Bill Clinton: “Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, Lou. Mr. Speaker, Governor, Mayor Lizott, Congressman Bass, Mrs.…”

“Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much, Lou. Mr. Speaker, Governor, Mayor Lizott, Congressman Bass, Mrs. Gingrich, Mrs. Zeliff, to Sandy Osgood, and to the Stevens High School Band, thank you very much for keeping everybody entertained while I got away from Dartmouth and got over here. I am delighted to be back in Claremont again. I have spent some happy days here. And I was invited to come here, as you know, when you folks found out--I think it was actually Lou's idea; he found out I was going to be at Dartmouth giving the speech. And then I was interviewed, and someone said, ``Well, the Speaker is going to be here for the whole weekend. What advice would you give him?'' And I said, ``Well, I'd give him two pieces of advice. I think he ought to--if he's going to be in Concord, he ought to go down to Mary Hill's grocery store and talk to her because she's a wise woman. And he ought to do one of these little town meetings like I do from time to time.'' And so he called me, and he said, ``I accept.'' [Laughter] So that's how you became transformed into this. I'm going to talk for a couple of minutes; he's going to talk for a couple of minutes. Then we're going to spend most of our time just answering your questions. But let me be very brief and say that when I came here in 1992, I was running because I thought we ought to change the direction of the country. I thought that we were in danger of losing our standard of living and that we were coming apart when we ought to be coming together. I was worried about the decline in middle class incomes, the growth of the under class, the high unemployment rate at the time, an exploding deficit, a declining level of investment. I was also worried very much about the breakdown of our families, the number of children growing up in poverty, and the whole breakdown of a lot of the social factors that are very important to all of us and made us what we are. I said then and I will reiterate today that I thought what we needed then--I still believe what we need is an economic strategy that focuses on creating jobs and raising incomes, a social strategy that rewards work and family, in terms of welfare reform and everything else we do, it reinforces responsible childrearing and responsible work, that we ought to do it in a way that reduced the size of the Government and reduced the bureaucratic burden of the Government but kept the Government on the side of ordinary Americans. Now, what I tried to do is follow policies--whether it was reducing the deficit, expanding trade, increasing investment in education, promoting welfare reform--things that would help people to make the most of their own lives. I've also tried to do things I thought would increase security for American people, whether it was the Family and Medical Leave Act or the crime bill or the things we've tried to do in foreign policy or the antiterrorism legislation that the Speaker will take up when the Congress meets again starting tomorrow. Now, we have a lot of differences, and perhaps these differences will come out. But we also have some areas in which we can work together. I think the most important thing is that we try to identify clearly the places where we disagree but then make our best effort, our dead-level best effort, to work together to move this country forward. It seems to me that a lot of our problems are not particularly partisan in nature. We do have--for example, as I have said from the day I became President, we cannot afford not to do something about the fact that Medicare and Medicaid costs have risen at much more rapid rates than Government revenues are going up, so that every year we spend more and more on Medicare and Medicaid, which means we have to either spend less on something else or explode the deficit. But I think how we do it and how long we take to do it and the manner in which we do it is critical. So we need to discuss these things in an open way. And one of the things that I like about New Hampshire that I don't like about modern politics, generally, because it's so different, is that when I was running here in '92, I really felt that most people were making their decisions based on encounters like this rather than 30-second television ads or some blurb that comes across the airwaves where one politician is hitting another one and trying to use some emotional issue to divide the American people instead of to bring them together. I think that is what you have done for Presidential politics, which is why I hope you'll always be able to have this first-in-the-Nation primary for both parties, so we'll all have to go through this process of getting to know each other. So having said that, I'd like to now bring the Speaker on, let him say a word or two, and then we'll get on with your questions. Mr. Speaker. Speaker Gingrich. Let me say--let me say, first of all, that I am delighted to be here, and I appreciate very, very much--I appreciate very much the opportunity to be here. And I want to thank both Lou Gendron and I want to thank the President for having been willing to allow me to come over. [At this point, there was a disturbance in the audience.] Speaker Gingrich. I think, despite this particular gentleman, I think that the tradition of New Hampshire for townhall meetings is exactly the right sort of thing to do. Now, let me just say, if I might, that I am delighted to be here and that you ought to know this is a historic moment, the President visiting you, as we are told--the first time since, I believe, Calvin Coolidge came here in the 1920's that a President has visited, although of course many candidates have been here in the primaries. And I believe in all of American history there has never been a townhall meeting where a President and a Speaker have been there at the same time. So literally, the city of Claremont is setting history today. Marianne and I are delighted to be here with Congressman Bass and Mrs. Zeliff and with Governor Merrill. But I wanted to say two things that have happened to me today that are classically New Hampshire. One I did on my own, and one the President recommended. First of all, we got up very early this morning, and I want to report that we did see four moose, and one of them was a huge bull that stood in the middle of the road and stared until every single photographer who was with me could get their picture. [Laughter] The other was, I have to report, Mr. President, I broke down; we stopped at the Dunkin Donuts in Berlin this morning after seeing the moose, and this is why you've done better with your figure than I have with mine. [Laughter] I failed. But I followed his advice. Let me say also to the band--I had a chance to listen a while ago--I thought you set exactly the right tone and exactly the right mood. I am grateful that you all would allow me to come and join the President. I hope today we can talk in a positive way about the positive things we Americans need to do. And I agree with the President--the New Hampshire tradition of this kind of a discussion where we can sit, you can ask questions, we can both talk, and we're not in 9-second or 20-second or clever advertisements or any of that stuff. And I just want to say one thing about where we are that I think all of you can identify with. I called my mom a while ago, and I called my mother-in-law, and said, ``Gee, I'm here now, and what should I do?'' and all that. And I also talked to my two daughters. We have all three generations involved now in this discussion. But let me tell you what I really honestly believe--and I think this is pretty close to the President's--most of you lived through the Depression, and it was hard. And you saved freedom in World War II. And you saved freedom in Korea. And you paid the taxes. And you worked at the jobs to help win the cold war. And you raised your children, and you wanted them to live in a better country. And now, you're helping raise your grandchildren. And I believe all Americans can be told the truth and can actually watch their leaders have honest, open disagreements and can talk things out, and we can find common solutions. And I believe this process, working with the President, with the House and the Senate, with the Governors, I believe we can get to a balanced budget in a positive way. I believe we can save Medicare, and it will not go broke, despite the trustees' report. I believe we can create a better future for our children and grandchildren. But it's got to be done exactly like here today. So I hope with your permission, the President and I will now have a dialog with you, and maybe the country can learn a little bit about working together, not just buying commercials and attacking each other. Thank you for letting me be here.”