Senator Hillary Clinton lead a ralley on Monday for Kirsten Gillibrand and the Greene County Democrats at the beautiful Riverfront park in Coxscakie. Set along the Hudson River, Hillary spoke to about a hundred democratic activists about why this was the year that we were going to take back the 20th Congressional District and create a Democratic majority in the house if not the Senate.

This ralley was essentially a private event organized through party activists using the phone to avoid having protesters from either the incumbent Congressman John Sweeney camp or peace activists who would rather see Tsasini run for the US Senate this year. No uninvited guests or distractions showed up. Despite the relatively quiet event, we still got good coverage on WAMC the next day.

Nobody particularly like having political rallies in secret. Unfortunately, some protesters can be rude and disruptive particularly those who have a particular dislike for Clinton and her cautious support for the war in Iraq. Likewise, too many of Kirsten's events have been infiltrated by Sweeney people who have been recording and tracking every one of Kirsten's moves. Taken together, these factors would be a distraction to our event.

Kirsten arrived at the event relatively unnoticed and started making the rounds taking to people. She had previously been at an event in Chatham, but still maintained her sociable nature. Everybody was waiting for Hillary Clinton who was a few minutes late for the event. Yet, you really can not fault her for the difficulties of security clearance being a recent first lady and having secret service protection.

When the three black suburban assault vehicles with Hillary and her group of secret service agents arrived the crowds lined up along the sidewalk. Everybody wanted a chance to get near Hillary to shake her hand, get a really awesome picture, or to get her autograph. It was amazing to get so close to Hillary, though at least I was stuck behind a camera trying to get the best possible picture for this blog.

Hillary spoke and it was amazing. Not a personal fan of Hillary's foreign policy or her charisma, her ability to rally Democrats in person is amazing. She talks about the Democratic ideal and how when we work together we can do great things. She mentions how Kirsten Gillibrand is an enthusiastic young leader and she will be our next leader in the great 20th Congressional District.

Kirsten spoke and the crowd continued to be excited about her promises of changing politics as we know it, and tapping into local resources such as renewable energy and our agricultural base. She talked about how the federal government should fund schools better and find ways to make Medicaid more affordable for us taxpayers. Her style may have been quieter then of Clinton's fiery rhetoric, but her progressive vision fit perfectly with that of Clinton.

Clinton and Gillibrand got a through round of applause after the event. Hillary stuck around and autographed many things and got her picture taken with many excited Democratic activists. It was great that she was willing to spend so much time talking and interacting with people. Many activists planned out future events for Gillibrand and a lot of networking took place. We all are excited about having a new Congresswomen in the 20th Congressional District.