Missoula News

Montana STays in the Spotlight

In Missoula, Bill Clinton Makes a Case for Hillary

By Matthew Frank, 5-14-08

	Former President Bill Clinton campaigned for his wife and Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Hillary Clinton at the University of Montana in Missoula Wednesday morning. About 1,100 people filled the Adams Center's West Auxiliary Gym to hear Mr. Clinton make the case that Hillary can "turn speeches into solutions, problems into progress." "She is the best change maker I've ever known," he said. Photos by Michael Schweizer.

The morning after Sen. Hillary Clinton clobbered Sen. Barack Obama in the West Virginia primary by 41 percentage points, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, came to the University of Montana in Missoula to make his case for her candidacy, despite what many political pundits and elected officials say is an insurmountable Obama lead in delegates, the popular vote and now superdelegates.

Mr. Clinton likened Hillary's campaign to the 1995 University of Montana Grizzlies football team that came back in the fourth quarter against Marshall to win the Division I-AA national championship -- a game played in West Virginia. "No Democrat has won the White House without West Virginia since 1916," he said.

That's the campaign's main argument at this stage in the game: that Hillary would be stronger than Obama versus the presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain in November in key swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio.

But no matter the Democratic candidate, "all of us have worked too hard and too long not to win in November," Mr. Clinton said, assuring that Sen. Clinton's refusal to drop out before June 3 -- when the primary season's final votes are cast, in Montana and South Dakota -- will not affect party unity.

Another argument, articulated at length by Mr. Clinton Wednesday, is that the delegates in Florida and Michigan should be seated. (The states were stripped of their delegates by the Democratic National Committee for moving up their primaries, a violation of party rules.) Hillary won both states, though neither candidate campaigned and Obama wasn't on the Michigan ballot.

"I never thought it would be the Democratic Party that didn't want to count votes in Florida," Mr. Clinton said.

The former president, speaking before a fairly subdued crowd about 1,100 in the Adams Center's West Auxiliary Gym, said Montana voters need to answer two questions: Who would be the best president, and who's most likely to win against McCain? "I'll leave the second question for you to answer," he said, and then launched into laundry list of problems facing the United States and why Hillary is best suited to solve them, namely global climate change and energy, the ailing economy, expensive health insurance, the war in Iraq and education.

On the issue of climate change, Mr. Clinton said he had flown over eastern Oregon and Montana in recent days and "the wind was blowing like crazy, and there was not a windmill in site." He spoke of Hillary's proposals for smart power grids, upgrading rail lines, to give incentives to car companies to build many more plug-in electric cars, to find creative ways to mine more lithium in South America to make more batteries -- "to move to transportation systems where we can get around with less oil and, eventually, with none."

On education, Mr. Clinton said, "No Child Left Behind is a failure," perhaps bringing the morning's loudest cheers. He said Hillary vows to close the learning gap, to make college more affordable with low interest loan payments based on income and service opportunities, and to "get America back in the research business," including stem cell research.

Mr. Clinton tied the economic downturn closely to soaring health insurance costs. "It turns out the morally right thing to do" -- providing health insurance to every single American -- "is the economically essential thing to do," he said. He asked the audience to raise their hands if they had a close friend or family member without health insurance. About two-thirds did. "If we were having this meeting in any other wealthy country, not a single, solitary sole would raise their hand."

On the war, he said: "She's the best candidate by a country mile to bring the troops home."

After speaking for more than an hour, Mr. Clinton said plainly, "That's my case for her. She'd be the best president…able to turn speeches into solutions, problems into progress. She is the best change maker I've ever known."

Angie McCullough of Florence, a Clinton supporter, was sitting up on the gym bleachers against the wall. "I feel like we're taking a stab here," she said of Clinton and Obama, "and if we pick the wrong one they're not going to beat McCain."

When asked about the possibility of a joint ticket she said, "That would be awesome." Then her mother-in-law Eleanor chimed in: "But could they work together, though?"

Eleanor thinks Bill Clinton was an outstanding president, the best since Kennedy. "That's one of the things that swings me toward Hillary," she said.

Jane East of Missoula, a healthcare worker and Hillary supporter, sat holding a piece of paper with a penned question about energy and transportation policy, but there was never an opportunity to ask it.

"I think the question of our age is human growth and how it impacts the environment," she said, "and so far we're not addressing it at all.

"Any Democrat is better than a Republican," she said. Like Angie and Eleanor, she'll vote for Obama if Clinton can't pull it off.

"McCain's a Westerner, somewhat," Jane said. "He knows what the issues are, but he's a Washington insider. I just don't trust him."

Mr. Clinton's visit to Missoula was another example of the unlikely attention the city has received this election year. Hillary and Obama both visited Missoula in April, as did Republican candidate Ron Paul, and Democrat John Edwards came last September.

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