CLINTON IN ELKO FOR OBAMA

By Lisa J. Wolf

Former President Bill Clinton told some 500 people at Elko’s Great Basin College Monday October 22^nd that “this election is going to go our way in a big way as long as people remember in the next few weeks what the questions are.”

Clinton claimed people have been donating to the Obama campaign “in unprecedented amounts” because “finally for the first time since the Republicans have been pushing this extreme right-wing agenda for the last 30 years” Americans “got a chance to see what would happen if they really had the opportunity” to “do what they were talking about since the late 70’s.”

Clinton noted when he was President “we had 22.7 million new jobs” while “we’ll be lucky to finish this 8 years with 5 million;” noting “we’re down ¾’s of a million jobs this year.” Clinton claimed during his administration “median family income after inflation went up $7500 across all racial and regional lines in 1990” while “in this decade it’s gone down $2000 while the cost of everything has gone through the roof.” Clinton claimed “we moved 100 times as many people from poverty into the middle class” with “almost 8 million people who moved from poverty” while now “6 million people have fallen back into poverty.”

Clinton argued voters need to “hire a President who can restore the American dream” and espoused reevaluating No Child Left Behind, providing affordable health care to every American and to “stop spending 50% more than every other country and getting less for it.”

Clinton claimed, “If we seriously organize ourselves for energy independence it will launch the greatest economic boom we have had in this country since we mobilized for World War II and the next 8 years will be better.”

Clinton said, “We need to restore America’s standing in the world as a major force for peace and freedom and prosperity. We need a world with more friends and fewer people mad at us. We need to bring the troops home from Iraq in a timely manner” and “rebuild the American military.”

Clinton claimed Obama’s plans for energy independence and health care are better and “reflect the philosophy that we’ve been advocating forever as a party” and said “if you look at these debates you’re going to notice he knows what he’s talking about.”

Clinton said he “can offer you one insight no one else can: that’s what it’s like to be President.”

Clinton said when Obama picked Biden as vice president “he hit that one out of the ballpark” in a decision made “even more important because of the financial collapse.” Clinton claimed if members of Congress had to “write down 3 names of people who know the most about the world, Joe Biden’s name would be on every single secret ballot.”

Clinton saw “in the first 6 months of the next President’s term real opportunity for a breakthrough in peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians” which would “take away half the argument for terrorism.”

Clinton said, “When Barack Obama places his hand on the Bible his first obligation is to America” to “figure out how more young people will be able to walk through the doors of college and have good jobs waiting when they come out.”

In regards to the financial crisis, Clinton said, Obama “took heat for a couple of days because he didn’t say ‘no’” to the bail-out plan as he talked “to his own economic advisors; then he called my economic advisors, then he called me, then he talked to Hillary.” Clinton argued, “You need a president who wants to understand and who can understand” and who is able to “develop some consensus” even when making an unpopular decision. When a sudden emergency arises, Clinton said “chances are way better than 50% that what the president needs to do will not be immediately popular. That’s what you hire Presidents to do, to figure this stuff out” and “to say to you this is what I think is right and I am prepared to own the consequences. If I mess it up I expect you to hold me accountable and if it goes alright that’s what you hired me to do and that’s exactly what he said.” Clinton pointed out, “You cannot make popular decisions all the time in complicated issues.”

Clinton claimed, “Obama has a better supporting cast. A president is as good as the people who are telling him what’s going on.”

Clinton said, “In the depression Franklin Roosevelt actually had a plan to refinance the mortgages of a million homeowners and it made money for the country. Why? Because when the government sends a little money to the banks to rewrite the mortgages so you can keep the mortgage payment which you’ve been paying and people stay in their homes you didn’t have a collapse not only of the home values of the foreclosed homes but all the mortgage shops and slowly as the country recovered the values of the homes came back and they paid the loans back and the government got paid back” and “the taxpayers make money.” With 2 billion homes foreclosed on this year and 1.5 million last year and 2.5 million projected for foreclosure next year, Clinton noted “when a home is foreclosed on it costs the economy about a  ¼ of a million dollars” and “there are no property tax revenues going to the cities, the counties, the school districts.”

Clinton reiterated, “You need somebody who gets this, I mean really gets it” and argued, “Folks, we cannot risk going forward with the same failed economic policies, ignoring the energy issue, ignoring the health care issue.” Clinton told the audience, “I trust this guy.”