Bill Clinton: “Well, I think we should. I think that I should all the time. Last night I was in Cleveland, and I was standing in an…”

“Well, I think we should. I think that I should all the time. Last night I was in Cleveland, and I was standing in an African-American church, Antioch Baptist Church, and I talked about what the Republican House leader, Mr. Gingrich, said. He said they wanted to make me look like the enemy of normal Americans, and the only safe place I could speak was to a black audience in America. And I said that this country would be a lot better off if every public official felt as comfortable in that church as I did. Every time I give a speech, I talk about the strength of our diversity, that one of the best things about what we did in Haiti was that America is the only country that could have gone to Haiti and produced a couple of hundred Haitian-American soldiers that could be down there speaking Creole to the people of Haiti as we prepared the way for President Aristide to come back. I think a lot of people, a lot of white voters, have been alienated by the problems in their own life and the inability of the Government to make a difference in their own life. And so, extreme rightwing forces are telling them it's all because the Government tried too hard to help the minorities. They're wrong; the minorities are not helped very much either. And what I've got to tell the majority population in this country is that our diversity is a source of strength. We're either going forward together or we're going to fall behind together. And this whole business that we should be divided by race is crazy. It helps the Republicans in election years, but it's a lousy way to run the country. Mr. Gordon. Address the criticism for me, as you move toward election time--because it doesn't just speak to you as a person, it speaks to politicians in general--that the fact that you feel comfortable in a black church is all well and good, yet some of the rhetoric that you may give speaks to some of the same code words that they're concerned about: reform welfare as we know it. Many people suggest that the crime bill was all well and good, but it wasn't remedy- based.”