Obama, Clinton fire up Butte, state Democrats

By Mike Dennison & Jennifer McKee of the Standard State Bureau - 04/05/2008

BUTTE -- Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton brought a raucous crowd of 4,000 to its feet again and again here Saturday night, as they promised a better future for America and wooed Montana Democrats in a quest for their party’s nomination.

“I am absolutely convinced that this is our moment; this is our time,” Obama told a packed Butte Civic Center. “If you in Montana can stand up and fight for me we will win not just this nomination, but we will win the general election.” “I am so glad that this election will go on,” Clinton said two hours later. “Because by holding the last primary, the Last Best Place will help choose the next president of the United States.” Obama, who spoke earlier Saturday in Missoula, led off a historic night at the Montana Democratic Party’s annual Mansfield-Metcalf dinner, where both he and Clinton made their pitch for the Democratic nomination for president.

The Montana Democrats’ annual dinner usually draws several hundred people. This year, it sold out 3,000 additional tickets at $40 apiece in just 15 minutes two weeks ago.

Democrats poured into Butte Saturday for what many saw as a once-in-a-lifetime event: Two leading presidential candidates visiting remote Montana on the same day, at the same town and the same place. They braved a bitter wind, snow flurries, long lines and security tunnels before getting into the cavernous Civic Center in mid-town Butte.

The event was half-fund-raiser, half-campaign rally and 100 percent party, as attendees with special floor access grazed lavish spreads of hors d’ouevres and bought beer and wine at no-host bars. Democratic officials expected to raise more than $200,000 in campaign funds.

Scores of reporters and TV camera crews camped out on risers and rows of tables in the rear of the auditorium, while four huge screens hanging from the rafters showed simulcasts of the speeches or revolving pictures of top Montana Democratic officeholders, from past and present.

Clinton, like Obama, spent most of her speech laying out a Populist message and blasting away at the policies of Republican President George Bush, saying those policies have hurt the middle class and benefited large corporations and the wealthy.

“The overwhelming feeling that I see expressed by not just Democrats is that we stand on the cusp of a new beginning for America,” Clinton said. “If you listen closely you can almost hear it in the distance the sound of the moving van pulling away from the White House.

“I think the whole world will breathe a sigh of relief when George Bush and Dick Cheney hand over those keys.” Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois, walked to the podium at 6:40 p.m. to a prolonged standing ovation, as the crowd waved “Montana Loves Obama” signs. The cheering subsided after more than a minute, but erupted 70 times during the 41-minute speech.

After telling his audience Montana is just as important as any other state in the nominating process, Obama said he’s running for president because he wants America to be a country that helps its citizens rather than telling them “you’re on your own.” “We know that government cannot solve all of our problems,” he said. “We don’t expect it to.

“But that’s not an excuse to spend another four years doing nothing. We don’t want another four years of George Bush’s can’t-do, won’t-do, won’t-even-try type of politics. We’re a better country than that.” Obama also wasted no time in saying he opposed the Iraq War from the start and would end it if he’s elected president, prompting chants of “No more war” from the crowd.

“We’re spending $400 million a day to help a government that seems unwilling to help itself,” he said. “(This war) has fanned the flames of un-American sentiment. That’s why I opposed it in 2002, that’s why I intend to bring it to a close in 2009.” With Obama and Clinton locked in a tight battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, even Montana’s 25 delegates have become important in the race. Seventeen of those delegates will be allotted based on the state’s June 3 primary election results; the other eight are “superdelegates,” which are state Democratic officeholders and party officials.

Two of the eight superdelegates are supporting Obama; the other six have yet to declare, saying they want to see what the primary results look like.

As of Saturday, Obama led the race with 1,629 delegates to Clinton’s 1,468. One of them needs 2,024 to win the nomination.

Obama and Clinton rarely referred to each other Saturday night, preferring to train their sights on President Bush and Republican policies they said have sullied America’s reputation abroad, sunk the country into debt and a damaged economy, and left many of its citizens behind with a callous, sink-or-swim mentality.

They said electing Republican nominee John McCain would mean another four years of the policies that have failed the country.

In fact, Clinton said Republicans should apologize for the damage they’ve done DASH but that she’s not holding her breath.

“I don’t think that will happen,” she said. “It will be the same old Republican attack machine. It will be out there in full force. We must be ready to take them on. I’m here to let you know: I’m ready.” Clinton said she would resist any privatization of Social Security, abolish the No Child Left Behind education bill, move quickly on a universal health care plan, stand up to China on trade policy and end tax subsidies for big oil, while investing in alternative energy so American can wean itself from Mideast oil.

“It is hard to explain how a company like Exxon-Mobil that made $40 billion in profits last year needs your money to be successful,” she said.

Obama said Republicans’ answer to every problem seems to be cutting taxes, and mostly for the wealthy.

“That’s not a policy; that’s a dogma,” he said. “It’s a tired and cynical policy “George Bush calls it the ‘ownership society.’ What it really means is, ‘You’re on your own.’ If the factory you worked at for 30 years closed it doors and shipped those jobs overseas, tough luck, you’re on your own.” “We’ve tested that theory,” he continued. “It’s led to more job losses, rising gas prices, a widening income gap This is not the America we want.” As the crowd waited for Sen. Clinton, they listened to U.S. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., Gov. Brian Schweitzer and U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.

Before the speeches began, Schweitzer, Baucus, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and other high-ranking Democrats hung out at a “sponsor’s reception,” funded by unions, businesses and other big Democratic Party donors. Obama dropped by briefly before his speech, and Clinton made an appearance later as well.