March 26, 2008
So, Is Bill JR?
MOREHEAD, KY -- Wrapping up what he said was an "emotional" day in the Bluegrass State, Bill Clinton compared the Democratic primary race to an episode of "Dallas," and criticized those who have argued Hillary Clinton should withdraw from the race.
"Now there's a new tactic," he said. "It's to say, 'Oh what a bad sport you are for wanting to let the people of Kentucky and West Virginia and Oregon and North Carolina and Pennsylvania vote. You could get ahead in the popular vote, but you're gonna be outspent. And why don't you just pack it in, and while we're at it, we're gonna disenfranchise the people in Florida and Michigan, even if it costs us the general election.'"
The former president told the crowd at the Morehead Convention Center that they could put his wife on the path to victory. Clinton asked them to look past the historic nature of the candidates -- and he referenced John McCain's age, a fact he's mentioned of late at every possible opportunity.
"We're either gonna have our first prisoner of war and our oldest elected president, our first African American president, our first female president," he said. "We're gonna break some precedent whatever we do here. But what we got to do is pick the best president, that's what America needs now."
Clinton joked that he understood some came to see him only because of his title, "kinda like going to the zoo." And earlier, speaking to about a thousand Kentuckians in Maysville, Clinton acknowledged that he was "a long way from the roaring crowds" he saw when he was in office.
"Yeah, I spoke to a million people in Ghana once – it was quite a hit," he said, rounding up to the nearest million. "Hundreds of thousands on the eastern side of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. … I could give you lots of other examples. But when it's all over, that doesn't matter."
Clinton was full of nostalgia as he wrapped up his day in KY. He told voters in Morehead that they were fortunate to live in such a beautiful place. He talked of visiting Paris, KY, where Seabiscuit is buried. "I though he was the greatest horse I ever saw," he said. Clinton even gushed about an impromptu visit to a local Dairy Queen between stops. "Never took me so long to get an ice cream cone in my life," he said of the crowd he found there. "But I think I made Hillary a few votes."
Heather French Henry, a former Miss America and wife of former Kentucky Lieutenant Governor Steve Henry, joined Clinton at two of his stops. Speaking before the Maysville event, she recalled how Clinton singled her out for her work on behalf of veterans when he was president. And, she took a swipe at Barack Obama as she praised Hillary for her advocacy for veterans.
"Now see, I know that some out there may have the audacity to hope, but Sen. Hillary Clinton has the audacity to actually do the work that it takes to be the next president of the United States," she said.
(NBC/NJ's MIKE MEMOLI)
Posted at 09:01 AM
Comments
Post a comment
The Watergate · 600 New Hampshire Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20037
202-739-8400 · fax 202-833-8069
NationalJournal.com is an Atlantic Media publication.
