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�Draft #1 8/15/96 Ham
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
August 26, 1996
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice-President, fellow
Democrats, my fellow Americans:
[joke][Joke to come re: speaking at the Chicago
Bulls' arena.]
[Gore reference]
[Over the past four years, I have been blessed to
have the opporutnity to be a part of the American people as
they have met and mastered some of the great challenges of
our time.] But my fellow Americans, we have much more
to do. I accept your nomination for President.
I ran for President because I believed America was
adrift, stumbling toward the new century with uncertain
steps. Our economic engine was stalled. Our spirit was
wavering. I did not want my daughter to be part of the first
generation to be worse off than its parents.^Together we
vowed to restore America's basic bargain: Offer
opportunity to all . . . demand responsibility from all. That
)0
�is the way we would come together as an American
communtiy. And that is exactly what we have done.
I was convinced we needed a new approach to our
most stubborn problems. For too long, America had
changed, but Washington stood still. As our problems piled
high, the excuses piled even higher. Our leaders used
America's most pressing challenges — balancing the budget,
fighting crime, reforming welfare — as issues to be
exploited, not problems to be solved. [They were more
interested in demonizing welfare mothers than in solving the
problem of welfare. They were more interested in
frightening people about young men with guns, than in
taking guns off the street ]
I took office deterimined to change all that. 1 was
determined that we stop pointingfingersand start joining
hands —^reachm^across the lines that divide us to start
solving these problems. As I told this convention four years
ago, our approach is not conservative or liberal. It is not
really Democratic or Republican. Wc uiic good idcra?
SgardlessTlf lliu !>uuiix- Our approach is different. It is
new. And it is working, because it is rooted in the vision
and the values of the American people.
By our actions, by the stands we have taken and the
achivements we have built, we have found common ground
and forged a new American consensus.
�For years, America wandered through a desert of
arid debates about the role of government. Now we're
doing something about it. We recognize that the era of big
government is over. But the era of fend for yourself must
never begin.
We know we must balance the budget — and we
have cut the deficit by more than half. But we also know
that we must never balance the budget by undermining
Medicare, destroying Medicaid, slashing education, or
polluting the environment.
We know that we have to take back our streets from
gangs and guns and drugs. So we have toughened
sentences. We are putting 100,000 police on the streets, and
taking assault weapons off the street. And the crime rate is
down, four years in a row.
We know that we need to reform the welfare
system, to move people from welfare to work. And we
know that if we want people to succeed at home and at
work, we must make sure they have health care and child
care and jobs to go to. And if you say you value work, the
minimum wage must be a living wage.
We know that we should cut taxes, because working
families deserve a break. Both parites agree on that. Under
my administraiton, we have already cut taxes for 15 million
working families. And we also know that tax cuts should
3
�help famileis pay for things they need -- like education and
childrearing. I will cut taxes even more. But let me be
clear: I will not promise you a tax cut that reverses our
progress toward a balanced budget.
Today, America is coming together around these
values. Our economy is growing, steady and strong.
Poverty, welfare, teen pregnancy are all down — and as they
come down, prospects for America go up. American ideals
are triumphant across the globe. And the American spirit is
rising here at home. Make no mistake: America is back.
But our work is not done. Americans have never
been satisfied with xx.
For America was built on challenges, not promises.
From the American Revolution fought to establish a nation
dedicated to the proposition that all people are created
equal . . . to the Civil War that gave us a new birth of
freedom . . . to the Progressive Era and New Deal that gave
working peopel the opportunity to reap the rewards of the
industrial age . . . to the fight against fascism and the long
twilight struggle of the Cold War... we Americans have
never feared our challenges; we have conquered them; and
in so doing, we have xxxxxxx{rhetoric].
Today, we are fortunate. No tyrant aims missiles at
our shores, seeking to obliterate us as we sleep; no
Depression threatens our livelihoods. But our challenges
�are not over. America faces New Challenges, new tests as
we face the new century. Terrorism. Renewing our innercities. Giving more Americans health care. I am confident
that we can conquer these new challenges as we have
climbed far steeper mountains before. And if we face them
and act, bit by bit, block by block, there is no challenge we
cannot conquer. And in so doing, we will once again define
ourselves as Americans.
[With action to reform welfare, cut the deficit, and
toughen penalties on crime, we are forging a New American
Consensus. The partisan debates that consumed us until
they exhausted us - those days and those debates are over.
We are solving yesterday's problems. Now our nation must
turn and face the coming century. ] We must ask ourselves
what kind of world we want for our children and their
children. And we must press forward with a 21 st Century
agenda - meeting our New Challenges - to give our people
the safe streets, the clean water, the jobs, the good schools
that they need. We must offer opportunity, by moving
millions of people from welfare to work, and by giving
every American the health care and education they need to
reap the rewards of the new economy. We must demand
responsibility, by keeping guns out of the hands of cirminals
and by insisting that all parents pay the child support they
owe. And we must come together as a community, by
helping families raise their children.
Tonight, 1 want to tell you — as candidly and
�completely as I can — what 1 believe we must do to meet
these challenges over the next four years.
First and foremost, we must do more to make the
American Dream of opporutnity availalbe to all who are
willing to work for it.
Welfare.
�To get there, we have to offer all our people
oppomtnity. [2 sentences on opportunity ]]
The first and most importnat way we must offer
opportunity to every American is to make good on the
promsie of work and responsibility that is at the very core of
the American dream.
Our first goal must be a massive migration of
millions of Americans from the welfare rolls to the job rolls
by the Year 2000. Welfare reform is a grand bargain that
imposes a giant obligaiton on all of us. We have said to
welfare recipients: we want responsibility to be a way of
life, not an option. Now all Americans have an obligation to
fulfil the secong part fo that bargain: we must make sure
that there are jobs for them to fill.
To that end, tonight I propose that we take billions
of dollars that were once spent on welfaer, and now spend
them to help businesses move into the inner city and give
welfare recipients jobs. Tonight, I propose that we xx
Tonight, I propose that we .
Let me say to you: This is our last best hope to
rescue the inner city. This is our last best chance to break
the cycle of poverty and dependency that traps too many of
our fellow citizens, that excludes them from mainstream
�society and denies them the American dream. We cannot
survive as two societies, one healthy, one pathological, one
xx, one xx. Let us resolve, here in Chicago, that the end of
welfare will be the beginning of a genuine national
commitment to reenw our inner cities so that they flower
with life instead of withering with whatever.
This mission has been at the core of my public
service for my entire life. A decade ago, I remember well, a
woman from Little Rock named Lillie Harden told me that
my state had helped move her from welfare to work. She
said: "The best thing about work is not a chekc.l The best
thing is when my boy goes to school and they say, 'What
does your Momma do for a living,' he can give an answer."
Today, a decade later, Lillie Harden works in a grocery
store. Her [son] is a physical therapist. Her daughter is an
engineering student. And the boy about whom she spoke
goes to college. My friends, no one wants to get off welfare
more thant he people who are on it. And it must be our
mission to get them off it.
So tonight I challlenge America to make certain that
jobs, hope and opportunity reach the inner city.
I challenge all America to match our sentiments
with deeds. Our new poverty program does not seek to
prop up a welfare system that has collapsed around us. It
rests on giving those in our most distressed neighborhoods
the same chance to climb up the ladder of the American
��Draft #1 8/15/96 11am
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
August 26, 1996
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice-President, fellow Democrats, my
fellow Americans:
[joke][Joke to come re: speaking at the Chicago Bulls'
arena.]
[Gore reference]
Four years ago, we began a journey into a new era. I have
been blessed to have the chance to do my part as we have
met and mastered some of the great challenges of our time.
But my fellow Americans, [we have much more to do.] I accept
your nomination for President.
we are 4 yrs from new century
I ran for President because I believed America was adrift,
stumbling toward the new century with uncertain steps. Our
economy was lagging. Our spirit was wavering. Our nation was
pulling apart instead of coming together.
�Together, we vowed to give America a new direciton.
Together, we vowed to restore America's basic bargain: Offer
opportunity to all. . . demand responsibility from all. That is
the way we would come together as an American communtiy.
And that is exactly what we have done.
As your President, I have seen [nice FEMA anecdote] [or
maybe the family leave anecdote].
[I was convinced we needed a new approach to our most
stubborn problems. For too long, America had changed, but
Washington stood still. As our problems piled high, the excuses
piled even higher. Our leaders used America's most pressing
challenges ~ balancing the budget, fighting crime, reforming
welfare ~ as issues to be exploited, not problems to be solved.
I took office deterimined to change all that. I was
determined that we stop pointing fingers and start joining hands
-- reaching across the lines that divide us to start solving these
problems. As I told this convention four years ago, our
approach is not conservative or liberal. It is not really
Democratic or Republican. We use good ideas, regardless of the
source. Our approach is different. It is new. And it is working,
because it is rooted in the vision and the values of the American
people.
By our actions, by the stands we have taken and the
achivements we have built, we have found common ground and
forged a new American consensus.
�For years, America wandered through a desert of arid
debates about the role of government. Now we're doing
something about it. We recognize that the era of big
government is over. But the era of fend for yourself must never
begin.
We know we must balance the budget ~ and we have cut
the deficit by more than half. But we also know that we must
never balance the budget by undermining Medicare, destroying
Medicaid, slashing education, or polluting the environment.
We know that we have to take back our streets from gangs
and guns and drugs. So we have toughened sentences. We are
putting 100,000 police on the streets, and taking assault
weapons off the street. And the crime rate is down, four years in
a row.
We know that we need to reform the welfare system, to
move people from welfare to work. And we know that if we
want people to succeed at home and at work, we must make sure
they have health care and child care and jobs to go to. And if
you say you value work, the minimum wage must be a living
wage.
We know that we should cut taxes, because working
families deserve a break. Both parties agree on that. Under my
administraiton, we have already cut taxes for 15 million working
families. And we also know that tax cuts should help famileis
pay for things they need -- like education and childrearing. I
�will cut taxes even more. But let me be clear: I will not promise
you a tax cut that reverses our progress toward a balanced
budget.
