Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke at a forum on behalf of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her campaign for the upcoming 2016 presidential election on Wednesday, Oct. 12. Secretary Albright has close ties to Denver, as it is where she grew up and attended the Kent Denver School. Her father, Josef Korbel, was a professor of international politics at DU, and he is the man after whom the Josef Korbel School of International Studies is named. Albright visited DU’s campus in June when she was a commencement speaker at the undergraduate ceremony.
Albright emphasized the importance of the 2016 election and the necessity for those who are able to register to vote to do so in the state of Colorado. She spoke of the position voters in the audience are in due to Colorado’s status as a swing state, where each vote has more of an influence on the overall outcome of the election.
As Secretary Albright campaigns for Clinton, states such as Colorado, Iowa and Florida are some of her targets. Albright’s involvement has included knocking on doors and making calls herself, surprising many due to her status in the world of politics. However, Albright sees no excuse to not be an active participant in getting Clinton elected, according to her speech.
Another one of her focuses at Wednesday’s forum was Republican candidate Donald Trump and the eccentricity of the 2016 election. Secretary Albright stressed that for Democrats in the United States, the stakes have never been higher and that avoiding a Trump presidency is imperative to our success as a country. Albright directed this particularly to the majority of millennial voters in attendance at the forum, acknowledging their responsibility as new voters in this presidential election.
After a short speech, Secretary Albright took questions from the audience. One DU student asked Albright what she believed was the biggest issue facing both candidates and the political world as a whole. Albright responded, not skipping a beat, “climate change.” Behind her reasoning, she cited its presence as both a global and inevitable issue that requires strong negotiation skills in the upcoming presidential term.
On this subject, Albright again stressed the importance of electing former Secretary Clinton as president.
Albright believes there is nobody more qualified to face and negotiate the issues at hand than Clinton, a note she concluded the forum with.
