Clinton mocks Bush on oil
Posted: Friday, May 16, 2008 5:27 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
White House
From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli
JUNCTION CITY, Ore. -- Hillary Clinton ratcheted up her criticism of President Bush today, mocking him for simply “begging” Saudi Arabia to increase oil supplies rather than having a real plan to deal with the energy crisis.
“I don’t think it is a good energy policy to depend upon the kindness of the Saudis … while businesses and individuals are trying to figure out how they’re going to afford nearly $4 a gallon gas and nearly $5 a gallon diesel,” she said. “The impact is really beginning to ripple dramatically through the economy.”
Clinton’s comments came during a roundtable discussion with local residents about a host of problems facing the country today, primarily economic ones.
“I think it’s very important that we do something more dramatic than going to have tea with the Saudis,” she said. “The Saudis may decide, well we better do something to help out President Bush, but that’s a short term fix. It is not going to have any long-term consequences. And we just have to take a different approach if we’re going to begin to get serious.
Clinton generally lamented the sense of “paralysis” in the country today.
“We just can’t get anything done. Here we are the greatest nation in the world, the greatest problem solvers, and we’re not solving our problems,” she said. “We’re not solving our energy problems; we’re not solving our infrastructure problems. I mean it just doesn’t add up. And we’re sure not solving our health care problems.”
Clinton chose the home of Sandy and Marvin Mehlbrech to make these arguments, saying she prefers the roundtable forum to big rallies.
“When you have just the big events with the rallies and all the ra-ra, and all of the speeches and the lights and everything," she said, "it doesn’t mean as much to many people, me included."
As the session wrapped up, Sandy Mehlbrech urged Clinton to “stay in” the race, saying there are many people behind her. Clinton said she feels that support, and then claimed she had a lead in the national popular vote.
“I’ve got about 50,000 more votes, which is really exciting, because that’s important,” she said. “We’re gonna let everybody vote. Obviously I hope to persuade those of you who haven’t sent in your ballots in Oregon to consider supporting me.”
Though she said most people haven’t sent in their ballots, this is Clinton’s final day campaigning in this state. Later today she’ll hold one last town hall meeting, organized by a local television station and to be broadcast live. From there, she’ll spend the remaining days before the May 20 primaries in Kentucky.
