Kansas City, Missouri Remarks at a Reception for Business and Civic Leaders.

First of all, I want to thank our host, Mr. Baumgardner, for that good introduction and also to tell you that for any President it's both an exhilarating and a sobering experience to come to the home of President Harry Truman.

As you know, President Truman is a man who has grown in stature with historians and with American people and with those throughout the world who know history—the more we have a chance to assess what his contributions were.

He was a tough political infighter. He was highly partisan. He told me—rather, he said once, and I've read his comments-that "When somebody comes and tells me they're bipartisan, I know I've lost a vote. They're not going to vote with me." And I've still got in the Oval Office an exact replica—I tried to get the original, but Mrs. Truman and Margaret wouldn't let me have it—of his sign, "The buck stops here." And I think about that a lot as I carry on the affairs of our great Nation.

Times change from one President to another, from one generation to another—challenges, problems, questions, change. But there's a surer realization as history progresses that our Nation is so strong, so powerful, that there is no challenge we cannot meet, there is no problem we can't resolve, there is no question that we can't answer, if we have confidence in one another and if we are united in a common purpose.

I'm the fourth President, for instance, who's dealt with 10 or 11 years of inflation, which is too high. But if Americans are willing to work together, to have confidence in one another, we can get inflation under control.

We've never had an energy policy for our country, because for too long we had extremely cheap oil—a dollar and a half or so a barrel—and we didn't have to worry about it, and we became addicted to—a highly dependent society on—foreign oil.

We import about half the oil we use now. Next year we'll send overseas $70 billion in American money that could provide jobs for our people. And as we import 8 1/2 million barrels of oil per day, we also import inflation, and we import unemployment.

These are just a few of the questions or problems that I have to face along with problems of defense and the search for peace. But it's a wonderful job to have because it's the greatest elected office in the greatest nation on Earth.

And President Truman said another thing that I've noticed, particularly lately. He said, "If a President ever becomes timid because he's worried about public opinion polls or what newspaper columnists say might be the results of the next election, then he's not worthy to lead this great country." So, I remember that. I'm not concerned. I look to the future with great confidence in myself, in politics, and also in this country. I base that confidence on what I know our Nation is.

I just spoke to the national convention of Catholic charities, a group that's been involved in volunteer work for other people for more than 250 years in our country. And I mentioned to them about the profound impact of the visit of Pope John Paul II to our country. It was kind of an outpouring of awareness of the kind of ethical and moral and spiritual characteristics which never change in the hearts and minds of American people, but sometimes get buried under the transient or the temporary problems or inconveniences that we, as extremely fortunate people, have in our country.

And I think that was a good reminder that we ought not to be discouraged, that we ought to be inspired to look to the future with confidence, and to reach our hand out to a neighbor and say, "Let's work together to make the greatest nation on Earth even greater in the future."

Thank you very much for letting me be your President and for letting me visit you here.