[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 28 (Monday, July 19, 1999)]
[Pages 1353-1360]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner in Coral Gables, 
Florida

July 13, 1999

    Well, thank you very much. I must say I have had a wonderful time in 
south Florida today, as I always do. I got to speak to the 
communications workers convention earlier today, and then I got to play 
golf with some of you in this room. I didn't play all that well, but I 
had a good time anyway. [Laughter] And now Coach Riley is giving me this 
Miami Heat gear, and I might say Hillary will be very jealous of me. She 
thinks that Pat Riley is the best looking person in the NBA. [Laughter] 
And we're thrilled by the success that you've had down here, Coach.
    I have so many friends in this room, and I hesitate to even start to 
say any, but let me begin by saying, Alfie, you were there for me from 
the beginning, and you've been there--we've gone through some difficult 
times. And I want to thank you personally for the extraordinary effort 
that you made, with Mitch Berger and others, to resolve this issue of 
where we would go and how we would save the Florida Everglades. And now 
I think we're going to do it, and I thank all of you for being involved 
in this. I thank you.
    I want to thank Attorney General Butterworth and Marta for being 
here, and Bill and Grace Nelson. And I almost never ran without 
opposition; I guess Bill's going to get through the primary without any. 
That's pretty impressive. That's the best way to run, I think. I want to 
say to all of you, that's a profoundly important race in 2000. We have a 
lot of highly competitive United States Senate races. And who wins will 
have a lot to do with what our country will be able to accomplish in the 
first 3 or 4 or 5 years of the next millennium.
    I want to thank Representative Carrie Meek and Representative Alcee 
Hastings for being here, and I want to thank them for their wonderful 
support over the years. I want to thank my good friend Adele Graham for 
being here--and with her daughter and her about-to-be grandchild--
[laughter]--and her son-in-law. Thank you. Bob was reminding me, their 
10th grandchild--it doesn't seem--I knew Bob and Adele when their kids 
were maybe not even all in high school. It seems impossible to me that 
they have, or are about to have 10 grandchildren.
    I'm here tonight also because this State's been very good to me, 
from 1991, in December, when I won the Florida straw poll, thanks to a 
number of you in this room, including Representative Elaine Bloom--I 
hope you're going to send her to Congress to join Terry. Pat was telling 
me he wanted to make sure the Democrats targeted Florida in the year 
2000 because I argued with all the Democratic Party people in '92, I 
said, ``We can win Florida.'' They said, ``You're crazy.'' And we nearly 
did, in spite of everything. I think we spent $3.50 here in 1992--
[laughter]--and took a lot out and nearly won anyway. And in '96--we had 
our first campaign meeting in 1995. I said there was one issue over 
which we will have no argument. The first meeting, 5 minutes into the 
first meeting, I said, ``This year we're going after Florida, and we 
will win.'' And thanks to you, we did. And I thank all of you. So I'm 
very, very grateful to all of you for that.
    And I'm also here because Charlie 
Whitehead has been my friend a long time. I'll tell you an interesting 
story. It's a little bit about human nature that you never forget. I 
first came to Florida to give a speech in 1981. Now, when I was invited 
to Florida to give a speech by Charlie Whitehead in 1981, he thought he 
was inviting the youngest Governor in America. Then we had the Reagan 
landslide, and it turned out he was inviting the youngest ex-Governor--
[laughter]--in the entire history of the Republic, you know? [Laughter] 
You can't imagine what it was like back then unless you went through it, 
man. [Laughter] Our friends on the other side, some of them are fairly 
coldblooded, and the guy that defeated me terrorized--I had 
contributors, people I had actually appointed to office who were afraid 
to speak to me on the street. True story.
    So I was rather amazed that anybody still wanted me to come to 
Florida and get a suntan. And so I came and I made the best little talk 
I could. Then I got reelected, and he invited me back in '83. And then I 
got to come back in '87--so I became a regular fixture at the Florida 
Democratic Convention, and I came to love it very much.

