Just attended Bill Clinton's: Bring Your Ballot Event in Oregon

[Oregone]

He spoke in Yaquina Bay. We heard about it on the radio and waited in line for a bit to hear him speak. Meeks was there to tell us about how we have to count Florida, yada, yada. Then Bill made a long, tired, unenthusiastic, often obfuscated speech of why we should vote for Hillary.

As some thoughts:

- Damn, he is tired. Im rarely seen such an unenthusiastic speech in my life (though it was cold). The language was even dull and it was generally very bland. IOW, no exactly inspirational. There was more enthusiasm in some of the crowd members than him.
I wouldn't even go so far to say it was a "folksy" approach...it was like going out to dinner and getting cardboard with ketchup on it.

- There was no attack on Obama to speak of (or McCain). His case for Hillary consisted of him defining why we have problems in our country, and thus, we need Hillary to fix them (about half the time he would say how she would do so).

- He did mention she was the most likely to be president. That was his thesis. If we vote for her we will have a democratic president.

- I think they know they are done (or he does), and hence the lack of attacks or anything moving substance. Im not sure why he is out there for that. Perhaps to repay the 10 million?

- From a political point of view, I was really dissapointed at the substance of the speech (which people in the crowd ate up). Centrist ideas, with mentioning of a lot of subsidization of research/energy/healthcare, but without a clear defining of issues and talk of nationalization of services (if he wants us to spend billions on healthcare, energy solutions, etc, we the people should own that investment, rather than pay the company for the services which we gave the subsidy to originally). I guess this sort of opened old wounds that I had regarding his presidency. He wouldn't mention or touch his trade policy decisions with a 10 fot pole, but he railed upon the consequences of them. I don't think this approach to politics helps America progress.

- While I expected a massive push to capitalize on the "Bring your ballot" idea (where they whip them in a furvor and got them to vote before leaving), I was surprized by the absence of that there. Obama could get crushed if those meetings were more effective.

[democrattotheend]

1. Interesting. Surprised to hear that.

I am not a big fan of Bill Clinton personally, but I have heard from other people who have heard him speak that he is amazing. My mom's friend said she once saw him give a 45 minute speech on an intricate topic (not a stump speech that candidates give over and over) and spoke fluidly for 45 minutes with no notes. I guess he was tired...who wouldn't be, doing 5 events a day?

[Oregone]

5. He was doing 5 today also.

He spoke over an hour and had no notes. He started by a detailed recap (respin) of the primaries and how incredible shes done so far and beat all this expectation, state by state. It was an odd way to launch into it, as we generally her a better case made by surrogates on CNN. I honestly expected so much more from an inspirational standpoint. Yes, he knew lots of details, facts, policies, but it wasn't woven together in an overall compelling and eloquant manner.

Ive never heard Obama speak. I don't think Ill have a chance to. Im curious if he will be better at this (his speeches on TV seem quite compelling, and are well structured with good tempo/rythm). Itd be nice if he would come to Lincoln County, but its getting to the point where a lot of Oregonians are allready voting.

[flpoljunkie]

2. Hope those mail-in ballots have already been "signed, sealed and delivered" for Obama!

[Arugula Latte]

18. My Obamaballot went out today ... Hubby's will follow ...

Doing our part, here! :patriot:

[Aloha Spirit]

21. yesss!

[flpoljunkie]

24. Great!

:patriot:

[Oregone]

3. To add about the crowd

I used to park cars at the county fair when I was young. Ive seen a bigger and quicker influx for a Travis Tritt concert and the Smother's Brothers than i saw today. The parking lot was generally empty and the line was small. A few hundred people there, but some were definately big supporters of Hillary (stickers/buttons/etc). When it was over we drove out without waiting for any traffic.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. Please Point To Me Any Democrat Running For Pres Who Advocates Nationalization Of Any Industry

"Centrist ideas, with mentioning of a lot of subsidization of research/energy/healthcare, but without a clear defining of issues and talk of nationalization of services (if he wants us to spend billions on healthcare, energy solutions, etc, we the people should own that investment, rather than pay the company for the services which we gave the subsidy to originally)."

[hokies4ever]

6. McCarthy Hearings: The Sequel

Daht daht daht duummmmm! :rofl:

[DemocratSinceBirth]

9. Can You Elaborate

The OP suggested there was a candidate who wanted to nationalize certain industries...

If you find my terminology declasse please share with me more appropriate terminolgy...


In my best Matt Damon voice from "Good Will Hunting"

You like apples?


