William Jefferson Clinton Address to
Convention
As
Prepared
Democratic Convention Coverage
Monday 26 July 2004
Thank you. I am honored to share the podium with my
Senator, though I think I should be introducing her. I'm proud of her and so
grateful to the people of New York that the best public servant in our family is
still on the job and grateful to all of you, especially my friends from
Arkansas, for the chance you gave us to serve our country in the White House.
I am also honored to share this night with President
Carter, who has inspired the world with his work for peace, democracy, and human
rights. And with Al Gore, my friend and partner for eight years, who played such
a large role in building the prosperity and progress that brought America into
the 21st century, who showed incredible grace and patriotism under pressure, and
who is the living embodiment that every vote counts - and must be counted in
every state in America.
Tonight I speak as a citizen, returning to the role I
have played for most of my life as a foot soldier in the fight for our future,
as we nominate a true New England patriot for president. The state that gave us
John Adams and John Kennedy has now given us John Kerry, a good man, a great
senator, a visionary leader. We are constantly told America is deeply divided.
But all Americans value freedom, faith, and family. We all honor the service and
sacrifice of our men and women in uniform in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the
world.
We all want good jobs, good schools, health care,
safe streets, a clean environment. We all want our children to grow up in a
secure America leading the world toward a peaceful future. Our differences are
in how we can best achieve these things, in a time of unprecedented change.
Therefore, we Democrats will bring the American people a positive campaign,
arguing not who's good and who's bad, but what is the best way to build the
safe, prosperous world our children deserve.
The 21st century is marked by serious security
threats, serious economic challenges, and serious problems like global warming
and the AIDS epidemic. But it is also full of enormous opportunities - to create
millions of high paying jobs in clean energy, and biotechnology; to restore the
manufacturing base and reap the benefits of the global economy through our
diversity and our commitment to decent labor and environmental standards
everywhere; and to create a world where we can celebrate our religious and
racial differences, because our common humanity matters more.
To build that kind of world we must make the right
choices; and we must have a president who will lead the way. Democrats and
Republicans have very different and honestly held ideas on that choices we
should make, rooted in fundamentally different views of how we should meet our
common challenges at home and how we should play our role in the world.
Democrats want to build an America of shared responsibilities and shared
opportunities and more global cooperation, acting alone only when we must.
We think the role of government is to give people the
tools and conditions to make the most of their lives. Republicans believe in an
America run by the right people, their people, in a world in which we act
unilaterally when we can, and cooperate when we have to.
They think the role of government is to concentrate
wealth and power in the hands of those who embrace their political, economic,
and social views, leaving ordinary citizens to fend for themselves on matters
like health care and retirement security. Since most Americans are not that far
to the right, they have to portray us Democrats as unacceptable, lacking in
strength and values. In other words, they need a divided America. But Americans
long to be united. After 9/11, we all wanted to be one nation, strong in the
fight against terror. The president had a great opportunity to bring us together
under his slogan of compassionate conservatism and to unite the world in common
cause against terror.
Instead, he and his congressional allies made a very
different choice: to use the moment of unity to push America too far to the
right and to walk away from our allies, not only in attacking Iraq before the
weapons inspectors finished their jobs, but in withdrawing American support for
the Climate Change Treaty, the International Court for war criminals, the ABM
treaty, and even the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Now they are working to develop two new nuclear
weapons which they say we might use first. At home, the President and the
Republican Congress have made equally fateful choices indeed. For the first time
ever when America was on a war footing, there were two huge tax cuts, nearly
half of which went to the top one percent. I'm in that group now for the first
time in my life.
When I was in office, the Republicans were pretty
mean to me. When I left and made money, I became part of the most important
group in the world to them. At first I thought I should send them a thank you
note - until I realized they were sending you the bill.
They protected my tax cuts while:
- Withholding promised funding for the Leave No Child Behind Act, leaving
over 2 million children behind
- Cutting 140,000 unemployed workers out of job training
- 100,000 working families out of child care assistance
- 300,000 poor children out of after school programs
- Raising out of pocket healthcare costs to veterans
- Weakening or reversing important environmental advances for clean air
and the preservation of our forests.
Everyone had to sacrifice except the wealthiest
Americans, who wanted to do their part but were asked only to expend the energy
necessary to open the envelopes containing our tax cuts. If you agree with these
choices, you should vote to return them to the White House and Congress. If not,
take a look at John Kerry, John Edwards and the Democrats.
In this year's budget, the White House wants to cut
off federal funding for 88,000 uniformed police, including more than 700 on the
New York City police force who put their lives on the line on 9/11. As gang
violence is rising and we look for terrorists in our midst, Congress and the
President are also about to allow the ten-year-old ban on assault weapons to
expire. Our crime policy was to put more police on the streets and take assault
weapons off the streets. It brought eight years of declining crime and violence.
Their policy is the reverse, they're taking police off the streets and putting
assault weapons back on the streets. If you agree with their choices, vote to
continue them. If not, join John Kerry, John Edwards and the Democrats in making
America safer, smarter, and stronger.
On Homeland Security, Democrats tried to double the
number of containers at ports and airports checked for Weapons of Mass
Destruction. The one billion dollar cost would have been paid for by reducing
the tax cut of 200,000 millionaires by five thousand dollars each. Almost all
200,000 of us would have been glad to pay 5,000 dollars to make the nearly 300
million Americans safer - but the measure failed because the White House and the
Republican leadership in the House decided my tax cut was more important- If you
agree with that choice, re-elect them. If not, give John Kerry and John Edwards
a chance.
