Bill Clinton: “Thank you very much. Danielle, you did a fine job. Didn't she do a good job? I thought she was great. Thank you. I'd…”

“Thank you very much. Danielle, you did a fine job. Didn't she do a good job? I thought she was great. Thank you. I'd also like to thank my good friend Father O'Donovan, for allowing me to come back to my alma mater to make this speech and to be with you; and Bruce Reed, for the superb use he has made of the Presidential scholarship he got. He does a wonderful job in our office. I hope you got the joke he made about how he looks younger than you. We all rag him about how young he looks. Actually, when I was his age, I looked young, too. And then it just overcame me. [Laughter] I want to congratulate the Presidential scholars, the teachers, parents who are here. I am delighted to have this chance to be with you. Because I have been on an extended trip to Europe, I actually want to take a few moments to give a serious talk about where we are in Washington today and where we are in America and to talk to you a little bit about the whole nature of our public life and politics. Nearly 8 years ago, as Bruce said, I came to this hall, where I sat many times as a student, to ask America to join me on a journey, to go beyond what were then the competing ideas of the old political establishment in Washington that dominated the entire decade of the 1980's.…”