BOSTON -- Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Clinton was endorsed Thursday by Mayor Raymond Flynn as the 'only candidate with a clear vision' of how to revitalize America's economy.
The Democratic mayor, who just completed a term as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, threw his support to Clinton after the Arkansas governor raised about $1 million for his campaign during Boston fund-raisers.
'Bill Clinton in my mind has proven himself to be the only candidate with a clear vision of how to revitalize our economy, getting people back to work, investing in our cities,' Flynn said on WBZ radio before escorting Clinton on a visit to the North End, one of Boston's numerous ethnic neighborhoods.
Walking with Flynn through the historic section where Revolutionary hero Paul Revere lived, Clinton said voters 'are being treated to a presidential election in which the other two candidates seem more interested in investigating and dumping on each other than in investigating the problems of the American people.'
During two fund-raisers Wednesday night, Clinton raised some $200, 000, according to estimates from his camp. He also spoke via satellite to a series of about 80 party fund-raisers in 27 cities around the nation, bringing in another $750,000.
Clinton's campaign was said to be almost $4 million in debt, but that the current fund-raisers will help carry him through the Democratic nomination convention next month. After Clinton officially receives the Democratic nomination, he will get more than $55 million in federal funds for the fall campaign.
Flynn had withheld endorsing any candidate and speculation even had him leaning toward independent Ross Perot.
However, Flynn said Clinton's appearance in Houston earlier this week at the mayors conference convinced him Clinton deserved his support.
'Clinton came to the mayors conference...and unveiled a detailed, comprehensive plan for urban America, one that we (mayors) had been working on and supported in a bipartisan way for over a year,' Flynn said. 'As far as cities are concerned, that was the first day of the presidential campaign.'
Flynn said that he felt the city vote is 'incredibly important' this year because of the three-person race among Clinton, President Bush and, probably, Perot.
'In a three-person race, because of the fact that it's not going to take 51 percent of the vote any more to win the presidential election, the cities' vote becomes extremely important.'
Flynn said inner city residents in the past had stayed home during elections because 'they didn't have anybody they felt had a clear vision that addressed the issues of average working, needy families in our neighborhoods.'
He said taking Clinton to the North End allows him to 'see first hand that his proposal that he is now supporting strongly is really the proposal that the people of America really want. The people want work. They don't want welfare. I think that's what this campaign is about.'
Flynn said Clinton can win 'if he is given the opportunity of talking about substantive issues, and President Bush remains committed to taking this cautious road of nothing specific, ignoring America's cities.'
