The President. Thank you very much. You can hear I'm a little hoarse tonight, but I'll do my best to be heard over the din. Let me say to all of you, first of all, thank you, Mr. Mayor; thank you, Mrs. Daley; thank you, Lois Weisberg. I thank all the committee, everybody who had anything to do with this day today. You have made Hillary and, I might say, her mother and her brothers who came with her today—you've made their whole family very happy. This has been an unforgettable day in her life, and I am profoundly grateful to all of you, and I thank you very much.
You know, before I met Hillary, you could put what I knew about Chicago in a thimble and have space left over. [Laughter] About a week after I met Hillary, I thought there was no other city on the face of the Earth. [Laughter] I'll never forget the first time I came here to visit Hillary. I remember only two things: her father would not come outside to say hello to me—[laughter]—which I thought showed good judgment on his part—[laughter]—and she took me to Chicago and showed me the city. And I fell in love with it then—that was a long time ago now—and I have been ever since.
This is a magnificent place. You have done unbelievable things. You're in the process of doing other unbelievable things. They may well make a larger chapter in the history of this city, but you will never have a kinder, better, warmer gesture than the one you've given Hillary today, and I will never forget it as long as I live. Thank you very, very much.
Audience member. Four more years!
The President. It's not constitutional. [Laughter]
I want to ask Hillary to come up now. You have to remember—this birthday—she wore it lightly for a long time, but her staff started celebrating it 50 days before the event. They wanted her to recognize precisely how old she was by giving her one present a day for 50 days up to the blessed event—[laughter]—which occurred yesterday. Now she's still celebrating it as if she's going to hold on for dear life. [Laughter] Whatever she wants to do, I'm for.
Ladies and gentlemen, our First Lady.
NOTE: The President spoke at 9:25 p.m. in Gar Hall at the Chicago Cultural Center. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago and his wife, Margaret; Chicago Commissioner of Culture Affairs Lois Weisberg; and the First Lady's mother, Dorothy Rodham, and brothers Tony Rodham and Hugh Rodham, Jr.
William J. Clinton, Remarks at a Birthday Party for the First Lady in Chicago, Illinois Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/222911
