President Clinton Talks Jobs, Student Loans, Healthcare at UCF
Monday, October 29, 2012
By: Matthew Peddie

October 29, 2012 | WMFE- Former president Bill Clinton spoke at a rally at the University of Central Florida Monday morning, urging a crowd of several thousand to give President Obama another term. President Obama cancelled his scheduled appearance with Clinton to deal with preparations for Hurricane Sandy.

President Clinton said he was supposed to be the "warm-up man" for Obama, but the storm had other ideas.

Many of those gathered in the University’s outdoor mall were disappointed not to see President Obama, but they cheered Clinton enthusiastically.

For more than 30 minutes, President Clinton talked about the economy, health care and student loans, saying Obama has a better plan to tackle all of those issues than his challenger Mitt Romney.

“I say let’s give the job to the man who’s done the job so he can finish the job,” said President Clinton, urging the crowd to vote the president back in for second term.

Some of the biggest cheers from the crowd came when Clinton attacked the Romney campaign on the issue of student loan costs.

"He wants to get rid of guarantees for the student tax credit, and he wants to make student loans more expensive and harder to repay," said Clinton.

"On this issue alone, everyone within the sound of my voice should vote for Barack Obama for  President of the United States."

That message found favor with UCF student Amanda Palmeira. While Palmeira was disappointed President Obama was not at the rally, she liked what Clinton had to say.

"I don't have any student loans at the moment, but I plan to go to graduate school, I'm planning to go to law school, so I'm going to need them eventually," she said.

"This is my first year of voting, so issues like this are very important to me."

Palmeira said other issues weighing on her this election are womens' rights and the economy.

Clinton shared the stage with US Senator Bill Nelson and former Florida Governor Charlie Crist, who told the crowd to take advantage of early voting.

President Obama was not the only politician to call off campaign appearances in Central Florida because of Hurricane Sandy: Mitt Romney's running mate Paul Ryan cancelled  scheduled visits to Melbourne and Lakeland.