NORTH BEND — Former President Bill Clinton says his wife still can win the Democratic presidential nomination, but she needs Oregon’s help.

Decked out in a salmon-colored shirt at a campaign stop in North Bend on Friday, Clinton used a number of tactics to encourage voters to support Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., in the May 20 primary.

He spoke in detail on policy issues involving health care, job creation and education.

He took jabs at the Bush Administration and spoke of a future similar to the eight years during his stay in the White House.

And he argued Hillary would be best able to address rural Oregonians’ concerns about liquefied natural gas terminals, forest management and the fishing industry.

Mostly, the 42nd president stuck to a message of how Hillary would improve America, rather than resorting to the kind of negative campaigning  that preceded the Pennsylvania primary election on Tuesday.

Sen. Clinton’s rival in the race, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., only came up occasionally in the speech, and mostly without direct reference. Rather, the former president used George Bush and presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, R-Ariz., as foils to Sen. Clinton.

He noted his wife is the only candidate who voted against the 2005 energy bill that took away state rights in siting LNG terminals. He also compared McCain’s plan to keep troops in Iraq indefinitely to Hillary’s proposal to put pressure on Iraqi politicians by saying troops won’t stay forever.

“Hillary believes we need to bring the troops home in a timely fashion,” he said. “(Iraq’s politicians) will only make the hard decisions if they know our troops are coming home.”

Foreign policy was only briefly discussed, as Clinton focused much of his speech on domestic issues.

Before talking about health care, Clinton asked audience members to raise their hands if they know someone without insurance. Most did. Such a response is common in America, Clinton said, but not elsewhere.

“There is no other wealthy country on the face of the earth where you get this response,” he said. “Nobody else would even ask the question.”

Hillary’s plan allows those with insurance to keep their plan while providing  anyone the option to purchase the same policies offered to federal employees. The former president also noted the existing system has a lot of waste, including 30 percent of costs on paperwork.

“Is there a business in North Bend that could keep its doors open if it lost 30 cents on the dollar on paperwork?” he asked.

Perhaps the most popular issue of the evening was education, especially when Clinton said Hillary would repeal the No Child Left Behind policy of tying federal funding to test scores. Clinton noted that the line is almost guaranteed to draw favorable responses.

“You could drop me in the middle of Idaho, 200 miles from the closest breathing Democrat, and the elk would applaud,” he said.

The former president noted that a big challenge in the coming years will come with the retirement of millions of teachers. He said Hillary would address this issue by giving greater incentives to young instructors to go into urban and rural areas to lower-performing schools.

And to coordinate a better education product across the country, Clinton said 60 high-performing schools would be identified as models for others to emulate.

Although much of his speech centered on national issues, Clinton also examined how Hillary would address issues pertaining to the South Coast.

He said Hillary supports the continuation of county timber payments and giving funds to law enforcement to battle the prevalence of methamphetamine.

He didn’t offer any solutions for the failure of the salmon population, but said Hillary would bring together stakeholders and support their decision.

Clinton went through a litany of other issues Hillary supports: calling for better access to higher education, more fuel-efficient cars and policies to reduce the cost of gasoline.

He finished by declaring that Oregon voters can have a real impact in this election if they join Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania in choosing Hillary.

“If Oregon goes for Hillary, she’ll be the nominee and she’ll be the next president,” he said. “If she wins these states, we are home and America will have a brighter tomorrow.”