Clinton Presidential Center "Transcript: 2006 Liberty Medal Presentation to Presidents Bush and Clinton."

Jim Gardner: Good evening. It is a beautiful fall night in the heart of historic Philadelphia, and we the people have assembled here tonight to witness something that we don't think has ever happened before, two former Presidents sharing the same stage and sharing the same honor. George H.W. Bush and William Jefferson Clinton, receiving the 2006 Philadelphia Liberty Medal. We'll watch it happen, and we'll be back in just a moment. [Commercial Break]

Jim Gardner: Welcome back to the National Constitution Center. I'm Jim Gardner, and we are preparing for the Liberty Medal ceremony, and we are doing so with some wonderful music from the Enon Tabernacle Choir and Pastor Alyn Wallace, and we are now watching the pastor sing. [Singing]

Speaker: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our presidential escorts, the Honorable John F. Street, Mayor, City of Philadelphia; the Honorable Edward G. Rendell, Governor, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; the Honorable Rick Santorum, United States Senator; and the Honorable Arlen Specter, United States Senator. Please rise and welcome our 2006 Liberty Medal recipients, the 41st President of the United States of America, George Herbert Walker Bush, and the 42nd President of the United States of America, William Jefferson Clinton. [Applause]

Speaker: Ladies and gentlemen, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Constitution Center, Joseph M. Torsella.

Mr. Torsella: You can stand for them, but please be seated for me.

“We.” What a remarkable word the framers of the Constitution chose to begin with – “we.” In that one word, they announced extraordinary world-changing ideas -- that here, the people would be rulers, and rulers would be public servants. That our American "we" would be bigger than all the ways the world tries to divide us, by my family, his faith, your politics, her wealth, their neighborhood. And that the idea that "we" could come together to build a better, freer, fairer nation -- in coming together rather than in staying apart. Now, these old ideas have found new voices in every American generation.

Listen, America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose here today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world. Listen again. In serving, we recognize a simple but powerful truth. We need each other, and we must care for one another. Those words were spoken exactly four years apart by the two citizens we honor here tonight, George H.W. Bush and William J. Clinton, on the occasions of their inauguration as the 41st and 42nd presidents of the United States.

But we’re here tonight to salute these two men not for speaking those words but for living them -- for, in 2004, leading the U.S. response to the catastrophic tsunami in the Indian ocean, and for when they partnered again last year to help the people of our own Gulf Coast. We honor them for answering the call of service again after each has already given us so much. We honor them for the millions of lives they've touched and the literally millions of acts of service and kindness and generosity that their example has inspired. And we honor them most of all for the way they've done it, for rising above party and personal history to show us and the world what's best in the American spirit.

It's a spirit the Founders of 1787 would have recognized. Call it the power of “we,” and in a world that is sometimes overwhelmed by us's and them's, Presidents Bush and Clinton have shown that “we” is a powerful idea still, and it can still change the world.

For that, we honor them. We thank them, and hopefully we learn from them. Now in tribute to them, our speakers tonight will arrive not one-by-one, but in pairs, united as Presidents Bush and Clinton have been by a common purpose. And so please join me in welcoming both the chairman of the National Constitution Center, John C. Vogel, and the Mayor of the City of Philadelphia, John F. Street.

John Vogel: Good evening. On behalf of the National Constitution Center and its board of trustees, it's my great pleasure to welcome you here tonight on this splendid evening. While we're just three years old, we've already earned our place in the hearts of Americans all across this great nation. You'll be part of that right here tonight. Let me begin by recognizing a few very, very special people. First, we're tenants of Independence National Historical Park, so I want to welcome its superintendent, Dennis Reidenbach. Tonight the Center assumes responsibility for the Liberty Medal from those who have been stewards of this important award for 18 wonderful years, and I want to pay, special tribute to Martin Meyerson -- I know he's here tonight -- for his leadership, to Craig Lewis, to Mary Gregg, and to the Philadelphia Foundation for their devotion to the cause of liberty and to this award. I also want to welcome the Honorable Lenore Annenberg, a great, indeed, a fabulous friend of the National Constitution Center. Another person critical to keeping this wonderful dream of the Liberty Medal alive has been our Mayor, and I'm proud to introduce him to you tonight. John Street, Mayor of the City of Philadelphia.

Mayor Street: Philadelphia has been the proud home of the Liberty Medal since 1989, a legacy to the 200th anniversary of the Constitution. We've always been a city of firsts and bests. One of America's most important poets, Walt Whitman, lived and died just a few miles from here. His belief that America was destined to reinvent the world as a liberator of the human spirit still inspires us today.

