May 06, 2008
Running On Fumes
EVANSVILLE, IN - Hillary Clinton, running on fumes as the campaign winds down in Indiana, made one last push for her gas tax plan last night, arguing that being president is not "some abstract exercise."
"I want you to know the solutions that I am proposing to solve the problems that America faces," she told a modest but enthusiastic crowd at Central High School. "This is not some abstract exercise for me. This is about rolling up our sleeves and getting to work and making life better for hard working middle class families."
Her biggest applause line came when she brought up the cost of fuel, which she warned could reach $5 per gallon by summer's end.
"Some people say to me, well why are you so excited about this?" she said. "Why are you so determined about this? I'll tell you why. Oil just hit over $120 a barrel today. What we have to figure out is what we're going to do about it in the long term, [and] what we're going to do about it today. Because I know people are having a hard time. They tell me. Maybe they don't hear about it in Washington, but when I'm in Indiana folks tell me it makes them sick going up to the gas station trying to fill up their tank."
As her plane was landing in Evansville prior to the event, Clinton doggedly stood by her plan for a tax holiday, even as it was pointed out that such a plan has little chance of succeeding in Congress.
"I believe that Democrats should stand for it. That's what I believe," she said. "And what is the alternative? What are we doing? Oil is $120 a barrel. For goodness sakes. ... That deserves some kind of response."
Clinton also told the traveling press corps that she didn't want to make any predictions about the outcome of IN's critical primary contest.
"This has been, I think anyone would agree, a pretty unpredictable campaign season," she said. "We knew we started out behind. Senator Obama had a tremendous amount of advantages going into this, and we've worked really hard."
The Evansville area is one the campaign has targeted heavily. And she closed out her campaign by saying to the audience here that the election "is not about me, this is about all of us."
"You are going to make a decision tomorrow about who you would hire for the toughest job in the world. I am here, interviewing for the job," she said. "I hope you will decide tomorrow to give me a chance to serve you, to get into that White House and think about you and your futures every day. To roll up my sleeves and start producing solutions, not speeches. Results, not rhetoric. It's time we turn America around."
(NBC/NJ's MIKE MEMOLI)
Posted at 08:37 AM
Comments
As her plane was landing in Evansville prior to the event, Clinton doggedly stood by her plan for a tax holiday, even as it was pointed out that such a plan has little chance of succeeding in Congress.
Eeeeevil! Eeeeevil!
More evidence that the media really really want Obama to win and really really want Clinton to lose. The gas tax issue is just the latest. Listen to Paul Krugman:
There’s a lot of troubling stuff in both Democrats’ proposals. Mandates aside, Obama is seriously low-balling the cost of health care reform, and promising way too much in middle-class tax cuts. Clinton’s numbers don’t quite add up either, though she’s probably closer to the mark — and both Dems are towering figures of responsibility compared with McCain. Amid all this, the gas tax holiday is a real issue, but a small one; don’t let economist’s [sic] tendency to overemphasize their areas of expertise distort your view.
"The gas tax holiday is a real issue but a small one."
Lather, rinse, repeat.
corinne | 05.06.08 10:38 AM
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