McAuliffe Speaks on Clinton’s Campaign

Former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe addressed about the state of the Democratic party and Hillary Clinton’s upcoming campaign before an audience of nearly 75 in Lerner Hall on Friday afternoon.

McAuliffe currently serves as the chairman of the Hillary Clinton for President Campaign. His visit marks the first in a series of American political leaders’ visits to campus planned for the next year as the 2008 presidential race progresses.

In her introduction of McAuliffe, political science professor Judith Russell, Arts and Science ’92, remarked that “this is a great crowd for a campus apparently beset with apathy.”

After calling the Republican Party “a trainwreck,” McAuliffe cautioned Democrats against becoming too confident about the upcoming election.

“If anyone can screw this [the 2008 presidential election] up, we can... we have,” he said, referring to the 2000 election when Democratic nominee Al Gore lost by a handful of votes to George Bush. “They simply fought harder,” he explained.

McAuliffe continued to assure students throughout his speech that the Democratic Party was prepared to fight over the course of the campaign, adding that the election “is going to get frisky” both during the primaries and the general election.

He stressed that no Democrat will be personally attacking a fellow Democrat during the primary campaign and that, unlike John Kerry’s lackluster response to the Swift Boat controversy, Democrats would be vigorously responding to any personally attacks launched at them by Republicans. “Fight fair, but you’ve got to defend yourself,” he said.

While the discussion focused on the 2008 presidential election, McAuliffe touched upon various other issues including the pitfalls of the Democratic Party in the last two elections, health care reform, the Middle East, and his “most expensive friends,” the Clinton’s.

Most of the question-and-answer period centered on Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the presidency. McAuliffe noted that the next step for Clinton is to spend time in Iowa, home of the first major electoral event in the nominating process. Recent polls show that Clinton is currently tied with Democratic hopefuls John Edwards and Barack Obama in Iowa. He highlighted health care reform and the Iraq war as her biggest concerns.

In support of her plan to implement universal health care in the U.S., McAuliffe explained, “I don’t ever go to bed at night worrying that if my kid gets a catastrophic illness I can’t take care of him, but for 47 million Americans, they do.”

Russell called McAuliffe “a force of nature [who] can charm songbirds out of a tree.”

Some students did not view his charisma in as positive a light. “He’s a master of charm... and that’s not necessarily a compliment,” Alice Mottola, BC ’10, said. “When he came in here, I didn’t really like him, but by the end, I wanted to and had to try not to.”