[[Page 1354]]

    But I'll never forget the fact that when I was down and out and I 
didn't think I'd ever get invited to the smallest Rotary Club in my 
State again and my career prospects were something less than bright, 
Charlie Whitehead still wanted me to come to Florida to give a speech. 
And I will never, ever forget it, and I thank you.
    Alfie told you why he's a Democrat. I thought he made a remarkable 
statement. Somebody asked me the other day what I thought about Governor 
Bush raising $36 million. I said it just proves I didn't discriminate in 
my economic policies--they benefited the Republicans, too. [Laughter] 
And as far as I'm concerned, they can spend their money any way they 
wanted to. That was not part of my deal, but we helped to make it.
    I've got a friend in New York who's a very wealthy and successful 
businessman, an ardent Democrat, who's now going to every person he 
knows on Wall Street and saying, ``Look, if you paid more taxes in 1993 
than you made in the stock market, support the Republicans.'' [Laughter] 
``But if you made more money than you paid in taxes, you better stay 
with us, and it will keep going.'' So you might remember that, you all, 
when you're out there moseying around. [Laughter] You don't even have to 
give me credit for it. Just sort of mosey around and say it. [Laughter]
    Anyway, I've had a wonderful relationship with this State. The last 
time I was here I was at the Garys' home, and what a wonderful night we 
had there with so many of their friends. And we had great music--I think 
he had the Drifters there, and Willie got up and sang with them. He 
could actually leave his day job, unlike me. [Laughter]
    I want to say just a few things to you tonight. I spent most of the 
1980's, except for my brief period out of office, as a Governor. My 
seatmate for most of that time was Bob Graham. I think I served with 150 
Governors. If you asked me to make a list of the five best I served 
with, he would certainly be on that list.
    But we had an interesting time of it in the 1980's, in that 
Republican ascendancy when we were out here in our States trying to make 
our schools better, trying to generate income, trying to build a future. 
And I spent a lot of time thinking about what makes America work, what 
were the challenges of our country, what should the Federal Government 
do, and what shouldn't it do. And in 1991, when I decided to seek the 
Presidency, I had thought for years and years and years not so much 
about what I would do but what I thought our country should do. And one 
of the reasons that I've been very pleased with the Vice President's 
campaign is that alone among all the people running in both parties, he 
is the only person who said, ``Now, before I tell you that I want you to 
vote for me, I want you to know what I intend to do if I get elected.'' 
And I think that's pretty important.
    And so I said to the American people, I didn't think our country was 
headed in the right direction for the 21st century. Unemployment was 
high; social problems were worsening; there was a sense of drift in the 
country. And I asked the American people basically to embrace a vision 
of politics that was premised on some simple ideas. One is that we ought 
to be committed to opportunity for every citizen who was responsible 
enough to deserve it. The second was that we ought to be committed to 
building a community that embraced every law-abiding American without 
regard to whatever differences they had in their God-given 
characteristics or their choices in life. The third was that the 
Government of our country ought to be smaller, but more active, and 
ought to be focused not on trying to solve all the problems but being a 
good partner, giving people the tools they need to solve their own 
problems and live their own dreams.
    And I said if we did the right things and embraced some new ideas, I 
really believe that we could go into the 21st century with the American 
dream alive and well for everyone, with America coming closer together 
instead of drifting further apart, and with our country still the 
world's leading force for peace and freedom and prosperity around the 
world.
    Well, 6\1/2\ years later, I have been profoundly gratified by what 
has happened. Our country has nearly 19 million new jobs; the longest 
peacetime expansion in history; a 26-year low in crime; a 30-year low in 
the welfare rolls; declining rates of teen pregnancy,

