Bill Clinton: “Thank you so much. Welcome to the White House. Thank you for the good work you've been doing. I want to thank all the…”

“Thank you so much. Welcome to the White House. Thank you for the good work you've been doing. I want to thank all the people who are responsible for this reception. I thank my Cabinet members and the Members of Congress for coming. I welcome all of you here, including the many, many elected officials, and especially Mayor Corradini. We wish her well as she assumes the helm of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. I'd like to thank the Marine Band for playing for you. They just celebrated their 200th birthday last weekend. As far as I know, there are no members of the original band still playing--[laughter]--but they have a magnificent sense of tradition. I am so happy to have you here, to look out and see all of you, because you are the living embodiment of the political philosophy I have sought to bring alive in this country. You are the living embodiment of how I believe Washington, DC, should work: putting progress and people over partisanship, community over division, tomorrow's hopes over yesterday's fears. I cannot thank the Vice President enough for shepherding this community empowerment process these last several years from what was just a gleam in our eyes over one of our weekly lunches to this vast array of Americans. And if you look around this crowd, if this isn't one America for the 21st century, I don't know what is. I thank you.…”