Collegiate Times

Former President Bill Clinton addresses attendants at War Memorial Gym on February 9, 2008.

Former President Bill Clinton spoke in War Memorial Gym Saturday night on behalf of his wife, Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Clinton's speech aroused enthusiasm and laughter from a crowd of around 1,000 that packed in the main gym and an overflow room to hear him speak.

Clinton began his speech by thanking the victims and families of April 16, some of whom he had met with earlier that evening. He then went on to address Hillary's plans for change and why she is the presidential candidate best suited for the job.

"Hillary's vision of America, you're looking right at it," Clinton said addressing the crowd.

Clinton claimed that Sen. Clinton has the most aggressive policy on global warming. He said that Hillary wanted to make every building as energy efficient as possible and the way to achieve that would be to pay off the global warming loan with all of the money saved using her proposed methods.

"A fundamental problem in this economy is that it's not producing jobs, and energy efficient countries are the ones who are prospering," said Clinton.

Clinton said another one of the items on Hillary's agenda is to withdraw troops from Iraq, citing three primary reasons: The first was the longer the country stays, the longer the Iraqi people will delay to build up their own government. The two other reasons included that the U.S. simply does not have enough troops to keep operations going, and the U.S. has almost broken the American military.

When he spoke on Hillary's health care policy, he said that the U.S. has to "get the politics out and the research money into science again."

Speaking on rising tuition costs of higher education, he said Hillary "strongly favors making college affordable to everyone." He said one of Hillary's proposals would be to not charge more than a percentage of income for higher education.

Clinton provoked laughs from the crowd when he said that there is one thing that Hillary is more conservative on than Bush - the budget.

He also spoke about equal education concerning the No Child Left Behind Act.

Clinton spoke calmly and articulately, contrasting his loud, enthused audience. Besides the approving shouts and applauds that followed the plans of change he delivered on Hillary's behalf, Clinton also sparked laughter with his intermittent anecdotes.

"It's easy to get isolated when you're president, easy to forget what ordinary people's lives are like," Clinton said, speaking on Hillary's grounded nature.

However, Clinton ended his speech on a serious note.

"One reason I know that she'd be a good president, is that she won't forget the look that she's seen in the eyes in the American people," he said.

The rally, sponsored by Tech's Young Democrats chapter, was one of a series of "Solutions for America" events.

Young Democrats president Jessi Schmale kicked off the event with her speech welcoming Clinton.

"I don't know if I've mentioned this yet, but Bill Clinton is in the building," Schmale said to an anxiously awaiting crowd.

Shmale said that though the Young Democrats sponsored the event, they are a non-endorsement organization.

Some students enjoyed Clinton's speech. Rohan Mathur, a senior industrial systems major, liked Clinton's campaign speech so much he wished he was the one running for president.

"I wish it was four more years for Bill Clinton," said Rohan Mathur, senior industrial systems engineering major. "In a way, if she's in office (his policies) will come back in."

Other students appreciated his honesty.

"I thought he was very honest about the amount of money going into certain things," said Candice Coates, senior psychology major.

Clinton's visit came just three days before the Virginia state primary. She and her rival, Barack Obama, are still in a close fight for the Democratic presidential nomination after Super Tuesday failed to establish a dominant front-runner in the Democratic race.