Bill Clinton, the most popular president ever to be impeached (edging out Andrew Johnson), took his show on the road to San Jose this weekend, stumping for Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom. One-time political rivals Clinton and Brown have never been the best of friends, but a rapprochement--at least a political one--is in full swing.
Here's Brown introducing Clinton, calling him "one of our greatest presidents." From the Chronicle's Politics Blog.
Then it was Clinton's turn. Calbuzz transcribes its "favorite Clinton riff" from the event:
“I was raised in a home where nobody I knew had a college degree. I had people one generation older than me, who I knew had higher IQs than I did, who never had the opportunities I did. We were raised to believe if you were fortunate, you were supposed to give back to your community, give to the future of your community and that was the right thing. All I think about these days both here and when I work in Haiti and Africa and Latin America and East Asia and all these places … I just think about the fact that intelligence and ability and dreams are evenly distributed across this state, across this nation and across this world but the resources, they’re not evenly distributed. And whenever you let them get out of whack, you pay a terrible price. So what I think about all the time is, I want all of you to have the chance I did. That’s why Jerry Brown sounded so angry when he was talking.
We were raised in a totally different tradition. We were raised in the first generation of Americans that took a middle class lifestyle for granted. All we had to do was show up, be good students, obey the law, do what we were supposed to do and we had a chance to live our dreams. I have watched for 30 years the assault on the American Dream and I am sick and tired of it and I want you to stop that from being your future. (cue WILD APPLAUSE AND CHEERING)”
Here is the video clip containing that part of Clinton's speech.