Hillary Clinton Makes Her Last Bid to Voters in South Dakota

[bigtree]

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)



RAPID CITY, S.D.-- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived at Tally's Restaurant on 6th St at 11:10 am local time, an hour or so late. But it was, as diner stops go, worth the wait (not to mention the seven-hour journey from Puerto Rico). (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/02/women_urge_on_clinton_at_sd_di.html)

On the ropeline on the way into the diner, Clinton heard a cacophony of praise and encouragement. "Keep fighting!" one woman said.

Moving inside the diner, Clinton passed from table to table, each filled with ardent supporters. She signed a little girl's pink Hillary shirt; a postcard; a copy of "It Takes a Village"; a receipt; and several copies of the giddy pamphlets informing South Dakotans that their votes tomorrow count.




(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)



Several baby snugglings, photographs and signatures later, Clinton spoke at a microphone at the front of the diner. She thanked everyone, repeated her claim to be ahead in the popular vote, and described tomorrow's vote here as important.

"I'm just really grateful we keep this campaign going until South Dakota would have the last word," she said. "We started out way behind in South Dakota," she added, saying Obama has a "great base of support here."

"What South Dakota decides will have a big influence on what people think going forward."




(Reuters)



While pundits pondered the intracacies of how Hillary Clinton might drop out of the presidential race, voters in South Dakota greeted the candidate on Monday in a traditional style by talking about issues that affect their lives. (http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/2008/06/02/south-dakota-voters-talk-issues-with-clinton/)

As she campaigned in a Rapid City diner, Clinton chatted with a nurse who asked about improving health care and a woman who wanted to talk about veterans’ care.

Margaret Dimock, 38, burst into tears as she told Clinton she works three jobs and has no health insurance because she has had seizures since childhood.




(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)



Clinton asked her staff to take down Dimock’s name and address to help her find assistance.

“Don’t get discouraged. Keep the faith,” Clinton told her. ”We’ll follow
through.”









(REUTERS/Rick Wilking)



YANKTON, S.D. -- On the eve of South Dakota’s primary election, Sen. Hillary Clinton visited Yankton to ask local voters to make a hiring decision today (Tuesday) about the United States’ next president.

“In effect, that’s what you are doing,” the former First Lady told a crowd of just more than 1,000 people gathered in the Yankton High School commons area. “You are helping to hire the next president — someone that you and your family can count on to reverse the damage that has been done and to start making smart decisions about how America can be richer and safer and stronger in the future.”

Clinton was accompanied at the venue by her daughter, Chelsea, who has been an avid campaigner on behalf of her mother.




(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)



South Dakota has great potential for assisting in the production of alternative sources such as wind and solar energy, as well as biofuels, Clinton said.

As oil companies are making record profits, Clinton added that it makes no sense that the government continues to subsidize them.

“We need a president again who is going to stand up to the oil companies,” she said.

Bringing about a responsible end to the war in Iraq and restoring America’s alliances around the world will also be top priorities, she said.

“The entire world will breathe a sigh of relief when George Bush leaves office,” Clinton said.







(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)



SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- Campaign officials said some 3,400 people showed up to the Sioux Falls, S.D., fairgrounds where the New York senator held her last scheduled campaign rally ahead of tomorrow’s final primaries in South Dakota and Montana. Before Clinton took the stage, a huge line that appeared to contain at least a thousand people stretched away from the fairground building where she was to speak. Inside, hundreds others waited — some fanning themselves with papers to deal with the muggy heat that clung to the crowd. (http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/06/03/clintons-last-stump-speech-of-2008-campaign/)

Sen. Clinton brought her family along to the speech as well. Daughter Chelsea and former President Bill Clinton took turns praising the ex-First Lady, before she launched into a speech that didn’t differ markedly from the fare she’s been serving up from the stump over the last few weeks.

Earlier in the day the normally tireless Clinton showed a rare sign of fatigue from the campaign. She twice lost her voice and had to take two separate breaks at a rally in the South Dakota city of Yankton, even handing the microphone to Chelsea and leaving the stage for a time to recover. Now, in Sioux Falls, it seemed to be happening again as she worked through her talking points on the global economy.

She tried to go on. She coughed. She took a sip of water and managed to stifle some more coughs before croaking out three quick words in a rough whisper: “A long campaign.”




(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)



Chelsea stepped in to allow the senator time to recover, and after a few minutes Clinton retook the microphone and in quick succession she touched on several of her key points: Taking on the oil companies. Ending the No Child Left Behind education policy. Executing an honorable exit from the War in Iraq. At times, her voice seemed to be weakening again, and at other moments it seemed to approach some of the fiery tones that characterized her populist push ahead of the Indiana primary.

Eventually, she came to what has become the pre-eminent issue of her campaign in recent days, that is, her candidacy itself. And she reiterated, perhaps for one of the last times, why she should be the nominee. “It is a privilege and an honor to be part of making history like this. But you know the campaign isn’t an end in itself. The campaign is to nominate the stronger candidate against Sen. McCain, because that’s the only way we’re going to win in November.







(AFP/File/Robyn Beck)



After 18 months of campaigning across the country, Hillary Clinton ended her final campaign event of the primary season with a speech very much the same way she did when it all started, with a promise that she would be a president who would wake up every day in the White House and remember the stories of those Americans who need a president to fight for them.

Clinton spoke with a solemn tone and she was clearly frustrated at one point when her uncontrollable coughing once again stopped her from continuing with her remarks. But her coughing fit seemed like a tough moment for Clinton who has fought so hard in this campaign only to get to her last event and have difficulty finishing it. Clinton even joked while coughing, “It has been a long campaign" and it has.




(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)



Later in her remarks, Sen. Clinton echoed the point. “One of the reasons that I insisted that we continue this campaign because I want South Dakota to be here in the spotlight making sure that no one can consider you invisible to this process.”

She ended her remarks with a promise that seems unlikely that she will be able keep, but she made it nonetheless. “I promise you that I will be a president and a partner and I will remember the faces I see here before me, the stories that I have heard, the places I have visited there won't be a day I won't wake up and say to myself what I will do to make sure the American dream is alive and well for everyone out there working for it. Together we can make history.”




(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

[Kittycat]

1. K&R for BigTree

Great post, and a wonderful way to round out her campaign in SD.

[bigtree]

2. thanks, Kittycat

:thumbsup:

This should be a great evening. Best wishes.

[hokies4ever]

3. She's lying about the popular vote

just wanted to point that out. Great photos by the way. :patriot:

[bigtree]

4. well,

It's not a credible argument, in my view. If that was the measure, then caucus states (whose voters are presumably not counted in her measure) would have held primaries.

Besides, there's little chance that the pols who make up the slate of superdelegates will opt to disregard Sen. Obama's pledged delegate lead and, in effect, have a national organization second-guess the way the states (constitutionally) apportioned their citizen's votes.

[hokies4ever]

16. I was bracing myself for some flaming

:patriot:

Anyway, what do you think about Hillary as V.P.? MSM is reporting that Hillary told this to some high-profile NY supporters.

[bigtree]

26. That's going to be the senator's choice to make

He needs to pick someone who he feels comfortable with and who enhances and compliments his own potential for success.

[TheDoorbellRang]

5. bigtree, thanks so much for these candidate threads

You have been an example for all of us here in GD-P.

Thank you for everything you've done. :yourock:

[bigtree]

8. you're very welcome

though, it's been my profound pleasure to post them.

[SeaLyons]

6. Thanks Bigtree

“I promise you that I will be a president and a partner and I will remember the faces I see here before me, the stories that I have heard, the places I have visited there won't be a day I won't wake up and say to myself what I will do to make sure the American dream is alive and well for everyone out there working for it. Together we can make history.”


