Clinton makes closing arguments in Henderson rally

Henderson- Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) wrapped up her primary campaign in Nevada Friday night with a rally at Greenspun Junior High School in Henderson.  Clinton spoke for half an hour before the overflow crowd, repeating many of her policy proposals and taking at least one veiled swipe at her leading primary opponent Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL), whom she did not mention by name.

With the Nevada caucuses only hours away, Clinton remains locked in a tight race with Obama and former N.C. Sen. John Edwards for the state’s 33 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August.

“It is overwhelming to see all of you here tonight,” said Clinton after being introduced by husband and former president Bill Clinton.  Clinton took a moment to acknowledge the work of her staff and volunteers as well as the contributions of Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid, Nevada Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus and Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-NV) before launching into a beefed-up version of her standard stump speech.

“This election is not about any of the people I just mentioned,” said Clinton.  “[It’s] not about those of us who are running.  It’s about you.  It’s about you, your families, your children, your grandchildren.  It’s about your future.”

Clinton discussed the various challenges that await the next president including ending the war in Iraq, winning the war in Afghanistan, managing an economy sliding toward recession, covering millions of uninsured or insufficiently-insured Americans and bringing down ever-rising oil prices.

“Starting on day one,” Clinton said.  “We will roll up our sleeves together and we will get to work because there’s nothing we can’t do if we put our minds to it.”

While Clinton studiously refrained from naming any of her opponents for the Democratic nomination, she did take one veiled swipe at Obama for comments he made recently to the Reno Gazette-Journal.

“One of my leading opponents said the other day that he thinks that the Republicans are the party of ideas,” said Clinton.  “Well, I would agree to that to the extent that they are the party of bad ideas.”

Obama told the editorial board of the RGJ Monday that “I think it's fair to say the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last ten, fifteen years, in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom.”

The largest share of Clinton’s scorn was reserved for the Bush administration, however, with Clinton rhetorically asking “how could we not do better?” and referring to Pres. Bush and V.P. Cheney as the “two oil men” in the White House.

Clinton’s supporters relished the opportunity to see her and the former president and were uniformly excited to caucus for her on Saturday as they left the gymnasium.

“11 o’clock at Green Valley High School,” said Kelly Block, 45, of Henderson about her caucus site.  “There’s no stopping her.”

Omar Pasrejon, 29, of Las Vegas was also determined to caucus for Clinton, describing her as a “good choice for America.”  Asked to describe what he liked best about Clinton, he answered simply that she was “muy simpatico.”