President Obama isn't the only one making a return trip to New Jersey on behalf of the Governor as we come down the home stretch in the election:
Democratic State Committee Chair Joseph Cryan today announced that President Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States of America, will return to New Jersey on Tuesday, October 27 for a fundraiser at the Mayfair Farms in West Orange and rally at the UFCW Local 464A in Little Falls to energize New Jersey residents in support of the Corzine/Weinberg and entire Democratic ticket.
The West Orange event is the Chairman's annual dinner and fundraiser for the Essex County Democratic Committee beginning at 6pm. Doors open for the rally in Little Falls at 7:30pm. Clinton made stops this past Tuesday in Collingswood and New Brunswick.
We live blogged the Clinton Rally in Collingswood earlier today and here is video of the President Clinton's speech. He spoke for 16 minutes, so here is part 1:I'll put part 2 of his speech and other photos below the fold. The capacity of the room was 1100 and I was told they reached capacity. It was just Governor Corzine and President Clinton at this one, Senator Weinberg joined them for their 2nd event in New Brunswick tonight.
We're here live at the Bill Clinton Rally in Collingswood to cover the day's events. We'll be taking some video to post from the event later and will be posting photos along with live blogging as much as we can. The room is filling up with anticipation as the music plays.
The doors opened at 3:30 and there were lines outside for people waiting to get in. State Senator Jim Beach is on the state warming up the crowd and now we have the pledge of allegiance. Beach introduces Congressman Rob Andrews.
Next week will be a busy one for Democrats in New Jersey. On Monday October 19, we'll have Vice President Biden making a return visit with the Governor and then Tuesday Fmr. President Bill Clinton will be making campaign stops:
Vice President Joe Biden will attend a rally at Middlesex County Community College in Edison on Monday. The next day, former president Bill Clinton will make appearances at two separate events, first with Corzine running mate Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) in Collingswood and then with Corzine at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.
The doors will open for the Biden Rally at 11am. And then on Wednesday as we talked about yesterday, President Obama will be at Fairleigh Dickinson in the afternoon for a rally with Governor Corzine. He won't be done yet though:
Caroline Kennedy will appear with Corzine that evening at an Irish-American festival in Belmar.
We'll look out for more details on the events and share them with you when they are available.
Updated by Jason: But wait, there's more. PNJ tells us that Congressional members Michael Honda (D-CA) and Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), along with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis will be campaiging in the state as well:
Honda is scheduled to bond with voters at a Saturday, Oct. 17 Filipino American Heritage Month Rally in Old Bridge, a Chinese Americans' Moon Festival Rally in Princeton, and a Korean Americans' Harvest Moon Festival Rally in Engelwood.
Also campaigning Saturday, Sanchez will atrend an Elks Lodge brekafast event in New Brunswick, a Mexican Chamber of Commerce event in Passaic, a luncheon hosted by Assemblywoman Nellie Pou (D-Paterson) for New Jersey Latinas at the Paterson Museum, a meet-and-greet with Latino Small Business Owners at the Harrison Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in Harrison, and a late luncheon hosted by Assemblywoman Annette Quijano (D-Elizabeth) for New Jersey Latinas at a restaurant in Elizabeth.
Solis will brunch on Sunday with Pou and New Jersey Latinas at Schuetzen Park in North Bergen.
This morning, clammyc and I are hitting the road on the way to beautiful Pittsburgh and Netroots Nation 09. I'm stoked.
I'm going as one of Democracy for America's Netroots Nation Scholars. DFA has this fabulous competitive program to underwrite costs for people they think ought to have that opportunity. It's a savvy way of undescoring deep ties between grassroots political organizers and those of us who ride the interwebs. I'm very lucky they chose me. (Shrugs.)
If you've got the means, throw DFA some coin. They're sending 40 of us this year to NN09- and that's all expenses paid.
Last year, they sent 30. On of them was Jeff Gardner, my buddy and a denizen of this site, and of DFA-NJ, like I am. There was a friendly, but cutthroat competition for votes with one Robert Harding at The Albany Project, which Jeff won, being that he's awesome. Don't worry, Robert got to go, too.
Clammyc's an old hand at NN, and he's participating in a session on red districts (for the fighting NJ-5) and moderating this one on PTSD.
