[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 35 (Monday, September 6, 1999)]
[Pages 1685-1686]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Reception Honoring the First Lady in Syracuse, New York

September 2, 1999

    The President. Well, all I can say is this has been a very 
interesting night. Duke and Terry threw a party in an Irish bar and the 
first thing I see when I walk in, besides all of your smiling faces, is 
a buffalo head. [Laughter] Now, I don't know what that means--
[laughter]----
    Audience members. It doesn't mean anything. [Laughter]
    The President. It could be a piece of New York's trivia. The buffalo 
in America was saved by Theodore Roosevelt. We had 20 million buffalo 
head in America in the mid-1800's. When he became President, it was down 
to 12 known head, and he brought them back. Or it could be just another 
metaphor for all the speeches about Syracuse that I've heard from Terry. 
[Laughter] Or it could be a symbol of the golf game we had a couple days 
ago.
    You know, people are asking me how I'm reacting to this whole deal. 
I love it. And I'm trying to think--all the time people are coming up to 
me and saying, what are you going to do when you leave office? And you 
know, I have a lot of interests. And so one of you who knows that I love 
music, I'm walking through the crowd tonight and a gentleman gives me 
this video tape which says, ``How to Find Gigs That Pay Big Bucks.'' 
[Laughter]
    I am indebted to the people of New York for many things, including 
voting for me and Al Gore twice and giving us a chance to serve. I thank 
you. I love Syracuse. When I came here running for President--I have had 
a wonderful time in this area. It is spectacularly beautiful and is full 
of the rich history of America. And I hope that our presence here has 
helped to lift the visibility of this area in a positive way in the eyes 
of all America. And I hope it does.
    I want to say, if I might, just two things. One is, I'm going to 
spend every day I've got left in the last year and 5 months or so of my 
Presidency to try to prepare this country for the new century. We have 
the chance of a lifetime, which we dare not pass up, with this 
prosperity we have to prepare for the aging of America. For those of you 
who are baby boomers, like me, I can tell you our generation does not 
want to retire and impose an inordinate burden on our children and 
undermine their ability to raise our grandchildren. We can save Social 
Security and Medicare if we do it now and don't squander the surplus. 
And that's what I am determined to do.
    And I'll just mention two more things. We can, if we will use what 
we know, give every child in this country a world-class education, and 
they all need it. And the third thing we can do is bring opportunity to 
the places in America that have still not had job growth and get this 
country out of debt for the first time since 1835. That's what I'm going 
to work on.
    The second thing I want to say is America is always about change. It 
is constantly in the process of reinventing itself. So if someone said, 
``Vote for me because I'll do everything Bill Clinton said and did,'' I 
would vote against that person, because we're always in the process of 
change. But we have to build on what works. And what we have to do, even 
when we're having a good time, is remember what the purpose of this 
country is. The purpose of this country is every day to make

[[Page 1686]]

progress in expanding opportunity, deepening freedom, and strengthening 
our communities.
    Now, I have known Hillary a long time. As a matter of fact, to be 
precise, 28\1/2\ years--that's how long we've known each other. I have 
known thousands of people in public service. And you shouldn't be 
basically confused by the kind of venom that too often comes out of 
Washington. The truth is, most of the people that I've known in public 
life, at all levels, in both parties, were good, honest, hard working 
people that did what they thought was right. And that's the truth--most 
of the people I've known.
    But of all the people I have known in public life--in way over 25 
years of working steadily at it now--nobody has the combination of 
intelligence, experience, heart, grit, and pure devotion to the public 
interest that my wife does. You could do a good thing for New York by 
helping her.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 9:15 p.m. at Mulrooney's Pub. In his 
remarks, he referred to reception hosts John (Duke) Kinney and Terence 
McAuliffe. A tape was not available for verification of the content of 
these remarks.