Clinton: the 'Comeback Kid' hopes to boost Lincoln's re-election

Clinton: the 'Comeback Kid' hopes to boost Lincoln's re-election

By Stewart Doan

© Copyright Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc.

Little Rock, AR, Sept. 9 – Former President Bill Clinton was back on the campaign trail Wednesday stumping for embattled Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), the Agriculture Committee Chairman who’s running at least 20 points behind Republican nominee John Boozman in most polls.

Former President Bill Clinton stumps for a clearly pleased Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)

Lincoln called on Arkansas’ political hero to energize her farm and rural base -- and he didn’t disappoint, telling several hundred Lincoln ag supporters at a rally in Little Rock it would be a “terrible mistake” for Arkansans to to turn their backs on a “progressive, practical problem solver” who’s helped develop rural communities and create jobs.

“You’ve got a woman here who has produced for you over and over and over again,” he said of Lincoln, contending she is uniquely positioned to get Arkansas and rural America its “fair share” of the nation’s economic bounty.

The original political “Comeback Kid” urged Democratic loyalists to stop “whining” about their party’s sagging mid-term election prospects and instead “get out there and tell our side of the story.”

Insisting it was the GOP that “put the country in a $3 trillion hole,” Democrats must overcome voter “anger, apathy and amnesia,” he said.”

“Have you forgotten Newt Gingrich’s Congress?”

According to the former President, the Obama administration and Democratic-controlled Congress inherited an economic hole “too deep to dig out of” in only 21 months, “but we did stop digging.”

Clinton emphasized the positive impacts of stimulus, better financial oversight, better student loan procedures and more control of health insurance companies.

A Republican-run Congress, he argued, would mean more tax cuts for the wealthy, a repeal of health care and Wall Street reform and the privatization of Social Security and Medicare.

“That’s what they’ve promised us. ...For goodness sake, don’t bring back the shovel brigade.”

It was classic Clinton, still a highly popular figure among Democrats. He spoke for more than a half-hour without notes and then spent nearly as much time shaking hands, signing autographs and having his picture snapped with longtime friends and political allies.