Former United States President Bill Clinton jumped from issue to issue on Saturday afternoon while speaking in Syracuse. From prescription drugs to college affordability and debt. From the minimum wage to the lead water crises in Flint, Michigan and elsewhere in the country. From education to incarceration rates.

But Clinton always returned to the same conclusion: that his wife, Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is best equipped to deal with those issues and lead the country.

Bill Clinton spoke to a few hundred attendees for about 45 minutes inside the Fowler High School gymnasium in Syracuse. The high school was his third of four campaign stops in New York on Saturday, as the state will hold its primary on Tuesday.

Clinton began his speech by pointing out the contentious nature of the Republican presidential primary and, citing stagnant wages, said that people have a right to be angry. But he also said that current U.S. President Barack Obama doesn’t get enough credit for turning the economy around following the 2008 recession. That type of praising of Obama has become commonplace for a campaign offering Hillary Clinton as a continuity to Obama’s presidency.

“We are the fastest growing big economy on earth,” Bill Clinton said. “… We’re moving in the right direction.”

Clinton also spoke extensively on the subject of college debt. He told a story of a time he met a woman with a son who had recently graduated from college. He said the woman told him that the interest rate on her son’s debt was 9 percent, which drew several gasps from the crowd.

The solution to college debt, Clinton said, would be to allow people to refinance their loans and pay debt the same as one pays for a mortgage.

“Think of what this would do,” he said. “People can move out of their parents’ houses. … If you have a job that you took just to make your loan repay, and you have a job over here that you’d like to have but it pays less, you can take it.”

Clinton talked for a few minutes about incarceration rates and said that there are too many young people spending time in prison for nonviolent offenses.

That’s something officials in both parties agree on, Clinton said, but he added that only Hillary has a detailed plan to solve the issue. That includes supporting people who are released from prison with educational training and transitional support, as well as not denying people jobs simply because they’ve spent time in prison.

The subject of incarceration rates has been a touchy one for Bill Clinton, who in 1994 approved a crime reform bill that some blame for a large uptick in the imprisonment of black people. In Philadelphia last week, Clinton sparred with a group of Black Lives Matter protesters over the bill. That was a stark contrast from Saturday’s event in Syracuse, where there were no protesters.

Earlier Saturday and less than two miles from Fowler High School, Republican presidential candidate and business mogul Donald Trump made his own campaign stop and held a rally at the Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center in downtown Syracuse.

At Clinton’s event, one man, Francis Lucas, wore a shirt that read “TRUMP IS A CHUMP” on the front. On the back, it said “Trump equals” at the top, followed by words such as bigot, racist, nightmare, unqualified and women hater.

Lucas didn’t go to Trump’s rally, choosing to support Clinton rather than protest Trump. Lucas plans to vote for Clinton on Tuesday.

“I know they say that she’s dishonest and everything, but she has so much experience,” he said. “She knows everything about politics, so that’s why I’m going with her.”

Bill Clinton, though not mentioning him by name, had his own criticisms of Trump ready. He condemned Trump’s proposals to build a wall on the Mexican border and keep Muslims from entering the country.

“To beat (terrorism), we need to prove that America’s open to everybody,” he said. “… Whatever our differences, our common humanity matters more.”

Toward the end of his speech, Clinton stressed the importance of the 2016 presidential election, saying that if the Democrats don’t win, the Republicans will control not only the presidency but also Congress and the Supreme Court, where there is currently a vacancy. He added that the New York primary could shape the entire election, going as far as to say that it could be more pivotal than the general election.

Hillary Clinton currently leads Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) by 219 delegates in the race for the Democratic nomination. There are 291 more delegates at stake in New York’s primary, and Clinton holds a double-digit lead over Sanders in recent polls.

That didn’t stop Bill Clinton from seeming urgent on Saturday, as he implored those in attendance to vote. He told them that Hillary “loves Syracuse,” adding that she visited the city 47 times while she was a U.S. senator for New York.

Clinton was introduced Saturday by Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, a Hillary supporter who, like Bill, wasn’t shy about showing that support.

“We believe in the American dream, and we believe in progress,” Miner said. “… And we know that the person who can lead us to the promise land is Hillary Rodham Clinton!”

Published on April 16, 2016 at 8:25 pm

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu