Clinton focuses on economy in historic visit to South Bend

by Dustin Grove (grove@wsbt.com)

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Former President Bill Clinton speaks at the West Side Democratic Club as his daughter Chelsea looks on

Former President Bill Clinton speaks at the West Side Democratic Club as his daughter Chelsea looks on, Monday March 24, 2008. (WSBT photo)

By Beth Boehne

Story Created: Mar 24, 2008 at 4:03 PM EST

Story Updated: Mar 24, 2008 at 5:11 PM EST

SOUTH BEND — While Hillary campaigned in Pennsylvania, former President Bill Clinton and their daughter Chelsea stumped in our area Monday.

The Clintons began their day in South Bend with two historic stops.

First, they helped celebrate Dyngus Day with hundreds of voters at South Bend's West Side Democratic Club. It was the first time a presidential campaign has made a stop at the club since Robert Kennedy back in 1968.

President Clinton and Chelsea had a special guest with them — Robert Kennedy's daughter, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. All three of them asked voters to vote for Hillary.

"The last time it was like this at the West Side Democratic Club was 40 years ago,” said former Indiana Governor Joe Kernan.

Monday, 40 years after a visit by presidential hopeful Robert Kennedy, his daughter was here, along with the 42nd president himself.

"She can win this race and we have got to win!” Kennedy Townsend told a packed hall.

Winning in Indiana is critical. Indiana is one of the last states to hold its primary election, and it's still up for grabs.

"We don't want to go to all this trouble and not win,” President Clinton said. “There was a poll last week that had her six points ahead of Senator McCain and her opponent behind him in Ohio."

If his wife wins here, President Clinton said he also believes she'll take West Virginia and Kentucky, too. They may not be big-player states, but in a race that hasn't been this close in decades, everyone everywhere counts.

The stop in South Bend Monday is the second time in less than a week the Clinton campaign has visited Indiana, from high school gyms to small town halls, stumping for what they call Solutions for America.

For close to 20 minutes, former President Bill Clinton talked about a lot. There was the war, there was health care, but his number one issue was jobs and the economy — something he says his wife can bring back.

“Hillary's plan would create millions of jobs in every rural area, small town, big city, and suburb in Indiana by committing us to more solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy,” Clinton said.

Part of the plan would include a fund help pay to retrofit every public building in America.

"Just think about how many jobs would be created in South Bend if you knew you could fix every school building, every one of the college buildings in this community, every government building,” Clinton said.

“Think about it. You create jobs for college graduates like electrical engineers, but you'd also create jobs for high school dropouts who could change the windows, change the lighting, put in the automatic temperature controls, put sod on the roof to cut down on the heat in the winter and the air conditioning bill in the summer — millions of jobs.”

Clinton also told voters his wife, as president, would continue working to stop unfair trade, as she has in the Senate.

Karen Kirner says the senator's experience is what sold her.

"All her time spent as a senator, her legal background, the fact that she was in the White House for so many years,” Kirner explained. "What she wants to do with the environment and energy sources is right on target.”

The Clinton family hopes they'll soon return to the White House.

"She's your candidate and I hope you'll support her,” Clinton said.

Senator Clinton herself will be back in Indiana Friday, but it’s not clear yet exactly where she’ll appear.

Stay with WSBT News for continuing coverage of the Clinton and Obama campaigns as we move closer to Indiana’s primary, and go to WSBT.com’s Campaign ’08 section for more information and voter resources.

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