Today, America is coming together around these values.
Our economy is growing, steady and strong. Poverty, welfare,
teen pregnancy are all down ~ and as they come down,
prospects for America go up. American ideals are triumphant
across the globe. And the American spirit is rising here at
home. Make no mistake: America is back.
But our work is not done. Americans have never been
satisfied with xx.
For America was built on challenges, not promises. From
the American Revolution fought to establish a nation dedicated
to the proposition that all people are created equal . . . to the
Civil War that gave us a new birth of freedom . . . to the
Progressive Era and New Deal that gave working peopel the
opportunity to reap the rewards of the industrial age . . . to the
fight against fascism and the long twilight struggle of the Cold
War . . . we Americans have never feared our challenges; we
have conquered them; and in so doing, we have
xxxxxxx{rhetoric .
Today, we are fortunate. No tyrant aims missiles at our
shores, seeking to obliterate us as we sleep; no Depression
threatens our livelihoods. But our challenges are not over.
America faces New Challenges, new tests as we face the new
�century. Terrorism. Renewing our inner-cities. Giving more
Americans health care. I am confident that we can conquer
these new challenges as we have climbed far steeper mountains
before. If we face them and act, bit by bit, block by block, there
is no challenge we cannot conquer. And in so doing, we will
once again define ourselves as Americans.
With action to reform welfare, cut the deficit, and toughen
penalties on crime, we are forging a New American Consensus.
The partisan debates that consumed us until they exhausted us -those days and those debates are over. We are solving
yesterday's problems. Now our nation must turn and face the
coming century. ] We must ask ourselves what kind of world we
want for our children and their children. And we must press
forward with a 21 st Century agenda ~ meeting our New
Challenges ~ to give our people the safe streets, the clean water,
the jobs, the good schools that they need. We must offer
opportunity, by moving millions of people from welfare to work,
and by giving every American the health care and education
they need to reap the rewards of the new economy. We must
demand responsibility, by keeping guns out of the hands of
cirminals and by insisting that all parents pay the child support
they owe. And we must come together as a community, by
helping families raise their children.
Tonight, I want to tell you - as candidly and completely as
I can ~ what I believe we must do to meet these challenges over
the next four years. I want to tell you what America must do to
prepare our people for the 21 st Century.
�First and foremost, we must do more to make the American
Dream of opporutnity availalbe to all who are willing to work
for it. [quote on opporutnity from lincoln]
So let us set a goal for our nation: let us see a massive
migration of millions of Americans from the welfare rolls to the
job rolls by the Year 2000. Welfare reform is a grand bargain
that imposes a profound obligaiton on all of us. We have
challenged those who are on welfare to take responsibility, to
earn a paycheck. Mow we must every has a duty to make sure
that there are jobs for those welfare recipients to fill, jobs that
will bring a revival to the inner city and reconnect millions of
Americans to the Ameircan dream.
To that end, tonight I propose that we take billions of
dollars that were once spent on welfaer, and now spend them to
help businesses move into the inner city and give welfare
recipients jobs. Tonight, I propose that we [xx]. Tonight, I
propose that we [ .
�8/15/96
^
^
Americans are in a time of great transition. Not just about economic change. Not just about
institutional change. It is about a great realization that we are here to transform ourselves and
to serve others. Not just individually, but collectively.
Evidence of how this is working: People coming together around the world. Hands literally
tearing down the Berlin Wall. The hands of the flood workers piling sandbags. Handshake of
Rabin and Arafat. Worshiping with U.S. soldiers in Bosnia rebuilding war-torn towns.
Million man march. Our astronauts joining hands in space with Russian counterparts. Hands
in Oklahoma City coming to leave flowers at the bomb site. Blacks and whites rebuilding
churches.
Seas of humanity coming together and doing amazing things. For a while now, we have been
seing developments that many of us would, just a few years ago, have found hard to believe.
From Russia to Northern Ireland, from South Africa to here on our own streets and in our
own frontyards, we seem to be learning that we are more skilled at living together than we
had ever imagined. Globally, locally, across barriers we once thought would keep us apart
forever, Americans are waging peace. OPTIMISM.
LESSON: Being adversarial doesn't work, we know how to build, not to tear down. Take
best ideas from left and right. Do what works. Great realization: Adversarial behavior doesn't
work anymore. Waste of time. Americans are sick of it. Being adversarial for its own sake
doesn't get us anywhere. Move from posturing to problem-solving.
I understand this change.
President Reagan asked: "Are we better off now than we were 4 years ago?" By any
measure, we are. But let us ask a tougher question: "Will Americans be better off 10 years
from now, 50 years from now, a full century from now?" And let us ask the hardest question
of all: "Will we be not just better off as a people, but better people?"
IN THE LAST 4 YEARS AMERICANS BECAME BETTER, AND WE HAVE IT IN US
TO BECOME BETTER STILL. AMERICANS BECOMING BETTER. Together, we have
taught one another how to become better, and together we are teaching the rest of the world.
Beating swords into ploughshares.
[Side riff: The Am. Dream, as conceived of by Franklin, was one in which financial gain
through hard work was seen not as an end in itself, but as a means to higher things, informed
by virtue, translated into family, politics, philanthropy, faith. That is, Am. Dream is not just
about being better off, it's about being better. Quote TK]
We got better, but I ask you tonight? How good can we be? How can we exceed ourselves?
�That is the American mission. [We became better than 16th century England, we became
better than British toadies, we became better than slave-owners, we became better than child
labor, etc.] Progress means becoming better. This is the American mission.
Becoming better people. This is at the heart of our policy. Responsibility, opportunity, and
community are vehicles to get us there. Means to an end. We want to give people the chance
to live up to their God-given promise and be better. Eternal truths.
What did world look like 4 years ago: scenes of gangs and scared kids and unemployment
and general economic insecurity. Parents couldn't care for sick children.
We gave families peace of mind. Did our part to give them a framework to succeed and be
better etc. Policy: Did this, but we must do more. So here's what we're doing.
Because we believe Value X, we are doing, etc.
The old ways just don't work. We are realizing that we can grow the economy, retrain the
workforce, protect the environment - all of which we have done. The American people are
the ones who brought this change about - not any government and not any leader. But
Americans do deserve leaders who will help them and learn from them and not stand in their
way as the people continue to tell their great story.
I believe I understand this change. Let me work with you. There is so much more to do.
Kids: Last 4 years we made our values clear via our policies: Single most important thing a
country can do is to raise a child right. In our policies, kids are at the very top of the
pyramid of importance, rather than at the bottom. This is how we build a stable society. In
our policies, children, the most vulnerable of all of us, are at the very top - supported by
everything else. Anyone can see that this creates a stable society. Top of society with society
supporting them, rather than at the bottom, with all the burdens bearing down on them.
All kids policies: This is what we did for our children. We protected them. Deadbeat dads,
Family Leave, Gangs, Smoking, V-Chip, Education (school reconstruction).
Why did we do this? It may seem simple, but some of the greatest truths are the simplest.
When a society transforms itself so that children are held up in the highest way, the whole
society becomes better as a consequence. Everyone is transformed.
LIFE OF CHILD IN YEAR 2000. A nine-year-old boy in the year 2000. A day in the life of
the child.
If we do all this, then we can greet the dawn of the year 2000 with nothing left undone that
we should have done. We can greet the dawn of the year 2000 with clean hands and open
hearts.
�A lot of policiticans summon up Utopia as a city on a hill and a 1000 points of light. That's
all to the good. Deeper in our hearts we know that we don't have to imagine alabaster cities
to see our best America. All you have to do is look at a well-cared for child. All you have to
do is raise a well-cared for child. You don't have to situate our best vision that far away. It's
as near as the child sitting next to you. And that if we do it right, that city on the hill will be
in every one of our children, near enough for us to put our arms around it. By building a
good child, we have built a city on a hill. The city will live in the child.
Politicians urge us to look far away ~ a city on a hill over a horizon. We don't have to
imagine that it's that far away, over the horizon. It's reachable. It's that child right next to
us. That's where we build these cities.
If you look for a politicans words to build those cities, and neglect the child down the street,
it will always stay in our imagination. But we get to that ideal city, which is our true home,
by caring for that child. And turning the whole power of our nation at his or her disposal.
�8/15/96
Americans are in a time of great transition. Not just about economic change. Not just about
institutional change. It is about a great realization that we are here to transform ourselves and
to serve others. Not just individually, but collectively.
Evidence of how this is working: People coming together around the world. Hands literally
tearing down the Berlin Wall. The hands of the flood workers piling sandbags. Handshake of
Rabin and Arafat. Worshiping with U.S. soldiers in Bosnia rebuilding war-torn towns.
Million man march. Our astronauts joining hands in space with Russian counterparts. Hands
in Oklahoma City coming to leaveflowersat the bomb site. Blacks and whites rebuilding
churches.
Seas of humanity coming together and doing amazing things. For a while now, we have been
seing developments that many of us would, just a few years ago, have found hard to believe.
From Russia to Northern Ireland, from South Africa to here on our own streets and in our
own frontyards, we seem to be learning that we are more skilled at living together than we
had ever imagined. Globally, locally, across barriers we once thought would keep us apart
forever, Americans are waging peace. OPTIMISM.
LESSON: Being adversarial doesn't work, we know how to build, not to tear down. Take
best ideas from left and right. Do what works. Great realization: Adversarial behavior doesn't
work anymore. Waste of time. Americans are sick of it. Being adversarial for its own sake
doesn't get us anywhere. Move from posturing to problem-solving.
I understand this change.
President Reagan asked: "Are we better off now than we were 4 years ago?" By any
measure, we are. But let us ask a tougher question: "Will Americans be better off 10 years
from now, 50 years from now, a full century from now?" And let us ask the hardest question
of all: "Will we be not just better off as a people, but better people?"