[[Page 1355]]

teen smoking, teen drug abuse; 90 percent of our kids immunized against 
serious childhood diseases for the first time in our history; the 
highest homeownership in history; the lowest minority unemployment rates 
ever recorded; 100,000 young people have served our country and their 
communities through AmeriCorps and earned some money to go to college. 
We changed the tax laws now so that through tax credits we've really, 
literally, opened the doors of college to anyone who's willing to work 
for it. We set aside more land for preservation than any administration 
in the history of this country, except those of Franklin and Theodore 
Roosevelt. The air is cleaner; the water is cleaner; the food is safer. 
And we've been a force for peace in the Middle East to Northern Ireland 
to Bosnia and Kosovo. It has been a wonderful ride. And for the role 
that all of you had in it, I am grateful.
    Why am I here tonight? I'm not running for anything. I'm here 
tonight for two reasons. Number one, I don't want the country to go on 
idle for the next year and a half while everybody plays games about the 
next election. There's plenty of work to do, and everybody in Washington 
is still drawing a salary from you; therefore, we are expected to show 
up for work every day. I do, and I want everybody else to do the same. 
And there are some big challenges out there.
    The second reason is--and I will talk more about that in a minute--
the second reason is, it is very important that we build the strength of 
the Democratic Party at the grassroots level so that every person can 
answer the question Alfie answered, each in your own way. Why are you 
here tonight? You're going to go about your life tomorrow morning. 
You'll come in contact with all different kinds of people. People ask 
you, ``Why did you come?'' You might say, ``Well, it is a beautiful 
house.'' [Laughter] That would be a good reason to come, but it won't 
persuade anybody else. You need to know--and you can tell them what I 
just told you--that this is working.
    And when people make their judgments in 2000, no one should believe 
that you're just riding on a clean slate, that there's no connection 
between the candidates and their ideas and what they're committed to and 
the consequences that will flow to the country. You can see it today in 
Washington.
    We're debating the Patients' Bill of Rights. Two hundred 
organizations have embraced the bill unanimously supported by the 
Democratic Senators, unanimously supported by our side: The American 
Medical Association and all of the other major doctors groups, the 
American Nurses Association and all of the other major health care 
groups, all the major consumer groups. The health insurers are on the 
other side. Why? They think it will erode their profits. And they're 
claiming--they're telling the American people that all these people that 
are in managed care plans, if we guarantee basic fundamental rights that 
we ought to be able to take for granted, your premiums will explode. 
This is just one of the issues that's before us.
    What are those rights? Most of us probably have good health care; we 
don't have to worry about it. But I'm telling you, millions and millions 
and millions of people who are in managed care today do not know whether 
they can get to see a specialist if their doctor tells them they need 
it, or whether some accountant can tell them no, they can't. There are 
people in managed care plans today that if--God forbid--they should go 
outside and get hit by a car, they would have to go by one or two 
hospitals before they would finally get to a hospital emergency room 
covered by the plan. That's not right. When people are hurt, they ought 
to go to the nearest health care, not the farthest, because it's 
covered. There are people today who work for small businesses who, if 
the small business changes their health provider while a woman is 6 
months pregnant, no matter how difficult the pregnancy, or a woman or a 
man is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, might be told in the middle 
of the treatment they have to change physicians. And I don't think 
that's right.
    Now, the Congressional Budget Office, which until this moment--until 
this very moment--from the day they got into the majority, the 
Republicans have said is the end-all and be-all, the authority on 
everything having anything to do with money. You ask Alcee and Carrie. 
They tell us every time, you know, whatever they say is what we do. So 
they said if we guarantee these rights to all

[[Page 1356]]

