Clinton rallies Latino crowd in North Bergen

A big whoop rose from the mostly Latino crowd when a woman held aloft a doll of Sen. Hillary Clinton in Schuetzen Park in North Bergen on Wednesday night. But that was low-key compared to the raise-the-roof response elicited a few minutes later when the New York senator and Democratic presidential candidate actually appeared on stage.

"I know how incredibly important family is to the Latino community," Clinton told several hundred cheering supporters. "Let’s take care of families with real resources."

Laying out a case for how she would protect the American Dream, Clinton said as president she would scrap No Child Left Behind, provide universal health care coverage, expand family leave, and make college more affordable by giving $3,500 in tax credits for each child per year and by cracking down on student loan companies.

"I can’t do any of these things without your help," Clinton told the crowd.

"Together with Hillary, for a better life" or "Juntos con Hillary, una vida mejor," as the banner behind her declared - was the candidate’s second New Jersey appearance on Wednesday, and the one that came with a live Latin music warmup act provided by singer Cesar Bracamontes.

Sen. Robert Menendez, U.S. Representatives Bill Pascrell and Albio Sires, State Sen. (and North Bergen Mayor) Nicholas Sacco, Sen. M. Teresa Ruiz, Assemblywoman Claridad Rodriguez, Hudson County Freeholder Tilo Rivas, and Lucilio A. Santos of the Latino PAC Alliance appeared with Clinton before the welcoming crowd.

"We have an opportunity here in Hudson: Hudson, Hispanics, Hillary and history," said Sen. Robert Menendez as he introduced the Democratic Party frontrunner in New Jersey less than two weeks before the Feb. 5th primary.

With Clinton reaching out to Latino voters here, the newly sworn-in Ruiz emceed the event and used her own experience as the state’s first Latina senator to exhort the audience to elect the country’s first woman president.

She said a little girl in Newark expressed her misgivings to Ruiz about her ambitions to be president because "there are no girl presidents."

"I drove her to a big billboard of my face and I said, ‘and there weren’t any Latina senators either,’" Ruiz recalled. "When I had the opportunity to go back and see her, I showed her a picture of our next president, Clinton, and I said, ‘She’s the first, but she won’t be the last.’"

Ruiz said Clinton offers vision and direction. Criticized in last year’s state senate race by her general election opponents because she possessed no experience in elected office prior to becoming the 29th district senator, Ruiz declared Clinton’s candidacy as "not solely about change, but about experience."

Sires elaborated on the experience theme, which has served as Clinton’s main argument to counter her main primary election opponent, first-term Sen. Barack Obama.

"We have the opportunity to elect a president of the United States who is a person who is not going to learn on the job, and who will work to change the culture of this country," said Sires.

When the Congressman mentioned President George W. Bush’s veto of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, the boos rained down, replaced moments later by chants of "Hillary," "Hillary."

"We can love her, but if we don’t get the vote out on Feb. 5th, we’ve got a problem," said Saccco.

Sires and Pascrell both invoked the country’s first Speaker of the House, U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, as another trailblazer - and not just for women.

"It was a great day for Congress, a great day for Democrats, but it was an even better day for the United State of America," Pascrell said of swearing-in ceremony.

Clinton is due up next, said the Congressman. "I trust that Sen. Clinton will do the right things for foreign policy, and in bringing our troops home, and straightening out this economy, which is not in good shape," Pascrell said.

For more videos of the event, please see Max Pizarro's video blog at right.