By Doug Livingston
Beacon Journal staff writer
CANTON: Former President Bill Clinton wrapped up a two-day tour of eastern Ohio on Wednesday in Canton, where he campaigned for Hillary Clinton in front of hundreds of supporters.
The Democratic presidential nominee’s husband received a warm welcome from the union-friendly crowd, packed tightly into the Ironworkers Local 550 Training Center, where laborers learn to build bridges and buildings.
With a massive American flag hanging from a 2-foot-thick orange I-beam, Clinton took the stage as the crowd yelled, “We love you, Bill.”
After being introduced by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, the affable president turned and handed the Ohio Democrat a tie made in Colorado.
“Made in America,” Clinton noted.
For more than half an hour, Clinton expounded on his wife’s middle-class economic proposals: infrastructure spending for “good union jobs,” streamlining small business loans, revitalizing manufacturing, cheap and accessible college, universal health care, enforcing trade deals and taxing the rich to help companies that help their workers.
But he couldn’t resist the rhetoric of his wife’s opponent, Donald Trump.
“Let’s do something different,” Clinton riffed, setting up what was mostly a positive, policy-heavy speech. “Has this been a crazy election or what? Ole Hillary’s opponent is pouring that bile down our throat every day. It’s hard for me to drink it, because I’m a grandfather.”
Even an on-duty Canton firefighter, standing in uniform and making his union pride apparent, couldn’t resist hooting, hollering and clapping.
Crowd warms up
Clinton’s remarks were geared toward the middle class, many from strong union households that vote Democratic and despise businesspeople who put profits before employees.
“Trickle-down economics didn’t work before, why would it work now?” asked Barb Ruth, a Louisville resident and former teachers union president.
“I’m for Hillary,” said ironworker Sean Diekmann, 48. “First of all, Donald Trump has made his money hiring people to put up his buildings then he doesn’t pay.”
He also said Trump ships jobs and production overseas and supports union-busting laws.
Diekmann, a labor organizer, was among 350 to 400 active and retired ironworkers in the Local 550, which hosted the political rally.
Along with Brown, Massillon Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry and union boss David McCall primed the crowd for the main attraction.
“Do we have any brothers and sisters from organized labor here?” McCall asked. The crowd jostled.
McCall held up a Trump-brand tie and shirt, made in Bangladesh, he said. “I kept the receipt.”
“This tie,” he added, plucking the shirt he wore, “is made in America.”
Brown, who can rattle off the names of Ohio cities like the alphabet song, scolded Trump for using Chinese steel and aluminum on recent projects while overlooking producers in Canton, Elyria, Youngstown, Lorain and Wellsville.
In the Senate, Brown said he fought free trade with Mexico and Canada — which Clinton signed off on as president. Trump has made that deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement, a central attack on the Clintons.
“I didn’t once see Donald Trump standing up and speaking out against these trade agreements,” Brown said. “All Donald Trump does is run his mouth and pad his pockets.”
‘Answers, not anger’
Clinton stayed cool and calm on the warm afternoon, even as a protester hoisted a sign in front of the cameras to draw attention to the former president’s past infidelities.
“Don’t worry about that,” Clinton told the crowd.
“I can tell you one thing, I love it when people come into my rallies. And it’s a dead giveaway because they don’t want to have a conversation — because they know they’ll lose the conversation.”
The crowd ate it up, and Clinton got down to business.
“Are you looking for answers or do you just want to be angry?” he asked.
Clinton talked about progress made in manufacturing when he was president in the 1990s and the millions of jobs added since President Barack Obama took office after eight years of no growth and trickle-down economics under Republican George W. Bush.
And he addressed the wage stagnation, income inequality and lack of upward mobility that keep people poor in places “where nothing good has happened in a decade.”
“We need answers, not anger. We need to take care of each other and work with each other,” he said, equating “Making America Great Again,” Trump’s slogan, to pie-in- the-sky electioneering.
“It’s like me saying I’d like to be 20 again. I would actually. But I wouldn’t vote for anyone who promised to make me 20 again,” Clinton said.
“Hillary won’t promise to give someone yesterday’s economy but she will promise everyone a fair chance at tomorrow’s economy,” he said.
Pushing policy
Clinton outlined the policies his wife would champion as the first female president.
He said a $275 billion infrastructure plan would put million to work fixing roads, bridges and provide “universal, affordable” broadband access, like South Korea offers.
The Clinton plan would cut costs and streamline the application process for small business loans, he said.
Along with building a new and unique job sector for American workers who lack four-year degrees, Clinton said college must be made free for those from homes earning $125,000 or less and affordable for everyone else. That means being able to refinance loans, just like a mortgage, when interest rates drop.
And he addressed the Affordable Care Act, which he has criticized for not working as it should.
“The law has done wonders for about 25 million Americans,” he said. “And it’s done wonders for all of us, because you can’t be denied for pre-existing conditions.”
“But Hillary said you’ve got to let people 55 and over buy into Medicare and you have to offer a public option,” he said, advocating for universal health care, which Democrats originally wanted in the law.
Clinton said trade is a good thing. But countries like China devalue their currency and subsidize products to gain an unfair advantage. And nobody’s policing them.
“Trade enforcement dropped 75 percent since I left office. So Hillary wants a special trade enforcement office for people to prosecute violations,” he said, criticizing Trump for buying steel from China for his projects knowing that the price he secured was unnatural.
Following the rally, a bus used by the campaign experienced a malfunction on Interstate 77 in northern Stark County, the Ohio State Highway Patrol confirmed.
The bus pulled over to the side of the expressway near the Shuffel Street NW exit. Those aboard were transferred to another vehicle. It was not clear whether the former president was aboard the bus.
Staff writer Katie Byard contributed to this report. Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @ABJDoug.