[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 36 (Monday, September 11, 2000)]
[Pages 1997-1999]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Dinner for Hillary Clinton in Syracuse, New York

September 1, 2000

    Thank you very much. Well, first, I want to thank Duke and Billie 
for having us here. I want to thank the neighbors in the back for 
putting up the bathrooms. [Laughter] And I want to thank the neighbors 
across the street for putting up with the sound. Hello, folks! How are 
you over there? You get to hear my pitch for free. I want you to vote 
for Hillary, too. [Laughter]
    We've all had a good time, and I want to hear the musicians some 
more. And we've got a magician, and I want to see this. I spent 8 years 
trying to be one. [Laughter] So I just want to say a couple of words 
here.
    First of all, I want to thank the people of New York, including the 
people of Syracuse and central New York, for being so good to me and 
Hillary and Al and Tipper Gore for the last 8 years. It's meant a lot to 
me. Secondly, I want to thank my buddy Terry McAuliffe and his family 
for being like a second family to Hillary and me. And little Jack

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is out there passing out Hillary stickers. He even gave me one. He 
wasn't sure who I was for. [Laughter] And he wanted to make sure I 
didn't go soft on him between now and election day, so I appreciate 
that.
    I don't know what I can say to you, because you know where I stand 
on this election. But I think there are a couple of points I'd like to 
make that I know. First of all, you should know that to an extraordinary 
extent, Hillary has played a substantive, positive role in the work 
we've done over these last 8 years. Everything we've done in education, 
health care, and helping people balance work and family and taking care 
of kids, she's had a hand in--from the family and medical leave law in 
1993 to our efforts right through this year to promote adoption and to 
take better care of foster kids and to take care of those kids that go 
out on their own in the world with nobody to take care of them--and I'm 
really proud of that--to getting 2 million kids health insurance to all 
the things we've done to open the doors of college for all. We now have 
10 million people getting tax credits for college education today. And 
she has fought for every single one of those things. I'm very proud of 
her.
    The second thing I want you to know is, because economics is an 
issue in central New York and north of here, when I was Governor of 
Arkansas for 12 years, we had to completely turn the economy around. We 
did not have an unemployment rate below the national average, until I 
ran for President in 1992, for a decade. And we worked for 10 long 
years.
    During that time, my wife went on the boards of three Arkansas 
companies--or two Arkansas companies and one other company--and learned 
what it would take to get people to invest money and to bring jobs to 
places that had been left behind. And I'm just telling you, of your 
choices in the Senate race, you've got one person that spent a serious 
10 years working to redevelop the economies of places that aren't doing 
as well as they ought to be doing. And that's experience. It's money in 
the bank for you, and you ought to take advantage of it.
    Now, the third thing I want to say is, I think she can have an 
enormously beneficial impact for New York all around the country and all 
around the world. She can help you in all kinds of ways. One of the 
reasons that I--I wanted her to run for the Senate if she wanted to--who 
am I to ever tell anybody not to run for anything? But I said, ``You 
know, you've got to be willing to pay the price. I'm going to India and 
Pakistan, and you can't go. I'm going to Africa, and you can't go. I'm 
going to Colombia, and you can't go.'' So everywhere I go in the world, 
people I don't even know come to me and say--everywhere in the world--
say, ``I am pulling for your wife. I'm sorry she can't be here.''
    At the state dinner the other night in Nigeria, the President of 
Nigeria, one of the most highly regarded leaders of any developing 
country in the world, a decorated army general, gets up in the state 
dinner and says, ``I'm really sorry your wife is not here, but I'm glad 
she's home, and I hope she wins her election.'' Not normally said at 
state dinners.
    I was in Bombay with my daughter, in India, and this woman who 
spends her life going out into villages trying to help millions, 
literally, of women who have been left behind figure out how to borrow 
money, start businesses, and take better care of their kids--all she 
talked about to me was Hillary.
    And I'm telling you that because there is a reason that the people 
that are running against her spend all their time trying to run her 
down. Because they know if the people of New York ever figure out who 
she is, what kind of person she is, what she's done, and what she can do 
for them, she will win in a walk. That's what I want you to do in this 
election.
    I thank you for your contributions, but the most important thing is 
that you realize that elections are decided by people who don't know the 
candidates, not by people who do. And she is running a campaign based on 
the issues and the honest differences between her and her opponent.
    And you know, their campaign is basically try to paint a--try to do 
reverse plastic surgery on her. Right? I mean, let's face it. So you 
gave her the money, and I thank you for that. And she'll spend it well. 
But I want you to go out and take some time every day between now and 
November to tell people

[[Page 1999]]

you came here; you saw this woman; you like her; you admire her; she'd 
be good for you, good for your kids, good for your future, and great for 
New York. If you'll do that, she will win on election day.
    Thank you, and God bless you. [Applause] Thank you.
    I've got to say one other thing. This is flat pander, but I'm not 
running for office, so I can get away with it. I have, for the last 27 
years, eaten barbecue for a living. I come from a place where barbecue 
is not food; it is a way of life. [Laughter] It is a philosophy of human 
nature. I have rarely had any as good as this. These people are great, 
and I thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 8:35 p.m. at a private residence. In his 
remarks, he referred to dinner hosts John (Duke) and Billie Jean Kinney; 
Terence McAuliffe, chair, 2000 Democratic National Convention, and his 
son, Jack; and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria. This item was not 
received in time for publication in the appropriate issue.