Seeing Hillary Clinton, for me at least, is about seeing both her and Bill.
An interesting mythology has grown around the former President. While he was obviously a monumental figure, the first Democrat to be elected to 2 terms since World War II, he employed the triangulation politics and middle of the road positions that have become anathema to Democrats angry at their stint in the wilderness. Unlike Al Gore, who has successfully recast himself as a defender of progressive politics instead of the Third Way, Bill Clinton towers as the penultimate achievement of that movement. Moreover, his very personal failings probably did more to elect the worst president in recent history than any of Bush’s policies, demographics, or strengths would have otherwise allowed.
But he was an effective President, presiding over enormous expansions in the economy and significant technological leaps. More importantly, he has used his time since leaving office to develop a foundation that provides medicine for victims of HIV/AIDS and fights poverty around the world, something this internationally oriented do-gooder can jump behind.
So we drove up the Seacoast to see Bill give a lunchtime speech about the electability of his wife. Hillary was at another event in a Southern city, so this was just us and the former President.
The crowd in the former mill city of Rochester was mostly older, with many senior citizens who didn’t have to worry about skipping out of work on a Friday afternoon. Unlike the Obama event, there were very few young people – in our mid 20s, my girlfriend and I were among the youngest there.
In line, the middle aged voters around us waxed reminiscent about how much simpler life and the world seemed in the late 1990s. While not all Hillary Clinton supporters, in this crowd she gained credibility simply from her association with that era. Of course, in other venues, I’m sure it was the opposite: the excesses of the Clinton Presidency reflected negatively on her. Neither is necessarily a fair assessment. But few things are more fickle than public perception, so that’s the horse she had to ride.
Once inside the ornate opera house, the crowd took on an even greyer hue. The mood was one of subdued excitement: the intellectual awe of a museum or an art gallery. When he arrived, the tension finally broke in a cascade of applause that was surprising for a theater less than half full.
Bill Clinton grabbed that newfound excitement. He was, by far, the most invigorating and engaging speaker I’ve ever seen – not uplifting, like Obama, but engaging on a personal level. He spoke intelligently and thoroughly about trade deficits, health care, education, the importance of creating a better world for children, and the dissolving civility in Pakistan and Iraq. Throughout it all, he stressed Hillary’s character, history of action, and vision for the future, all of which made her ‘the best candidate he’d ever seen’ – including himself. He didn’t need a nebulous message of hope and change to carry the crowd – his dazzling intellect and passionate belief in his wife’s ability was inspiring enough.
One of his most inspiring tales for those concerned by Hillary’s electability was of an upstate New Yorker he met on the campaign trail in 2006. In 2000, this man saw Hillary as the embodiment of the decadence of liberalism and was proud to vote against her in her Senate race. But by 2006, his tune had changed. Hillary had been the first politician who had made a difference in his community and life, and, surprising himself, he voted for her this time around. She won handily in upstate New York in 2006, but replicating the relationship she developed with the voters of New York on a national scale will be difficult.
Of course, for a Clinton admirer, a Hillary Presidency carried the extra benefit of, as one lapel button announced, ‘Bill Clinton as First Dude.’ And, eventually, an audience member asked what he would do if his wife was in the White House. Surprisingly, he seemed to have given little thought to the question before that day. Begrudgingly, he suggested that he would probably have to give up his work with his Foundation in order to allay any appearances of conflicts of interest with his donors.
And, unintentionally, Bill Clinton gave the most convincing argument against supporting his wife for President: the Clintons, and the nation, had moved on. Bill Clinton had become an effective ambassador for the power of the American sense of civic responsibility, while Hillary Clinton had shown herself to be a particularly adept legislator. The latter doesn’t preclude Hillary’s ascent, but the negative impact of the former, coupled with the worst tendencies of partisanship of the 90s, implied that the benefits of a Hillary Clinton candidacy would be inhibited.
Nonetheless, after 2 hours of questions, I was anxious to shake Bill Clinton’s hand. In DC, this privilege would have required me to pony up hundreds of dollars at a fundraiser or befriend a political insider. But for a few weeks in New Hampshire, shaking the hand of a former President is an egalitarian, even ordinary event in which anyone can participate.
