[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 3 (Monday, January 25, 1999)]
[Pages 70-73]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner

January 15, 1999

    Thank you very much. Robert left his cards up here, so I'm going to 
take them home and put them in my keepsake album. [Laughter] If he ever 
gets mad at me, I'll call him on the phone and read this speech back to 
him. [Laughter]
    I want to thank all of you for being here and for being there for 
Hillary, for me, for Al and Tipper, for our administration over all 
these last years and especially during the last year. I'm going to miss 
Steve Grossman and his team at the DNC. I thank Len Barrack. I thank 
Carol Pensky--this is her last event. And I thank Steve. They took the 
helm of a party that was troubled and made it far from troubled in 2 
years.
    I want to thank all the staff members who have been here. I have in 
some ways the most sympathy for this group of people because they have 
to hear me give the same speech over and over and over again. [Laughter] 
And I want to thank the members of the administration who are here, and 
Congressman Dingell and Debbie, thank you for being here; Governor Ann 
Richards, who made some of my campaign stops in the '98 campaign even 
more memorable than normal. [Laughter]
    I want to say a special word of thanks, as Hillary did, to Sheryl 
Crow, who is a good friend, a good Democrat, and an unbelievable artist. 
And she's getting better every single year--unbelievable.
    Hillary said that we met Robert and Lynda in 1983, actually just 
before they got married, at the Kentucky Derby. It was an amazing event. 
I'd never been before and actually have never gotten a chance to go back 
since. But it was the last year in office of Governor John Y. Brown--all 
of you will remember how sort of staid and laid back John Y. Brown is. 
[Laughter] He had Al Hirt playing at the breakfast before the--``My Old 
Kentucky Home.'' And all I remember about the Kentucky Derby is that I 
was perfectly sure what horse would win, and the only person in this 
vast party John Y. Brown had assembled who would bet on the horse I 
recommended was Lynda Carter. And I have been for them ever since, 
whatever the issue is. [Laughter] Oh, and the horse won by three 
lengths.
    I really admire them both for so many reasons. It's not easy to do 
this--to sort of get out front, get your friends here. Some of you came 
all the way across the country to be here because they asked you. And I 
appreciate that and hope the weather is not so bad you can't get back. 
Those of us who are in Washington don't want anybody to be trapped here 
who doesn't want to be. [Laughter] We all came here voluntarily, but we 
want you to be able to leave and come, to go as you please. [Laughter]
    Finally, let me say, you can't imagine--you know, Al and Tipper and 
Hillary and I, we've done a lot of campaigning together. We did in '92; 
we did in '96; we do a few events together now, even though our lives 
are considerably busier, and often with conflicting schedules. But I 
think that one of the real secrets of whatever success that we've had 
for the American people has been that we have really tried to be a team; 
we've tried to be friends; we've tried to be family; and we've tried to 
be frank with each other. And each person has made a unique 
contribution. And then we've tried to model that in dealing with the 
Democratic Party and the House and the Senate groups and all of our 
friends

[[Page 71]]

around the country that are involved in whatever initiative we're 
involved in. It seems to me, that's the way people ought to live, but it 
turns out it's a fairly effective way to do business.
    And I think it's fair to say that Tipper Gore has given the mental 
health issue more visibility than it's ever had on the national stage, 
and it will have an enduring, positive impact. I think it's clear to 
anybody who has looked at it that whatever even my harshest critics 
would have to say, that the Vice President has been far and away--not 
even close--the most influential person in his position over more 
issues, achieving more for the American people than anyone who has ever 
held his position in the entire history of the Republic. Not only that, 
as you will hear me say increasingly in the months ahead, and any 
mistakes we made were my fault. [Laughter]
    Of course, I don't even know how to talk about what I believe 
Hillary has meant to the success of our endeavors. She's been on every 
continent. She's gone to places most people in her position don't go, 
both in America and beyond our borders, into little villages in Africa 
and Asia and Latin America and the Indian subcontinent, to talk to women 
and their children--especially their daughters--about what their lives 
can be and what we should do to help them. She's gone all over America 
to save the Star-Spangled Banner and Thomas Edison's lab and Harriet 
Tubman's home and the national treasures that we believe we should hold 
close to our hearts as we move toward the millennium. And just a 
thousand other things. And she has done it under circumstances I think 
are probably more difficult than anyone who has ever done it before. I 
love her for it, but our country should love her for it as well. It's 
been remarkable.
    You know, I keep hearing that books and books and books will be 
written on how we won seats in the midterm election in 1998. Since the 
Civil War, the President's party has only won midterm elections under 
Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, each in their first midterm election--
and, as you heard, not since 1822, in the sixth year. And I can save you 
a lot of reading--it is not complicated. We showed up for work every 
day, and we remembered who we were working for. And we wanted power not 
to just have it and exercise it against anybody but just to use it for a 
little while to advance the American people's dreams.
    It is not complicated. And we had people like you who helped us 
raise enough money that even though we were outspent by $100 million, we 
at least had enough to get our message out. And we said, ``Look, we work 
for you. Here's where our country is; here's where we're going; here's 
what we'd like to do.'' It was not complicated.
    We're proud to be members of our party, but we believe progress 
should take precedence over partisanship. We believe unity should take 
precedence over division. We believe political power should be used with 
purpose to advance the lives of people only. And if you give us a little 
help, we will, now that the country is working again--and the economy is 
perhaps the best in history and the welfare rolls are the lowest in 29 
years, and the crime rate is the lowest in 28 years, and we've got the 
lowest peacetime unemployment since 1957--now that the country is 
working again, we would like to look to the long-term challenges of 
America.
    We would like to deal with the aging of America by saving Social 
Security and Medicare and thinking about other things so that we baby 
boomers don't have to burden our children and our grandchildren when we 
retire. We would like to look to the flowering of our children, the 
largest and most diverse group of schoolchildren we've ever had, and 
make sure that every one of them has a chance to have a world-class 
education.
    We would like to look to the strength of our families and make sure 
that they have health care that is adequate, affordable, and quality 
health care, which is why we want this Patients' Bill of Rights. We 
would like to continue to grow the economy under increasingly 
competitive and difficult conditions. We would like to remain the 
world's strongest force for peace and freedom and prosperity. And we 
think we have the obligation to do that, which is what our efforts in 
the Middle East and Northern Ireland and Bosnia and Kosovo and other 
places in the world are all about.

