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Clinton discusses wife's ideas
Lori Wolfe/The Herald-Dispatch Former President Bill Clinton speaks to a large crowd Friday, May 9, 2008, during a campaign stop for his wife Hillary Clinton at Wayne High School in Wayne County, West Virginia.
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WAYNE -- It's small communities like Wayne in states like West Virginia and Kentucky that can help New York Sen. Hillary Clinton win the popular vote for the Democratic nomination for president.
That's what her husband, former President Bill Clinton, told a packed gymnasium Friday at Wayne High School.
"If West Virginia and Kentucky support her in big numbers, she's still going to win the popular vote," President Clinton said.
"I know whenever I go around and speak for Hillary, people think, 'He has to say that or he can't go home tonight.' "
But he also happens to love his country and believes his wife is the "best candidate I've ever had a chance to support," he said.
"You're never going to have a chance to vote for a better change-maker," he told a crowd of students, children, parents, grandparents and Hillary Clinton supporters from throughout Wayne County.
Jasmine Lewis, a sophomore at Spring Valley High School and member the Young Democrats of Wayne County, was among the crowd because she's still making up her mind between Clinton and Ill. Sen. Barack Obama.
"I'm on the fence," she said before the event got under way. "I want to see how much Bill supports his own wife to see if she's the best. If he can't convince me, I don't see how she's the best candidate."
Obama plans to make a stop in West Virginia on Monday.
President Clinton said Friday that one of the most difficult things any president has to do is turn speeches into solutions, but Hillary Clinton can do that. He outlined some of his wife's ideas for addressing national issues such as high gasoline prices, health-care costs, the No Child Left Behind Act, high interest rates on college loans, the recession and the war in Iraq.
"You have to vote for a president who can rebuild the middle class," Clinton said. In the past decade, members of the middle class have been trying to cope with increasing costs on several fronts, while incomes have remained flat, and folks are falling from the middle class into poverty, he said.
He talked about Hillary Clinton's ideas for making the United States more energy efficient with "homegrown, clean energy," which would not only help to decrease Americans' dependence on increasingly expensive foreign oil, but provide jobs and take care of the environment. Solar power, wind power, bio-fuels, clean coal and more fuel-efficient automobile engines need backing from the federal government, he said.
"The only reason we haven't done this is we haven't had a government who has seen it," President Clinton said.
Hillary Clinton wants to help auto-makers develop more high-mileage vehicles as quickly as possible, he said. He mentioned a Massachusetts man who has a car that gets 105 miles to the gallon in town, and 70 miles to the gallon on the highway.
"This technology is there, and it ought to be available in two or three years to everyone," President Clinton said. Hillary Clinton will be dedicated to making that happen, he said.
On the topic of health care, he watched a fair show of hands rise after asking who in the room knew someone who is uninsured. He said 30 cents on the dollar goes to paperwork in processing claims for private insurance companies, whereas Medicare's paperwork costs 3 cents on the dollar. Hillary proposes giving the public access to a health-care plan similar to that of federal employees, taking the costs saved from paperwork and using it to assist low-income families, President Clinton said.
Perhaps the biggest cheer of the afternoon came when President Clinton said his wife is dissatisfied with the No Child Left Behind Act.
"She thinks the No Child Left Behind Act doesn't work, won't work and can't be made to work," he said to claps and hollers. It only helps a sliver of children while being a detriment to others, he said. Some schools already are cutting programs like history and economics just to meet the standards of the act.
President Clinton also mentioned his wife's plan for bringing troops home from Iraq -- and "doing it right."
"We have to start telling them we're coming home or they'll never start making their own decisions," he said.
Also among the crowd at Wayne on Friday was Gen. Jack Yeager, who was in the service for 39 years and a former Commander of the West Virginia Army National Guard.
"She has a common sense plan on how to deal with this war," said Yeager, who is campaigning with a group called Veterans for Hillary. "Sen. Clinton has made an effort and a promise to give special attention to veterans after Iraq."
Getting to the smaller, rural communities and talking directly to the people is great for the campaign, said Melissa Payton of Kenova, Wayne County coordinator for the Clinton campaign.
"We are so happy to see Bill Clinton in Wayne County," said Barbara Sutherland of Dunlow, associate chairwoman of the Wayne County Democratic Executive Committee. "He gave us eight wonderful years as president. We hope Hillary will be able to do the same."
