Clinton to Iowans: vote for progress not protest in backing Braley

DES MOINES - Former President Bill Clinton urged Iowans to 'vote for progress, not protest” in choosing Democrat Bruce Braley over Republican Joni Ernst in the U.S. Senate election next Tuesday.

Speaking to several hundred people at a plaza on the banks of the Des Moines River, Clinton said Iowa's Senate race is a choice between a Democrat who will work to grow America and a Republican with positions favored in 'tea party heaven.” In that regard, Tuesday's vote 'is not a close call.”

'If you think we ought to grow together and work together, you don't really have a choice,” he said. 'Bruce Braley is the only choice and thank goodness he is a very good choice.”

Clinton joined Braley for get-out-the vote rallies in Des Moines and Waterloo on what was a throw-back Saturday of sorts before Braley embarks with current and retiring Sen. Tom Harkin – who he seeks to succeed -- and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on a two-day tour to 11 cities that ends Monday evening in Waterloo.

Republicans worked to take some of the luster off Clinton's appearance by announcing earlier in the day that former President George H.W. Bush, who Clinton defeated in the 1992 election, was endorsing Ernst in Iowa's hotly contested U.S. Senate race.

'I am very impressed by Joni Ernst's dedication and service to our country,” Bush said in a statement issued by the Ernst campaign. 'She is a soldier and independent leader who proved her mettle leading 150 Iowan troops in Iraq - and who will continue fighting for those who have worn our nation's uniform. I have total confidence Joni will make Iowa proud in the United States Senate, and I'm very pleased to endorse her.”

During his 14-minute speech to the Des Moines rally, Clinton said America is bouncing back from the 2008 recession at a faster pace than a recovery normally takes. However, he said most Americans are feeling it because the economic gains are going to the top 3 percent weathiest people.

The former president said America is better positioned for the next 20 years than any other country and could generate good-paying jobs if 'we got serious about renewable energy.” But he said growth is being impeded by a dysfunctional political system that is polarized and divided.

'We've been growing apart ever since I left office,” he said.

Clinton said he noted with interest the campaign ad Ernst ran during the GOP primary where she touted growing up on a farm where she castrated pigs 'and then she said she wanted to take her pork-cutting skills to Washington and make them squeal.”

'That sounds good,” Clinton told the crowed, 'but in order for it to work, you've got to know the difference between pork and people.

'I don't want to hear a minimum-wage worker squeal, I don't want to hear a middle-class working family squeal, I don't want to hear college students squeal, I don't want to hear seniors squeal,” he said. 'I want to hear them say thank goodness America is back and we're part of it again.”

Before Clinton and Braley took the stage, singer-songwriter James Taylor played a couple songs for the crowd and told them not to let the 'unprecedented flood” of negative campaign ads airing in Iowa turn them off from voting Tuesday. 'It's important that we say, no, our vote is not for sale; this election is not for sale,” Taylor said.

Braley contrasted his positions with Ernst's on raising the minimum wages, preserving Social Security and Medicare, easing college debt loads, supporting renewable energy and the farm bill and concluded by saying 'Iowans need a senator who's going to be a bridge builder, not a bridge burner.”

Republican Party of Iowa spokesman Jahan Wilcox shrugged off Clinton's endorsement, noting the he and first lady Michelle Obama couldn't get the 1st District congressman's name right when they came to Iowa in hopes of bolstering his candidacy for a Senate seat once considered to be safe for Democrats in the 2014 midterm election.

'Just weeks ago, Bill Clinton referred to the congressman as Bruce Bailey,” Wilcox said in a statement. 'Clintons endorsement is meaningless as he and his pals have screwed up every detail of Congressman Braley's life, because even Democrats know Braley has let down veterans, farmers and middle-class families.”

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