Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Dinner in Portola Valley, California

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, May 11, 1998

Thank you very much. You know, I always marvel at Walter's energy and fidelity to our cause, and I thank him again tonight. I'm very honored to be here. The last time I was in a tent in this yard was when we had a dinner for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, I think when I came to San Francisco and we had the wonderful event there. And I must say I'm delighted to be back.

I thank Senator Feinstein and Dick for coming tonight, and Representative Eshoo. Mayor Hammer, thank you for coming. Art Torres, our State Democratic Chair, thank you for coming. Len Barrack, thanks for all the work you've done. This man came all the way from Philadelphia. You remember what W.C. Fields said about that. [Laughter] He's a good person, and he works hard, and I'm grateful to him.

I'd like to thank the vice chairs of the dinner, Ken Karas, Ernest Gallo, Chong Moon Lee, and Maura Morey. I'd like to thank Senator John Burton for coming. And I'd like to thank my old friend Clarence Clemmons, who gave me a couple of mouthpieces, but I can't make them sound the way he did tonight. And I'd like to thank our young musicians over here, this young saxophone player and his compadres. They've got quite a future as well; I thank them. They did a great job.

And finally, I'd like to thank my former Defense Secretary, and I think the best Defense Secretary since World War II, Bill Perry and his wife, Lee, for being here. Just for a pure rush for me, an old-fashioned American boy who grew up in the fifties and the sixties, I want to thank Willie Mays for coming tonight and making my night. Thank you very much. Thank you.

You know, I feel so indebted to California because the people of this State have been so very good to me and to Hillary and to the Vice President. And of course, now we have the most important person in our lives out here, Hillary and I do, going to school - and it is a long way from Washington. You know, it's hard for the President to do anything without attracting any notice. I can hardly just wake up one morning and decide, I think I'll go have dinner with Chelsea - just get on Air Force One and fly to California. No one will know. [Laughter] So it's very frustrating. But still, I'm happy she's here, and I'm happy she's especially in this part of this wonderful State.

I have seen the people of California go through a lot since I first began coming here as a candidate in 1991. I think - when we were at dinner Walter said, "Well, I want you to know times have never been better for us here than they are now." And I hope that's true. I'm grateful that the unemployment rate has dropped 40 percent in California in 5 years; that we have the lowest unemployment rate in 28 years and the lowest inflation in 30 years and the lowest welfare rolls in 27 years; the lowest crime rates in 24 years. I'm very grateful about all that. And insofar as our policies played a role in that, I am grateful.

But what I think is helpful is to look at why all these companies around here do so well and try to see to what extent they could be a metaphor for how our country would work if it were working at its maximum capacity. I visited, with Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren and Mayor Hammer today, a wonderful manufacturing facility in San Jose that was started by a man and his wife 31 years ago with one employee, and they have 1,600 now. And they have a great kind of labor-management agreement, a great continuing education program, a great decentralized, creative manufacturing system where the workers feel empowered, and no one ever quits who gets a job there.

And I thought to myself, I wish Washington worked this way. [Laughter] But in a larger sense, I wish all of America had a chance to be part of something that worked this well. I wish every child's school worked that well. Some of you here have been active in the charter school movements that you know I care a great deal about. When I became President I think there were - well, there were just a handful of charter schools; now there are hundreds. And I know you're working to establish another 100 a year out here in California, and I heartily endorse that because I think it's very, very important.

We have got to guarantee and demonstrate that public institutions can provide genuine excellence in elementary and secondary education. Everybody knows we have the best system of higher education in the world; no one thinks we have the best system of elementary and secondary education in the world. The more diverse our student bodies become, the more diverse our society is, the more important it will be to build excellence in education.

The point I'm making is, this company that I visited today, they're doing real well; they're doing better than they've ever done, and they don't spend much time thinking about it. They're thinking about what they're going to do tomorrow and how they can do more to develop the capacity of the people who work for the company, and how they can really fulfill the dreams of the people - literally, the dreams of the people that work for the company.