Tar Heel Mom, a long-time friend of mine, lives in Hope Mills, North Carolina and went to see former President Bill Clinton today in her small town. Her oldest son recently graduated from Carolina and is an artillery officer, stationed in Afghanistan. She is also a Mary Kay customer of mine. With her permission, I submit this from my embedded blogger:Ever conscientious, I got the okay from higher headquarters to take some comp time before I left, so I could get down to Hope Mills for WJC's appearance. I left downtown at 12:35 and by 1:05 was parked in my driveway and trudging off on foot to the ballfield where he'd be speaking.
There was a longish line of people ahead of me. I chatted with the ladies in front of me, a nice pair of retirees. One of them remarked, "I didn't know there were this many Democrats in Hope Mills," to which I replied, "We're not all Democrats."
The line moved forward at a steady pace. Along the way were Hillary campaign workers hawking buttons, shirts, and hats. They passed out forms to us, with space for name, address, cell/landline phone numbers, e-mail addy, etc. At first they said that the Secret Service required this information, but one glance at the form told me otherwise: why would the Secret Service want to know if I was willing to donate time/money/effort to Hillary's campaign? Being the cautious sort, however, I filled in only the minimum info - no phone numbers or e-mail. Not gonna let Hill's Hags harrass me that way! Let them waste their $$ on direct mail!
So finally I passed through the perfunctory check point and got onto the ball field. The two bleachers that had been set up were already almost full. Many folks had brought lawn or camp chairs and there were about three or four rows of those set up behind the chain-link fence that surrounded the makeshift stage, where a local bluegrass band was playing. People were beginning to cluster and stand behind the seated folks, so I found a spot and planted my feet, about 40 feet away from the stage.
While we waited, I struck up conversation with some of the folks around me - one couple said that the mayor, bustling about near the stage, was their cousin, and they pointed out his wife and daughters sitting in the VIP area. Another woman and her husband seemed to be either Clinton groupies or really, really devoted voters. She was decked out in a pink Hillary '08 hat, her denim jacket was festooned with half a dozen Hillary buttons, and she had on a Hillary T-shirt. They mentioned that they had seen either Bill or Hillary in Goldsboro, Winston, Raleigh, Fayetteville, Greensboro....how do you get off enough time from work to do that? The husband had a 173rd Abn Bde patch on his hat; I mentioned that my son's currently serving with the 173rd, and he stuck his hand out to shake mine and said, "You tell him, from one Sky Soldier to another, thanks for his service." That was nice, I thought.
Clinton was supposed to talk at 1:45. at 2:00, the mayor read a proclamation declaring today Bill Clinton Day in the town. The JROTC color guard posted the colors. A bunch of schoolkids from the various schools in Hope Mills recited the Pledge of Allegiance. An a cappella group from the high school sang the National Anthem (rather well, as a matter of fact). And we waited. And waited.
Finally, at around 2:45, Himself made the grand entrance. I got a pretty good look at him, since I was so close. Impressions: His hair really is snow-white. He appeared to be in good spirits; he didn't seem too tired (this was at least the third stop of the day for him). He's a bit thinner than he appears on TV. And he's taller than I'd expected.
His talk was a boiler-plate stump speech, nothing less nor more than I'd anticipated. The only time he referred to notes was at the very beginning, when he thanked the local dignitaries by name. The rest was off the cuff, but polished and effective nonetheless.
It came down to this: "I'm here to encourage you to vote early for my wife. I enjoy these visits to small-town America, and so does Hillary [I think this was his way of positioning the Clinton camp on the side of the "regular Joes and Janes," not the elitist, out-of-touch Obama side]. Here are the reasons....blah....blah....blah....So vote for Hillary and get all your friends to do the same thing!" He wrapped up by about 3:40, and I walked back to the house, got in the car, and returned to work. I'd been standing outside for so long that I've got a nice rosy glow on my cheeks and neck. I'll be sure to moisturize before retiring this evening. :-)
Overall he's really impressive to watch, even if you're not listening to the words. He told a couple of jokes and talked TO the crowd, not AT them. He does have the common touch but is also able to dazzle folks by spouting off all sorts of statistics from memory, for example, how much less HillaryCare will cost than our current health-insurance arrangements. I, as a lifelong student at the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies, was able to discern his selective and misleading use of stats, but I think he had most of the crowd eating out of his hand*.
I knew I hadn't come to hear what he had to say; I wanted to witness something historic and important for the town where I live, and to see a former President (the only one I wouldn't cross the street to see is that buck-toothed moron from Georgia). So for that reason, I'm glad I went. I think the sunburn was worth it.
Love,
Tar Heel Mom
*Speaking of which, did I ever tell you this one: Three Presidential mottoes: FDR - we have nothing to fear but fear itself; Truman - the buck stops here; Clinton - employees must wash hands before returning to work.
