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Former President Clinton rallies support for Hillary in Whiteville
By NICOLE CARTRETTE
Staff Writer
A crowd of roughly 1,200 welcomed former President Bill Clinton to Whiteville Wednesday. Arriving in town about an hour later than scheduled, spectators joined in everything from chants of “H-I-L-L-A-R-Y” and “we want Bill” prior to his arrival on stage.
He stood on a platform before the restored Vineland Station Depot rallying support for his wife Hillary.
The U.S. Senator is in an unprecedented and lengthy rivalry with U.S. Senator Barak Obama for the Democratic nomination for president, which has thrust North Carolina into the national spotlight as the May 6 primary election nears.
The depot is the same location Bill Clinton chose eight years ago when he became the first U.S. president to ever visit Columbus County.
Then he spoke about bridging the gap in the “digital divide” and bringing high speed Internet to rural communities.
Wednesday he spoke about bridging the gap in Medicare prescription drug costs, providing healthcare to all Americans, tapping into oil reserves to lower the cost of gasoline, improving veteran medical benefits and lowering student loan interest rates – all initiatives and plans he said Hillary Clinton will enact, if elected president.
“Bush took us back to trickle down economics,” Clinton insisted. He criticized the Bush administration for “90 percent of tax cuts going to the top 10 percent of income earners” and called them “disgraceful.”
“We’ve got to get incomes up but you can’t get incomes up unless you’ve got jobs,” Clinton said.
He said his wife’s solution to increasing gas prices was both “short and long term.”
He said people were being forced to choose between buying gas, food or medicine for their parents.
He said the release of oil from the strategic reserve was needed for immediate relief. “We have plenty of oil in case of an emergency and this is an emergency for some people,” Clinton declared as the crowd cheered. He said “a lot of people” will say he is “pandering to voters” when discussing the use of reserves. “That’s somebody that can afford to get to work in the morning,” Clinton said.
He said any presidential candidate who promises to control gas prices is not being honest, pointing out that Hillary Clinton’s long term solution included alternative fuels, use of landfill waste and hybrid engine models.
On healthcare, he chided insurance companies for spending billions each year on paperwork alone while many go uninsured.
“Hillary’s alternative is simple,” he said. “If you like the healthcare you have, you can keep it or buy into the same plan for congress and federal employees.”
With huge pools, administrative costs go down, he insisted.
On education, Clinton said his wife would push for federal funding to ensure all children, regardless of income, have access to pre-kindergarten education and “bag No Child Left Behind.”
The former president said, “You want your children to learn science, math and technology” but pointed out when schools and teachers are pushed to teach for a test and only for tests true learning is left behind along with history, the arts and economics.
He said government loans got him through law school and that those loans at 2 percent interest rates are a far cry from what some private lenders are charging college students today. “We need to crack down on abusive private lenders charging 14, 16 and 17 percent interest rates,” Clinton said.
“Americans resent unfairness, not success,” he said.
Clinton entertained the crowd with comic relief as he portrayed his wife as the underdog candidate who had proven the “political media” wrong as he noted she won state after state despite polls that predicted otherwise.
Nearly 30 minutes into the speech a woman fainted prompting Clinton to call for an ambulance and rescue workers. Without skipping a beat he added: “At my age, I didn’t know I could make anyone faint.”
He paired his humor with a serious voice of support for his wife’s campaign and defended his tour of small towns throughout the state within the last two days.
“I have not been exiled to the countryside,” Clinton said, adding that he “loved small town America.”
“All these people that tell you she can’t win are wrong,” Clinton declared before closing with a few “Clinton laws of politics.”
“If someone calls and telling you it’s nothing personal, hold your breath,” because they are about to lash into you, the former president insisted.
“If someone tells you that you can’t win its because they know you can,” he concluded before shaking hands with eager spectators who rushed the fence surrounding the stage as he signed autographs, shook hands, and hugged supporters.
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