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HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON DELIVERS REMARKS AT DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL
AUGUST 14, 2000
SPEAKERS: HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, THE FIRST LADY
H. CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you. Thank you so very much.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you. Thank you all so much. And thanks to Senator
Mikulski and all the women senators.
AUDIENCE: We want Hillary! We want Hillary! We want Hillary!
H. CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
Let me thank all of you, let me thank you, and let me thank all
of our Democratic women senators who brought their vital voices and
their fresh perspectives to our public life.
It is so great to be here with all of you and with my mother and
my family and to see so many old friends. And thank you, thank you
for supporting my husband, whose visionary leadership and hard work
led America into the 21st century.
(APPLAUSE)
We are a stronger, better country than we were in 1992.
(APPLAUSE)
You know, when Bill and Al and Tipper and I got on that bus after
the 1992 convention we began a journey that took us into the heartland
of America. Along the way we saw faces of hope, but also faces of
despair. Fathers out of work. Mothers trapped on welfare. Children
with unmet medical needs.
H. CLINTON: I remember a group of children holding a sign that
said, "Please stop. If you give us eight minutes, we'll give you
eight years." And we did stop, and we did listen, and what an eight
years it has been.
(APPLAUSE)
I am so proud to stand here at this extraordinary moment: the
most peaceful, prosperous, promising time in our nation's history.
Now how can we continue America's progress? By electing Al Gore and
Joe Lieberman the next president and vice president of the United
States.
(APPLAUSE)
You know, even before he was vice president, I admired Al for his
leadership in the Senate, his understanding of the future, his
pioneering efforts to fight environmental threats that affected our
children, his work with Tipper to promote responsible parenting -- and
what great parents the two of them are. I've watched him as Bill's
trusted partner in the White House. Together they made the hard
decisions, to renew our nation's economy and our national spirit, to
advance democracy, and defend freedom around the world.
H. CLINTON: And I can't wait until we watch Al Gore take the
oath of office on January 20, 2001.
(APPLAUSE)
And standing next to him will be his wonderful wife and my dear
friend, who inspires us through her work for the homeless and for
advocacy on behalf of mental health. Tipper Gore will make a great
first lady.
(APPLAUSE)
And the country...
(APPLAUSE)
... and the country has seen again Al Gore's leadership in his
choice of Joe Lieberman. I first...
(APPLAUSE)
... I first met Joe 30 years ago...
(APPLAUSE)
... when Bill and I were law students. We saw then what America
sees now: a person of common wisdom integrity. I admire Joe's work
to reduce the violence in our media. And I appreciate his steadfast
support for a woman's right to chose.
(APPLAUSE)
And with him is his remarkable wife, Hadasseh, the immigrant
daughter of Holocaust survivors. Their story tells our children that
in America no dream is beyond our reach.
You know in 1992, Bill and Al promised to put people first. That
simply meant that when people live up to their responsibilities, we
ought to live up to ours and give them the tools and opportunities
they need to build better lives.
H. CLINTON: That's the basic bargain at the heart of the
American dream.
From a stronger economy, to more Americans attending college, to
a cleaner environment, Bill Clinton and Al Gore have put people first.
And not only that, they put children first as well.
(APPLAUSE)
More children lifted out of poverty. More children receiving
Head Start, child care and after-school care. More children than ever
getting immunized against disease. More children whose parents can
take family and medical leave to care for them. And more neglected
and abused foster children being adopted into loving, permanent homes.
Children like Diana, who came to a White House ceremony I held
spotlighting the needs of children in foster care. Just 12 years old,
not much younger than Chelsea at the time, she spent most of her life
moving from house to house. She was so shy she could barely look up
as she spoke of her longing for a home and family of her own.
As I listened I thought, "How can we let any child grow up in our
country without a secure and loving home?"
H. CLINTON: I worked with a bipartisan coalition to help double
the number of foster children adopted. And when the president signed
the new adoption law, I thought of the first foster child I
represented back when I was in law school.
I thought of what my own mother went through in her life as a
child born to teenage parents who couldn't take care of her. And when
she was 8, she and her little sister were sent alone on a train across
the country to stay with relatives. At 14, she went to work caring
for a family's children. And fortunately, her employer was a kind
woman who saw her true worth and showed her what a loving family was
really like.
