Hillary Clinton's Ready to Work for North Carolina

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Tue Apr-29-08 11:32 AM
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Hillary Clinton's Ready to Work for North Carolina

SALISBURY, N.C. -- Torren Mayr is only 8 months old, but he's already been mentioned in a speech by a major presidential candidate.

When Hillary Clinton stepped to the stage at the Historic Salisbury Station Monday afternoon, she scanned the crowd.

Then she announced, "I see a 'Babies for Hillary' sign back there. That's a very smart baby."

Chuckles rippled through the crowd.

The "Babies for Hillary" sign was prepared by Torren's grandmother, Pattie Templeton. She babysits Torren on weekdays and took the child to see Clinton, driving from her home in Huntersville.

The sign was attached to Torren's stroller, though Templeton removed it and held it aloft as Hillary stepped to the stage.

"I just wanted to come see Hillary and I thought this was the best venue," Templeton said, noting that should Clinton eventually win the Democratic nomination and race for president, her grandson would forever be able to say he'd seen a president in person.

Even if he couldn't remember having done so.

Hillary Clinton told Salisburians Monday it's "our time" provided that the country changes course, repairs the damage of the Bush administration and finds a way to pull people together.

"I'm betting that we will," she said.

Speaking for almost 30 minutes, Clinton also had tough words from her perch at Salisbury Station for big oil, China, the wealthy, insurance companies and the federally mandated No Child Left Behind program.

The Salisbury crowd applauded often after points and promises Clinton made, with the loudest, most sustained ovations coming after she said she would put an end to the No Child Left Behind program in schools and set out a plan to bring troops home and end the United States' military involvement in Iraq.

Clinton, a U.S. senator from New York, asked voters in the audience to make choosing a president a hiring decision.

Yes, she's been described as tough, Clinton said, but Americans are hiring someone for the toughest job in the world.

They have a choice of electing someone's who's nice, someone who will stick to the failed Bush policies or someone's who's going to be tough and fight for them, Clinton said. Americans need a champion in the White House again, she added.

Hillary Clinton used her latest proposal on oil prices to portray herself as the fighter in the race, telling a few hundred people at the local train station here that she’d be their champion in the White House. (http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/04/28/953741.aspx)

This morning, Clinton unveiled a plan to tax oil company “windfall” profits to pay for a gas tax holiday, which she said would provide needed relief for working-class Americans, who have seen energy costs take up greater percentage of their incomes. Here, she also discussed plans to create new jobs in a push to move toward energy independence, while outlining tough tactics she’d employ against oil producing countries to keep oil prices in line.

“Now, none of this is easy to do, but I don’t think we have a choice,” she said. “We can continue to be at the mercy of the … oil countries, which will mean that our standard of living will continue to decline. We will not recognize America. We will not recognize the American middle class. So we can either say, ‘OK, fine we’ll just kind of go along and, you know, elect somebody who’s nice or elect somebody who’s gonna continue the Bush policies. Or we can elect somebody who’s gonna fight for you. That is the choice in this election.”

Amid cheers, she made clear which candidate is that fighter.

“Now, I know there are some people who say, ‘Oh my goodness, she is tough. Well, if you’d had my life you’d be tough, too.”

“I wish it were true that you could go to Washington and say, ‘I want everybody to come together and just agree with me, and then let's just make these changes, because we all know we're supposed to do it,” she said. “I wish it were that simple. Because, boy, we sure could make change in a hurry.”

CONCORD - A crowd of Sen. Hillary Clinton supporters stood through a downpour of rain Monday afternoon for the opportunity to hear the presidential hopeful speak in downtown Concord.

And in a moment of campaign luck, beams of sunshine broke through the clouds just as Clinton’s caravan arrived outside Troutman’s Bar-B-Que in downtown Concord.

“I can’t promise you I have some kind of magic wand,” Clinton told the cheering crowd. “What I can promise is that you’ll never have to doubt whose side your president is on.”

Sen. Clinton chats with Robert Morrison who was injured in a car accicdent, and Meaghan Clark during a campaign stop at Troutman's Bar-B-Q in Concord, N.C.

Clinton called the nomination-seeking process the “longest job interview in history.”

“We’re going to have to clean up the damage we will inherit when we move back to the White House,” Clinton said. “It took a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush. It’s going to take a Clinton to clean up after the second Bush.”

Clinton said her combined experience as First Lady and as a senator would serve her well as president.

“I have a unique set of experience on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue,” she said. “I know that we can turn this country around.”

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Hillary Clinton got a rock-star welcome in Charlotte at Time Warner Cable Arena Monday night.

This was Clinton’s first visit to Charlotte in nearly a year, and she’s pushing hard for votes. Her supporters waved signs as she addressed the crowd.

In that crowd was Charlotte Bobcats owner Bob Johnson.

Clinton told the packed arena that her campaign is like a game, and she is suited up and ready to go. She addressed the economy and the tax code and our relationship with China.

