Tonight was my first stump speech, and what better first stump to attend than one by Bill Clinton? I arrived at the Grand Wayne Center about 4:00 and fell in line with two girls – one who is a sophomore at Woodlan High School and another who is a sophomore at IPFW. We started talking about Hillary and how cool it will be to hear Bill Clinton speak. You could feel the excitement in the air and there was already close to 500 people in line. Many were wearing their vote Hillary for President buttons, and the only protestor I saw was a guy holding a sign outside the Grand Wayne Center that read, “Guard your daughters. Billy’s in town.” As we waited in line, we talked about Hillary and how she compares to Obama, and all of us agreed that it was great to see so many democrats coming together in Fort Wayne.

Around 5:30 my mom joined us in line, as well as a chef from Ivy Tech. In between our political discussions, we talked about where to get the best food in town with names like Saigon Restaurant, Paula’s Seafood, 816 Pint N’ Slice, and Joseph Decuis being dropped left and right. Finally, we entered the convention center and found some seats about seven rows back from the stage. We passed a few windows on the way in and I noticed the line was now wrapped around the Grand Wayne Center. Clinton appeared on stage at 7:15 after about ten minutes worth of people chanting, “We want Bill. We want Bill,” as well as Clinton fanatics marching up and down the aisles holding signs such as, “Rotate politicians, not troops,” “Money for education, not war,” and “Bring our troops home for Christmas.” This was definitely my kind of crowd.

Clinton gave an awesome speech and held the audience’s attention for a solid hour. He had the whole room clapping, hollering, jumping up and down, and laughing throughout the entire speech. He really knew how to work the crowd and rally support for his wife. Clinton touched on all of his wife’s major political issues ranging from the economy to health care to the war in Iraq. In terms of the economy, he emphasized how the middle class has been of little concern for the Bush administration and because of that, we’re facing a recession, foreclosures in the housing market, loss of income, and unemployment. Hillary plans on reviving the middle class and looking out for all Americans not just the top 1% of wage earners.

He went on to discuss how Hillary will create new jobs in our country by investing in biofuels, alternative energy, and other green processes, and no longer having to rely on oil sellers. Once our economy is back in business, we will not have to rely on China, Japan, and South Korea to control so much of our deficit. He then discussed the necessity of health care reform in this country. Right now our health care providers spend about a third of their time and money filling out paper work for insurance companies because the system is so convoluted. The insurance companies also spend about 80 billion dollars a year keeping people uninsured. This is a ridiculous amount of time and money being wasted by insurance companies, and these types of problems could be eliminated under a national health care plan.

Education was the next topic, and Clinton explained how Hillary will work to fix the No Child Left Behind act and bring the U.S.’s education standards back up to par with the rest of the world. He also discussed the failed war in Iraq and how much it’s costing us in terms of American lives and money. So much of our military resources are tied up in Iraq that we’re having trouble getting the troops we need to suppress Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Clinton stated that we need to get the majority of our troops back from Iraq as soon as possible. We also need to properly take care of our veterans and not leave them jobless and homeless like we did to so many Vietnam vets.

I really enjoyed Clinton’s speech and he made a very convincing argument to vote for Hillary at the Indiana primary on May 6th. I will have to read about her policies more in depth and see how they stack up to Senator Obama’s. It was great to see so many people in Fort Wayne come to see him speak, and it was refreshing to hear about a Presidential candidate who cares about the American middle class and issues such as health care, education, and diplomacy. Hillary has a wide range of experiences (from finding jobs for veterans to extending healthcare coverage for children) that will serve her well if she makes it to the White House.