by Rick Pearson
DES MOINES—Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton bashed President Bush's record on helping rural America and said she has "the strength and experience" to turn plans to reinvigorate the nation's heartland into a reality.
Addressing the Iowa Farmers Union, the New York senator chided the Bush administration for failing to help the rural economy or giving it a priority.
"In fact," she said, "clearing brush on his ranch is about the only rural agenda that this president has successfully implemented in the last seven years."
Clinton said she believed "rural America has the answers to so many of our pressing problems," such as development of biofuels, fresh food to combat obesity and a need for rural development to reduce pressure on city and suburban development.
"It's not enough to have a plan. A plan is just words on a page without the strength and experience to make it a reality," she said.
"We have never needed the farmer's union more and we also have never needed a president more who got up every day and worked hard to make the changes Americans deserve," she said.
Prior to Clinton's appearance, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware credited farmers for understanding the complexities of foreign policy and the effect on their bottom line. Biden, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also used his appearance to attack the Bush administration for how it is handling Iran.
"This administration's saber-rattling, it's policy of ratcheting up tensions with Iran, has been totally completely counterproductive," Biden said. "When the president throws out references to World War III, it plays right into the hands of President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad."
Biden said the Bush administration's actions have fed a "sense of insecurity" and added a "security premium" to the cost of oil while pumping more money into Ahmadinejad's rule.
"Who does it hit the worst? Who pays the biggest price for oil being $100 a barrel?" Biden asked. "Not industry, not manufacturing, not doctors and lawyers, but farmers. Farmers. You get it right in the neck."
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Comments
Did Hillary take any questions? Were they planted? Are the media cooperating with her and asking planted questions? If so, that would explain why the major media in the country are ignoring the story of her having questions planted in the audiences for her public appearances. This failure to cover the plant story is called editorializing by omission. The Tribune was one of the few to report the plants in the Swamp. Whether the Trib included it in the print newspaper, we do not know as yet.
Posted by: Zane | November 10, 2007 7:01 PM
Maybe someone should ask Hillary why we were attacked [EIGHT] times at home and abroad during her husband,B.J's administration....Oh,Forget it,that would be piling-on or swift-boating or whatever...
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | November 10, 2007 7:46 PM
Maybe someone should ask Hillary why we were attacked [EIGHT] times at home and abroad during her husband,B.J's administration....Oh,Forget it,that would be piling-on or swift-boating or whatever...
Posted by: Paulo | November 10, 2007 7:46 PM
Actually, I believe your team called it "wag the dog" when he responded aggressively.
And let's see, who would you say has a better terrorism record:
Series of small attacks in foreign countries (and an unimpressive attack on American soil, the perpetrators of which all sit locked up in jail to this day) that kills 214.
Largest terrorist attack in American history, killing nearly 3'000 and hitting the single most hardened target in the entire world, the United States Pentagon, perpetrated by a man who is still alive after the US Army invaded his nation and occupied it for over 6 years now. He now lives comfortably in "allied" Pakistan. Follow up anthrax attacks still unsolved and in fact considered "cold."
Oh, and that terrorist attack, the one that was successful beyond anyone's wildest dreams, was then used to justify attacking a completely unrelated nation that had long been on the president's hit list, even before he took office. There, as Bin Laden could only dream, the US is bleeding and wheezing its way towards a multi-trillion dollar affair that is draining the nation's treasury, destroying its prestige and thus soft-power capabilities, and sinking the morale of a once-great empire.
Ya know, I think I'll take President Clinton's over King George's any day.
Posted by: DaVe | November 12, 2007 11:55 AM