Americans, it might--it might--raise health insurance premiums by as 
much as $2 a month. I think it's worth it to see a cardiologist or to 
keep your pediatrician or to keep your obstetrician or to stop at the 
nearest emergency room. There is no reason in the world that we 
shouldn't.
    And it's another--going back to what Alfie said--my premise is, if 
you do what's right for the people, the country tends to do pretty well. 
Those of us who have been blessed with the means to make money or with 
good educations or with good positions in life, we tend to do pretty 
well, regardless--but we do a whole lot better when everybody else does 
well.
    We have a big decision to make. Are we going to deal with the 
challenge of the aging of America now that we have this surplus? Did you 
ever think we'd be debating what to do with a surplus? [Laughter] When I 
took office the deficit was $290 billion; the debt total had quadrupled 
in the previous 12 years; we were spending 15 cents plus every dollar of 
your tax money on interest payments on the debt. Elaine will go to 
Congress, and first thing she'll have to do--she has all these things 
she'd like to do for you, whether it's investing money or giving you tax 
relief or you name it. Well, the first thing she has to do is to figure 
out how much of every dollar you pay in taxes you've got to take right 
off the top just to pay interest on the debt.
    So now we have this surplus. And I'm gratified that there seems to 
be agreement between both parties that we ought to take that portion of 
the surplus that's produced by your Social Security taxes and set it 
aside for Social Security. Now, how we do that will make all the 
difference. But they want to spend the rest of it on a tax cut. And you 
know, it's getting close to election and I'm sure it's popular, but I'd 
like to tell you what the consequences of that will be.
    If we do it, there will be no new money put into Medicare. There's a 
representative here tonight who told me he worked for a hospital and the 
hospital already is out $6 million this year because we cut Medicare too 
much in the balanced budget amendment for a lot of urban hospitals that 
deal with a lot of poor people. That's true with a lot of teaching 
hospitals, a lot of university hospitals.
    I propose to put 15 percent of the surplus into Medicare, provide a 
prescription drug benefit, to provide free preventative services so 
older people will go in and get all these tests and screenings and 
prevent themselves from getting sick. It doesn't make any sense for us--
we don't pay for the preventive screenings, so people don't get them. 
Then they get sick, they go to the hospital, they cost 10 times as much, 
and we pay for that. Better to keep people well. So that's what I think 
we ought to do.
    I also don't think we ought to cut education or our investments in 
medical research or technology or the environment or defense by the 25 
to 35 percent it would cost to fund this program over the next decade. I 
think that's a mistake. I think that's a mistake.
    But we have offered the American people a sizable tax cut, targeted 
at child care, to long-term care if your family needs it, to help all 
families save more for their retirement, to help build world-class 
schools, to give people the same incentives to invest in poor 
neighborhoods in our inner cities and rural areas. You saw me visiting 
some of them last week at our Native American reservations.
    I think they ought to have--every one of you in this room with money 
ought to have the same incentives to invest in those areas that you get 
today to invest in poor areas overseas. I'm not against that; I'm glad 
we invest in the Caribbean and Latin America and Asia and Africa. But I 
believe you ought to have those same incentives to invest in the Indian 
reservations, in the Mississippi Delta, in Appalachia, in inner cities 
in Florida, in New York, in California, and wherever else in this great 
country of ours. I think it's important.
    Let met just say one other thing. If my plan gets adopted, we'll 
save most of this surplus for Social Security and Medicare. As we save 
it, our debt will go down, because we don't have to spend it right away. 
We'll run Social Security's Trust Fund out until 2053; we'll run 
Medicare out to 2027--it will be the first time in everybody's memory 
that it's been stable for that long. We'll be able to handle the 
retirement of the baby boom generation. The interest payments on the 
debt