Walt Whitman celebrated the spectacular diversity of the power of “we” in his famous poem, "I Hear America Singing.” “I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear; Those of mechanics -- each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong; The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his, as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work; The delicious singing of the mother -- or of the young wife at work -- or of the girl sewing or washing -- Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else; Singing with open mouths, their strong melodious songs." Like Walt Whitman, we in Philadelphia still hear America singing, especially on this spectacular evening. Listen closely. That is the music of our democracy.

Speaker: And now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Julie Roberts as she sings "America the Beautiful."

[America the Beautiful sung]

Speaker: Please welcome Edward G. Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania, and poet Mona Lisa Saloy.

Governor Rendell: Good evening. Not everyone was included in the “we” of “we the people," when these words were written a few blocks from here in 1787, but over time the definition of “we” grew to include all Americans. Barbara Jordan, from President Bush's home state, was the first African-American woman to represent a southern state in the House of Representatives, and if you've seen our 17 and a half minute introductory film, one of the most moving moments is when Barbara Jordan says, "Finally ‘we’ includes me.”

Her 1976 speech called, “Who Then Will Speak For the Common Good” is so appropriate for our theme tonight. Here is an excerpt: “A nation,” she said, “is formed by the willingness of each of us to share in the responsibility for upholding the common good. A government is invigorated when each of us is willing to participate in shaping the future of this nation. We must define the common good and begin again to shape a common future. Let each person do his or her part. If one citizen is unwilling to participate, all of us are going to suffer, for the American idea, though it is shared by all of us, is realized in each one of us. Let there be no illusions about the difficulty of forming this kind of national community. It's tough, difficult, not easy, but a spirit of harmony will survive in America only if each of us remembers that we share a common destiny." For us to realize the common destiny that Barbara Jordan spoke of, every American has a role, whether we're Governor, a Member of Congress, or a citizen -- our democracy's single most important position.

Poetry has always played a role in unifying this country, and it's my honor to present Mona Lisa Saloy, a poet from the great city of New Orleans. Her home and possessions were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, but not, as you will hear, her spirit. She will share a poem written to honor the works of our two great presidents.

[Poem recited by Mona Lisa Saloy]

Speaker: Ladies and gentlemen, the Honorable Arlen Specter and the Honorable Rick Santorum, United States Senators from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Senator Specter: Tonight we honor two outstanding former Presidents of the United States. I had the privilege, really the honor, to serve with both -- I say with instead of under, as Senator Byrd always emphasized a separation of power -- the privilege to work with both President Bush and President Clinton, and I can personally attest to their outstanding performance in office. They had a rugged campaign in 1992, and as one who has engaged in such campaigns, I can tell you it's tough, but they have come together to join together to work as a team for a great humanitarian principle, and that is really the tradition of America.

It started with President Jefferson, who had a very, very tough campaign, and then in his first inaugural had this to say about healing and uniting the country: “Let us then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of this same principle. We are Republicans. We are Federalists.” Notice he didn't mention Democrats, a very dangerous omission in this city. But as we gather here with the Constitution Hall at one end and this great museum, the National Constitution Center at the other, it is entirely fitting that we honor these two great Americans in the name of “we the people.”

Senator Santorum: The power of “we,” it travels through our history as a dream and a challenge. Another great American celebrated this power in a way that reminds us of our past and still resonates today. Ronald Reagan spoke these words on the front porch of the Capitol at his second inaugural in 1985. "Our two-party system has served us well over the years, but never better than in those times of great challenge, when we came together not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans united in a common cause."

Two of our founding fathers, a Boston lawyer named Adams and a Virginia planter named Jefferson, members of that remarkable group who met in Independence Hall and dared to think they could start the world over again, left us an important lesson. They had become bitter political rivals in the Presidential Election of 1800, then years later, when both were retired and age had softened their anger, they began to speak to each other again through letters. In one of those letters exchanged in the sunset of their lives, Jefferson wrote, “It carries me back to the times when beset with difficulties and dangers, we were fellow laborers, in the same cause struggling for what is most valuable to man, his right of self government. Laboring always at the same oar with some wave ever ahead threatening to overwhelm us and yet passing harmless. We rode through the storm with heart and hand."

We rode through the storm with heart and hand, centuries after Jefferson and decades after Reagan. These words still describe the heartache and courage of those who rode the storms, the tsunami of South Asia and the hurricanes of the Gulf Coast, and the courage and the determination of those who helped them.

Charles Gibson: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Charles Gibson, and it's my pleasure to introduce a film that you are about to see. It tells the story of those whose lives were pulled apart by the power of nature's water at its angriest. It is also the story of two Presidents, fortunately the two that are here, to one of them a son, to come to the aid of young people like those you will see in this film, Rina Meutia, Teuku Jerijai, Deidre Harris, Kariel Ellsworth, and thousands more just like them.

