Bill Clinton: “Thank you. Thank you for waiting. You have made us very happy tonight. It's wonderful to see you. I want to thank Mayor…”

“Thank you. Thank you for waiting. You have made us very happy tonight. It's wonderful to see you. I want to thank Mayor Herenton and everyone else here in Memphis who worked hard to make this night a reality. Hillary and Tipper and Al and I, we kind of like doing this. Can you tell that? [Applause] And when we look out and see you, the people we've been working for and fighting for for the last 4 years, it makes it all worth it. We can see what it is we've been doing in the hope, in the spirit, in the energy, in the happiness of your reception. Thank you so much. I want to thank Lois DeBerry and Bill Purcell and Speaker Naifeh and all the members of the Tennessee Legislature who are here. Chairman Farris, thank you for being here. I want to thank all these Congressmen- to-be. Congressman Ford, thank you for your friendship and your service in the Congress. And about-to-be Congressman Ford, thank you for that barn-burning speech and what you want to do. Mr. Trotter, thank you, and I want you to help him. Those of you who live in his district, he needs your help and he has votes around here. We need your help. Houston Gordon, thank you for your speeches and for being brave enough and good enough to get out here and make this run for the Senate. We need you there. Ladies and gentlemen, let me just say one thing before I get into my remarks here. You heard the Vice President say what he did. You remember the awful budget fight we had. We wanted to balance the budget. We brought the deficit down. But we said, we're not going to balance the budget on the backs of the people that we depend upon to carry us into the future or that got us here. We're not going to cut education. We're not going to hurt the environment. We're not going to wreck Medicare and Medicaid. We don't have to do it, and we're not going to do it. And then they said, ``All right, if you don't do it our way we'll shut the Government down, and we'll see how you like that.'' And I said, ``I don't believe the American people like blackmail. You can shut it down, but I'm still going to veto that budget. It's wrong for America.'' And I did. But folks, you don't want the President just to say no, you want us to say yes. I need--but more importantly by far, you need people in the Congress who will both balance the budget and keep the economy going and protect our values, who will meet our challenges, protect our values, and move us forward together. All these people will. But I want to introduce one more person who is here today because those of you who live in Memphis know that over in Arkansas a bunch of us who lived in the eastern part of the State basically believe that Memphis is the capital of the Mississippi Delta, and we're sort of a part of it. And eastern Arkansas and that congressional district over there, we're about to make a change, and 15 to 20 percent of the people who vote over there get all their news from over here. And we have a Democratic nominee for Congress in eastern Arkansas who was an official in our Agriculture Department, who has been a friend of mine for 20 years, who is one of the finest people I have ever known. And I want to remind the farmers, our administration has been good for American agriculture. We've opened more markets. We've had more exports. Farm prices are high. And we have supported rural development to help people out in the country who can't make a living on the farm anymore. A major architect of those policies is now the nominee of our party for Congress in eastern Arkansas, Mr. Marion Berry. I'd like to ask him to come up here, and you all give him a good Memphis welcome. [Applause] Thank you. I want him to say just a word. Thank you. [At this point, Marion Berry, candidate for Arkansas' First Congressional District, made brief remarks.]”