[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 50 (Monday, December 16, 1996)]
[Pages 2481-2489]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Democratic Leadership Council Luncheon

December 11, 1996

    Thank you. The last person clapping is my first new Ambassador in 
the new term. [Laughter]
    Thank you, Bernard Schwartz, for that wonderful introduction and for 
your life of private and public achievement. I was hearing you say all 
those terrific things, and I thought to myself, I'm glad you did what 
you did, but I'd like you even better if you owned a newspaper. 
[Laughter]
    I want to thank my longtime friend Senator Lieberman and Governor 
Romer for their work for the DLC. And I see my predecessors as chairs 
out there: Senator Chuck Robb and Congressman Dave McCurdy. I thank them 
for the work they did at the DLC.

[[Page 2482]]

    I brought a number of people from the administration here who were 
early DLC members, including Mack McLarty, who started with me back in 
'85; Bruce Reed and Linda Moore and Elaine Kamarck and Don Baer, my 
Communications Director. I'd also like to say a public word of thanks to 
Mark Penn, who did the research that all of you I think have been given, 
for the fine job that he and his partner, Doug Schoen, did in our 
campaign.
    You know, I went jogging with Al From this morning. And the original 
theme of my speech was the era of big Government is over. The new speech 
will be the era of big Al is over. [Laughter] He's lost 75 pounds in 15 
months. If that's not enough to make you optimistic about America, I 
don't know what is. [Laughter]
    I want to thank all the Members of Congress and the newly elected 
Members of Congress who are here. I'm hesitant to mention any names 
because I can't see everyone who is here, but I know that Allen Boyd and 
Cal Dooley and Sandy Levin and Karen McCarthy and Bill Luther and Jim 
Moran, Tim Roemer, Debbie Stabenow, and Ellen Tauscher are here. There 
may be others, but if you're here, I thank you for being here, because 
this organization fought for the life and the future of the Democratic 
Party as it fought for the life and the future of America for a very 
long time. And all of us need to be continually open to the new ideas 
which are always debated here with such vigor and such careful 
forethought. And so I thank the Members and the newly elected Members 
who are here, and I hope more of your number will be coming to these 
events in the future.
    I thank the business and community leaders who are here. Many of you 
have been with us for some time; some of you are coming in. But we need 
the kind of fermenting dialog that we have here from locally elected 
officials, from community leaders, and from the truly stunning array of 
business leaders who are here today. I thank you.
    A year ago when I spoke here, our Nation was facing a time of great 
decision. That day the congressional majority was pressing its budget 
plan upon the Nation, and I told you why I didn't like it but why I 
hoped we could pass a balanced budget. That night at midnight the 
Government was shut down. It was a moment of fundamental decision about 
the direction of our Nation, the role of our Government in this age, the 
strength of our values. That day I said the great question before us 
was, can the center hold.
    So, today the clamor of political conflict has subsided. A new 
landscape is taking shape. The answer is clear: The center can hold, the 
center has held, and the American people are demanding that it continue 
to do so.
    By the stands that we have taken, the battles we've waged, the 
record that has been built, we've helped to forge a new American vision, 
a new consensus that can govern our country and move us all forward. The 
ground has shifted between our feet--beneath our feet--but we have 
clearly created a new center, not the lukewarm midpoint between 
overheated liberalism and chilly conservatism but instead a place where 
throughout our history, people of good will have tried to forge new 
approaches to new challenges; the vital center the DLC has been trying 
to forge with new ideas and mainstream values for more than a decade 
now; the vital center that has brought so much progress to our Nation in 
the last 4 years; the vital, dynamic center from which we now must 
finish the work of preparing America for the 21st century.
    In this rare and fleeting moment of opportunity, we still have work 
to do, for while the era of big Government is over, the era of big 
challenges is not. Achieving educational excellence, finishing welfare 
reform and our campaign for safe streets, helping families to succeed at 
home and at work, balancing the budget, keeping America strong and 
prosperous, reforming campaign finance, and modernizing Government 
operations so that, together, we can meet the challenges and seize the 
opportunities of this remarkable time.
    Our bridge to the 21st century must connect our newest challenges to 
our oldest values: opportunity for all Americans, responsibility from 
all Americans, a national community of all Americans, a national 
commitment to American leadership as the indispensable nation in the new 
world unfolding before us.

