Hillary and Bill Clinton Come to Davenport Iowa

On July 3, downtown Davenport, Iowa, was steamy as this reporter, along with a crowd of close to 3,000 Hillary Clinton supporters, waited under the late afternoon sun to catch a glimpse and hear what the candidate and her husband had to say.

At about 5 p.m. President Bill Clinton took the stage and reminisced with the crowd about one of his previous visits to Davenport during his campaign in the early 1990's, about his time in the White House and about his wife's plans to get our nation back in the peaceful state it was in when he left. He introduced his wife to the platform after about 15 minutes of speaking. U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton D-NY stepped up to the microphone and the crowd applauded and cheered.

Senator Clinton apologized for any tardiness and joked about how she and her husband had stopped at a Dairy Queen on their way from Des Moines, Iowa. 'They didn't have carrots" she said, to laughter and applause, "So Bill tried the onion rings!"

The Clintons both emphasized the themes of restoring respect for America internationally, and fixing the mess caused by the Bush administration. "I know how hard this job is," the Senator said. "And I'm afraid it's going to have some special challenges after the president and vice president leave the White House. But I don't mind work, and I don't mind cleaning. Let's get out the buckets and brooms and clean out the Bush-Cheney administration."

The crowd cheered when Hillary talked of bringing the troops home from Iraq. Several times U.S. Senator Clinton asked the ralliers to look back in time to the previous administrations of Kennedy in the 1960s and Clinton in the 1990s. "What I want to do as president is take those values that have stood the test of time, be innovative and creative about how we're going to solve problems together, and bring our country to the point where once again we can see how far we can go if only we believe in what we're capable of doing."

Although the crowd mainly consisted of supporters of U.S. Senator Clinton, there were naysayers present. One man was overheard poking jest at the "Clinton traveling medicine show", referring to U.S. Senator Clinton's affordable healthcare goals. Also a van clearly marked in protest to abortion was parked at the entrance to the event. Aside from noted, protesting was at a minimum and if any bad mouthing was noticed it didn't sway the positive feeling amongst the majority of the approximately 3,000 in attendance.

To cheers and flag waving U.S. Senator Clinton expressed, "What I want to do as president is take those values that have stood the test of time, be innovative and creative about how we're going to solve problems together, and bring our country to the point where once again we can see how far we can go if only we believe in what we're capable of doing." According to Hillary's website, www.hillaryclinton.com, the next planned stops on her campaign trail were in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on July 4th and Muscatine, Iowa on July 5th.