[[Page 1357]]

will go down, and we'll take the savings on the interest and put it into 
Social Security. And, guess what? For the first time since 1835, in 15 
years this country will be debt-free.
    Now, why--and I'd like to tell you all, particularly those of you 
who are younger and have young children, why that's important. I predict 
to you that 10 years from now, when your 10 grandchildren are all 
getting up there, it will be the conventional wisdom all around the 
world that wealthy countries ought to be debt-free. Why? Because we live 
in a global economy; this money moves around; the interest rates are set 
by global movement. All of you know this.
    If we are out of public debt, what it means is, interest rates in 
America will be lower. That means more business investment, higher 
business profits, more money for more jobs, and higher wage increases. 
It means ordinary people have lower home mortgages, lower car payments, 
lower credit card payments, lower college loan payments. It means that 
our children and our grandchildren will have a more stable economy. It 
means when the world gets in trouble like it did 2 years ago in Asia and 
there's a terrible financial crisis, we won't have to worry about it 
because we won't be borrowing money. And our friends we want to help 
will be able to get the money they need at a lower cost. This is a huge 
deal.
    Now, all of this takes more time to explain than somebody saying, 
``Look, I'm going to take this surplus and put the part paid by Social 
Security into that and give the rest back to you in a tax cut.'' That 
just took me 5 seconds to say. It sounds great. But keep in mind, I'm 
not running for anything. But I do want to able to bring my 
grandchildren to Florida someday and show them the things that I did 
when I was a young man here, and tell them the stories about what you 
did for me and know they're living in America that is having its best 
days.
    And I'm telling you, did you ever think we'd be sitting here having 
a national debate about what to do with the surplus? We can have a tax 
cut. The question is, how big can it be and still allow us to fulfill 
our fundamental responsibilities to make sure America is the strongest 
country in the world in the 21st century and every American, without 
regard to race or religion, has a chance to live out their dreams? This 
is the question before the Congress today. That is the question before 
the American people today.
    I'm going to do my dead-level-best to work with the Republicans. I 
have told the Democrats, and I think almost all of them agree with me, 
that we should do this. There will be still plenty we disagree with by 
the 2000 election--take it from me. [Laughter]
    Florida is not known--for example, we have a 26 year low in the 
crime rate, right? Part of the reason is we put 100,000 police on the 
street, and we passed the Brady bill, which has kept 400,000 people with 
criminal records from getting handguns. Now, when we passed the Brady 
bill, I remember what the Republican leaders and the NRA said. They 
said, ``This is a worthless bill because those criminals do not buy guns 
in gun stores; they get all their guns at gun shows and flea markets and 
stuff like that.'' So we passed the Brady bill--turned out they were 
wrong--400,000 people who shouldn't have handguns were trying to buy 
them at gun stores. And that's one of the reasons the crime rate has 
gone down.
    But now we said, ``Hey, you guys might have been right. Let's close 
the gun show loophole. Let's do the background checks at the gun shows 
and the flea markets.'' They said, ``Oh, goodness, we couldn't do 
that,'' even though they told us 4 years ago that's where the criminals 
are buying the guns. Florida, no flaming liberal State, right? 
[Laughter] Left-wing, pinko Florida voted 72 percent in the last 
election to close the gun show loophole. We can't close it in the 
Congress for the country. Why? Because the leadership of the other party 
and the NRA won't let the rank-and-file Republicans vote for it. That's 
the truth.
    In the Senate, 98 percent of our side voted to do it, and 90 percent 
of theirs voted against it. In the House, 75 percent--almost 78 percent 
of our side voted to do it, and 85 percent of the their side voted 
against it. There are real, significant partisan differences here--on 
the Patients' Bill of Rights, on how to keep America safe, and other 
things.

[[Page 1358]]

