(Applause.) Thank you all very much. Thank you. It is an overwhelming
honor to be sworn in to assume this position on behalf of our country. I
thank my dear friend, Vice President Biden, and I thank President Obama
for investing the trust and confidence in me during a particularly
challenging time in our nation’s history. I look out and see so many
friends and colleagues. I particularly want to thank the Speaker and the
Majority Leader, Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid for being here and for
providing the leadership that you both are doing in the Congress.
I also want to thank my colleagues in government and my former partners
in the Congress. I am very grateful to all the members of the House who
are here today, and particularly those with whom I served over eight
wonderful years who represent New York. And I’m very grateful to all of
you.
And to my friends in the Senate, I see the faces of people with whom I
have shared so much, and I am deeply grateful to each and every one of
you. But I have to single out the Chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee who, after all, presided over my confirmation, for which I am
very grateful, Senator Kerry. (Laughter and Applause.) And I look
forward to working with all of you, particularly the appropriators –
(laughter) – who are here this afternoon. We have a lot of work to do
and it is such important work that lies ahead. I also want to thank two
wonderful friends of mine, governors, Governor Corzine from New Jersey,
and Governor O’Malley from Maryland who are here. (Applause.)
And I am particularly honored to have four of my predecessors with us
today. I have sought their advice and their counsel and I have to
publicly thank each and every one of them. With us today, Secretary
Kissinger and Secretary Baker and Secretary Eagleburger and, of course,
my dear friend and fellow Wellesley alum Secretary Albright. (Applause.)
And I also want to thank Secretary Rice and Secretary Powell and
Secretary Shultz, with whom I had a wonderful visit just last week when
he came to the seventh floor, and Secretary Haig – all of the former
secretaries of state who have been so generous with their time. And I
think I can predict I will be asking for advice as we move forward.
Because this ceremony takes place at a real hinge of history time, there
is so much that lies ahead in terms of challenges, but also
opportunities. When I came into this building for the first time a week
or so ago now, I told the assembled State Department employees, and then
repeated it again at USAID, that we are all on the same team, and it is
America’s team. And we have, in the leadership of President Obama,
someone who wants us to reach out to the world, to do so without
illusions, understanding that the difficulties we face will not be
wished away, but meeting them forthrightly and smartly, and that we want
to seize the opportunities that exist as well.
I talked in my confirmation hearings about smart power. Well, smart
power relies on smart people, and we have an abundance of them in this
building and at USAID. But I’ve also told my teammates in the State
family that we’re going to have to be smarter about how we do what we
must for our country. There are many ways that we can improve on what we
do on a daily basis. And I want to work with my friends in Congress on
behalf of our Administration to really look for those efficiencies and
those changes that will make what we do more effective, more
cost-effective, so that we can be out there around the world delivering
America’s message, certainly doing all we must to protect and defend our
security, but also advancing our interests and furthering our values.
So for me, this has been an amazing personal journey. As Joe laughingly
referenced, neither one of us thought that we would be standing here
together, doing what we are now doing together. Life has a funny way of
unfolding and politics is even stranger. So we are joined in this
incredible mission on behalf of our President and our country. And it’s
one where it’s not only those of us holding positions, whether elected
or appointed, must perform to the very best of our ability. We’re asking
everyone in our country to think about how each of you can make a
contribution so that we ensure that America’s future is even brighter
than our storied past.
I’m excited by seeing so many familiar faces. There are friends in this
audience who have known me my entire life. And there is the next
generation, you know, my niece and my two nephews who are here. I get up
every morning thinking about what I must do to make this world of ours
safer and more prosperous and to make our country all that it can be. As
difficult as the times are, I am an optimist. I believe that we can do
what we set our minds to do. And so it is the power of our ideals and
the intelligence and dedication of our people.
I could not be standing here before you today without all of you, but in
particular, the three people who stand with me on this stage. It’s
literally true I wouldn’t be here without my mother. (Laughter.) And so I
– (applause) – I’m especially delighted that she can be with me. And to
my daughter, who I am just bursting with maternal pride over, but who I
look to also for advice and, frankly, for some cultural cues that I
might otherwise miss. (Laughter.)
And finally, to my husband, who understands so well the awesome
responsibilities resting on the shoulders of President Obama and Vice
President Biden and all of us who serve with them. I am so grateful to
him for a lifetime of all kinds of experiences – (laughter) – which have
given me a – (applause) – which have given me an extraordinary richness
that I am absolutely beholden to and grateful for.
So now, let me thank Gladys and her crackerjack protocol operation that
put this together. We had to schedule it around two schedules that were
hard to mesh: Vice President Biden and Chelsea Clinton. (Laughter.) When
we finally got a time when both of them could be in the same place, we
rushed to fill it. (Laughter.) So if you’re wondering why you didn’t get
an invitation until Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday, it’s because
we just had to make sure that we had the main people here.
But I do want to greet all of you individually, and obviously, my family
wants to say hello as well. So we’re hard at work already, and we’re
working hard with a great team of people here in this building and at
USAID. And we’re looking forward to fulfilling the excitement and the
promise that the Obama Administration represents here at home and around
the world.
Thank you all very, very much.
(Applause.)
