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get that done. Let every American deduct up bed about what you want this great country to to $10,000 a year for the cost of any college look like. We are better off than we were 4 tuition, undergraduate or graduate, no matter years ago. When we cross the bridge into the what the age of the student. Will you help us 21st century, if we stay on this course, we’ll do that? Will you seize the opportunity tomor- be better off still. And we will do it together. row to do that? [Applause] Look at your children; think of your future. Now, this election is about more than person- Seize the day to keep your country moving in alities and more than parties, it is about the the right direction. future of America. And you have to decide. You Thank you, and God bless you all. Thank you. have to decide whether in the end it will be an election of your hopes or your fears, whether NOTE: The President spoke at 1:05 p.m. in the it will be an election that will bring us closer Convocation Center at Cleveland State University. together or drive us further apart. I have done In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Michael R. everything I could. The responsibility now shifts White of Cleveland; Jane Campbell, Ohio State to you, my fellow Americans. It is your country, representative; musician Joe Walsh; and Dennis your children, your future. Kucinich and Thomas J. Coyne, Jr., candidates for I thank you for giving me the chance to serve. Ohio’s 10th and 19th Congressional Districts, re- I ask you to think tonight before you go to spectively.

Remarks in Lexington, November 4, 1996

The President. Thank you. opponents down, too, but I hope not. I hope Audience members. Four more years! Four not. more years! Four more years! So we’ve had enough smear and smear and The President. Thank you. Hello, Kentucky! smear, and why don’t we just take a few minutes Thank you very much. Thank you. Mayor Miller, on this beautiful, beautiful fall night in Kentucky Patton, Senator Ford, Lieutenant Gov- to think about our future. And if we get inter- ernor Henry, Mayor Abramson, Chairman rupted, let’s just keep thinking about our future. Babbage, and —— I want to thank all the young people who came here tonight, especially, because the elec- [At this point, there was a disturbance in the tion is more about you than anyone else. I want audience.] to thank all the entertainers who came: Kevin The President. Let me ask you—wait, wait, Cronin, the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra, folks. If you pay attention to him, you’re just Carol and Vanessa Det, Black Voices, and the rewarding him. So why don’t we make a deal marching bands of Harrison County, Nicholson and we’ll ignore him. I have a totally different County, Mercer County, and Lafayette County. attitude about this than a lot of people do. I Thank you very much. Thank you, , always welcome people from the opposition to for coming. Thank you. Now, Coach Pitino, our rallies, because unlike them, my America we’re both defending our titles, and maybe I’ll includes everybody who’s willing to work hard. see you in the White House again next year. And I’m always glad to see them. Let me say on this beautiful day, what is I’m always even willing to sort of be quiet really at stake here, clearly, beyond any doubt, and let them talk, but they never want to stop, is what this country will look like when we cross because what they really want is to stop me that bridge just 4 years from now into a new from talking and you from hearing. And if I century and a new millennium. And all of you was running against the record we’ve established who are students here and probably everybody and the ideas for the future, and I had to carry who is in this audience understands that we’re that budget I vetoed around on my back the going through a huge change in how we work way they do, maybe I’d be trying to shout my and live, how we relate to each other and the

