PABLO Hillary Clinton returned to Northwest Montana Tuesday after 20 years.
Her visit 20 years ago was a family vacation to the Swan Lake area and Glacier National Park.
Tuesdays visit to Salish Kootenai College kicked off the last week in the close-run Democrat primaries between Sen. Clinton and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.
This time, she was greeted by a present of moccasins, a tribal necklace and traditional Indian round dance song a round dance is a welcoming dance by the Chief Cliff Singers.
The hour-and-five-minute rally began with the Chief Cliff Singers chanting an honor song to bless her and a prayer by Tony Incashola, director of the Salish Kootenai culture school. He ended the prayer by reciting the Lords Prayer in Salish.
Clinton needs overwhelming victories in the last three primaries Montana, South Dakota and Puerto Rico along with swaying numerous so-called superdelegates to win the Democratic nomination.
The native vote it counts. It counts more than ever, Clinton told at least 1,000 people at the college Tuesday afternoon.
The election math works out like this:
Each candidate needs to win 2,026 delegates to win the Democratic.
Obama has 1,977. Clinton has 1,779. Obama needs 49 more to win.
Clinton needs to win slightly more than four of every five of the remaining 244 open delegate slots to snatch victory from Obama.
Puerto Rico has 55 delegates at stake, and the territory is believed to lean heavily toward Clinton.
South Dakota has 13 delegate to be decided by the primary voters plus some superdelegates. Montana has 14 delegates to be decided by the primary voters plus some superdelegates.
A Lee Newspapers poll shows Obama with a 17 percentage-point lead over Clinton in Montana with 13 percent undecided.
In a brief interview after Tuesdays rally, Clinton still kept hope that Michigans and Floridas delegates which the Democratic Party tossed out because those states held primaries in January against the partys wishes would be eventually counted.
Clinton won the popular vote in Florida by a 49 percent to 33 percent split. Obama did not run in the Michigan primary. But a Democratic Party exit poll showed that Clinton would have beat Obama 46 percent to 35 percent, with the other candidates capturing the rest.
She hopes that strong finishes in the last three primaries will sway the superdelegates high-ranking elected and party officials in each state to back her.
The superdelegates are going to ask themselves: Whos stronger against John McCain, Clinton said.
At the rally, Clinton stressed Indian issues, health care, energy and environmental policies, education and the war in Iraq.
She gave the most time to health care stressing universal health care for all Americans. She contended that Obamas health care plan would leave about 15 million people without health insurance, especially in remote areas.
She pushed for less dependence on Middle East oil and more development of power generated by wind and the sun. She said the federal government should help Montana provide cleaner coal.
If elected, Clinton said she would begin withdrawing troops from Iraq in 60 days a promise that drew the loudest cheers from the crowd.
She contended that a withdrawal-start date will force the Iraqi government to take over the war. The only way to force them to take responsibility is to tell them were leaving, she said.
In her brief interview after rally, Clinton said she had no target numbers nor deadlines to finish such a withdrawal saying targets would be hard to nail down until the withdrawal has been underway.
A spot check of rally-goers showed some rooting for Clinton, some backing Obama, and some who stayed mum about their votes.
Many, including Obama backers, praised Clinton as a role model because she is the first serious woman candidate for president.
I think shes great. Shes really, really tough. Shes not afraid to say what she thinks, said Ellen Coats, 88 of Pablo.
Henrietta Conko-Camel and her brother Zachary Conko-Camel of Ronan took all their kids out of school to see Clinton,
Its good to see a woman out there, and I have two daughters. Its good for them to see her as a role model, Henrietta Conko-Camel said.
onevoice
Hillary's visit to Pablo, Montana was a chance to see who she is up close. The time set for asking questions was particulary enlightening and I was impressed by the depth of her answers and respect given to each person - including the question asked by a young boy who listened thoughtfully to all she said.
Wizard101
As an 85 year old senior citizen from Montana had not decided until just recently. Visited family in Portland and got the opportunity to go to both Senators rallies - Sen Obama is a great orator - can move a crowd to a frenzy with his words of HOPE and CHANGE - however I felt he was just rushing through to assume my vote and go on to the general election - I am from Montana - you have to earn my vote - and change what Washington DC politics and yet accept the endorsements from them - you have to pay them back somehow - at the end of the day when I was recalling what I had learned from his rally - I came up with NOTHING. On the other hand - Clinton was energetic, sincere, compassionate and warm and responded to questions with solid solutions from healthcare to family owned farms to student loans to the economy to name a few. To borrow from another blogger - HOPE - that was when Brad Pitt and Bill Clinton was in New Orleans giving that community hope for reconstruction and a new life - Hillary attended a rally there
MontanaJim72
Elections in this nation aren't won by visiting little Montana and our sparse population either. How refreshing to see the candidates for President visiting us. Seems to me though, there is one candidate who is notably missing from visiting here. That would be John (Bush No. 3) McCain.