IN THE LAST 4 YEARS AMERICANS BECAME BETTER, AND WE HAVE IT IN US
TO BECOME BETTER STILL. AMERICANS BECOMING BETTER. Together, we have
taught one another how to become better, and together we are teaching the rest of the world.
Beating swords into ploughshares.
[Side riff: The Am. Dream, as conceived of by Franklin, was one in which financial gain
through hard work was seen not as an end in itself, but as a means to higher things, informed
by virtue, translated into family, politics, philanthropy, faith. That is, Am. Dream is not just
about being better off, it's about being better. Quote TK]
We got better, but I ask you tonight? How good can we be? How can we exceed ourselves?
�That is the American mission. [We became better than 16th century England, we became
better than British toadies, we became better than slave-owners, we became better than child
labor, etc.] Progress means becoming better. This is the American mission.
Becoming better people. This is at the heart of our policy. Responsibility, opportunity, and
community are vehicles to get us there. Means to an end. We want to give people the chance
to live up to their God-given promise and be better. Eternal truths.
What did world look like 4 years ago: scenes of gangs and scared kids and unemployment
and general economic insecurity. Parents couldn't care for sick children.
We gave families peace of mind. Did our part to give them a framework to succeed and be
better etc. Policy: Did this, but we must do more. So here's what we're doing.
Because we believe Value X, we are doing, etc.
The old ways just don't work. We are realizing that we can grow the economy, retrain the
workforce, protect the environment ~ all of which we have done. The American people are
the ones who brought this change about - not any government and not any leader. But
Americans do deserve leaders who will help them and learn from them and not stand in their
way as the people continue to tell their great story.
I believe I understand this change. Let me work with you. There is so much more to do.
Kids: Last 4 years we made our values clear via our policies: Single most important thing a
country can do is to raise a child right. In our policies, kids are at the very top of the
pyramid of importance, rather than at the bottom. This is how we build a stable society. In
our policies, children, the most vulnerable of all of us, are at the very top - supported by
everything else. Anyone can see that this creates a stable society. Top of society with society
supporting them, rather than at the bottom, with all the burdens bearing down on them.
All kids policies: This is what we did for our children. We protected them. Deadbeat dads,
Family Leave, Gangs, Smoking, V-Chip, Education (school reconstruction).
Why did we do this? It may seem simple, but some of the greatest truths are the simplest.
When a society transforms itself so that children are held up in the highest way, the whole
society becomes better as a consequence. Everyone is transformed.
LIFE OF CHILD IN YEAR 2000. A nine-year-old boy in the year 2000. A day in the life of
the child.
If we do all this, then we can greet the dawn of the year 2000 with nothing left undone that
we should have done. We can greet the dawn of the year 2000 with clean hands and open
hearts.
�A lot of policiticans summon up Utopia as a city on a hill and a 1000 points of light. That's
all to the good. Deeper in our hearts we know that we don't have to imagine alabaster cities
to see our best America. All you have to do is look at a well-cared for child. All you have to
do is raise a well-cared for child. You don't have to situate our best vision that far away. It's
as near as the child sitting next to you. And that if we do it right, that city on the hill will be
in every one of our children, near enough for us to put our arms around it. By building a
good child, we have built a city on a hill. The city will live in the child.
Politicians urge us to look far away - a city on a hill over a horizon. We don't have to
imagine that it's that far away, over the horizon. It's reachable. It's that child right next to
us. That's where we build these cities.
If you look for a politicans words to build those cities, and neglect the child down the street,
it will always stay in our imagination. But we get to that ideal city, which is our true home,
by caring for that child. And turning the whole power of our nation at his or her disposal.
�Americans are in a time of great transition. Not just about economic change. Not just about
institutional change. It is about a great realization that we are here to transform ourselves and
to serve others. Not just individually, but collectively.
Evidence of how this is working: People coming together around the world. Hands literally
tearing down the Berlin Wall. The hands of the flood workers piling sandbags. Handshake of
Rabin and Arafat. Worshiping with U.S. soldiers in Bosnia rebuilding war-torn towns.
Million man march. Our astronauts joining hands in space with Russian counterparts. Hands
in Oklahoma City coming to leaveflowersat the bomb site. Blacks and whites rebuilding
churches.
Seas of humanity coming together and doing amazing things. For a while now, we have been
seing developments that many of us would, just a few years ago, have found hard to believe.
From Russia to Northern Ireland, from South Africa to here on our own streets and in our
own frontyards, we seem to be learning that we are more skilled at living together than we
had ever imagined. Globally, locally, across barriers we once thought would keep us apart
forever, Americans are waging peace. OPTIMISM.
LESSON: Being adversarial doesn't work, we know how to build, not to tear down. Take
best ideas from left and right. Do what works. Great realization: Adversarial behavior doesn't
work anymore. Waste of time. Americans are sick of it. Being adversarial for its own sake
doesn't get us anywhere. Move from posturing to problem-solving.
I understand this change.
Americans are learning that it's important for us to be not just better off, but better. [Use
Reagan riff.] IN THE LAST 4 YEARS AMERICANS BECAME BETTER, AND WE
HAVE IT IN US TO BECOME BETTER STILL. AMERICANS BECOMING BETTER.
Together, we have taught one another how to become better, and together we are teaching the
rest of the world. Beating swords into ploughshares.
What did world look like 4 years ago: scenes of gangs and scared kids and unemployment
and general economic insecurity. Parents couldn't care for sick children.
We gave families peace of mind. Did our part to give them a framework to succeed and be
better etc. Policy: Did this, but we must do more.
The old ways just don't work. We are realizing that we can grow the economy, retrain the
workforce, protect the environment - all of which we have done. The American people are
the ones who brought this change about - not any government and not any leader. But
Americans do deserve leaders who will help them and learn from them and not stand in their
way as the people continue to tell their great story.
I believe I understand this change. Let me work with you. There is so much more to do.
�Kids: Last 4 years we made our values clear via our policies: Single most important thing a
country can do is to raise a child right. In our policies, kids are at the very top of the
pyramid of importance, rather than at the bottom. This is how we build a stable society. In
our policies, children, the most vulnerable of all of us, are at the very top ~ supported by
everything else. Anyone can see that this creates a stable society. Top of society with society
supporting them, rather than at the bottom, with all the burdens bearing down on them.
All kids policies: This is what we did for our children. We protected them. Deadbeat dads,
Family Leave, Gangs, Smoking, V-Chip, Education (school reconstruction).
Why did we do this? It may seem simple, but some of the greatest truths are the simplest.
WTien a society transforms itself so that children are held up in the highest way, the whole
society becomes better as a consequence. Everyone is transformed.
LIFE OF CHILD IN YEAR 2000. A nine-year-old boy in the year 2000. A day in the life of
the child.
If we do all this, then we can greet the dawn of the year 2000 with nothing left undone that
we should have done. We can greet the dawn of the year 2000 with clean hands and open
hearts.
A lot of policiticans summon up Utopia as a city on a hill and a 1000 points of light. That's
all to the good. Deeper in our hearts we know that we don't have to imagine alabaster cities
to see our best America. All you have to do is look at a well-cared for child. All you have to
do is raise a well-cared for child. You don't have to situate our best vision that far away. It's
as near as the child sitting next to you. And that if we do it right, that city on the hill will be
in every one of our children, near enough for us to put our arms around it. By building a
good child, we have built a city on a hill. The city will live in the child.
Politicians urge us to look far away - a city on a hill over a horizon. We don't have to
imagine that it's that far away, over the horizon. It's reachable. It's that child right next to
us. That's where we build these cities.
If you look for a politicans words to build those cities, and neglect the child down the street,
it will always stay in our imagination. But we get to that ideal city, which is our true home,
by caring for that child. And turning the whole power of our nation at his or her disposal.
�0
new outline
start speech with :
- right track ameriea is back on track. We see it all aoaind us.
- Olympics, leg achievemnet, response to terror, coming together in wash to achieve
things, lowering our voices & getting things done, economic growth.
This is all based on a new consensus in America. That problems should not beocme issues
to win elections & divide us, but should become challenges to unite us in prag efforts to get it
done. Combingin the generosity of our impulesses in prov oppk & our commen sense insistence
on discipline that people assume respon. In area after area, we are moving away from treating
problems as opportunities to get elected, and treating them as challenges to bring us togeth to
solve them.
In crime debate, we've moved beyond blaming each toehr — and we've moved toward
practical steps to increase prison sentences, increase police, take away guns.
BB - we've moved away from phil args about size of govenmt, & toward practical steps
to take def cdown to 110
Welf - moved way from issue to fan resentemnts utnil they become red hot coals, &
moved toward practiacl ... time liimits, day care training.
And we've moved towards a societal consensus that we need to do more with less
government — insetad of fighting, targeted tax cuts to help peoepl raise chil, ed, etc.
Above all, America is recovin a sense of believe in abiltieis to solve its probems. And we in
wash are learning how to be problem solvers not blame assigners.
Now, what we need to do is to come together and face the new challenges that face
ameriea as we move toward mill.
The first chal we face is by the year 2000, to move massive millions of americans from
welfare to jobs. We've already done the first part of that, which is to pass leg requiring they take
jobs. Now wwe have to do the 2de part of that — which is to ensure that there are jobs for them
to take. To that end, I propose xy,z. So that by the year 2000 instead of having tens of millions
on welfaer, we will have tens of millions mroe people in jobs. Last best hope to get it right.
Health care. Vision: affordable, accessible health care for every child & almost every adult
by year 2000. - 1st step - KK & lowering medical costs. Next step: helth care for the
unepmloyed.
Education. Vision: Every child reads by 3rd grade by 2000. Discipline, standards, and
technology; community schools. Already accomp: wiring of schools, drug programs. Next step:
literacy by 3rd grade, an end to social promotion; test based promotion & graduation; wirign
�schools; school construction/community schools.
College: Vision: America winning in global econ & amers sharing in proceeds bee amer is
more and more a nation that's been to college. Money is no obstacle to at least getting a 14th
grade education] - and 14th grade becomes the norm, just like 12th now. Already accomp studen tloans; americorps; scholarships from cuts. Next step: colelge tuition tax credit and tuition
deductability.