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rest of the world. And the real issue here is thanking me for our police program that Wen- whether we’re going to make a decision to do dell Ford voted for to put 100,000 more police things together that will help each other have on the streets of America because they were a chance to make the most of our own lives, getting 5 more. live up to our God-given capacities, and build And then I met a young man who told me together stronger families and communities and that he was a dropout and had given up on States and nations or whether we’re better off his life, but he heard me talking about the im- being told that we’re on our own. portance of going back to school. He found out Now, all these issues have been debated to about the changes that we’ve made in the stu- death, I guess, so let me just give you some dent loan program and what we were trying personal examples out of my life. A couple of to do, and he said, ‘‘I got one of those new nights ago I was in Denver, Colorado, and we loans and now I’m going back to school and had a rally like this—it wasn’t as big; it was I’m going to get a degree in microbiology. I at night and in a little—in an inside place— didn’t just get in, I got in in a big way,’’ he but I was going along the row like this, shaking said. hands. Here’s what happened to me in about Now, that’s just one ropeline. Every issue I 5 minutes. In each case, I want you to listen talk to you about, every single one, my opponent and see if you identify with it. and the leaders of the other party opposed us I met a young woman who was a victim of on the initiatives which made those things pos- domestic violence who thanked me for setting sible—every single one. That is what is at stake up the violence against women section at the here. When I said we ought to pass a crime Justice Department and working to stop violence bill that puts 100,000 police on the street, they against women and children and setting up that said, ‘‘It won’t do any good, and you’ll never hotline. do it.’’ Then when they passed their budget, I met a man who was doing ground-breaking they must have been worried about us doing research against Parkinson’s disease who got a it because they tried to stop me from doing research grant because of an initiative of our administration. And he had fire in his eyes when it. But we’ve only funded about half those police he said, ‘‘We are going to cure this disease; officers. It’s a 5-year program; you will decide we’re going to it; we’re going to get to whether we finish the job. the point where we have 100 percent cure rate.’’ Now, here are the facts. The crime rate has And then I met a man who told me that gone down 4 years in a row. We have a 10- he and his wife had just adopted a young child, year low in American crime. If we bring it down and because of the family and medical leave for 8 years in a row we might make our streets, law she was home with the child, getting the our schools, our neighborhoods safe for all of child accustomed to being in a new environment America’s children. I believe we’re right and and they were not going to lose her job and they’re wrong. But you have to decide. her income because of it, because of the family You have to decide so many of these issues. and medical leave law. But if you strip them all away, you look at And then I met three women who were what is really at stake: What is it that we should breast cancer survivors who thanked me for be doing together to help each other make the fighting hard for the research funding in the most of our own lives? Now, we have had some budgets of the last 4 years that include more time to see whether this approach works or not. women and more research. We’ve uncovered Compared to 4 years ago, we have 10.7 million two of the genes that cause breast cancer, and more jobs, record numbers of new small busi- we may well be able not only to cure it but nesses, incomes are going up again, the lowest prevent it in the next few years. rates of unemployment and inflation in 27 years. And then—just walking down the line now— I met a woman—we were just in Cleveland, and then I met a young person who went back Hillary and I were—I met a woman who was to school on the AmeriCorps program after serv- crying and had a picture of her house because ing in his community and then got some money she had been able to buy a house because we to pay his way to college. have a 15-year high in homeownership, which And then I met a young woman who was is what happens if you drive the deficit down a police officer in a smaller Colorado town, 63 percent and get those interest rates down.

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So the country is moving in the right direc- children world-class education. I want that to tion. And the real question before you is, what be the lasting legacy of this administration. do you want it to look like 4 years from now? And I ask you to think of this. There are This is the last day of my last campaign. I will still 40 percent of the 8-year-olds in America never seek office again unless I go home and who cannot read a book on their own. But I run for the school board someday. [Laughter] have a plan to mobilize one million volunteers This election is about your future. It’s about to go out to the parents and the teachers of what America will look like when your children this country and help teach those kids to read. are your age. And I tell you, we are on the We got 200,000 more work-study slots out of verge of the greatest age of possibility in human this last budget for college students; I want history. The young people in this audience will 100,000 of them to go to young people who have more chances to live out their dreams than say, ‘‘Send me. I will go. I will teach the chil- any generation has ever had. There are many dren to read.’’ Will you help? Will you help of you in this audience who before long will us do that? [Applause] be doing jobs that have not been invented yet. You heard talking about my Many of you will be doing jobs that have not dream that within 4 years every classroom and even been imagined yet. library and every school in America can be When I became President, there were 3 mil- hooked up to the information superhighway. lion people working in their homes. Today, there Think what it would mean if the children in are 12 million. Four years from now there will the most remote Appalachian schools and the be 40 million people. That’s just one example. children in the biggest, poorest urban school Things are changing so fast that we’re building districts were, together with the students in the a supercomputer with IBM that will do more richest, middle class, suburban, urban, rural calculations in a second than you can do on school districts all over America—the first time your hand-held calculator in 30,000 years. ever, all these kids got access to the same infor- Things are changing. mation in the same way at the same time. That We have differences on the budget. We have would revolutionize learning in America. It differences on crime. We have differences on would explode the potential of our children. Will the environment. I believe we can preserve the you help us do that? [Applause] environment and grow the economy, and I don’t The last thing I want to say is, I am very think we can grow the economy over the long proud that we’ve reformed the student loan pro- run unless we do preserve the environment. It’s gram to make it less costly and to let people an honest difference of opinion. pay their loans back as a percentage of their We have differences on issues like incomes so no young person need fear going and . The Medicaid program for 30 broke when you borrow money to go to college. years has allowed families to maintain a middle I’m proud that 70,000 young people are in class lifestyle, even if a member of their family AmeriCorps, I’m proud that we got the biggest was severely disabled, because people could increase in Pell grants in 20 years, but we must work and still get some help for medical care do more. I want to open the doors of college for their loved ones. It’s enabled people to go to all Americans, and if you give me 4 more into nursing homes in their later years, and it years, that’s exactly what I intend to do. has national standards of quality care. It’s en- Now, I want to make 2 years of college after abled poor children to get good care from the high school as universal as a diploma in high moment they’re born. They wanted to take away school is today, and we can do that simply by that 30-year guarantee. I thought it was wrong. saying, you can deduct from your tax bill, dollar You can decide. I think that’s one of the things for dollar, the cost of a typical community col- we ought to do together. lege tuition. I want to open the doors to all But the most important issue before you is 4-year colleges and to graduate school by saying your education and the education of those who you can deduct from your tax bill up to $10,000 will come behind. Because in a world that is of tax deduction for the college tuition at any changing as it is, if you really want all the Amer- college and university in the ican people to have a chance to go into that today. Will you help us do that? Will you? [Ap- future together, we’ve got to guarantee all our plause]

