US Presidency
1994

Thank you very much. Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, members of the 103rd Congress, my fellow Americans: I am not at all sure what speech is in the TelePrompter tonight, laughter, but I hope we can talk about the state of the Union. I ask you to begin by recalling the memory of the giant who presided over this chamber with such force and grace. Tip O'Neill liked to call himself a man of the House. And he surely was that. But even more, he was a man of the people, a bricklayer's son who helped to build the great American middle class. Tip O'Neill never forgot who he was, where he came from, or who sent him here. Tonight he's smiling down on us for the first time from the Lord's gallery. But in his honor, may we, too, always remember who we are, where we come from, and who sent us here.