were very interested, some of whom you have seen here, some of whom were backstage -- chuck robb, sam nunn, dick gephardt -- and i was one of the first people in that organization and al made us put up each $1,000 apiece, which now seems like a small sum but in 1985 seemed like a very large sum. my campaign account was not nearly as large as, luckily, it is today. and we were very proud of that organization and it was somewhat controversial and has remained controversial because al has kept the organization, through many great leaders like bill clinton, like harold ford -- is harold still here? if harold were speaking he would have stayed, i guarantee you. tell him i said so, will you, please? or just yell at the television when you see him come on. but al from kept the faith an kept the focus. and he made an extraordinary difference in terms of responsibility and community, in terms of opportunity, in terms of education, in terms of commitment to at that time security. the values that americans knew were important to build our current and were necessary to maintain our current and make it

to the chairs of the d.l.c., gickgep -- dick gephardt, chuck, sam nunn, president clinton, johnny bro, evan bayh tom vilsack and evan ford jr. thank you for all you've done. for those of you still around here, thank you for your perseverance. i appreciate it very much. so many people and so many of you have supported the d.l.c. and the p.p.i. over the years and believe me, i appreciate it very much. i appreciate every hard-earned dollar you gave us and i thank you one and all. thanks as well to the hundreds of people who worked or interned for the d.l.c. your services made an incredible difference and i hope you're proud of it. i'm very proud of what you contributed. i just want to say a special word at bruce reid, the next, and thank him, the next leader of the deform l.c. the d.l.c. could not be in better hands. bruce reid is an idea man's idea man. he possesses a rare blend of brilliance, humor, and humility. to be honest, after his eight years in the white house, i never thought i'd leuer him back to the d.l.c. he was harder to recruit than bill clinton. but i always believed bruc

one of the people i most admired of the years is a guest, sam nunn, longtime chairman of the senate armed services committee. sometimes i would call him and asking if he wanted to be on. he would say he did not think so and he had nothing to it said. i thought it was good for the show and good for the senator because politicians make a real mistake if they come on these sunday shows but are not coming on to say something. just coming on to get your face on tv i think hurts you. a lot of the public relations people tell their clients you get a message you want to get across, give the answer no matter what the question -- i don't think that helps the person. they come off as evasive. people know when you're not answering a question or when you are just jazzing around. it is a waste of time for everybody. people often ask me how i feel when someone does not want to answer the question. i say i would like to just slap them, but obviously you cannot just do that. but people know, our viewers are smart and know when people are avoiding the question. my advice to people is if you do not want to

and world championship really blessed in those early years by chuck robb and sam nunn and dick gephardt, later joe lieberman, ev evan bayh. by senator carper, and there is a really, i think, magnificent person that will speak after me that proves the d.l.c. fellows program, rachel storch i'm glad you are hear representing the state and local representatives affiliated with the d.l.c. that was a really good movie. it had the virtue of being at least except for the stuff about me, true. i think secretary sebelius may be here. we were together at a previous event and i have a little more to say about that in a minute. but i loved getting involved in the d.l.c. for one thing, i was just tired of getting beat. and i'm old enough now to know what it was like to get beat over and over and over again. essentially, here is what happened to us. national elections and the standing of national political parties are determined by they things. the political culture. the conditions at election time. and the quality of the candidates. for much of the 20th century the political culture of america kept u