News / People
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama Lead Uneventful AFL-CIO Democratic Presidential Forum
The leading Democratic presidential hopefuls gathered at Soldier Field in Chicago for the AFL-CIO presidential forum on Tuesday and by the time it was over little had changed. With nearly 17,000 union members in attendance for the forum each of the presidential candidates looked to earn the endorsement of organized labor.
In the end it was Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama who stood their ground and appeared to further define the Democratic race as a two candidate contest. Of course both Clinton and Obama used their Illinois ties to draw cheers from the crowd. Obama played to the emotions of the large crowd with his first words of the forum, mentioning the city’s beloved NFL franchise and the calling Soldier Field the “home of the NFC champions, the Chicago Bears.”
Not one to let an opportunity slip by, Clinton joined in on the Bears reference later in the forum stating her dad would have remarked that if “any of his children would be on the 10-yard line in Soldier Field is an extraordinary accomplishment.”
Many felt that John Edwards missed an opportunity to capitalize on a constituency that he has been courting for some time. Edwards’ efforts to highlight his dedication to union causes fell flat and his shot at Clinton appearing on the cover of ‘Fortune’ magazine didn’t elicit an overwhelming response.
As the front-runner Clinton took many of the shots at the forum. Obama tried to play to the union members emotions by addressing the issue of U.S. traded agreements and hinted that Clinton had close ties to the “corporate lobbyists” who have placed their wants in front of U.S. workers.
Rather than exchange barbs with her rivals Clinton opted to address her leadership abilities and her track record with challenging Republicans. She told the crowd “For 15 years, I have stood up against the right-wing machine. And I've come out stronger. If you want a winner who knows how to take them on, I'm your girl.”
Obama felt it necessary to defend himself regarding comments he made about a possible invasion of Pakistan with or without President Pervez Musharraf’s permission to track down al-Qaeda. After Clinton remarked “You should not always say everything you think when you are running for president, because it can have consequences” but Obama fired back “I find it amusing that those who voted to authorize and engineer the biggest foreign policy disaster in our generation are now criticizing me.”