[[Page 2483]]

    We all know how quickly this world is changing. We were smiling when 
Senator Lieberman was trying to describe the things that Bernard 
Schwartz has done in the area of technology. It's changing the way we 
work and live and relate to each other and to others around the globe. 
As in every other time of profound change, we must follow Lincoln's 
admonition to think anew and act anew. And as in every such time, the 
American people must come to a common understanding about how to proceed 
before we can hope to succeed.
    Today I believe we have come to such an understanding. Today, a 
century after the Progressives, six decades after the New Deal, after 
half a century of cold war, we have once again been called upon to forge 
a new approach, to forge solutions to meet the challenges of today, not 
those of yesterday. That is what you and I have fought to do for several 
years now.
    As I said before the DLC in Cleveland in 1991, our agenda isn't 
liberal or conservative, it's both and it's different. And we're not 
just out to save the Democratic Party, we're out to save the United 
States of America.
    We said in 1991 we would offer opportunity for all, demand 
responsibility from all, build a stronger American community. We said 
that this era requires a Government that neither attempts to solve 
problems for people nor leaves them alone to fend for themselves. 
Instead, we envision a Government that gives people the tools to solve 
their own problems and make the most of their own lives.
    When I became President, I was determined to bring this philosophy 
to our National Government. I didn't much care on what part of the 
political spectrum a minimum wage came from, or NAFTA, or family leave, 
or changing but not completely ending affirmative action, or banning 
assault weapons, or fighting to stop the advertising and sale of tobacco 
to our young people, or doing national service, or promoting charter 
schools, or promoting the reinventing Government effort, or so many 
other of the things we've done. They were hard to pigeonhole, and I 
think that made it frustrating for those who were trying to communicate 
to the larger citizenry about what it was we were about.
    But the issue was not whether these things were from the right or 
the left of the political spectrum, but whether, instead, they were the 
right things to do. The issue is not what is liberal or conservative but 
what will move us forward together. These are ideas at the vital 
American center, ideas that have broken the gridlock that gripped 
Washington for too long. For years politicians treated our most vexing 
problems here, like crime and welfare and the budget deficit, as issues 
to be exploited, not problems to be solved. That's why they went on and 
on and on.
    Before we passed the crime bill it had been debated in Washington 
for 6 years. Meanwhile, there was plainly at the grassroots level a 
consensus among people in law enforcement and the community groups 
working with them for safe streets about what ought to be done. We tried 
to change all that. We worked hard at it. And we have succeeded in many 
areas.
    After decades in which the welfare system was trapped, generation 
after generation in a cycle of dependency, we said we had to replace 
welfare checks with paychecks and make responsibility a way of life. We 
said we would end welfare as we know it, and we have. Last week we 
learned that there are 2.1 million fewer people on welfare today than on 
the day I took office. That is the biggest drop in history.
    After decades in which criminals occupied our streets, we said we 
needed a new approach to fighting crime, and we have provided it: 
tougher punishment, better prevention, above all, more police. Crime is 
down all across America for 4 years now.
    After decades of debate over the size and scope of Government, we've 
reduced the size of the Federal Government by over 10 percent; 
eliminated hundreds of programs, thousands of pages of regulations; 
privatized more operations than any previous administration; and cut the 
deficit by 60 percent in 4 years. We also worked very hard to devolve 
more responsibilities in a spirit of

partnership to State and local governments and to community groups. I want 
to pay special tribute in that regard to two of my Cabinet members, one of 
whom is here today, the HUD Sec

[[Page 2484]]

retary, Henry Cisneros, and the Secretary of Transportation, Federico Pena, 
two former mayors who brought that spirit to our National Government. Thank 
you very much.