She would have been the BEST President ever. I'm so proud of her. Seems hard to believe it won't happen.

:cry:

[bigtree]

7. .

:hug:

[rug]

9. Good job bigtree.

[bigtree]

19. thanks, rug

thanks for your dedicated support

[susankh4]

10. Beautiful!

Thanks BigTree!

[bigtree]

20. .

:thumbsup:

best wishes, susan

[CTD]

11. Interesting. Not a single person of color in any of the pics.

Enough said.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

14. No, it's not.

88.4% of the population in SD are white. Of the remainder, 8.5% are American Indian. The events focused on American Indian voters took place elsewhere.

Out of that handful of people pictured there's little surprise, considering these facts, that most of the people pictured are white.

[Dark]

12. She would have made a fine president.

n/t

[slinkerwink]

13. this makes me sad for her :-(

You're one of the best Clinton supporters on the thread.

[bigtree]

22. it will be a bittersweet night for many Democrats

best wishes, slinkerwink

[tilsammans]

15. Excellent!

Thanks so much, bigtree, for the comprehensive summary.

:dem:

[rodeodance]

17. very nice and thanks for pulling it together.

[bigtree]

18. thanks, rodeodance

lots yet to pull together. thanks for looking in! :hi:

[LucyParsons]

21. She looks great.

[Auntie Bush]

23. You the best bigtree!

:bounce: :bounce: Bill looks so proud of Hillary...he should be!

[bigtree]

25. they look great together

and, she wins South Dakota!

What a night.

[Omaha Steve]

24. Senator Clinton was not my choice

But it was her that first drove home we need to change medical care in the USA. She was ahead of her time. I wish her the best. She has been bringing the labor water bucket to D.C. while representing her state. I've never said one bad word about her on the DU other than it was time to drop out. My union (AFSCME) has spent over six million donated dollars and taken a loan for a million more to help her campaign. Money well spent.


http://www.afscme.org/about/906.cfm

You must be an AFSCME member to donate.

Why does AFSCME get involved in politics?

We elect our bosses, so we’ve got to elect politicians who support us and hold those politicians accountable. Our jobs, wages and working conditions are directly linked to politics. From privatization to budget cuts, politics at the federal, state and local levels affect public services, workers and the people we serve. Only through active participation in the political arena can AFSCME members have a say in policy-making and in electing candidates who support laws that benefit working families.
Do my dues pay for contributions to political candidates?

No. Under federal law, and many state laws, union dues cannot be used directly to fund political candidates, although they may be used to support some state-level candidates.
How does AFSCME support its political action?

AFSCME members have a voluntary, independent political organization called PEOPLE — Public Employees Organized to Promote Legislative Equality. PEOPLE is the union’s political, legislative and fundraising arm. It is supported by members’ voluntary donations and is one of the biggest political action committees in the nation.

PEOPLE is run by AFSCME members who participate in committees at the local, state and national levels. PEOPLE committees raise funds and work to elect politicians responsive to the needs of public service and health care workers.
What does PEOPLE do?

PEOPLE helps fund campaigns and coordinate member political education programs to elect candidates who support working families. But funding is only part of the winning equation. PEOPLE offers political expertise and old-fashioned leg work for candidates and campaigns that support AFSCME’s goals. Trained AFSCME volunteers and political activists can make the crucial difference in any campaign.
How can I get involved?

You can help fund PEOPLE by making a contribution or by having money sent directly from your paycheck. You can also become active with your local’s PEOPLE committee in fundraising, political action and legislative advocacy campaigns.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

27. And it looks like it paid off.

From an Obama supporter, congratulations to Hillary! :toast:

[Beacool]

28. Thanks Bigtree!!!

Thank you for all the marvelous posts, you have worked so hard to always post something positive about Hillary and her campaign.

I will miss reading them.

:hi:

[Arugula Latte]

29. Is that straight vodka in that glass? .... *kidding*