"There's still people outside. I invited them in and was told there was no room... I believe they're right," joked former President Bill Clinton with the 1,000 person crowd packed into Western's Old PE gymnasium on Saturday, April 26.
Former President Bill Clinton was in town promoting New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's bid for the presidency and to inform rural Oregonians about Hillary Clinton's "Solutions for America" campaign. In addition to Monmouth, Clinton made stops in North Bend, Junction City, Albany, McMinville, Oregon City and Portland.
Hopeful and excited spectators began lining up to see Clinton before six in the morning. By noon, the line wrapped around Old PE, winded across Parking lot H, and followed the fence surrounding the football field on Jackson St. to Stadium Drive.
Spectators came for various reasons. Some said that they were there to support Sen. Clinton's campaign, others just to see a former United States president and some to show opposition to the candidate or the democratic party. One group showed up with a poster showing their support for the other democratic candidate, Barack Obama. There was even a young man who attended wearing a red shirt that read "Republicans kick ass."
For one Corvallis resident, Blake Hagan, hearing Clinton speak was "refreshing."
"A lot of what he said was music to my ears, it really all made sense and was intelligent," said Hagan. "A lot of the points he made would help us move to a more sustainable and prosperous society."
Clinton spoke about many topics during his hour-long address. "Our economy is in the tank and we need to restore our standing with the rest of the world," stated the former president early in his speech. He outlined Sen. Clinton's plan to create more jobs, make a stronger commitment to science and research, decreasing America's dependence on oil and improving education.
"Ninety percent of the benefits go to ten percent of the richest people in this country...the idea of trickle down economics is not working," said Clinton. "During the nineties more people were moving from poverty to the middle class and experiencing the American dream, during the past eight years a large portion of the middle class has moved into poverty and are experiencing the American nightmare."
In hopes of relieving this "American nightmare", Clinton spoke about Sen. Clinton's plan for universalizing health care through cutting administrative costs and lowering the amount citizens pay in insurance premiums.
"Health care costs have doubled in the past seven years. If we do it again, you can't bring back the middle class." Clinton cited no need for these increasing costs.
"We are the only wealthy country in the world that doesn't treat all people and we spend 50 percent more than any other country [on health care]."
Clinton's proposal for further alleviating America's economic woes tied directly into Sen. Clinton's plan for energy independence. Clinton said that Americans need immediate relief from the rising costs at the pumps. Clinton stated that a short term relief solution to the rising fuel costs would be to release more oil from strategic reserves, suspend the federal gas tax, and have the Federal Trade Commission conduct an investigation of oil companies and price gouging. Clinton said that if these changes happen, Americans would be able to use the money they are spending at the pumps elsewhere, thus boosting the economy.
In addition to relieving prices at the pumps, Clinton said that Sen. Clinton's plan for adopting and requiring sustainable energy practices would help create more jobs.
"By training and paying experts to make buildings across the country more energy efficient we will create jobs and find energy efficient solutions," he said. He also made the claim that these jobs "can't be outsourced." According to Clinton, each state would get an allocation of federal money to spend on these green upgrades.
Clinton also outlined Sen. Clinton's plan to improve education. He said that Sen. Clinton wanted to implement free universal pre-kindergarten and wants to change nearly everything in the No Child Left Behind Act.
"There is an achievement gap when kids in this country hit grades 8-11 when compared to other rich countries," said Clinton. "This has nothing to do with capacity, children in other countries start school sooner, spend more time in school each year and they pay their educators more."
Higher education was also included in Sen. Clinton's plans for education. The Senator's plans for relieving the burden put on college students include raising the tuition tax credit and "cracking down" on student loan companies who are charging exorbitant interest rates. Clinton claimed that by lowering the interest rates, the drop out rate for college students would fall.
"Don't drop out," said Clinton to the college students in the audience. "We will lower the rates."
Along those same lines, Clinton reported that "She [Sen. Clinton] believes that if you leave college and go into public serivice you will never get rich, but do good... that your service itself should repay your loans."
On a more local level, Clinton highlighted Sen. Clinton's "Oregon Compact," which calls for restoring payments to counties for federal timber sales, allowing the harvest of second-growth forests while protecting old-growth, and protecting the state's right in siting liquefied natural gas terminals.
It was only during the discussion of the liquefied natural gas terminals, that Clinton criticized competing democratic candidate hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama. He criticized Obama's affirmative vote on the Bush-Cheney energy bill that stripped Oregon of its ability to decide where the siting of three proposed liquid natural gas facilities would be located.
"You may want them, but you ought to have a say in them, don't you think?" asked Clinton.
Both candidates have campaigned through Oregon recently and are likely to return. Sen. Clinton is encouraging voters to sign her petition calling for a presidential debate in Oregon before Oregon's primary on May 20. For more information about the petition go to www.debateoregon.com.•
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