Remarks to Colorado Democrats in Denver, Colorado

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Nov 4, 1996

Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Mayor, Mrs. Webb, Governor Romer, Congressman Fields, Chairperson Vivian Stovall, and Mike Beatty, my old friend Norm Early - I'm glad to see him again. And I want to say a special word on behalf of Diana DeGette, who's trying to make sure that we have a different leadership in the House of Representatives and for the Congress.

I'd also like to say a word for our Senate nominee, Tom Strickland, who is, as you know, going to another one of his debates with Mr. Allard. And you have to be thinking about him. You're going to be enjoying a dinner, and he won't be able to eat. [Laughter] But I think he'll represent us well, and I hope you will help him prevail on election day.

Let me also say, if you have never heard Cleo Fields give a speech, when I finish you will have not heard the best speaker tonight on the platform. And I want to thank him. He comes from my neighboring State of Louisiana; I was elated when he was elected to Congress. I was downhearted when he was redistricted by a court. And I think he has a brilliant future ahead of him, and I'm glad he's here with you. Ron Brown would be glad he is here with you tonight.

I would like to talk a little history with you tonight, just to bring you to this point so soon, so near to our election. First, I thank you for naming these awards for Ron Brown and Barbara Jordan. They were both friends of mine and my relationship with each of them, though different, is something I will treasure all of my life. I too remember the first time I ever heard Barbara Jordan speak, and I thought, maybe God is a woman after all. [Laughter] I always - I got to where I wanted to say, "yes, ma'am" before she ever opened her mouth, every time I was ever around her. [Laughter]

She never lost her love for this country, and the more her body became weakened by her condition, the stronger her heart and voice became. And in her last year she agreed to chair for me a commission looking at what we should do about the issues of immigration in our country, how we could remain a nation of immigrants and still take a strong stand that people who come here should do so legally. And she did it with a grace, a strength, a balance, a fundamental sense of fairness and common sense that everyone who worked with her marveled about. And that was her last great contribution to our Nation. And I've done my best to implement the ideas that Barbara Jordan advanced. And I'll always be grateful to her.

And all of you know, of course, of my relationship with Ron Brown. I doubt very seriously that I'd be standing here as President of the United States tonight if it hadn't been for Ron Brown. And so I'm going to keep him smiling from up there the next week. I'm going to do everything I can to keep that big smile on his face.

I also want to thank you for honoring Wellington and Wilma Webb. I not only like them very much, but I admire them very much. And Hillary and I identify with them. We love being around them. And I like seeing a strong first lady, and I like seeing a mayor who is strong enough to want to be married to a strong first lady - [laughter] - and I like that.

So I thank you for that. And let me say that Colorado has - I've been coming here a lot for the last 15 years, a long time before I ever thought I'd be here as President. I came every chance I could because it represented something very special to me. And I think you've been blessed by the quality of your leaders. Roy Romer I think is clearly, both in terms of accomplishment and intellect and vision of the future, the most gifted Governor in the United States in terms of his contribution to our future.

And he's like all of us aging warriors. He was reluctant to give up on his youth, so he broke his leg on a motorcycle and - [laughter] - he's left his cane, and he's kind of trading up his shoes gradually, you know. [Laughter] But I am delighted to be here with all of them.

This election we're going to have will elect the last President of the 20th century and the first President of the 21st century. Colorado sort of embodies both the promise and the struggles of the present and the future. And I was thinking when Mayor Webb was talking about Abraham Lincoln and the long talks we had about Lincoln when he was staying in the White House that the great thing about America is that there's always been a relentless quest for a better future in a way that would embrace the moment and, in doing so, not abandon our traditional values and ideals but instead try to perfect them.

A lot of people have this idea that, well, if you were really a future-oriented person, it means you're too material or you're too concerned about ideas, and that's very exciting, but you must be a little shy on the traditional ideals and values that have kept our country strong. But I don't see it that way at all. I think that our expanding abundance only gives us the opportunity which we then have to seize to live up more closely to our ideals and our values.