Bill Clinton and the flood of 1993

[question everything]

We did not live in the Midwest in 1993 but as the news brought that flood back, one image came back to me: Bill Clinton, by then a new President, visiting the flooded areas and reaching out and hugging a distraught homeowner.

Some years later, a very savvy politician commented to me that we, Americans, like our leaders to be personable. And it is not hard to reach back and remember Walter Mondale telling the Democratic Convention in 1984 in a very serious tone: Both Ronald Reagan and I will raise taxes. Reagan will not say this but I just did.. Reagan, of course, went ahead with his sunny "Morning in America" to win in a landslide.

And I remember our highly intellectual and knowledgeable candidates: Dukakis, Gore, Kerry, with whom we, the thinking voters, have been very proud, but who left the majority of voters cold. They preferred a frat boy Bush, instead.

Bill Clinton - who is still being bashed on these pages - had the unique ability of both being intellectual and reaching out to people of all walks of life. And what a contrast with the sour and dour Bob Dole in 1996.

TIME is the last publication to eulogize Russert - because of printing schedule and, no, this is not about Russert. But I am copying here a paragraph from Joe Klein's:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1816494,00.html

Every four years through the '80s and '90s, Tim and I would go out and watch the politicians work on the weekend before the New Hampshire primary. Our most memorable excursion was in 1992, when we saw Paul Tsongas selling his chilly fiscal discipline and then watched Bill Clinton work a nursing home. A woman started to ask Clinton about the high price of prescription drugs, then dissolved in tears, unable to finish. Clinton immediately went to the woman, dropped to his knees and hugged her; he held her tight for what seemed a long time. It was a reflexive reaction and fairly shocking--neither of us were yet aware of Clinton's rampaging empathy--and very moving. Tim and I looked at each other, and we both had tears in our eyes. "I don't think we'll ever see Tsongas do that," he said.

[Cerridwen]

1. For some damned reason, we act as though they are mutually

exclusive. As if one can have either "intelligence" or be "personable" but not both at the same time.

[question everything]

5. You are right. They should not be

Especially during hard time as we have now, it is OK for the candidates to offer specific plans, but they do need to show some empathy.

But when the candidates are millionaires, they may have hard time with it.

This, too, was unique about Bill. As a governor of Arkansas, and even with Hillary's lawyer salary, they probably were the least wealthy entering the White House.

[JamesA1102]

2. Gore beat Bush

"And I remember our highly intellectual and knowledgeable candidates: Dukakis, Gore, Kerry, with whom we, the thinking voters, have been very proud, but who left the majority of voters cold. They preferred a frat boy Bush, instead."

Gore won the popular vote in 2000. So the people preferred him to the a frat boy.

[Catherine Vincent]

3. Clinton told a lot of truths.

He really did feel our pain.

[Winterblues]

4. I believe he still does only can't do much about it now..

:shrug: The sole purpose of his entity that he set up is to help people. People in Africa especially...What did Reagan do after he left office or Bush 1?