Remarks in Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Nov 4, 1996

Thank you. Hello, Arizona. Good morning. Let's give the band a hand. [Applause] Thank you very much. Are you going to the Bose Bowl? [Applause] Are we going to win on Tuesday? [Applause] I want to thank the people who performed before I came here: the ASU Student Saxophone Combo, the Mariachi del Sur, the Clan/destine, the Tempe High School Marching Band. Again, thank you. And Jeff Goodman. I thank those who spoke earlier, including the students, Sadohana Stone and Michelle Carson, the legislators who were here, the other candidates, the vice mayor. And I want to say to Juan Roque, you're having a great system, and I wish you would play offensive line for me for the next 5 days. Thank you. I thank Governor Bose Mofford, my friend and former colleague. Thank you, Congressman Ed Pastor, Mrs. Pastor. Thank you, Steve Owens, for running for Congress and trying to turn the Congress around and put it back on the side of the American people and their future. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank Bill Bratton for coming all the way to Arizona to endorse our candidacy, to be here with Mike Petchell. While Bill Bratton was the police chief of New York, violent crime decreased almost 40 percent, the murder rate was decreased by 50 percent. We can make our streets safer for our children and their future if we all work together. Thank you, Commissioner Bratton, for being here.

Five days from today, the American people will choose the last President of the 20th century and the first President of the 21st century. I am very, very glad that there are so many young people here today because this election is about your future.

You know, there are many different issues in this election, many matters on which Senator Dole and I disagree, many matters on which I disagreed with Senator Dole and Speaker Gingrich over the last 2 years. But the big issue that embraces them all is what you want America to look like when we cross that bridge into the 21st century and what you are prepared to do to get us there.

I want an America where the American dream is alive and well for any person responsible enough to work for it, without regard to race or gender or background or where they start out in life. I want everybody to have a chance to live up to their God-given capacities. I want an America that is still the world's leading force for peace and freedom and for prosperity. And I want an America that is rejecting the racial, the ethnic, the tribal, the religious division that is tearing apart so much of the rest of the world and says we're going forward into the 21st century as one community together. We need each other, and we'll do better when we work forward together. Will you help me build that kind of America? [Applause]

Four years ago, when I came to the American people with Al Gore and said we wanted a different kind of political direction, we wanted to break out of the mold of the old debates and take America forward, we thought the right and left, liberal and conservative debate was sterile and outdated and the issue was what we had to do together to move our country forward, the American people took me on faith, and we came within one percentage point of carrying Arizona. I hope you'll help us do just a little better on Tuesday.

But today, you don't have to do that. There is a record. You can make a judgment based on the evidence about whether this approach is going to make you more likely to live out your dreams in the 21st century, more likely to make this a more responsible and caring society in the 21st century, more likely to preserve the greatness that has always been America's hallmark.

Compared to 4 years ago, we have 10 1/2 million more jobs. We have the lowest combined rates of unemployment, inflation, and home mortgages in 27 years, the biggest drop in inequality among working families in 27 years, the biggest drop in child poverty in 20 years, the highest home ownership rates in 15 years. The deficit has been cut in all 4 years of an administration for the first time in the 20th century. We are moving in the right direction.

The crime rate is down for 4 years in a row and is now at a 10-year low in America, the welfare rolls have been reduced by 1.9 million, child support collections have been increased by $4 billion a year - 50 percent. We are moving in the right direction.

Just in the last few weeks, we've seen the minimum wage go up for 10 million people, 25 million Americans protected by a law that now says you cannot lose your health insurance if you move from job to job or someone in your family get sick, a law that says insurance companies can no longer kick mothers and their newborn children out of the hospital after only 24 hours. We are moving the right direction.

Income for the typical family is up about $1,600 in the last 2 years. Our air is cleaner. Our drinking water is safer. We have preserved our natural heritage; we fought all the vicious attacks on the environment by the Members of the congressional majority who even wanted to sell some of our national parks, and instead, we've expanded more lands we're protecting. We are moving forward and growing the economy while preserving our environment. We are moving in the right direction.