Bill Clinton Courts Montana

By Bill Schneider, 4-02-08

	Caption: About 2,000 supporters crowd into the Helena High gym to hear Bill Clinton. Photo by Bill Schneider

Last Saturday former President Bill Clinton announced a hurried trip through Montana to campaign for his spouse and presidential hopeful Hillary. It isn’t often Montana shares the national spotlight of presidential campaigns or has visits from presidential candidates and past presidents, so we can overlook the mad rush--four stops (Havre, Great Falls, Helena or Butte) in one day, probably not staying in the Big Sky State long enough to pay any Bed Tax.

For NewWest.Net, I’m the only writer living in any of those four Montana cities, but I’m the outdoor editor. Hey, boss, don’t fret, I assured. I can do this. I can give up writing about fishing and hiking for a whole day to hobnob with the press corps and report on Bill Clinton’s historic visit to Helena.

Now you know why managing editors have ulcers.

I dug out my NewWest.Net shirt and headed for Helena High School, an hour early. All I see is a line of people three or four deep extending out the front door as far as I can see--probably around 2,000 people, many already waiting for an hour or more. I felt a little guilty waltzing up to the door marked “Press” and walking right in, but after a glance back at the line, I quickly got over it.

My first surprise was the lax security. I expected to be patted down and questioned, at least carded, but I simply signed in and that was it. I’m sure there were security precautions, but certainly not obvious.

Then, I found out what political reporters spend most of their time doing--waiting for politicians to arrive.

The gym gradually filled--first the teachers and students piled into one bleacher section reserved for them. I enjoyed seeing all the young people, personal confirmation of what the pundits have been saying i.e. more of our youth getting involved in this election than ever before.

Then, the gates opened and that long line melted into the rest of the bleachers, slowly, because the fire marshal had to count every person. I suspect the building’s limit might have been reached before the end of the line because to my surprise, there were still a few empty seats.

Finally, two hours after I arrived and an hour late, which the press corps told me was typical, there he was, Bill Clinton, following party faithful Carol Williams, state senator from Missoula and spouse of former Montana congressman Pat Williams to the small stage and podium, where she gave us a stirring introduction.

You know what they say about first impressions. As I’m sure many people already know, Bill Clinton has a good one, a real presence about him. You’d notice him right away in a crowd even if he weren’t a former president. He was looking quite distinguished with his silvery hair and the charisma we all dream for.

That other Bill Schneider, the famous political guy on CNN, probably has seen them all, but I haven’t seen many presidents, so I reserve the right to be excited. I’ve been in the same room as the first George Bush in Washington, D.C. and talked one-on-one with Jimmy Carter at the Carter Center in Atlanta. (Sometime, I should write about my little chat with Carter, as well as the time I met Michael Dukakis on the subway.) But for me, Bill Clinton is the easy winner in the first-impression race. He had me, and most everybody else in the gym, the second he walked in the room. And in the heat of this epic presidential race, I suspect his wife would give anything for this gift.

The past president had already given two speeches that day and had one more that night in Butte, so I expected a speedy 20-minute-in-and-out, but no way. Think of it--four big speeches per day in four cities in Montana and probably a plan to do it again somewhere else the next day and many days thereafter. The thought of it makes me tired, but you didn’t detect anything close to fatigue or boredom in his talk, only excitement and energy. He spoke freely and easily, with no notes or prepared text, for more than an hour, knowing, I’m sure, that this made him another hour late for his last gig of the day.

Oh yes, Hillary. This is about Hillary Clinton for President. I had to work at remembering why I was there.

According to the man closest to her, here are the four reasons Hillary Clinton should be president--(1) She has the best plan for rebuilding the middle class, (2) She is the most able to restore peace and cooperation in the world, including getting out of Iraq, (3) She is the best change-maker, and (4) Hillary is the person least likely to forget who you are after the election.

Since I’m the outdoor guy, I was hoping he would say something about how public lands, outdoor recreation, and a quality living environment benefit us all. After all, this is Montana, but obviously, outdoor issues aren’t getting much attention in this presidential campaign. He did say the best family vacation he ever had was in Montana, but I had the feeling he tells all the states that.

He definitely likes Montana, though, and thanked us for voting for him in 1992.

The only environmental issue he addressed was achieving energy independence with alternative sources like wind and clean coal, a favorite subject of Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer. He promised us Hillary will solve “the coal riddle,” cleanly using our abundant coal reserves without destroying the planet, and said she has already had several talks about it with our governor, who surprisingly didn’t seem to be around to get a little face time at this historic event.

Ditto for the Three Trillion Dollar War. I expected him to spend a lot of time on this issue, but about all he did was compare it to inviting a friend to sleep overnight on your couch and trying to deal with it after he’d been there for five years, referring to John McCain’s plan to keep us in Iraq “for another hundred years,” even though we’ve already been there longer than we were in World War Il.

He also warned us that Hillary could only save part of that three trillion dollars, because “she is going to take care of the people who fought in it,” especially the 70,000 wounded veterans.

Non surprisingly, he devoted most time to education issues, with health care and economic subjects close behind.

He received his biggest applause from the educator-rich crowd when he panned President Bush’s No Child Left Behind program, which he claimed has failed. “You could drop me in the middle of Idaho, 200 miles from the nearest living democrat, and elk would applaud me when I said that.”

I suppose veteran political reporters have seen this a hundred times, but one strategy that seemed unusual to me was how he avoided the word, “Obama,” like it was poison ivy, using instead “the last person in the race” or “Hillary’s opponent.”

Just say it, Bill. It won’t make people vote for him.

And no surprise, he had a great closing. “Ask yourself this question,” he said: “How will you know if the President has done her job?”

After joking that he had to say this or he couldn’t go home at night, he gave us Hillary’s three-part answer: If people are better off when I leave office than when I went in; if our children have a better future; and if the world is coming together instead of being torn apart.

Hard to argue with that, right?