Scumbria,
Your friend Mr. Clinton had some interesting remarks about the election:
"Listen, we were way behind when Daley took over," Clinton said. "They thought the election was over, the Republicans did. The time it was over, our candidate had won the popular vote, and the only way they could win the election was to stop the voting in Florida."
Clinton praised Daley for his "exemplary service" as commerce secretary and paid tribute to his work during the presidential campaign.
"He was brilliant. I think he did a brilliant job in leading Vice President Gore to victory, myself," he added.
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Clinton touts record, jabs Republicans on recent election
January 10, 2001
Web posted at: 9:34 AM EST (1434 GMT)
By Kelly Wallace/CNN
CHICAGO (CNN) -- President Clinton, returning to the same hotel where he celebrated his 1992 Illinois primary victory, Tuesday offered his strongest criticism to date of the Republicans' handling of the presidential election.
Clinton saluted the work of Chicago native and Gore campaign chairman William Daley.
"Listen, we were way behind when Daley took over," Clinton said. "They thought the election was over, the Republicans did. The time it was over, our candidate had won the popular vote, and the only way they could win the election was to stop the voting in Florida."
The room, filled with a few thousand passionate supporters, erupted with loud cheers and applause.
Clinton praised Daley for his "exemplary service" as commerce secretary and paid tribute to his work during the presidential campaign.
"He was brilliant. I think he did a brilliant job in leading Vice President Gore to victory, myself," he added.
Delighting the crowd with memories of his St. Patrick's Day win in Illinois in 1992, Clinton said his victory here, matched with a victory in Michigan, convinced him he would win his first Democratic presidential nomination.
The president also got personal, remembering how his mother and his father spent one of their last nights together at this Chicago hotel, the Palmer House Hilton, before his mother returned to Arkansas and his father was killed in a car accident.
"This is an important place for me... and I thank you from the bottom of my heart," he said.
The president said as he leaves office, the United States is "a different, stronger, more united and a better country than it was eight years ago."
He took supporters on a "little walk down memory lane," noting how eight years ago, the country faced high unemployment, a $290 billion deficit and a quadrupling of the national debt over the previous 12 years.
"Now we have the lowest unemployment rate in 30 years, the lowest female unemployment rate in 40 years, the lowest minority unemployment rate every reached... 22 and a half million new jobs, the deficit has been turned into the biggest surplus in history, and when this year is over -- my last budget -- we'll have paid down $500 billion on the national debt," he said.
The president's trip Tuesday to Michigan and Illinois is part of what some are calling his farewell tour.
Aides said Clinton wanted to visit places in his final days that have been special to his presidency, highlighting issues that have been important to him.
On Thursday, he travels to New Hampshire, to thank supporters for standing by him, when his prospects for the presidency looked bleakest before that state's primary in 1992.
He will likely wrap up his political career next week, with a visit to the place where it all began, his home state of Arkansas.
Aides are also considering other opportunities to say good-bye, such as a final news conference and a farewell address.
Ronald Reagan, the last two-term president, said farewell in an Oval Office address on Jan. 11, 1989.
Clinton leaves office Jan. 20. |
