BY KECIA BAL
GREENSBURG — Longtime Democrat and a fan of former President Bill Clinton, Paul Lingeris of Westmoreland County said Hillary Clinton wins his vote with her last name and with her ideas.
“I’m a big Hillary supporter,” said Lingeris, a retiree who lives in North Washington Township. “I was (a supporter) of the Clintons – I liked her husband and I think she is a very smart woman.”
Clinton, a New York Senator, tried to connect to small-town folks as she wrapped up her stops in western Pennsylvania with a trip to Greensburg on Tuesday.
“It’s time we had a president again who cared more about Westmoreland County than Wall Street,” she told a standing room only crowd at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg.
The New York senator visited Uniontown on Monday night and heads to Washington, D.C. today. She attacked her Republican opponent’s ideas on Social Security, but did not mention by name her challenger in the primary election, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who is scheduled to begin a six-day tour in Pennsylvania, beginning with the western part of the state on Friday.
A local spokeswoman for Obama’s campaign said the candidate has plans for issues that American families are facing such as health-care access, job creation and quality education.
“We are not going to be able to solve those without change in Washington,” spokeswoman Allison Price said. “That’s why Barack Obama is running for president.”
Gov. Ed Rendell introduced Clinton to the group packed into the Pitt-Greensburg gymnasium. Some people were turned away outside due to lack of space.
“She is a fighter and she has the best solutions for Pennsylvania,” Rendell said.
Clinton sat down with two Westmoreland County couples to wrap up a speech on how regular people can manage to save for retirement. She promoted an American Retirement Accounts Plan to offer up to $1,000 in matching tax cuts for families who save and offer employers incentives to strengthen employer-sponsored pensions.
Sherry and Terry Donato, small-business owners from Latrobe who said they work three jobs to make ends meet, talked about a brighter economy under Bill Clinton’s watch and lamented the financial strain of increased diesel prices on their trucking business.
“We saw much better days when we had President Clinton,” Sherry Donato said. “(Now) we don’t know where we are going from here.”
Clinton referenced her husband’s move to tap into the country’s strategic petroleum reserve to temporarily ease oil prices.
“I have a good understanding since I’ve been there,” she said.
A 77-year-old Greensburg couple also talked to the attendants about why they see privatizing social security as a threat to their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Richard and Marian Sackett said Social Security and Mr. Sackett’s pensions hardly cover the increasing costs of daily living.
“After the bills are paid, there is hardly anything left over,” Marian Sackett said.
Some other visitors said they want to see more of what they feel Bill Clinton did.
“I support Bill Clinton and I support her,” said John Murphy of Monessen, Westmoreland County.
