[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 37, Number 2 (Monday, January 15, 2001)]
[Pages 26-28]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Remarks at a Tribute to Senator Hillary Clinton in New York City
January 7, 2001
The President. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. First, let
me say what a wonderful thing it is for Hillary and Chelsea and me to be
here with Al and Tipper and with all of you.
I want to be brief today because this is Hillary's day, and it's
also a day when she very much wanted the Vice President and Mrs. Gore to
come here and receive from you the kind of welcome that I knew you'd
give them and that they deserved. I'm so proud of them.
You know, I'm kind of tickled about living in New York. I feel the
way Garrison Keillor does about Lake Wobegon. [Laughter] I was up here
listening to that great church choir, and then our friends Jessye Norman
and Toni Morrison and Billy Joel, and how magnificent they were. Then we
got the score in the ball game, and I thought, here I am in New York,
where all the artists, writers, and athletic teams are above average--
[laughter]--and all the voters get their votes counted. [Laughter]
So I thank you. I thank Judith Hope for her strong leadership. I
thank Charlie Rangel for 8 years of wonderful partnership. I thank Chuck
Schumer for taking me into his home in 1992, when I was running the
first time, with his wonderful wife; and then for taking me through
Queens, letting me see people and places I might never have otherwise
seen, and for running in 1998, which everybody thought would be a bad
year. It turned out to be a pretty good one, thanks to Chuck Schumer's
guts and drive, and he is great.
I'm looking forward--I hate it that I've got to wait 2 more years,
but I'm looking forward to Charlie Rangel being the chairman of the Ways
and Means Committee. When that happens, you mark my words, it'll be the
best show in America off Broadway. [Laughter]
I do want to say just very briefly a serious word of appreciation to
the Vice President and to Mrs. Gore. I thank her for, from the time of
the first bus ride that, as Al said, we took here, keeping the rest of
us in a good humor, always seeing the glass as half full, always caring
about our families as well as our politics, and always sticking up for
people who others had forgotten, whether they were people with mental
illnesses or homeless people or others, reminding me always that I had
to be their President, too. I am grateful to her.
And as I've said many times, and as has already been said here
today, there's no question that in the history of the Republic, no
person has had such a positive impact on the American people from the
Office of Vice President that Al Gore has had. It's not even close--not
even close.
I told somebody, he had more influence and did more things--whether
it was manage our technology policy, our environmental policy, giving
all the poor schools the opportunity to hook up to the Internet, helping
to supervise our reorganization of the space program, trying to do
something about all the terrible congestion at the airports, dealing
with big chunks of our foreign policy--nobody ever had so much
responsibility before. And I was showing up for work every day, too.
[Laughter] I'm really proud of him in ways that you will never know.
He has shown us all, in the last 2 months, under circumstances which
have never before existed in our country--and I pray to God never will
again--how we should all behave as Americans and patriots. I honor him
for my friendship, for his advice, for his leadership, for what he's
done for America for 8 years, but in the last 8 weeks, he's shown
[[Page 27]]
us the strength of character that very few of us could emulate if we
were in the same circumstances.
Now, I would also like to thank the people of New York who helped
Hillary to win this race. She did, as Chuck Schumer said, win it the
old-fashioned way: She earned it. But she wouldn't have earned it if you
hadn't helped her, if you had shut her out and shut her down and turned
away from her. I'd like to thank the people who helped her on Long
Island, where the going was toughest. I'd like to thank the people who
helped her in upstate New York and proved it wasn't so Republican, after
all.
I'd like to thank those of you who had me to your counties in
upstate New York. I had a lot of fun being there, and I hope we all did
some good together. I want to thank the people in this magnificent city
for how good you have been to Hillary and to all of us. I want to thank
you for making Chelsea feel welcome. She did a pretty good job for her
mother, too, up here campaigning, I think--made a lot of votes, I think.
