 years we've made remarkable progress, but in our 
schools, our families, our workplaces, and our communities, our journey 
is not done. My fellow Americans, we have work to do, and that's what 
this election was all about.
    I want to say to all of you here and to all of the American people, 
no words can convey the gratitude I feel tonight for the honor that has 
been given to me. It is an honor that belongs to many: first to my 
family, to my wonderful wife of 21 years, who from the day I first met 
her began teaching me that it does take a village to raise our children 
and build our future; to our daughter, Chelsea, for understanding the 
work we have done together, the burdens it has imposed. Today I went 
down to the train station to vote in the last election in which I will 
appear on the ballot. And as I have done in every year since she was 
born, I took Chelsea to the ballot with me. And as we looked at the 
ballot together and discussed the issues there, I thanked God that I was 
born an American.
    I thank the members of my wonderful family who are here, my 
stepfather Dick Kelley, my wonderful mother-in-law, Dorothy Rodham, and 
all the others. And I thank my beloved mother who is smiling up there 
and said, ``I never had a doubt, I always knew it would be this way.''
    I thank the friends of my lifetime. There are people who have stood 
with me through thick and thin, who started with me in grade school, in 
junior and senior high school, in college, and all across the years 
since, friends who knew me and knew my dreams and stood as a powerful 
force against those who sought to stop America's progress with the 
politics of personal destruction. Thank you, my friends. Thank you for 
what you did for America.
    I thank the people of my beloved native State. I would not be 
anywhere else in the world tonight. In front of this wonderful old 
capitol that has seen so much of my

own life and our State's history, I thank you for staying with me so long, 
for never giving up, for always knowing that we could do better.

    I thank the finest Vice President this country has ever seen. 
Because of Al Gore, we have a stronger and more secure relationship with 
a democratic Russia; we are exploring the wonders of new technologies 
for the benefit of America; we are protecting our environment; and we 
have reinvented America's Government so that it does more with less, 
thanks to his leadership. It is a legacy unique in the history of this 
Republic.
    I thank Tipper for her friendship, for her crusades on behalf of our 
children and the mental health of the American people, and for always 
standing with us, along with her children and her family.
    I thank the members of our administration, the Cabinet members, the 
members of the White House staff. I thank all those who are part of the 
permanent service to the President at the White House, the medical 
staff. I thank especially my Secret Service detail that has been so 
challenged by a President determined not to be isolated from the 
American people.
    I thank the members of our campaign staff, all those who have served 
in this election and the work you have done. I thank the leaders of our 
party in the Congress, in the statehouses. I thank all those who stood 
for what we believe in in these elections today, those who won and those 
who did not. You did a service to America by raising the

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things in which we believe. And I thank you all and wish you Godspeed.
    I want to thank the employees of the Nation's Government. They have 
had to do a remarkable job. We have reduced the size of our Government 
to its smallest point since President Kennedy served, and yet they have 
continued to serve the people better year-in and year-out. They had to 
do it in the face of enormous challenges and outright hatred for 
momentary periods. They have had to live with the horror of Oklahoma 
City and the difficulties that came along the way. But the people who 
served us deserve our thanks, and I thank them.
    I thank those who served this administration and our cause who are 
no longer here tonight. And one especially I must thank, my friend and 
brother, Ron Brown. You're looking down on us, and I know you're 
smiling, too.
    On a purely personal note, I must thank my pastor, Rex Horne, who 
prayed with me before I came out here tonight, and all the ministers and 
people of God who prayed for me and with me over these last 4 years. 
There were a few especially, and they know who they are, who came to the 
White House time after time, in good times and bad. When the times were 
bad they reminded me that God gave St. Paul a thorn in his flesh so he 
would not become exalted in his own eyes and that certainly was not a 
problem for me in the bad times. [Laughter] When the times were good, 
they reminded me that humility is always in order in the Presidency, for 
in this life we see through a glass darkly, and we cannot know the whole 
truth of our circumstances or the motives of those who oppose us. I 
thank them all for bringing me closer to God and to the eternal wisdom 
without which a President cannot serve.
    I would like to say a special word of thanks to Senator Dole. And I 
ask you to join me in applause for his lifetime of service to the United 
States. [Applause]
    And I thank Jack Kemp for his service to America and his devotion to 
the proposition that this is a country in which

everyone should have a chance to live free and equal and to have a chance 
at success.

    Let me say, I had a good visit with Senator Dole not too long before 
he went out to speak. I thanked him for his love of our country, for his 
years of service. I applauded the campaign that he fought so bravely to 
the very last minute. I thanked him for the work we did together to 
advance the common cause of America. And on behalf of all Americans, I 
wish him well and Godspeed.
    Four years ago, on these very steps, we set forth on a journey to 
change the course of America for the better, to keep the American dream 
alive for everyone willing to work for it, to keep America the world's 
strongest force for peace and freedom and prosperity, to come together 
as one American community. The time was one of widespread frustration 
and doubt about our economic and social problems, about our ability to 
deal with the vast sweep of change that was all around us. The scope and 
pace of those changes were threatening to many, and our values seemed to 
be under attack on all sides. But together, you and I vowed to turn our 
country around, with a strategy to meet our challenges and protect our 
values: opportunity for all, responsibility from all, an American 
community of all Americans.
    We have worked hard to end the politics of who's to blame and 
instead to ask, what are we going to do to make America better? Tonight 
we proclaim that the vital American center is alive and well. It is the 
common ground on which we have made our progress. Today our economy is 
stronger, our streets are safer, our environment is cleaner, the world 
is more secure, and thank God, our Nation is more united.
    To all the men and women across this country who have created our 
jobs, taught our children, patrolled our streets, and kept America safe 
throughout our world, I say America's success is your success; this 
victory is your victory. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
    Now, my fellow Americans, a vast new century lies before us. It will 
be a time more full of opportunity for people to live out their dreams 
than any in human history. We have committed this night to continuing 
our journey, to doing the hard work that will build our bridge to the 
21st century, to give the young people here and those all across America 
the America they deserve and their children and their children's 
children.

