Clinton fundraiser for John Baldacci
University of Southern Maine
October 16, 2006
The past eight days have been pretty exciting around here.

Today we're visited by Bill Clinton, the last president in U.S. history to have been ELECTED to the office.

Last Monday we had wonderful visits from Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich, two great men dedicated to building a better Democratic Party.

Two men, who campaigned for President on a platform of peace, not war. They opposed the war then, they continue to oppose it today, and I applaud them for that.

And I want you to know they can be pretty persuasive.

Think of it.

They were here on Monday, criticizing the war.

On Tuesday Olympia Snowe admitted that maybe the Iraq war wasn't such a good thing after all.

A couple of days before Sen. Snowe had her election-year epiphany, I faced off with her in the editorial offices of the Portland Press Herald. At that time, she attempted to defend her vote to go to war by saying she had based her decision on the information supplied to her by the White House.

"You have to vote based on what you are told," she said, or something to that effect.

Problem is, we were all told the same thing.

The Cheney lies.

The Bush lies

The Colin Powell presentation to the United Nations, where he presented, as I wrote back in February of 2003, "bogus, vague, and/or conjectured information about the status of the Iraqi weapons program."

We all had that same information Olympia Snowe had.

Howard Dean had that same information, and he was an outspoken opponent of going to war.

Dennis Kucinich had that same information, and he started the opposition to the War Resolution in the House.

Tom Allen had that same information, and he soon joined with Representative Kucinich to get the anti-war vote moving.

And Congressman John Baldacci, who was then in the final weeks of his first campaign for governor, had that same information. And Congressman Baldacci joined with Dennis Kucinich and Tom Allen and voted against allowing George Bush to go to war. It was a courageous act, and I thank him greatly for that.

So when Olympia Snowe now says she's having second thoughts about the war, I'm not impressed.

Now that she knows 60 percent of the American public oppose the war, now that she knows that some other Republicans are speaking out, NOW she's MAYBE thinking that the Iraq war might POSSIBLY not have been as good an idea as she thought it was at the time she voted for it.

Give me a break.

Olympia Snowe is a follower.

Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich, Tom Allen, Mike Michaud, and John Baldacci are LEADERS.

And in a couple of weeks I intend to join them as another leader in the Democratic Party, fighting to bring our troops home, to FINALLY get national heath care, to develop and promote sustainable energy independence for this great country, and to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.

I want to take a few moments to talk about John Baldacci.

I first got to know John in 1994, when he and I were in the Democratic primary for the Second District Congressional race. It was a wild and woolly seven-way primary for an open seat.

The day after John won that primary, he reached out to all the other candidates, pulling the Democratic Party back together. We worked hard that summer and fall, and WE TOOK BACK THAT HOUSE SEAT.

And we've kept that 2nd District seat since then, because John Baldacci and Mike Michaud are good, hard-working Democrats who CARE about the people of Maine.

Both of these men continue to care about Maine people, and deserve to get re-elected. The same goes for Tom Allen in the 1st District.

As I've campaigned with these three men I often said I'll be proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with them in service to the people of Maine. Now I'm a little shorter than they are, so this should-to-shoulder thing might look like it will be difficult.

But let me tell you this.

You take the Democratic Party's core values of peace, prosperity, jobs, justice, support for the working class and those in need, and FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY, and you stand on that platform. Then we're ALL shoulder to shoulder, and we're going to get this job done.

We're going to put John Baldacci back in the Blaine House, we're going to put Tom Allen and Mike Michaud back in the U.S. House of Representatives.

And guess what?

With the energy we have in this room -- and, Mr. President, perhaps with a little help from your close friends at the DSCC - we're going to surprise the press and the pundits on election day in this U.S. Senate race.

I'm ready to go to work with John, Mike and Tom.

I'm ready to go to work FOR the people of Maine.

We're going to make this thing happen.

Thank you very much.