Gore 'the wise choice' in November, Clinton tells NAACP

By Amy Paulson/CNN

July 13, 2000
Web posted at: 3:29 p.m. EDT (1929 GMT)

BALTIMORE (CNN) -- President Clinton took a break from the Camp David peace talks Thursday to promote his chosen successor's presidential hopes, urging NAACP members to support Vice President Al Gore in the November election.

President Clinton urged the NAACP Thursday to "get people to actually go to the polls and choose, and choose wisely."

Clinton praised the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's ongoing civil rights efforts, saying he was trying to capture the group's spirit in talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders at Camp David, the Maryland presidential retreat.

"I know that in our quest for a full, fair and final peace, which Dr. King reminded us is more than the absence of war, is the presence of trust," he told the group. "I had to come to Baltimore today because you embody the spirit of freedom and reconciliation that we are trying to capture there."

"So I wanted to be here especially during these peace talks to draw strength from you and take the spirit of the NAACP back to Camp David."

Clinton was originally scheduled to speak to the group Tuesday, but rescheduled due to the talks between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The two Mideast leaders are trying to resolve border disputes and other land-related issues in hopes of reaching a comprehensive peace agreement.

Commending the NAACP for its ongoing voter drive, the president urged them to do more. "You have to get people to actually go to the polls and choose, and choose wisely," he said.

"We must make it clear again that every election is a choice. This is a big election. There are big differences, honest differences between the candidates for president, the Senate and the House of Representatives," he said.

'Choose and choose wisely,' Clinton says

What hangs in the balance, he said, is the future of the nation's economy and the makeup of its judiciary.

Clinton said Gore was "by far the most influential and active vice president in the history of the country." He said Gore would keep the current economic boom going; that "he understands the future;" and that he would see that the benefits of the boom are spread broadly.

Clinton said Gore was "by far the most influential and active vice president in the history of the country."

"He really does want to take us all along for the ride. And I want a president who will take us all along for the ride," Clinton said. "You've got to lead the country in this. You've got to make sure we choose and choose wisely, because the best is still to come."

During its weeklong convention, the NAACP has heard from Republican presidential hopeful George W. Bush; first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton now a Senate candidate from New York; the Green Party's Ralph Nader; and Gore, who hopes to succeed Clinton in the fall.

"I'm really glad that Gov. Bush came," Clinton said in a reference to the Texas governor's Monday address. "But I thought the other fella gave a better speech," he said, referring to Gore, "And I liked especially the speech that Senate candidate from New York gave on Tuesday."

Among all of those speakers, though, the president probably received the warmest welcome during his eighth address to the group. NAACP leaders heaped praise on Clinton during the appearance, in which he received the group's president's award.

"The NAACP is non-partisan. We do not endorse candidates. We do not endorse parties, but we know how to recognize our friends and this president is our friend. said NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, who praised the president for his efforts to appoint an ethnically diverse Cabinet and preserve affirmative action programs.

Added NAACP President Kweisi Mfume, a former member of Congress from Baltimore: "It's been a special kind of relationship, and in a special way, I think it's spoken volumes to the rest of America, the bulwark of American democracy."

As he has on several occasions during this last year of his presidency, Clinton ran through a list of administrative accomplishments that ranged from the Family and Medical Leave Act to raising the minimum wage, lowering the teen birth rate and increasing graduation rates among African-American students.

"Now here's my question," he said. "What do you intend to do with all of this? I'm going to treasure this award for the rest of my life, but what really matters is what all of us do tomorrow with half our yesterdays have piled up."

"It is important to know that every movement for human rights is about even more than gaining equal opportunity and equal rights and decent justice for the oppressed. It is also about forgiveness and healing, about letting go and moving on, about giving our children a better tomorrow," Clinton told the assembly.