Posted by Martin Evans of Newsday at 6:13 am CDT
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Touting a broad vision for economic “fairness,” Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday hailed the pro-union, trust-busting progressive movement, while accusing the Bush administration of allowing the middle class to be flattened by America’s super-wealthy.
She later greeted wide-eyed admirers during a Main Street walking tour in nearby Nashua, in the kind of retail politicking that has made tiny New Hampshire key in establishing national political momentum.
In a morning speech on economic development, the former First Lady pointedly referred to “when Bill was president” as a time of greater economic fairness and governmental competency, and said Bush administration policies have reversed the federal surplus and middle-class wage gains achieved during Bill Clinton’s presidency
“We can return to many of the principles that guided us then,” she said.Clinton said she would eliminate tax breaks that she contend encourage companies to transfer jobs overseas, scale back on subsidies to oil companies, expand the earned income tax credit to lift the working poor out of poverty and create more jobs by pursuing national energy independence.
Clinton’s midweek visit drew modest crowds, in contrast with the mosh-pit energy generated by Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, her chief rival, during a Granite State campaign swing over the Memorial Day weekend.
Clinton gave her economic policy speech before a crowd of some 200 people in a technical high school, then greeted lunchers at Martha’s Exchange, a restaurant n across Nashua’s Main Street from a satellite office of Republican Sens. John Sununu and Judd Gregg.
Clinton has been challenged by former South Carolina senator John Edwards for the title of the party’s staunchest progressive. But she showed yesterday she would not relinquish that title willingly, calling herself “a thoroughly optimistic and modern progressive” and quoting president Theodore Roosevelt, who famously tangled with big business.
Roger Rodrigues Jr., 54, a Vietnam veteran, was one of dozens who spoke briefly with Clinton during her hour-long visit to Nashua.
“Bring them home,” he said of U.S. troops in Iraq, blinking back tears as Clinton nodded. “We’ve got to bring the boys home now.”
Later, Rodrigues said, “I hope she makes it all the way, because she can bring change to this country.”
Clinton is expected to pick up the endorsement today of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a rising Democratic star who is among the nation’s top Hispanic elected officials.
Although his endorsement is not entirely unexpected — in April, his top political consultant became Clinton’s California campaign director — Villaraigosa’s support is considered a huge plus in a state where Hispanics made up more than one in five voters during the 2004 election.
Martin Evans reports for Newsday, a Tribune Co. newspaper.