    Both parties now agree that we must balance the budget and both 
parties now agree that we can only do it in a way that reflects our 
deepest values and garners support from members of both parties.
    In each of these areas, we simply stopped asking who's to blame and 
started asking, what are we going to do. As a result, America is moving 
forward. And now we must capture that momentum and use it to finish the 
work of preparing our people for the new century. Let us commit together 
to mobilizing that vital center. Let us spend the next 50 months to 
prepare America for the next 50 years.
    Now, our first task is to finish the job of balancing the budget. As 
we've cut the deficit by over 60 percent, the corresponding drop in 
interest rates has powered our economy--nearly 11 million new jobs now 
in less than 4 years. To keep the economy growing, we must finish the 
job. I'm determined to work with Congress to agree to a bipartisan 
balanced budget plan that does reflect our values.
    We can, and we must, work together to reform Medicare and Medicaid 
so they continue to meet the promise to our parents and our children and 
continue to expand health care step by step to children in working 
families who don't have it. We can do that and balance the budget and 
take advantage of the fact that new models are clearly making it 
possible to lower the rate of medical inflation in a way that advances 
the quality of health care as well as the quality of our long-term 
objectives in balancing the budget and investing in the future of 
America. I know it can be done, and I am determined to get it done.
    Second, we must give our young people the best education in the 
world. We must dramatically reform our public schools, demanding high 
standards and accountability from every teacher and every student, 
promoting reforms like public choice, school choice, and charter schools 
in every State.
    Let me just say a word here especially with respect to Governor 
Romer. We've worked hard to support local control of the schools. We've 
worked hard to reduce the paperwork and the regulations that were 
unnecessary. Secretary Riley has done a fine job of giving more 
discretion to promote grassroots reform to local school districts. But 
we have largely local control in America. And yet, we do not have today 
recognized national standards in every critical area of study and a 
recognized measurement that can go across the Nation that can tell us 
how all of our children are doing. I am for local control; I am not for 
Federal Government national standards. But I am for national standards 
of excellence and a means of measuring it so we know what our children 
are learning.
    We must open the doors of college so that the 13th and 14th years of 
school, at least 2 years after high school, are as universal in 4 years 
as high school is today.
    We must modernize our system of training, collapsing overlapping and 
outdated training programs into a ``GI bill'' for America's workers, 
something the DLC has long advocated, so that all working people who 
need it have access to the skills they need in a changing workplace.
    The third thing we have to do is to bring the under class into the 
American mainstream, breaking the cycle of dependence and poverty. 
Already, over 4 years, the welfare rolls have been reduced by 2.1 
million, partly, of course, because of the improving economy but largely 
because we have worked with the States of this country to forge new 
approaches to move people from welfare to work, recognizing that most 
people on welfare want to get off and want to go to work, and 
recognizing that responsibility should be a way of life and welfare 
should be a second chance.
    The welfare reform legislation I recently signed is just the next 
step, not the end of the road. We have a moral obligation now, all of 
us, particularly in the DLC who fought for welfare reform for so long, 
to make welfare reform work, to end the culture of isolated, permanent 
dependency. We have demanded responsibility of welfare recipients; 
indeed, we have written it into the law. And now we must meet our 
responsibilities by providing them the opportunity to work. We must 
bring the freshest ideas to bear on how we can bring the power of 
private business

[[Page 2485]]

to the inner city, where, today, there are simply not enough jobs for 
those who will no longer be eligible for permanent welfare.
    Last year in Chicago, for example, there were six job applicants for 
every entry-level job opening. In St. Louis, there were nine job 
applicants for every entry-level job opening. These jobs we know because 
of the conditions of the Federal budget must come primarily from the 
private sector with incentives from the Government, like tax credits and 
wage and training subsidies.
    Now, how can we do this? Can we do it? I believe we plainly can if 
all of you will help. And I think it is a good thing that people will 
not be moving from welfare to work where they'll only be working with 
large numbers of other people who are on welfare in large-scale public 
works projects, because we want, again--the rolls have been reduced by 
2.1 million, so a lot of the easy work has been done. Now we have to go 
out and give people a chance to move from a culture of isolated 
dependence into the mainstream of American life.
    But if you look, for example, at the Kansas City model, where they 
have set up a full employment council, where the business community and 
the service providers and the educators and welfare recipients are all 
represented; and where, under an agreement with our administration, the 
State of Missouri says to employers, ``If you will hire someone off 
welfare, we will give you the welfare check as a wage and training 
subsidy for up to 4 years, and we will give you, if you don't provide 
health insurance for your employees, the opportunity for this person to 
keep the Medicaid not just for a year, but for up to 4 years. And if you 
want, you can have this slot for 10 years. We'll tell you right now, we 
want you to participate in this program; so when you move somebody from 
the welfare slot into a higher wage category, we'll let you have another 
person, and we'd like you to participate.''
    Now, think what this means. This means small business, medium-sized 
and big businesses can all participate. And it is working. I met a man 
who had a business with 25 people in it filling an interesting little 
niche--he stores data for the Federal Government. Even Washington, with 
all its buildings, can't hold all the data of the Federal Government. 
Five of his 25 employees are former welfare recipients. Many of them fit 
a profile where you would say they're the least likely people we could 
get into the work force. They are doing well.
    And you think about it--if every State will authorize--and they 
don't have to ask me for permission anymore, that's what the welfare 
bill does. The welfare bill basically says, we'll have a national 
guarantee of nutrition and health care for poor families and the 
children, but that portion of the Federal Government's money that used 
to go with the State government's money into a welfare check now will be 
given to the State and they can decide what to do with it.
    So now it's up to the States. And this welfare reform movement has 
to shift in large measure to an argument at every State level. But if 
you've got a system like this one in Kansas City--and we know that's 
what the laboratories of democracies are supposed to do, we know this 
will work--then there is no excuse for every State not to do that.
    Yes, I'm going to try to get Congress to pass some more tax credits 
to give further incentives. Yes, I'm going to try to get Congress to set 
aside some funds for the cities where unemployment is critically high 
and there are more and more and more job applicants for the jobs that 
are open, to give some other kinds of work to people when their welfare 
time limit has run. But the main answer to this is for small, medium-
sized, and large businesses all across America to examine themselves and 
say, ``If I were to get this sort of help, shouldn't I stretch and put 
somebody on and give them a chance to move into the American 
mainstream.'' And the DLC ought to lead the fight because you've been up 
here, along with me, screaming for welfare reform for a decade. You have 
it. Now we have to do something with it, and I challenge you to do so.
    The fourth thing we have to do is to press our fight against gangs 
and guns and drugs and violence by finishing our community policing 
project, finishing the job of putting 100,000 police on the street, 
getting guns off the street and out of the hands of children, cracking 
down on violent teen gangs, and

