Former President Bill Clinton speaks at a rally Tuesday at the Spring Preserve in Las Vegas for President Barack Obama. Photo by the Las Vegas Sun.
By Bert Eljera
LAS VEGAS – Under a blazing afternoon sun, former president Bill Clinton told Nevadans Tuesday, Oct. 9, that President Barack Obama still provides the right vision to move the country forward.
About 3,000 people attended the rally at the Springs Preserve in Las Vegas, in which Clinton urged voters to give President Obama a second term and an opportunity to finish his job.
The former president, an important surrogate into the homestretch of the 2012 campaign, said under Obama, government has a role to play in the lives of ordinary Americans.
“The most successful societies on earth today are not the ones that pit government against business,” Clinton said, “but where government and business work together to do what each does best to empower everybody to succeed in shared prosperity.”
Clinton is promoting Obama in Southern Nevada as the national and polls in swing state seem to indicate a momentum for Republican Mitt Romney following their first debate.
Pundits almost unanimously declared Romney the winner in that debate, even though the former Massachusetts governor appeared to have backed away from his long-established positions on health care, taxes, and the poor.
“I had a different reaction to that first debate than a lot of people did,” Clinton said. “I thought: ‘Wow, here’s old moderate Mitt. Where have you been? I missed you these last two years.”
The Clinton visit to Las Vegas was not unexpected, considering that Nevada will be crucial in either Obama or Romney winning the White House.
Even though polls show Obama is winning Nevada, there is some tightening of the race as it gets closer to Nov. 6.
Democrat Shelley Berkley, herself in a tight race with Republican Dean Healer for the U.S. Senate, campaigned with Clinton.
“I’m excited to welcome President Clinton back to Nevada today, and to hear firsthand from the man who presided over the creation of 23 million jobs,” Berkley said in a statement.
“President Clinton and I know that the only way to continue moving the Nevada economy forward and to make sure the middle-class is prioritized is to re-elect President Obama.
“While President Obama and I are committed to creating good-paying jobs that can’t be outsourced and giving small businesses the tools to grow and expand, the agenda put forth by Republicans like Mitt Romney and Dean Heller would protect tax breaks for corporations that ship job overseas, preserve taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil companies making record profit, and turn Medicare over to profit-hungry private insurance companies, she said.
Berkley introduced President Clinton at the rally. Also attending was U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Nevada Assemblyman John Oceguera and state Sen. Steven Horsford, Democratic candidates for Congressional Districts 3 and 4 respectively, also spoke at the event.
NatureWatch of Eastern Samar 
how quickly we forget! “i did not inhale….” “i never had sexual relations with that woman….” should we really believe him?
So, we’d just rather forget the balanced budget for the first time in a very long time, the 20 million jobs, the Wall Street boom years, and a SURPLUS because a woman chose to use knee pads? Just asking?