Remarks from bill clinton on the night of the New Hampshire primary. He called himself the comeback kid. In the weeks leading up to the vote, the arkansas governor faces allegations of an extra marital affair and draft dodging during the vietnam war. He went on to win his partys nomination and defeated president george h. W. Bush and ross perot in the general election. The governor of arkansas is coming to the podium. Reporter tom and kathy, i can tell you that bill clinton has just entered to greet his supporters, hes shaking hands, what he had to do in this election was put aside character doubts, doubts that were put to the public in publgt indications like this, hes done just that, perhaps those particular issues were not that significant to voters in New Hampshire. You can see the governor, the back of his head, shaking heads, hes about to go up to the podium. A rousing reception for bill clinton who is solidly finishing in second, what appears to be second place i have not yet gotten a glimpse of hillary clinton. Mrs. Clinton of some 16 years, they have one child, chelsea, age 11, who is not here tonight. The crowd beginning to chant. Now you can see mrs. Clinton. [ crowd chanting ] reporter tom and kathy, you can hear the supporters from New Hampshire, arkansas a contingent from new jersey, new york chanting, we want bill, we want bill. At 7 40 tonight, governor clinton gave me an exclusive interview. He said hes ready to take his message of reclaiming the middle class to the south. Thats where the next test for him lies in maryland and georgia, on march 3rd, super tuesday, march 10th. The supporters in this room numbering 500 about to hear governor clinton, their candidate. [ cheers and applause ] thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. [ cheers and applause ] let me say that youre welcome. While the evening is young. And we dont know yet what the final tally will be i think we know enough to say with some certainty that New Hampshire tonight has made bill clinton the comeback kid. [ cheers and applause ] thank you. There are so many people i have to thank. Beginning with the person whos up here with me tonight. [ applause ] without whose love and friendship over nearly 20 years i wouldnt be here tonight and wouldnt be fit to be here tonight. I want to say that i just cant wait now to take this Campaign Across the country. I cannot wait to win the nominati nomination. And i know and i want you to know that i know in november, we are going to win a great victory against pat buchanan. [ cheers and applause ] thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I want you to let me thank just a few people. First my state co chairs, lee eshelman, john broderick, george bruno, reesha mcmahon who did such a lovely job with the introduction, stephanie powers, henry smith. And i have so many others i want to mention, but i want to mention a few, chris derver, danny oneil, billy carbon. He told me last night, he said, im scared to death, but i think were going to do all right in manchester, and we did. I want to thank fern gelinas and the whole family. Theyre laced throughout the crowd. Paul canyon and tony carrum. Mayor ganyon. We got more votes in clairemont than the next three people put togeth together. [ cheers and applause ] i want to thank my dear friends from arkansas who have been up here for so long. And i want to thank the first arkans arkansasans who are for bill clinton joan and jim over here in this crowd. I want to say a word of profound thanks to Mitchell Schwartz and Barbara Balthazar and all the young people who work for us. I want to thank my wonderful friend in senator david prior who came up here to stick up for me. Hes here. [ applause ] i first met david and barbara prior 26 years ago, i dont know whos more surprised about this night, them or me. And all of you who have come here from all across New Hampshire, and my native state to fight for the future of this country. This has been a tough campaign. But at least i have proved one thing, i can take a punch. [ cheers and applause ] ill tell you something else. When you look at the results of this evening, however it comes out in the later hours it will not have been a very good night for the status quo crowd in washington. It will be a great night for those of us who believe in change. We began this campaign in New Hampshire fighting for the forgotten middle class, the people who have been left out and left behind here. People who never gave up on me are themselves, are their country. You people here in New Hampshire have continued to fight in the face of layoffs, cut backs and foreclosures and a president who hasnt cared. I want to say this to you, for the first time in my life, after being in 17 other campaigns three days in a row, i have met three americans who broke down crying telling me about their problems. And i want you to remember this, whatever the final outcome of the vote, unlike this president , i will never forget New Hampshire. [ cheers and applause ] some day some day when the history of this campaign is written, they may say, well, bill clinton took a lot of hits in this campaign. I want you to know of course i did, but i want you to know something, i want you to never forget this the hits i took in this election are nothing compared to the hits that the people in this state and this country are taking every day of their lives under this administration you want to know about hits, ask my friend ron makos jr. Who was in our ad with his family. Hes here somewhere, wheres ron . Wave your hand. Lets give him a hand. [ applause ] heres a man, a good man, who because his beloved son had open heart surgery cannot get Health Insurance for his whole family, even though his wycife is pregnt the with their second child. You want to know about hits . Ask emily. A girl whos a senior in high school whose daddy had to go to North Carolina to find a job in the last year of school. Ask david springs who lost his job 30 days before his pension vested. Put into the street for years, and the people who sold him out sold their company out and bailed out with a golden parachute to a cushy life. He had to find another job in another state and commute here on the weekends. You want to know about hits, go to nashua and talk to a couple who broke down crying to me telling me they were literally having to choose between their medicine and foot in the refrigerator. Those are the hits that i care abo about. If these people can fight that hard for their homes, their health, their jobs and the future of their children i can take a few hits and fight for them. [ cheers and applause ] these are the people [ cheers and applause ] thank you. Thank you. These are the people who deserve a president who will fight to get and keep good jobs to educate their children, to provide for health care and a new and Decent Energy and environmental policy, to restore the middle class and reduce poverty, and reclaim the future all our children deserve. Most important of all, we have to have a president who will fight to bring this country together again. Tomorrow morning i will carry this campaign away from New Hampshire but not before at our state headquarters we have an opportunity for me to say thank you to everybody who wants to show up at 7 00 in the morning, ill be there, if you feel like coming, come. [ cheers and applause ] i will go i will go all across this country to the rest of the nation asking them to embrace the new covenant that i have advocated to restore opportunity and increase responsibility and rebuild ai sense of the american community. We no longer can have a country where i worry about me, you worry about you, they worry about them. Thats the kind of country the republicans have given us for more than a decade. Weve got to be one country again, going up or down together aga again. There you have it, arkansas governor bill clinton from marimac tonight, very happy with his second place showing in the first of the nation primary. And the strong finish he wanted. Well take a quick break and well be right back as our coverage continues. Every weekend on American History tv on cspan 3, feature programs that tell the american story, some of the highlights for this weekend include saturday afternoon at 2 00 eastern. Woodrow wilson nominated Louie Brandeis to the u. S. Supreme court. He became the first jewish justice to sit on the nations highest court. In commemoration of th