    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 33 (Monday, August 21, 2000)]
    [Pages 1887-1888]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner in Los Angeles

    August 14, 2000

    [The President was presented with an award from representatives of the
    housing industry.]

        The President. Now, I have one new house and two front doors. Well,
    let me say very briefly, I want to thank the Homebuilders, the Realtors,
    the Fannie Mae, the Freddie Mac people, everybody who was involved in
    this.
        We had a serious policy right from the beginning to try to increase
    homeownership. And we have enjoyed working with all these folks that are
    presenting this award. I don't really feel that it's mine; I think it
    ought to go to our national economic team and to my Treasury Secretaries
    and my National Economic Adviser and all the people that have worked on
    this.
        But one of the key things rarely noted by those who analyze our
    economic success over the last 8 years is the explosion in
    homeownership, which has been accompanied by an explosion in home
    building. It's one of the reasons we need to work hard to keep paying
    down the debt, keep the interest rates low, and keep creating jobs so
    there will be a pool of people to buy these homes when they get built.
        These folks standing with me represent tens of thousands of our
    fellow Americans who played a major, major role in the economic boom
    that all the rest of us have been a part of. So I'm gratified to receive
    this award, but I kind of think I ought to be giving it to them.
        Thank you very much.

    [At this point, Edward G. Rendell, general chair, Democratic National
    Committee, made brief remarks.]

        The President. Thank you, Ed, and thank you Joe Andrew, and thank
    you, ladies and gentlemen.
        I wanted to come by to thank you for your support of this convention
    and our party and our efforts, and also to participate in an award,
    which I'll say a little bit about it in a minute. But you know, I think
    sometimes people tend to minimize the importance of political parties in
    this day of mass media. We don't have the same kind of old conventions
    we once had, where we have 53 ballots before we pick a nominee. You
    know, that would be high drama. But these conventions are very important
    because they give our people from around the country--just as the
    Republicans got the opportunity in Philadelphia--to get together, to
    talk, to find common cause, to articulate what we believe to the
    American people, and also to reinforce one another in a profound way. I
    appreciated what Mayor Rendell said about the real people in the
    Pennsylvania delegation.
        I think in some ways it's the most rewarding thing about having been
    President for over 7 years now. I was at a meeting about a week or so
    ago, and I was shaking hands with the people after I spoke. And two
    women were standing about 10 feet from one another and they didn't know
    each other; and both were on welfare when I became President. One of
    them has a master's degree now, the other is a lawyer. And it was really
    moving to me. I was in suburban Chicago a few days ago, and I met with
    these police officers from three different law enforcement
    jurisdictions. And two out of the three thanked me for helping getting
    more police officers for their area. So if you hang around long enough
    and you work at it, you actually can get some things done.
        What I would like to say tonight, very briefly, before I bring my
    friend Walter Shorenstein up here with me, is that a couple of years ago
    we were talking, the Democratic leaders and I, and I said, ``You know,
    here we are coming to the end of the 20th century. And if you look back
    to the time of FDR, our party has played a major role in shaping our
    Nation and our world. And I still think that political parties are
    important. And I think the Democratic Party ought to have a national
    award for a lifetime of service to our party that clearly benefited our
    country.'' So the Democratic Party thought it was a good idea, and last
    year we gave the first award

    [[Page 1888]]

    to Walter. And tonight we're giving the second award to Lew Wasserman,
    who is here, and I want to thank him. And I'm going to bring Walter up
    in just a second and let him say whatever he wants to.
        But I came to see Lew Wasserman the first time, oh, maybe 20 years
    ago, more or less, when I was the young Governor of Arkansas--with no
    gray hair, didn't even look as old as I was and probably wasn't old
    enough to do what I was doing--and I asked him for advice. I went to his
    office, and I asked him for advice--this was in the seventies; it was
    more than 20 years ago--about how to make more movies in my State.
        And then in the early eighties, I came out here again to an event
    that was held at his home. And over the last, now more than 20 years,
    Lew and Edie have spent a lot of time with Hillary and me; they've
    always been very generous to take us into their homes. I told Lew
    tonight I've been to so many fundraising events at his home, I expected
    him to prorate this year's property tax and send me my share--
    [laughter]--and I would pay. But in a remarkable lifetime of personal
    and professional success, he has shown astonishing generosity to a wide
    range of causes, but never stopped believing that one of the things that
    he ought to do is be an active citizen and an active supporter of his
    political party.
        He has been a good Democrat without being a negative partisan. We've
    laughed in the past about how he supported the Presidential libraries of
    Republican Presidents, for example. But he was, he is, and I think
    Walter is, in the best sense, people who believe in their party and
    believe they can be proud of it without having to run down people in the
    other party, people who can sit down across a table and have an honest
    discussion about honest differences. And that's really what I was
    pleading for in my speech tonight.
        You know, I don't think anybody who participates in the electoral
    process can have a genuine complaint if, after the election, everyone
    who votes is fully aware of the differences between the candidates and
    makes a really informed choice. And no one can complain. And this
    country is still around here after over 200 years because people
    normally get it right.
        But the political parties play a role in that. And I can tell you,
    as someone with some measure of experience now spanning a few decades,
    there are very few Americans in the entire 20th century that were any
    more effective in supporting their parties in a patriotic way and,
    therefore, fulfilling their fundamental citizenship responsibilities--
    very few who did it as well as Lew Wasserman.
        Thank you very much.

     Note:  The President spoke at 10:16 p.m. at Paramount Studios. In his
    remarks, he referred to Joe Andrew, national chair, Democratic National
    Committee; Walter H. Shorenstein, founder, Shorenstein Co. LP; and Lew
    Wasserman, chairman emeritus, MCA, Inc., and his wife, Edie.