Saturday, we'll be there to greet Governor Corzine, headlining the keynote panel, on 21st Century economy. It's a great "get" for Netroots Nation. With just two big state races this year - NJ & VA - the Republicans are focusing a lot of resources here to try and climb out of their hole. That's a story every blogger at NN09 is going to know. (Barring last-minute surprise, Creigh Deeds, running for the open seat in VA, won't be there).
With less than a week to go until Election Day, all of us here at the Linda Stender campaign are excited to kick off our Change Express tour across the 7th District, which will include a very special visit from President Bill Clinton!
Starting October 29th, Linda has been barnstorming a bunch of train stops across the 7th to share her message of change. Due to high gas prices, more people than ever are taking mass transit to get to work, yet many of New Jersey's citizens have lost their jobs due to the recent economic crisis. And, President Clinton is coming to New Jersey to help send Linda Stender to Congress to fight for the change we need. After eight years of failed Bush policies, we need strong Democrats like Barack Obama and Linda Stender in Washington to fight for middle class families.
Linda with Governor Dick Codey and the staff of the Reo Diner in Woodbridge!
Here are some of the next few scheduled stops on the tour!
Tewksbury Candidate Forum Thursday, October 30th
7PM to 8:00PM
Old Turnpike School
171 Old Turnpike Road
Califon
Meet n' greet at Bound Brook Train Stop Friday, October 31st
6:30AM to 7:30AM
Bound Brook
Rally for Change with President Bill Clinton Saturday, November 1st
12:30 PM
Union County College
Commons Area
1033 Springfield Avenue
Cranford
Free tickets are available at the following locations:
Campaign HQ 256 South Ave
Fanwood
Somerset Victory '08 1910 Washington Valley Rd
Martinsville
Hunterdon Dem HQ 155 Main Street
Flemington
Middlesex Dem HQ 231 Bridge St, Bldg F
Metuchen
(Parking space is limited for this event, so we encourage all that plan to attend to please carpool!)
Linda cares passionately about the issues affecting New Jersey's middle class families, and she would love to hear from you. You can either stop by the stations listed above, or you can visit our website to find out where Linda will be next!
With the final week before Election Day ahead of us, Linda needs your help more than ever! We are pulling out all the stops, and we look forward to working with you help get out the vote until you enter the voting booth! You can sign up to volunteer here to make calls and knock on doors until Tuesday, November 4th! Any time you can give will make a huge difference on Election Day.
Today, Linda Stender announced President Bill Clinton will headline a "Rally for Change" for her campaign this Saturday, November 1. The rally will support the entire New Jersey Democratic ticket and her campaign for Congress in New Jersey's 7th District.
WHAT: Rally for Change with Linda Stender and special guest President Bill Clinton
WHERE: Union County College
Commons Area
1033 Springfield Avenue
Cranford
WHEN: 12:30 PM
If you have the opportunity to go, please consider posting about your experiences here at Blue Jersey.
I wasn't able to go to the NJ2 debate yesterday between Representative Frank LoBiondo and challenger Dave Kurkowski, but Kurkowski describes how Frank LoBiondo was questioned about his role in squandering over twenty billion dollars:
"I wasn't the only one last night asking LoBiondo to explain his role in this scandal," Kurkowski said. "He was supposed to be looking out for taxpayers and for the Coast Guard. As usual, LoBiondo refused to take responsibility for his actions, passing the buck to-and this is a new one-Bill Clinton. As far as I know, President Clinton wasn't the chairman of the Coast Guard subcommittee."
Deepwater, awarded in 2002 and modified in 2005,...
The first problems appeared in 2004, ...
Bill Clinton wasn't even President! But even if Bill Clinton personally programmed the computers that miscalculated the weight of the ships and made the radios that were not waterproof, LoBiondo still bears major responsibility. After all, we already knew he wasn't running the shipyard.
Bill Clinton Here's Bill Clinton. I haven't seen his speech yet, and I doubt Barack Obama has either.
Last night, Hillary Clinton said she would do everything she could do to support Barack Obama. That makes two of us. Actually, that makes 18 million of us.
