Ms. Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Liaison (photo: WEF)

Presidential Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett Speaks at World Economic Forum WEF

Davos, January 29, 2009 -- Full Transcript of Valerie Jarrett's Speech

Thank you Professor Schwab for that kind introduction I appreciate the opportunity to address the World Economic Forum.  I bring you greetings on behalf of our new President Barack Obama.  He is encouraged by this forum that is dedicated to galvanizing global action on behalf of the common interests of people around the world.

President Obama was deeply moved by the overwhelming response to his election from people not just of the United States but from around the world.  From our jubilant yet peaceful celebration in Grant Park on November 4 – and many others around the world, both that night and leading up to, and including, the inauguration of our 44th President last week.

I know that you are all curious about what the results of our election mean for you, for the role of the United States in our global community, and about this new President.  I plan to talk a bit about President Obama’s vision for change and how we see this moment for our country and the world.

To begin, let me offer some insight into my friend.

To know about President Obama, you should know something about where he comes from.  We know that he grew up in Hawaii, that he lived for a time as a child in Indonesia, that his father came from Kenya, and his mother from the state of Kansas.  But I want to talk about the place where he built his career, met his wife, Michelle, and began to raise his family.  My hometown of Chicago. 

When many of you visit the United States, you often visit New York and Los Angeles and Washington, DC, but less often Chicago.  I think knowing Chicago is essential to knowing America and our new President.

When many people think of Chicago, they think of Oprah and Michael Jordan.  Well, I am as big a fan of Oprah as anybody, and I still haven’t gotten over giving up my season tickets to the Chicago Bulls.  But Chicago is so much more.

First and foremost, Chicago is in our nation’s Midwest, in what we call America’s heartland, and when we think of the Midwest, we think of simple, universal values.  People are hard working and pragmatic, steady and reliable – just like our new President. 

Chicago is also incredibly diverse, and filled with immigrants from all over the globe – some who arrived yesterday, some centuries ago.  Its diversity makes it a better and stronger place – a city that is vibrant, constantly reborn. 

Chicago is a city of opportunity.  It remains a place where somebody can arrive with nothing but talent, drive and a dream, and create a life for themselves and their family.

Finally, Chicago is a city of hope.  A city carved out of the wilderness, a symbol to our nation of what we can build together, if we are willing to work together.

It is also where I first met the President and First Lady.

Nearly two decades ago, as I was aggressively recruiting Michelle Robinson, a young bright, highly talented lawyer, away from private practice law and into city government where I worked for Chicago’s Mayor, Richard M. Daley, Michelle came to me with what was admittedly, an unusual request.  Michelle asked me to have dinner with her and her fiancé to discuss the job.  I agreed and that’s where I first met Barack Obama.

I could tell right from the start is that they were real partners and very much in love.  I also learned very quickly that they shared the same values and were both dedicated to making a difference in this world.  He was a new graduate from Harvard Law School and he came from a family that was scattered around the globe.

Michelle was born in Chicago, with her roots there, and after they married, the young couple decided to make Chicago their home. 

Chicago was a natural for the President.  He had begun his career there, walking the streets as a community organizer, giving voice to the voiceless and helping those most in need of a helping hand.  In so many ways, he embodies those timeless values that sum up the spirit of the city. 

In President Obama’s Inaugural Address, he said:

“Our challenges may be new.  The instruments with which we meet them may be new.  But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old.  These things are true.”

The President also knows that there is strength in diversity because it is the essence of his own story.  He appreciates and respects those from different backgrounds and cultures.  In his extended family, you’ll see relatives from every part of our nation and 4 continents. President Obama celebrates diversity, yet instinctively seeks common ground and builds on that common ground to make progress.

He is also dedicated to ensuring that America remains a land of opportunity.  That is what led him to become a community organizer, and that simple premise was what his Presidential campaign for change was really about.

