The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

it's been it's big so let us move forward only in this new world math educate our children ensuring our lives better than anyone else

but let us also understand that government cannot be a cure all for all about problems it never has and it never will be what marriage law like my mom i'm not that would say you know they always have and we'd democrats said remember that they always will be good so the second industry plus eight fb is my family

place for values runs the adult family and country is still a place for the most important title man can have isn't done a husband father son my parents didn't start with much that they believed in the promise of america that this catherine ross robertson and with short workweek and the march you an even better my father joined the army americans and how indiana's center this an easier tonight undoubtedly dad helped out i am a great love and guidance he'd given that question and i miss him mom

died of breast cancer when she was forty six i'll never forget the last time we spoke i sat at her bedside and held her hand in mind we talk to the future not of the test of faith and responsibility and love the courts the thai one generation to the next we talk to the girl i would marry she would never be of the grandchildren she longed for what would never fall on nine months ago my wife susan grandchildren twin baby boys about women oh awe and look down at them sleeping there we know that all of our hopes and fears for more like quietly before us tonight i stand between my father and my sons the dreams are parents had for us the dream susan and i share four marble the times are vastly different now the challenges we face are new with

the values that the spiders are the same or the values that president clinton has worked to restore to meet the challenges of our time opportunity for all americans responsibility from all americans and renewed sense of community among all americans after twelve years of skyrocketing deficits and richly that president clinton is meeting the challenge of balancing our budget he's brought the deficit down by sixty percent in just the last four years at mit's president for cutting the federal workforce by two hundred and fifty thousand but the smallest federal government since president kennedy and what his opponents right in our values with the cubs in medicare medicaid education the environment president clinton said no and our party stood with him and when his opponent shut the government down president clinton said no again and we stood with him again and the american people want

the peel is balancing the budget while keeping our pledge to the elderly the young and our future not because of disease but because he's right and he's meeting our economic challenges says president clinton took office over ten million new jobs created four times the number during the previous four years over a million new jobs in construction and manufacturing along and for the first time since the nineteen seventies america leads the world in making parts ahead of japan the president was protecting our traditional value of making hard work that it or for an increase in the minimum wage and ten million americans that appearance he cut taxes for fifty million fans who get up every morning and work hard all day long only get a paycheck on friday that still leaves them

apart but now anyone who works forty hours a week in america at now we must go beyond these historic gains because our progress has yet to touch older in quiet corners across our country families still struggling to pay the mortgage savor how to make ends meet to you our neighbors i say the president's agenda for the future reaches these white warns his agenda balances the budget to keep interest rates down and economy strong it protects against wholesale cuts to the elderly sick the young environment and the fight against crime and drops it provides for tax cuts not an election year gimmick a targeted tax cuts aimed at families trying to care for and educate our kids a cluttered or credit for every job fifteen hundred dollars to help pay for the first two years of a ten thousand dollar deductions for education and training after high

school we treat real opportunity with these tax cuts and what's more we can tighten our opponents just can't say they know their plans to expensive it would slow the deficit raise interest rates slow the economy and still require deeper deeper cuts and the things for which we hear our president is committed to balancing the budget and giving families the tools they need to build their own lives and that's what governing is all about getting prior restraint and holding together and that's just what we did in indiana first we balance the budget and then we passed the largest tax cut in history with more funding for schools every year yeah my great great grandfather reason why he knew this indiana with the military in his overalls it's a

railroad plus he couldn't speak any english that's ringed with work but his first grandson became a teacher and he married a teacher my grandma no one here tonight would've troubled have as far if it weren't for our teachers they're the real american heroes at now president clinton is meeting the challenge of improving our schools and he starts with the basics the values and discipline that brings students to the classroom and bring them ready to lower top or truancy laws more drug prevention school uniforms higher standards so diploma will mean some in this election no issue more clearly defines the differences between the two major parties and our nominee's education on that issue alone president clinton and democrats injuries deserve the support of the american people as a

