New York, New York Remarks at a Meeting of the Democratic National Committee.

One of the most remarkable characteristics of my own campaign in 1976 and again in the primary season this year and, I think I'll predict, in the coming weeks of the general election, has been that we've had two or three secret weapons. One was the intense outpouring and commitment of the minority citizens of our country for me and for Fritz Mondale as expressed this morning by a collection of Kennedy and Carter delegates, now all Carter delegates, with whom I met to represent black America. The press and the public have never understood this feeling of compatibility and support that has always exemplified itself, even in the primary season, when I had a very formidable opponent.

The other secret weapon that I've had has been my own family, Rosalynn and Chip and all of my family, my mother. And I think perhaps the most significant of all, without minimizing the former two, has been Fritz Mondale.

Whenever a group of Democrats who comprise the so-called Roosevelt coalition have had doubts, sometimes legitimate doubts, about me, not knowing me very well before, they've always looked and said, "Well, if we can't completely trust Jimmy Carter to do what we think is best for our constituency group, labor or educators and others, we can trust Fritz Mondale to make sure that our desires and our hopes and ambitions are not frustrated." To me he represents the finest aspect of Hubert Humphrey Democratic commitments, and I'm grateful to him for that. We make a good team, and I have no doubt that the dedicated Democrats of this Nation, my family and Fritz Mondale and all of you, will make a winning team in November, no doubt whatsoever.

I like to influence elections, sometimes successfully; sometimes my efforts are unsuccessful. But I'd like to try a little bit of influence on you. I don't think that we could possibly have a better group of National Democratic Committee officers than the ones who are on the platform with me this morning, and my own hope is that you would see fit to give them an extension of time. I know how important 4 more years can be to me to do everything I've set out to do, and if you would give them the same opportunity that would certainly be compatible with my own desires.

John White and Coleman Young, Carmela Lacaya, have been just great in putting together a coalition of Democrats to make this convention a success, and of course, Dorothy Bush, there's no way to improve on Dorothy Bush. As you know, Peter Kelley and Chuck Manatt have done an unprecedented job in raising funds and keeping us sound and solvent. And they've had a good team with them. I've just come from the Finance Council meeting and they're in an exuberant spirit.

I'd like to say a few other things, just kind of some private thoughts that I have had during this last few days. This convention, in my judgment, in retrospect, could not have been better. It started out in a spirit of doubt with some real possibility of disunity, an almost certain prospect that a powerful Democratic constituency group or more would, in a spirit of frustration or misunderstanding, depart from the convention floor. And as you know there was always the speculation, sometimes enhanced by the questions presented by the electronic news media in particular. There was a prospect of our coming out of the convention disunited and with an absence of spirit. There was also a remote prospect that very early in the week all of the doubt would be removed and the convention would lose its life and lose its interest for the public and for the media as well.

None of those concerns materialized. There was enough tension and enough interrelationship, enough debate, enough concern expressed so that the American people, as Fritz said, had an accurate picture of a dynamic party, a party of diversity, a party of deep commitment, a party of strong beliefs, of strong hopes and anticipations that in the past have not been adequately realized, a concern about jobs and a concern about inflation and a concern about peace and a concern about minority rights. Those things were expressed so vividly in the tense interrelationship within that convention that it worked up to a climax of unity and achievement and purpose that I believe it guarantees that we have turned the corner and that now America sees a real prospect, which we are not going to let them be disappointed with, that Democrats will be in the White House and the Congress overwhelmingly in the next 4 years and our country will be benefited from it.

Last night in my remarks I tried to make three points clearly, and as you go back to your own communities, I hope you will pursue these goals and these thoughts that have been so vivid in my own mind. And Fritz and I very carefully coordinated our two speeches so they were mutually supportive. We repeated a few things in both speeches for emphasis.

One is that there is a sharp, maybe an unprecedented difference between the Democratic Party of today and the Republican Party of today—and the Democratic candidate of today and the Republican candidate of today. With a possible exception of Goldwater versus Johnson, there has never been a sharper distinction about what this election can mean. That's one point we ought to make.

Secondly, the seriousness of the choice. It's not just for an election year, and it's not even just for the next 4 years. Because of international and national events and circumstances, we are genuinely setting the course for our Nation and therefore the world for the next 20 years-to the end of this century—to the start of a new millennium. And it's close to us. So, the choice is going to be sharp, but the consequences are going to be profound.

It's not a frivolous thing. As you all know, in a primary season, quite often the votes are frivolous. There are massive changes back and forth in public opinion in just 2 or 3 days, because if a candidate is almost defeated, there's a natural inclination in the press on the side of the public to keep the contest going. And there's never that sober consideration in a primary season as there will be on November 4: "How will the life of my child be affected 20 years from now? How will we make a choice in this Nation between progress and retrogression? How will we fulfill the basic commitment to human rights and civil rights and equality and opportunity for downtrodden and afflicted people in this next generation? Will my son die in war, or will we continue an era of peace?"

Those kinds of questions will be on the minds and the hearts of American voters as we approach the general election. And it's important to us as Democratic leaders to make sure that that sober, careful consideration is a part of American consciousness as this campaign season comes to a close in November.

And the other thing that's important to us is to make sure that every American realizes a personal responsibility for the future of our country. We need to expand registration and make sure that those people, who are quite often inarticulate and perhaps uneducated and perhaps even unemployed and alienated from society, are brought into the mainstream of the political process by hard work during this next 80 or 82 days, between now and November. And I'm going to try to marshal every single constituency group and also every mayor and Governor and other official, every Congress Member, to assure a massive turnout of Americans once we convince them about the sharp difference and the profound consequences of the election.

You're the mainstay of the Democratic Party; you've held it together during troubled times, and you are the ones who are responsible for the success of this convention-and it's been notable, far beyond what I ever anticipated a week or a month ago. And as you go back to your own communities I do not want you to underestimate your potential or your own responsibility.

Joan and Fritz, Rosalynn and I, and all of our people will do the best we can to realize a victory, but there is not a single person here, as I told the Financial Council members, who cannot expand your own influence 50-fold or a hundredfold among your own circle of friends and acquaintances, to marshal them to a spirit of dynamic commitment to achieving the goals which we understand so clearly. We need leaders recruited by you leaders. It's not enough to have the honor of membership on the Democratic National Committee. It is an honor, but you have a responsibility commensurate with that honor. And if you ever do anything in the future for the Democratic Party, expand your influence greatly in this next few weeks, not called and urged and begged or cajoled by me or by John White or by Fritz, but on your own initiative. Let each one of you be a nucleus of, in effect, a new Democratic Party organization.

Bring in a few business acquaintances or religious leaders or educational leaders or labor leaders or professional leaders or your own social friends, who may not be very active in politics in the past, and let them be the Democratic leaders, the stalwarts of the future, and let that future be very near to us. So, be recruiters, and if you will do that as you have performed so superbly these last few years, changing the structure and nature and commitment of the Democratic Party to the advantage of our Nation, then I have no doubt that on November 4, we will celebrate a tremendous victory for me and Fritz, for the Democratic Party, for this Nation and, I believe, the entire world. Thank you very much.