Former president Bill Clinton encouraged South Dakotans to support his wife's bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination during an address in front of Old Main Friday evening.
"I think she is the best qualified person to be president that I have literally ever supported in my lifetime," he said of his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton.
President Clinton drew a substantial crowd despite a brief rain shower, which delayed his appearance by about 35 minutes and forced many in attendance to seek shelter in Slagle Hall.
Clinton spoke for nearly an hour and addressed several issues of concern to South Dakota residents including energy, the income gap and health care.
Clinton argued that the Midwest is an ideal location to harvest renewable resources.
"In South Dakota, you could-if you had the right president-generate phenomenally more energy from the wind and the sun," he said. He added that a study from the Department of Energy reported that there is enough potential wind energy in the area from West Texas to the Canadian border to power the entire nation.
"I'm really interested in her policies about energy and using the resources here [South Dakota]," said Lisa Vik, a teacher from Sioux Falls who supports Sen. Clinton.
Clinton also raised the issue of wealth distribution in America, saying that America needs to be a country of shared prosperity again. He pointed to statistics suggesting that 10 percent of earners receive 90 percent of benefits.
"You cannot have a country of shared prosperity with that kind of inequality," he said.
Clinton suggested that his wife would close this gap by creating eight million jobs that cannot be outsourced.
Clinton also discussed health care, saying that America has fallen behind other developed nations in terms of coverage.
The former president called his wife's health care plan the only one that would cover every American without exception.
Clinton used the case of USD senior Ryan Moore to illustrate the need for better health care coverage in the country. Moore's father lost his job because his employer was unable to insure the family as a result of the fact that he was born with a condition called Spondyloepiphyseal Dysplasia dwarfism. Moore first met Sen. Clinton in 1994 at an event hosted by Health Right, Inc.
"He has become a symbol, to her [Sen. Clinton], of why every American should have a right to health care," Clinton said of Moore.
Moore admires the Clintons and supports Hillary in her bid for the presidency.
"I'm really proud of Hillary and Bill and how they haven't thrown in the towel when they easily could have," Moore said.
President Clinton's visit gave area residents a chance to be more directly involved in presidential politics than they have had in past years. Clinton has been traveling throughout South Dakota to drum up support for his wife's campaign.
As a result of its upcoming June 3 primary, Sen. Clinton and her opponent Sen. Barack Obama have been campaigning heavily in South Dakota.
Gayle Halverson of Vermillion, who attended Friday's event, is pleased with the increased attention South Dakota has garnered as a result of the long primary season.
"It's made South Dakota matter in the race, where before we basically didn't," he said.
Joseph Raiche, a doctoral student at USD, is also encouraged that the candidates are taking notice of a state that is often overlooked by presidential campaigns. "It's interesting that somebody at least cares about South Dakota for once."
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