Clinton pushes for Franken, Obama

Jeff Wheeler, Star Tribune

Former President Bill Clinton rallied several thousand Minnesota Democrats on Thursday night to vote for Barack Obama and Al Franken.

The former president made a campaign stop in the Twin Cities on Thursday with DFL Senate challenger Al Franken, stressing the importance of a down-ticket victory to help a President Obama govern.

By Bob Von Sternberg, Star Tribune

Last update: October 30, 2008 - 11:27 PM

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Former President Bill Clinton brought his full-throated praise of Barack Obama to Minnesota on Thursday night, urging the crowd of 4,000 to keep working hard for Obama and DFL Senate candidate Al Franken.

"It's never too late to get more votes for Al Franken and Barack Obama," Clinton said. "You should not give up on that."

Arms on each other's shoulders, Clinton and Franken hit the stage at the Minneapolis Convention Center together, the very picture of party unity.

Franken took the stage after a string of DFL luminaries praised him, telling the crowd that a Franken triumph over GOP Sen. Norm Coleman is crucial to electing a Senate with 60 Democrats, enough for an Obama administration to effectively overcome Republican opposition.

Clinton agreed, praising Obama's performance during the nation's financial crisis but asking "If he's all that great, why does he need Franken?"

The answer, he said, is to turn back "a radical right-wing philosophy ... You've got to send him [Franken] to the Senate to make sure America doesn't blow this chance" to repudiate the Republicans' governing philosophy.

"[Obama] has a chance to rewrite the 21st century," Clinton said. "Let's go back and do it right this time. In order to do that, he's going to have to get some votes" in the Senate, like Franken's.

Clinton also served as a politically potent backdrop as Franken wound through his stump speech, regularly nodding in agreement as Franken warned, "this election's going to be close."

When his turn came, Clinton sounded a confident tone.

"Unless the wheels come off, Barack Obama's going to be elected next Tuesday," he said of the Democratic nominee's campaign against GOP candidate Sen. John McCain.

Recalling his own landslide reelection victory in Minnesota in 1996, Clinton told the crowd, "I want you to do better than that for Barack Obama."

Some of those who showed up made it clear that Clinton was the true draw and not a mere substitute for Obama.

Champlain resident Linda Greene, wearing a Women for Obama button, wasn't deterred by a two-hour wait that allowed her to snag a spot right in front of the stage. "It was worth it to be part of this -- to be a part of history," she said. "I haven't seen President Clinton since the first campaign when he came here with Gore. It's time."

Franken also praised the former president and his wife, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, whom Obama defeated for the nomination.

"I am privileged to say the Clintons are my friends," Franken said. "But more important they are friends of the middle class, of working men and women in this state and this country I'm running to represent."

Franken said that while visiting college campuses on the campaign trail, he was struck by the fact that the students he spoke to can't recall a president who could effectively manage the economy and work with the nation's allies.

"They don't remember what it's like to have a president lead like Bill Clinton led," he said. "And they don't remember that government's supposed to work."

Bob von Sternberg • 612-673-7184#

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