[[Page 2486]]

teaching our children that drugs are wrong, illegal, and dangerous.
    Fifth, we must strengthen our families and help our people to 
succeed at home and at work. You know, when I go across the country and 
I talk to people from all walks of life, this is the one theme that 
continually comes up: How can I do a good job raising my children and a 
good job at my work? We have an obligation to help parents do that, 
first, by supporting them as they try to pass along their values to 
their children in an age in which children at younger and younger ages 
are exposed to different kinds of values.
    I think we should expand family leave in a very limited way so that 
parents can take some time off to go to regular parent-teacher 
conferences at school and to take their children to regular doctor's 
appointments, not just when they're desperately ill. I think we should 
give workers the choice of more flextime, so that when they work 
overtime they ought to have the choice to take the overtime in cash or 
time at home with the family if they need it.
    I believe we have to continue to help parents protect their children 
from harmful outside influences, whether they come from tobacco or 
television violence. I think we must fight continually, as we have, to 
protect the water our children drink, the air they breathe, the food 
they eat, and especially we must clean up two-thirds of the most 
dangerous toxic waste sites in the country over the next 4 years so that 
our children will be growing up next to parks, not poison.
    Sixth, we have to renew our democracy and--you want to clap for 
that? I'll stop. [Applause] Thank you. These Embassies are going fast. 
[Laughter]
    The sixth thing we have to do is to renew our democracy and restore 
the confidence of the American people in their Government by passing 
meaningful campaign finance reform legislation and modernizing 
Government operations. This will require consistent, disciplined, and 
honest effort. We know that the thing which has driven the cost of 
campaigns through the roof is the cost of communications, primarily 
television advertising, also radio advertising, direct mail, and other 
forms of communicating with the voters.
    We know that the actual enterprise of raising the money and the 
burden of spending it threatens to overwhelm other aspects of our 
electoral system. Anyone who has been part of this system, in a moment 
of candor must accept some responsibility for this and agree that it 
needs to change. There simply is too much money in our politics; it 
takes too much time to raise, and inevitably, it raises too many 
questions.
    We know from bitter experience, however, that this is one of these 
things that everybody's for in general but few are for in particular. We 
know from bitter experience that delay is the enemy of reform. Now, 
Senators McCain and Feingold have a plan that is real, bipartisan, and 
tough. Six times in recent years, just since I've been President, 
reasonable campaign finance reform has been killed by Senate 
filibusters. Now Congress should go on and pass campaign finance reform 
and pass it without delay. And we need a bipartisan coalition of 
business and community leaders to support the Congress and to demand 
that it be done. There are no more excuses. The people are finally 
focused on it; let's get the job done.
    But let me also say we cannot minimize the other reform effort that 
must continue, and that is the reinventing Government effort that has 
been headed so brilliantly by Vice President Gore for the last 4 years. 
The DLC was one of the first organizations to focus on the possibility 
of actually reforming our Government so that it could be downsized and 
improve the quality of its operations at the same time. That has largely 
been achieved because of the disciplined, sustained efforts that we have 
made. And I thank Elaine Kamarck in particular for her leadership in 
that regard.
    But we have more to do. We have some new tools, like the line-item 
veto, which can be helpful in that regard. But this is hard work. And it 
is not headline-grabbing work, but it makes a huge difference to whether 
we can balance the budget and have the funds to invest in our future and 
inspire confidence in the American people. So I urge the DLC to continue 
your emphasis on reinventing Government. It will never be a headline-
grabbing issue, but it will always be an important part of what we are 
trying to

[[Page 2487]]

do to prepare our country for the 21st century and to continue to 
increase the confidence of the American people that they're getting 
their money's worth from their investment in their National Government.
    Seventh, we must harness the remarkable forces of science and 
technology that are remaking our world. We must continue our mission to 
connect every classroom and library to the information superhighway by 
the year 2000. We must press on to develop the next generation of the 
Internet, to let universities send data to each other 1,000 times faster 
than today.
    We must continue to expand the mission of our laboratories and make 
sure they have a strong peacetime mission that is contributing to 
America's future. And we must continue to invest and do more in medical 
and scientific research so that we can do great things that are plainly 
within our grasp, like finding cures for cancer and AIDS. We can make 
this age of science and technology a true age of possibility for all the 
American people, but we must invest in it and do it wisely if we expect 
to get a return.
    Finally, we have to finish the mission of building new structures of 
peace and security around the world. We must complete the unfinished 
business of the cold war, building an undivided Europe of democracies at 
peace, with an expanded NATO and a strong NATO-Russian partnership; 
meeting the challenge of change in Asia with strength and steadiness; 
strengthening the hands of peace and democracy from Bosnia to the Middle 
East to Africa.
    We must combat the new threats we face in terrorism, international 
drug running and organized crime, the proliferation of weapons of mass 
destruction. And we cannot weaken in our efforts to open more of the 
world's markets to our goods and services, from Asia to Latin America.
    American trade is at an all-time high, with over 200 new trade 
agreements in the last 4 years alone--21 with Japan where our exports in 
those 21 areas have gone up 85 percent in 4 years--GATT, NAFTA, and many 
others. Our work now is no less important than the work that was done by 
the generation after World War II. We must create the structures of 
peace and security and the partnerships for peace and security and 
prosperity that will permit the American people to make the most of the 
21st century.
    Again, let me say the DLC can play an important role here. I think 
Senator Robb would admit that sometimes one of our most frustrating 
efforts as Democrats has been to convince our fellow Democrats that 
trade, if it's free and fair, is good for all the American people, and 
it's essential for America's future. Another frustration we have had is 
trying to get the public at large, that has shown so much interest and 
so much sophistication in economic and social issues, to understand the 
connections between our foreign and our domestic policies, our security 
policies and our economic policies.
    There are no more simple dividing lines between foreign and domestic 
in the world we're living in. We need your help to continue to raise 
public awareness of these fundamental facts, so that when decisions have 
to be taken in the area of foreign affairs they will resonate at home in 
the way that so many of the DLC ideas have resonated with the American 
people in domestic policy. And I hope you will pay some attention to 
that in the next year.
    Well, these are the great goals that I believe we must pursue if we 
are to prepare America for the 21st century. They must not only be 
pursued, they must be achieved. And what I want to say to you is, they 
can be achieved. But they can be achieved only if there is a vital 
American center, where there is cooperation across lines of party and 
philosophy.
    This is an irreplaceable moment for breaking new ground in America. 
All our political leaders say we will work together. The public wants us 
to work together. And our progress demands that we work together. I 
stand ready to forge a coalition of the center, a broad consensus for 
creative and consistent and unflinching action. And I invite people of 
good will of all parties, or no party, to join in this endeavor. I have 
spoken to Majority Leader Lott and Speaker Gingrich on several occasions 
since the election; I believe they share this mission. All of us have 
heard the voters' mandate in this election; we heard it again yesterday 
loud and clear in Texas.

