Bill Clinton: “Thank you very much. Hello, Fort Worth! Well, folks, I've got 39 more days, but the Rangers just have one more day. It…”

“Thank you very much. Hello, Fort Worth! Well, folks, I've got 39 more days, but the Rangers just have one more day. It is great to be here. And Mr. Mayor, thank you for welcoming me here, and thank you for your strong leadership. And I want to say on behalf of the people of our entire country, it is truly inspiring to come to Fort Worth, to stand in this gorgeous square to see the magnificent work that has been done here by your citizens--of course, the Bass brothers, but others as well--to renovate this place and make this city look beautiful and livable and attractive, a place you can be proud of. Thank you very much for what you have done. Sundance Square is a place that any American would be proud to stand in and feel good in, and it shows you what we can do when we work together, when we change the way we do business from pointing fingers and trying to blame people to saying how can we roll up our sleeves and work together to make life better for everyone. That's what I am trying to do. I'd like to thank Rich Connor for giving me that beautiful hat. Don't you think it looked pretty good? I thought it looked pretty good. And I'm honored to be in the long line of Presidents who have received hats from the publisher of the newspaper here. I was so impressed when I heard that President Roosevelt and President Truman and President Coolidge and Winston Churchill had gotten these hats. And then when I put mine on, I wondered, I wonder if they ever wore those cowboy hats. [Laughter] I'll wear mine, and I thank you for it. I'd like to thank Art Brender and the Tarrant County Democrats who have worked so hard to help at least a fair portion of you get here today. Thank you, Speaker Jim Wright, for being here and for all your service to our country and the people of this county. Thank you, Governor Ann Richards, for all you have done for Texas and for our country. I want to thank these fine young people in the Tarrant County President's Band. Aren't they fine looking? [Applause] They're going to play for us later. Thank you. Thank you, Carlton Lancaster, for the work you've done to get them together--you and Jesse and Bob Copeland. I was so impressed when I heard about this band. I couldn't wait to hear them. And they promised me now when I get off here and start shaking hands, you're going to play some more for me. You see the saxophone section raising their horns there, that's good. Thank you. I want to thank Bill White, the Texas State Democratic chairman and the cochair of our campaign. He did a magnificent job for all of you when he was the Deputy Secretary of Energy in our administration. And now that he's home in Texas, he's doing a great job for all of us again. And thank you, Garry Mauro, the Texas State land commissioner and my longtime friend, for cochairing our campaign. Thank you, Senator Mike Moncrief and Representative Glenn Lewis. I want to say a special word of thanks to our candidates for Congress, a man who's been a friend of mine a long time, the Fifth Congressional District candidate, John Pouland. I hope you'll help him win this election. And your former mayor, a great mayor, a man who will be a great Congressman if you will give him a chance to serve, Hugh Parmer. Thank you very much for being here today. Thank you, Yolanda Cuevas-Chavera. Boy, what a wonderful representative she is of American free enterprise and the idea that if we give everybody an opportunity, all of us will be better off. We're better off that people like her can start a business and create jobs and make our communities and our country stronger. I have to say that one of the things that I determined to do when I became President was to create a climate in which it would be possible for more people to start small businesses and to succeed. And in the last 4 years there are a lot more folks like Yolanda out there. And every single year we have set a record for new small-business starts. The Small Business Administration cut its budget but doubled its loan volume to provide more opportunities for small businesses to be started, including a 300 percent increase in loans to small-business women, people like Yolanda who are moving this country forward. We made every small business in the country eligible for a tax cut if they invest more money in their business. We made it easier for small businesses to take out pensions for themselves and their employees and for the employees in small businesses to take those pensions with them, which is so important. And just a couple of days ago we increased the tax deductibility of the health insurance costs of people who are self- insured, which will help small-business people all across this country-- more Yolandas, a stronger America. Thank you, Martin Frost, for your unrelenting efforts to give the House of Representatives back to the American people and take it away from those who tried to destroy the Medicare system, take away Medicaid's guarantee of health care to families with members with disabilities, to our poorest children, to newborns, to elderly folks in nursing homes. Thank you for that. Thank you for stopping the cuts in student loans and education funding and environmental protection. And thank you, Victor Morales, for running for the Senate. I want to tell you a little tale, folks, when you think about how you ought to make a decision. I had an interview with a couple of reporters today. I was in Longview before I came here. We had 13,000 folks in Longview this morning. It was a pretty good crowd. I want to tell you two different stories. I had a great interview with two reporters who said, ``Why are you in Texas, and do you really think you can win here, and what's your message?'' And I said ``Well, you know, 4 years ago I had a pretty hard hill to climb. I had to run against two guys from Texas 4 years ago.'' [Laughter] ``And Texas has been voting Republican in Presidential races on a fairly regular basis for a good while now. So I said to myself, first of all, for 12 years I was the Governor of Arkansas, your neighboring State. I spent it--I'm sure, except for candidates for President from Texas, I spent more time in Texas in the last 4 years than anybody else that's running for President.'' [Laughter] ``And if you look at the results of what I said we would do, what we have done, and how much better off Texas is today than it was 4 years ago, if the people are willing to give me a fair shot and look to the future, yes, I think we can carry Texas because it's right for the American people.'' I ran for President, my fellow Americans, because I thought national politics had become too much rhetoric and too little action, because I got sick and tired of people calling each other names and trying to demonize their opponents and trying to scare the living daylights out of people and convince people that their opponents were no good. And if you noticed, I gave strict instructions at our Democratic National Convention I didn't want anybody to say anything bad, personally, about Senator Dole; about Congressman Kemp, a man I like; about Mr. Perot; about even Speaker Gingrich, who says some pretty harsh things about the rest of us. What I said was, let's talk about their votes, let's talk about their positions, let's talk about where we differ, and let's look at who's right and who's wrong. That's what elections ought to be about. Now, I believe that we need a common vision for our country to take us together into the next century. And here's what I want it to be like for these children in this audience: I want us to go into the next century with the American dream of opportunity alive for every single person who's willing to work for it, without regard to their race, their gender, and what they start out with in life. If you're willing to work hard, you ought to have a chance. You ought to have a chance. We're living in a global economy. We're living in a global society. You can move money and information and ideas and technology around the world in no time. Our diversity, our differences, the fact that we come from so many different places is a great, great source of strength for the United States if we can learn to get along together and respect each other and be fair with one another. I want us to be one American community. And I want us to be the world's strongest force for peace and freedom and prosperity because that's an important part of our future as well. Now, how have we done creating opportunity, insisting on responsibility, and bringing us together in a community? That's the test. And what are we going to do? Now, Mr. Morales, he's offered himself as a candidate for the Senate. I remember in 1993 when I asked the Congress to pass our economic program, to get the deficit down, get interest rates down, get this economy moving again and keep investing in new technologies and education and the environment and protecting our obligations to our seniors, to the Medicare program, Mr. Morales' opponent said, ``If the President's plan passes, the deficit will go up, unem- ployment will go up, the economy will be in terrible shape.'' That's what he told you. And my opponent agreed with him. Well, now we know. Now we know. You don't have to guess in Texas. And I'm glad we've got some folks in the back representing the other side. They're welcome. Audience members. Boo-o-o!”