Here at georgetowns Public Policy. Couldnt be more excited to get todays conversations started. This morning, were going to begin with a discussion reflecting on president bill clintons vision of america. The goal of this overall symposium, overall, is to really drill down on the vision, the vision that that helped bring him to the campaign and to office. And we couldnt be more excited to start that this year. In order to think about that though, its important to look at the Historical Context of bill clintons election and what happened in the 25 years between his graduation from georgetown and his election. And so, before we bring everyone up, i ask you all to sit back and enjoy as we reflect on what those 25 years were like. Coming up out of arkansas in the post war era, during civil rights, a young, caucasian boy who had a deep and abiding sympathy to injustice. The fact that he got an opportunity to go to georgetown was the biggest thing that could have happened to him. Behold these truths he aspired to be like king. He aspired to be like john f. Kennedy. These were his heroes. He was moved by their power of words. He got some scholarship money and made his way to georgetown. He fell under the tutelage of j william fullbright. Fullbright in the 60s was a powerful u. S. Senate, not only for education, but a talent scout and he saw in bill clinton the best that arkansas had to offer. Bill clinton was a natural at politics and leadership. And while he was at georgetown, he worked very hard to run for office, be involved with campus life. If you look at bill clintons time at georgetown, it coincides with Lyndon Johnson, a fellow southerner, who pushed through the civil rights acts and Voting Rights acts of 64 and 65. By 68, the country was coming unglued. Unglued. I shall not seek the nomination of my party for another term. Martin luther king was shot and killed tonight. siren sounding this was a tumultuous time to be coming out of georgetown, but what fullbright and georgetown meant to bill clinton was the world at large. No longer was bill clinton a provincial boy from arkansas, he was now a young man with a global view. He emerges believing that he does want to get fully involved with politics, that he does want to come back to arkansas. By 1972, George Mcgovern gets the democratic nomination and bill clinton was a worker for the Mcgovern Campaign in places like texas. Bill clinton made a deep impression on George Mcgovern. Anyone recognized he would be a force in politics. He didnt just define himself as a liberal or a fullbright democrat. He invented what he was himself. This invention comes about after watergate, watching what happens when the mighty fall. A sixyear period that people were taking a timeout and trying to think what is civility and in bill clinton case trying to get involved in arkansas politics on a local level. By the age of ronald reagan, the Democratic Party started finding themselves in trouble. Bill clinton recognized he needed to unite that party, that you had to be a centrist democrat if you wanted an election victory in novembers. An important thing that bill clinton did in 1992 when he ran, was he ran. There were a lot of people thinking he was too young, that he needed a little more experience, that he should wait one more cycle, and he went for it and he knocked down a whos who of leading democrats to procure the nomination. He was a policy wonk in the best sense of the word and he also was kind after blue collar charismatic folk figure in many ways. There was a feeling that he really truly want today make your life better. It was a tight election, 92. Got 19 of the vote. But bill clinton won. Its a major victory in 92 because bush 41 wasnt that unpopular, but there was something about bill clinton that was special and that people wanted to bet all of americas fortunes on his number. I, William Jefferson clinton people were very excited about his inauguration. There was a feeling of new era in american politics, but we were also a divided country. Well, i think the great thing about bill clintons presidency and why i rank him very high in american president s is 1993 to 2001, he did a miracle. He balanced the budget and created a national surplus. He stayed out of major wars. He eventually did all the right things in places like bosnia and haiti and the hot spots around the globe. And he ended up being the change agent the country was looking for. Okay, one piece of housekeeping that i have to do. Georgetown university is committed to standards promoting speech and expression that foster the exchange of ideas and opinions. While it is recognized that not everyone may share the same views as the speakers its expected that everyone in attendance at this event respect the right of the speakers and organizing group to share their perspectives by not causing a disruption. Afterwards there will be a question and answer session where you can ask questions and dialog. And be sure to form it in the form of a question. And for concerns of time, be sure to ask one question. And how bill clinton viewed america, to interviews our panel, im thrilled to introduced a First Year Student at Mccourt School of Public Policy from georgia. [applaus [applause] good morning, everyone. And thank you so much for joining us today. My name is rua roman, im a First Year Student at Mccourt School of Public Policy and im a member of the Strategy Team for patrick murphy, a geopolitics fellow. In orientation when he spoke about geo politics, he sa. I firmly believe we have a role in making it a good thing and why im so excited and honored to introduce the speakers to talk about president bill clintons vision and what it inspired. The chief is chief advisor to president clinton and served as assistant to president obama and chief of staff to