Bill Clinton: “Thank you very much. It's a great honor for the Vice President and Mrs. Gore and for Hillary and me to have all of you…”

“Thank you very much. It's a great honor for the Vice President and Mrs. Gore and for Hillary and me to have all of you here today. I want to especially thank Dr. Haggerty for his moving account, and Marva Wade for having the courage not only to tell us the story of her work but the story of her family, and Sister Bernice Coreil for her stout-hearted defense of our continuing efforts. I was sitting there thinking when she was speaking, I wonder how many nuns have ever given a speech and quoted Machiavelli? Well, I suppose he was a Catholic. [Laughter] And he certainly was right about a lot of things. I want to say to all of you how important it is for us to have you here to validate our common efforts because of your work, your life, and your experience. We've been seeking out a lot of that lately. Hillary and I went to Florida the first of the week and met with thousands of senior citizens, some of whom had been frightened by claims that we were trying to do something to Medicare instead of to protect Medicare and to extend its benefits to prescription medicine and to long-term care options in the home and in the community. I met yesterday with a very, very moving group of a couple of hundred small business people, and 12 or 13 of them talked.…”