And I want to thank you for making it possible for me to give my
wife good advice about how to run in New York. Everybody said how mean
it was going to be. Do you remember what you did to me in the Democratic
primary here in 1992? [Laughter] I said, ``Hillary, look, these people
are really good, but they just want to see how bad you can take a
beating.'' [Laughter] ``And they will beat you up and beat up you and
beat you up and take off your shoes and make you walk on coals''--
[laughter]--``make you lie down on a bed of pins and needles. But if you
just keep smiling, they'll know you got it, and they will come.''
I'm so proud of her, because she not only laid out a vision for what
she wanted to do; she did it in a way that was consistently big and
generous, that didn't descend to the level of her attackers. And when
New York did to her what New York does and she passed, then you came.
And I told her all along--she can tell you--I told her for 16 months, I
said, ``Trust me. If you are just even on the weekend before the
election, you're going to win big. They will come to you in droves, if
you just be big and stay right.'' And you proved that I was right about
you, and I am grateful. [Laughter]
But I had that awful primary experience to shore up my gratitude and
know what was going to happen. [Laughter]
Now, the last thing I'd like to say is this. In 13 days, at high
noon, I'm going to give up being President.
Audience members. Boo-o-o!
The President. Wait a minute, hey. You can ``boo'' about the nature
of the transfer, but not about me giving it up. I've had my time--
[laughter]--and I had a very good time.
And what I want to remind you of is that politics is not about the
politicians; it's about the people. And I am honored to become a citizen
of New York. I will do my best to be a good one. And if you need to,
call me sort of a de facto case worker for your Senator here. [Laughter]
I want to get around the State and go upstate and do what I can to help
Hillary fulfill the commitments that she and Chuck have made to help the
upstate economy and to help the neighborhoods here.
And I want to thank Senator Schumer and Congressman Rangel for
passing the new markets initiative Al Gore and I worked so hard on, to
build on the empowerment zone proposal that Al ran so well for nearly 8
years, to keep the economy going.
So we want to work. I want to be a good citizen to you. But I want
you to remember that Hillary ran and won because of you--not because of
her--because of your children and your future and what we want to do
together.
So the last thing I want to ask you to do is, I want you to keep
your heart burning for 2 years to make Charlie the chairman of the Ways
and Means Committee. I want you to remember not only for 4 years, but
for the rest of your life, what happened in the elections 2000 and what
Al Gore did in the 8 weeks afterwards.
But I want most of all for you to remember that America's work and
New York's work is never done. And I want you to help my wife do a good
job at what she ran for, which was to give people like you and people
outside this hall, who will never be in a meeting like this, the chance
to make the most of their
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lives and their children's lives. That's what I want to ask you more.
You've given her a great gift. Now help her use it for the purpose it
was intended.
Last Wednesday, when Hillary was sworn into the Senate, I believe
that Chelsea and I were the two happiest people on the planet: Chelsea,
because she loves her mother and she's proud of her; me, for the same
reasons, but also because when I met Hillary nearly 30 years ago now--2
more months, 30 years ago--I thought that she had more capacity and more
heart for public service than anybody I had ever met. And I worried when
we started our lives together that somehow I would limit her service.
Your giving her this chance, in my mind, has reaffirmed the wisdom
she made in moving to be with me so long ago and all the many roles
she's played in giving to others and never asking for anything for
herself until she made this race. And I can tell you this, you will not
be disappointed, because I was right about her 30 years ago.
Thank you. God bless you.
Now, Mr. Vice President, please reenact the ceremony.
Note: The President spoke at 4:50 p.m. at Madison Square Garden. In his
remarks, he referred to soprano Jessye Norman; author Toni Morrison;
musician Billy Joel; and Judith Hope, chair, New York State Democratic
Party; Garrison Keillor, host of ``Prairie Home Companion''; and Senator
Schumer's wife, Iris Weinshall. The transcript released by the Office of
the Press Secretary also included the remarks of Senator Hillary Clinton
and Vice President Al Gore.