Hillary Clinton talks education in first Iowa campaign stop

MONTICELLO - Discussing education with high school and community college students in an auto mechanics classroom, Hillary Clinton called for 'a new vision, a new paradigm that will get people excited again.”

Clinton might have been talking about her campaign, which she kicked off in Monticello with a roundtable discussion with seven students and teachers and 10 times that many media looking on.

Clinton, who announced her presidential campaign Sunday, is kicking off her bid to become the first female president and the first former first lady to hold the nation's highest office with what her campaign calls low-key events with real, everyday Iowan.

The roundtable at Jones County Regional Center of Kirkwood Community College certainly fit the bill. After touring the center's advanced manufacturing lab, Clinton spent about 65 minutes talking about education with Kirkwood President Mick Starcevich, an English teacher, a high school principal and four students.

She opened the conversation not by talking about education, but about why she's running for president.

'We've got to figure out in our country how to get back on the right track,” she said. 'I'm running for president because I think Americans and their families need a champion. I want to be that champion. I want to stand up and fight for people so they cannot just get by, but they can get ahead and stay ahead.”

Education remains the best pathway to providing opportunities for all Americans to move ahead, Clinton said.

'We just have to get back to making it affordable and open for everybody willing to work for it,” she said, adding that she 'fully supports” President Barack Obama's proposal to make the first two years of college free.

But it starts much earlier, said Clinton, who talked about her six-month-old granddaughter.

'You know, I have this new granddaughter and I want her to have every opportunity, but I want every child in our country to have every opportunity,” Clinton said. 'That's one of the main reasons I decided to run.

'Believe me, I know that it's not going to be easy, that I'm going to have to work hard to earn every single vote and get every caucusgoer I can round up to show up next February. I just felt like I couldn't walk away from what I see as the challenges we face, and I want to build what we've done to get out of the terrible recession and get back on our feet.”

She has her work cut out for her.

Andrew Lorimer, 17, a senior at Springville High School who's headed for the Naval Academy after graduation, was part of the roundtable and was impressed by Clinton, who he called 'a nice woman.” But he wasn't ready to commit to supporting her.

'Of course not,” he said. 'It's a year and a half off and I've met with one candidate so far, so I have no idea in any way, shape or form.”

Clinton wasn't without detractors at the event that was not open to the public. Outside, a pair of protesters were critical of what Joey Gallagher of Iowa City called Clinton's vote for 'Bush's oil war” in Iraq.

'I have a real bone to pick with Hillary,” Gallagher said as he answered questions from a parade of reporters. Holding a 'Give the Saudi $ back” sign, Gallagher thought it was wrong for the New York City-based Clinton Foundation to take money from Saudis 'who are the most disrespectful to women.”

Matthew Evans, also of Iowa City, held a 'Wall Street Bank $ for Hillary” sign. Evans wants to make Clinton 'accountable for the values she pays lip service to.” (Evans is a member of The Gazette Writers Circle.)

As with Evans and Gallagher, Gayle Ahrendsen of Monticello doesn't agree with Clinton on everything, but the World War II veteran and his wife, Pauline, waited most of the morning in hopes of seeing the candidate.

'I'm a Democrat,” he explained, adding that he supported Clinton in 2008 because he didn't think Obama had enough experience to be president.

He hopes she brings the party 'back to what the party used to be.”

'It's gotten too liberal,” Ahrendsen said.

But Clinton didn't talk much about ideology. Instead, she said it's time to 'leave the ideology and the partisanship at the door …

so we can be really focused on how we respect each other again, trust each other again, listen to each other again, work with each other again.”

Republicans weren't having it.

'While Hillary Clinton's advisers are desperately trying to make her appear relatable to everyday Iowans, the simple fact remains that her campaign is launching amid scandal and controversy,” Fred Brown, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee said. 'If Hillary Clinton really cared about everyday Iowans, the she would stop refusing to answer their questions about her secret email server and her family's foundation accepting donations from foreign governments while she was Secretary of State.”