[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 20 (Monday, May 22, 2000)]
[Pages 1117-1119]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Reception for Senator Charles Robb

May 15, 2000

    Thank you very much. First of all, I want to thank Ron and Beth for 
having all of us here and for being so generous with their time and 
their home. However, now that I--you know, I thought I knew them pretty 
well. I never knew they met at a Chuck Robb fundraiser. [Laughter] We 
ought to put that out. We can raise millions of dollars on this. 
[Laughter] All the lovelorn who can write a check or show up at your 
fundraisers--this is wonderful. So I want to thank them.
    And I want to thank all of you for coming and for supporting Chuck, 
and in just a minute, I'm going to tell you why. Let me say to all of 
you, you went through the line and had your picture taken. I appreciate 
the many nice things you said and especially those of you who expressed 
your support for my wife, whom I hope will be helping to swell the 
Democratic majority in the Senate after November.
    I want to thank Linda Robb for being our friend for probably 20 
years now. We've watched our children grow up together. Chuck and I were 
Governors together in the early eighties. Out at Camp David I've got 
this beautiful picture of a carriage from colonial Williamsburg, from 
the Southern Governors' Association meeting in 1984, that Chuck Robb 
gave me. So we go back a long way.
    And I want to tell you, quite briefly, why I'm here tonight, besides 
the fact that, yes, I'd show up if Ron and Beth asked me to come, and 
yes, I'd show up if Chuck and Linda asked me to come. But I passionately 
believe, number one, that Chuck Robb ought to be reelected, and number 
two, I believe he will be reelected, and I thought he would be reelected 
a year ago.
    But there is a great question before the American people in this 
election, very different from the one we faced in 1992, but in some 
ways, maybe even more important and perhaps even more difficult to 
answer properly.
    In 1992 the American people gave Al Gore and me a chance, but the 
country was mired in difficulty, and everyone knew that the way that 
things were being done in Washington was not working. You remember how 
it was then; you just took a position on an issue, and there was a 
position you had to take. If you were a Democrat, you had to take one 
position. If you were Republican, you had to take the other. And then 
you just stood off from one another and screamed as loud as you could 
and hoped you'd get your 10 seconds on the evening news, which might 
have been good politics but didn't move America forward very much.
    So we set about turning the ship of state around. And without being 
self-serving, I think it's fair to say we did a pretty good job, and 
things are going in the right direction now. And I think it's one reason 
to vote for Chuck Robb and for Al Gore, because it wasn't because I was 
President; it was because we were all doing the right things. And I 
think that's very important.
    I get tickled. You know, some of my adversaries, now that they want 
to win the election before us, they spent 7 years telling everybody how 
bad I was; now they say I'm the only guy that jumps higher than Michael 
Jordan--let's throw the other Democrats out. That has nothing to do with 
it. We did the right things, and it's very, very important.
    So now the question is not, how are we going to turn the ship of 
state around; how are we going to build our bridge to the 21st century? 
The question is, what are we going to do with these good times? We never 
had such good times before. We never had at one time so much economic 
progress, social progress with the absence of severe domestic distress 
or external threat. So what are we going to do? That is the issue. And 
it's a very hard issue for a democracy to answer.
    It's easy to get people together when they're under the gun. It's 
hard to get people together when things are fun. It's easy to be 
distracted when things seem to be going well. And what I would like to 
say to you is that I'm old enough to know that nothing lasts forever and 
that these moments come along once in a generation if you're lucky, and 
you've got to make the most of them.
    I'm also experienced enough in politics to know that our 
adversaries, both in the Virginia Senate race and the White House, 
they'll be very adroit at speaking in reassuring

[[Page 1118]]

terms and helping to blur the lines of the election. But the truth is, 
as Senator Robb just said, there are huge consequences to the choices 
the American people will make. And you have to come to terms with that, 
as well.
    If you want to change the economic policy of the country and go back 
to the way they did it, you can do it. If you like the way things are 
going, you've got to vote for Chuck Robb and for the Vice President. If 
you want someone to do something serious about gun violence, to keep 
building on the record of the last 7\1/2\ years, to keep crime coming 
down, you can have it. If you want someone who won't touch this issue 
with a 10-foot pole and won't do anything the NRA doesn't want them to 
do, you can have that, too. But you've got to make up your mind. And you 
can't pretend that there are no consequences to this election. There 
are.
    You know, one of the things I really respect about Chuck Robb is, he 
is a fiscal conservative; he voted with me on that budget, knowing it 
could beat him in the '94 election. He did not blink; he got up there 
and voted in '93 for the budget. And if he hadn't voted for it, it would 
have never passed. You know? But also, after his distinguished career in 
the United States Marine Corps, he has supported me on every human 
rights initiative, including gay rights, I have ever advanced. And I 
respect that more than I can say.
    And he has supported sensible efforts to keep guns out of the hands 
of criminals and children. Yesterday Hillary and I had--and I like it, 
because Al Gore and I need some Southern cover, you know. [Laughter] I 
don't know if you saw it, but there was a picture in the paper that 
said, ``gunnery sergeant for responsible gun control''--it was a great 
sign, yesterday at this thing.
    You know, I just want to take a minute. This is a big choice you've 
got in the election. You've got to decide. But don't let anybody you 
know pretend that they're voting--the Senate race or the President's 
race isn't about what our policy is with regard to safety, public 
safety, or pretend that it's not about our policy with regard to human 
rights or pretend that it's not about our policy with regard to 
economics and whether you like having this surplus and you want to get 
America out of debt and keep investing in education or you'd rather go 
back and try it the way it was.
    Now, there will be a great attempt to blur all this. I'm telling 
you, those are three inescapable consequences of this election and your 
choice. Will we change economic policy? Will we continue to try to make 
America a safer country and have responsible measures to promote gun 
safety? Will we continue to advance the cause of human rights? And the 
fourth inescapable consequence is, will we continue to grow the economy 
and improve the environment at the same time or let the old way prevail, 
and say the heck with that?
    Now, there is no doubt about that. But you've got to decide. But 
don't let--if somebody asks you why you came here tonight, tell them 
because Chuck Robb played an inextricable role in the progress of the 
last 7 years, because you think there are choices that matter in this 
election, because you want to stand up for somebody that had as much 
courage in the United States Senate as he did in the toughest battles in 
Vietnam.
    And I told him a year ago, when he was way behind in the polls, he 
was going to be reelected. And I believe it more strongly today. But we 
need your help. And you watch now--I've been watching this a long time. 
If you take this position, you will find all these people that will try 
to turn this election into Jell-o. And you will think you're punching a 
little sort of a pillow bag there. And everybody will say, ``Oh, there 
aren't really significant differences, and I think I'll give the other 
guys a chance.'' That's not true. And you cannot afford to let people 
decide too late that there are great consequences here.
    So I thank you for coming. You will rarely in your life get a chance 
to support anybody who has taken more chances to do what he thought was 
right, sometimes when he agreed with me and sometimes when he didn't, 
but always had his heart and mind and spirit in the same place as this 
man. He's a good man. His wife is a magnificent woman, and they deserve 
this reaffirmation, and our country needs it. That's the most important 
thing.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

[[Page 1119]]

Note: The President spoke at 9 p.m. at a private residence. In his 
remarks, he referred to reception hosts Ronald I. Dozoretz and Beth 
Dozoretz; and Senator Robb's wife, Linda.