These policies have turned the projected 5.8 trillion
dollar surplus we left - enough to pay for the baby boomers retirement - into a
projected debt of nearly 5 trillion dollars, with a 400 plus billion dollar
deficit this year and for years to come. How do they pay for it? First by taking
the monthly surplus in Social Security payments and endorsing the checks of
working people over to me to cover my tax cut. But it's not enough. They are
borrowing the rest from foreign governments, mostly Japan and China. Sure,
they're competing with us for good jobs but how can we enforce our trade laws
against our bankers? If you think it's good policy to pay for my tax cut with
the Social Security checks of working men and women, and borrowed money from
China, vote for them. If not, John Kerry's your man.
We Americans must choose for President one of two
strong men who both love our country, but who have very different worldviews:
Democrats favor shared responsibility, shared opportunity, and more global
cooperation. Republicans favor concentrated wealth and power, leaving people to
fend for themselves and more unilateral action. I think we're right for two
reasons: First, America works better when all people have a chance to live their
dreams. Second, we live in an interdependent world in which we can't kill, jail,
or occupy all our potential adversaries, so we have to both fight terror and
build a world with more partners and fewer terrorists. We tried it their way for
twelve years, our way for eight, and then their way for four more.
By the only test that matters, whether people were
better off when we finished than when we started, our way works better - it
produced over 22 million good jobs, rising incomes, and 100 times as many people
moving out of poverty into the middle class. It produced more health care, the
largest increase in college aid in 50 years, record home ownership, a cleaner
environment, three surpluses in a row, a modernized defense force, strong
efforts against terror, and an America respected as a world leader for peace,
security and prosperity.
More importantly, we have great new champions in John
Kerry and John Edwards. Two good men with wonderful wives - Teresa a generous
and wise woman who understands the world we are trying to shape. And Elizabeth,
a lawyer and mother who understands the lives we are all trying to lift. Here is
what I know about John Kerry. During the Vietnam War, many young men - including
the current president, the vice president and me - could have gone to Vietnam
but didn't. John Kerry came from a privileged background and could have avoided
it too. Instead he said, send me.
When they sent those swift-boats up the river in
Vietnam, and told them their job was to draw hostile fire - to show the American
flag and bait the enemy to come out and fight - John Kerry said, send me. When
it was time to heal the wounds of war and normalize relations with Vietnam - and
to demand an accounting of the POWs and MIAs we lost there - John Kerry said,
send me.
When we needed someone to push the cause of
inner-city kids struggling to avoid a life of crime, or to bring the benefits of
high technology to ordinary Americans, or to clean the environment in a way that
creates jobs, or to give small businesses a better chance to make it, John Kerry
said send me.
Tonight my friends, I ask you to join me for the next
100 days in telling John Kerry's story and promoting his plans. Let every person
in this hall and all across America say to him what he has always said to
America: Send Me. The bravery that the men who fought by his side saw in battle
I've seen in the political arena. When I was President, John Kerry showed
courage and conviction on crime, on welfare reform, on balancing the budget at a
time when those priorities were not exactly a way to win a popularity contest in
our party.
He took tough positions on tough problems. John Kerry
knows who he is and where he's going. He has the experience, the character, the
ideas and the values to be a great President. In a time of change he has two
other important qualities: his insatiable curiosity to understand the forces
shaping our lives, and a willingness to hear the views even of those who
disagree with him. Therefore his choices will be full of both conviction and
common sense.
He proved that when he picked a tremendous partner in
John Edwards. Everybody talks about John Edwards' energy, intellect, and
charisma. The important thing is how he has used his talents to improve the
lives of people who - like John himself - had to work hard for all they've got.
He has always championed the cause of people too often left out or left behind.
And that's what he'll do as our Vice President.
Their opponents will tell you to be afraid of John
Kerry and John Edwards, because they won't stand up to the terrorists - don't
you believe it. Strength and wisdom are not conflicting values - they go hand in
hand. John Kerry has both. His first priority will be keeping America safe.
Remember the scripture: Be Not Afraid.
John Kerry and John Edwards, have good ideas:
- To make this economy work again for middle-class Americans;
- To restore fiscal responsibility;
- To save Social Security; to make healthcare more affordable and college
more available;
- To free us from dependence on foreign oil and create new jobs in clean
energy;
- To rally the world to win the war on terror and to make more friends and
fewer terrorists.
At every turning point in our history we the people
have chosen unity over division, heeding our founders' call to America's eternal
mission: to form a more perfect union, to widen the circle of opportunity,
deepen the reach of freedom, and strengthen the bonds of community.
It happened because we made the right choices. In the
early days of the republic, America was at a crossroads much like it is today,
deeply divided over whether or not to build a real nation with a national
economy, and a national legal system. We chose a more perfect union.
In the Civil War, America was at a crossroads,
divided over whether to save the union and end slavery - we chose a more perfect
union. In the 1960s, America was at a crossroads, divided again over civil
rights and women's rights. Again, we chose a more perfect union. As I said in
1992, we're all in this together; we have an obligation both to work hard and to
help our fellow citizens, both to fight terror and to build a world with more
cooperation and less terror. Now again, it is time to choose.
Since we're all in the same boat, let us chose as the
captain of our ship a brave good man who knows how to steer a vessel though
troubled waters to the calm seas and clear skies of our more perfect union. We
know our mission. Let us join as one and say in a loud, clear voice: Send John
Kerry.
