Bill Clinton: “Thank you very much. Steve gave such a good speech, if I had any sense I would just sit down. [Laughter] But I thank you…”

“Thank you very much. Steve gave such a good speech, if I had any sense I would just sit down. [Laughter] But I thank you for it. Let me thank Joel and David and Monte and Jeff and Ira and everyone else who is responsible for this tonight. I thank Carol Pensky and Cynthia Friedman for their leadership in our party. I thank Secretary Babbitt for coming tonight, and Ann Lewis from the White House for coming, and Craig Smith, my political director. There may be more people here. I'll hear about it tomorrow if there are. [Laughter] I thank Senator Lautenberg and Senator Feinstein, Dick, and Senator Lieberman and Hadassah, thank you all for being here. I really appreciate, more than anything else I suppose, the fact that there has been established between our administration and I hope between me personally and the American Jewish community a bond of trust which is rooted in our shared values for what America ought to become here at home and for our longing for an honorable and lasting peace in the Middle East. And I thank those of you who mentioned to me, going through the line tonight, my speech in San Diego a couple of days ago. And I would like to talk a little about that and about the Middle East in what I would call a proper context. In 1991, when I was attempting to decide whether to enter the Democratic primaries and only my mother thought I could be elected--[laughter]--night after night I would sit at home and say, ``Why do you want to do this?…”