Remarks at a Reception for Representative Max Sandlin in Houston, Texas

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Oct 2, 2000

September 27, 2000

Well, first of all, Max, I appreciate your thanks for the great effort I've made to help you. It's really a great effort to come here on a day like this--[laughter]--to John Eddie and Sheridan's modest little home--[laughter]--to be with Peter and Christie, whom I normally see on Long Island, now that I'm hanging around New York. [Laughter] I don't know why I didn't get here 3 hours earlier. [Laughter]

I am delighted to be here. I'm glad to be back in Houston. I want to thank Mayor Lee Brown, who I think is still here. If not, he was here and has got to go to an event; there he is. And I want to thank him not only for being an outstanding mayor but for his terrific service in the Clinton-Gore administration as our drug czar before he became mayor.

I also want to thank Max's colleague from Houston, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, who is here, for being here to support him. Thank you very much. And I want to thank the State representatives and other officials who are here.

But I want to say a special word; I made a passing reference to these two couples up here with Max and me, but let me tell you, I've known Peter and Christie for several years now. I remember once a couple of years ago, they were standing out--remember that--you were standing out on the street when I was driving by. Do you remember that? And I got out and said hello. And they wanted to become more active. They had gotten interested in some important environmental and health issues where they live on Long Island. They wanted to get more active in public life. And they have--I hardly know anybody that has exerted more consistent effort, have a positive impact for Al Gore and Joe Lieberman and for our Democratic candidates around the country than they have over the last couple years, and I just want to thank you for doing it. It's been great. Thank you very much.

And I want to thank John Eddie and Sheridan for being such good friends of mine. This is the second time I've been in their home. I've been once after dark and once before dark, and I liked it both ways. [Laughter] But they have been so wonderful to me for 8 years now, in good times and bad. And I'm very, very grateful.

I would like to thank all the people of Texas who have supported Hillary and me and Al and Tipper over these last 8 years. It was never a very easy sell here, but we actually did pretty well in both elections, under adverse circumstances. And I'm very grateful for the support I got here.

I just want to make two or three points here tonight, and I realize I'm--at a deal like this, you're probably preaching to the saved, but everybody here has friends in congressional districts in Texas that are contested and friends throughout the country in States that are contested. I had one guy ask me the other day, he said, "Why are you working so hard?" I learned that this is--I think this is the 142d event I have done for the Democrats this year, in a year when, as you know, I'm not running for anything, for the first time in 26 years. And most days I'm okay about it. [Laughter] I've now adopted the official title of Cheerleader in Chief, since my family has a new candidate and my party has a new leader, and I like it very much, and I've enjoyed it.

I am profoundly grateful for the chance that I've had to serve for the last 8 years. And I am very grateful if any of the ideas I had or the work I did, the fights I fought, and some of the bullets I took helped us to keep America on a progressive path and to resist the reaction that came after we won. But what I want to say to you is that sometimes it's harder for a country to make a good decision in good times than it is in bad times.

I remember back in '92, when the Republicans were trying to scare everybody about me, and they were derisively referring to me as the Governor of a small southern State, and I was so naive I thought it was a compliment. [Laughter] And I still do. I still do. And I thought to myself, lord knows how many people walked into polling places saying, "I wonder if I really ought to vote for that guy. I mean, he doesn't look old enough to be President"--that's before my hair turned--"and he is just a Governor of a small southern State. I don't know if I know where it is or not. And everybody, the Republicans have got all these people saying terrible things about him, Oh, well, I'll take a chance."

I mean, come on, it wasn't much of a chance. The country was in a ditch. We had to do something different. [Laughter] And it's worked out, and I'm grateful. But what I want to say to you is that we actually changed the way things were done in Washington, and we've changed what was being done in the White House and, insofar as we could, what was being done through the executive branch of Government and with the Congress. We had a different economic policy, a different education policy, a different health care policy, a different environmental policy. We had a different crime policy, a different welfare policy, a different foreign policy. And we had a different policy toward trying to unify America, as opposed to trying to divide it, based on a simple philosophy that everyone counts, everyone ought to have a chance, and we all do better when we help each other. That's what I believe.