Posted 4:38 pm Friday, February 15, 2008
UPDATE: Clinton Headed for Nacogdoches
Former President Bill Clinton finished his campaign speech at Tyler Junior College at 4:34 p.m. CST today, almost exactly one hour after taking the stage. He is greeting local supporters before heading on to his next stop in Nacogdoches.
He opened his campaign rally on behalf of his wife with the words, “I’m not against anybody. I’m for Hillary.”
“She got 70 percent of the votes in Arkansas because they know she’s a change-maker,” he said. On the war in Iraq, Clinton said, “Through our obsession in Iraq, we have taken our eye off the ball in Afghanistan.”
He also addressed the economy.
People line up at the Rogers Student Center at TJC Friday to see former President Bill Clinton.
“I’m glad they passed the (economic) stimulus package, but most of us feel like we’ve been in a recession for quite some time,” Clinton said.
Two rows of 70 chairs were set up in the Apache room at TJC's Rogers Student Center, and the rest of the crowd is standing room, according to a Tyler Paper reporter on the scene.
People waiting in line rushed for the available seating when the doors opened at 2:30 p.m. CST. Clinton's campaign speech on behalf of his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, was scheduled to have started at 2:45 p.m. CST.
Former President Bill Clinton speaks to a crowd of supporters at Cobb Convention and Activity Center in Longview this morning.
The crowd is diverse, according to the reporter, and some are wearing "No Obama in '08" pink shirts. Clinton is in Tyler campaigning for his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, who is being opposed for the Democratic presidential nomination by Sen. Barack Obama.
Scarlett Naneikis was one of the people standing in line waiting to get in to the student center.
She brought her daughter, Katherine, and one of her daughter’s friends in order to give them a chance to see a president and hopefully get their photo taken with him.
She said, “I want to see what he says in his campaign for her (wife Hillary). I want to see if he will talk about Social Security because it is an important issue with me. I am taking care of an elderly mother."
The Obama campaign is also active in Tyler today. About a dozen of the senator's campaign organizers are in town and some met with Obama supporters during a luncheon at El Charro's No. 2, confirmed Debbie Mesloh, an Obama campaign leader for the eastern area of Texas.
She said it is part of a grassroots effort in the region on the part of the Obama campaign.
Bill Clinton spoke in Texarkana and Longview this morning. Clinton told potential voters in Longview, “Look for a candidate who provides solutions, not promises,” and said his wife is the Democratic presidential candidate who fits the bill.
“She is in the solution business. She has been making a difference longer than any other candidate, and it is solutions, not promises, that make the difference.”
Clinton touched on three major themes during his Longview appearance: fixing the economy, universal health care, and the federal No Child Left Behind act.
“The current state of the economy needs to be addressed,” Clinton said.
He said there’s a visible difference between this decade and the 1990s, in terms of the economy.
“Hillary’s solutions are to aggressively stop foreclosures before they start, by discontinuing them altogether for 90 days, and by freezing current mortgage rates so people are paying the rates they signed up for.”
He also said Sen. Clinton proposed to give states $30 billion to help settle with mortgage companies.
He also talked about promoting new jobs by investing in strategic fuel solutions. Sen. Clinton proposes and energy fund to invest in solar power, bio-fuels and other alternative energy sources.
“This will increase energy efficiency in America and create new jobs in every area,” he said.
Crowd reactions were mostly supportive of the former president’s message.
“I am a huge Clinton supporter. I came to support both of them,” former State Treasurer and Longview Mayor Martha Whitehead said.
“I came to see what he had to say, but I’m still not sure between Hillary and Obama,” Longview resident Cormelia Chambers said.
Clinton’s rally in Texarkana was supposed to start at 8:30 a.m., but ran about 45 minutes late.
Elise Mullinix, assistant director of marketing and communications for TJC, said parking will be on a first-come-first-served basis.
The Associated Press reported about 200 people attended the Texarkana rally.
There, Clinton offered voters an image of his wife as the only Democratic candidate with a plan to offer universal health care.
He said Sen. Clinton’s plan to require everyone to have health insurance would solve what he described as a national problem, and contrasted that plan to Obama’s. Sen. Clinton’s plan would provide government assistance to those who can’t afford it, while Obama’s plan would provide government subsidies to encourage more Americans to buy insurance. Sen. Clinton has said Obama’s plan would still leave 15 million people without insurance.
Texas offers 228 delegates in the democratic primary, a number Sen. Clinton said she needs to overcome Obama’s recent surge in primary wins. Obama leads Sen. Clinton 1,276 delegates to 1,220, according to the Associated Press.
After the Tyler rally, President Clinton will speak in Nacogdoches and Lufkin. The Nacogdoches rally is scheduled for 6:15 p.m. at the Stephen F. Austin State University Baker Pattillo Student Center. Clinton will speak in Lufkin at 8:45 p.m. at the Lufkin Civic Center.
Former President Clinton this morning offered voters an image of his wife as the only Democratic presidential candidate with a plan to offer universal health care as he started a day of East Texas campaign stops in Texarkana.
People are lined up outside the Maude Cobb Convention and Activity Center in Longview, where Clinton is scheduled to make his second stop of the day shortly after the noon hour. After Longview, he is scheduled to continue on to Tyler, Nacogdoches and finally Lufkin today.
Clinton said New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's plan to require everyone to have health insurance would solve what he described as a national problem. Clinton contrasted that plan to her chief rival's, Sen. Barack Obama, whose plan does not mandate everyone to purchase health care.
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"Her opponent excites more Americans ... but would in fact deny us universal health-care coverage for the first time," the former president said. "She represents the solution business."
Senator Clinton's plan would provide government assistance to those who can't afford it. Obama's plan would provide government subsidies to encourage more Americans to buy it. Hillary Clinton has said that would still leave up to 15 million people without insurance.
"It would be truly tragic if the Democratic Party walked away from universal health care for the first time in 60 years when we finally got the business community and the medical community in line behind us," Clinton said, drawing applause.
Clinton's stop drew about 200 people to the two-tone blue gymnasium of a Texarkana community center. The former president also touched on the war in Iraq, saying indecision by the Iraqi government forces the U.S. to keep its combat troops there.
"If they think we are going to stay there forever and a day, they have no incentive to fix them," Clinton said. "If we stay there, we are not doing them any favors."
The campaign stop marked Clinton's second stop in a month to the city straddling the state line between Arkansas and Texas. The former president visited the Arkansas side of the city Feb. 1, just before that state voted in the Super Tuesday primaries.
Senator Clinton, the former first lady of Arkansas, handily won the vote in her husband's home state — a victory she'd like to see repeated in Texas' March 4 primary to hold off Obama. She and Obama remain in a tight race for Texas' 228 delegates.
As of Thursday, an Associated Press count showed Obama maintained a slender lead with 1,276 delegates compared to Clinton's 1,220.
With both Texas and delegate-rich Ohio on the line March 4, Bill Clinton offered one promise to the crowd.
"If she wins in Texas and Ohio, she will win the nomination," he said.
-- reported by staff writers Kenneth Dean, Adrienne Graham, Cindy Mallette and the Associated Press
Updated Friday, Feb. 15, 2008 at 4:38 p.m. CST
-- reported by staff writers Kenneth Dean, Adrienne Graham, Cindy Mallette and the Associated Press
Updated Friday, Feb. 15, 2008 at 4:38 p.m. CST
