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Bill Clinton gave a great speech at the JJ Dinner in Charleston last night. I really wasn't in a position to take notes, but Lawrence Messina with the Associated Press was, and his article on Bill Clinton can be read here. CHARLESTON — The United States could match the new jobs it added to mobilize for World War II if it takes seriously the threat posed by climate change, former President Bill Clinton told a West Virginia crowd Saturday.
“It has to be at the heart of our economic strategy,” Clinton said. “We could save the planet and revive the economy.”
Developing new energy sources, increasing the efficiency of existing ones and arresting greenhouse emissions could provide the influx of new jobs that the national economy requires every five to eight years, Clinton said.
Lauding former Vice President Al Gore for his recent Nobel Peace Prize win in this area, Clinton also said West Virginia coal could play a part through clean-emission technology.
“This creates jobs for people at every education level, every skill level,” Clinton said.
Without such a source of new jobs, Clinton said, “the middle class is going to get the squeeze.”
I'm not so sure about coal playing a part in "clean-emission technology", but he was supporting West Virginia Democrats like his good friend Governor Joe Manchin who is pushing the Coal to Liquid program to the hilt. We all know how Al Gore feels about CTL, and it isn't something he believes in. President Clinton also had some strong comments on the SCHIP legislation vetoed by pResident Bush.... He singled out their attacks on Graeme Frost, the 12-year-old Baltimore boy who suffered severe brain damage in a car accident three years ago. Frost and his family have become the human face of the vetoed bill to expand the state Children’s Health Insurance Program system.
Clinton defended CHIP, created in 1997 during his administration, and the bill’s push to enlarge its rolls.
“It was set up for people who weren’t poor,” he said, citing the Medicaid program for that segment of the population. “Everybody knows that the health care system doesn’t work for households of modest income.”
Clinton said voters also want to know why the number of uninsured has grown despite the spending of $700 billion a year on health care.
He also very correctly identified the modus operandi of Republicans... “America turns to us when they need something done,” Clinton said. “When they want someone who will hyperventilate and demonize, we’re just not as good as doing that as Republicans are.”
We had been told earlier that the former President wasn't going to be available for photos and autographs... but he was. It is obvious he felt at home here in West Virginia a state that Governor Joe Manchin in his introductory remarks likened to President Clinton's home state of Arkansas. He seemed to enjoy the crowd every bit as much as they enjoyed him. 
More pictures and comments can be seen below the fold. |
