Published: May 02, 2008 10:41 am            

Clinton talks about tough times at Jeffersonville High School

Hillary Clinton used the story of Robbie Campbell, a local man who was laid off when the Colgate-Palmolive Co. plant closed months back, to illustrate her point about what Americans are facing as a result of a sluggish U.S. economy.

“You heard from Robbie Campbell,” she told the crowd gathered at Jeffersonville High School to hear the New York senator and former first lady speak Thursday.

“He was working, making a good living, when the plant he was at shutdown.

“That’s happened a lot in Indiana,” she said. “It’s happened from southern to northern to eastern to western Indiana.”

Campbell’s was one of 45,000 manufacturing jobs lost in the state since George W. Bush took office, she added.

The Colgate plant, located in Clarksville, closed in December. About half of the work done at the Clarksville plant was moved to Tennessee, the rest went to Mexico.

Similar tales of hardship followed during the stump speech.

She spoke about a divorced woman with breast cancer who could barely afford her medical bills in the midst of raising four children. She lamented high-interest student debt that’s creating a generation of what she said are “indentured servants.” And she talked about the rising cost of oil.

However, throughout her discussion about challenges facing Americans, there was nary a mention of the biggest challenge facing her presidential candidacy — fellow Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, of Illinois.

Thursday’s appearance was just the latest in a slew of similar speeches she and Obama have made across the state as Tuesday’s Democratic Party primary nears. Obama is leading in the amount of overall delegates needed for the nomination.

According to national media sources, he has about 1,491, while she has 1,332; 2,025 are needed in order to get the party nod.

Obama has come by high-profile endorsements in recent days, the most notable locally being that of 9th District Rep. Baron Hill.

However, as the Obama campaign continues to be shaken by the controversial statements of the senator’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Clinton is enjoying a resurgence.

She won a crucial primary in Pennsylvania about two weeks ago. And a statewide poll released earlier this week shows she’s nearly closed what had been a 15-point gap in favor of Obama just two months ago. The Howey-Gauge poll has Obama leading Clinton by 2 percentage points — well within the poll’s margin of error.

High-profile supporter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who appeared with and introduced Clinton on Thursday — said the resurgence is happening because the voters have taken a good long look at Clinton.

Orating on Clinton’s initial run for Senate in New York in 2000, Kennedy said, “she had to endure the same kind of attacks as my father had to endure — which was to be called a carpet-bagger.”

However, she went to Republican strongholds of upstate New York and turned them into Democratic areas, he said.

“The people of upstate New York had a good look at Hillary Clinton.”

Her recent upswing in the polls can be similarly attributed, he said.

“I wasn’t surprised. People, this party has gotten a good look at Hillary Clinton and they know that all those negatives thrown out for 10 years by the right-wing Republicans are not true,” he said.

Clinton told the audience that she wanted them to hold her accountable for the campaign promises, such as cutting out tax benefits for those shipping jobs overseas, a short-term holiday on the federal gas tax and offering federal health care to those without private coverage.

She also pledged that she would end the No Child Left Behind Education plan — a statement that drew a standing ovation.

Clinton spoke about her experience and said that she was offering specifics, rather than “nice speeches.”

“After we swear in our next president, we have to decide: Are we going forward together or are we going to continue to see the deterioration of our economy, our middle class, our health-care system?” she asked.

        

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