Hillary: Bush runs US for a few

COLUMBUS – Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton criticised President George W Bush as running a ‘government of the few, for the few and by the few’.

“For six long years the hardworking families of our middle class have been invisible to this president,” she said on Saturday, promising to be a president who again sets goals for the country if she is elected in 2008. Democrats attending the Ohio state party’s annual dinner gave a rousing cheer when the senator from New York asked, “Are you ready to end the war in Iraq and restore America’s reputation around the world?” Only two Democrats since 1900 have won the presidency without carrying Ohio and no Republican has done so.The state clinched re-election for Bush in 2004, but Democrats have new optimism that they can win the state that Clinton’s husband, Bill, carried twice.Democrats captured the Ohio governor’s seat for the first time in 16 years last November and, in a backlash attributed in part to a state government investment scandal, seized three other statewide offices long held by Republicans.The $150-per-plate dinner drew about 3 000 people and generated $550 000 after expenses for the party, the most money the dinner has ever raised, said Chris Redfern, the Ohio Democratic Party chairperson.Clinton, leading the Democratic field for president in national and Ohio polls, promised universal health care and said she would make college more affordable.She also said she would be more aggressive in developing alternative sources of energy and that her administration would hire more qualified people for government jobs.Nampa-SapaDemocrats attending the Ohio state party’s annual dinner gave a rousing cheer when the senator from New York asked, “Are you ready to end the war in Iraq and restore America’s reputation around the world?” Only two Democrats since 1900 have won the presidency without carrying Ohio and no Republican has done so.The state clinched re-election for Bush in 2004, but Democrats have new optimism that they can win the state that Clinton’s husband, Bill, carried twice.Democrats captured the Ohio governor’s seat for the first time in 16 years last November and, in a backlash attributed in part to a state government investment scandal, seized three other statewide offices long held by Republicans.The $150-per-plate dinner drew about 3 000 people and generated $550 000 after expenses for the party, the most money the dinner has ever raised, said Chris Redfern, the Ohio Democratic Party chairperson.Clinton, leading the Democratic field for president in national and Ohio polls, promised universal health care and said she would make college more affordable.She also said she would be more aggressive in developing alternative sources of energy and that her administration would hire more qualified people for government jobs.Nampa-Sapa