Chants of “Si se puede! Si se puede,” set the tone as a crowd of around 1,500 gathered to hear Sen. Hillary Clinton in Sunland Park, Saturday. The Democratic rally also hosted speeches from Harry Teague, Luis Avila and Jill Udall.
“This year New Mexico is just too important,” said Teague, who enjoyed a bout of wordplay with the crowd, reasoning that New Mexico Democrats were voting for Barack Obama, Tom Udall (Senate) and Harry Teague; “that’s O.U.T. with Republicans.”
“We need middle-class values instead of special interests,” said Jill Udall, wife of senatorial candidate Mark Udall.
The crowd compared interestingly with the Palin rally in Roswell and the Biden rally in Mesilla , both last weekend. The event was relaxed and celebratory, the sun kinder and Clinton much less deferential to the crowd than the vice-presidential candidates.
“I am deputizing all of you,” said Clinton. “I want you to work for Barack as hard as you worked for me.”
The senator for New York addressed the crowd with authority, claiming in neither tone nor content to ‘be one of us.’ Her speech was more nuanced than those of Biden and Palin, often leaving room in which one could either pause for thought or gossip over the implications.
“I want a president I can work with for you,” said Clinton. But the line between nuance and ambiguity became blurred as she spoke of her own run for the Democratic nomination last year.
“Barack and I may have started on different paths but we are on the same journey now, and that journey is to the White House,” said Clinton. (There is no word in the journalist’s lexicon to express the feeling of ‘hmmm…’ such a phrase inspires.)
A more unfortunate consequence of Clinton’s off-the-cuff remarks was that she implored the crowd to elect “Mark Udall”, not Tom Udall, to the Senate.
Nevertheless, Clinton’s humor and bounce counterbalanced the gaffes. She described America as “rising from the ashes of the Bushes,” parodied Palin with her own chant of “jobs baby jobs” and described her pleasure at the thought of removal vans leaving the White House and heading back to Texas.
“I love you,” shouted several people. “I love you all, too,” replied the Senator, who enjoyed a back-and-forth rapport with the crowd.
“Every single vote can be the deciding vote,” stressed Clinton pleading with the crowd to get the vote out in Dona Ana County. A better world “doesn’t come by wishing. It comes by voting.”
You can watch the conclusion of Clinton's speech below:
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On a lighter note, the chant of “can we do it, yes we can,” a favorite among Democrats this election, is uncannilly similar to the theme tune of “Bob the builder,” a British TV show for children.
British comedians have got considerable mileage out of this over the last six months. You can compare them below:
Sunland Park
Bob the Builder
