Former President Bill Clinton speaks during an Obama rally at Owens Community College in the SHAC gym on November 1, 2012. Photo by Cathy Zeltner

By Cathy Zeltner

Former President Bill Clinton visited the Toledo area campus on Thursday, November 1, 2012. Clinton came to rally for the re-election of President Obama. The rally was held in the gym of the SHAC. Approximately 1,950 people showed up to the rally.

State representative, Matt Szollosi said, “President Clinton is here today not because he has to be, but because he wants to be,” in his introduction of the former president. He also added that, “President Clinton knows a thing or two about getting our economy growing.”

The former president had a hoarse voice from campaigning for President Obama, which he acknowledged at the beginning of his speech. He made a slip up during his speech and referred to Ohio as Pennsylvania, but immediately corrected himself.

Clinton supported President Obama and brought up several issues in which he agreed with Obama’s views. Clinton spoke about the budget and the economy. He talked about jobs, income and clean energy. Health care also came up as a topic as did Medicaid and Medicare.

Because of Obama’s health care, “30 million Americans will be able to buy health care,” claimed the former president. Clinton claimed that the majority of Medicaid is spent on children who come from poor but working families, senior citizens that are on Medicaid but cannot afford health care, especially those in nursing homes, and families with children who have disabilities.

Clinton talked about the economy by stating that, “The financial crisis we suffered in September of 2008, just 6 weeks before the election, was profoundly severe; the worst we’ve had since the depression. And no president, I don’t care what Governor Romney or anybody else says; no president could have healed all the damage from that crisis in 4 years.”

The former president also added that Obama’s opponent claimed that Jeep would be moving to China. He corrected this statement in saying that Jeep will not be moving, but instead expanding to China and that the Toledo Jeep plant has no plans to close.

Supporters were encouraged to vote early. Buses were outside to transport people who wished to vote early to a voting precinct after the event.

Rally attendees hold up signs to encourage early voting. Photo by Cathy Zeltner

Obama for America initiated the visit. They contacted several schools about the possibility of the former president visiting. Secret service then

conducted a walk-through of the possible schools, and decided which school would be best suited for the rally. Owens received confirmation at around 4:00 pm on Thursday, October 31, 2012 that the rally would be held at the school. Owens sent e-mails to faculty and students to invite them to the event. Obama for America also sent e-mails and made phone calls to invite supporters to the rally. The entire event confirmation and set up happened in less than 48 hours.