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Hillary Clinton Campaigns In Miami's Black Community

POSTED: 6:31 pm EST February 20, 2007

MIAMI -- Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton chose a historic black neighborhood Tuesday to make her first public Florida appearance since announcing her White House plans and criticized President George W. Bush's education policy as doing little to help minorities.

While she said she is still searching for solutions on how to help raise minority student test scores, she said the No Child Left Behind Act isn't doing it.

"This achievement gap is deeply troubling to me," Clinton said. "If we don't invest in our children, our society and our economy will decline. This is not just something nice to do, this is something that we have to do."

The event was a clear signal that she's going to fight hard to keep black voters on her side in a primary where Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who is black, is gaining popularity.

"The black community is betwixt and between. We all love Clinton, but at the same time Obama has a lot of people who love him in the community, too," said Hans Ottinot, a 38-year-old Haitian-American lawyer who grew up in the Liberty City neighborhood where the event was held. "She's showing us, 'Look, the black community has been a major supporter and I want to keep you as a major supporter.' It's a clear message. I don't think it was subtle."

She spoke and took questions for an hour from the mostly black audience of 300. The event was sandwiched between fundraisers in Tampa, Miami and Hollywood that were closed to the press.

Clinton called U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., and asked him to set up the meeting.

"She's saying that she wants every vote that she can get in the primary election," said Meek, who has not endorsed a candidate in the primary. "If you get a senator at the level of Hillary Rodham Clinton that wants to come to your district, you don't say no."

On education, the New York senator and former first lady said more needs to be done to prepare children for school and to get parents involved with their children's learning.

"I want to ask the community, I want to ask the parents and the teachers, and the civic leaders and the church leaders what can we do? How do we help our children succeed? Because it's not just an achievement gap that affects the individual child, the achievement gap affects a broader community and the country," she said.

Clinton also said the federal government can do more to help minority businesses by writing a road map for banks' roles in the communities.

"We've got to change our laws so that they inspire and motivate more lending institutions to look at how they can serve the entire community again," Clinton said. "We've got to get them to look at a community even if they are multinational banks and we can do that through regulation and law."

She also called for microlending programs and helping business owners to develop stronger business plans so they are more credit worthy.

When the topic of Haiti was raised, Clinton turned the microphone over to Meek, saying he probably has more Haitian-Americans in his district than any other House member and she will be looking to him for advice if elected.

"The thing I like about Sen. Clinton, is the fact that you want to be told what you need to hear and not necessarily what you want to hear," Meek said.

After the community meeting, Clinton attended a $100 ticket cocktail reception in Hollywood, which was followed by a VIP reception at $2,500 per person. Also Tuesday, Clinton's campaign announced endorsements from Florida Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Alcee Hastings, whose Broward County district is predominantly black.