Former President Bill Clinton said any headlines or negative campaigning that diverts away from the issues of an election is "smoke and mirrors," at a fundraiser for Steve Grossman, the Democratic candidate for Massachusetts Treasurer in Boston.
Clinton criticized Republican campaigns for taking extreme positions, such as calling unemployment benefits "unconstitutional" or labeling public bike paths in Denver to U.N. threats to American sovereignty.
"Forget about all that crazy stuff that's going on in the atmosphere," Clinton said. "All that really matters in politics, I'm telling you, once you've been in it and are gone like me is are people better off than when you quit than when you started? Do kids have a brighter future? Are things falling apart or being pulled together?
"The rest is all smoke and mirrors. Do not be deluded or agitated by the smoke or mirrors."
About 300 mostly Grossman supporters crowded a first floor restaurant in the Park Plaza Hotel to listen to Clinton, Mayor Thomas Menino and Grossman.
Menino prefaced Clinton's speech with a similar stance on Republican campaigning.
"I'll tell you as mayor, negative politics does not win, does not win because the people are smarter than some of these elected officials or ad agencies think they are," he said.
Following Menino and Clinton's speeches, Grossman took the podium to hammer the main issues of his campaign home, one of which was a pledge to create transparency in the treasurer's office.
Grossman said he would accomplish this transparency by making available all financial information flowing through his office available on the Internet.
"[My campaign]'s about protecting the public's money and reigniting a sense of confidence that citizens of this state have in their government and the way they're money is being spent," Grossman said.
The campaign for State Representative Karyn Polito, R-Shrewbury, Grossman's opponent in the race, released a statement after the fundraiser presenting Clinton's support as a holdover from the former president's scandal-plagued administration.
"Over the years, Grossman has given millions of dollars to Democratic Party causes. In 1995, during Clinton's first term, in return for those political donations, Grossman was invited to sleep overnight at the White House," Polito said in the statement.
"His involvement in the Lincoln Bedroom scandal is another reason why Steve Grossman is too compromised by party politics to be an independent watchdog in the state treasurer's office."
But Clinton and Grossman were insulated from Republican criticism during the fundraiser, surrounded by mostly Democratic supporters; the Polito supporters who gathered on the opposite side of Park Plaza Street from the hotel were few in number.
Fundraiser attendees warmly received Clinton's professorial style.
"I thought it was a great lecture," Shelia Martin, a member of the Boston Ward 5 Democratic Committee of Mission Hill, said. "It was a global speech on what we need to be asking our candidates. . .how are you going to change things?"
Another woman, who would only identify herself as Mary from Cape Cod, said she enjoyed Clinton's speech, stating that the U.S. was "in the black when he left office."
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