[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.