Balanced bdget. Vision: No deficit overhang; permanently Iwoer interest rates, much mroe
working capital for job growth. First step: cut defin half; next step phasing out/bal bud prot
values.
jeat fathers: in 2000, every single parent is receiving the child support they are
entitled to unless the spouse has no money. So far: from 8 to 11 b or whatever, and now toward
doubling it. How: IRS enforcmeent.
Teen gangs: Vision no teen gangs, broken like the mob, chased from building to building
by fbi, leaders in jail, no sooner do they pop up than they are broken. What done: x, yz. Now: Use
RICO - the same law that is sending mob to jail and breaking drugs - vs. Gangs. Task forces.
Crime: Vision - down, continues to go down; jub crime contin to go down; when ppl vict,
they are compensated & protected. First steps: Brayd, assault, extra cops, 3 strikes, death. Next
step: No guns for anyone under 21, with very stiff penalteis. Brady extension. Trigger locked.
Crime vies const amendmnet. Condition of parole to make restitution - and if you vilate parole,
you go back to jail. Community watch - new weapon against crime.
Terrorism. Goal: Terrorism becomes rarer& ters hnted down regularly, and national
sanctuaries for terrorists are scared & on the run. Already: Terrorism bill & what it did. Next step:
taggants, wiretaps, air safety, military to work on chem/biol/nuke terrorism — and America keeps
its cool.
People can nurture their families & jobs at same time / no longer a tradeoff. Already:
family leave. Next: Comptime and family leave 2.
Kids stop smoking. Already: ban sales to minors, made states enforce it. Next: our plan.
Drugs. Lessdrugs. What we've done: safe drug schools. McCaffrey cracking down. What
we'll do: whatever.
Environment: Vision = every river & every steream clean. & Rapid cleanup of toxic
wastes. What we've done: cleaned up 60% of rivers & a lot of toxic waste sites, brownfields,
protecting env laws. Safe food & safe drinking water. Next step: Clean up other 40%); we'll put
liens on assets of polluters until they pay; we'll criminalize toxic pollution.
�<3
Abortion: Safe, legal & rare in 2000. Already: Protect choice // pass $5000 adoption tax
credit; ended racial barriers. Next: foster/ racial adoption.
Homes: Vision: homes become cheaper, easier to buy // millions of mor amers buy home.
So far: $1000 offFHA: red int rates; homeownership rate at 15 yr high. Next step: no cap gains
on home sales, which will stimulate home sales, make it easier to afford.
Pensions: Portable pensions, so not a consideration when changing jobs, & millions more
get penions. What done: Protect from raids, & security. Now: portable pensions & audits.
Finally, taxes. Vision: Fewer taxes but a government that is solveent, with a balanced
budget. What we've done: EITC. What we want: targeted tax cuts for coll, for raising children,
iras, welfaer job creation, homesale capital gains.
Then you put it together ~ weave a coherent portrait of ameriea. Life of a child in the year
2000 ... Child can go to coll, has tough standards in schools bu t anew shcool building wired,
doesn't fall apart, has health care when you change jobs, protected when u are unemp, and ult
protected if you are a child. If you are a child in a welfaer farn, your mother goes to work every
day, and you see your mother climgbing up the ladder of the amer econ, and not stuck at the
bottom. If you are getting child support, there's more $$ comeing injksfkjafk. Budget is balnced
so that interest rates are lower, more jobs, . The teen gangs that threaten you are on the run hunted and hounded by prosecutors that are using rico laws to prosecute them, wiretaps to track
them, and all coordinated fedreal and state sources. Crime is dropping ... eveyr day you see
community wathc vols, more cops, your next doror neigh who was robbed got th $$ back and has
been to court to see the person punished. If you live in a house with dom viol, there's not a gun
in a house. If gn, trigger lock. Mom & dad at home to play w/ more ... take you to doctor.
Tobacco no ads. Drug use is down among teenagers and down among pop as a whole. Junior
may get a sister too, who's adopted, protectd from a life of abandonment or abortion. They are
moving into a new home. Home costs are lower. As clad and mom older, pensions protected so
she knwos they'll retire right. Taxes lower, as things we do
That's the world as it looks yr 2000.
THE word "the new challegne" every time we introduce a new topic so we can sell the slogan of
the new challenges.
�0
new outline
start speech with :
- right track ameriea is back on track. We see it all aorund us.
- Olympics, leg achievemnet, response to tenor, coming together in wash to achieve
things, lowering our voices & getting things done, economic growth.
This is all based on a new consensus in America. That problems should not beocme issues
to win elections & divide us, but should become challenges to unite us in prag efforts to get it
done. Combingin the generosity of our impulesses in prov oppk & our commen sense insistence
on discipline that people assume respon. In area after area, we are moving away from treating
problems as opportunities to get elected, and treating them as challenges to bring us togeth to
solve them.
In crime debate, we've moved beyond blaming each toehr — and we've moved toward
practical steps to increase prison sentences, increase police, take away guns.
BB - we've moved away from phil args about size of govenmt, & toward practical steps
to take def cdown to 110
Welf - moved way from issue to fan resentemnts utnil they become red hot coals, &
moved toward practiacl ... time liimits, day care training.
And we've moved towards a societal consensus that we need to do more with less
government — insetad of fighting, targeted tax cuts to help peoepl raise chil, ed, etc.
Above all, America is recovin a sense of believe in abiltieis to solve its probems. And we in
wash are learning how to be problem solvers not blame assigners.
Now, what we need to do is to come together and face the new challenges that face
ameriea as we move toward mill.
The first chal we face is by the year 2000, to move massive millions of americans from
welfare to jobs. We've already done the first part of that, which is to pass leg requiring they take
jobs. Now wwe have to do the 2de part of that - which is to ensure that there are jobs for them
to take. To that end, I propose xy,z. So that by the year 2000 instead of having tens of millions
on welfaer, we will have tens of millions mroe people in jobs. Last best hope to get it right.
Health care. Vision: affordable, accessible health care for every child & almost every adult
by year 2000. - 1st step - KK & lowering medical costs. Next step: helth care for the
unepmloyed.
Education. Vision: Every child reads by 3rd grade by 2000. Discipline, standards, and
technology; community schools. Already accomp: wiring of schools, drug programs. Next step:
literacy by 3rd grade, an end to social promotion; test based promotion & graduation; wirign
�6)
schools; school construction/community schools.
College: Vision. America winning in global econ & amers sharing in proceeds bee amer is
more and more a nation that's been to college. Money is no obstacle to at least getting a 14th
grade educationj - and 14th grade becomes the norm, just like 12th now. Already accomp studen tloans; americorps; scholarships from cuts. Next step: colelge tuition tax credit and tuition
deductability.
s
r
Balanced bdget. Vision: No deficit overhang; permanently Iwoer interest rates, much mroe
working capital for job growth. First step: cut defin half; next step phasing out/bal bud prot
Deddbeat fathers: in 2000, every single parent is receiving the child support they are
entitled to unless the spouse has no money. So far: from 8 to 11 b or whatever, and now toward
doubling it. How: IRS enforcmeent.
Teen gangs: Vision no teen gangs, broken like the mob, chased from building to building
by fbi, leaders in jail, no sooner do they pop up than they are broken. What done: x, yz. Now: Use
RICO - the same law that is sending mob to jail and breaking drugs - vs. Gangs. Task forces.
Crime: Vision - down, continues to go down; jub crime contin to go down; when ppl vict,
they are compensated & protected. First steps: Brayd, assault, extra cops, 3 strikes, death. Next
step: No guns for anyone under 21, with very stiff penalteis. Brady extension. Trigger locked.
Crime vies const amendmnet. Condition of parole to make restitution - and if you vilate parole,
you go back to jail. Community watch - new weapon against crime.
Terrorism. Goal: Terrorism becomes rarer& ters hnted down regularly, and national
sanctuaries for terrorists are scared & on the run. Already: Terrorism bill & what it did. Next step:
taggants, wiretaps, air safety, military to work on chem/biol/nuke terrorism — and America keeps
its cool.
People can nurture their families & jobs at same time / no longer a tradeoff. Already:
family leave. Next: Comptime and family leave 2.
Kids stop smoking. Already: ban sales to minors, made states enforce it. Next: our plan.
Drugs. Lessdrugs. What we've done: safe drug schools. McCaffrey cracking down. What
we'll do: whatever.
Environment: Vision = every river & every steream clean. & Rapid cleanup of toxic
wastes. What we've done: cleaned up 60% of rivers & a lot of toxic waste sites, brownfields,
protecting env laws. Safe food & safe drinking water. Next step: Clean up other 40%>; we'll put
liens on assets of polluters until they pay; we'll criminalize toxic pollution.
j
�(?)
Abortion. Safe, legal <t rare in 2000. Already. Protect choice // pass $5000 adoption tax
credit; ended racial barriers. Next: foster/ racial adoption.
Homes: Vision: homes become cheaper, easier to buy // millions of mor amers buy home.
So far: $1000 offFHA: red int rates, homeownership rate at 15 yr high. Next step: no cap gains
on home sales, which will stimulate home sales, make it easier to afford.
Pensions: Portable pensions, so not a consideration when changing jobs, & millions more
get penions. What done: Protect from raids, & security. Now: portable pensions & audits.
Finally, taxes. Vision: Fewer taxes but a government that is solveent, with a balanced
budget. What we've done: EITC. What we want: targeted tax cuts for coll, for raising children,
iras, welfaer job creation, homesale capital gains.
