Remarks on Arrival in Avoca, Pennsylvania

Thank you very much. Good morning, and thank you for coming out. I want to say, first of all, how very much I appreciate the kindness that so many of you have shown to my wife and to the members of our family. And if we ever cause an interruption in ordinary flow of life here when the Rodham family comes back to its roots, I apologize for that. But you can't imagine how much they all love it.

We're going back to Lake Winola today for the first time since our daughter was not quite 2 years old. So she doesn't have much of a memory of the first time we took her up there. We were talking about that this morning, getting ready to come up here.

Let me also give you a little good news. I'm sorry we're a few minutes late this morning, but I got up early this morning at the White House and was on the phone for a couple of hours because this morning, or morning our time, not very long ago, the Israelis and the Palestinians have reached agreement on the next phase of their peace process. It's a big step forward toward ending the long, long state of siege in the Middle East. And on this day of worship, a thanksgiving for so many of us, I thought that would be a good way to get this Sunday off to the right kind of start.

I want to thank you also for the support that you have given to me and to our administration. We are doing everything we possibly can to try to lift up the values of work and family and freedom and responsibility and community in this country, to move the economy forward, to tackle the tough problems, and to bring the American people together.

And I am gratified that with all of our difficulties, we see the unemployment rate dropping, more jobs being created. The crime rate, believe it or not, now is going down in all 50 States. And we seem to be coming together again as a country and looking toward the future again.

And so I want to say that, for me at least, every day is an enormous opportunity as we go through this period of historic change for America's economy and in the whole world, to try to elevate the things that all of you live by day-in and day-out here, to try to restore economic opportunity where it was taken away in the 1980's, and to try to give people the opportunity to make the most of their own lives and families and communities the chance to solve their own problems and realize their own possibilities. It is a great honor, a great joy. And for every day you have given me to be your President, I thank you.

God bless you all.