HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT Bill Clinton wades in. Bill Clinton waves goodbye. Advertisement

Another first for Pahrump in the 2008 caucus, a former president, charmed a packed, standing-room only audience at the Bob Ruud Community Center Friday.

Silver-haired Bill Clinton spent more time answering questions and was more accessible than his wife, who won the Nevada Democratic caucus Saturday.

The nation's 42nd president, who served from 1993 to 2001, took the occasion to poke fun at his successor, Republican George W. Bush. Otherwise the view was a flashback to the 1990s with Clinton's insurmountable Arkansas wit.

"If you look at the economy today, we've had seven years of what the president tells us is an economic recovery," he said. "Most people haven't noticed it and I think it's because they have returned to trickle down economics, and almost all the benefits, literally, nearly 100 percent of the benefits of the last seven years, have gone to the top 10 percent of earners."

Clinton joked he had the lowest net worth of any president in the 20th century when he entered the White House. "If you remembered, they were kind of mean to me. So when I left I had even less money than I did when I got there. In fact, I was in the hole," he said. But Clinton said he did well financially out of office, and the federal government wanted to throw money at him then.

"When President Bush ran for office, you have got to give him credit. He said, 'Oh Bill Clinton has been terrible to the special interests. He's put the government on their back. It's just been terrible.' I didn't think it was so bad. We had 22.7 million more jobs, we had 43 million more people breathing air that met federal air standards, we had safer food, we moved 100 times as many people out of poverty than in their 12 years before me. I thought we were doing pretty good but he thought it was terrible."

The ex-president talked about his community oriented policing program which put 100,000 more cops on the street reducing crime. He said the welfare reform passed in his administration reduced the welfare rolls 60 percent. Clinton boasted that his administration paid down the national debt three years in a row for the first time in 70 years.

Clinton evoked laughter with a humorous comparison, to explain why America can't enforce trade laws with countries with whom it has huge trade deficits.

"Suppose you leave here today and you're all pumped up, feeling kind of strong," he suggested. "You just drive down to your local bank, walk in, barge into the bank president's office and slap the living daylights out of him. You think you could get a loan tomorrow morning?"

Clinton said people who never missed a mortgage payment are getting kicked out of their homes because of someone else's speculation that went bad. He said Hillary Clinton begged the government to take action six months before the administration finally did something.

There's no problem America can't solve, Clinton said: terrorism, epidemics, nuclear weapons spreading, global warning or immigration. But the U.S. can't do it alone, he continued, advocating diplomacy and cooperation with foreign countries.

Hillary said, "what we ought to do is make a good start by terminating our military involvement in Iraq as quickly as we can," Clinton said to applause. But Hillary Clinton wants a planned withdrawal so as not to jeopardize the American soldiers, the 100,000 American civilians in Iraq or the Iraqis that helped America, he said.

Clinton didn't refer to U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., by name, only as "her main opponent in this primary." He blasted Obama for voting for tax cuts for oil companies that were used to drive up the price of oil.

In another dig at Obama, he asked: "Do we have to start all over again and say thank you very much all of you who fought those battles against the extreme right wing of the Republican party that was in control for the last few years who made progress, or do we want somebody who's a proven change maker?"

Clinton said Obama's insurance plan means the government will make health insurance a little more affordable and people will buy it. Clinton said his wife outlined a plan with 250 choices that will divide up the insurance risk among all residents.

"You can't be gouged on the premium because there will be millions and millions of people in this insurance pool," he said.

Clinton said Hillary will pick 20 elementary schools, 20 middle schools and 20 high schools, identify what they're doing right and put it in every school. She also wants pre-kindergarten for everybody.

Clinton also talked about opening the doors to college to more Americans, noting 13 million people were added to the college ranks when he was president, the most since the GI Bill after World War II. Clinton wants programs to help repay the college debt, like his AmeriCorps program.

America needs to get the politics out of science when it comes to stem cell research, human genome research, global warming and energy policy, Clinton said.

"Nevada could be completely energy independent," Clinton said. "The wind blows here and the sun shines. You can generate all your electricity here, and she proposes to establish a $50 billion clean energy fund to make all this stuff affordable more quickly, starting by repealing the tax cuts oil companies got back in 2005."

Clinton talked about a program to retrofit buildings, which could create jobs.

"The best social solution in this country is a good job," Clinton said.

Hillary Clinton will get rid of the "doughnut hole," in which the U.S. government is the only buyer of drugs in large volumes that can't bargain for a discount, he said.

The question of immigration also came up. He said Hillary Clinton believes America is a land of immigrants and laws.

"Nobody believes we're going to find 12 million people in this country, kick them out and send them home," Clinton said. "You should want all of us to know who's here. Remember when 9/11 occurred? A lot of those people had been in this country for a long time and they did not come across the Rio Grande, they came into our airports. Remember? The only way we can know who's here is to give people a path to legalized status."

Clinton gave clues that he may be calling some of the shots in his wife's administration when he answered a question about foster care. The ex-president said the federal government could withhold federal aid to encourage states to improve their programs.

"I will have her look into this and she will take action," Clinton said.

Clinton lamented the fact good candidates are already out of the field, like U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., sponsor of his family medical leave bill, and U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., sponsor of his crime bill.