Then you put it together — weave a coherent portrait of ameriea. Life of a child in the year
2000 ... Child can go to coll, has tough standards in schools bu t anew shcool building wired,
doesn't fall apart, has health care when you change jobs, protected when u are unemp, and ult
protected if you are a child. If you are a child in a welfaer fain, your mother goes to work every
day, and you see your mother climgbing up the ladder of the amer econ, and not stuck at the
bottom. If you are getting child support, there's more $$ comeing injksfkjafk. Budget is balnced
so that interest rates are lower, more jobs, . The teen gangs that threaten you are on the run hunted and hounded by prosecutors that are using rico laws to prosecute them, wiretaps to track
them, and all coordinated fedreal and state sources. Crime is dropping ... eveyr day you see
community wathc vols, more cops, your next doror neigh who was robbed got th $$ back and has
been to court to see the person punished. If you live in a house with dom viol, there's not a gun
in a house. If gn, trigger lock. Mom & dad at home to play w/ more ... take you to doctor.
Tobacco no ads. Drug use is down among teenagers and down among pop as a whole. Junior
may get a sister too, who's adopted, protectd from a life of abandonment or abortion. They are
moving into a new home. Home costs are lower As dad and mom older, pensions protected so
she knwos they'll retire right. Taxes lower, as things we do
That's the world as it looks yr 2000.
THE word "the new challegne" every time we introduce a new topic so we can sell the slogan of
the new challenges.
�CM*
�Draft #1
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
August 26, 1996
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice-President, fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans:
[joke] [As a basketball fan, it is daunting for me to come to the home court of the Chicago
Bulls. Nothing but net.]
[With pride in all we have done, and anticpation for all we will do in the coming years, I
accept your nomination for President. We are prepared for a great conversation with the
American people; we are determined to do all in our power to meet our challenges and prot]
We meet in Chicago, "a tall bold slugger set vivid against the soft little cities," at a time of
great promise for our nation, [a time when our nation is snap and crackle and pop]
Four years ago, when we last gathered, America was adrift, stumbling toward the new
century with uncertain steps. Our economic engine was sputtering and coughing. Our spirit was
wavering. We asked: could America act? And America chose a new direction.
Today America is whole, at peace, prosperous, and coming together, meeting our
challenges as we protect our values. Look around you. Look all around us at the great cities and
one stoplight towns of this country. You will see an America that is rising, ready,
[The American]Our economy is now growing steady and strong. Detroit now sells more
cars than Japan. There are 900,000 new construction jobs. Hundreds of thousands of women
opened new businesses. 4.4 million new people moved into their own homes. The budget
deficit, a ball and chain around our economy, has been cut by nearly two thirds. We have created
10 million new jobs. Most of them are good jobs. And after a decade when our people worked
harder for less, real hourly wags - the paycheck o f the American worker ~ is starting to rise
again. America's economy is its strongest in a generation.
[The American] Our spirit, so long torn by passions and poisons that threatened to pull us
apart, is on the mend. Every American cheered when a young girl won a gold as she smiled
through her pain. Every American xx. And when the City of Atlanta bravely stood in the
hundreds of thousands to say no to terorrism, no to murder, every American stood with them.
[The American] Our government is starting to work again for the American family. In the
past month alone, we honored work and family by raising the minimum wage . . . we fulfilled our
vow to end welfare as we know i t . . . we gave 25 million hard working Americans access to
�health care they can take with them from job to job.
My fellow Americans, there have been times throughout our history when our world has
shifted beneath us. We have wondered whether our time tested values will hold fast and guide us
. Then, time after time, Amreica has has changed course, first tentatively, then confidently,
regaining its footing and continuing in the great forward march of our history. This is such a time.
This has been our moment to decide.
We meet today just four years from the dawn of the new century. We are living through a
remarkable transformation, as we move from the industrial economy to the information age. This
city -- "hog butcher to the world, tool maker, stacker of wheat, player with railroads, the nation's
freight handler" - now [financial services or computer fact]. [The Ford Taurus you drive to the
supermarket has more computer power in it than Neil Armstrong used to take Apollo 11 to the
Moon.] [The last time we met in New York, there was no Internet.]
It is a time when we have been bufteted by winds of change, when our families have felt
the ground shift beneath their feet. And today, four years from the dawn of the new Century,
America is coming together, debating as Americans do, but now, acting, deciding, meeting our
challenges.
We are forging a New American Consensus. As I said four years ago: It is a consensus
that is neither Democratic nor Republican. It recognizes that the era of big government, of
centralized bureaucracies that try to solve all our problems, is over. But this new consensus also
recognizes that government must be strong enough to help our peple make the most of their own
lives.
It is a consensus that says: we will offer opportunity to all.... we will demand responsibiltiy
from all ... and we will come toghether as a community, an American community, reaching out
across the lines that divide us.
Throughout our history, America's story has been one of testing and challenge. Each
generation had to prove once again what it means to be an American. Each generation groped
toward the recognition that when the American peopel stand united, calling on the strngth of
every oen of us, the rei sn nothing we cannot achive.
Yes, we must balance the budget; all Americans agree. But we also agree that we cannot
balance the budget by undermining Medicicare, destroying Medicaid, slashing education or
polluting the environment. We didn't wander through a desert of arid debates about the role of
government. We did something about it. [didn't want to wander through a desert of arid debates
about the role of government for the next forty years.]
Yes, the current welfare system traps the very people it is supposed to help, and we must
give people the pride that comes from earning a paycheck by moving them from welfare to work.
But we also recognize that .. We didn't demonize those who are on welfare; we did something
about it.
�Yes, we must fight crime by toughening penalties; people who prey on other people must
feel the full weight of the law. But we must also take guns away, xx, xx. We didn't frighten
poeple about the criminal lurking just around every corner; we did somehting about it.
We stopped pointing fingers, and started joining hands to meet our challenges. After
dcades when politics became a contest to see who could divide and substract, in which the
loudest voice gained the largest xxx, we ave said to those with whom ew e disagree: Let's work
together. Let's put aside talk of revolution. Let's get the job done for the American people.
My friends, we have forged a New American Consensus. The debates that consumed us
until they exhausted us - those days and those debates are over. We are solving yesterday's
problems. Now our nation must turn and face the coming Century. We must ask ourselves what
kind of world we want for our children and their children. And we must press forward with a
21st Century agenda -- our New Challenges - that will give our people the safe streets, the strong
cities, the clean water, the good schools that they need.
Today America is lucky that we do not face any one enemy that threatens our sovereignty
or our existence as a peopel. Slavery does not make mockery of our morality; a Depression does
not leave our people illclothed ill housed ill fed; Communist imperialism does not threaten a new
World War. No, our new challenges are many; they are the thing holding our people back from
leaving safe and fulfilling lives; they are xxx. And if we face them and act, bit by bit, block by
block, there is no challenge we cannot conquer.
To get there, we have to offer all our people opporutnity. [2 sentences on opportunity ]]
The first and most importnat way we must offer opportunity to every American is to make
good on the promsie of work and responsibility that is at the very core of the American dream.
Our first goal must be a massive migration of millions of Americans from the welfare rolls
to the job rolls by the Year 2000. Welfare reform is a grand bargain that imposes a giant
obligaiton on all of us. We have said to welfare recipients: we want responsibility to be a way of
life, not an option. Now all Americans have an obligation to fulfil the secong part fo that bargain:
we must make sure that there are jobs for them to fill.
To that end, tonight I propose that we take billions of dollars that were once spent on
welfaer, and now spend them to help businesses move into the inner city and give welfare
recipients jobs. Tonight, I propose that we xx. Tonight, I propose that we .
Let me say to you: This is our last best hope to rescue the inner city. This is our last best
chance to break the cycle of poverty and dependency that traps too many of our fellow citizens,
that excludes them from mainstream society and denies them the American dream. We cannot
survive as two societies, one healthy, one pathological, one xx, one xx. Let us resolve, here in
�Chicago, that the end of welfare will be the beginning of a genuine national commitment to reenw
our inner cities so that they flower with life instead of withering with whatever.
This mission has been at the core of my public service for my entire life. A decade ago, I
remember well, a woman from Little Rock named Lillie Harden told me that my state had helped
move her from welfare to work. She said: "The best thing about work is not a chekc.l The best
thing is when my boy goes to school and they say, 'What does your Momma do for a living,' he
can give an answer." Today, a decade later, Lillie Harden works in a grocery store. Her [son] is
a physical therapist. Her daughter is an engineering student. And the boy about whom she spoke
goes to college. My friends, no one wants to get off welfare more thant he people who are on it.
And it must be our mission to get them off it.
[[[[[[ We have said to those on welfare: We expect of you the same responsibility demanded of
every American: to go to work. To xx. To xxx. I said I would sign the welfare legisaltion because
it would move peopel from welfare to work, it would make rsponsibility a way of life, not an
option, and unlike the two welfare bills I vetoed, it would give those on welfare child care and job
training they do not now receive to help them lifve out the American dream. Above all, I signed it
because I believe that the current wwave of welfare reform xx. It is our last best hope to rescue
those trapped in unreachable hell of the inner citiy. It is our last best hope to renew and restore
those communities that are despised, denied, mired in permanent poverty, joined in generation
after generation of dependency, sinking into drugs and crime. We have an obligation to help. We
have an obligation to act. Having ended welfare as we know it, we have an obligation to make
good our end of the bargain to those people who are on welfare. ////OTHER AMERICA? ////
So tonight I challlenge America to make certain that jobs, hope and opportunity reach the
inner city.
1 challenge all America to match our sentiments with deeds. Our new poverty program
does not seek to prop up a welfare system that has collapsed around us. It rests on giving those
in our most distressed neighborhoods the same chance to climb up the ladder of the American
dream that is their birthright. ///////////]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
Our second great goal must be to give our people opporutnity by pressing on with our
mission of giving affordable, accessible health care to every child and nearly every adult by the
Year 2000. America's health care system is the finest in the world. But we Democrats know that
it is not good enough.
Over the past four years, we have begun the historic task of making health care available
to all oru peopel. Last week, I signed into law the first great fruit of that crusade, the most
important health reform in a generation. Today, insurance companies can cut you off if you are
sick, if your daughter gets cancer, if you try and move from your job to a better job. We said:
that is wrong; it's time to change the rules. We have made the "preexisting condition" a thing of
the past. Let me salute the author of this bill, a lion of the Senate and a champion for our party.
Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachussetts.
�And we have broken the back of medical inflation, [fact for Orsag]
Tonight I propose the next step. 1 propose that we extend 6 monts of health insurance to
all those who are unemployed. We can make it the law of the land: if you lose your job, you have
enough on your mind; you will not lose your health insurance.
[When I think about health care I think about my mother, a nurse, who xx. Mother, I miss
you.
As I make this proposal, 1 want to extend my appreciation once agian to someone who has
done more than anyone else to wakeen our conscience, focus our attentionk, and push for action
on the issue of health care: my wife, xx ]
And the promise of opportunity to all means we must mordernize and reform our schools.
Next month, the largest class of young poeple in American history will walk through classroom
doors — and their numbers will swell in coming years. We know what kind of schools we went
to. And we know that our children deserve just as fair a chance at the American deram. By the
Year 2000, every child should be able to read by the third grade. Every classroom should be
connected to the wonders of the Internet. Every school should impose high standards, and be
held accountable for it; every teacher should be well trained; every student should know that to
move from elementary school to middle school and middle school to high school, you will have to
take and pass a rigorous test.
Together, parents, teachers, administrators and public servants in every community have
begun to wipe away the dust from our schools. We have given communities the resources to
shrink class size and improve teacher training. We have introduced anti-dmg programs to teach
our children that drugs are illegal, dangerous and wrong. This fall, businesses and voluneteers
will wire thousands of schools for computers in a high-tech barnraising known as Net Day. VicePresident Gore and I helped the first Net Day, in California, we pulled wire, we xx, and together
with thousands of our friends we connected 20% of the state's schools in one day. We are puttin
gthe future at our chilrend's fingertips. [[[[UNION CITY STORY^???]]]]
Today, math scores are up; SAT scores are up; x are up. But reading scores are not up.
[standards]
So this is what we must do: We must make it our mission to have every child in
America reading indepnedently by the third grade. I propose a national effort. For every child
who is falling behind, for every chidl who is having trouble reading, we will provide the resources
to school districts to assign a special tutor, to work with that child, to challenge him, to learn his
strenghts and shore up his weaknesses. When I say every child, I mean every child. We don't
have a child to waste.
[graf about imporantc of reading - challenge parents to read to child]
And we must demand high standards at every level of our schools. I challenge every State
in America to declare an end to "social promotions." Every student should know that when they
�move from grade school to middle school to high school, they will have to take and pass a rigorus
test. They will know that a diploma means something, [cannot go into 21st century with people
unable to read diplomas // gingrich line]
�[[ISSUE - ECON FIRST?]
And we keep the fires of opportunity burning by keeping the economy growing. We
knwo that the best poverty program is a job. We know htat the way our families can provide xx
american dream is a job. X. And we know that in four years, we have restarted the engine of
steady solid economic growth — by cutting the deficit in half and creating ten million new jobs.
Our goal for the year 2000 must be this: by the dawn of the new centuyr, we should create
10 million more jobs. We should keep the deficit coming down toward zero, so that it is on the
brink of balance by the time the century turns. And we should xx.
BACK TO WELFARE
Our
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�FOR THE PERORATION
And the way we will meet these new challenges is by holding firm to our enduring values.
In this city, like every city, our parents built mighty bridges and soaring skyscrapers. These
bridges were built with they sweat of their brow and the brawn of their backs. Today we must
biuild bridges to the 21st Century, bridges built not by back but by mind and heart. Our values
are as sturdy as tempered steel. If we hodl true to them — to opportunity, responsiblity,
community — we can walk proudly and ramrod straigth to the new world of the 21st Century.
Four years from now, I want America to be a plac ewhere xxx. Xxx. Xxx.
�Four years ago, we gathered in a different hall, in a differnt place, at a very different time.
America was reeling. Opportunity was slipping away. The great American job economic engine
was coughing and sputtering.
**
I want to set forth, as candidly and completely as I can, what 1 believe our nation must do
to prepare for the challenge and change, the hope and the remarkable oportuntiies of the 21st
Century.
I believe with all of my heart that the way we will master this moment is the way America
grew into the world's most powerful economy and greatest democracy: by holding fast to our
most enduring values. Our mission is to offer opportunity to all ... demand responsibility from all
... and to come together as a communtiy.
We have set America on the right course. We have put our own econmoi chouse in order
— and now our economy is growing, steady and strong; our deficit is shnirking, and on the way to
a balncd budget; our businesses have created over 10 million new jobs. Xxx We have put
America's house in order.
Less than four years from now, midnight will approach. Crowds will jam Times Square,
as they do every eyar. Revelers will toast ... Families will quietly kneel in churches and sing in
synagogues, in every county.
I want them to face this new century with a young spirit. I want them to be lieving in a
land at peace. 1 want more of them to be in college than ever before. I want them to hold aloft
children who are healthy and who go to the best schools in the world. I want them to breathe
deep the air, the clean air, of a new century. I want America to stride into the 21 st Century just as
it did this, the American century: as the most vital and vibrant force for freedom and prosperity
the world has ever known.
The poet tells us that this is a time when "hope and history rhyme." Let us make it so.
The choice is ours.
**
Our mission must be to prepare our nation to meet the challenges of the 21st Century.
And we will only do that by honoring our values — by making sure that opportunity is real for
every Aemrican who is willing to work for it. We must tum forward; we cannot turn back.
�***
Partisan contrast
We should be proud.
We should be proud that wefoughtto wrest the guns out of the hands of crimnals. At
every turn, the Washinton gun lobby and its allies in Congress struggled to stop us. They told the
hunters that we would take away their guns. Well, it's two deer seasons later. Not a single
hunter has lost a rifle. Who has? 60,000 felons, fugitives and stalkers have been denied guns.
We should be proud that we guaranteed every parent in America time off to care for a sick
hild or parent. At every turn, my opponent fought us. He actually filibustered family leave,
[story]
We should be proud that we are putting 100,000 new police on the streets of America.
The Republicans in Congress want to repeal this program. [Jefferson Parish e.g.]
We should be proud that this summer, we upheld our values of work and family,
opportunity and responsibility by raising the minimum wage. Now, you would think this would
be an easy one. You cannot raise a famly on $4.25 an hour. But my opponent not only didn't
support it — he filibustered it. Well, last week, 1 was very proud to sign it.
And my fellow Democrats, we should be proud that we stopped our opponents from
forcing the American people to accept a budget that would have violated our values and
abandoned our duty to our parents, our children, and future generations by gutting Medicare,
Mediaid, educaiton and the environment. The most extreme elements of the other party seized
control on Capitol Hill. They are trying to wipe it from our memory banks today, but a year ago
they proudly called it a "revolution." They tried to force their cuts on the american people. They
shut the government down twice. My opponent joined in. He would have signed it in a second. I
vetoed it. Ad I vetoed it again. And, my friends, I would veto it again . . .and again . . . and again
. . . if I have to.
Let's be clear: We know that we have to balance the budget. We know; we're the ones
who are oding it. The deficit is now nealry 2/3 smaller than it was the day I took office, the
smallest since 1981. If I am reelected, we will balance the budget by 2002. And I have a trade
secret I would like to share with some of our opponents, you don't need to destroy health care for
our parents, take away nursing home care for middle class families, strip student loans, or spew
toxic waste into the environment in order to do it.
ECON
�At its most basic, the American Dream is aobnt opportunity. And I will say to you what I
said four years ago: the most effective way to offer oportunity, x, xx, is a job.
TAX CUT
Now, you may have heard that our opponent has a tax cut, too. He apparently decided
that the grim guise of the tax collecter is not a proper costume for a candidate for the Presidency.
He says that the only answer is a massive across the board tax cut — damn the deficit, full speed
ahead. He says this will create opportunity and growth. That's like throwing a bucket of paint at
he wall, closing your eyes, crossing your fingers, and hopin that it turns out to be the Mona Lisa.
�8/15/96
Americans are in a time of great transition. Not just about economic change. Not just about
institutional change. It is about a great realization that we are here to transform ourselves and
to serve others. Not just individually, but collectively.
Evidence of how this is working: People coming together around the world. Hands literally
tearing down the Berlin Wall. The hands of the flood workers piling sandbags. Handshake of
Rabin and Arafat. Worshiping with U.S. soldiers in Bosnia rebuilding war-torn towns.
Million man march. Our astronauts joining hands in space with Russian counterparts. Hands
in Oklahoma City coming to leaveflowersat the bomb site. Blacks and whites rebuilding
churches.
Seas of humanity coming together and doing amazing things. For a while now, we have been
seing developments that many of us would, just a few years ago, have found hard to believe.
From Russia to Northern Ireland, from South Africa to here on our own streets and in our
own frontyards, we seem to be learning that we are more skilled at living together than we
had ever imagined. Globally, locally, across barriers we once thought would keep us apart
forever, Americans are waging peace. OPTIMISM.
LESSON: Being adversarial doesn't work, we know how to build, not to tear down. Take
best ideas from left and right. Do what works. Great realization: Adversarial behavior doesn't
work anymore. Waste of time. Americans are sick of it. Being adversarial for its own sake
doesn't get us anywhere. Move from posturing to problem-solving.
I understand this change.
President Reagan asked: "Are we better off now than we were 4 years ago?" By any
measure, we are. But let us ask a tougher question: "Will Americans be better off 10 years
from now, 50 years from now, a full century from now?" And let us ask the hardest question
of all: "Will we be not just better off as a people, but better people?"
IN THE LAST 4 YEARS AMERICANS BECAME BETTER, AND WE HAVE IT IN US
TO BECOME BETTER STILL. AMERICANS BECOMING BETTER. Together, we have
taught one another how to become better, and together we are teaching the rest of the world.
Beating swords into ploughshares.
