Former President Bill Clinton was in high gear Sunday, charming senior citizens in Catonsville and firing up hundreds at a Dundalk Democratic club as he campaigned for his wife, Hillary Clinton.
“She?s the best change-maker I?ve ever seen,” with 25 years of experience, Clinton told several hundred retirees at the Charlestown retirement community.
He appealed to demographic groups ? women, older voters and working-class Democrats ? that have more strongly supported his wife. Clinton said U.S. Sen. Barack Obama?s caucus victories over the weekend in Kansas and Washington state were boosted by younger and more affluent voters who have more time on their hands.
At Dundalk?s Battle Grove Democratic Club, which U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said was the club with the “most spunk, the most spirit, the sassiest, Clinton said, “The people who work for a living need Hillary to be their next president.
“What she wants to do is rebuild the middle class,” he told the crowd of nearly 300.
Clinton said his wife was the only candidate with a comprehensive plan for “affordable health insurance coverage for everyone.”
The plan, which would provide choice and save $700 billion, would be paid for by letting “the tax cuts on the richest 1 percent of the people expire,” Clinton said, putting himself in that class.
The wonkish ex-president talked about the New York senator?s plan to keep a million people in their homes by freezing mortgage payments as well as to raise grants and aid for college tuition.
Women of all ages were a strong component of the crowd in Dundalk.
“I wasn?t always a Hillary supporter,” said Joyce Krevner, who had been considering backing John Edwards. “I don?t like the way the media has treated her” and “the feminist slurs” directed at a female candidate and her family. “I?m finally in her camp.”
“Plus she?s got the health thing,” said Audrey Schmincke, another Dundalk resident.
“She?s a passionate woman, and she believes what she says,” said Pamela Davis, also of Dundalk. “It?s Hillary?s time.”
