Posted on 10/28/2004 7:05:57 AM PDT by presidio9
Sen. Hillary Clinton kept John Kerry's campaign on the offensive in Pennsylvania yesterday, accusing President Bush of lacking the "effectiveness" and "strategic focus" to pursue terrorists or win the war in Iraq.
Clinton told an overflow crowd of about 800 at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell that the country "did not have enough troops" and was "not prepared" for the war.
"You cannot solve problems if you refuse to admit they exist," she said, drawing applause and hoots from the crowd.
People filled the college's Science Center and spilled into two adjacent conference rooms, where the speech was broadcast on television screens. Clinton received three standing ovations, and some in the audience chanted, "Hillary in '08," encouraging the New York senator to run for president in the next election.
Janet Perry, 58, of Schwenksville, stood in line outside the Science Center to hear the speech and said she never had a problem with Clinton's involvement in her husband's administration.
"First ladies should be used by their husbands," Perry said. "I think she's knowledgeable, intelligent, and one of the best first ladies we've ever had."
Perry's friend, Susan Campbell, agreed with Clinton that the troops had been inadequately supplied. "We're committed to something started under false pretenses," said Campbell, 59, whose 28-year-old son, Christopher, is in the U.S. military and fighting in Iraq. "He's committed to doing whatever he has to do."
She said she would vote for Kerry because she believed he could win the war in Iraq and bring her son home.
Clinton spent yesterday morning campaigning for Kerry and for state and local Democrats in Wilkes-Barre before arriving about an hour late at the community college. She went to Pinn Memorial Baptist Church in North Philadelphia last night. Kerry was campaigning in Minnesota, Iowa and Ohio.
Reacting to Clinton's statements, Bush campaign spokesman Kevin Madden said, "John Kerry and his surrogates support a dangerous policy of hesitation that encourages aggression from terrorists and would make America less safe."
Clinton, who was joined by state and local party officials, also attacked Bush for reports of missing explosives in Iraq. She called those reports "deeply disturbing."
In Lancaster earlier in the day, Bush accused Kerry of not knowing the facts about the missing explosives. Administration officials have said that the explosives might have been gone by the time U.S. troops invaded Iraq last year.
"Anyone who jumps to assumptions without knowing all the facts is not fit to be commander in chief," Bush said to thousands of Pennsylvania supporters.
In Blue Bell, Clinton told the crowd that Kerry would solve problems like health care and make sure civil liberties and rights, including abortion rights, were protected.
She also accused Bush of quashing debate and ignoring facts: "We can't afford to be told that, 'If you don't agree with me, you're wrong. If you don't follow what I say, you're somehow less American than I am.'
"Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion," Clinton said, "but no one is entitled to his own facts."
Imagine having to listen to her in the months preceeding the '08 election?
YES!
More of Hillary on the stump (it only helps Bush). Think she can get to Ohio?
Does that mean that Monica was really the first lady during the Clinton years?
Hillary Clinton could not find her own big a#$, so she has no business bashing Bush.
How come when Hillary criticizes Bush she is a patriot, but when I criticize her and her husband I am a member of the vast rightwing conspiracy?
Hey Hillary, don't you have some billing records to hide or something?
If you are really that stupid, you have no business in a voting booth.
sorry!!
Good point.
God save us from Kerry in 04 and Hillary in 08!
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
The fact that she went out and campaigned for Kerry leads me to believe things are bad in Kerryville and they are having to shore up the party faithful by bringing out Bill and shrill.
I can imagine stabbing my eardrums with an icepick.
And notice she comes out swinging for Kerry only after the polls indicate that it's a done deal for Bush.
It has been interesting how quiet she's been - you nailed it.
Wow, she's really packing 'em in! Meanwhile, GWB routinely draws crowds of 10,000 and up.
And here I thought, from reading another article yesterday on FR, that she wasn't going to speak her mind until November 3rd. So much for Hillary making promises. But that's OK, perhaps the rest of America that still don't know her too well (can't imagine too many don't) will get the full scope of what's to come in 2008, and humiliate her for the first time in her natural born life by voting her down.
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