[Film viewed]

Charles Gibson: The National Constitution Center is proud to recognize these remarkable men with the 2006 Liberty Medal. The medal honors extraordinary citizens of the world, including Thurgood Marshall, Vaclav Havel, Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela, King Hussein and Shimon Peres, and Sandra Day O'Connor, leaders with vision and courage who paved the way to freedom. The Liberty Medal and the National Constitution Center is dedicated to the indispensable value of the Constitution's preamble, "We the People," the power of “we.”

Jim Gardner: Ladies and gentlemen, it is now my pleasure to ask our two guests of honor to stand, and ask two young people you just met in the video, Teuku Jerijai from Indonesia, and Kariel Ellsworth of New Orleans to present the 2006 Liberty Medal to President George H.W. Bush and President William J. Clinton. Ladies and gentlemen, the 2006 Liberty Medal.

President Bush: Thanks for that introduction. It's a great honor to be here, and I want to salute the elected officers who are here -- Senator Santorum, Governor Rendell, Senator Specter, and the Mayor. It's a pleasure to have them with us, and, Joe, we appreciate your leadership in all of this, and what you've done here for this Center.

Let me start by thanking the National Constitution Center for this high honor, an honor I will always treasure. Of course, I'm honored to accept this award with my co-honoree. A lot of people were surprised, to put it mildly, when President Clinton and I teamed up last year, twice, first on the tsunami relief as we've seen, and then on hurricane rebuilding along the Gulf Coast.

I've told the story a million times of how Barbara had taken to calling us the political odd couple. And how the President -- the President -- joked that after Bill awoke following his heart surgery, all of his loved ones were there -- Hillary, Chelsea, and yours truly.

Suffice it to say, I am grateful to the President for giving me a chance to work with 42, as he's now known in our family. The experience we have had traveling to Asia last year is something I will never forget, and if you've ever had an ego problem, don't travel with President Clinton to the Maldives. It was like traveling with a rock star. Get out of the way, will you, Clinton's coming. It was terrible.

It was the same thing when we went to Mississippi and New Orleans and Alabama last fall. The more that we saw of the tsunami -- more devastation, more heartbreak -- and I was in New Orleans last week, and while the Big Easy still has a hard trip to recovery, I saw hope and resilience and determination in the eyes and voices of people whom I visited. So it's been a joy to work with Bill Clinton, but the truth is, it shouldn't have surprised people when we teamed up. After all, when I was President and he was heading the National Governor's Association, he took a leadership role in a reform movement in American education. We worked together on that.

I helped him lobby the Congress to pass NAFTA, and then in 1997 we came together right here in Philadelphia with Presidents Ford and Carter to promote volunteerism. And true enough, there may have been one or two lapses of personal etiquette on the 1992 campaign trail. For example, I really did not think our dog, Millie, knew more about foreign policy than the governor of Arkansas, but hey, we were in the heat of the battle then. You almost get sharp, you know, which leads me to a key point, that sharp elbows do come out in national politics.

I've noticed a lot of people are talking about the poisonous political atmosphere today, and no doubt this has been a rough political year, but you'll have a hard time convincing me that politics is tougher and uglier in 2006 than it was during the 1960s, or during the 1860s for that matter. The thing is, every generation thinks their politics are rougher than any other time in our history, just as every chief executive feels that their media coverage was the most offensive. After all, President Washington once complained that a newspaper referred to him in terms that could scarcely be applied to a common pickpocket, and it was the same thing with Chester Arthur. Many of you remember old Chester, I'm sure.

In 1861, President-Elect Lincoln had to travel incognito to Washington for his first inauguration for fear of his safety, so polarized was our nation at that traumatic time, and what makes these regular assaults on our political sensibilities and the outrages of the press bearable is the same living, breathing Constitution under whose aegis we would gather here this evening.

So, as I accept this wonderful award for my work with my former political adversary, I do so also in defense of the proper role of partisanship in our politics. The fact that Bill Clinton and I have come together like we have does not in any way mean that we've placed our deeply held convictions in a blind trust, or even in a lock box, thank you Al Gore, and rest assured I'm still every bit the loyal Republican and defender of the President, and no one needs to ask where President Clinton's partisan loyalties lie. That's as it should be.

Gathered as we are in the heart of this political season, let's not forget that our nation -- indeed, any nation -- benefits from a vigorous debate on the issues, from the competition of ideas in the political marketplace. It doesn't matter if it's a Democrat versus Republican, or Liberal or Conservative, or Coke versus Pepsi. Competition is a good thing, a needed thing, indeed the very thing on which our national progress is built. Now, would I like to see more bipartisanship in Washington? Absolutely. Do I resent the attacks on the President's character? You bet. We need less cynicism and more civility to help us overcome the deficit of decency, but because of our Constitution, our system is resilient enough to withstand the gusts and gales of even the most insidious political season.

