Thursday, October 16, 2008

Everybody Loves Bill



My computer has been down for 24 hours, which at this moment in my life is akin to temporarily losing a finger or my ability to read. I just really can’t function without it. Which is sad. But a topic for a different blog.

I did meet Bill Clinton today though, and as I implied on my facebook status, he is rad. Last time I saw him in person, back in those halcyon days when the national scandal was sexual and not economic, he looked much, much younger and so, probably, did I. Being in a Bill Clinton state of mind today made me nostalgic for those days right after college when I lived in DC, all my friends were “staffers” who worked on “the hill,” and we all thought we were broke even though the most I ever paid in rent was $450 a month. Granted it was upstairs from an Ethiopian restaurant/reggae club that didn’t close until 3 a.m. But still. You just cannot beat that rent.



The event was a rally in downtown Cleveland hosted by the building trades, which means tons of union guys. It was inspiring to see this bunch of people (mostly white, mostly men, and all blue-collar) coming straight from work to see Clinton, support Obama and economic and trade policies that make sense. I wish I could take a snapshot of that crowd to anyone who would like to harp on Obama’s eloquence and claim that he is elitist. Oh wait, I did. Here it is.



These guys get it. Clinton mentioned how the median income in our country has dropped $2,000 per person since the day he left office, but has dropped $4,000 per person in Ohio. I had the feeling this crowd didn’t need to be told this statistic, that they were feeling it.

I hauled around metal bike racks to set up crowd barricades for 4 hours, but in exchange I got to stand on the risers during Clinton’s (as always) kickass speech and meet him after it. And, considering all the streudel I eat here, a full day of heavy exercise came at a great time. Of course, the first day I spent completely outdoors here was also the day it finally decided to get cold. I am only now defrosting many hours later.

I meant to tell you about my canvass yesterday and the guy who came to the door wearing a gun. (Don’t worry—he was really nice.) But that will have to wait until tomorrow, because today it was all about Bill.



Oh, and Cleveland loves wind power! Wind power loves you back, Cleveland.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jeez, Nothing makes me more excited than Bubba and a bunch of union guys! Did Bubba tell the crowd how as they got poorer, he made close to $100 million on speeches and book deals? Just curious.

Sonny

scs said...

Yeah, because only Democratic ex-presidents ever make any money once they leave office, right Sonny?

Anonymous said...

No only Democrat ex-presidents make obscene amounts while pretending to care about the little people. It's the epitome of limousine liberalism in my humble opinion....

Agree to disagree with love,

Sonny