And I thought of Diana, whom I have seen blossom into a beaming,
confident young woman because caring parents opened their hearts and
home to her. She finally had what every child needs: a family that
puts her first. And for me, that's what it's all about.
Years ago, when I worked for the Children's Defense Fund, we had
a trademark: Leave no child behind. And we've made great progress in
the last eight years...
(APPLAUSE)
... but we still have a lot of work to do.
H. CLINTON: Because when a child can't go to school without
fearing guns and violence, that's a child left behind; when a child's
illness is not treated because a hard-working parent can't afford
health insurance, that's a child left behind; and when a child
struggles to learn in an overcrowded classroom, that's a child left
behind.
Don't let anyone tell you this election doesn't matter. The
stakes in November are biggest for the littlest among us.
What will it take to make sure no child in America is left behind
in the 21st century? It takes responsible parents who put their own
children first. It takes all of us, teachers and workers and business
owners and community leaders and people of faith. And, you know, I
still believe it takes a village. And it certainly takes Al Gore and
Joe Lieberman. They have what it takes and they'll do what it takes.
(APPLAUSE)
You know, over the last eight years I've talked with mothers and
fathers on front porches and factory floors and in hospital wards, and
I've seen firsthand the joys and anxieties that parents feel when it
comes to our children.
H. CLINTON: I remember a teacher with tears in her eyes because
she had the only textbook in the classroom. It's time to give all our
students the chance to succeed in the new economy by modernizing our
schools, setting high standards and hiring more qualified teachers.
(APPLAUSE)
I've held the hands of mothers and fathers who've lost their
children to gun violence. It's time to honor their pain by passing
common-sense gun safety laws that keep guns out of the hands of
children and criminals.
(APPLAUSE)
I've listened to parents distressed about a culture that too
often glorifies violence. Why can't all of us, including the media,
give parents more control over what their children see on TV, in the
movies, on the Internet and in video games?
(APPLAUSE)
I've met mothers and fathers who are working full-time in fast-
food restaurants and supermarket checkout lines and other tough jobs,
but they're still poor. It's time to make the basic bargain work for
all Americans by raising the minimum wage, enforcing tough child
support laws and guaranteeing equal pay for equal work.
(APPLAUSE)
H. CLINTON: And everywhere I go, I've heard from doctors and
nurses who every day see children with illnesses that could have been
treated earlier if their parents had been able to afford health
insurance.
Now, you may remember, I had a few ideas about health care, and
I've learned a few lessons since then, but I haven't given up on the
goal, and that's why we kept working step-by-step to ensure millions
of children through the Children's Health Insurance Program.
(APPLAUSE)
And that's why it's time to pass a real patients' bill of rights
and provide access to affordable health care to every child and family
in this country.
(APPLAUSE)
But we'll never accomplish what we need to do for our children if
we burden them with a debt they did not create.
Franklin Roosevelt said that Americans of his generation had a
rendezvous with destiny. Well, I think our generation has a
rendezvous with responsibility. It's time to protect the next
generation by using our budget surplus to pay down the national debt,
save Social Security, modernize Medicare with a prescription drug
benefit, and provide targeted tax cuts to the families that need them
most.
(APPLAUSE)
H. CLINTON: At this moment of great potential, let's not
squander our children's futures. Let's elect leaders who will leave
no child behind; leaders who don't just talk the talk, but walk the
walk; leaders like Al Gore and Joe Lieberman.
(APPLAUSE)
You know, the other day Bill and I were looking at pictures of
our daughter from eight years ago, when this journey began. It's been
an amazing eight years for Chelsea too, and we want to thank the
American people for giving her the space to grow.
(APPLAUSE)
Bill and I are closing one chapter of our lives, and soon we'll
be starting a new one. For me, it will be up to the people of New
York to decide whether I'll have the privilege of serving them in the
United States Senate.
(APPLAUSE)
H. CLINTON: But I will always -- I will always be profoundly
grateful to all of you and to the American people for the last eight
years.
Really, the most important thing that I can say tonight is thank
you. Thank you for giving me the most extraordinary opportunity to
work here at home and around the world on the issues that matter most
to children, women and families.
Thank you for your support and faith in good times and in bad.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart, for the honor and blessing of a
lifetime. Good night and God bless you all. Thank you very, very
much.
(APPLAUSE)
END
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