    But you know, we'll all going to get older. The baby boom is going 
to age. There will be twice as many people over 65 in the year 2030 as 
there are today. And whether we like it or not, we Democrats are going 
to get old just like the Republicans. [Laughter] And we are never going 
to have another time like this in our lifetime. We should not wait to 
save Social Security, to save Medicare, and to get this country out of 
debt. We shouldn't wait; we don't need to do that. We shouldn't wait to 
pass the Patients' Bill of Rights. We shouldn't wait to continue the 
improvements in education that we've worked so hard on the last several 
years. There will be plenty to argue about in 2000. So I hope we can do 
it.
    But you ask me why I'm a Democrat. I'm a Democrat partly for the 
reason Alfie is. When ordinary citizens in this country do well, when 
poor people have a chance to work their way into in the middle class, 
the rest of us who have been gifted and blessed and are lucky as sin, we 
do just fine, even better than we would if those folks were in trouble, 
first of all.
    Secondly, life is about more than money. And when we live in harmony 
with our friends and neighbors, when we have a feeling that our society 
is just and moving in the right direction, when we know that people who 
are less fortunate than we are are going to have a chance to live out 
their dreams, and when we come into more contact with more different 
kinds of people, life is more fun, more interesting, and more rewarding. 
So all those things are terribly important to me. And when they ask you 
why you came tomorrow, say you came because of those things. Say you 
came because our ideas worked. And say you came because what we're 
fighting for now is right.
    Let me just say a few words--Alfie asked me to talk about the Cuban 
issue and the unfortunate incident with the people who were trying to 
come here. I'd like to put it into a larger context. One of the most 
frustrating things to me as President--people say all the time I'm a 
reasonably good communicator, but I don't think I've succeeded in 
convincing the American people entirely that America is living in a 
world that's increasingly interdependent and that our prosperity and our 
security and the quality of our life is more and more caught up with how 
we relate to other people throughout the world.
    I'm proud of the fact that we stopped the ethnic cleansing and 
slaughter in Bosnia in 1995, and I'm proud of the fact that we didn't 
let it go on for 2\1/2\ years before we stopped it in Kosovo. And that's 
a long way away. And you may say, ``Well, that's a long way away.'' I 
mean, it's amazing--we lost no pilots in combat. They had far fewer 
civilian casualties than we would have had if there had been some 
massive invasion. But over 650,000 of those people have already gone 
home. Vaclav Havel, the great Czech President, great hero of liberty and 
human rights, said it was the most moral, selfless war ever fought, 
because the people who carried it forward--we didn't want anything; we 
didn't want territory; we didn't want power; we didn't want money. All 
we wanted was to create a world in which Europe could live without 
people being killed because of the way they worship God or because of 
their race or ethnic background.
    We're trying to set up the same systems that will prevent that from 
happening in Africa. We're working today to diffuse the conflict between 
India and Pakistan. We're looking forward--I'm eager as a kid with a new 
toy for the meeting I'm going to have with the new Israeli Prime 
Minister this weekend, in the hope that we can begin to energize the 
peace process in the Middle East on terms that are just and fair and 
will guarantee genuine security for Israel and a way of living for the 
Palestinians that will bring reconciliation and a resolution of all 
these issues with Syria so that there can be peace in the Middle East. 
These are things I believe in, just like I believe we were right to 
expand trade.
    I haven't convinced everybody in my party we were right about that. 
But if you think about it, we're 4 percent of the world's people; we've 
got 22 percent of the world's income. There's no way for us to keep 22 
percent of the world's income unless we sell something to the other 96 
percent of the world's people. To me, it's not rocket science, and I 
know there are difficulties, but we have to do it.
    Now, one of the things that I've tried to do as President is to be 
more active with the

[[Page 1359]]

