Former Pres. Speaks About Clinton Campaign
By Broadside Asst. News Editor Rebecca Fulton
Photo by Connect Mason Asst. Convergence Director Grace Kendall
Audio By WGMU's Veronica Hohenstein and Matthew Loffman
Former President Bill Clinton spoke to a packed house in the Johnson Center in support of his wife’s campaign tonight, one day before the Virginia primary. Clinton expressed his beliefs about his wife’s presidential abilities and the Democratic Party in general.
- Listen to the entirety of Bill Clinton's speech.
“She [Hillary Clinton] made changes in other people’s lives; that’s what you hire a president to do,” Clinton said.
Clinton discussed many of his wife’s campaign issues, including childcare, education, healthcare, college loans and home mortgages.
The issues that riled the mostly-college crowds were college loans and universal health care. At one point Clinton asked the masses how many people knew someone who did not have health care coverage. A vast majority of individuals in the crowd raised their hands.
“This is the only major wealthy country in the world where you would even ask the question [of how many of you know someone without health care],” Clinton said.
Some audience members found the speech moving and possibly vote-changing.
“I am going to vote for Hillary now, when he started talking about college tuition and universal health care I changed my opinion,” junior Lorenzo Bozzelli said.
College Republicans found Clinton’s speech to be selective and accusatory.
“Bill Clinton also preached on the importance of reforming the Education system. To me, I find this issue very interesting,” College Republicans second vice chair Josh St. Louis said. “The Democrats are the ones that created the current Education system of today, and yet they choose not to take the blame for their mistakes. Rather, the pick scapegoats such as No Child Left Behind, and preach about the discriminations against minorities. The way to fix education is to get it out of government control, and shut down the liberal-brainwashing machines that societies call public universities. By privatizing it, tuition goes down, costs go down, and schools cater to the actual student's education, rather than trying to uphold high records of test scores.”
George Mason’s College Democrats managed to coordinate and publicize the event on 24 hours notice, paying and creating many of the decorations while the university helped pay for most of the services required for the event.
The College Democrats think that politicians are drawn to Mason because of the vast amount of diversity found at the university.
“Politicians look at Mason as a microcosm of America with all of our diversity,” College Democrats Communication Director Katie Bowen said.
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