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We were better off, and not just economicallyJobs...
10:37, 2010-Mar-19
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We were better off, and not just economicallyJobs were up, but so were adoptionsThe debt was down, but so was teen pregnancyWe were becoming both more diverse and more unitedWe had built and crossed our bridge to the twenty-first century, and were not going back
I made the case for a Democratic Congress, saying that what we did with our prosperity was just as sure a test of Americas character, values, and judgment as how we had dealt with adversity in the pastIf we had a Democratic Congress, America would already have the Patients Bill of Rights, a minimum wage increase, stronger equal-pay laws for women, and middle-class tax cuts for college tuition and long-term care
I praised Hillary for thirty years of public service and especially her work in the White House for children and families, and said that just as she had always been there for our family, she would always be there for the families of New York and America
Then I argued for Al Gore, emphasizing his strong convictions, good ideas, understanding of the future, and fundamental decencyI thanked Tipper for her mental-health advocacy and applauded Als selection of Joe Lieberman, and spoke of our thirty-year friendship and Joes gucci ladies watches work for civil rights in the South in the sixtiesAs the first Jewish-American ever to be on a major partys national ticket, Joe provided clear evidence of Al Gores commitment to building One America
I ended the speech with personal thanks and a personal plea:
My friends, fifty-four years ago this week I was born in a summer storm to a young widow in a small southern townAmerica gave me the chance to live my dreamsAnd I have tried as hard as I knew how to give you a better chance to live yoursNow, my hair is a little grayer, my wrinkles are a little deeper, but with the same optimism and hope I brought to the work I loved so eight years ago, I want you to know my heart is filled with gratitude
My fellow Americans, the future of our country is now in your handsYou must think hard, feel deeply, and choose wiselykeep putting people firstKeep building those bridgesAnd dont stop thinking about tomorrow
The next day Hillary, Chelsea, and I flew to Monroe, Michigan, for a passing the torch rally with Al and Tipper GoreA good crowd in a battleground state sent Al off to Los Angeles to claim the nomination and become the leader of our party, and me to the local McDonalds, a stop I hadnt made omega watches in years
The Bush-Cheney ticket had settled on a two-pronged campaign messageThe positive argument was compassionate conservatism, giving America the same good conditions we had provided, but with a smaller government and a bigger tax cutThe negative one was that they would elevate the moral tone and end bitter partisanship in WashingtonThat was, to say the least, disingenuousI had done everything I knew to reach out to the Republicans in Washington; they had tried to demonize me from day oneNow they were saying, Well stop misbehaving if you give us the White House back
The morality argument should have had no resonance, unless people believed Gore had done something wrong, especially with the super-straight Lieberman on the ticketI wasnt on the ballot; it was both unfair and self-defeating for voters to blame them for my personal mistakesI knew their strategy wouldnt work unless the Democrats accepted the legitimacy of the Republican argument and failed to remind voters of the impeachment fiasco and how much more damage the right wing could inflict if they controlled both the White House and the CongressAn NRA vice president had already boasted that if Bush were elected, the NRA would tiffany bracelet have an office in the White House
After our convention, the polls showed Al Gore had come from behind to hold a narrow lead, and I accompanied Hillary to the Finger Lakes area of upstate New York for a couple of days of vacation and campaigningShe was running a different race from the one she had begunMayor Giuliani had withdrawn, and her new opponent, Long Island congressman Rick Lazio, presented a new challenge: he was attractive and smart, a less polarizing figure who was nevertheless more conservative than Giuliani
I ended the month with two short tripsAfter meeting in Washington with Vicente Fox, the president-elect of Mexico, I flew to Nigeria to see President Olusegun ObasanjoI wanted to support his efforts to curb AIDS before Nigerias infection rates reached the levels of southern African nations, and to highlight the recent passage of the African trade bill, which I hoped would help Nigerias struggling economyObasanjo and I attended a gathering on AIDS at which a young girl spoke of her efforts to educate her schoolmates about the disease, and a man named John Ibekwe told the gripping story of his marriage to a woman who was HIV-positive, his becoming infected, and his frantic omega aqua terra watch search to get the medicine for his wife that would enable their child to be born without the virusEventually John succeeded, and little Maria was born HIV-freePresident Obasanjo asked MrsIbekwe to come up onstage, where he embraced herIt was a touching gesture and sent a clear signal that Nigeria would not fall into the trap of denial that had contributed so much to the spread of AIDS in other countries
From Nigeria, I flew to Arusha, Tanzania, to the Burundi peace talks, which Nelson Mandela had been chairingMandela wanted me to join him and several other African leaders for the closing session to exhort the leaders of Burundis numerous factions to sign the agreement and avoid another RwandaMandela gave me clear instructions: We were doing a good cop/bad cop routineI would give a positive speech urging them to do the right thing, then Mandela would demand that the parties sign on to his proposalIt worked: President Pierre Buyoya and thirteen of the nineteen warring parties signed the agreementSoon all but two of them would signAlthough it was a burdensome trip, going to the Burundi peace conference was an important way to demonstrate to Africa and the world that the United States was a louis vuitton back pack peacem
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