[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

[[Page 28]]

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.