The blogger lounge and the media room alike are very quiet...
...until Bill Clinton calls Barack Obama "the right man for the job," a quote which draws applause from the audience and bloggers alike.
Barack Obama is ready to lead and restore American leadership to the world. ...Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States.
The theme of the night is "Securing America's Future," and Bill Clinton is hitting that message hard.
Bill Clinton spent the first half of his speech focusing on bringing up Obama. Now he's going to start bringing down McCain.
Yes he can but first we have to elect him
The first flaw in Bill's speech: he was too complimentary of McCain in that segment. But he'd been doing very well until then and I expect he'll be very good in the rest of the speech.
And he delivers: Clinton hits last night's message, that John McCain promises more of the same.
In this case, the third time is not the charm
President Clinton draws the inevitable comparison between the criticisms he faced in his run for president in 1992 and those that Barack Obama faces this year.
If, like me, you still believe America must always be a place called Hope, then join Hillary, Chelsea and me in making Senator Barack Obama the next President of the United States.
Bill Clinton delivered big time tonight.
John Kerry Kerry talks about Senator McCain versus Candidate McCain, turning the lines used against him in 2004 against John McCain.
CNN cut to Kerry's speech as he played the flip-flopper card against McCain.
Bill Clinton is, as we all know, a terrible example for children and should have been put in the stocks for his terrible sexual peccadilloes. George Bush is, of course, a good Christian man who helps our teenage girls to stay pure and good until their marriage night with abstinence only education.
At least that's what the media and the right wing noise machine will tell us, equating the Democrats with weak morality and the Republicans with "family values."
But the evidence rarely shows that to be the case. Here's more info that puts the lie to conventional wisdom:
With teenage birth rates rising nationally for the first time in 15 years, a majority of New Jersey residents worry that pregnancy among teens is a major problem in the state, according to a Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey poll.
Fifteen years ago? What happened 15 years ago, in 1993? Oh, Bill Clinton became President and ended a streak held by George Bush the First of increasing teen pregnancy.
And he implemented programs that taught kids about HIV and safe sex, and for the rest of his term pregnancy rates continued to fall.
It wasn't until the good Christian and moralist George Bush the Second trashed all those safe sex programs and spent seven years telling kids they would be OK as long as they ignored those sexual urges God gave them that teen pregnancy rates began to rise again.
Sixty-one percent of New Jersey adults believe teenage pregnancy is a major problem, while 27 percent say it's just a minor concern, and 10 percent have no opinion.
Those 61 percent probably think that the damn immoral relativist Democrats are to blame, and will consider voting for McCain over Obama. Even though McCain cheated on his first wife and got married just a month after he divorced her.
Bill Clinton will be in New Jersey for a rally on Tuesday. The event will be at the Papiono Gymnasium at Camden County College (200 College Drive, Blackwood) and is scheduled to begin at 10:15AM.
New Jersey's own Steve Adubato is a must visit for most pols in the state, and has been growing in stature as a political writer, talk show host and opinionator. He even has a column on MSNBC now, showing that he is moving outside the state.
But with crap like this (noted by TPM), maybe he should just stay in the bowels of NJ politics.
Bill and Hillary want the media to focus on are only the positive aspects of her experience but won't say a word about such topics as "Travelgate;" "Whitewater;" exactly how Vince Foster died; missing billing records; or Hillary's role as architect of the failed effort for universal healthcare.
Wow! Maybe Steve can blame Hillary for Mike Huckabee releasing Wayne Drummond to rape and kill again!
This is the problem with Democrats who become talking heads -- as soon as they get any play in the greater media world they instantly start buying into the crap the Republicans have been throwing around for the past 30 years, and in particular into the hateful lies they spewed about the Clintons for the past 15.
Here these are one by one:
Travelgate: Upon taking over the White House, the Clintons fired a bunch of staffers in the travel office and hired new ones. Somehow this became a huge deal: a new administration brought their own people in. Why won't Hillary talk about it on the stump?
Whitewater: This was the fevered imaginings of the right wing lunatics that Bill and Hillary Clinton were somehow culpable for a screwed up investment scheme on which they lost money and for which four separate Republican special prosecutors found no evidence against them. That's right: four Republican special prosecutors, and the best they could get was Bill lied about getting oral sex outside of his marriage. Steve is totally right that we need to investigate and discuss this one again!
