Hillary Clinton Talks About Her Goals for America at Auraria Campus in Denver, Colorado

On October 23^rd, 2007, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spoke at Auraria Campus. Students and professors from all three colleges (Community College of Denver, Metropolitan State College of Denver, and University of Colorado at Denver) attended.

Hillary Clinton, a champion for the rights of women and children, started her speech by talking about the need for change. "If you are ready for a change," she announced, "then, I am ready to lead."

Hillary Clinton talked about her four big goals for the country if she is elected President. One, to restore the trust of the world in the leadership of the United States; two, to rebuild the middle class; three, to reform our government; and four, to ensure the future of our children.

Speaking of the war in Iraq, she said that the military did the job that we sent them to do. It is now time to leave, she said for "We are not referees." It is now time for Iraq to do their job, so that our soldiers can come home.

Turning her attention to the domestic front, she said that "The economy needs to work for everyone." As it now stands, the economy is only working for some people, and the rest of the people are in danger of becoming invisible, if they are not already invisible.

She believes that the way to create good jobs, and to rebuild the middle class, is to invest in renewable energy. The highway to the new economy is renewable energy; it will not wreck the economy as the current administration has argued. Her plan to fund this project (50 billion dollars) will probably be met with a lot of opposition, for it involves eliminating tax subsidies for the oil companies.

"We can all be more efficient [energy-wise]," she declared. Green energy will create millions of new jobs with good pay, she believes.

On the subject of education, she supports the concept of universal pre-kindergarten, and better educational funding. Especially interesting to the crowd, which was composed of college students, was the idea of more affordable tuition and more Pell Grants. The older students, myself included, cheered the idea of bigger tax credits for those paying for college.

Clinton also talked about the idea of creating a system where your tuition would not increase after you started to go to college, having the ability to plan for the future without worrying about not finishing college due to overwhelming tuition increases. She also mentioned creating greater regulation and government oversight for private lenders who have gorged themselves on profits from students desperate for loans.

She also wants to see more debt forgiveness for those who enter fields important to society (such as teachers). One should not be forced into a profession just because they need the money to pay off their student loans.

"Most kids do not go to college," she said. "I want to give everyone a fair shot."

Her health care plan is to implement the Congress health care system for everyone. "If it is good enough for Congress, it is good enough for America," she said.

Closing her speech, she said that people need to be able to have confidence in their government again. Between government corruption, favoritism towards big business, the aftermath of Katrina, and the war in Iraq, the American people are tired of the contempt that the current administration has shown for the common man. This election is so intense, so early, she noted, because things have gone wrong. Our future is dangerous; our future has been mortgaged.

Talking about Bush, she said that he only seemed to have two goals: tax cuts for the wealthy and the Iraq War. Nothing more.

Noting that there were two things that continuously touched her in the current campaign--women in their nineties who were born at a time when women could not vote, and parent who brought their children to rallies and told their youngsters that they could be anything that they wanted to be--she encouraged all present to be a part of the system. "Register and vote," she told the crowd.

"Go into the future in confidence," she said, knowing that the days of divide and conquer politics of the Bush/Cheney are over.

Among the attendees of Hillary Clinton's speech were the students of William (Roy) Staliwe's Introduction to Political Science class. On Thursday, October 25^th, they talked about what Clinton had said. They expressed concern that Clinton seemed to be promising too much, and they worried that it might just be all hype.

I, myself, was concerned. Being an older member of the class, I have seen politicians fail to meet the promises that they have made in campaigns. I have spent three years unemployed, and am currently sinking deep in student loan debt in hopes that a degree will increase the likelihood of getting a job.

Stailwe reminded his students, myself included, that "All politics are local." One should focus on the matters that concern them, and weigh their vote on the basis of that.

In this case, being college students, most of us will be focusing on matters regarding our education and future career goals. I do not know about my classmates, but I have some research to do before making up my mind on who to elect as our next President.