Hillary Clinton Focuses on Issues Important to Voters in Montana and South Dakota

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Fri May-30-08 09:19 AM
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Hillary Clinton Focuses on Issues Important to Voters in Montana and South Dakota

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

PABLO, Montana -- With the jagged, snow-covered peaks of the Mission Mountains as a backdrop, Sen. Hillary Clinton pledged her support Tuesday to tribal sovereignty, Indian health care and economic growth on reservations in Montana.

�We need a president next January who understands the obligation that the United States government has to the tribes that represent the first peoples of the United States,� Clinton told a crowd of more than 1,000 at Salish Kootenai College on the Flathead Indian reservation.

Hillary Clinton drew loud cheers Tuesday, promising to include Indians in her health care plan and to tackle health issues like diabetes.
Clinton was greeted by tribal dancers and given a pair of moccasins and a beaded necklace by Joseph McDonald, the president of the tribal college.

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Should she overcome Obama's comfortable lead in delegates and beat Sen. John McCain in the general election, Clinton promised to appoint and work closely with a representative of Indian Country and to create more economic opportunities for tribes in the region.

Renewable energy production could be a huge source of income for tribes in the West, Clinton said, and it would help relieve the nation�s energy crisis.

�Under my energy plan, the federal government will be investing in tribal leaders who want to make the transition to clean energy. There are many places in the United States, in Indian country, that could be the leaders in wind and solar energy, and geothermal energy,� Clinton said.

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

When 10-year-old Payton Lefthand of Polson heard on the radio Tuesday morning that Sen. Hillary Clinton was going to be in Pablo - Pablo! - campaigning later in the day, he informed his grandmother of two things:

First, he would be skipping school to go hear her, and second, his grandmother would be taking him.

OK, he asked if they could go listen - but Naida Lefthand knew she didn't have much of a choice. �When she first announced she was a candidate, Payton thought it was so cool,� Naida said. �He's kind of convinced everybody to vote for her.�

The Lefthands - Payton's 9-year-old sister Lauren came, too - arrived by noon, early enough to secure front-row seats during Clinton's outdoor appearance at Salish Kootenai College.

Lauren even got to ask the former first lady a question after her speech - what would she do in her first 100 days as president? - while Payton was content to listen.

He wanted to be here, he said, �because Hillary might become the first woman to be a president.�

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton pointed to a sign bobbing among a mob of supporters at Salish Kootenai College on Tuesday and nodded in agreement.

Clinton read the sign aloud, �Native Vote. It Counts,� and with a wide grin added her own touch: �It counts more than ever.�

Clinton's appearance on the Flathead Indian Reservation was greeted with a crowd of some 1,200 supporters, who chanted �Hill-a-ry, Hill-a-ry�, when the New York senator stepped onto a small platform at the start of a town hall-style rally.

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

�We need a president that will represent the tribes of the first people of the United States,� Clinton told the diverse crowd of young and old, tribal and non-tribal members, who stomped and whistled in appreciation.

�We were moving forward - not fast enough, but with discernable progress, much of which has either stalled or gone backward (during the current administration),� Clinton said, adding: �We need a president next January who understands the obligation the United States government has to the tribes that represent the first peoples of the United States.�

�We must return to what was the case in the Clinton White House in the 1990s - we will have a representative of Indian Country inside the White House working with the president every single day. That's what we did in the '90s. George Bush eliminated that; I will return it so those issues are the highest priority in the White House and in the president's office.�

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

MADISON, South Dakota -- Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton stopped in (at a diner) in Madison Thursday morning and asked Democrats to vote for her in South Dakota's primary on Tuesday.

Clinton spoke one-on-one with a number of people at the diner, as well as making remarks and taking questions from the crowd. She was engaging and attentive.

To possess those characteristics in a campaign of this length and intensity is remarkable. Both Clinton and fellow candidate Barack Obama have unbelievable schedules, campaigning every morning, afternoon and evening, seven days a week. They're in the public spotlight every minute and each word they speak is dissected by local, state and national observers.

(AP Photos/Elise Amendola)

Clinton showed no effects of that grueling schedule Thursday morning. Her pace of meeting people and speaking with them was appropriate. She took time to talk to students and ask them about their future plans.

She alluded only briefly to the questions about her leaving the race when it appears Obama will win the nomination. She stuck to her theme that Democrats of every state should be allowed to make their voices heard -- even in a state like South Dakota, which has fewer delegates and is last on the primary schedule.

A presidential candidate doesn't make it to Madison very often, and Clinton's appearance Thursday is symbolic of her tireless drive.