Vince Foster's Death: Again, four Republican special prosecutors determined that Vince Foster committed suicide, was not murdered, there was no foul play, the body was not moved, and Hillary had nothing to do with it! Of course the sad, private death of a close friend 13 years ago should be a basic part of the stump speech.
Missing Billing Records: Yep, they were missing and the right wingers were going nuts over them, suggesting that the smoking gun was in them and Bill and Hillary were hiding them! How nefarious. Then the records were found, turned over to the prosecutor and, shockingly, there was nothing bad in them. Nothing. Hillary should answer for that!
Healthcare debacle: Hillary did screw this one up, and has repeatedly said so on the stump, at debates, in interviews. She suggests that because she has been through the fire on the health care issue she is best suited for taking it on again. As Steve says, why won't she talk about it?
Adubato is dredging up Republican smears that not only cost the American taxpayers millions of dollars, but were proven false repeatedly by Republican prosecutors. Then Adubato raises his own lie about Clinton, that she won't talk about the failed effort to institute universal national health care when she most assuredly has.
Look, I'm a John Edwards guy and I really hope he gets the nomination and Hillary gets to stay in the Senate. I've never been a big fan of either Clinton, and would have preferred Tsongas in 1992 and my Dad in 1996.
But that's all besides the point. When our spokesmen like Steve Adubato make their bones on trotting out disproven right wing lies against other Democrats, then we are fighting a massive uphill battle.
Maybe you can say there's some Karma here after Clinton NH co-chair Bill Shaheen slyly brought up Obama's teenage drug use or Clinton backer and former Senator Bob Kerrey "innocently" repeated the "madrassa" claims. But if Shaheen and Kerrey were wrong, so is Adubato.
Last night, President Clinton joined New Jersey Democrats from around the state helping raise $2.1 million for the State Party at the Governor's Gala, which was held at the NJ Performing Arts Center in Newark. Above is a picture I got as the former President spoke for about 10 minutes to a packed room of over 600 and here's a couple of the lines he delivered to the cheering crowd...
"I'm so glad your governor is going to be OK."
"It's a great time to be a Democrat," Clinton said. "New Jersey has become a great Democratic state."
"In 2006, the people said we want America to get back to do what it does best. We want to get back in the solution business. That's what Democrats do best."
"When I walked out of the White House for the last time, I was more idealistic than when I walked in for the first time. You know why? Because people were better off when I quit than when I started."
It'll be a fancy dress party, Jersey style at the next week's Governor's Gala.
Mark the date: June 8th.
It's a chance to raise money for the state party and the Democratic slate in this November's elections. (Expand the majority. Hello!) And with former President Bill Clinton on hand as featured guest, folks might find themselves feeling nostalgic for a not-so-long-ago era of peace and prosperity. Peace, prosperity? Ring and bells?
But enough about my fantasies.
I suspect this event shall lie in stark contrast to the little NJ-GOP extravaganza cumdebacle this past week. I also am guessing that Clinton will be warmly received by the state's democrats. Likewise, it's a safe bet that our Clinton soiree bring in a lot more ducats than the Bush/NJGOP shindig. I just betcha.
One thing is for sure: At $1,500 a pop, the Democrats know the deal: No. Dixie. Cups. Ever.
Though we do need to keep our attention on increasing Democratic majorities in the 2007 state races and on Lautenberg's 2008 senate seat, I want to make the case that former Sen. John Edwards is a presidential candidate who merits the support of Garden State voters and would be an incredibly viable candidate in the general election. For the central concerns of state voters, both Democratic and otherwise, Edwards is completely in line with issues important to us -- increasing the minimum wage and labor rights (he is often on picket lines, leading the charge), working to make college more affordable, promoting a pro-environmental agenda, and beginning the long overdue process of bringing our troops home from the resource-depleting war in Iraq. Perhaps the most endangered economic class in our state, that is, the middle class, would become enfranchised and empowered under an Edwards administration with increases in federal subsidies to make college more affordable, laws against predatory lending practices, and a pro-protectionism stance on the outsourcing of American jobs.
