LIVE FROM INDIANAPOLIS, IT’S SUNDAY NIGHT 8:40 UPDATE
DNC Chairman Howard Dean was supposed to take the stage now, but he didn’t, Hillary Clinton did. She came out with thunderous applause and Mellencamp’s “Our Country.” Her voice seemed raspy from a long day of talking. Hillary told her fellow Democrats that Hoosiers are the kind of people that keep the country going and it was time there was a President who would work for the middle class.
She invoked the Indy 500 by asking the audience if they were “ready to start their engines” and get a Democrat elected to the White House. She also touched on a message of unity by saying when the primary was over the party would come together regardless of who the nominee was.
She said Indiana is playing a crucial role and told the audience that if they listened closely they could hear the sound of a moving van pulling up to the Bush White House and the current President moving out and a Democrat taking over. She accused Republicans of looking after the wealthy and ignoring the middle and working class. She said Democrats are reaching out to independents and Republicans to join them to turn the country around.
She also said she carried the dream of her middle class parents and their generation who would never waiver from the American Dream. It was pretty much the same speech she’d given on the stump time and again.
Clinton did come across as a much warmer and more personable figure in this address than in previous speeches. She took a swipe at her opponent by saying there’s been enough speeches and rhetoric, and said her Presidency would be real solutions for the problems facing working and middle-class Americans.
She reiterated her call for relief from high gas prices and inferred her plan to suspend the federal gas tax for the summer months was short-term relief that the nation needed, and not just talking about a long-term solution. She said for every taxpayer who got a $600 tax cut they also saw their energy prices go up $2,000 since the Bush administration took office. She also called for an investigation into speculators on the oil market claiming they were also responsible for high prices, and for fuel efficient vehicles to be made in Indiana.
Hillary said she would be a President who will take on the oil companies and oil producing companies and will also take the tax breaks from corporations and will give them to the working and middle class families.
She also promised to get tough on trade with the Chinese and deliver universal health care and force insurance companies to cover all medical conditions. She also promised to restore America’s name abroad and start withdrawing troops from Iraq within 60 days of taking office. Hillary also said John McCain would bring four more years of the same.
She took another swipe at Barack and his rhetoric by implying it was not enough to make real change in Washington against the special interests.
She also alluded to her ability to come back from behind by invoking the movie “Hoosiers.”
Clinton spoke for about 30 minutes.
