Remarks to the community in Salem, New Hampshire

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Feb 12, 1996

Thank you very much. I don't know about you, but I think Larry's got a real future in this speaking business. [Laughter] I thank him and Joe and Mike and Cheryl for welcoming me here. I thank your superintendent and your high school principal for making me feel welcome, and your students. And I thank the Salem band for playing. They did a very good job. I thought it was the Marine Band playing when I first heard. They did a terrific job.

You know, it is true that 4 years ago when I first came here I walked into a room with Larry and six other people and I thought I had a crowd. We spoke to about 120 people then and I was overwhelmed by the multitude. Tonight there are 3,000 people here and 2,000 more, apparently, who wanted to come and couldn't. And I can only say to all of you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am very grateful to you.

Just before I got off the plane today, when I was flying up here, my staff gave me a list of all of the scheduled stops I made in New Hampshire just from January the 1st until February the 18th, 1992, not counting the ones in October, November, and December, just the ones in those 6 weeks. There were 75 different stops on that list.

I'd like to say something to all of you as this campaign season begins again that I have said repeatedly to people in the White House for the last 4 years. The New Hampshire primary serves two purposes, not one. The obvious purpose that you think about and like and your leaders without regard to party have worked so hard to protect is that you have the first primary in the Nation. You get the first say. You have a disproportionate impact on who is nominated by each party.

But what you should not underestimate is the other purpose that you serve and perhaps in the long run, an even more valuable one for the United States because New Hampshire is a small State with a lot of communities, and because it is the first primary. When I came here and went to town after town after town, to school after school after school, to business after business after business, and I sat across tables and I sat around coffee shops and I listened to people, and they asked questions and they told me of their experiences and I heard what they had to say, I learned more about my country than I ever could have learned in any other way.

No one ever runs for President knowing enough about America to be President. New Hampshire helps people learn that if you go out and you listen and you reach out to the people and you give them a chance to share with you. And that happens for people whether they win this State or not. The people always here are unfailingly courteous to the candidates and give them a chance to learn about America. You taught me a lot about America, and I thank you for it.

Let me say, when I came here in 1991 and 1992, the focus in our country and certainly in this State was overwhelmingly on the condition of the economy, on the long recession, on the fact that the unemployment rate was so high, on the fact that so many businesses were going bankrupt and so many people were looking to the future without hope. And I asked the American people, as well as the people of New Hampshire, to give me a chance to serve as President because I had a very clear idea that in order to move into the 21st century the strongest country in the world, we had to provide economic opportunity to everyone, we had to expect more responsibility from all our citizens, and we had to pull together.

And whether we liked it or not, even though the cold war was over, we had to continue to be the leading force for freedom and for peace in the world. I believed that then, and I believe it tonight, and that is the path we have taken.

Tonight I would like to do, in an abbreviated fashion, what I attempted to do in the State of the Union Address last week. I want to give you an account of where we have come in the last 3 years, and where I believe we have to go.

Compared with 3 years ago, our economy is stronger, as Larry said. We have, combined, the lowest rates of unemployment and inflation we've had in 27 years. We have almost 8 million new jobs in this economy. We have a million new jobs in autos and construction alone. We have a 15-year high in homeownership. For 3 years in a row, we have broken records in the number of new businesses started in America. Each successive year has been a record high.

All those things are good things. In New Hampshire, the unemployment rate has dropped from 7.6 percent to 3.2. For the last 3 years businesses have been growing in number at 8 percent a year instead of shrinking, as they did before. Business failures are down. New Hampshire has 40,000 new jobs. That is a good record. We should all be proud of it. We have implemented the economic strategy I talked about here in every community: to cut the deficit in half, to expand trade to all-time highs, to invest in education and research and technology, and to sell American products all around the world. That strategy is working. We are moving forward with it. It is expanding opportunity for the American people.