Remarks at the Democratic National Committee's "National Tribute to President Clinton"

Well, first of all, thank you, thank you very much. Let me tell you something—wait, turn this on. If you'd turn this on, they could hear me instead of them.

Now, I don't believe that it's corruption to take money to pass the Brady bill, instead of beat it; to pass the family and medical leave bill, so 21 million ordinary working people can take some time off when their babies are born and their parents are sick, instead of to beat it; to pass the Patients' Bill of Rights, instead of to beat it; to reduce the deficit and get rid of the debt, instead of keep giving big breaks to special interests. I don't think that is corruption. I think that's good for America. That's why we're here tonight; that's why you're here tonight. We made a difference, and I'm glad you're helping us to win the next election. Thank you.

Let me also say to all of you how grateful I am that you're here, how grateful I am for your support. I thank Ed and Joe and Loretta and Dennis and all their predecessors in the Democratic Party. I thank my good friends Dick Gephardt and Tom Daschle, who will be the leaders of their respective chambers after the election. I thank Terry McAuliffe for making sure we'll be able to stick out there and give our message to fight for our candidates and elect our President in the year 2000. Thank you, Terry, and thank all of you who helped tonight.

And I want to thank Al and Tipper and Hillary and all the others who were part of our team. All those things that were on that film—mostly they were just my face up there. We had a great team, the four of us; we had a great White House; we had a great Cabinet; we had all these great young people working for us who believed in what we were doing every day. To every one of you who had anything to do with any of the progress of this administration, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Now, I also want to thank my buddies from Sims and Lindsey's and the Rendezvous for bringing us barbecue so Al and I could feel at home tonight, and I hope you felt at home tonight with that barbecue. And besides that, we needed a backdrop for McAuliffe to do that comedy gig he did on the Republicans. So, thank you for bringing the barbecue. It was wonderful.

Now, I don't know about you, but I came here to hear the entertainment, not to hear the politicians speak. So, since I'm really grateful to you for your support, I'm going to spare you much of a speech. But I want to say just two or three things real seriously.

Number one, the election of 2000 is every bit as important as the elections of '92 and '96. And in some ways, we are handicapped by all those good things that were just recounted on the film. A lot of younger voters have even forgotten what the economy was like in 1992. A lot of people have forgotten that 7 1/2 , 8 years ago no one thought the deficit could be brought down, much less the budget balanced and the debt begin to be repaid. No one thought the crime rate could be bought down, the welfare rolls could be reduced, that the performance of our public schools would be increasing dramatically. No one believed that back in 1992.

Now, what is the problem? The question is, what are we going to do with our prosperity and with our social progress? And I would argue to all of you, just in one moment of seriousness tonight, that how a great nation handles its success can be an even sterner test of character than how it deals with adversity.

I have sort of mixed feelings looking at that film, actually. I watch myself get grayer and grayer and grayer. [Laughter] And I thought to myself, before I got into my second term here, I was always the youngest person who did everything. Now I'm up here in my old boots and my old jeans, and I'm just kind of an old gray-haired redneck trying to put in some good months here. [Laughter] But I've learned a few things earning those gray hairs.

And what I want to say to you is that if you believe, as I do, that it's just a test of our character that's as severe as any we've had, what are we going to do with our prosperity, then this election matters, and I'll tell you what I think we need.

We need to elect someone President who understands the future and knows how to take us there. We need to elect someone President who's actually made tough decisions and not just talked about it. And we need to elect people to the Senate and the House who supported us on our economic program, supported us when we brought the crime rate down, supported us when we cleaned up the environment and grew the economy at the same time, supported us when we protected the individual liberties of America, supported us when we said we could build one America across all the lines that divide us. That's what we need to do in the year 2000, looking toward tomorrow.

Terry has already said this. Ed has already said this. But I want you to know that not only as President but as something of an historian, there is no one in the history of the Vice Presidency who has ever, ever had remotely the positive impact on the lives and the future of the people of the United States as Al Gore has these last 7 1/2 years. It's not even close—ever.

From casting the deciding vote on our economic plan in '93, to sticking up for us when we had to go into Haiti, into Bosnia, into Kosovo, to all the tough calls we made in helping to end the financial crises in the world, down to voting to close the gun show loophole and require child trigger locks, Al Gore has led the way.

Now, when you think about the future, what are the questions? Well, how are we going to get the country out of debt, keep the prosperity going, and give people who live in poor areas who have been left behind a chance to be part of our prosperity? How are we going to deal with the environmental challenges of global warming and grow the economy? How are we going to give all working people the security of access to health care and world-class education for their kids? How are we going to proceed in a world full of uncertainty, where you have to make complicated judgments about the security threats out there and still try to build a better and brighter future based on trade, not conflict, based on lifting labor standards and environmental standards, not walking away from the human rights of the people of the world? How are we going to do these things?

The answer is, we ought to pick the person who is the best qualified person based on experience. We ought to pick the person who has proved that he makes good decisions based on lots of evidence. We ought to pick a person whose mind and heart have always been focused on the future that his children—now his grandchild—and all of our children ought to have. Al Gore should be, and with your help, will be, the next President of the United States of America.

Ladies and gentlemen, Vice President Al Gore.