half hour meeting the challenge of changing well while still protecting our values simply understand but welfare was intended to be to make it work faster and across america he's made that house over the last three and a half years a long time before congress acts indiana and forty other states the go ahead to find our own solutions today in indiana we lead the nation moving people off of welfare and into jobs and let me tell you something thanks to our president we get it without orphanages or cutting health care or food the present day more than a million fewer americans our welfare than four years ago and child support collections are up forty percent we're pleading for helping families back on their

jobs but now with the passage of the new law we must do more we must insure opportunity for jobs for all able bodied adults an education for their children to break the cycle of poverty once and for all carry more jobs better education health care reform these are improvements in the quality of life in america but a shadow threatens to spread over this new opportunity crime and violence they report show and on our parents violence must be stopped violent criminals must be severely punished and under president clinton they are thanks to him dangerous repeat offenders will go to jail for life with no chance for parole is putting a hundred thousand more police on our streets and that adds up for each crime it's prevented of it is there the president's plan is working more believes safer streets

of violent crime rate that is dropped each of the last four years as these are programs to sign into law was of opportunity responsibility was building stronger communities the collective legacy of a presence but they cannot define an air only the heart can do that and we must do more much more to heal our nation to bridge the divide that still separate song that that is the genius of our nation that is our obligation as i was all the young martin luther king was shot violence raged in almost every major american city that night in indianapolis against holocausts robert kennedy attended a rally in our inner cities he warned us not to allow divisions and hatred and violence

chocolates love and wisdom and compassion toward one another he's dedicated ourselves to the same for our country and for our people there was no violence in indianapolis and that very spot twenty six years later president clinton came to consecrate robert kennedy's original part with a similar for the memorial that remains a simple two hands reaching toward one another fashion from melted down guns president clinton reaches back to that compassionate message of that fateful night a message he will carry forward in this campaign and into his new term a message that we and our children must carry with us into the next century the america that bill clinton are already see every american shares our values must have a place we must move forward together as fifty years from now funeral

call who address this convention tonight our children will know whether we met the critical challenges of our time what will they say is let them say as with our parents and our generation has delivered on our promises to our children let them say that the traditional values opportunity responsibility and they hold us tight one generation to the next one american tour now let them say that their america reached new heights of possibility and decency so we can tell our children and i can tell my sons that here tonight before the nation we promised you so we kept faith and ten weeks from tonight let's elect those who share our values but also like the men who were telling the taliban and held for president and vice president of the united states of

america as you can our children all your thoughts about the common by speech and the situation i was in the gym i almost feel sorry for me at the fall of a very emotional political high point somebody in the audience really wanted to hear there was almost an afterthought for

all that speech is bigger really did sound like the speech it sounded like a friendly of action from the president or the president can play it really was a passionate i was almost laughed i don't know the conference he noted that the standards we would expect but i think the toll in nepal that he had a very very good sign of the crowd had left their now empty seat in the witness seat doesn't like those planes and again in the age eighty eight seats where it's at aragon of the room will say that i was dismayed and that rhode island still sounded like this age quite frankly had allegedly did stretch and victory over and over these last days that its

mortgage switching children to generational message that the democrats aren't riots playing implicitly head against the elite against the private bondholders know it's like having a coalition whole the republican ticket is considerably older sister are those poinsettia as well as the themes of the president's trying to strike which is legally responsible if their money you have activists over the last a smaller government he wanted to avoid destructive regional mentioned michel martin would you think about you know the extent that

they keep going back to the personal lives of the people who speak i think it takes away from what politics has traditionally been able to do which is to mobilize people to action when jesse jackson was able to combine his personal life with the great events of our history that's when the audience came alive and i think hillary was successful in projecting in and frightening steady image by talking about the daily lives of individuals but daily lives don't so are there was innovation in a certain sense it was nothing you could collect and excitement about except that hillary wasn't a scary person anymore i think this whole attempt to make everything so personal uses the public part of public light rachel you say that this is the great giggle politics what we watch tonight was a late didn't work it had a you know when they really are mark said the air went out of the body and that was true you have some great moments jesse jackson speech mario cuomo speech and it led up to this everybody watching the moment when hillary clinton come forward after that i just fell apart and the old broadway stage

