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Clinton: A few jokes, but often serious in speech

The Daily Republic - 10/09/2006

The text of former President Bill Clinton’s keynote address Saturday at the dedication of the George and Eleanor McGovern Library and Center for Leadership and Public Service:

“(Applause) … Thank you very much.

“Chairman Musick, President Duffett, Congressman McGovern, Sandy Vanocur, Al Neuharth, bishop, governor, Sen. Thune, Sen. Johnson, Sen. Daschle, Rep. Herseth, all the veterans who are here, members of George and Eleanor’s far-flung family, the veterans of the 1972 campaign who have come — ya’ll stand up, everybody who worked in the ’72 campaign, stand up. (Applause.)

“You know, I wasn’t going to do this, but every time I come to South Dakota I feel like I’m home and I get loose and I say something I shouldn’t. George cracked that joke about the Methodists. You know, I’m a Baptist, but my wife is a devout Methodist. I know every single fact of John Wesley’s life. I have been bludgeoned about the superiority of the Methodist faith for almost 35 years.

“I will say one thing: You know, Baptists in general, southern Baptists, are more conservative than Methodists. We used tell the story at home that the difference between the Baptists and the Methodists is, you had to give it to the Methodists — unlike the Baptists, they would speak to each other when they met in the liquor store. (Laughter from the audience) Bishop, you may want to correct that, I don’t know. (More laughter.)

“It is a profound honor for me to be here. And to be following in speaking at this dedication, Sen. McGovern’s and my mutual friend, Bob Dole, who has worked with me since I left office among other things to raise enough money to send every child and spouse of every person killed in the Sago Mine to college, whether American or non-American, and he’s a great citizen …

“It’s an honor to be at Dakota Wesleyan, where George McGovern met Eleanor Stegeberg. Where he pursued his lifelong quest for learning in the spirit of the faith of his father …

“And I want to say something serious about that today: I think John Wesley would be immensely proud of George McGovern.

“Think of just the highlights of his fascinating life. Great pilot, teacher, congressman, senator, first director of Food for Peace, author with Sen. Dole of the Food Stamp program, courageous critic of the Vietnam War, first and only person from South Dakota so far to be nominated for president, United Nations delegate under presidents Ford and Carter, advocate for disarmament and peace in the Middle East; when I was president, United Nations ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization, recipient of the Medal of Freedom, and with Sen. Dole the inspiration for the school lunch program.

“George didn’t tell you what happened with that $300 million. There are 130 million children in this world who’ve never darkened a schoolhouse door. Their idea was to say to poor kids across the world, and to their parents, you can have one good nutritious meal a day no matter how poor you are, but you have to come to school to get it. After we passed that little-bitty initiative in a multi-trillion-dollar budget, school enrollment around the world in the first year went up by more than six million children.

“Then, after I left office, I figured George would retire, but he became the first U.N. ambassador on hunger. Just last year he and Sen. Dole authored a book called ‘Ending Hunger Now,’ and they’ve taken that campaign to end child hunger in the United States into an effort to get a school breakfast program all across the country.

“What does all this teach us? George McGovern has taught us that politics is not about power or position, but about people, progress and principle.

“For more than 60 years, Eleanor, so brilliant and beautiful, has been by your side, speaking out for children, for families, for larger lives for women. Both of you bravely sharing the challenges and pain of the alcoholism so many of us have had in our own families. The disease that claimed your beloved daughter Terry and led to your powerful moving memoir about her struggle and fundamental goodness; for that, too, we have much to thank you.

“I first met George McGovern more than 36 years ago, when I spent the summer in Washington, D.C., working for another of our lost causes: the McGovern-Hatfield amendment, a completely bipartisan, doomed effort to cut off funding for the Vietnam War.

“In late 1971 when I had gone to Yale to law school, and Sen. McGovern entered the presidential race, I cleaned out my bank account — every last penny, the princely sum of $200. All the money I had in the world. I opened a headquarters and put in one telephone line near the campus. In three weeks, we had 800 volunteers.

“I went to see the Democratic boss of New Haven, a tough, grizzled old character named Arthur Barbieri. He told me how he was going to beat our brains out in the primary. I said, ‘You might, but not before I send 800 kids to the doors of every Italian mother in New Haven, telling them Arthur Barbieri wants their kid to go to Vietnam.’

“Arthur Barbieri became the second big-city boss in America, only two of them did, to endorse George McGovern. How I wish Arthur Barbieri had lived to be with us today, senator, because he became a genuine convert. In November we lost Connecticut all right, but you did carry one big city there: New Haven. When he started, he stuck, like most of the rest of us, with you.

“At the Democratic convention in Miami that year I had the responsibility, along with a lot of other young people, of working the floor. And I met many of the people in the McGovern campaign who were in the trailer or on the floor giving directions. They included some remarkable people.

“Gary Hart, who went on to become a senator from Colorado and was an important voice for national security and how we should organize ourselves to fight terrorism when I became president.

“The late Eli Siegel, who was the founding leader of AmeriCorps, which has already enlisted over 400,000 young Americans …

“Rick Stearns, whom I appointed a federal judge in Massachusetts.

“Sandy Berger, who became my national security adviser.

“After the convention, it’s true, they sent me to Texas. Now that was a hoot. I went there with a young man named Taylor Branch, who went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for the first of his magnificent three-volume biography and history of Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. We used to joke that we represented 50 percent of the white male population in Texas who voted for McGovern.

“We were joined there by an impressive young woman who is now the junior senator from New York. Hillary remains your fan and sends you her love from the campaign trail today.

“We were all there, and we still are.

“One of George McGovern’s most important legacies is the lasting impact he left on those, who in those long-ago reaching years, longed to see our country redeem its fundamental promise. We’ve never stopped loving our country, and thanks to him never became cynical or disbelieving. George McGovern’s decency and determination, his courage and good spirits in the face of certain defeat, inspired us then and inspired us all to fight on. Even today we feel often as we did then to see all defeats as temporary, all victories as obligations, all imperfections as human and opportunities to improve, and all public service as noble.

“In the storied history of American politics, I believe no other presidential candidate ever had such an enduring impact in defeat.

“Senator, the fires you lit then still burn in countless hearts. In the hearts of men and women no longer young but still young in spirit, still determined to pass the torch for their children and grandchildren, still determined to follow your example to work until our last day on earth to earn America (a place) in a world of equal opportunity, mutual responsibility and genuine community — your vision. A vision planted in the rich soil of South Dakota, nourished by the wisdom of John Wesley, and brought to full flower in the lives of Eleanor and George McGovern.

“We thank you, we honor you, and we love you.”