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    But we have work to do. We have work to do to keep our economy 
growing steady and strong, by balancing the budget while we honor our 
duties to our families, our parents, and our children, and our duty to 
pass on to our children the Earth God gave us. We have work to do to 
give all of our children the gift of an education, to make sure every 8-
year-old can read; every 12-year-old can log on to the Internet; and 
yes, every single 18-year-old in this country willing to work for it can 
have a college education.
    We have work to do to make the permanent under class in this country 
a thing of the past, to lift our fellow citizens who are poor from the 
degradation of welfare dependency to the pride and dignity of work. We 
have work to do to strengthen our families; to help our parents succeed 
at home and at work; to keep our children safe from harm in their 
schools, their streets, their homes, and their communities; to clean up 
our environment so that our children can grow up next to parks, not 
poison; to tell them that drugs are wrong and illegal and they can kill 
them; to teach them right from wrong.
    My fellow Americans, I will do all I can to advance these causes. 
But all our citizens must do their part to continue the upsurge of 
personal responsibility that in the last 4 years has brought crime to a 
10-year low, child support collections to an all-time high, and reduced 
the welfare reform. Will you help me do that? [Applause] We must do it 
together.
    We must make our democracy stronger by enacting real, bipartisan 
campaign finance reform. Talk is no longer enough; we must act and act 
now. And the American people will be watching the leaders of both 
parties to see who is willing not just to talk but to act. I am willing 
to act, and I ask others to join me.
    And we must keep America the world's indispensable nation, finishing 
the unfinished business of the cold war, meeting the new threats to our 
security through terrorism and the proliferation of dangerous weapons 
and seizing these extraordinary opportunities to extend our values of 
peace and democracy and prosperity.
    Every American here tonight and every American within the sound of 
my voice can take pride in the fact that in these last few years, for 
the first time in all of human history, a majority of the human beings 
living on this globe live under democracies where the people rule.
    The challenges we face, they're not Democratic or Republican 
challenges, they're American challenges. What we know from the budget 
battles of the last 2 years and from the remarkable success of the last 
few weeks of this Congress is the lesson we have learned for the last 
220 years: what we have achieved as Americans of lasting good, we have 
achieved by working together.
    So let me say to the leaders of my Democratic Party and the leaders 
of the Republican Party, it is time to put country ahead of party. We do 
not know the final outcome of the congressional elections, but we know 
this: the races are close; the American people have been closely 
divided; the Congress, whatever happens, will be closely divided. They 
are sending us a message: work together, meet our challenges, put aside 
the politics of division, and build America's community together.
    On this beautiful night, when we have shared so much joy and so much 
music and so much laughter and so much pride, it is hard for me to 
believe that it was 23 years ago when I first began to go to the people 
of Arkansas to ask for their support. The most lasting and important 
thing that I have learned in all those 23 fleeting years is this: When 
we are divided we defeat ourselves, but when we join our hands and build 
our families and our communities and our country, America always wins. 
What we need to do is to do the work of America the way we seek to do 
the work of raising our children and doing our work and supporting our 
religious institutions and our community institutions. If we would 
simply be Americans, the way we seek to live in all of our other roles, 
there is no stopping America. Our best days are still ahead.
    And so I say, when we look into our hearts and simply ask what is 
right for the American people and the future of our children, when we 
set aside our differences and build on our shared values of faith and 
family and work, when we roll up our sleeves and work together, America 
always wins. And my fellow

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Americans, America is going to keep winning these next 4 years.
    Let me say that, as all of you here from my native State know, I 
believe this and I have tried to live by it because there is no person 
in America who has been given more gifts than I have; there is no person 
in America tonight who feels more

humble in the face of this victory than I do. Fifty years ago, when I was 
born in a summer storm to a widowed mother in a small town in the southwest 
part of our State, it was unimaginable that someone like me could have ever 
become President of the greatest country in human history. It has been, for 
me, a remarkable journey, not free of failure but full of adventure and 
wonder and grace. I have worked hard to serve, but I did not get here on my 
own.

    Every step along the way, for these last 23 years and long before, 
there was a teacher, a doctor, a neighbor, a parent, a friend, a wife, a 
daughter who always had time to care, who always tried to give me 
instruction and encouragement, and who never gave up. I got here 
tonight, my fellow Americans, because America gave me a chance.
    That is what all the children of America deserve. Our people have to 
give them the tools to give them not a guarantee, but that real chance 
to live up to their God-given potential. And I ask you to join me in 
that commitment. Every child deserves the main chance that I was given.
    And so I say, again, let us resolve to run our country the way we 
try to run our lives. Whether you are the party of Thomas Jefferson or 
the party of Abraham Lincoln, whether you're an independent or 
unaffiliated, remember that we all belong to the greatest Nation in 
history. To us much has been given and much is still expected. We must 
rise to the challenge of building that bridge to the 21st century.
    Tonight is a night for joy not just for us here but for all 
Americans. For the 53d time in our history our people have made their 
quiet and deliberate decision. They have come together with their 
powerful voice and expressed their will. Tonight we celebrate the 
miracle of America. Tomorrow we greet the dawn and begin our work anew.
    I am more grateful than I can say. You have given me an opportunity 
and a responsibility that comes to few people. I will do my best. And 
together, we will--we will--build that bridge to the 21st century.
    Thank you. Good night, and God bless America. Thanks.

Note: The President spoke at 11:10 p.m. on the steps of the Old State 
House. A tape was not available for verification of the content of these 
remarks.