[[Page 72]]

    And if that's what you want us to do, we're ready to try harder, but 
we need a little help. That's what we said.
    Now, on Tuesday night I will be given the great honor that comes to 
the President once a year to report on the State of the Union, and then 
to amplify in greater detail what this agenda means and what I hope we 
can accomplish in a bipartisan manner in the Congress in the coming 
years. But when you go home tonight and you ask yourselves why you came 
and what you believe in, I hope--whether it was worth your time and your 
money--I hope you will be proud of what has happened in these last 6 
years. But I hope you'll also be determined to make the most of the days 
ahead.
    This 6-year thing is arbitrary. It gets in people's minds, gets in 
administrations' minds, and they think, ``Oh, well, I'm 75 percent 
through.'' I think there's still 25 percent of the time left. Just a 
question of how you look at it. And in the rhythm of life, it seems to 
me that you get hired to show up every day. And I get the same daily 
wage now I did on the first day I was President, so it seems to me I 
ought to put in the same level of effort.
    But if I could say in a more serious vein in closing, there are many 
reasons that I am a member of this party, besides the fact that my 
granddaddy would turn over in his grave if I weren't. [Laughter] And we 
could talk about that all night. But on the eve of the new millennium, 
when we're living in a new world economy and an increasingly new world 
society, when you are communicating with each other in different ways 
and people are living and working in different ways, when there are vast 
prospects for us coming together with different kinds of people, and 
also new threats because of our increasing openness and interconnection 
with the rest of the world, there are three basic things I'd like for 
you to remember, because I hope it says what we're about.
    One is, we honestly believe that no person is better than any other, 
and that every child in this country, without regard to race or religion 
or station in life or circumstance, ought to have the chance to live up 
to his or her God-given abilities. And the role of government should be 
to create the conditions and give them the tools, and give their parents 
the support, so that they have a chance to do it.
    Two is, we honestly believe that none of those individuals can make 
the most of their lives alone, and that our membership in a community 
will enrich our own lives as it enriches others.
    Today was Martin Luther King's 70th birthday. Some of the most 
brilliant things he ever said were about the importance of community; 
about how, no matter how brilliant you are, no matter how strong you 
are, no matter how rich you are, no matter how whatever you are, your 
life can only take on full meaning and texture if you are part of a 
community. And that's why I have worked so hard against all the 
divisions of the country to make us one America.
    And number three is that the essence of our democracy is that the 
people rule, and those of us who are elected are literally 
representatives of them--whether in a representative branch of Congress 
or in the executive branch of the President, the power we exercise every 
day is not ours. We exercise it on behalf of the country as a whole. And 
its only legitimate purpose is to advance all those little children out 
there and living up to their God-given abilities, and advance our 
efforts to come together as one America, and to advance our efforts to 
meeting the challenges and seize the opportunities of our time.
    Our administration has been about that. Every day has been a joy. 
Even the bad days have been an honor. And I believe America is better 
off. And Tuesday night I'm going to ask the country to go back to work, 
because we've still got a lot to do.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:30 p.m. in the foyer at the Corcoran 
Gallery of Art. In his remarks, he referred to event hosts Robert Altman 
and his wife, Lynda Carter; Steve Grossman, national chair, Leonard 
Barrack, national finance chair, and Carol Pensky, treasurer, Democratic 
National Committee; Deborah Dingell, wife of Congressman John D. 
Dingell; former Gov. Ann Richards of Texas; and musician Sheryl Crow. 
This item was not received in time for publication in the appropriate 
issue.

[[Page 73]]