Bill Clinton presses case for re-electing Patty Murray

EVERETT — As the political campaigns switch from convincing the undecided to energizing the convinced, Democrats brought in the “Big Dog” to fire up voters Monday.

Former President Clinton buoyed a noisy crowd of about 2,000 in Everett with a long, professorial speech that contrasted his record — cast in the most favorable light — with that of the two Bush administrations.

And the record shows, he said, that Democrats did a better job cutting the deficit and strengthening the economy.

“I am pleading with you, folks. I’m not running for anything. I just look at the facts,” said Clinton, whose eight years in the White House were sandwiched by the two Bush presidencies.

“Don’t be fooled, don’t be played and don’t stay home,” he said.

Clinton, slimmed down on a no-meat diet, returned to the Puget Sound area for U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, an 18-year incumbent whose race with Republican Dino Rossi has Democrats pulling out all stops.

After Clinton’s visit, President Obama and Vice President Joseph Biden return to the state this week to stump for Murray. First lady Michelle Obama will visit Monday.

After headlining a 1,200-person fundraiser in Seattle for Murray, where tickets started at $125 each, Clinton zipped to the Flying Heritage Collection, Paul Allen’s flight museum near Paine Field. There, he rallied voters for Murray and Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Lake Stevens, who is in a tight race against Republican John Koster.

The event could have been mistaken for one organized by a past Clinton campaign. Clinton buttons, hats and signs were sprinkled through the crowd. He visited Washington state 13 times during his presidency, and has continued to drop into the Pacific Northwest as a jet-setting philanthropist.

Sugar Mitchell, a 28-year-old hairstylist from Redmond, said after the rally that Clinton “still has it.”

“He makes me wish he could run again,” she said.

Larsen warmed up the union-heavy crowd with a pro-Boeing message. He also earned applause for his support of the financial regulatory overhaul passed by Congress.

“If a hedge-fund manager wants to drive themselves off the cliff, let them. But no longer will you be trapped in the passenger seat with them,” Larsen said.

Murray also hit a populist tone, saying that Rossi stood for “three R’s — repeal, rewind and retreat.”

She added, “All those TV pundits and skeptics out there who say there’s an enthusiasm gap, I have four simple words: Come to Washington state.”

Outside the rally, small groups of protesters mocked Murray’s “mom in tennis shoes” motto and criticized her record on taxes and support for the health-care law.

“Murray comes out with these ads that say, ‘I’m all for small businesses,’ but that doesn’t jibe with reality,” said Bob Mighell, owner of World Medical Equipment in Marysville.

Inside the museum, Clinton compared this year’s election to the 1994 midterms, saying he’d “seen this movie before.” That’s probably not what Murray wanted to hear: 1994 cost Democrats control of Congress.

But Clinton sought to dispel any sense of doom by contrasting the GOP and Democrat positions, point by point, on deficit spending and job creation, and vigorously defending the health-care and Wall Street bills, new rules on student loans and the federal stimulus spending.

Clinton said that Obama was being unfairly blamed for not fixing an inherited economic mess fast enough.

“There’s always a gap when you vote for change and when you start implementing it and when you feel it,” he said.

Urging the crowd to sway voters to the Democrats, Clinton turned the focus back to his administration, which he noted had a better record for job creation than either Bush administration. Look at the facts, he said.

“When you make a decision when you’re mad, there’s about an 80 percent chance you’ll make a mistake. I’m old enough to admit that,” Clinton said.

Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jmartin@seattletimes.com