Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner in Hidden Hills, California - Transcript

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Oct 2, 2000

September 24, 2000

Well, first of all, let me tell you what I'd like to do. I like small events like this, with fewer people. And what I'd like to do--most of what I have to say about the last 8 years I said at the convention in L.A., and maybe you saw it, and if you did, there's nothing else I can say.

I would like to just talk for a few minutes, not long, and then just take the microphone away and have a conversation. If you've got anything you want to ask me or you have anything you want to say or if you'd like to give a speech, just feel free to do it. [Laughter]

I want to thank you, Mitch, for what you said. Thank you, Tracy, for being so good to me, and thank you especially for being so good to Hillary. It means more to me than I can say. I'm very grateful.

I want to thank Sim and Debbie, who have been great friends to me and my family. We met them through Senator Boxer, but I cannot--I don't even have the words to say how grateful I am to you for how good you've been to all the members of my family, my mother-in-law, my brother-in-law, my nephew. I feel like a bag lady around you. [Laughter]

Here's what I'd like you to think about. If somebody asks you tomorrow, "Why did you come here and give this money," what would your answer be? Besides, you know, you wanted to get in here and look at this unbelievable house. [Laughter] If I'd found this house when I was 6 years old, I never would have gone out of it. [Laughter] It's unbelievable.

But anyway, this is what I would like to say. When I ran for President in 1992, only my mother thought I could win. And I did it. It was not easy for me. I was very happy being Governor of my State. My family was in good shape. I was having a great time with my friends. But I had some very definite ideas about how our country ought to work and how we should change direction. And I was afraid that the country was really in trouble.

And I thought, well, even if I don't win, maybe we can move the country off the dime. And the first time I realized I had a chance to win was when I was in the snows of New Hampshire in late 1991, and I was going to a little town called Keene, up in northern New Hampshire. It's one beautiful, beautiful town. There's a beautiful little college there.

So I was asking these young people who were helping me in New Hampshire, I said--they said, "We're going to go up here and have a town meeting, but you've got to understand there are six people running for the Democratic nomination. And President Bush is at 70 percent, but New Hampshire is a basket case, and people are hurting." And I said, "Look," I said, "Get to the bottom line here. How many people do I have to have at this town meeting to avoid being humiliated?" [Laughter] And they said 50. And I said, "Well, what if we get 100?" They said, "That's a pretty good crowd." I said, "What if we get 150?" They said, "It's great"--a little town. I was fifth in the polls in New Hampshire. I had nearly negative name recognition.

But I had put out this booklet telling people exactly what I would do if I got elected, not what I would try to do. So we showed up in Keene, and 400 people showed up, and the fire marshal shut it down. And keep in mind, they didn't--they weren't coming there because they were committed to me. These people didn't know who I was. They were coming there because they heard that somebody who was serious about the problems of America wanted to talk to them and listen to them and try to change the direction of the country. And I saw those 400 people--I got on the phone and called Hillary and said, "This thing may run a little further than we think here." [Laughter] And so the rest is history.

But I say that to make the first point, which is that to a degree that is often underestimated, the Nation's business is like other businesses. It really matters if you've got a clear analysis of where you are, a clear vision of where you want to go and if you lay out what you're going to do. And it's a lot easier to do the job if you get people around you who want to be on the team, and they work like crazy. It makes a difference.

The problems of the Nation yield to efforts in the same way the problems of any other enterprise does. And I think sometimes we forget that. We think that politics is somehow mysterious or its all words or whatever. It's just not true.

And I have been very blessed and have had a great Cabinet and a great staff and people who work like crazy and who had far less destructive ego problems and far fewer sharp elbows than the previous administration had suffered from. And I think it was partly because we actually knew why we wanted to be there. And as hard as it's going to be to leave in many ways, that's the way the system is supposed to work.

And so that brings me to the present moment. The only thing I ever worried about in this election was that the American people would somehow believe it wasn't important because times were good, that somehow the consequences of their collective decisions on election day were somehow not profound.