[Side riff: The Am. Dream, as conceived of by Franklin, was one in which financial gain
through hard work was seen not as an end in itself, but as a means to higher things, informed
by virtue, translated into family, politics, philanthropy, faith. That is, Am. Dream is not just
about being better off, it's about being better. Quote TK]
We got better, but I ask you tonight? How good can we be? How can we exceed ourselves?
�That is the American mission. [We became better than 16th century England, we became
better than British toadies, we became better than slave-owners, we became better than child
labor, etc.] Progress means becoming better. This is the American mission.
Becoming better people. This is at the heart of our policy. Responsibility, opportunity, and
community are vehicles to get us there. Means to an end. We want to give people the chance
to live up to their God-given promise and be better. Eternal truths.
What did world look like 4 years ago: scenes of gangs and scared kids and unemployment
and general economic insecurity. Parents couldn't care for sick children.
We gave families peace of mind. Did our part to give them a framework to succeed and be
better etc. Policy: Did this, but we must do more. So here's what we're doing.
Because we believe Value X, we are doing, etc.
The old ways just don't work. We are realizing that we can grow the economy, retrain the
workforce, protect the environment - all of which we have done. The American people are
the ones who brought this change about ~ not any government and not any leader. But
Americans do deserve leaders who will help them and learn from them and not stand in their
way as the people continue to tell their great story.
I believe I understand this change. Let me work with you. There is so much more to do.
Kids: Last 4 years we made our values clear via our policies: Single most important thing a
country can do is to raise a child right. In our policies, kids are at the very top of the
pyramid of importance, rather than at the bottom. This is how we build a stable society. In
our policies, children, the most vulnerable of all of us, are at the very top ~ supported by
everything else. Anyone can see that this creates a stable society. Top of society with society
supporting them, rather than at the bottom, with all the burdens bearing down on them.
All kids policies: This is what we did for our children. We protected them. Deadbeat dads,
Family Leave, Gangs, Smoking, V-Chip, Education (school reconstruction).
Why did we do this? It may seem simple, but some of the greatest truths are the simplest.
When a society transforms itself so that children are held up in the highest way, the whole
society becomes better as a consequence. Everyone is transformed.
LIFE OF CHILD IN YEAR 2000. A nine-year-old boy in the year 2000. A day in the life of
the child.
If we do all this, then we can greet the dawn of the year 2000 with nothing left undone that
we should have done. We can greet the dawn of the year 2000 with clean hands and open
hearts.
�A lot of policiticans summon up Utopia as a city on a hill and a 1000 points of light. That's
all to the good. Deeper in our hearts we know that we don't have to imagine alabaster cities
to see our best America. All you have to do is look at a well-cared for child. All you have to
do is raise a well-cared for child. You don't have to situate our best vision that far away. It's
as near as the child sitting next to you. And that if we do it right, that city on the hill will be
in every one of our children, near enough for us to put our arms around it. By building a
good child, we have built a city on a hill. The city will live in the child.
Politicians urge us to look far away - a city on a hill over a horizon. We don't have to
imagine that it's that far away, over the horizon. It's reachable. It's that child right next to
us. That's where we build these cities.
If you look for a politicans words to build those cities, and neglect the child down the street,
it will always stay in our imagination. But we get to that ideal city, which is our true home,
by caring for that child. And turning the whole power of our nation at his or her disposal.
New thoughts:
The better angels of our nature. Look at a nurse caring for a sick child, a parent who stays
up an extra hour to read his child a story. These are the better angels of our nature. We can
make them manifest. Doesn't have to be a grand gesture, it just has to be an act of goodness.
Accomplishments: When things that should be righted are righted, we take them for granted.
Remember what it was like when no one thought it was important that you had a sick child at
home? It wasn't even a matter of discussion. [Family Leave.] Remember when a father
worried that his family would fall into poverty, even though he was working 2 jobs. [EITC or
min. wage]. Go down the list.
Corporate welfare: Tell story of Yellowstone mine. 19th century law haunts us in the 20th
century and will rob our children of their future in the 21st century. Must fix. Can't have too
many more last minute saves like last week. There are other laws like this that Congress
won't touch because of the special interests. Therefore, call on special commission, like base
closing, to end corporate welfare once and for all. Thank Sen. McCain. Robbing the
treasury, stealing our history etc.
Praise Dole/damn his age: Honor Senator Dole for his half-century of service to this country.
I honor his valor and bravery in the Second World War. And I look forward to having a
conversation with him, before the American people, about our very different visions of the
future.
�Draft #1 8/19/96 lam
PRESIDENT W I L L I A M J . CLINTON
A C C E P T A N C E SPEECH
D E M O C R A T I C NATIONAL CONVENTION
C H I C A G O , ILLINOIS
August 26, 1996
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice-President, fellow
Democrats, my fellow Americans:
Let me thank the City of Chicago for this great
convention. I want to thank the Bulls for letting us use their
court. I hope we bring home another championship, too.
And there is one more reason that I am grateful to Chicago
— it is the home town of the most important person in my
life, Hillary.
Let me also thank my friend and partner, the best
Vice-President this country has ever had, Al Gore
Four years ago, we began a journey into a new era.
Together we have worked hard to uphold our values and
renew the American Dream. But my fellow Americans, our
journey is not finished, America has new challenges to meet:
1 accept your nomination for President of the United States.
Four years from now, a new century will dawn — an
�Draft #1 8/19/96 lam
PRESIDENT W I L L I A M J . CLINTON
A C C E P T A N C E SPEECH
D E M O C R A T I C NATIONAL CONVENTION
C H I C A G O , ILLINOIS
August 26, 1996
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice-President, fellow
Democrats, my fellow Americans:
Let me thank the City of Chicago for this great
convention. I want to thank the Bulls for letting us use their
court. 1 hope we bring home another championship, too.
And there is one more reason that 1 am grateful to Chicago
— it is the home town of the most important person in my
life, Hillary.
Let me also thank my friend and partner, the best
Vice-President this country has ever had, Al Gore.
Four years ago, we began a journey into a new era.
Together we have worked hard to uphold our values and
renew the American Dream. But my fellow Americans, our
journey is not finished, America has new challenges to meet:
I accept your nomination for President of the United Slates.
Four years from now, a new century will dawn — an
�Draft #1 8/19/96 lam
PRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLIN I ON
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
August 26, 1996
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice-Presidenl, fellow
Democrats, my fellow Americans:
Let me thank the City of Chicago for this great
convention. 1 want to thank the Bulls for letting us use their
court. I hope we bring home another championship, too.
And there is one more reason that 1 am grateful lo Chicago
— it is the home town of the most important person in my
life, Hillary.
Let me also thank my friend and partner, the best
Vice-President this country has ever had, Al Gore.
Four years ago, we began a journey into a new era.
Together we have worked hard to uphold our values and
renew the American Dream. But my fellow Americans, our
journey is not finished, America has new challenges to meet:
I accept your nomination for President of the United States.
Four years from now, a new century will dawn - an
�Draft #I 8/19/96 lam
PRESIDENT W I L L I A M J . CLIN I ON
A C C E P T A N C E SPEECH
D E M O C R A T I C NATIONAL CONVENTION
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
August 26, 1996
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice-President, fellow
Democrats, my fellow Americans:
Let me thank the City of Chicago for this great
convention. 1 want to thank the Bulls for letting us use their
court. 1 hope we bring home another championship, too.
And there is one more reason that I am grateful to Chicago
— it is the home town of the most important person in my
life, Hillary.
Let me also thank my friend and partner, the best
Vice-President this country has ever had, Al Gore.
Four years ago, we began a journey into a new era.
Together we have worked hard to uphold our values and
renew the American Dream. But my fellow Americans, our
journey is not finished, America has new challenges to meet:
I accept your nomination for President of the United Stales.
Four years from now, a new century will dawn - an
�age of remarkable possibility for our people. I look forward
to this time with confidence. Our faith is strong; our
progress is steady; and our dreams are stronger than ever.
Yes, America has had great days before. But my friends,
America's greatest days are yet to come.
The choice before the American people is this: What
7
kind of nation will we be in the Year 2000 What kind of
world will we leave to our children and to future
7
generations'
Four years ago, you and I offered a vision for how
to move our country forward. Every American should have
the opportunity to make the most of their God-given
promise. But every American must take personal
responsibility for themselves and their family. And all of us
must honor the duty we owe one another in this great
American community.
Opportunity. Responsibility. Community. These are the
values that have kept America strong for 220 years, and
they guide and sustain me every hour of every day.
Tonight, 1 want to tell you exactly what 1 believe we
must do over the next four years to meet the challenge of a
new century. As your President, 1 want you to know my
plans for how we can strengthen our families, protect our
citizens, and give all our people the tools to make the most
of their own lives.
�age of remarkable possibility for our people. 1 look forward
to this time with confidence. Our faith is strong, our
progress is steady; and our dreams are stronger than ever.
Yes, America has had great days before. But my friends,
America's greatest days are yet to come.
The choice before the American people is this: What
kind of nation will we be in the Year 20007 What kind of
world will we leave to our children and to future
9
generations
Four years ago, you and I offered a vision for how
to move our country forward. Every American should have
the opportunity to make the most of their God-given
promise. But every American must take personal
responsibility for themselves and their family. And all of us
must honor the duty we owe one another in this great
American community.
Opportunity. Responsibility. Community. These are the
values that have kept America strong for 220 years, and
they guide and sustain me every hour of every day.
Tonight, I want to tell you exactly what I believe we
must do over the next four years to meet the challenge of a
new century. As your President, 1 want you to know my
plans for how we can strengthen our families, protect our
citizens, and give all our people the tools to make the most
of their own lives.
�age of remarkable possibility for our people. 1 look forward
to this time with confidence Our faith is strong; our
progress is steady; and our dreams are stronger than ever.
Yes, America has had great days before. But my friends,
America's greatest days are yet to come
The choice before the American people is this; What
kind of nation will we be in the Year 2000? What kind of
world will we leave to our children and to future
generations?