idea that apple either laughing crying or at least a lot of sense for me this is one of them that expectation for jesse jackson first it is a convention of the flat really surprising so they're about a little worried some apartments as if it's trying to sit on its lead run out the clock as a little more pressure built on thursday night that i would expect at this point he really needs to need to use is a head to be all that helpful to him a strong speech thursday night and then see this convention and leave his supporters are coming out of an energized enthusiastic last well you know jam tonight and last night i think of them stripped of history's you've heard very little reference to previous democratic presidents at previous democratic leaders they've been stripped of political philosophy usually you hear about the kind of hard choices the president is going to have to make there's been this ambiguity maintain

the bill clinton has tried to maintain for the last year between whether in his second term he would go they laughed again or maintain his status as a no democrat they've also been stripped of foreign policy with the exception of george mitchell speech this evening there's been almost no reference to the subject matter that is at least half of a of the job of the president of the united states and i think this has led to a certain fearlessness that was interrupted tonight by jesse jackson who made a speech that was very much in the old tradition and also by hillary clinton who in contra as to nineteen ninety two when she suggested that she would not necessarily be a substantive member of the clinton administration i think she put all of us on notice that she is going to be a very essential player in this administration a second term and the advice speech was very much out of character for a keynote speech he knelt speeches are not for a sales job for the nominee there to set the tone and so what the party is going to do and this was as mark shields said earlier essentially a handout from the clinton reelection

to this specific question michael of all hillary clinton and her speech this was supposed to be hillary clinton's night with integrating would get that and it will continue to turn her speech in her appearance and at this convention well it was a spacious certainly was the centerpiece of the night in terms of its place that i think if she had spoken at that point on the schedule that she was earlier scheduled to be at the end of the evening that might've been a little bit of an anti climax and you might've had a situation which the reporting on it would be that hillary clinton did not get very much of a demonstration the interesting thing is that she obviously resisted the advice that people were getting her to do something more in the mode of elizabeth dole something that was a little bit more warm and fuzzy she did refer to her daughter chelsea in a political context for perhaps the first time in this presidency i think that's a news item but the interesting thing was that this was a speech that was very much of substance she was not pretending to be anything but a very active and partisan political leader

i just thought it was not a strong speeches and i don't know the tension the hall because she's not really just a first lady just attacked somewhat by republicans but i don't think it was thought she would give a stronger more effective speech really for the country i don't think i think jackson dominate jackson leads the people are from the cd not hillary clinton's and would not expected that early this morning a thousand hours i think you know i was thinking to listeners she can be very passionate eloquent and she was in the night in a peculiar way because when she has told her own speech writers and the presence because he's instructed them i'm making speeches and live to tell the story she really didn't do that it was a migrant said that the policy speech and it was not a policy speech at amoeba but it didn't have that sort of what she had encircled the city in with a story that would take you

somewhere in the third person she just decided not to be one area they were considering concussions to jurors normally talks from memory and she normally has helped a great deal of connection to the audience and rousing them almost a semi miniature jesse jackson kind of connection tonight she read a speech and i think it was some doom quality to it but on the other hand i think that's maybe what they wanted as i say he didn't look like a rousing partisan figure that we should be angry when she was a very solid steady person and they're trying to refashion the image found that sixty minutes and if you are the health care and i think they've successfully done that but something got lost in the process which is maybe hillary david gergen your overall thoughts about the city that we talk about hillary clinton's speech during this campaign has been saying that you're a big government is over hillary clinton came here tonight to say the vigor of an activist government is very much the weather's she also bitter about it as michael said earlier that she intends

