I had the chance to see the former President Bill Clinton at a campaign rally for Jim Martin on the campus of Clark-Atlanta University in Atlanta, GA.
FROM THE ATLANTA-JOURNAL CONSTITUTION
MIKKI K. HARRIS / mkharris@ajc.com
Former President Bill Clinton urged Georgia voters on Wednesday to send the man who will sit in his former office one more deputy — Jim Martin.
Clinton told a chilly crowd at Clark Atlanta University to return to the polls on Dec. 2 and elect Martin to the U.S. Senate and reject incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss.
Former President Bill Clinton rallied Democrats in support of U.S. Senate candidate Jim Martin (left) at Clark Atlanta University.
Clinton is Martin’s first big-name. Former Vice President Al Gore will be here Sunday on Martin’s behalf.
Martin welcomed the former president’s help.
"You have left us a great legacy," Martin told Clinton. "You gave us an economy that worked for the middle class, a government that put families before big business and a nation that was building a brighter future for our children."
Hours before thousands gathered on the quad at Clark Atlanta, Chambliss was praised and endorsed by the executive vice-president of the National Rifle Association.
Wayne LaPierre said in Atlanta that Chambliss is needed back in the Senate to protect gun rights.
"We’re going to have some real battles in Washington," LaPierre said, who added that Obama will "break his promise" to protect gun rights.
Martin’s campaign rejected the notion that their candidate would be anything but a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment.
At Clark Atlanta later, Clinton warned the nearly 3,000 on the cold quad that runoffs are tricky.
"I’ve helped in ones we’ve won and I’ve helped in ones we’ve lost," he said. "The person who wins this election will be the one whose supporters want it the most. You can win in this thing if you want it bad enough. You just have to decide how bad you want it."
Clinton’s appearance had been scheduled for a campus gymnasium, which holds 1,200, but Martin spokesman Matt Canter said demand for tickets persuaded the campaign to move it to the central campus quad. Canter said more than 3,000 were on the quad at one point, although some left rather than stand in the cold and wait for Clinton, who ran late. Several came armed with copies of Clinton’s best-selling memoir, "My Life." Lauren Green, 18, of Hiram, was among them.
Green said she brought the book in hopes of getting it autographed. As she was stuck behind a metal barricade, that didn’t appear likely.
"You don’t know what to expect," said Green.
Green voted this year in her first election and stood in the cold Wednesday to back Martin.
"The hopes of America are riding with Georgia," Clinton said, adding that Martin would not be a rubber stamp for Obama. "We don’t check our brains at the door."
He also took several shots at Chambliss, especially the incumbent’s claim to represent "a firewall" against Democratic power.
"This guy’s trying to give you chapter two of a song that wasn’t worth a flip when he sang it the first time," Clinton said.
"This country doesn’t need a firewall against the future. It needs a bridge to the future."