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Folks, let me say, in our politics today there to race, region, religion, or income. We’ve got is too little discussion of these issues and too to work together. We’ve got to be able to say much finger-pointing and insulting. In the end, to one another, ‘‘If you are willing to show up when you’re like me and you come to the end tomorrow and say you believe in this country of more than 20 years of endeavor, I have to and its timeless values, you’re ready to show tell you something. I want to say this for our up for work or school and do your part, we friends on the other side, too. Most of the peo- don’t need to know anything else about you. ple I’ve known in over 20 years of public life You are part of our America, and we’re going in both parties, people with different—who have to build the greatest country the world has ever disagreed with me, people who ran against me seen in the 21st century.’’ Will you help us for office, most of the people I’ve known loved do it? our country, worked hard, and were honest peo- Audience members. Yes! ple. We just have honest differences of opinion. The President. Will you be there tomorrow? Today, I still feel that way. But you must Audience members. Yes! also understand the honest differences of opin- The President. Will you elect Steve Beshear ion. And you are now the judges in that court to the Senate? of public opinion. These differences are being Audience members. Yes! brought to you. Are we going to say, ‘‘You’re The President. We need you. Thank you, and on your own,’’ or are we going to build a bridge God bless you all. Thank you. to the 21st century we can all walk across? Is our education program going to be abolishing the Department of Education or opening the NOTE: The President spoke at 5:15 p.m. at the doors of college to every single American who . In his remarks, he re- wants to go? ferred to Mayor Pam Miller of Lexington; Gov. These are the decisions for you to make. This Paul E. Patton and Lt. Gov. of Ken- is a very great country. Its best days are still tucky; Mayor Jerry E. Abramson of Louisville; ahead. You can make sure that the 21st century Bob Babbage, chair, Kentucky Democratic Party; is a time of unparalleled opportunity for all Steve Beshear, Kentucky senatorial candidate; ac- Americans, and you can do it only if you decide tress Ashley Judd; and Rick Pitino, University of that we have to work together without regard Kentucky men’s basketball coach.

Remarks in Cedar Rapids, Iowa November 4, 1996

The President. Thank you very much. Thank in Indianola not very long ago. I believe that you. Thank you. Iowa, are you ready to build Leonard Boswell and Donna Smith and Bob that bridge to the 21st century tomorrow? [Ap- Rush will do a good job for you, and I hope plause] you will help them to win tomorrow as well. Let me begin by thanking those who have You know, I have had two incredibly memo- joined us to entertain us tonight and to keep rable experiences in Cedar Rapids, and they re- our spirits high: the Iowa City High School flect a lot of what I have tried to do as Presi- Marching Band, the All-City Flag and Drum dent. Not very long ago I was here to dedicate Corps, the Coe College Concert Band. Thank the National Czech and Slovak Museum. And you all very much. Thank you. I brought with me, as you remember, the Presi- I want to thank those people who are here, dent of the Czech Republic and the President too numerous to name, who have been so im- of Slovakia. And we had a wonderful day here— portant to me, to Hillary, to our administration a little cold, but we had a great day. [Laughter] and our efforts. I want to commend to you And we celebrated this mystery that is America, our candidates for Congress back here. I’ve got- that we can meld together people from different ten to know them. I was together with them ethnic groups and different religions and dif-

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