Posted on 03/05/2004 12:38:33 PM PST by OXENinFLA
http://clinton6.nara.gov/1996/08/1996-08-29-president-acceptance-speech-at-democratic-convention.html
ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT(Clinton)
TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION August 29, 1996
United Center
Chicago, Illinois
EXCERPT.................
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice President, my fellow Democrats, and my fellow Americans: Thank you for your nomination. I don't know if I can find a fancy way to say this, but I accept.
Snip.................
We are fighting terrorism on all fronts with a three-pronged strategy. First, we are working to rally a world coalition with zero tolerance for terrorism. Just this month I signed a law imposing harsh sanctions on foreign companies that invest in key sectors of the Iranian and Libyan economies. As long as Iran trains, supports and protects terrorists, as long as Libya refuses to give up the people who blew up Pan Am 103, they will pay a price from the United States. (Applause.)
Second, we must give law enforcement the tools they need to take the fight to terrorists. We need new laws to crack down on money laundering and to prosecute and punish those who commit violent acts against American citizens abroad; to add chemical markers or taggents to gunpowder used in bombs so we can crack the bomb makers; to extend the same power police now have against organized crime to save lives by tapping all the phones that terrorists use. Terrorists are as big a threat to our future, perhaps bigger, than organized crime. Why should we have two different standards for a common threat to the safety of America and our children? (Applause.)
We need, in short, the laws that Congress refused to pass. And I ask them again, please, as an American, not a partisan matter, pass these laws now. (Applause.)
Third, we will improve airport and air travel security. I have asked the Vice President to establish a commission and report back to me on ways to do this. But now we will install the most sophisticated bomb-detection equipment in all our major airports. We will search every airplane flying to or from America from another nation -- every flight, every cargo hold, every cabin, every time. (Applause.)
My fellow Democrats and my fellow Americans, I know that in most election seasons foreign policy is not a matter of great interest in the debates in the barbershops and the cafes of America, on the plat floors and at the bowling alleys. But there are times -- there are times when only America can make the difference between war and peace, between freedom and repression, between life and death. We cannot save all the world's children, but we can save many of them. We cannot become the world's policeman, but where our values and our interests are at stake, and where we can make a difference, we must act and we must lead. That is our job, and we are better, stronger, and safer because we are doing it. (Applause.)
PRESIDENT CLINTON: One of the reasons that I ran for President is because not just children, a lot of grownups felt that way. If you remember, four years ago we had not only rising unemployment, but a lot of rising cynicism. I had never worked in Washington as an elected official. It seemed to me that most of the arguments were partisan -- Republican-Democrat, left-right, liberal-conservative.
That's why I said tonight I'm for opportunity, responsibility, and community. And we've gotten some real progress in the last four years. I've also done everything I could at every moment of division in this country -- after Oklahoma City, when these churches were burned -- to bring people together and remind people that we are stronger because of our diversity. We have to respect one another.
You mentioned Washington and Lincoln; they were Presidents at historic times. This is an historic time. It's important that we go beyond those old partisan arguments and focus on people and their future. When we do that, instead of shutting the government down over a partisan fight on the budget, we're a better country, and that's why we're making progress now.
And if we get divided, that will happen more. That's why I spoke out so strongly against hating people who worked for the federal government after the tragedy in Oklahoma City. That's why when all these church burnings occurred we got on it and we tried to stop it and we tried to get after it. And that's why I want you to think about that, too. How long were we held back in this state because black people and white people couldn't get along? How long?
That really places it into perspective!
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