Remarks to the community in Denver

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Nov 4, 1996

The President. Thank you. Thank you. Wow! Hello Denver! Can you keep this up until Tuesday? [Applause] Let's give Katherine Diamond another hand. She was fabulous. Thank you very much. [Applause]

Thank you, Governor Romer, for your friendship and your leadership. I said the other day and I said just a few moments ago at another event, I think if you took an honest poll among all the Governors in this country, they would tell you, by reason of intellect, vision, and accomplishment, Roy Romer is the most outstanding public servant in the Governor's office in America today.

Thank you, Mayor Webb, and thank you for writing him in, because he's a great mayor, and I'm honored to be his friend.

Thank you, Diana DeGette, for being willing to go to Congress, and thank you for sending her. We need her there. Congressman Skaggs, thank you for being here. Lieutenant Governor Schoettler, Bess Strickland, thank you for being here. Tom's over at another one of those debates he's having, and I bet he's winning. But you have to help him win on Tuesday. Will you do that? [Applause]

I want to thank Shawn Kelley and Richie Sambora and the Samples for their music. I want to thank the Denver Broncos who came here tonight and wish them well on the rest of a great season. And I want to thank Mark Jackson for being here tonight. We could use a few of his moves between now and Tuesday. Give Mark Jackson a hand. He's a great player and a great citizen. And I want to say a special word of thanks to Bill Ritter for his support of our anticrime initiatives and ask you for his support.

Folks, in 1992, when Al Gore and I came here and we asked the people of Colorado to support us, I felt a special kinship to this State, which I had been visiting for many years as a private citizen. And I always felt that Colorado represented all the cauldron of things that are happening in America a little bit ahead of time, that you were on the cutting edge of the future, that you were embracing the future, but that you were also dealing with the conflicts that bedevil us all and that threaten to divide us and take us back.

I always felt that here people had a good old-fashioned conservative sense that there were some things the Government ought not to do and mess with, and that that gave some of our opponents on the other side an unusual and often unfair advantage in the rhetoric of these elections. And I told you that if you gave us a chance to serve, I would pursue my vision for the 21st century with a simple strategy. I want us to go into that next century 4 years from now with the American dream alive and well for every person who's responsible to work for it.

I want us to continue to lead the world for peace and freedom and prosperity. And I've had to make some decisions I know were unpopular at the time to stand up for those ideals in Bosnia and Haiti, to keep working in the Middle East and Northern Ireland. But we are standing up for peace and freedom and there's not a single Russian missile pointed at an American child tonight in part because of what we are doing.

And look around this room tonight - I wanted us to stand against those forces that are gripping the rest of the world, of racial and ethnic and tribal and religious hatred and division, and say, "All we want in America is for everybody to agree on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and be a good citizen, and you're part of our America. We like our diversity. We're coming together."

I look out here tonight, I see Latino-Americans and African-Americans and Asian-Americans and Arab-Americans and Irish- and Polish- and Italian-Americans, and I think it's good. And I want more of it. And I want us to learn every day a little more about how we're going to live together. And we have worked hard to create more opportunity, to insist on more responsibility, and to build an American community where everybody has a seat at the table and a role to play.

Now, 4 years ago, you took us on faith. But now there's a record. And we're better off than we were 4 years ago. This election for President, the election for the Senate, the election for the Congress, fundamentally, they are not elections of party, even though there are partisan differences. We're going into a great new century. We're undergoing vast changes in the way we work and the way we live.

Let me just give you one example. When I became President, 3 million Americans -

[At this point, there was a disturbance in the audience.]

The President. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait a minute, wait -

Audience members. Boo-o-o!

The President. Don't boo them. Let them have their say. Now, we heard - if Senator Dole or Congressman Kemp come here, don't you dare do this to them. You let them have their say. Don't do it.

Now, the only reason - the only reason they're screaming is the truth hurts. Those young people back there that are holding those signs, they must not have needed the student loan, because Senator Dole and Congressman Allard voted to cut it.