Remarks in Springfield, Virginia

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Nov 4, 1996

The President. Thank you very much. Thank you. Well, ladies and gentlemen, Senator Robb called me about a week ago, and he said, "You know, my father-in-law was the last Democrat to carry the State of Virginia. But I think if you'll come across the river and see us, you might be the next." And here I am.

I want to thank Chuck Robb and his wonderful wife, Lynda, for being such great friends to Hillary and to me for, well, a long, long time now. I want to thank him for his courage, his character, and his integrity in serving the people of Virginia and setting a model for people all across America. I want to thank Congressman Jim Moran and Congressman Bobby Scott for the work they've done for you and for America, and I'm glad you're sending them back to the Congress to serve for 2 more years.

Thank you, Lieutenant Governor Don Beyer, for your leadership and for your future leadership for Virginia. Thank you, Senator Yvonne Miller. Thank you, Kate Hanley. Thank you, Sue Wrenn, and thank you, Ellen Malcolm. Thank you, Bruce Hornsby, for playing the national anthem and for always being there for us.

And I want to thank the Lee High School Band over here. Let's give them a hand, the high school band. [Applause] Thank you for being here. I'd also like to tell you today, since our campaign is about the 21st century, I brought with me the President's adviser on science and technology - a key to the 21st century - a seventh generation Virginian, Dr. Jack Gibbons. Thank you for coming with me, Jack.

Folks, on any day this would be a great crowd in Virginia. But on this beautiful fall day, when the Redskins are playing and on a streak and the Marine Corps Marathon is going on, this is an unbelievable crowd. Thank you for being here.

Of course, you know, ever since I saw that ad with Chuck Robb's body and Mark Warner's head, I thought maybe you showed up to see if some medical miracle had been developed. [Laughter] I didn't know there was anything wrong with Mark Warner's body or Chuck Robb's head until I saw that. I'm still trying to figure out what it's all about. I'll tell you one thing, I don't think it was about you and your interests and your future.

Audience members. No-o-o!

The President. But Mark Warner is committed to you and your interests and your future. Mark Warner supports the Family and Medical Leave Act that's allowed 12 million families to take some time off when their babies were born or their family members were sick. He supports our efforts to put 100,000 police on the street and our violence against women program in the Department of Justice. He supports our targeted tax cuts to help people pay for a college education. He does not support the other party's agenda of abolishing the Department of Education. So I say to you, this election is about the future. It is not about the Democratic or Republican Party; it's about which vision is right for our future.

Thomas Jefferson was elected President as the first President of the 19th century. Three distinguished Virginians, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe, not only helped to found our country, they led us into a new century. Thomas Jefferson made the most important decision of my political life, a long time before I showed up; he bought the Louisiana territory. If he hadn't done it, I wouldn't be an American and I couldn't be here running today.

I say that to make this point. Believe me, when he bought the Louisiana territory for $15 million and more than doubled the land size of the United States - and by the way, that was the entire annual budget of the Government at the time. Can you imagine what you'd do to me if I tried to spend the annual budget of the Government on anything? [Laughter] And a lot of people thought he had lost his famous reason. He could not have foreseen the full implications of everything that would flow out of that decision. He could not have known that there would be all the things that happened in the 19th century, a great Civil War, two great World Wars and a depression in the 20th century, and that somewhere in a small town in that vast expanse of land that he bought, 150 years later some other young American would be born who would have a chance to grow up and be President. He did it because he had this vision of the future. And that's what I want to talk to you about today.

Just before I came over here, I met with a lot of cancer advocates, people who have worked on research and treatment and prevention, people who have worked especially on breast cancer. I announced $30 million in extra funding for breast cancer genetic research because we just discovered two of the genes that cause breast cancer. It may enable us to prevent it forever.

Now, let me just talk about some of the other things that have happened in the last 4 years. Because of research and faster approval of drugs, we have more than doubled the life expectancy of people with HIV and AIDS. It's on its way to becoming a chronic illness. We developed the first treatment for stroke ever. We have seen, for the first time ever, in laboratory animals whose spines were totally severed, movement in the lower limbs by the transfer of nerves from other parts of their bodies to the spine. This has enormous implications for military veterans, accident victims, and others who have been confined in their movements because of damage to their spines. We just signed a contract with IBM not very long ago to develop a super-computer in the next couple of years that will do as many calculations in a second as you can do on a hand-held computer in 30,000 years.