Remarks at a New Leadership Network Reception in Minneapolis - Transcript

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, June 19, 2000

June 10, 2000

Thank you. Wow! [Laughter] I started off today at 5 o'clock this morning in Washington--that's 4 o'clock your time--and I came out to Carleton to give the commencement address. And I came here, and I went to another event. It's just getting rowdier as I go on. You guys are doing great.

I would like to thank my friend and partner Mayor Rendell from Philadelphia. the chairman of our party, for coming out here with us. And I want to thank Mike--you and Mary and all the people have done a great job with this party--all the sponsors. This is just fabulous. And I'm delighted to be here.

And I want to thank the Fine Line Music Cafe folks, and all the people who provided the music. And I want to thank Senator Paul Wellstone and Sheila and their kids and grandkids--the whole Wellstone family is here today. And Representative Martin Sabo, who's daughter is also a candidate here today. Your State auditor, Judi Dutcher, I want to thank her for being here.

Look, this is a good way to spend Saturday afternoon. [Laughter] And I realize I, in a way, don't need to give a speech because I'm sort of preaching to the saved here. [Laughter] But I would like to say a couple of things anyway, if it's all the same to you. I mean, since I'm the only one in my administration or in my house who is not running for anything this year--[laughter]--I'm afraid I'll get out of practice if I don't get to kind of work out a little. So you all just relax; I want to give you a little bit.

First of all, I want to thank the State of Minnesota for voting for Bill Clinton and Al Gore twice and giving--[applause]. Secondly, I want to thank you for fielding competitive candidates for the House and the Senate to help us win back the majority in the United States Congress which we--we could do.

You know, I think Minnesota is a place where people know ideas matter. I was here on my education tour not very long ago, and I went to St. Paul to the first charter school in the history of the country. And you know, since then, since we got in, there was one when I became President, and there are now over 1,700 because we have worked so hard to get the point out across the country and get the word out that our public schools can succeed, and they can educate our kids. Even the kids from the most difficult circumstances can learn if we had the right kind of educational opportunities for them.

And that to me sort of symbolizes what Minnesota is all about, high ideals--high ideals, high standards, practical approaches to problems involving everybody. And I just want to say to all of you that I think the election we're about to have is every bit as important as the two we just had. Now, in 1992 the country was in trouble, and everybody knew it. The economy was in bad shape. The society was growing more divided. The political rhetoric in Washington was paralyzed and seemed irrelevant to the way most of us live.

And we've tried to turn that around. We've tried to create a society in which there was opportunity for every responsible person and in which we were coming together in a more closely knit community, in which we were looking outward to the rest of the world and trying to be a force for peace and freedom and prosperity and decency. And we tried to avoid--[applause]--thank you. What I wanted to say is--and there's been a lot of success. We've got the strongest economy in history, and we've got a society that's coming together. Crime rate's down; poverty is down; the welfare rolls have been cut in half. We have the highest rate of minority business ownership in history and the lowest minority unemployment in history in America. We have a lot of things that are moving in the right direction.

So, you say, "Well, how can the 2000 elections possibly be as important as the '92 election was when we were in the tank, or the '96 election was when people were trying to decide whether to ratify the direction we were taking?" I'll tell you why--because once in a lifetime do you find a situation like this in America where the economy is strong, where the society is coming together, where we've got a lot of self-confidence. We're not paralyzed by a crisis at home. We don't feel immediately threatened by a crisis overseas, even though there are dangers out there. This has never happened before in my lifetime, and I'm older than nearly everybody in this room. [Laughter]

Now, and I can tell you this--how a country deals with its good moments is just as stern a test of its character as how it deals with its crises. So what do you think we ought to do? I'll tell you what I think we ought to do. I think we ought to bring jobs to all the people and places that have been left behind. I think we ought to get rid of child poverty. I think we ought to give every working family the time and the tools they need to take care of their kids, as well as work.

I think we ought to deal with the fact that when the baby boomers retire, it's going to impose new burdens on our society. We ought to figure out how to save Social Security and Medicare, provide prescription drug benefits to seniors that need it. I think this.