(A first-hand account - promoted by lpackard)
Hillary Clinton was in Detroit today to meet with AFL-CIO members in a packed town hall meeting at IBEW Local 58 to talk about subjects of interest to union members.
The AFL-CIO, as part of their initiative Working Families Vote 2008 offered Democratic candidates a town hall in their choice in one of 15 cities across the U.S. including Sacramento, CA, Seattle WA, Trenton, NJ, Miami FL, Phoenix AZ. Senator Clinton picked Detroit, MI a key location for more than 600,000 Michigan AFL-CIO members. Each town hall provides the opportunity for union members to ask unscreened questions and receive unscripted answers from the candidates.
Thanks to an excellent crowd warm-up by "The Motown Diva" and AFT organizer Lynn Marie Smith(search for "The Motown Diva") and some brief remarks by Metro Detroit President Saundra Williams and Michigan AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney (recent interview), Senator Clinton covered several topics including the anti-labor policies of the Bush Administration, Globalization, Health Care, and Energy Policy (Michigan's "perfect storm analogy").
Senator Clinton also discussed reforms to "No Child Left Behind", the War in Iraq, The Employee Free Choice Act, her opposition to free-trade agreements like the Korea-U.S. Free-Trade Agreement.
Quotes of interest: "Michigan needs extra help right now." "If you are in a union, you are invisible to this (Bush) administration." "We need universal health care." "We need Smart Trade (free and fair trade with aggressive enforcement)." "I've been to 82 countries, if I don't know the leaders there, then my husband does".
Hillary demonstrated a through understanding of all the topics in her talk and topics of interest to the union members who asked questions. Clinton was also very empathetic to the union member panel speakers, their individual issues and concerns, and responded to their actual questions versus a canned "talking point".
After the event ended, I talked to one of the attendees heading out who said she saw John Edwards at the Michigan Democratic Party Jeff-Jack Dinner dinner and was all set for vote for him. Having heard Senator Clinton, she was now undecided. I asked her if her heart was with Edwards, but her head was with Clinton, she said "yes, you could say that". |