With sunscreen in her purse and bottled water handy, she was still in her work attire, but her gray-plaid, sleeveless sheath dress was now adorned with a “Hillary for President 2008″ button. It was just minutes after 2:00 on Monday, and the line of people eager to get a glimpse of the woman who would possibly be the nation’s first female commander-in-chief, on the day before the California primary, was fast growing.
“She’s always been for the people,” Fisk said. “I’m 58. I’ve seen her through the decades. She’s fabulous. She’s always wanted to help us all, and she’s brilliant. She’s got the full package, and what she can do for us, others can’t.”
Fisk’s support for Hillary Clinton, however, surpasses just punching the right holes through ballot cards in June and November, and standing in queue for hours to hear her speak in person. Fisk said she thinks about Clinton every day and ponders ways she can emulate her.
However, when pressed for her thoughts on a Clinton-Sanders ticket for the general election, Fisk’s enthusiasm waned.
“We’re not a socialist country,” she said. “We can’t lean all the way to the left. We have to work with everyone, and that’s where we are in America… it would be good if Sanders could be more cooperative, but I don’t think he can.”
Walking nearby were some attendees who would quite likely disagree with Fisk on that position.
About a dozen supporters of Bernie Sanders, the Vermont U.S. senator and other Democratic presidential hopeful, quietly carried handmade signs that read “Humanity over money” and “A vote for Bernie is a vote for peace” as they sauntered past those in line.
Sanders, who has raised impressive amounts of money by asking such supporters— many of whom weren’t old enough to vote in the last presidential election— for small donations to his campaign website, has shunned Super PACs and galvanized millions of citizens with a platform calling for a “progressive” economic plan that produces jobs, increases wages, preserves the environment and offers health care for everyone.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”500px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Screen-Shot-2016-06-09-at-4.07.56-PM.png” align=”right” lightbox=”on” caption=”Hundreds of people wait in line Monday afternoon to be admitted into the Hall of Champions Gym at Long Beach City College for a Hillary Clinton rally.” captionposition=”right”] Also interacting with the crowd were beefy Secret Service agents, who seemed to take time to stop at each group in line to casually chat.
One of those in line was Paul Brindley, a native Australian who has lived in Long Beach for 14 years. His backing of the former First Lady, U.S. senator and Secretary of State is rooted in her qualifications.
“I think she’s the most qualified candidate we’ve had for president since at least Nixon,” Brindley said. “Nixon might have had personality problems, and whatever it was, and you can argue his presidency, but, if you look at his qualifications to be president, senator, congressmember, vice president, he had all the exposure, all the skills and all the influence to do a good job— he just didn’t. But she has. She’s defiinitely the most qualified person.”
As for the two Democratic candidates joining together on one ticket, Brindley said he had been giving that idea some thought.
“I do like a lot of things that Bernie is propounding, and I think he’s brought a lot of issues into the campaign that may not have come in, [but] I’m unsure about that [union],” Brindley said. “I think it would be great for electability, but I’m questioning the manageability of it.”
Brindley questioned how Sanders as vice president would be able to operate inside a White House that has a former two-term president— Bill Clinton— and numerous experienced staffers as well.
“How’s Bernie going to mix into that?” Brindley asked. “Is he going to be able to work within that system, or is he going to want to be throwing bombs in there and try to shake it up? I’m not sure how they’re going to manage that.”
By 5pm, Fisk was among the lucky ones emptying pockets and passing through metal detectors to enter the Hall of Champions Gymnasium. Among the 3,000 who had RSVP’d, according to one city official, only about half would be admitted.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”500px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Screen-Shot-2016-06-09-at-4.08.05-PM.png” align=”left” lightbox=”on” caption=”On stage, from left: 70th District Assemblymember Patrick O’Donnell and California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom speak to a crowd of Hillary Clinton supporters in the Hall of Champions Gym at Long Beach City College, shortly before the presidential candidate took to the podium.” captionposition=”left”] Once inside, Fisk mentioned that this event would be the second time she’d behold Clinton in person; the first was a fundraiser years ago that cost $500 a seat.
“I had a seat for that one, but this is better,” she said, as she secured her standing spot among the hundreds inside the building, about 30 feet from the podium.
Shortly thereafter, numerous individuals took to that lectern, including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, LBCC President Eloy Ortiz Oakley, Assemblymember Patrick O’Donnell, actress Busy Phillips and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, who had the privilege of introducing Clinton.
After hugging Garcia, Clinton addressed the audience and stated that she has a special place in her heart for Long Beach.
“Some of you remember that, when my husband was president, he worked closely with your then-mayor (Beverly) O’Neill and your leadership in Long Beach,” Clinton said. “He was a good partner for Long Beach.”
She said she is proud of what the city has become and wants to also be a good partner to it.
“I’m so excited by all the progress that you’ve made here, and I know that we can do even better,” Clinton said. “I’m a progressive who likes to get things done.”
She said there is so much at stake, not just for America, but for the world, in this election.
“And the final point I would ask you to consider is how we’re going to unify our country,” Clinton said. “You know, Abraham Lincoln said, ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand.’ And like so many things, he was right about that. And what we’ve got to figure out how to do is actually listening to each other and respecting each other.”
She called for those in attendance to vote for her the next day.
“Get everyone you can to go vote tomorrow,” she told the crowd. “Make a very clear statement: We are repudiating Donald Trump. We are getting ready for the fall election. We can defeat him if you vote for me. I will work for you. I will fight for you.”
Though Republican candidate Donald Trump had achieved tremendous momentum throughout his entire campaign, that propulsion toward the Oval Office slowed considerably this week when key members of his party withdrew their nominations of him, primarily because of his criticizing U.S.
District Judge Gonzalo Curiel for being unfit to oversee a case against the now-defunct Trump University because of his Mexican heritage. (A well known tenet of Trump’s platform has been his commitment to building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Curiel is, in fact, a native of Indiana.)
On Thursday, at Sanders’s request, President Obama met with the senator, presumably to nudge him toward conceding the nomination to Clinton so that the party could unite in order to defeat Trump.
After that meeting, Sanders said he plans to work with Clinton to defeat Trump, but he vowed to keep campaigning up until the Washington, D.C. primary on June 14.
Speaking on that night’s episode of The Tonight Show, Obama jokingly remarked to Jimmy Fallon that Democrats are very happy with the Republican candidate— intimating his easy defeat— but then earnestly explained that a presidential candidate of any party would be welcome but would need to be either center-right or center-left, not so extreme as the billionaire magnate.
