Former President Makes Landmark Rally Visit in Quakertown, PA

Says Pennsylvanians will soon have to decide on their next leader

Town and Country Newspaper (Published 4/17/08 Edition; Volume 109, No. 3) 

By Sergei Blair-Correspondent

It’s down to the wire in Pennsylvania.

With less than five days remaining before Pennsylvania voters head for the polls in next week’s primary elections, former President Bill Clinton made a local campaign stop at Quakertown Community Area High School, Tuesday, April 15, as part of Hillary Clinton’s presidential statewide “Solutions for America” campaign tour.

The high school’s gymnasium, packed with nearly 1,500 welcoming spectators including students, became center stage for the former president. Hundreds of cell phones and cameras beamed above the heads of the crowd while the high school’s own jazz ensemble played a selected piece as President Clinton made his way to the podium. The fully-packed high school gym was under a constant watch by the Secret Service and local police officers with bomb-sniffing dogs.

During his nearly hour-long conversational-style speech, Clinton praised his wife as a “servant leader” who has always of fered her time to help others.

“She’s a leader and a change maker,” he said. “I’d be here for her if we weren’t married.”
Clinton outlined his wife’s political strategy in dealing with big issues like economic instability, soaring health care, education and energy costs, and the lingering war in Iraq.

Democratic Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, however, was making a different campaign stop of her own along side of Pennsylvania Governor, Ed Rendell in Bristol Township at the time her husband spoke in Quakertown. According to the latest Philadelphia Daily News election track poll, Clinton's democratic opponent Sen. Barak Obama is slowly narrowing the gap while still trailing behind. The poll shows Clinton leads Obama with 46%, while the Illinois Senator is gaining momentum with 40%. This all is less then 5 days before Tuesday's state primary.  

The former president drew thunderous applause from the audience when he explained Hillary’s position on ending and revising President George W. Bush’s “No Child Left Behind Act.”

“She [Hillary] believes we should have a universal pre-kindergarten strategy available to every kid in the country,” he said.

Quakertown High School students John Weibel and Andreya Shaak, both 18, enthusiastically agreed they were excited to see and hear from the former president. “Because he’s been at the White House before, he definitely knows what he’s talking about while representing his wife,” Weibel said.

Clinton echoed the economic concerns of Karol and Jenny Deifenderfer — a local couple who attended the event with their two teenage daughters—by emphasizing that the most important solution we all need to come up with is how to restore the country’s shared prosperity and how to regain America’s standing in the world.

“This country works better when it looks like the way this room [gymnasium] does tonight where we’re united across all our various divisions, but we’re a long way from there,” Clinton said.

The Diefenderfers said that the most important issue for them in this election season is the crippling economic condition. They said they were glad to hear the president laying out his wife’s economic plan.

Quakertown was the third of four stops former President Clinton made Tuesday as part of his extensive campaigning on behalf of his wife. He traveled to Easton Area High School in Easton, Pa., after his stop in Bucks County, to make an appearance there Tuesday night.

The latest poll results have been updated on 4/17/08 but were not published in the paper.