And stick your emoticon and snide reference up yer ass...


How do you like them apples?

[Oregone]

15. Not exactly. I pointed out he wanted to subsidize private companies with public funds...

With no emphasis on any other candidate. It was just a statement. You drew too much from it.

In the same manner, I watched a speech where Bill mention McCain's name 0 times and Obama maybe twice in over an hour of talking. But am I supposed to assume that every point he was for, his unnammed opponents were against or had the opposite opinion?

He spent much of the time defining problems and a bit defining some solutions, but none of the time contrasting. Following suite, i was relaying what he said with no intention to contrast or compare to another actual or inactual candidate.

[Oregone]

8. Ah, there's probably some GP guys out there!

But unfortunately, the democratic party shies from that scene.

I didn't say nationalize the entire industries so much, but rather that "we the people should own that investment". He is talking about spending hundreds of billions for laying power lines to transport energy and investing in wind/wave energy. But what he means to say is give that money to private companies to do so (as well as tax breaks while they develop/research it), so that they may charge us for it when it is developed. He is saying we need to pay to develop these "supercharged" batteries for cars and we will get a tax break when we buy cars that contain them. Well I am sorry...a massive investment of that nature from the citizens of this country should not be rewarded with services that are developed perpetually "for-profit".

But thats just my two cents...yes, I disagreed with a lot of the content of the speech. I tried not to let that influence my assessment of the atmosphere there.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. My Point Is Both Candidate's Approach To Industry Is Fundametally The Same

The last time a president dramatically re-ordered the way business was done was seventy years ago and it took a world wide depression to do it...And many would argue that he could have gone a lot further...

[Oregone]

13. Well hey, Im not arguing for Obama here...

Im just pointing out what I saw today. Im not saying, well Obama rules and Bill sucks because he said that....

Im just saying the person I heard today only alluded to a single method of addressing an issue, that may not attribute to the most long-term cost-saving approach. Beyond saving money, it may also be irresponsible to allocate public funds to private companies who will use them to further develop their businesses (which are for-profit). I just wish that issue was further dissected.

Yes, we need to invest in renewable energy and research, but it is important HOW that money is invested in my opinion. If we give 300 billion in subsidies to energy companies who sub out infrastructure contstruction to another company (and gets tax breaks for all this), it may be more efficient to use that money directly to have state owned infrastructure (cut out the middle man, and thus, cut out the future profits they will try and capture).


Continuously, the pattern of his speech today was pointing out why A is wrong, and hence, why B is how to address it. Iraq is wrong, so Hillary should be president. Healthcare is expensive, and hence, we need Hillary's plan to address it. NCLB is bad, and hence, we need Hillary to fix it. He was not arguing the merits of her plans/ability, but rather deconstructing the status quo issue and using its faults as a premise to why she is the "right" choice. Its a common method of debate in which you don't have to have an argument, besides proving your opponents' argument is wrong (and in each case, the status quo was his opponent, which we allready agree is wrong). Its a bit of a simplistic, uninformative and disengenious approach to political debate.

[EFerrari]

7. He must be tired. n/t

[GarbagemanLB]

10. Here in the Portland metro area I have seen 1 McCain sticker, 1 Hillary sign, and at least a dozen

Obama signs/stickers.

This is beyond just Portland, but the suburbs as well.

[L0oniX]

12. It was probably more like a "Bring Your Wallet Event in Oregon".

[my3boyz]

14. What was the size of the crowd? nt

[Oregone]

16. 200 to maybe 300.

That might be generous though. Its tough to tell really. We were at the front, right by the podium.

But, it was really not advertised and it started at 3:30 (though he was an hour late), so people working may of skipped it. We heard about it at 1:30 and decided to check it out since we live here. We thought we would fight traffic but it was, for the most part, an empty parking lot.

[Lerrad]

17. Your description of the speech makes me feel a little sorry for him. n/t

[Oregone]

19. Same here a bit. Beautiful scene though at least. Misty day with the Yaquina bridge behind him.

At least it was a nice setting.

[Beregond2]

20. Holy mackerel,

is that even legal? I mean, asking people to bring their ballots and fill them out on the spot? If nothing else it sure smacks of demogoguery.

I find Bill so sad these days. I remember seeing him on the steps of our local high school in his first administration, and being so proud of him and so inspired. Now look at what he has become.

[Aloha Spirit]

22. yeah, I know. He keeps reminding me of Robert Duvall in the Apostle

[ccharles000]

23. Bill is wonderful.

We all get tired.