Clinton Presidential Center dedication
The William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park was dedicated on November 18, 2004.
Bill Clinton recounts the events of the day in his biography My Life: "Two weeks after the election [of George W. Bush], we held the opening of my library, museum, and presidential center in Little Rock. Twenty-five thousand people braved a heavy rain to hear President Bush as well as former Presidents Bush and Carter speak. Six Americans talked about the impact of my policies on their lives and work. A group of children from Colombia, whose efforts against narco-trafficking and terrorism I had supported, sang and danced. So did Bono and the Edge of U2, marking my work for peace in Northern Ireland."
Former president Jimmy Carter summed up the mood of the event, involving as it did a rare show of bipartisanship at the conclusion of a presidential election season revealing a deeply divided nation. "At the end of a very difficult year - more difficult for some of us than others - it is valuable for the world to see two Democrats and two Republicans assembled together, all honoring the great nation that has permitted us to serve."
Wrote Clinton in his autobiography: "Bono got a good laugh when he sang, 'when the rains came, we got four Presidents out of bed.' Coming so soon after an intensely fought election, the bipartisan spirit seemed to lift the country. President Carter spoke warmly of our long association, going back to his 1976 campaign. The first President Bush stole the show with an often hilarious account of our 1992 battle and a touching affirmation of our personal friendship. And the President was extremely warm and generous to me and my family, as he had been a few months earlier at the White House ceremony to unveil the official portraits of Hillary and me."
"The museum was especially important to me, because I wanted to show visitors from across the county and around the world that political ideas, policies, and decisions have real consequences to their lives and therefore that public service and well-informed citizens are as essential to America in the twenty-first century as they were at the time of our founding. ... Only a few weeks after the opening, I found myself involved in another bipartisan endeavor as President Bush eased his father and me to lead an effort to increase private contributions in the United States to aid the victims of the tsunami that struck eleven nations in the Indian Ocean."
References
Bill Clinton, My Life (New York: Vintage, 2004), 967.