Since its founding, America has been a place that attracted people from distant shores seeking a better life.  During the campaign, every step of the way, President Obama inspired people to believe that despite our troubled economic times and dangerous world, we could keep the United States of America could remain the land of opportunity, and that once again the United States could renew its leadership in the world.  Despite the burden of our times, President Obama believes strongly that this generation, like previous generations before it, can and will meet our challenges.

Those challenges will be met by the very same spirit of hope that drove Barack Obama’s improbable journey to the Presidency. 

President Obama talks a lot about hope.  He talks about it because he believes that it is hope that will lead us to solve the problems of the 21st Century together.  Not blind optimism, but rather a hard-earned hope borne out of realism and a deep understanding of how we have overcome in the past.  Hope that leaves us firm in the knowledge that we can create a brighter tomorrow.

So those are the values that motivate our new President.  That is who he was when we met many years ago.  The values that have brought him this far, from the home of a single mother in Hawaii to the White House, will guide how he faces the challenges of our time.

But if I were to sum up who Barack Obama is and how he plans to meet this moment with one word, that word would be “responsibility.”  Responsibility to each other, our families, our communities, our country, and our world.

Last week, standing on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, President Obama laid out how he sees this moment.

This is what he said.

“What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition on the part of every American that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept, but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.  This is the price and the promise of citizenship.”

The responsibilities of citizenship apply to all of us.  Not just to individuals, but also to government.  And not just to government, but also to corporations and financial institutions; philanthropic organizations and schools; to parents, students and each and every person who has the power to help build a better world. 

I know that to President Obama this era of responsibility applies not just to the United States, but also to the world. 

The challenges we face in the 21st Century - terrorism, nuclear proliferation, climate change, poverty, and the pursuit of peace – are global.  So are the roots of our current economic crisis. 

Our challenge today is to ask ourselves what more can we do together as all of our fortunes are inextricably linked.  As we work together at Davos, this must be an effort that crosses traditional lines and engages all sectors of our societies, whether they are government or business, cultural or non-profit.  I was heartened to learn, Klaus, that in our opening remarks you highlighted the importance of developing a holistic strategy.

My goal in the new administration is to engage all of the stakeholders, everyone who can help us meet the challenges of the 21st century, and ensure that we work together.  We are engaging state and local government, grassroots activists, foundations and other non-profits, business, cultural and community institutions.  We are looking for innovative solutions, new tools to solve new problems, based on timeless, universal values.  That is why I am here with you today.

Because here in Davos, you are rolling up your sleeves and getting to work--together.

In the White House, we are focused on the economy.  The President believes that this crisis did not happen solely by happenstance or a turn in the business cycle.  Instead we arrived here because of an era of profound irresponsibility by government and business, both in the United States and around the globe.  The result has been a loss of trust and confidence in our economy and our financial markets.

We need to rebuild that trust. It begins with committing ourselves to transparency, respect, and accountability.  President Obama began his administration by setting new standards in those areas.  Not only because ethical reform and transparency have been hallmarks for his entire career, but because they are essential to effective governance. 

He won’t stop there.  Financial regulatory reform is one of the top legislative priorities of the Obama Administration.  A lack of oversight and accountability helped lead us to this place, and the President is committed to strong, common sense 21st century rules of the road to protect investors and consumers alike.

The United States cannot be alone in this effort.  Our economy is global, our crisis is global and our solutions must be global.  Our Administration will be partners with you to establish a workable international framework that can help stabilize our global economy and rebuild the trust we need to continue the economic progress of the 21st Century.

To get us out of our current crisis and spur economic growth, the President is also committed to taking aggressive and extraordinary action.  That is why he has made working with Congress to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act a first priority, in order to immediately jumpstart job creation and lay the foundation for stable, long-term economic growth.  The Recovery plan will put money in the pockets of the American worker, create and save millions of new jobs and invest in crucial areas such as health care, education, energy independence and a new infrastructure.

