Remarks at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois

Hello! Thank you. Thank you so much. Let me say that it is great to be in Chicago. I want to say to the mayor and to Maggie and to all of the Daley family and to the Members of Congress who are here and all those who are on the committee and all the people who have worked so hard to make our Democratic Party feel at home in Chicago, this convention has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. We thank you, Chicago; you have been wonderful. You have been wonderful.

While you've been here having a good time with all my family, I have been on a train. We've been on a train—Hillary and Chelsea and I went to West Virginia on Sunday, and then Hillary came here to be with you. And Chelsea stayed with me another day or so, and we went to Kentucky and to Ohio and to Michigan.

Last night we had—after Hillary spoke at the convention last night—and I thought she did a great job—last night we had over 20,000 people at Michigan State University in East Lansing to meet our train. And then after the convention last night I called Governor Bayh from Indiana, and I said—I said two things. I said, one, "I liked your speech, and thank you for giving it," and I said, "but you know I just was in East Lansing, and we had over 20,000 people there." So when we got to Indiana today, we had 30,000 people in Indiana. [Laughter]

It's been a wonderful, wonderful trip. I took that trip for two reasons. As all of you know, when I accept the nomination of our party tomorrow night and start this campaign, it will be the first American campaign for the 21st century and the last campaign for Bill Clinton. I wanted to be on that track because I wanted to look into the eyes, into the faces, and into the hearts of people who live in the heartland of America, the people I have worked for and fought for for the last 4 years. And I liked what I saw. And I wanted them to see that our train was not only on the right track to Chicago, we're on the right track to the 21st century. And that's what this convention and this campaign is all about.

To all of you who've been here, to all of those who've spoken, I have been immensely proud of everything I've seen. I've followed all of the proceedings as well as I could. I've been up too late watching the replays to see what everyone said and what everyone did. And I don't want to give my speech tomorrow night here tonight, but just let me say the best is yet to come, the best days of America, the best days of the Clinton/Gore administration, the best days of our efforts together to lift up our country and move forward.

Thank you, and God bless you all.