AllPolitics - Vote '96 Transcripts

Transcript of Clinton's Acceptance Speech Following The 1996 Presidential Election November 5, 1996

SPEAKERS LIST: WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

CLINTON: Thank you.

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My fellow Americans...

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... thank you for being here.

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Just four years from now, we will enter a new century of great challenge and unlimited possibility. Now, we've got a bridge to build and I'm ready if you are.

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Today the American people have spoken. They have affirmed our course. They have told us to go forward.

America has told every one of us -- Democrats, Republicans and Independents -- loud and clear -- it is time to put politics aside, join together and get the job done for America's future.

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In the last four years, we've made remarkable progress. But in our schools, our families, our workplaces and our communities, our journey is not done.

My fellow Americans, we have work to do, and that's what this election was all about.

I want to say to all of you here and to all of the American people -- no words can convey the gratitude I feel tonight for the honor that has been given to me.

It is an honor that belongs to many. First to my family, to my wonderful wife of 21 years...

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.. who from the day I first met her began teaching me that it does take a village to raise our children and build our future.

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To our daughter Chelsea for understanding the work we have done together...

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... the burdens it has imposed.

Today, I went down to the train station to vote in the last election in which I will appear on the ballot, and as I have done in every year since she was born, I took Chelsea to the ballot with me.

And as we looked at the ballot together and discussed the issues there, I thanked God that I was born an American.

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I thank the members of my wonderful family who are here -- my stepfather, Dick Kelley, my wonderful mother-in-law Dorothy Rodham, and all the others. And I thank my beloved mother who is smiling up there and said, "I never had a doubt.

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"I always knew it would be this way."

I thank the friends of my lifetime. There are people who have stood with me through thick and thin, who started with me in grade school and junior and senior high school, in college and all across the years since.

Friends who knew me and knew my dreams and stood as a powerful force against those who sought to stop America's progress with the politics of personal destruction. Thank you, my friends. Thank you for what you did for America.

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I thank the people of my beloved native state. I would not be anywhere else in the world tonight.

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In front of this wonderful old capital that has seen so much of my own life and our state's history, I thank you for staying with me so long, for never giving up, for always knowing that we could do better.

I thank the finest vice president this country has ever seen.

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Because -- because of Al Gore, we have a stronger and more secure relationship with the democratic Russia. We are exploring the wonders of new technologies for the benefit of America.

We are protecting our environment, and we have reinvented America's government so that it does more with less, thanks to his leadership. It is a legacy unique in the history of this republic.

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I thank Tipper for her friendship, for her crusades on behalf of our children and the mental health of the American people and for always standing with us along with her children and her family.

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I thank the members of our administration, the Cabinet members, the members of the White House staff, the...

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I thank all those who are part of the permanent service to the president at the White House and the medical staff. I thank especially my Secret Service detail that has been so challenged by a president determined not to be isolated from the American people.

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I thank the members of our campaign staff, all those who have served in this election and the work you have done.

I thank the leaders of our party in the Congress, in the state houses. I thank all those who stood for what we believe in in these elections today, those who won and those who did not.