Four years ago, you and 1 offered a vision for how
to move our country forward. Every American should have
the opportunity to make the most of their God-given
promise. But every American must take personal
responsibility for themselves and their family. And all of us
must honor the duty we owe one another in this great
American community.
Opportunity. Responsibility. Community. These are the
values that have kept America strong for 220 years, and
they guide and sustain me every hour of every day.
Tonight, I want to tell you exactly what 1 believe we
must do over the next four years to meet the challenge of a
new century. As your President, 1 want you to know my
plans for how we can strengthen our families, protect our
citizens, and give all our people the tools to make the most
of their own lives.
�age of remarkable possibility for our people. 1 look forward
to this time with confidence. Our faith is strong; our
progress is steady, and our dreams are stronger than ever.
Yes, America has had great days before But my friends,
America's greatest days are yet to come
The choice before the American people is this: What
7
kind of nation will we be in the Year lOOO' What kind of
world will we leave to our children and to future
generations
9
Four years ago, you and 1 offered a vision for how
to move our country forward. Every American should have
the opportunity to make the most of their God-given
promise. But every American must take personal
responsibility for themselves and their family. And all of us
must honor the duty we owe one another in this great
American community.
Opportunity. Responsibility. Community. These are the
values that have kept America strong for 220 years, and
they guide and sustain me every hour of every day.
Tonight, I want lo tell you exactly what 1 believe we
must do over the next four years to meet (he challenge of a
new century. As your President, I want you to know my
plans for how we can strengthen our families, protect our
citizens, and give all our people the tools to make the most
of their own lives.
�Think for a moment about how far we have come in
the past four years. Our economy is growing, steady and
strong — with low unemployment, 10 million new jobs, and
rising wages. Poverty, welfare, teen pregnancy are all
down. American ideals are triumphant across the globe. And
the American spirit is rising here at home.
In my days as President, I have seen lifelong enemies
shake hands on the South Lawn of the White House . . . I
have heard our national anthem hail the first president of a
democratic South Africa . 1 have seen neighbors, standing
together, stacking sandbags to save their city from a flood's
destruction . . . I have seen tragedies in Oklahoma City, in
tiny rural towns where churches have burned, in the
Olympic bombing, events that could have pulled us apart
but instead brought us together.
We are learning once again that when America is
united, there is no force on earth that can undo us. After
years of pointing fingers, we are clasping hands. After years
of raised voices and bitter partisan divisions, we have begun
to reach across the lines that divide us.
This has truly been a season of progress
In the last
week, 1 signed into law three landmark bills that put the
values of hard-working American families back at the heart
of American government.
A health reform bill, written by Republican Senator
�Think for a moment about how far we have come in
the past four years. Our economy is growing, steady and
strong — with low unemployment, 10 million new jobs, and
rising wages. Poverty, welfare, teen pregnancy are all
down. American ideals are triumphant across the globe And
the American spirit is rising here at home.
In my days as President, 1 have seen lifelong enemies
shake hands on the South Lawn of the White House . . . 1
have heard our national anthem hail the fu st president of a
democratic South Africa . . . I have seen neighbors, standing
together, stacking sandbags to save their city from a Hood's
destruction . . . I have seen tragedies in Oklahoma City, in
tiny rural towns where churches have burned, in the
Olympic bombing, events that could have pulled us apart
but instead brought us together.
We are learning once again that when America is
united, there is no force on earth that can undo us. After
years of pointing fingers, we are clasping hands. After years
of raised voices and bitter partisan divisions, we have begun
to reach across the lines that divide us.
This has truly been a season of progress. In the last
week, I signed into law three landmark bills that put the
values of hard-working American families back at the heart
of American government.
A health reform bill, written by Republican Senator
�Think for a moment about how far we have come in
the past four years. Our economy is growing, steady and
strong — with low unemployment, 10 million new jobs, and
rising wages. Poverty, welfare, teen pregnancy are all
down. American ideals are triumphant across the globe And
the American spirit is rising here at home.
In my days as President, I have seen lifelong enemies
shake hands on the South Lawn of the White House . . . I
have heard our national anthem hail the first president of a
democratic South Africa . . 1 have seen neighbors, standing
together, stacking sandbags to save their city from a flood's
destruction . . . I have seen tragedies in Oklahoma City, in
tiny rural towns where churches have burned, in the
Olympic bombing, events that could have pulled us apart
but instead brought us together.
We are learning once again that when America is
united, there is no force on earth that can undo us After
years of pointing fingers, we are clasping hands After years
of raised voices and bitter partisan divisions, we have begun
to reach across the lines that divide us
This has truly been a season of progress. In the last
week, I signed into law three landmark bills that put the
values of hard-working American families back at the heart
of American government.
A health reform bill, written by Republican Senator
�Think for a moment about how far we have come in
the past four years. Our economy is growing, steady and
strong — with low unemployment, 10 million new jobs, and
rising wages. Poverty, welfare, teen pregnancy are all
down. American ideals are triumphant across the globe. And
the American spirit is rising here at home.
In my days as President, I have seen lifelong enemies
shake hands on the South Lawn of the White House . . . I
have heard our national anthem hail the first president of a
democratic South Africa . . . I have seen neighbors, standing
together, stacking sandbags to save their city from a flood's
destruction
. 1 have seen tragedies in Oklahoma City, in
tiny rural towns where churches have burned, in the
Olympic bombing, events that could have pulled us apart
but instead brought us together.
We are learning once again that when America is
united, there is no force on earth that can undo us. After
years of pointing fingers, we are clasping hands After years
of raised voices and bitter partisan divisions, we have begun
to reach across the lines that divide us.
This has truly been a season of progress. In the last
week, I signed into law three landmark bills that put the
values of hard-working American families back at the heart
of American government.
A health reform bill, written by Republican Senator
�Nancy Kassebaum and Democrat Ted Kennedy. A bill that
would mean that no one will be denied health insurance
because they are switching jobs or because they their child is
Welfare reform, supported by a majority of
Democrats and of Republicans, that moves people from
welfare to work — providing child care, cracking down on
child support, and preserving the guarantee of health care
for poor children, once and for all.
And, after years of struggle, and over fierce
opposition from many in Congress, we have given 0 million
hard-working Americans a raise by increasing the minimum
wage.
At last, Washington is finally beginning to catch up
to the common sense of the American people. The partisan
debates that consumed us until they exhausted us - those
days and those debates are over. For years, America
wandered through a desert of arid debates about the role
and size of government. No more. Together we can say:
The era of big government is over. But we must never
return to the era of every man for himself
As I told this convention four years ago, our
approach is not conservative or liberal
In many ways it is
not even Republican or Democratic. It takes the best ideas,
no matter where they come from. It is different. It is new.
�Nancy Kassebaum and Democrat Ted Kennedy. A bill that
would mean that no one will be denied health insurance
because they are switching jobs or because they their child is
ill.
Welfare reform, supported by a majority of
Democrats and of Republicans, that moves people from
welfare to work — providing child care, cracking down on
child support, and preserving the guarantee of health care
for poor children, once and for all.
And, after years of struggle, and over fierce
opposition from many in Congress, we have given 9 million
hard-working Americans a raise by increasing the minimum
wage.
At last, Washington is finally beginning to catch up
to the common sense of the American people. The partisan
debates that consumed us until they exhausted us — those
days and those debates are over For years, America
wandered through a desert of arid debates about the role
and size of government. No more. Together we can say:
The era of big government is over. But we must never
return to the era of every man for himself.
As I told this convention four years ago, our
approach is not conservative or liberal. In many ways it is
not even Republican or Democratic. It takes the best ideas,
no matter where they come from, ll is dilferent. It is new.
�Nancy Kassebaum and Democrat Ted Kennedy. A bill that
would mean that no one will be denied health insurance
because they are switching jobs or because they their child is
ill.
Welfare reform, supported by a majority of
Democrats and of Republicans, that moves people from
welfare to work — providing child care, cracking down on
child support, and preserving the guarantee of health care
for poor children, once and for all.
And, after years of struggle, and over fierce
opposition from many in Congress, we have given 9 million
hard-working Americans a raise by increasing the minimum
wage.
At last, Washington is finally beginning to catch up
to the common sense of the American people. The partisan
debates that consumed us until they exhausted us — those
days and those debates are over. For years, America
wandered through a desert of arid debates about the role
and size of government
No more. Together we can say:
The era of big government is over. But we must never
return to the era of every man for himself.
As I told this convention four years ago, our
approach is not conservative or liberal. In many ways it is
not even Republican or Democratic, ll takes the best ideas,
no matter where they come from. It is different It is new.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Michael Waldman
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Michael Waldman was Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting from 1995-1999. His responsibilities were writing and editing nearly 2,000 speeches, which included four State of the Union speeches and two Inaugural Addresses. From 1993 -1995 he served as Special Assistant to the President for Policy Coordination.</p>
<p>The collection generally consists of copies of speeches and speech drafts, talking points, memoranda, background material, correspondence, reports, handwritten notes, articles, clippings, and presidential schedules. A large volume of this collection was for the State of the Union speeches. Many of the speech drafts are heavily annotated with additions or deletions. There are a lot of articles and clippings in this collection.</p>
<p>Due to the size of this collection it has been divided into two segments. Use links below for access to the individual segments:<br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+1">Segment One</a><br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+2">Segment Two</a></p>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Michael Waldman
Office of Speechwriting
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1993-1999
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2006-0469-F
Extent
The size or duration of the resource.
Segment One contains 1071 folders in 72 boxes.
Segment Two contains 868 folders in 66 boxes.
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Adobe Acrobat Document
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
1996 Acceptance Drafts: Early Pre-Drafts [2]
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Office of Speechwriting
Michael Waldman
Is Part Of
A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included.
Box 47
<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36404"> Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763296">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
2006-0469-F Segment 2
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Adobe Acrobat Document
Medium
The material or physical carrier of the resource.
Preservation-Reproduction-Reference
Date Created
Date of creation of the resource.
6/3/2015
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
7763296
42-t-7763296-20060469F-Seg2-047-006-2015