Former president Bill Clinton will be speaking in Salt Lake City a week from today (Nov. 4). I found the above announcement on The Utah Amicus blog. Bill Clinton can still stir up a crowd, and I'm sure he'll linger for many handshakes. Here's a guy who likes the spotlight, likes mixing it up with real people, can hold his own in any conversation -- even speak in complete sentences.
Need I point out how different Bill's personality is from George W. Bush's?
Mr. Clinton has also visited Wyoming. Not recently, but when he ran for president in 1992. It was October, and his campaign dropped into the Cheyenne Municipal Airport one sunny afternoon. The evening before, my wife Chris, son Kevin and I attended a sign-making session at our local Democratic Party HQ. Kevin, then seven, helped make some placards to welcome the candidate to Wyoming. "Wyoming welcomes the next president" and "We love Bill" and "Bill Yes, George No." Things like that. Kevin wrote one: "Clinton Yay, Bush Boo." He spent a lot of time on it, but at home later that evening, our second-grader burst into tears. We asked him what was wrong, and he said that President Bush had been a big influence on him and he didn't mean what he wrote on the sign. He asked us not to use it the next day at the rally. So we didn't. Our son, the budding Republican. He's 22 now, with a different outlook on the world.
At the airport hanger the next day, hundreds of us waited for the next Prez to touch down. Outside the chain-link fence, a dozen demonstrators lined up with their own signs. I don't remember the wording, but some referenced abortion. One referred to Bill as a draft dodger, which of course he was (just like Wyoming's Dick Cheney). But we didn't care. We were happy that any Democratic presidential candidate had decided to come to WYO, an overwhelmingly Republican state who always send their three electoral votes to the Red Team.
Clinton lingered longer than anticipated. He spoke for awhile, and then spent an hour shaking hands. Chris, four months pregnant, pushed her way through the crowd with cries of "pregnant woman coming through." The assembled masses parted like the Red Sea. She shook Bill's hand and and held his fingers briefly to her swollen belly in the traditional "laying on of hands" ritual. Bill's hands, of course, had done much laying on during his life and were to do so much more during his presidency. But Chris was elated with her contact with a future president, and after she returned to tell me about it, surged through the crowd again for another handshake. I was unable to follow, so didn't even get close to a handclasp. I did give him a thumbs up sign, but I don't think he saw it.
Mr. Clinton departed and a few weeks later was President of these United States. Wyomingites went to the polls in the season's first blizzard and voted in big numbers for Bush Sr. My father, a Republican in Florida, called to wish me well. He said there had been a story on the nightly news about a family near Lusk, Wyoming, riding horseback through the snow to vote. I said I hoped they were Democrats and a discussion ensued about the state of politics and the world. My father and I disagreed on most things political. But that night, I took it in stride. Our guy won. We set off the celebrate at the Hitching Post Inn with our fellow Dems.
But Kevin was upset with the election results. George Bush Sr. had been a big influence on him. We asked if he wanted to drop by Republican HQ to commiserate with his homeys. He said he did. When we arrived, I decided to take off my Clinton button in the interest of peace and good will. Chris stubbornly wore hers. We sipped coffee while Kevin ate a sandwich and sat in front of the big Republican TV to watch the returns. The Republicans were gracious, especially when we told them Kevin's story. One of the women asked if we wanted to join the party. We had a big laugh over that one. We were invited to eat and drink. The Republicans offered a nice spread, with one of those six-foot-long Subway sandwiches, bowls of chips, veggie and fruit plates, and lots of desserts. I was tempted to gorge myself, as it would feel righteous to eat food paid for by Republican funds. Instead, I grabbed a cup of coffee and hung around.
Later, at the Dems' party, we had to buy our own drinks and had only stale pretzels and nuts to munch on. But people were giddy. We had won. Things would be great from here on out. And that was partially true. The 1990s were a time of peace and plenty. Wretched excess, too. We didn't know that it was only the calm before the storm. We didn't know the shitstorm that awaited us in the new century.
Now another Clinton runs for president. Her spouse will be speaking and campaigning in Utah which is right next door. I am not a supporter of Hilary Clinton. But I will vote for her if she is nominated at the convention in Denver. I will have no other choice. She will have to campaign in Wyoming, as it is good luck to do so. Remember 1992? Remember the great time Bill had during that drop-in visit to Cheyenne? I would urge Mrs. Clinton to speak to Howard Dean, who can remind her of the so-called 50-state strategy. Wyoming, believe it or not, is one of the official members of the U.S.A. Don't forget us out here, and we won't forget you.
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