Hillary Clinton Traveling with Bayh Across the Crossroads of America

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Thu Mar-20-08 08:40 PM
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Hillary Clinton Traveling with Bayh Across the Crossroads of America

Edited on Thu Mar-20-08 09:17 PM by bigtree

title from WaPo: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/03/20/traveling_with_bayh_across_the.html

ANDERSON, Ind. -- Sen. Evan Bayh has a reputation for hokey all-American goodness, and campaigning with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in his home state on Thursday, he lived up to it.

As the pair faced questions about whether Clinton might pick Bayh as her vice president, the Indiana senator joked that it is the "only vice" he's every been associated with. In a high school gymnasium here, about an hour outside Indianapolis, the crowd loved it.

Clinton drew large, enthusiastic crowds in Terre Haute and in Anderson, a working-class town that has suffered severe job losses in the manufacturing sector in recent years. She drew on her husband's popularity among state Democrats. Traveling alongside Bayh, she promised to revisit trade agreements and help renew job growth. In a high school arena here, she said: "I know during this campaign there have been some folks who've said, 'We don't want to go back to the 1990s. And I always think, which part of the '90s they didn't like, the peace or the prosperity?"

Comparing the economic landscape to the one she has become familiar with in upstate New York, Clinton said the key to improving the economy nationwide is to "reverse this tide, this ocean of red ink" caused by excessive federal spending.

Hillary Rodham Clinton began a swing across Indiana Thursday with a late-morning stop at restaurant, answering questions about the economy, Iraq and health care, three main points she has stressed during her campaign for president.

The New York senator arrived to cheers from dozens of supporters who packed the Saratoga Diner. Hundreds more filled the sidewalks outside before she arrived for the first of three stops planned in the state.

She and Democratic colleague Sen. Evan Bayh sat at a table with several residents, talking with them about their concerns. Bayh, who comes from a small town near Terre Haute, has been mentioned prominently as a possible running mate should Clinton win the nomination.

She said the country's middle class had suffered under President Bush, with the average Indiana family's income declining more than $2,000 since he took office.

'We're not standing up for people who work hard every single day, whether they're making cars or making pharmaceuticals or they're making some other product here,' Clinton said. 'It's not the same world where we can just work harder and harder and harder and get ahead. We have to be smarter and our government has to be a partner with our companies and our workers.'

Bayh introduced Clinton, saying it had been about 40 years since Indiana had had a meaningful presidential campaign.

"It's about time," he said.

Bayh said he wanted Clinton's trip to start in Terre Haute both because this is where he grew up and because the city, like Indiana, has both challenges and blessings.

Clinton said she is optimistic the nation can make needed changes.

However, she added, "It won't be easy."

"We have to resolve - we're going to have to start acting like Americans again," Clinton said.

Clinton was surrounded by folks facing real Hoosier issues. At the table a family struggling to keep their small farm in operation because of rising fuel costs.

"We got to stay committed to a different energy future we got to have higher gas mileage care, we got to have more cars that are flex fuel," said Clinton.

Then it was on to the economy and saving jobs. The biggest hit in the Wabash Valley recently, the hundreds of jobs lost at Pfizer. Clinton says she will work to keep pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. and figure out a way that folks won't get laid off when a product fails.

"I don't know the best way to do this because we put both an enormous burden then have very high rewards for our drug companies," said Clinton.

"I also think we should limit the amount of money that anybody had to pay for their health insurance premium to a small percentage of their income," said Clinton.

Hillary Clinton also called on Thursday for a second stimulus package, including a $30 billion emergency housing fund, to help boost the ailing U.S. economy.

Saying "the housing and credit crisis is the biggest threat to the health of our economy," the New York senator said the emergency fund would help states buy foreclosed properties and provide mortgage restructuring.

Her proposal also included expanding the Mortgage Revenue Bond Program by giving state housing agencies up to $10 billion to refinance "unworkable mortgages," the Clinton campaign said in a statement.

Her campaign said the newly enacted $168 billion stimulus package passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President George W. Bush did not go far enough to address the housing problem.

"Declining home values and record foreclosures threaten to not only devastate millions of American families but send communities across the country spiraling into deep recession."

"I think that we have been badly served by this administration," she told reporters earlier in Terre Haute, Indiana.

No surrogate appears more essential, or more omnipresent during her visits, than Bayh, who toyed with the idea of running for president himself. At times during Clinton's three-city tour of Indiana on Thursday, Bayh practically pleaded with voters to share his enthusiasm. (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gCQr7tgGXOTwLMGZA09ziKeRoIywD8VHEJG80)

"I just wish that all the American people could see Hillary the way I have seen her," he said as he wrapped up the hour long round-table, where he seemed to answer almost as many questions as she did.

He told of visiting wounded U.S. troops with Clinton at a German hospital, where her energy and attention struck everyone. "I've seen firsthand her commitment to our troops," Bayh said to applause.

Clinton on Thursday often noted what "Evan and I" have done in Washington, including trying to increase investments in alternative fuels including ethanol, a popular stand in this corn-growing state.

Inevitably, local reporters asked the New York visitor if she would consider Bayh as her running mate. Patrons of the Saratoga cafe chanted "Bayh for vice" when the two entered.

"It's premature and presumptuous to talk about any of that," Clinton responded, as Bayh hovered inches away. She continued: "I don't think it would be any surprise to anyone what high regard I hold Evan Bayh in. ... I'm a great admirer of his."