[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 32 (Monday, August 16, 1999)]
[Pages 1610-1611]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Gore 2000 Reception

August 10, 1999

    The President. I was back there deep in conversation. [Laughter] Let 
me, first of all, say to all of you how glad I am to see you, how 
pleased I am that you're here, and how much I appreciate your support 
for the Vice President. I will be very brief.
    When it was apparent that I was going to become the nominee for the 
Democratic Party in 1992, I had Warren Christopher, the person I 
probably trusted most in the world, organize a Vice Presidential search 
for me. And we went through all the candidates, and I said, ``Well, what 
do you think?'' He said, ``I don't think you have a choice.'' He said, 
``I think Al Gore is much better than all the others.'' And I said, ``I 
agree.'' And I said, ``You realize they'll all say we're crazy. I mean, 
we're the same age; we're from the same part of the country; we're more 
or less from the same wing of the Democratic Party.''
    The Vice President. Not quite the same wing. [Laughter]
    The President. Not quite the same wing of the party, not quite the 
same. Yes, and I can't climb Mt. Rainier. [Laughter] And if I could, I 
wouldn't. [Laughter]
    So, anyway, we did it. It violated all the sort of conventional 
wisdom. And I made a lot of decisions in the last 8 years, some of them 
were good and some of them weren't, but none were better than that one.
    And I just want to say--basically say three things about it. Number 
one, in all the success this administration has had, from the economic 
renewal to the decline in welfare rolls, to the decline in crime, to the 
efforts to make our air and water cleaner and our food safer, to our 
search for peace around the world, and managing our big, difficult 
relations with Russia and China, reaching out to Africa in a 
comprehensive way, really, for the first time for any administration, 
right across the board, every single success we've had is a success that 
belongs not just to me but to the Vice President. If he hadn't cast the 
deciding vote on the economic plan, I'm not sure any of us would be here 
tonight having this conversation. So the first thing I want to say is, 
the record of this administration is his record.
    The second point I want to make is that he has made it clear what he 
would do if he got the job to a greater degree and in greater detail 
than anyone else running. Even though, arguably, he should have to do 
less since people know more about him; that's not what he did.
    The issue in this election will not be whether we should vote for 
change or not. The issue is what kind of change we'll vote for. We're 
living in an inherently dynamic time. You know, each year, as all of you 
know who follow this, I try to lay out an agenda

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to the Congress and the American people in the State of the Union 
Address that continues to push the envelope, that continues to push the 
boundaries of change, that continues to challenge the people and public 
servants to do what needs to be done.
    The first 4 years of this new millennium will be dramatically 
different from 5, 10 years ago. The way we work and live and relate to 
each other 20 years from now will be almost unrecognizable from what we 
were doing on the day I first took the oath of office. So the issue is 
not whether we will change, it is what kind of change. Are we going to 
build on what we've done that works? Are we going to take the evidence 
of success and then build on that and go beyond it? Are we going to 
revert to policies that we know don't work from hard experience?
    I think one of the reasons that we've had some success in this last 
6\1/2\ years is because I took the time to think through what I would do 
if I got the job, and I told the American people in greater detail than 
any American candidate had up to that point what I would do if I were 
hired. Then when Al joined the ticket, we sat down together and reissued 
our economic program and thought it all through again in great detail.
    And a lot of people said, ``These guys are crazy. They're being so 
specific. Why are they doing this? It violates all conventional 
wisdom.'' But you'd be amazed how much it helps when you get a job if 
you've actually told people what you'd do if you got it. So I think the 
fact that he's laid out a program is profoundly important.
    The third thing I want to tell you is that we have been together 
under all kinds of circumstances. You know some of them. Some of them 
were highly public and political. There were times of great elation, 
times of great triumph, times of defeat, times of frustration, times of 
intense difficulty. But we've also been together in personal ways. I've 
talked to him about everything. Both of us have lost a parent since 
we've been here in the White House. We've been through a lot of 
challenges. We've talked about our children and our hopes for them. And 
I can tell you that he is a good human being. He is a profoundly good 
man.
    So if you've got a person with a stunning record, a great program, 
who's a good person, a proven leader, I think that's a pretty good 
decision. That's a decision that I hope for my daughter's sake and the 
next generation's sake, the American people will make this year. And 
you're helping them to make it, and I thank you very much.
    The Vice President of the United States.

Note: The President spoke at 6:57 p.m. at the Hay Adams Hotel. In his 
remarks, he referred to former Secretary of State Warren M. 
Christopher.