Bill Clinton: “Thank you. Please sit down. This is not an endurance contest. [Laughter] I am delighted to be here, delighted that this…”

“Thank you. Please sit down. This is not an endurance contest. [Laughter] I am delighted to be here, delighted that this day has finally come. I want to thank Greg Farmer for the fine job that he has done, and the others who are here: the FAA Administrator, David Hinson; the Deputy Transportation Secretary, Mort Downey; Bill Norman, the president of the Travel Industry Association of America. I want to say a special word of thanks to Loranne Ausley Ellis, who was the executive director of this conference. I don't know if she's had any sleep for the last week or two, waiting for you all to appear. And a thanks to my good friend Congressman Oberstar. I was telling Greg Farmer when Jim was up here speaking that Jim Oberstar, once he gets the bit in his teeth, he never lets go. If Jim had been a dog, half the people in Washington would have rabies. [Laughter] He is the most determined person I ever saw. And it might not be so bad, depending on which half it was. [Laughter] Jim Oberstar came to me with this idea, and I could look in his eyes and tell it was going to happen. I might tell you also, on a totally different subject, for a very long time he was one of only literally a handful of Members of the Congress who supported me in what I ultimately had to do in Haiti. Because he speaks Creole--he'd lived in Haiti--he knew it was the right thing to do. He knew it was the right thing for our country, for the cause of freedom.…”