Gephardt, Kennedy stump in the region for Dem candidates

The governor says Clinton would be Ohio’s partner in the White House.

By DAVID SKOLNICK

and ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS

YOUNGSTOWN — President Kennedy’s daughter, the governor and a former U.S. House majority leader made local campaign stops to drum up support for the candidates in Tuesday’s Democratic presidential primary.

Caroline Kennedy spoke Friday to a crowd of about 250 at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown on behalf of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.

“I never had a candidate who inspires me as much as people tell me that my father inspired them,” said Kennedy, who made a very similar comment Thursday in Toledo, according to The Blade newspaper.

Gov. Ted Strickland and former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt made two local appearances Friday for U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

At Clinton local campaign office in the Mahoning Plaza in Youngstown, Strickland said electing Clinton would give him and all Ohioans a partner in the White House.

“We need a partner in the presidency,” he said during a campaign swing through eastern Ohio with Gephardt, a former two-time presidential candidate. “I need to have someone in Washington I can call.”

The two also spoke at the offices of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union in Austintown.

Kennedy spoke for 17 minutes touting Obama’s ability to inspire and lead people.

“It’s a once in a lifetime chance for us to vote with our hearts and our minds for the future,” she said.

Kennedy pointed to the importance of Ohio’s Tuesday primary.

“You are so lucky in Ohio,” she said. “It’s all coming down to you.”

Gephardt, meanwhile, said he worked with five presidents during his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives through 2005, and he knows that being president is a “tough job.”

He drew an analogy between voting and needing surgery. If you needed surgery, you would ask the surgeon: “Have you ever done this before?”

Clinton “has real life experience” because she was in the White House for eight years as first lady when her husband, Bill, served as president, and was part of important discussions, such as ones about the North American Free Trade Agreement, Gephardt said.

Strickland said Hillary Clinton was “very uncomfortable with NAFTA and tried to oppose it” and would, therefore, “be in a good position to revise” it as president. That is something the Obama campaign has disputed.

Natalia Hagan, 16, was among those in attendance. The daughter of state Rep. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown, D-60th, she said she and her mom support Clinton, even though her father supports Obama.

Though Natalia, who is too young to vote Tuesday, was at Clinton’s local headquarters, her father was on the dais with Kennedy.

Natalia said ever since she was a little girl, she’s dreamed of being the first female president.

skolnick@vindy.com