So thank you for this wonderful award, which I'll always treasure, but more importantly, thank you for the work you do to continue bringing the message of our Constitution, a timeless document which continues to change and transform our world to the masses. The work of our founders remains as current and timely as ever. Without your leadership and selfless efforts, fewer people would be touched by its magic. Thank you very, very much. [Applause].

President Clinton: Mr. Torsella, Mr. Mayor, Governor, Senators, I thank you all. Thank you, Charlie Gibson, for being here. You, too, have a hard job. No president thinks he gets good enough press, I can tell you that. I'd like to thank Kariel and Teuku for being here, and for reminding us of what our labors were all about. And I thank you very much for this award.

I had the great honor to come here in 1993 to be part of the presentation of this award to two friends of mine, Nelson Mandela and President de Klerk, two people who reached across a far greater partisan divide than ever separated President Bush and me. A decade ago, you gave it to Shimon Peres and to the late King Hussein, two other friends of mine -- and you might have given it to Yitzhak Rabin had he not been killed -- three men who reached across a far greater divide. But there was one other tandem who got this award that I want to mention tonight, because of their unique contribution to understanding what President Bush has just said and the meaning of this award: Watson and Crick, who discovered the double helix, the structure of the human gene, which led to a decades-long search to understand the structure of the human being itself through the gene. I had the great good fortune to be President in 2000, when we reached the culmination of the ability to decode the human genome, the very building block of life, a big multinational effort that had been strongly supported by my predecessor, President Bush.

They found an astonishing thing: that human beings -- all of us, all across the world, Republicans and Democrats, black and white, Africans, Asians, Europeans, you name it -- we are all 99.9 percent the same genetically. So we all think about how smart the Founding Fathers were. By reason alone, they came here and said that they pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors to do what? To form a more perfect union. They knew we weren't perfect. They knew we would never be perfect. But they knew we could always be more perfect.

I completely agree with everything George said about partisanship. I also want to thank the President for giving us the chance to work together. I never asked him and he never asked me to discard our convictions where we honestly disagreed. But if you do it in the right way, you are always yearning and working for that more perfect union.

Why were we able to do this in the aftermath of the tsunami and Katrina? That's what I want you to think about. Because when people are broken and they have lost everything, then all the things we spend most of our time and life on -- our differences, that one-tenth of one percent that all of us, every single one of us, spends over 90 percent of our lives on -- all of a sudden they just evaporate.

I was walking through a refugee camp in Indonesia with the elected head of the camp and his wife and their beautiful son, and I said to the interpreter, “I believe that is the most beautiful boy I ever saw in my life.” She said, yes, he is, and before the tsunami hit he had nine brothers and sisters, and they're all gone. We could tell you Katrina stories that would break your heart and some that would soar your spirits, but the point is, all of our differences just fade away.

So, I accept this award with gratitude, with a man I have genuinely always liked and always admired. I can now tell you, and may all the Democrats forgive me this close to the election, I love George Bush. I do. And I think that we figured out how we're supposed to do this. I've developed a good relationship with the current President, and I told him, “Look, I will never ask you to change what you believe. You won't ask me to change what I believe. You say what you believe. I say what I believe, but I'll say it with respect, and if ever I can do anything to help our country in good conscience, and you want me to do it, I'll do it.” That's what I ask you to think about.

How can you live with the importance of the one-tenth of one percent and not forget the 99.9 percent? That's what the Founders knew, and that's what we all know when there's a tsunami. That's what we all know when there's a Katrina. When that young man came up here all the way from Aceh in Indonesia, studying at Texas A & M, when that young woman came up here from all the things she's been through, and when this wonderful poet, having suffered through Katrina, came here and read this poem, all of you thought about what you had in common with them, didn't you?

So, I accept this award with great humility and gratitude that I was given a chance after a long and eventful career to be reminded that the Founders knew that what we have in common is more important than our interesting and significant differences, that we strive for a more perfect union, not by obliterating our differences, but just by remembering that we're 99.9 percent the same. If we could remember it every day, we'd make a lot better use of that one-tenth of one percent, and the Founders would be proud. Thank you and God bless you.

Jim Gardner: We will be back with more from the National Constitution Center in just a moment.

Speaker: Ladies and gentlemen, Jon Bon Jovi.

[Jon Bon Jovi performs]

Jim Gardner: Everybody has been talking about the word "we" here tonight. Well, we at Channel 6 have been so proud to bring you this broadcast. We really have. For Channel 6, I'm Jim Gardner from the National Constitution Center, the 2006 Liberty Medal.