“We are going to end the export of our jobs there and the import from them of lead-laced toys, contaminated pet food, polluted pharmaceuticals. Those days are going to end,” she told supporters.

On the economy: “It is wrong that a money manager on Wall Street making $50 million a year pays a lower percentage in taxes than a nurse, a teacher or a truck driver in Charlotte making less than $50,000 a year,” she said.

Clinton told voters in Charlotte to treat Tuesday's primary as a hiring decision.

"Think about it as if you're hiring a surgeon to perform an operation on a loved one," she told more than 4,000 supporters at Time Warner Cable Arena.

Clinton didn't mention Obama by name. Instead she continued to cast herself as the only candidate ready to lead at home and abroad.

"We need a president with the strength and experience to get into the Oval Office on Day 1 and turn this country around," she said to thunderous applause.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Sen. Hillary Clinton received the endorsement of North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley Tuesday morning in Raleigh, NC. After touring a bio-manufacturing training center, Gov. Easley, First Lady of North Carolina Mary Easley and Clinton held a ceremony at NC State University. (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/04/clinton-makes-r.html)

Easley said, "There’s a lot of 'yes we can' and 'yes we should' going on. Hillary Clinton is ready to deliver, that's the difference."

Clinton thanked the governor for his support and for all he has done in the state of North Carolina. She did not attack either opponent, but spoke about the solutions she will provide as president, and told the small audience that she would work with their governor.

"Mario Cuomo who famously said one time you campaign in poetry but you govern in prose. I think that’s pretty descriptive cause when the lights are gone and the cameras are off and the speeches are over what you want is somebody who will deliver results and sometimes that's not very glamorous," Clinton said.

“I am supporting Hillary Clinton because she has a passion for improving the lives of all Americans. She will be a president who stands up for people across North Carolina – and this country – every day in the White House,” said Governor Easley. “I know she will get to work immediately making education and the economy her top priorities for our nation. She is ready to lead our country and has the ability to deliver.”

North Carolina Governor Mike Easley's endorsement of Senator Hillary Clinton today offers her a potent symbolic and electoral boost in the biggest state left to vote.

Easley is a meaningful ally in the culture war she's waging against Senator Barack Obama, as she seeks to cast him as a hopelessly unelectable liberal elitist and to persuade the Democratic Party leaders who will decide the nomination – the "superdelegates" – to choose her instead.

"It’s an incredibly strong endorsement because Easley is popular among the blue collar 'Bubba' voters who are Democrats," said David "Mudcat" Saunders, a Democratic consultant who advised former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner on winning rural voters.

Easley had endorsed Edwards for president, but again became a heavily sought superdelegate once Edwards bowed out of the race.

"He's clean in the culture. Easley's wrecked the Charlotte Motor Speedway doing 150 miles per hour, and Bubba likes that," said Saunders, referring to NASCAR fan Easley’s 2003 race car crash. :eyes: “He's a hunter. He's a strong Second Amendment guy. He gives her great cultural validation in the state of North Carolina."

Clinton aides were jubilant.

Senator Hillary Clinton hugs a supporter during a campaign stop in Salisbury, North Carolina April 28

“I am having a ball today,” Mr. Easley said. “There’s nothing I love more than a strong powerful woman.” :eyes: (http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/nc-governor-endorses-clinton/)

Mrs. Clinton, speaking after Mr. Easley, returned the compliment, praising the Easleys for their commitment to the state and its investment in technology and education. “I think North Carolina has made all the right bets,” she said.

Clinton called Easley's support "politically very meaningful," but also said it's important because of his accomplishments moving North Carolina ahead on education and biotech innovation -- what she wants to bring to the country as a whole.

"We think results matter," Clinton said.

Sen. Clinton and North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley look into a microbiological cell reactor as they tour a biotechnology lab at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C. Tuesday, April 29, 2008.

Clinton said she was honored to have Easley’s endorsement, calling it “politically very meaningful.” But more, she said the example Easley had shown in his two terms as governor that he “gets it” as well, and in his administration has shown how state governments “truly are the labs of democracy.”

“When the lights are gone, and the cameras are off, and the speeches are over, what you want is somebody who delivers results," she said. "And sometimes that’s not very glamorous, and it takes a lot of work, and some false starts, and frustration. Bringing everybody together doesn’t necessarily mean they will all agree. It takes a leadership to set a vision, to put forth the goals and the strategies. That’s what Gov. Easley has done in North Carolina. That’s what I will do as your president. And I am honored to have this endorsement today.”

Easley and Clinton toured a biotech lab earlier today on the campus of North Carolina State University. Clinton credited Easley’s administration for policies that have put it third in the nation in the field.

“We don’t need any more postition papers we don’t need any more commissions," she said. "Work is being done in states, a state like North Carolina. We just need to bring it to scale for the United States, and I will do that as president.”