Bill Clinton: “Thank you very much. It's nice to be back in Oakland. Thank you. Thank you. Senator Boxer, thank you for your leadership…”

“Thank you very much. It's nice to be back in Oakland. Thank you. Thank you. Senator Boxer, thank you for your leadership in the Senate, for your energy, your enthusiasm, your passion, your friendship. California is richly blessed to have Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein in the United States Senate. Congressman Stark; Congresswoman Woolsey; Mayor Harris; a spe- cial word of thanks to my friend, the chairman of the House Arms Services Committee, your Congressman, Ron Dellums. I wish every one of you who live in Ron Dellums' district had the opportunity to travel to Washington to watch him in action, to see the way he balances the best of politics: the way he passionately sticks up for what he believes in and still runs his committee in a fair way, the way he is unfailingly decent and fair to people who disagree with him, people who are in other parties, people who are on diametrically opposed sides of the issue. That is the best of American politics. We ought to get back to it, to treating each other with respect, to building up this country. Folks, before I get into my speech and give you a lot of chance to cheer again--[laughter]--I'm going to ask you to do something that normally we wouldn't do at a Democratic rally. And I want you to be very quiet and listen to me for a minute, because this is important. One of the worst things that's going on in our country today is this incredible meanness of spirit that is being promoted among people who differ with each other.…”