Nashua Telegraph
NASHUA – Democrats had their political appetites satisfied Saturday: chocolate in the afternoon with Hillary and then a chicken dinner with Hillary.
U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton made a brief but memorable visit to Swan Chocolates in the afternoon – stopping downtown traffic to sip a hot drink and meet admirers – before headlining the state Democratic Party’s annual dinner at the Sheraton Nashua Hotel.
Speaking to her party faithful – some of whom paid $500 to attend the dinner – the presidential candidate promised to break the country free of the “corrosive policies” put forward the past six years by the Bush administration and Republicans.
With Democrats offering a new beginning, Americans will again see a “basic bargain,” Clinton said. “If you work hard and play by the rules, you’ll have the opportunity to build a better life for yourself and your
family . . . and the government will be on your side.”
Clinton criticized President Bush for ignoring the advice of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group to begin a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops and instead sending as many as 21,000 more soldiers to the war front. If Bush doesn’t send all the troops home by the end of his term, “as president, I will,” Clinton said.
She also spoke of providing “quality, affordable” health care to all Americans, especially children, but didn’t specify how she would accomplish that goal.
Clinton said that middle- and lower-income Americans who have been “invisible” to Bush and Republicans would no longer be invisible when “we retake the White House.”
Earlier in the day, anticipation of a Clinton visit kept some of the downtown at a standstill as a throng of backers and curious spectators patiently waited for the candidate to arrive. When her caravan parked on Temple Street almost an hour behind schedule, a lively crowd that had snaked around the block to Main Street hushed as suddenly a person known to most only through television came to life.
She moved slowly through the crowd, posing for pictures and holding infants, before entering Swan Chocolates. She discussed her weakness for – and the health benefits of – chocolate with Executive Councilor Debora Pignatelli before ordering a refreshment.
Then, shielded by Secret Service agents and her campaign staff, Clinton had a private chat with the shop owners Michael and Theresa Anderson, discussing the rewards and challenges of small business ownership.
“We’ve grown to 18 employees in a couple of years,” Michael Anderson said after Clinton left the building. “We talked about the concerns we have: energy and health care. She wanted to know how we handle that. The number one request we have when people want to work here is health insurance.”
Clinton has the right intention in wanting to provide health insurance to as many Americans as possible, Anderson said. “It’s time for a change,” he said. “It’s a big burden, but we have to meet that challenge.”
In a brief interview with The Telegraph, Clinton said she was impressed with “the intensity (with which) people in New Hampshire care about the political process and how they feel about picking out a candidate.”
Clinton, who calls many of her campaign talks “listening sessions,” said New Hampshire voters’ top concerns – health care, the economy and Iraq – are not that different from the rest of the country.
The Democratic dinner drew a sold-out crowd of 1,000 people, the most ever to attend the annual event, according to party officials. Tickets ranged from $100 to $500, with an opportunity to sponsor the state party with donations of up to $5,000.
U.S. Reps. Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter, Gov. John Lynch and other Democratic officials also spoke, pledging to make good on the party’s sweep in the midterm election. It marked the last dinner with Kathy Sullivan as party chairwoman; she is stepping down later this month after eight years as leader.
Not everyone came to toast New York’s junior senator, however. Outside the hotel, about a dozen protesters from a local activist group held placards demanding that the military leave Iraq. The group, Nashua Peace, takes no stance on political candidates, but rather wants to emphasize the need to end the war, two members said.
“We want her to act more forcefully,” Nashua resident Paul Fitzpatrick, a member of the group, said of Clinton. “She needs to admit her (2002) vote was a mistake.” But Clinton refuses to apologize for her Senate vote authorizing President Bush to use force in Iraq.
Clinton joined other Democrats in praising Ray Buckley, who had to suspend his campaign for state party chairman while police investigated charges that he possessed child pornography. Prosecutors exonerated Buckley, saying that Republican Rep. Steve Vaillancourt had no basis for his allegations.
“I have an idea of what you went through,” Clinton told Buckley, apparently alluding to the media storm she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, lived through during his two terms in the White House.
Clinton also appreciated Sullivan’s remark that she is “divinely attractive.” The next time the press analyzes her fashion choices, Clinton said she will remember that in New Hampshire “I’m divinely attractive.”
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