Bill Clinton stumps in Pa. for Senate candidate Sestak, says Dems deserve more time on economy

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Bill Clinton stumps for Democrats in Pennsylvania

WYNNEWOOD, Pa. — Former President Bill Clinton told Democratic supporters Monday that their party leaders deserve more time to turn the nation’s economy around because the Republican leadership before them left such a huge hole.

Clinton acknowledged the economic struggles of millions of Americans as he spoke at a campaign event in suburban Philadelphia for Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak, a former Navy vice admiral who served as a military adviser to Clinton when he was president.

Sestak is in a tight race with Republican candidate Pat Toomey at a time when many believe Democrats are vulnerable nationwide because of voter anger over the economic slumber. The Philadelphia suburbs are often a key swing district in both state and national elections.

Before unloading their ire on Democrats, Clinton said, voters should pin the blame on Republicans in power for the eight years between the time he left office and when President Barack Obama was inaugurated.

“We all know we’re in terrible economic trouble,” Clinton told about 150 supporters at a Jewish community center in the wealthy suburb of Wynnewood. “It is my opinion that the 20 months the president and Congress have had to dig out of the hole was not enough.”

The former president said Obama’s economic stimulus package has created 1.5 million jobs and saved 2 million more.

Clinton’s appearance on Sestak’s behalf was his second in two months in Pennsylvania. Democrats are hauling out more firepower to try to help Sestak, including a fundraiser Monday night in Philadelphia with Vice President Joe Biden and another next week with Obama.

Sestak retired from the Navy in January 2006 and is now a second-term U.S. House member from suburban Philadelphia.

In response to Clinton’s visit, Toomey’s campaign released a statement calling him a congressional liberal.

“Joe Sestak likes to bring in politicians from other states to endorse him because he wants to run away from the fact that his voting record, while 100 percent in line with Nancy Pelosi, is vastly more liberal than most Pennsylvanians, including more liberal than many of his fellow Pennsylvania Democrats in Congress,” the statement said.

In a brief campaign appearance in Harrisburg on Monday, Toomey, a former member of Congress from the Allentown area who supports cutting taxes and government spending, amplified that contention.

“Congressman Sestak thought the $787 billion so-called stimulus spending bill was too small and argued that it should have been a trillion dollars and he supported additional multi-hundred billion dollar spending sprees,” Toomey said.

Republicans, Clinton said, want to repeal the financial stabilization bill and health care legislation and privatize Social Security and Medicare.

Democrats, he said, are voters’ best bet for doing things that need to be done to get the economy going — growing jobs, balancing the budget and bringing back manufacturing. He also accused Republicans of using scare tactics to try scaring voters away from Democrats, citing angry conservative commentators on channels like Fox News.

“You practically need Prozac to get a good night’s sleep,” he said.

Clinton also appeared at a rally on a closed street in west Philadelphia for Democratic candidate for governor Dan Onorato, addressing hundreds of supporters hours before he was to present the Liberty Medal to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.