to play a major role in an activist government in the next administration but i think that that's going to help with the democratic base of the party i think this is a speech to which a lot of women in particular will rally it will help solidify the league now has among women but it also is going to see a lot of fodder to conservatives i think you can just hear rush limbaugh turned into this tomorrow during the day that with gigi thought we told you a long view and bill clinton are another second term with hillary right back in there and i was quite surprised at how in contrast to her husband who has not been talking much about health care last couple years she's right back there now suddenly needs new nation's healthcare she had eleven different issues in the speech so yes she was soft versus wainwright but the point was unmistakable i think show what kirk franklin says the population showed a sushi is tonight and i think a lot of advice for dinner do just the opposite river when you simulate an initiative which was going through the things about family extended family name in some

areas you know scott what i went through jim adjuster they're all concerned with family some other more than an act of the law that starts are more investors are not insured been announced yet for example the idea that the government we're a subsidized or mandate that employers pay for felicia remembers a job to pay for health care or health insurance for six months now has a lot of dust and worse if you know if you lose a job you yourself as an employee and paying their health care insurance but what she's saying is these families need help we ever do that some clearer she would do that kind of an issue and a lot of signals that both she and are housed next term i think that's what's going to scare a lot of the conversation or whether you're on final thoughts of the night i agree with david gergen i think the word government and i was listening for that ever crossed her legs if i'm not mistaken but she made an unmistakable case for more activist government they were incremental changes that he was proposing

but nonetheless i think you'll see the republicans try to say that what she is proposing is in effect mandate levels these are mandates that we're going the democrats are proposing to put on business on behalf of scores says families and so on but i think this is going to energize a real debate in the campaign she was putting noted putting the country i know it's putting her party on notice including injecting some substance into the campaign frankly it's going to be in the center of the debate here on out so it has no new ideas here at this virginia suggested well there were nine thinking when dick morris dancing colleague rule whenever of the campaign so far has put on a lot of ideas as the president proposing things that a lot of republicans would propose the things that she was proposing tonight were things that republicans would not propose so i think that there's going to be she should put down a marker that they're going to be that these are going to be debated the

campaign and then the health care was the most extraordinary she flat out said we have to go back to providing health care for every american should say how but she separate bill of course has been speaking for the president is that when we assumed charge and i think that this is not a case of third bedfellows make history and politics i do think that there are a couple of factors the first of all his was the absolute an orthodox unpredictable mario cuomo staying up they're leading the chant as a cheerleader for more years researcher that twenty four years ago in miami beach when richard nixon effect at that convention which is to be expected i guess the other thing was that that this is bill clinton's democratic party obviously i looked around the hall though michael dukakis know jimmy carter know george mcgovern know walter mondale none of the democratic standard bearers and then they're non

persons effectively is the problem in the us and that has been huge in the past that they're there and i think that they show up but i thought his speech was interesting i thought was a more politically and going against my colleagues did every presidential candidate jim seeks to capture the future and i thought she lay down a predicate and i for the future but what had to be done what was going to be done with this election the state where she was appealing to an important constituency a constituency all the soccer moms the mothers or feel cold war holding down jobs can help a family can't be thin obligations to their own children were besieged to have responsibilities to parents that their husbands acknowledge they don't oftentimes the phil and their response was to children as well they were feeling any pressure and i thought that's why engineers say though the government will prevail that was common in a i guess you would listen as paul is needed at

the beginning the sanctions a gun issue wasn't talk about this being done by theories i mean this has been that this is the federal government is talking about spending that was meant to more than the cab driver margaret the city at all but i think just beginning the future early backer of our nine and i wanna thank god or somebody waldo much for being with us again tonight and tomorrow night at the official nomination of built up alert and an al gore and a lot of other things and that doesn't include the second day of the democratic national convention here in chicago will be back tomorrow night first with our regular newshour broadcast and then our joint pbs nbc news coverage and until then i'm jim lehrer thank you and goodnight funding for this program has been provided by the corporation for public broadcasting and viewers like you does business pbs