Former United States President Bill Clinton spoke to a capacity crowd at Rackham Auditorium yesterday, capping 4 hours of political fanfare aimed at rallying voters to support Congressman John Dingell (D–Ann Arbor) and other Democratic candidates throughout the state in next week’s midterm elections.

Clinton told the audience that this year’s election has made him “somewhere between disturbed and ticked off,” urging voters to participate in the election to continue propelling Democratic policies and initiatives forward, especially in the state of Michigan which has been supportive of him in the past.

“I love Michigan,” Clinton said. “Michigan’s been good to me and I try to be good for Michigan. And John Dingell has been good for you.”

In order to help the ailing economy, Clinton emphasized the importance of balancing the national budget and creating new jobs, specifically in the green energy and technology sectors. He said that Dingell’s focus on these goals has helped make Michigan an “advanced battery manufacturing sector,” but said there is still much work to be done.

"There's always a gap between when you start fixing things and people feel fixed,” Clinton said. "The challenge for our party is this election is occurring in the gap.”

Clinton said that since the Obama administration has tried to fix the debt left by the Bush administration, about 70 percent of it has been absolved. Despite this, he said the effects have yet to be felt by the American public since the majority of jobs lay in the final 30 percent — but that progress is being made to eliminate it.

“Give us two more years,” Clinton said. “You gave them eight years to dig the hole, give us half the time, four more years, to get out of it.”

In response to Republicans who claim that the Democrats have been over-spending and trying to implement Socialist policies, Clinton pointed out that Democratic policy helped established a balanced budget during his time in office, which the Bush administration failed to achieve.

“I almost gag when I hear these Republicans,” Clinton said, “lambasting the president and the Democrats in Congress, ‘Oh they’re such big spenders, they’re crazy quasi-Socialists, they’ve gone hog wild.’ I have a simple question. Who was the last president to give you a balanced budget?”

Clinton added that in the quest to develop a strong economy, voters should arm themselves with knowledge just as they would going into a football game.

“I guarantee that half this crowd could give me a detailed discussion on the probability of Denard Robinson playing in the next football game,” he said.

“When something matters to us like football, the facts are important to us, and we know them,” Clinton continued. “I propose we conduct this election like we are getting ready to play a football game because this is exactly what we're doing in the international economy, and we better be ready when we play.”

To increase international competition, Clinton said the U.S. must continue focusing on financing jobs and education in the small business, green energy, technology and infrastructure sectors. Since these types of jobs require more specialized skills and knowledge than some other jobs, Clinton said it is crucial to continue fighting for student aid programs to allow more students to embark on these programs — something he said Dingell has always fought for.

"If you care about putting people to work, who can go to work tomorrow morning, you've got to vote for John Dingell," Clinton said.

In closing, Clinton stressed the importance of mobilizing the youth vote. He said expected voter profiles show that student the number of voters is expected to decrease 55 percent from the 2008 presidential election.

"Young people who don't vote are literally playing Russian roulette with their own future,” Clinton said.