[[Page 2488]]

But it is not enough to hear; now we must act.
    Let me make this final point. Now that the era of big Government is 
over, we clearly need a new kind of national leadership, leadership that 
does not rely alone on Washington's answers because the changes in the 
economy, the changes in technology, the changes in information and 
communication make it possible for people to be more empowered at lower 
levels of government and lower levels of business, indeed, individually 
and in their own families. But we must also recognize that the very 
changes that are empowering people to move apart from each other require 
us to work together in teams if we are to maximize the benefits of the 
opportunities before us.
    Therefore, our Nation's leaders must chart a new course that calls 
upon people to think about their own responsibilities more and what new 
patterns of partnership we will have. Among other things, we have got to 
make a decision to cherish and respect our diversity instead of using it 
as a wedge to divide the American people. That is killing other 
countries, and we cannot tolerate it here.
    For all of our differences, we have to identify the challenges we 
face in common as Americans and find ways to go after them in common. We 
must mobilize people in every walk of life to meet those challenges, and 
we must shine a spotlight on what works anywhere in America so that it 
can be adopted everywhere in America. And all of our citizens must be 
willing to serve. The nearly 70,000 Americans who have served in 
AmeriCorps, the national service program so long championed by the DLC, 
have proven that we can do great things together.
    If we are all willing to serve, we will build a new faith in 
ourselves and in our ability to meet our challenges and protect our 
values. In so doing, we will build a new faith in America. Today I 
pledge to you that I will do everything in my power to summon that sense 
of responsibility from our people. My job does not end in Washington; it 
only begins here. So when business and communities join together to 
provide jobs for welfare recipients, I will be there as I was in Kansas 
City to tell every American community they must do the same. When 
parents and State legislators work to establish and uphold the toughest 
standards for our schools, I will be there. When communities band 
together to bring values, discipline, and hope to their children through 
school uniforms or imposing curfews or enforcing truancy laws, I will 
continue to be there.
    I intend to spend the next 4 years doing everything I can to help 
communities to help themselves, to educate all Americans about what is 
working and to create, in the process, a national community of purpose. 
The progress we have made already should prove to all of us that when we 
apply our oldest values to our newest challenges, we can master this 
moment of change.
    It will require us, however, to believe that our fellow Americans 
are capable of doing this. National standards and local reform requires 
you to believe all children can learn. Welfare reform requires you to 
believe that everybody is capable of being responsible and working if 
they have the mental and physical wherewithal to do it.
    And I just want to leave you with this little story. Before I came 
over here this morning, I had the National Advisory Committee--that was 
actually started under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson--on Mental Health 
come in and give me two of their reports. John Kennedy, Jr., was one of 
the members. But the most impressive member today was a young woman from 
New Hampshire with Down's syndrome. And I appointed the first two people 
with mental retardation to the board.
    So this young girl comes in, shakes my hand, tells me where she's 
from, gives me a letter, gives me a resume, tells me what I need to do, 
and then says, ``And I want you to have one of my buttons.'' And it 
said, ``Down's syndrome'' on it, and ``Down'' was marked out, and it had 
``Up'' on it. Does that person have limits on what she can achieve? 
Sure, there are some. So do I. So do you. But if you spend all your time 
thinking about it, you won't think about what will be up instead of 
down. You must believe in the potential of the American people. We 
cannot afford to patronize each other with cynicism.
    And finally, we cannot afford to continue the politics of personal 
destruction and divi

[[Page 2489]]

sion that have taken too much of the lifeblood of this country already. 
Shortly before he died, the late Cardinal Bernardin, who Hillary and I 
had the privilege to know and revere, gave a remarkable speech about 
reconciling the conflicts within the Catholic Church over great issues 
in a way that would permit people to disagree honestly to try to 
preserve reconciliation. And he said this, knowing that his death was 
imminent: ``It is wrong to waste the precious gift of time given to us 
on acrimony and division.''
    My fellow Americans, for all the problems of this country, we have 
been given more from God than any nation in history. And at this moment 
in history, we have more opportunities and more responsibilities than 
ever before. To make this democracy work, we must create a vital and 
dynamic center that is a place of action. We cannot waste the precious 
gift of this moment.
    You have worked hard to create that vital center. Anchored by our 
oldest convictions, strengthened by our newest successes, certain of our 
national purpose, let us go forward from that center to build our bridge 
to the 21st century.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 12:50 p.m. at the Sheraton Washington 
Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Bernard Schwartz, event chairman; 
Gov. Roy Romer of Colorado; Al From, executive director, Democratic 
Leadership Council; and Mark Penn and Doug Schoen of Penn+Schoen 
Associates.