vicepresident joe biden. He is currently ceo of civic, a bipartisan policies company. And to slate the atlantic and the new atlantic and coauthored the plan, big idea for change in america with mayor rahm emanuel. Mayor rahm emanuel was Senior Advisor of strategy to president clinton and served as white house chief of staff in president Barack Obamas administration. Most recently elected the 55th mayor of the city of chicago in 2011 and was elected to second term in 2015. He has overseen several comprehensive initiatives for revitalizing the city. The director of white house of Political Affairs for president clinton. She also served as ceo of the Democratic National committee. Today she is considered one of the nations top strategic thinkers with he thinks tense sei extensive experience. And joined as a principal in 2002 in affairs and local strategy practice. Maria was the former White House Deputy chief of staff for president clinton. Currently a senior fellow at Uc Berkeley Center and built a career working as a Public Policy consultant, lecturer, long white house official. And last but not least, dean mike bailey is the interim dean of the mccourt Public Policy of Georgetown University, my school. And the current law day professor in American Government and department of governor. Dean bailey conducts research on american politics and political economy and covers trade, congress, election law and the Supreme Court methodology and interstate policy competition. Whew. And those are actually summaries. [laughter] one last thing, we hope youll keep your phones out and post about todays discussion on social media with the clinton25 and tagging geopolitics. Without further ado, i now turn it over to dean bailey. [applause] [inaudible conversations] okay, well, thank you everyone. For those of you who know georgetown, this is just like candy for us to get a good crew to talk about politics and clinton 25 years ago. Other and our country. It has been 30 years since a democrat iran for president and i asked something while the American People. I intend to challenge you to do more and do better. We simply have to go beyond the competing idea of the old establishment, beyond every man for himself and something for nothing on the other. We need a new covenant that will challenge our citizens that will say, first first i want to start with bruce reed. You are on the council of the deer engine d c and informed this opportunity. Walk us through, what was new about this and where did that come from and what were some of the challenges and opportunities. Let me tell you about that speech, for starters. All the current students will be delighted to hear that bill clinton prepared for that georgetown speech the way he had prepared for every previous georgetown assignment , he did absolutely nothing until the night before. [laughter] thats not a recommendation to you. It was an 11 00 a. M. Speech and it was slow going, but i guess, let me give some of the context to the speech. I know for the students, the 90s or something of a distant memory. I was reminded of this when i was working in the Obama White House for joe biden and the young obama speechwriter came up to me and said you worked on the brady bill in the 90s, that is so west wing. [laughter] the political context is really interesting because when bill clinton came to georgetown in october of 91, the country was in rough shape. The middle class was angry and they were working harder and making less money and they were afraid that the American Dream was slipping away. We had just come off an ugly divisive racist president ial campaign. Washington was stuck in gridlock, nothing was getting done. The most popular book was why americans hate politics. In other words, it was but much like today. It was a particular challenge for democrats because, as the video alluded, republicans were great at winning elections, but terrible at solving problems. Democrats were terrible at winning elections and have lost the confidence of the country to solve problems. It got so bad that at one point, colorado congressman name Pat Schroeder said democrats just need to do three things to win back the white house. Unfortunately, nobody knows what they are. Bill clinton came here because he thought he knew what those three things were in the three speeches he gave at georgetown on social policy and Economic Policy and National Three policy were all designed to address the three biggest doubts that americans had about democrats ability to lead, for the country thought we wouldnt follow their values, but their values to work in our programs at home, that we wouldnt stand up for American Interest abroad and wouldnt fight for their economic interests. So, the new speech, the first one was in the clip and designed to take on the basic problem that americans had with our governing philosophy, and clinton laid out a philosophy that he had worked out in part here at georgetown and watching his heroes of the day, in the clip he alluded to john kennedy and Bobby Kennedy as believing that what a leader needed to do was challenge the country, not just make promises. Thats what the new covenant speech was about. He laid out a series of challenges to everybody. He challenge ceos to pay their workers more, not just themselves. He can challenge congress not to raise their paleness the American Peoples pay was going up. He challenged the current occupant of the white house to stop running up the debt and giving tax breaks to people who didnt need them and he challenge ordinary people too. He called for an end to welfare as we know it, and asked people who could work to go to work and double the current income tax credit so they would make more money when they did so nobody who worked fulltime with the family at home would have to raise that family and poverty. He also challenge the students. He laid out what he called a domestic g. I. Bill that was this is the first time bruce has ever spoken to music. [laughter] this is impressive. [laughter] its probably the signal to stop, dont you suppose. This laid out to students, you ought to be able to borrow the money you need for colleges long as you are willing to pay it back over time as a percentage of your income, or by giving your country in the form of service. Thats what became americorps and i think of the many things he was proud of from that campaign, one of the proudest has to be americorps because in the 25 years since, young people across america have kept that promise. 