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

HURON, SD -- Saying it "really all does come down to next Tuesday," Hillary Clinton said that the enthusiasm she's seen among South Dakotans proves that she was right to fight to the bitter end of the campaign calendar. (http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/29/1078181.aspx)

"A lot of folks said, 'Well, you know, by the time we get to South Dakota and Montana, people are going to be tired of it,'" Clinton said, again quoting unnamed skeptics. "Well, I don't know what they're talking about... I think there is an enormous amount of enthusiasm for this election here in South Dakota, and it's because you're taking our measure and you're trying to decide who you can count on to be your president."

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Clinton, who said that politics "can get either silly or complicated," said this nomination "really all does come down to next Tuesday," and pointed to the fact that voters across America have ignored pundits who have called the race over.

"This is the closest election we've had in a really long time," she said. "They've been trying to tell me to stop running since January. Every time they say it, people rebuke it, and keep voting for me. That's what I hope will happen here in South Dakota."

The rally here was held indoors because of rain. Only some of the crowd was able to fit into the meeting hall where she spoke, and Clinton later greeted some of the overflow outside. "We couldn't get everybody in here," she told the audience. "But I want to take credit for the rain, 'cause I know that's something that everybody is happy to see."

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Clinton had one of the best turnouts of her South Dakota campaign in Huron, but the event didn't come off as planned. She was to have spoken in a park under a red, white and blue band shell, facing two rows of American flags. But with a light drizzle coming down and the prospect of heavier rain, campaign officials reluctantly moved indoors about an hour and a half before she arrived from Madison.

They scrambled to set up a banquet room in the nearby Huron Events Center.

While Secret Service agents swept the room with a dog, hundreds of people - many under umbrellas - waited outside in a line stretching down the block. Space inside the events center was limited, and many people were sent to an overflow room. Others didn't make it inside.

Like South Dakota as a whole, Huron doesn't attract many presidential candidates. Eileen Sheffield, who has spent her whole life in the area, last saw a presidential candidate in Huron in 1968 when Robert F. Kennedy visited a local drug store.

"This might be the last time," Sheffield said. "I'm 74. I hope it's not, but who knows?"

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Hillary Clinton told the crowd in rain-soaked Huron, South Dakota, that the decision on whom to hire for president comes down to two questions: Who's ready to be president, and who can beat John McCain. She says he'll be a "formidable candidate."

Though her rival, Barack Obama, leads in the delegate count, Clinton, by her campaign's calculations, says she leads in the popular vote.

Clinton says the "excitement and interest" in Tuesday's South Dakota primary shows the race is not over.

She says Tuesday the whole world will be looking at South Dakota and Montana.

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Many Hillary Clinton supporters were wearing pins at Thursday's town hall meeting in Huron.

Clinton says she has solutions for South Dakota's future and much of that involves more fiscal responsibility in Washington D.C.

Thursday she addressed food production in the Huron area and tax cuts for the middle class.

Every baby born in South Dakota is born with $30,000 dollars of debt on his or her tiny shoulders," said Sen. Hillary Clinton.

And Clinton says she is going work to fix the nine trillion dollar national debt problem. The crowd gathered at the Huron arena pondered her message and some agree.

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Clinton centered much of her speech on high gas prices, defending her plan to have a gas tax holiday, and vowing to take on oil companies and oil producing states.

"You will not see me as president holding hands with the Saudis," she said. "I�ll be trying to hold them accountable.�

"This is a farming community, and there's a lot of concern here," said Lori Olson, who owns an excavating business. "I want to hear about what she has to say about the price of diesel."

Lawrence Runge, a farmer near Wessington, says it's costing him about $400 to $500 to fill his tractor. Runge, who grows corn, said the higher gas prices are the reason behind inflation in food.

"We're not getting it," he said. "They think the farmers are getting it, but it's the guy selling the fuel, the fertilizer and the see that's getting it."

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at a campaign event in Watertown, S.D. Thursday, May 29, 2008.(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Facing an increasingly improbable candidacy for the White House, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton showed no signs of stopping on the trail in South Dakota and cited an old Arkansas, saying in an off-handed reference to her campaign: "you can't tell how far a frog will jump until you punch him." (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/05/clinton-you-can.html)

Clinton continued to express her exasperation with the press.

"I am tired," said Clinton with exasperation. "I am tired of politicians and people in the press saying we cant do things. We are the can do nation."

Clinton was asked Wednesday night if she really wanted reporters to be more vigorous and aggressive � she said that she does, but on the "right things."

"I really do," insisted Clinton. "I really do. On the right things. On things that are important to the future of our country. On things that really matter. I would love that."

(AFP/File/Robyn Beck)