Week Ending Friday, April 14, 2000 Statement on the Republican ily. We appreciate the fact that New York Budget Proposal Life has underwritten this. I also want to thank the coproducers, April 7, 2000 Philip Kunhardt, Jr., and Philip Kunhardt III This new Republican budget combines and Peter Kunhardt. And there are some bad fiscal policy and a flawed economic strat- other voices here from the series: Ben egy. It undermines our efforts to strengthen Bradlee, Walter Cronkite, James Roosevelt, Social Security and Medicare, makes it hard- Charlie RoseÐI don't know if he's here or er to pay off the debt, and rests on dramatic notÐand Tim Russert. cuts in education, law enforcement, the envi- Tonight this is a fitting way for us to open ronment, and efforts to promote peace in na- the first in a series of events celebrating the tional security. 200th anniversary of the White House. It is I remain committed to working with any clearly the right thing to do to begin by hon- Member of Congress from either party on oring the lives of individuals who have a budget that will strengthen Social Security roamed the halls and carried the burden of and Medicare, add a prescription drug ben- the Presidency within the walls of the White efit, eliminate the debt by 2013, expand ac- House. cess to health coverage through Medicaid This room has not only witnessed historical and the Children's Health Insurance Pro- events, it has played a role in shaping them. gram, and strengthen education and other It has hosted 42 administrations and 41 dif- key investments. Let's put this empty polit- ferent personalities, every President except ical document aside and work together to George Washington. The East Room began keep America on a responsible fiscal course as a laundry room for Abigail AdamsÐan that meets our Nation's long-term chal- auspicious beginningÐ[laughter]Ðremind- lenges. ing us that there are certain basic elements to this job. NOTE: This item was not received in time for pub- Thomas Jefferson and Meriwether Lewis lication in the appropriate issue. laid maps and animal skins on this floor where you're sitting and charted the Lewis and Clark expedition. Later, in 1814, a ban- Remarks at a Screening of PBS' ``The quet was being held here in this White American President'' Documentary House and in this room when James Madison Series sent Dolley word that the Army had miscal- April 7, 2000 culated where the British were going to as- sault Washington, and he told her to cut The President. Thank you very much, and Gilbert Stuart's painting of George welcome. I want to say a special word of wel- Washington down and get out of the house come to all the voices of the Presidents who as quickly as possible. She did, and they had are hereÐand they were supposed to give to leave the banquet here. The British came me a list of themÐI don't know what hap- in, ate the food, and then burned the White pened, I just saw it. [Laughter] But I know House. [Laughter] we have Senator Bumpers, Senator Glenn, Later, this house and this room was the Senator Simon, Representative Rosten- headquarters for battle-worn Union troops kowski, Governors Weicker and Weld. Bill during the Civil War. President Roosevelt's Ferris, we welcome you here. And a special children roller-skated here. Over the years, word of thanks to Sy Sternberg and his fam- this room and this house have survived a 771 VerDate 18-APR-2000 08:10 Apr 19, 2000 Jkt 010199 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 1244 Sfmt 1244 W:\DISC\P15AP4.010 txed02 PsN: txed02 772 Apr. 7 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 2000 major fire, two wars, a plane crash, and five a feel of the mixture of the personality and weddings. And of course, it has been a gallery character and skills of a President and his for some priceless art which embodies the time, and also a sense of what personal joys history of this country. and tragedies surrounded Presidents. Each President in his own time has sur- Just for example, Franklin Pierce, one of vived unique challenges, striving to fulfill the the only other Presidents who came from a purpose of our Founders to form a more per- small State and was a Governor, is generally fect Union. Tonight we will have the oppor- accounted not to have been a very good tunity to see two of these selections from the President. But when you consider the times ``American President'' series, the first docu- in which he served, I wonder whether mentary series ever to profile all of our Chief Lincoln could have succeeded in 1853, in- Executives. stead of 1861. And almost never do I hear The first viewing is on the life of Thomas anyone talk about the fact that when Franklin Jefferson. Every American President has Pierce was on his way to be inaugurated, with been inspired by Jefferson, affected by his his wife and his only child, he took the train decisions, fascinated by his life story. He from New Hampshire to Washington, and spent a lifetime shaping our new and ever- there was a minor accident in which 10 or evolving democracy. It would become, as he 11 people received minor bruises. But his son said, more developed, more enlightened as fell on his head, cracked his spine, and died. new discoveries are made, new truths dis- He never recovered. His wife never recov- closed, manners and opinions change. ered. One hundred and fifty years later, our 35th I've often wondered why it was that President, John KennedyÐwhose sister, Abraham Lincoln, who would have a hard Eunice, is with us tonight, and we thank you time getting elected today because he had for comingÐbrought that same spirit of in- terrible periodic, persistent bouts of depres- novation and progress to the White House. sion before he became President, was mar- His fleeting time in this house remains a sin- ried to a wife who was bubbly and strong gular story in our history. Our President for and happy and, as far as I know, has the dis- only a thousand days, he changed the way tinction of being the only woman in Amer- we think about our country, our world, and ican history to have been courted by three our own obligations to the future. The New of the four candidates for President in 1860. Frontier inspired millions of Americans to [Laughter] For John Breckenridge and Ste- take a personal responsibility for making our phen Douglas also pursued her, and clearly country stronger and more united. As he she made the right decision. [Laughter] said, ``The New Frontier is not a set of prom- But they had lost a child before they came ises. It is a set of challenges. It sums up not to the White House. They lost another child what I intend to offer the American people here. She lost three half-brothers fighting for but what I intend to ask of them.'' the Confederacy. And then all the carnage Many great people have called this house of the Civil War, the burden of the tragedies home. All of them, so far, have been white they faced broke Mary Todd Lincoln, and males of European descent. I am absolutely in history she is seen as a very different per- convinced that in the not-too-distant future, son from the person she really was for most there will be a woman President, and a per- of her life. And yet, in some magical way, son of color will occupy the White House all the personal and national trauma of that and the Oval Office. But the Presidency was time was absorbed by Abraham Lincoln in not built by one person. And in a funda- a way that enabled him to become stronger, mental way, it has been carried forward by to overcome his own demons, to leave aside the American people since the beginning. his own depression, and to become, in my I have spent a lot of time reading the his- view, the greatest President we ever had. tories of various periods in the White House So I hope when this whole series is done, and the biographies of some of my lesser there will be a greater appreciation for peo- known predecessors. One of the things that ple like Rutherford B. Hayes, who Senator I hope this series will do is to give people Glenn is the voice of in this series. VerDate 18-APR-2000 08:10 Apr 19, 2000 Jkt 010199 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 1244 Sfmt 1244 W:\DISC\P15AP4.010 txed02 PsN: txed02 Administration of William J. Clinton, 2000 / Apr. 7 773 Rutherford B. Hayes was one of four or five thing about the State. But it's most important Union generals from Ohio who became today because it contained the first known President. After the Civil War, if you were recording of Thomas Jefferson's condemna- a Union general from Ohio, you had about tion of slavery. And it always struck me that a 50 percent chance of becoming President. every person in this job lives with a certain [Laughter] It's the only category in our his- ambiguity, and I wondered how he dealt with tory that has ever been like that. And a lot it. But I'm grateful for what he left us. of the rest of us wish that it had been so Shortly after I became President, Pamela easy.