Caribbean and with Latin America. I'm trying to pass a Caribbean Basin 
Initiative through the Congress that will enable us to be better 
neighbors to our friends in the Caribbean.
    I have had now the opportunity to participate in two Summits of the 
Americas. Every country in the Caribbean and Latin America is a 
democracy but Cuba, and it is a continuing frustration to us. We have an 
embargo, a tough embargo that's even tougher than it was before those 
people were shot out of the sky. And you remember that, just a few years 
ago, which led to the passage of the new legislation. There is no 
question that they were flat out killed illegally. It was wrong.
    So what we have tried to do recently is to be firm with the 
Government of Cuba and make it clear that we can't be forthcoming until 
they change, but that we want to help the people of Cuba and their 
suffering and keep families here in communication, one with another. One 
of the most difficult things has been how to handle the people that want 
to get away, particularly when you know, well, from time to time they've 
been used as a political weapon.
    So a few years ago, we reached an understanding with Cuba, and we've 
tried to use the Coast Guard, as Alfie said, as a lifesaver. We have, 
completely independent of that--and you should know this--completely 
independent of what is happening with Cuba, the United States has had 
more and more and more people come to this country, principally in 
California and New York, under the control of alien smugglers, cruel 
people who enslave people and bring them here.
    So the Coast Guard, in part, I think, has tried to react more to try 
to cut down on alien smuggling. But what happened with the way those 
people were sprayed and all that, it was outrageous. I want you to know 
it was not an authorized policy. None of us knew anything about it in 
Washington until we saw it on the news or read it in the newspapers, 
just like you did. We have taken vigorous steps to make sure it does not 
happen again, and the incident is being thoroughly investigated.
    So now we have to look and see whether or not the policy we have is 
manageable, given the problems that we're facing. But we still have to 
try to have a legal, orderly process by which people come from Cuba to 
the United States.
    A few years ago, I expanded the number of people who could legally 
get visas to come here to 20,000 a year, and we are reviewing this whole 
situation now in light of what has happened. But I do believe that the 
general statements Alfie made at the beginning are the correct ones. We 
have to try to keep the movement here orderly, safe, and legal, and we 
have to look at the new challenges that have been presented to us. But I 
want you to know that there will never be a time when any of us will 
willfully sanction the use of excessive or inhumane tactics in dealing 
with anybody coming to this country.
    We have to try to enforce our laws; we have to try to protect our 
borders; we have to try to deal with a situation which could, as you 
well remember from times past, spiral out of hand. And I am reviewing 
what the facts are and what our options are. But I want you to know that 
the values that will guide us, I think, are the right ones.
    So last thing I want to say is, thanks for giving money to the 
Florida Democratic Party. [Laughter] Pat, I will do my best to make sure 
nobody gives up on Florida. I haven't given up on Florida. We're going 
to get a Senator. We're going to get Members of Congress. You're going 
to have gains in the legislature, and I believe we can carry it in the 
Presidential race in the year 2000 if it is clear what the issues are 
and what the choices are. And you can't do that if you don't have folks 
like you out here who know good and well what they are and are willing 
to say it, and if you don't have people like you who are willing to give 
money so we can get our message out to the larger populace.
    You have done that tonight. You have validated Whitehead's decision 
to come out of retirement. You've made sure that the old lion will not 
return to his den prematurely. [Laughter] So for all that, I am very 
grateful. Mostly, I am grateful that you have been so good to me and to 
Hillary and to Al and to Tipper in what has been the experience of a 
lifetime. But we're not done yet, and we owe it to the American people 
to give them our best down to the last day. That's what

[[Page 1360]]

I mean to do, and I'm going to do what I can, wearing my Miami Heat 
outfit--[laughter]--to keep enough heat in Washington to make sure they 
do the same.
    Thank you very much.
    Mayor Penelas just came in. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor. Good to 
see you. How are you? Welcome.

Note: The President spoke at 9:08 p.m. at a private residence. In his 
remarks, he referred to dinner host Alfonso Fanjul; Mitchell W. Berger, 
member, South Florida Water Management District; State Attorney General 
Robert A. Butterworth and his wife, Marta; State Treasurer Bill Nelson 
and his wife, Grace; Senator Bob 
Graham's wife, Adele, daughter Kendall Elias, and son-in-law Robert 
Elias III; Charles A.
Whitehead, chairman, Florida State Democratic Party; Gov. George W. Bush 
of Texas; former Gov. Frank White of Arkansas; Willie E. and Gloria 
Gary, who hosted a DNC dinner in Stuart, FL, on March 16; Prime Minister 
Ehud Barak of Israel; and Mayor Alexander Penelas of Metro-Dade, FL.