Spotlight still shines on Clinton

CHARLOTTE — Sheila Castin remembers summer dinners by the pool in her Little Rock apartment complex in the late 1970s that were frequented by a rising star.

Bill Clinton, who at that time was smarting from losing a congressional race in Northwest Arkansas to John Paul Hammerschmidt, was preparing for a comeback - one of many he would undertake over the next three decades.

“I knew right then he was going somewhere,” remembers Castin, who is in Charlotte, N.C., serving as a delegate at the Democratic National Convention.

Clinton’s latest return to the political stage will be tonight when he nominates President Barack Obama for president.

Democrats in Arkansas, who hosted a fundraiser Tuesday night to honor Clinton, relished the attention that the nominating speech will earn for the state.

The event, called “A Party Two Decades in the Making,” celebrated the 20th anniversary of Clinton’s 1992 presidential nomination by Democrats.

About an hour after the event’s designated starting time, the several hundred people gathered at a hotel ballroom to hear Clinton grew restless and broke into a chant: “We want Bill. We want Bill!”

Clinton was in a room next door, gathered with about 50 people who donated $5,000 apiece to chat with the former president.

The state party didn’t have a final tally on the evening’s contributions. But an additional 750 people attended the $150-per-person reception, putting the potential total at more than $360,000, before expenses.

Corporate sponsors included Microsoft Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

During his 20-minute pep talk, Clinton said his job at the convention was to lay out what’s at stake in the November election and - “without interfering” - let Obama tell Democrats in his speech Thursday night what his plans are for the next four years a spresident.

“We’ve got a big dog in this hunt,” Clinton said. “It’s bigger than President Obama. The future of our country is at stake, and we’ve got to get it right.”

Clinton criticized Republicans who, he said, portrayed a “parallel universe” at their convention last week in Tampa, Fla.

He said Republican insistence on tax cuts for Americans who make the most money and reductions in government spending during an economic downturn had worsened the nation’s economy.

Clinton said Republicans spent a lot of time bashing the president “but said next to nothing about what they’re going to do. ... The facts are our friends. The rhetoric is our enemy.”

National Democratic leaders said Obama picked Clinton to make the nominating speech because during Clinton’s presidency, the economy grew rapidly as the country enjoyed “full employment.”

“President Clinton presided over one of the longest periods of economic prosperity,” saidU.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

“He can really make the case,” she said.

Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty, who was Clinton’s chief of staff, spoke with Clinton shortly before the fundraiser Tuesday night.

He said Clinton would be able to illustrate contrasts between Democrats and Republicans. But he didn’t know exactly what Clinton would say.

“He’s still writing the speech,” he said.

U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, a Democrat whose father David Pryor was a U.S. senator and Arkansas governor, has known Clinton since he was 11.

“I’ve seen him speak at catfish fries, chamber of commerce dinners, roast and toasts - you name it,” Pryor said. “He’ll talk about how America has a clear choice.”

Clinton’s rise to international prominence changed the lives of many Arkansans, giving some a close, personal connection to events on the world stage, and inspiring an interest in others to get involved in politics.

Chris Burks, a 28-year-old delegate from Little Rock, said he got an early political education when his parents took him, then 8, to Clinton’s 1992 victory speech at the Old State House in Little Rock.

Burks said that as a young child, he was attracted to the red-white-and-blue bunting and pageantry of politics. But after Clinton set up his administration in Washington, he said, he was inspired by hearing about his Little Rock neighbors, like Clinton’s longtime backer and friend, Skip Rutherford, whowere making their marks in the national political scene.

Others throughout the state also trace the beginnings of their political involvement to Clinton.

Clementine Bass, a delegate from Pine Bluff, passed out fliers for Clinton when she was 12. Jay Barth, a delegate and Hendrix College political science professor, was an intern in Clinton’s office when Clinton was governor.

Many, like Don Beavers, a Little Rock delegate, helped introduce Clinton - and by extension, Arkansas - to the rest of the country as an Arkansas Traveler.

The Travelers drove throughout the country during the 1992 presidential campaign, spreading the word.

“I would knock on doors and say: ‘I’m Don Beavers. I’m an Arkansas Traveler, and I’m a friend of Bill Clinton’s and I want to talk with you about him.”

Beavers said the voters the Travelers talked with felt a connection to the candidate, because the voters were talking to people who actually knew him intimately.

For the Travelers, helping Clinton helped Arkansans attain a prominent place in the Democratic Party and on the national political stage - where the spotlight continues to glow in Charlotte.

“All of us said: ‘This is history we can help write,’” Beavers said.

By picking Clinton to nominate Obama, the party is showcasing its strength, Beavers said.

“I won’t comment on the lack of former presidents visiting Tampa last week,” when Republicans held their convention.

Kedrin Edgerson agreed. He said Clinton’s record of achievement will help Obama in November.

“It’s not like having someone who has a theory,” Edgerson said of Clinton. “He’s a proven commodity.”

Edgerson and other Arkansans said Clinton connects well with middle-class Americans.

Or, as Darrell Stephens, a Little Rock delegate, put it: “He’s a homeboy.”

Stephens said Arkansans continue to identify with Clinton because he still travels the state widely and has an ability to speak the language of average Americans.

“He hasn’t forgotten his roots,” agreed state Sen. Jack Crumbly.

Like many Arkansans, Crumbly has cherished memories of Clinton.

There was the time Clinton, who was then governor, stopped in at Crumbly’s BBQ , a Forrest City restaurant Crumbly operated.

Clinton asked for the hottest barbecue Crumbly could make.

Crumbly warned him it was pretty hot.

“You can’t make it too hot for me,” Clinton responded.

After Crumbly served up his dish, Clinton’s face started to turn red and perspiration dripped from his forehead.

Crumbly went back to the kitchen and emerged with something a little more mild.

Later, in December of 1999, Clinton visited Crumbly again. This time, Crumbly was the superintendent of Earle High School, and Clinton, in his second term as president, arrived for a party celebrating its new building.

“We made him an Earle letterman jacket,” Crumbly said. “The kids went berserk. But he was right at home. He shook every kid’s hand.”

Crumbly said the school’s media center, named after Clinton, is actually the first Clinton presidential library dedicated in Arkansas.

Castin, who worked at the Board of Pharmacy under several governors, including Clinton, smiles when she remembers her first meeting with Clinton in Little Rock years ago. But she insists that Clinton’s nominating speech will not be a nostalgia trip.

“Bill Clinton always takes you forward, not backward.”