Yesterday, the President met with several of America’s leading business executives who represent over 100, companies who signed a letter supporting the Recovery Plan.  Companies such as IBM, Xerox, Atena, Citibank and Google.  It was a sober meeting because the companies, and their workers, are going through trying times.  They understand that it will take all of us to work on this challenge.  They know that the President’s Recovery Plan is an important step toward creating a favorable climate in which workers can prosper, businesses can thrive and our economy can grow.  Last night the House of Representatives voted in favor of the plan – a key first step.

As countries around the world join the U.S. in taking unprecedented actions to jumpstart their economies, global economic coordination becomes all the more crucial.  This coordination will be important now, as we act boldly and aggressively to pull ourselves out of this crisis, and in the future, as we all take steps to restore fiscal responsibility and return to a sustainable economic path.  We will continue to be your partner is this effort. 

Together, we can and we must enter this new era of global financial responsibility.

Our security depends on our cooperation as well because in the 21st Century our security is shared.  We know the threats – from global terrorist networks to the spread of deadly weapons.  Yet we also know that embedded in this time of danger is the promise of a new day, if we have the courage and commitment to work together.

We Americans are hopeful that we can – as the President said in his Inaugural Address – do our part to help for a new era of peace.  

Let me give you some evidence of how President Obama seeks to have America lead.

The United States is committed to more active diplomacy under President Obama.  He is already taking concrete steps in his first few days in office.  He has named Senator Clinton as Secretary of State and Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and veteran diplomat George Mitchell as Special Envoys.  Mr. Mitchell has already traveled to the Middle East and is demonstrating active engagement early in the Obama Administration.  Ambassador Holbrooke will travel next week.

President Obama will work to support lasting peace between the Israelis, Palestinians and the Arab world.  He believes that all of us must do so as well; the European Union, the United Nations, Russia, and those who are present here and represented in Davos.

The President believes that the world has a responsibility to stand up to extremism of all forms, to terrorism, and speak out broadly for values of democracy, dignity, respect and opportunity.

Yet President Obama also realizes that development will be important to ushering in a new era of peace and he intends to have the United States play its role in this area. 

In this century, this is not simply a moral obligation – it is a security imperative.  We know that poverty can sow conflict and extremism.  We know that disease spreads across borders.  All of us must do more to help fight poverty, to continue the fight against diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, and to help nations develop their own capacity to govern, support the rule of law, fight corruption and provide opportunity for their people.

Finally, I want to talk about one challenge in particular that threatens us all.  That is global climate change. 

If left unchecked, global change will create violent conflict, torrential storms, shrinking coastlines, and irreversible catastrophe.  Instead of sitting on the sidelines, President Obama has made it clear that the US is ready to lead a global effort to combat climate change.

To signal his Administration’s commitment to seeking a global solution to this global crisis, President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have named Todd Stern, U.S. global climate envoy.  The President has made it clear that we Americans will do more to develop new energy, raise fuel efficiency standards, and address greenhouse gas emissions.  And we will also ask more of other nations in the negotiations to come.  This must be an effort that engages all of us in our various sectors and all our creativity and dedication must be unleashed to solve these problems of our time.

So as you can see, from our economy, to our security, to the many common problems of the 21st Century, under the leadership of President Barack Obama, America stands ready to lead.  We have begun to act.  A new era of responsibility is here. 

The question is whether we will meet this challenge together.  We stand ready to work with you as partners - to listen to you, even and especially when we disagree.  We will act with the knowledge that our fates are intertwined.  We will ask more of you and more of ourselves in the weeks, months and years to come.

Let me leave you by repeating the charge that President Obama has given to the American people and to the world.  He said:  ‘We intend to meet this moment in history with the same spirit and hard work and sense of hope on behalf of a common purpose that has guided America – and our friends and allies around the world – through many dark days.  We ask you to join us in this endeavor as we seek the promise of a brighter day.’ 

Thank you.

[end of transcript]

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