The President. Now, as you can hear, I'm a little hoarse, but I do want to say that was brilliant. [Laughter] If you can shift the heat like that, you should go to Congress. I want to thank Ricky and Mikey and Lauren and Vanessa, thank my good friend Steven Spielberg. Thank you, General Schwarzkopf, for your outstanding leadership. You've got a very important battle here on your hands, and I'm sure you're going to win it.
I'd also like to thank Congressman Lou Stokes and Congresswoman Pat Danner for being here. I thought I'd take and make a little fun of the Congress so they'll go back and tell it, and I'll be in trouble again this afternoon. [Laughter] I'd like to thank Ned Zechman and all the people from the Children's National Medical Center here.
As you can hear, I'm a little hoarse. The Chinese state visit and the change in the weather have taken a little of my voice away, so I've asked the Vice President to come with me and give the speech. And I'm going to introduce him in a minute, but let me just say I cannot tell you how important I think what STARBRIGHT is doing is. General Schwarzkopf and Steven Spielberg have already talked about it.
What we're trying to do in the Government is to hook up every classroom and library to the Internet by year 2000. But we also want to make sure all the children's hospitals are there. These children deserve them. And we need for them to be a part of this emerging network of learning and playing and growing. And as the General said, it looks like it's a healthy thing to do as well. So we're glad to be here. Mostly we're here just to say thank you to the foundation, to all of you, and to say we want to do our part.
I think it's appropriate that the Vice President is here to speak instead of me because he was talking about the information superhighway before I had even gotten an electric typewriter.
The Vice President.
[At this point, Vice President Al Gore made brief remarks. The President then took questions from children using the network.]
Q. We would like to ask you some questions. [Laughter]
The President. Okay.
Q. What kind of food do you like to eat?
The President. What kind of food?
Q. Yes.
The President. I like fruit. [Laughter] I like granola. [Laughter] I like chicken—[laughter]— and I like all kinds of vegetables. And it would be easier for me to tell you what kind of food I don't like to eat. [Laughter] It would be a shorter list. [Laughter] Peaches are my favorite thing.
Q. Mr. President, as you were younger, were your dreams ever to be a President, always?
The President. No, not always. First I wanted to be a musician; then I wanted to be a doctor; then I actually wanted to be a journalist once. [Laughter] But I was always interested in politics when I was younger, and I thought I might like to go into it. And I was very fortunate, so I got to be President. But I thought about it, but it wasn't like my lifetime ambition from the time I was 10 years old.
Q. Did you always want to be Vice President? [Laughter]
The Vice President. Yes. You know, to children all around this country—I've always wanted to be Vice President. [Laughter]
The President. It's not a bad job. [Laughter]
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf. We're really getting into some very dangerous ground here, so I think we better—[laughter]—better terminate this thing. Let me just say——
Q. Mr. President——
General Schwarzkopf. ——you've just seen the power of STARBRIGHT——
Q. Mr. President—[laughter]——
The Vice President. We always have trouble ending press conferences. [Laughter]
The President. Yes, I know.
General Schwarzkopf. But you've just seen the power of this system——
Q. What's your favorite sport to watch or play?
General Schwarzkopf. We'll take one more from Fort Worth.
The President. What's my favorite sport?
Q. Okay, what's your favorite sport you like to watch or play?
The President. My favorite sport to watch is probably basketball. My favorite sport to play is golf. I'm too slow to play basketball very well. [Laughter]
NOTE: The President spoke at 2:37 p.m. at the Children's Hospital National Medical Center. In his remarks, he referred to Ricky Adams, Mikey Butler, Lauren Alexanderson, and Vanessa Gonzalez, STARBRIGHT Pioneer Children; motion picture director Steven Spielberg, chairman, and Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA (Ret.), capital campaign chairman, STARBRIGHT Foundation; and Edwin K. Zechman, Jr., president and chief executive officer, Children's National Medical Center. The STARBRIGHT World on-line computer network connected the Nation's largest children's hospitals to the Internet to enable seriously ill children to meet, play, and communicate with one another. A tape was not available for verification of the content of these remarks.
William J. Clinton, Remarks on Unveiling the STARBRIGHT World On-Line Computer Network Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/222976
