Bill Clinton: “No, I can't do that. After the election I'll play, after the election. No, I'm not going to do it. You might as well…”

“No, I can't do that. After the election I'll play, after the election. No, I'm not going to do it. You might as well stop now; I'm not going to do it. [Laughter] You know, that's the way they were when they passed that budget and shut the Government down. I told them I wasn't going to put up with that either. I didn't do it. [Laughter] After the election I'll play, after the election. I've got to get my skill level back up. After the election I'll do that. Let me tell you something, this election in 7 weeks--or to be precise, 6 weeks and 6 days--is going to have a huge impact on what your country looks like in 50 years. You know that, and you're determined to make it come out right or you wouldn't be here tonight and you certainly wouldn't be in such a good humor, in such high spirits, with such high energy. But I want to ask you tonight to take the energy, the enthusiasm, the spirit that you're manifesting here and take it out all across this community, all across this State, to your friends in other States for 6 weeks and 6 days. If you'll give us 6 weeks and 6 days, we'll give you 4 great years. And we need your help. You know, if you look around, if you just look around Seattle today and the State of Washington, you see a lot of living examples of what I am trying so hard to do for America's future. You know, I want to build a bridge to the future that has a growing economy in which everybody can participate, not just a few but everybody. That's why it's important to stop those who tried to cut back on education and instead make a college education available to everybody, bring the Internet to every classroom, make sure we have world-class opportunities. I want us to go forward as one community building for the future. That's why it's important to balance the budget without walking away from our commitments to education or to the environment or to research. As I said today at the Pike Street Market, the University of Washington is the number one recipient of Federal research investment of any public university in the United States of America. You've got a big stake in our continuing to invest in the future and building a better future. Just in the last 4 years, I've seen the life expectancy of people with HIV and AIDS more than double in 4 years because of medical research and accelerating movement of drugs to the marketplace. Just a few days before Christopher Reeve spoke so movingly at the Democratic National Convention about research--just a few days--for the first time in history we had an example of lower-limb movement being restored to laboratory animals that had their spines severed by nerve transplants. This is historic in its implications. To turn away from research at the time when things like this are happening is folly. So, yes, balance the budget, but keep investing in our people and our future so we can go forward together and grow together. You understand that here. You know that here. You know it's a part of our future, and you have to stand for it. This has also been a great week for America's natural heritage and environment. Last night we reached an agreement to preserve the old- growth forests in Washington and Oregon. This week we reached an agreement to preserve and restore salmon on the Columbia River, very important. Today I went to the Grand Canyon, which was first preserved by Theodore Roosevelt in 1908 by a declaration of Presidential monument, to declare a monument in southern Utah, 1.7 million acres, the Grand Cascade-Escalante monument. It's a beautiful, priceless treasure for our people and a great thing for our country. But we have more to do. There is a huge difference here. One party wants to build a bridge to the future; one says we should reach back and build a bridge to the past. One approach says the Government is always the problem; we'd be better off if we were on our own. My approach says--I agree with my wife's book; it takes a village to raise a child, to grow the country, to build a future. And there is no community in America more outward-looking, more reaching out to the world, more relishing of its diversity than Seattle. And the way you live every day trying to reconcile your differences and appreciate your differences and relish them and build strength out of this community, that's what America has to do. When Hillary and our daughter and I went to the Olympics to open them and I got to talk to the American team, it occurred to me that if the American team were to take off its uniforms and just walk around in the Olympic Village, you wouldn't have a clue where they were from. I mean we had Hispanic-Americans and we had Nordic-Americans and we had Indian- and Pakistani-Americans and we had Native Americans and we had all kinds of Asian-Americans from all over. Audience member. Gay Americans!”