NEW HAVEN -- Former President Bill Clinton delivered a message to the Democratic base Sunday morning: this election matters.
"There is nothing wrong with this country we can't fix but we have to think and act and chose and make the right choice," Clinton told an audience of about 2,000 Democrat partisans who packed the gymnasium at Wilbur Cross High School.
Clinton came to Connecticut to campaign for Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal, a man Clinton has known 40 years.
Clinton's 35 minute speech was short on soundbites and heavy with wonkish digressions. He touched on topics as diverse as the German economy, healthcare policy and the benefits of fuel cells.
But he returned again and again to a central theme: America enjoyed an era of enormous prosperity during his presidency but Republicans have steered the country off course. He accused them of shedding "crocodile tears" on the deficit without acknowledging that unbridled spending during the Bush years is largely to blame.
He acknowledged the mood of the country: "I share your anger but anytime in life you make a really important decision in your life when you're mad, 80 percent of the time you make a mistake."
Clinton's is the second high-profile visit Blumenthal has had this month. President Obama attended a pair of fundraisers in the state last week.
Unlike those closed_door events, Clinton's public appearance was intended to rally the troops, not bring in big bucks, although it did he a fundraising component; for 5,000, participants could have their photo taken with the former president.
Blumenthal is locked in tough battle with self-funding Republican Linda McMahon, but Clinton's speech was focused on the general Republican agenda and not the specifics of the McMahon campaign. He never mentioned her by name and made only one oblique reference to her former career as CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment. (Clinton mentioned a Colorado gubernatorial candidate who said Denver's bike paths we a U.N. plot, leading Clinton to speculate that perhaps the candidate had spent too much time in the wrestling ring.) Clinton said this is a pivotal election and urged everyone to vote, particularly the young people who turned out for Barack Obama in 2008.
The former president's admonition wasn't lost on 25-year-old Seth Bannon of New Haven. "This election's almost as important as 2008," he said as he walked out of the school.
Clinton cited the important issues at stake: the financial regulatory overhaul, healthcare, student loan reform.
He remains one of the Democratic party's most revered figures and is much in demand on the campaign circuit this fall.
Tom Petty's "Won't Back Down" blared over the sound system as Clinton departed for his next campaign stop in Taunton, Mass., where he is stumping for longtime U.S. Barney Frank.
-- Daniela Altimari