I could give you several logical reasons (he would most likely win Ohio and Florida, for example) that I consider Edwards to be the most attractive candidate of the many worthy candidates, including Vilsack and perhaps Clark, who have declared thus far; but at the core of my support for him is a belief that an Edwards candidacy would initiate needed change in domestic and foreign policy, as well my tendency to be genuinely inspired and moved whenever I hear him speak. I count him in the great tradition of American orators from King to Clinton who, on a personal level, can truly make an audience believe that he is being honest and forthright with them.
New Jersey's presidential primary will be moved up to early February, if Codey's initiative becomes law, but Hillary Clinton is currently leading in the state by a wide margin, according to a recent Quinnipiac Poll. Edwards, who has called for an immediate withdrawal of 40-50k troops from Iraq, presents a better progressive platform than the centrist Hillary; and I encourage others to join us in supporting Edwards in his quest to become president. There are multiple One Corps chapters. for Edwards already forming in the state, and a New Jersey for Edwards yahoogroup.(with at least two Blue Jersey bloggers already on it) has been formed for activism and networking. We'd love to have you join us.
Tom Kean Sr has revealed his true colors. His motivations for so forcefully promoting the fictional 9/11 movie are purely political - it's all about his son's campaign. From the New York Daily News:
Asked if he had apologized to Clinton for inaccuracies in the movie, Kean quipped, "No, he was out campaigning against my son yesterday, so I didn't reach out to him at all!"
This movie, which uses completely fabricated events to lay the blame for 9/11 on Clinton, is his chance for revenge. It's not surprising that Tom Kean seems to be putting political expediency above the truth, since he's always blamed Clinton for al Qaeda (from 2004):
Kean: Clinton Blew Best Chance to Get bin Laden
The chairman of the independent commission probing the 9/11 attacks said Sunday that the U.S. probably missed its best chance to take Osama bin Laden out during the Clinton administration, when the notorious terrorist left Sudan for Afghanistan in 1996.
"If we had acted earlier on al-Qaida when al-Qaida was smaller and just getting started, even before bin Laden went to Afghanistan, there were times we could have gotten him," former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean told NBC's "Meet the Press."
So now, Tom Kean Sr is using his position of credibilty and trust as chairman of the 9/11 Commission to blame Democrats for the attacks on 9/11. This is all about politics, and it's all about putting his son's campaign above the truth.
Disney, ABC, Tom Kean and the right wing's attempts to teach our kids propaganda about 9/11 may have suffered a huge setback. Tom Kean Sr had personally written a letter to educators urging teachers to use of the movie and related teaching materials in the classroom. Scholastic had posted the letter, and teaching materials on its site, but it appears the teaching materials may have been removed. For now, Kean's letter is still available on their site. (UPDATE: Think Progress reports that Scholastic plans to put the materials back online.)
"When we were attacked, all the politicians sang 'God Bless America,'" Cosby said. "Then they went in a back room and said 'Let's make some cutbacks (to veterans programs.)"
Jon Corzine yesterday picked executive director of the NJ Institute for Social Justice, Kenneth Zimmerman to replace Stuart Rabner as his chief counsel.
"Ken Zimmerman is an ethical, talented attorney with a wealth of legal experience and strongly held principles. I will rely on his guidance and I am confident he will pursue the people's interests with the single-minded focus he has demonstrated throughout his career."
Paul Aronsohn reiterated his challenge to Scott Garrett for a series of debates. A running "debate clock" on Aronsohn's site shows that it's been 17 days, 9 hours, 38 minutes and 27 seconds of silence from Garrett since Aronsohn first issued his debate challenge.
Bill Clinton spoke at a fundraiser for Senator Bob Menendez yesterday about the importance of winning back the Congress:
“This is a real simple deal: in the last six years the White House and Congress have been under the iron grip not of the Republican Party, but a narrow strip of the most right-wing, the most ideological, the most dominated by the corporate special interests in the Republican Party. They’ve had it their way for six years and they tried their ideas, they implemented their policies and we can see their results."
The Clinton event raised about $750,000 for Menendez, while George H. W. Bush's fundraiser for Kean Jr raised roughly $300,000.
