“Everyone in Washington called me with advice about this speech. They all said the same thing: ‘Do NOT, under any circumstance, make any jokes about the President. So good night everybody! Actually the President called me this morning and gave me some really good advice: he said if I get stuck for laughs, just brag about his accomplishments. It really killed at the U.N., I gotta tell ya.”
That was one of Ambassador Haley’s best jokes. But this perhaps was her most telling and even courageous remark: “In our toxic political environment, I’ve heard some people in both parties describe their opponents as enemies or evil. In America, our political opponents are not evil…. We have some serious political differences here at home. But our opponents are not evil. They’re just our opponents. We are blessed with a political system that allows us to resolve our differences peacefully. In the end, we must recognize that we are all Americans. And we are stronger and healthier when we are united.”
Would that we lived in times when so self-evident a remark would not have taken courage to say; in any event, kudos to Ambassador Haley for making it in so illustrious a forum.
Our firm is proud to have created the animated graphics shown during the course of the dinner, outlining the illustrious history of the dinner and commemorating the 90th Anniversary of Al Smith’s campaign for the Presidency.