Bill Clinton: “Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, President Spangler, President Friday, Chancellor Hardin, my good…”

“Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, President Spangler, President Friday, Chancellor Hardin, my good friend, Governor Hunt, and other distinguished platform guests, ladies and gentlemen. I must say I have thought for a long time about what it might feel to be in a vast crowd of North Carolinians and have them do something besides root against one of my athletic teams from Arkansas. [Laughter] I began to think of this moment in August when I was on vacation, and I spent an evening with a person who used to be one of your great sons, James Taylor. And I asked him to sing ``Carolina in My Mind'' so that I could begin to think about what this day might mean to all of us. Five other Presidents have come to this great university to speak. None has ever had the opportunity to speak to a crowd like this, on this occasion of your 200th birthday as a university. I'd like to begin by thanking the students whom I have met and especially those who gave me this beautiful leather-bound book of essays, three of them, about the theme for this bicentennial celebration that the students chose, community. For it is in many ways what ought to be America's theme today, how we can be more together than we are apart.…”