Bill Clinton: “Hope, yes. You said, oh, my God, here are these two guys; they've been dumping all over each other. They all have got…”

“Hope, yes. You said, oh, my God, here are these two guys; they've been dumping all over each other. They all have got problems at home; they're going to get grief because they did this. Both of them are going to be in greater--everybody who understands it knows that they're both in greater physical danger because they made this deal. And here are these guys that can hardly bear to speak to each other, and they get up on this high dive, and they hold hands, and they jump off together. And it made us all feel more alive. We felt bigger-- the possibility that things can change, and the possibility that people can be reconciled to one another after all the scars and all the injuries and all the wrongdoing and all the disappointments, that there can be both progress and community. Why did we all love it when old John Glenn went up in the spaceship today? Because it was about possibility. It was about, oh, my God, the guy's 77 years old, and he still looks good in his clothes. [Laughter] He can lift weights, and he's sharp as a tack, and he's doing great. Gosh, maybe I can be like that. Maybe we can all change the way we are. Maybe we can push back the frontiers of possibility not just in space but here on Earth. And so it made us feel bigger. What I'm trying to say to you is I've done nearly everything--or at least made real progress on nearly everything I told the American people I'd try to do when I ran in 1992. We haven't made health care available and affordable for all Americans yet. Every other major commitment I made, we've made real progress on. But the one thing I have not been able to do is to make Washington a less partisan, less negative place. I have--Lord knows, I have tried. And one of the things that I hope will happen in this election season is that people will say, ``Never mind who's got the most money on the ads and all this; I am going to choose a course for the future of my country that reflects the same aspirations and the same values that I felt when I was cheering for Netanyahu and Arafat, when I was cheering for John Glenn. But I believe that what that represents ought to be something that is a part of my everyday life as an American, as a Floridian, as a citizen, in my business, in my work, in my family, in everything, but especially in our public life.'' That is what I want. And I am trying so hard to make that argument to the American people. And when you get right down to it, the investment you made tonight is going to give the people here in Florida who are working for our candidates and our causes and our issues the power to get more people to do that on Tuesday. I told everybody, if you like what I did in the Middle East peace talks, keep in mind I am a hired hand. I was elected to do that by you. Everything that I did, if I had any role in it that was positive, I did through the direct authority of the people of the United States who voted on election day in 1996. If you liked what happened when John Glenn went up in space, keep in mind that is the product of a democratic government. That shuttle could not have gone up today but for the votes in the Congress to keep the space program alive and to ratify its direction, which means that, in a profound sense, if you supported someone who supported the space program, your hand was on John Glenn's shoulder when he lifted off today. If you voted for me and the direction I wanted to take in the Middle East peace, you were standing there when we announced the agreement at Wye. You have to see it this way. I do not want to finish my term without knowing that we have not only helped the American people to become more reconciled to one another across racial and other lines that divide us but also without knowing that we have made our best efforts to have our political leaders in Washington behave the way most citizens behave in America every day. The only way you can get that done is to show up and elect people like Buddy MacKay next Tuesday. Thank you, and God bless you.”