Remarks Given in Charlotte, North Carolina Governor Bill Clinton May 5, 1992 Introduction by Harvey Gant We know what he can do. He has served as Governor of Arkansas five times. He has made a difference in the quality of life for the people of Arkansas. . . . I'm proud of this candidate who has taken more heat than any other primary candidate that any of us can remember, and he has withstood the test and has demonstrated that he has got the tenacity, the durability, the character and the integrity -- and I stress that -- and the integrity to lead us. So we've got an obligation. We have an obligation. If we believe in this party, if we believe in the principles that say that the Democrats are interested in average, working Americans, we have an obligation, as I used to say in 1990, to go crazy about this candidate and all the others who seek to lead us. And I think the most important thing that Bill Clinton has done, in my opinion, has been to try to bring people together. We've got the situation we've got in Los Angeles, in my opinion, because we've had poor leadership at the very top of this country. You elect Governor Clinton, and you elect a President who will talk about the vision of bringing us all together. And ladies and gentlemen, I now have the great honor and privilege of introducing the next President of the United States, Governor Bill Clinton. Governor Clinton Thank you so very much. On behalf of Hillary, of me and my whole campaign, I want to say to Harvey Gant a heartfelt thank you. Harvey Gant is the embodiment of the American dream. And after November, maybe we can make millions more, if this election comes out the way it should. I want to say thank you to North Carolina, to Indiana, to the district of Columbia -- all three of those states bringing in great victories tonight for our campaign and for the cause of change. To all of you who work so hard, I want you to know I'm very grateful. But never forget what is at stake in this election. I just spent a little more than a day in Los Angeles seeing in stark terms what this race is all about: How we have to restore economic opportunity and a genuine sense of community and togetherness in this country. And today in the morning paper I read what this race cannot be about, when the White House blamed the Los Angeles riots on the social programs of the 1960s. With 58 dead, 2300 wounded, hundreds of millions of dollars in damage and an America broken from racial divisions and economic devastation, this White House ought to be looking for somebody to help, not somebody to blame. Maybe it's because I've been a governor for eleven years in the 80s, trying to help people save their jobs and their farms and their businesses, educate their children and pay their health care bills; trying to bring people together across racial lines and without any help from Washington. Maybe it's because of the life I've lived, but folks, I don't care whose fault it is any more, I just want to do something about it and change this country. In a very real sense this election is not a fight between Republicans and Democrats: It's a fight about whether America is joining the ranks of the rest of the advanced countries in the world; whether we're going to have a real partnership between the President and the private sector to restore real jobs all across America and high wages and real opportunity to the people in this country. It's about whether there are going to be real political reforms in Washington DC; whether we're going to control the costs of Congressional campaigns, open the air waves to honest debate and give the elections back to the ordinary citizens of this country. And most important, it's about whether we're going to abandon our paralyzing divisions; whether we can create opportunity and impose responsibility and come together again as a country; whether we're going to have a family policy that helps all those working parents out there that are struggling to raise their children, who need child care, who need family leave, who need tough child support enforcement, who need the kind of welfare reform that says , "You're going to have to go to work, but after we invest in your education and supporting your children. Then we'll do that." I am tired of seeing the American people divided. I am tired of seeing divided in America women against men, as once again last week the Bush Administration tried to play politics with the right to privacy in attempting to reverse Roe v. Wade. It would be a terrible mistake if we did that. I am tired of the politics of racial division. We are Southerners, you and I. We have learned the hard way that when we are divided by race, we never get anywhere. And when we reach across the racial lines and everybody has a chance for a good education, a decent health care, and a decent job, and to raise their children in dignity ; then we are all richer. When we are divided, we all fold; when we are united, we all win. My pledge to you tonight in thanking you for this victory is: If you want your country to win again, if you want your country to be one again, if you want to feel good when you get up in the morning, because you know we can make tomorrow better again, vote for Bill Clinton and bring this country back. Thank you and good night.