1million students, young people have helped pave their way through college. They put in one and half billion hours of service, coming to the rescue inflated communities and teaching in the innercity, and i think he demonstrated that you could get more done by challenging people to unite together and solve the countrys problem. Another big part of the clinton vision was related to civil rights. If we can go to our second clip from the speeches please. How does the president refuse to let a civil rights bill pass . Because he knows the people he is dependent on for his electoral majority, White Working Class men and women, mostly men have had their incomes decline in the 1980s. They may return to the natural home, someone who offers them real Economic Opportunity so he is revving up the same old tactics that the hard right has employed in my part of the country and the south since i was a child. When everything gets hyped and you think youre gonna lose those people you find the most economically insecure white people and you scare the living daylights out of them. That is all. Maria, i want to turn to you. You were deputy chief of staff in the white house and you worked a lot on civil rights immigration and a lot of other issues. Kind of situate civil rights and race issues within the context of clintons vision. I will pick up on some words that bruce said, people often complain that we dont know what democrats stand for. We stand for opportunity in community and those are concepts that can sum up what democrats stand for. Unfortunately, there is a part of the left that hates the word responsibility. You saw that come into play in the debate around welfare refor reform, and there is plenty to criticize about that bill. And yet, it evidences clintons firm belief, deeply held belief that people, when given a chance to get the tools they need, they want to work, they want to succeed and provide for their families, in fact, having had the good fortune of travelin traveling around this country on many a campaign, ive really come to see that its an enormously wonderful interesting, diverse country, yet everybody wants the same things for their families, their communities, for themselves, and it just, its mindboggling to me that if we want the schools, all those things we work so hard on, why is it so hard to reach that compromise. Thats the other piece. Its quite easy to promise everything in a speech if you have no idea about how to deliver it, and im sick and tired of so many folks out there who does manage or dismiss pragmatism and compromise and trust me, governing was not easy. The welfare reform bill, we were also in the context of politics, 1994 had proposition 187 on the california, its a hugely anti immigrant proposition 209 against affirmative action so inside the white house, and i was not in the white house in the first term, but in the second and nonetheless, was close enough to some of these issues to see how the president put together his team to look at the issue of affirmative action, there were real fears in the Civil Rights Community and minority communities as to what was this guy going to do. While i was not at those meetings, i happen to be married to the person who oversaw the redo of affirmative action so i know about some of those hardfought battles but, at the end, i think clinton belief, it sounds corny, but the belief that so many of us share that as they often said, theres nothing wrong with america that cant be fixed with whats right in america. The other thing also, he is coming from the south so he had a deep experience with africanamerican, black and white relations and as his National Latino coordinator in the 92 campaign, part of my job was trying to explain to the southwest and new york and other places, puerto rico and mexican americans, who is this guy and is he going to care about you. Does he understand that those experiences are different than what youve experienced. Ill close with one story about how he was always thinking about all of us. When he got to the white house, the first job was running the office of public engagement. The economy was definitely going up, jobs are being created but theres a story in the New York Times about those rising wages, latinos were not feeling them. They were not experiencing it and so he got copies of paper and sent a note to me and jean, like whats going on here. Whats the reason. That led to a process of looking at education levels, young generations and some decisions in trying to increase what came to be known as the hispanic education action plan. Where can you put the money that make sense so that in fact the rising tide does lift more votes. You are the head of Political Affairs in the white house and also a public liaison as well. Tell us about how your experience of communicating with the public, this complicated and new vision. It certainly, bruce made out the dutiful vision that had to be implemented, and i must tell you, on some days it was really, really tough, but i think the premise, when i looked at the video, i kept thinking to myself why is it that i love this president so much . It wasnt