Clinton pleas for Democrats to caucus
The last ditch effort just might’ve been worth it.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived at Laramie County Community College March 7 for her “Solutions for America” town hall meeting with her own personal plea to get Wyoming voters to the state caucuses.
Held in the LCCC multipurpose room, the event attracted hundreds of people, the majority women, who stood in line in the wind and cold to hear what the former first lady had to say. A longtime Wyoming Democratic party activist, Mary Ann Marek, said after the presentation she was impressed with Clinton’s quick answers and how Clinton knew “everything to perfection.”
Nearly an hour late, Clinton finally took the stage dressed in a royal blue pantsuit and full of vigor.
Clinton said she was glad to be in the state where the first woman was able to vote and where the first woman governor was elected.
Noting Wyoming is a Republican state, she said a good president didn’t need to work solely for a single party, but the only way a state and a country come together is through common goals. “I’ve tried my entire life to bring people together to solve problems because that’s the only way to get things done,” she said. “Working across party lines is what I think we’re supposed to do.”
Bipartisan teamwork she said is needed first and foremost to “repair all of our relationships around the world so we can start working again,” repeating her line that “it took a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush, and it’s going to take a Clinton to clean up after the second.”
According to Clinton, part of that cleanup involves getting the U.S. economy back in gear. She said she has laid out an energy plan that includes energy efficiency, investment in more types and different types of energy including clean coal, and wind, and also the need to lessen dependence on foreign oil. She said our effort for energy independence should be the same commitment the United States put into the space race.
Health care is also at the top of Clinton’s cleaning list. She said 47 million Americans are without health insurance, and for some people with insurance it doesn’t cover what they need. “My plan proposes two things,” she said. “First of all, if you have a good policy, then it stays the same. Second, I want to open up the same health care system available to the United States Congress.” She said the country needs a universal health care system that works, and this would start to accomplish that.
No Child Left Behind as well as a broad range of educational issues such as making college more affordable, eliminating student loan corporations and instituting national and public service. “We are going to do everything we can to make sure education stays the gateway to opportunity,” she said.
During a question and answer portion of the presentation, different questions were asked from a variety of people including a little girl standing on a chair, a music teacher, a Korean War veteran and a disabled man.
Clinton told the veteran the VA needs to be fully funded. “When we bring our troops home, (from Iraq) they will be taken care of,” she said. “When someone signs up to serve our country, we sign up to serve them.”
Doug Young, a retired Air Force Vietnam veteran who skipped snow shoeing to be at the event, praised Clinton’s speech, especially how she would end the war in Iraq.
Social Security generated another question. Clinton said she would like to return to fiscal responsibility and in order to do so she said she would like to set up a bipartisan commission because it is within the country’s reach to fix Social Security.
With people on their feet, Clinton closed by pleading with the crowd to give her the support she needs by going to the caucus and voting.