GIRARDVILLE, Pa. - Former president Bill Clinton said Saturday that Democrats calling for his wife to drop out of the presidential race should "just relax'' and let the remaining states vote.
Clinton, marching in a belated St. Patrick's Day parade in Girardville, a tiny town in northeastern Pennsylvania's coal region, said it wouldn't be fair to deprive Democratic voters in states like Pennsylvania of the opportunity to vote for the candidate of their choice.
"We just need to relax and let this happen. Nobody's talking about wrecking the party,'' Clinton said. "Everywhere I go, all these working people say, `Don't you dare let her drop out. Don't listen to those people in Washington, they don't represent us.' ''
Clinton was responding to a statement by Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat who supports Illinois Senator Barack Obama. Leahy said Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton can't win enough delegates to capture the nomination and should drop out and support Obama.
Clinton told reporters along the parade route that Leahy doesn't want his wife to compete in upcoming contests because "she might win.'' Polls have shown Senator Clinton with a big lead over Obama in Pennsylvania, which votes April 22 and is the biggest remaining electoral prize.
"I think the idea that a state as important to the Democrats' future as Pennsylvania, where (Republican nominee-in-waiting) Senator (John) McCain has always been popular and always run well, the idea that the Democrats would not want the vote to occur here I think is crazy,'' Bill Clinton said.
"The people should just relax and let this process go on,'' he said as he walked the parade route wearing a shamrock-coloured scarf and carnation. "It's good, it's exciting, it's good for democracy.''
He drew a crowd estimated at well over 20,000, with people lining up 10 deep to shake hands and get autographs.
In a brief speech outside St. Joseph Catholic Church, Clinton told the throngs that his wife supports investments in clean-coal technology in hard-hit coal states like Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia.
Like many towns in the coal region, Girardville, population 1,800, has struggled to recover economically from the demise of widescale anthracite mining.
"If we led the world to the moon, we ought to be able to lead the world to clean coal,'' Clinton said. "I know a certain candidate who is absolutely committed to that.''
