UC Davis Gives Bill Clinton A Hero's Welcome

Left: 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton.


Tuesday’s Sacramento Bee had a small article announcing that Bill Clinton would be speaking at ‘Main Hall’ at the University of California, Davis (UCD). “Oh, that should be fun,” I thought. Doors would open at 8:15 p.m., and the rally would start at 9 p.m.

After all these years, my knowledge of the UCD campus is still rather sketchy, and I wasn’t sure where this ‘Main Hall’ was located. So, I parked not far away from the ‘Main Theater’ and hopefully made my way there.

No luck there, though. So, I groped my way through the windy darkness to UCD’s social hub, in front of Freeborn Hall, and asked a passing student where Bill Clinton was going to speak. The student (likely Filipino) was very gracious, and pointed my way down a bike path:

It’s located in the Ark. It’s a large building located next to a large parking lot straight this way. It’s a long walk though.

So, I made my through the darkness, and wondered what my odds were of finding a “large building located next to a large parking lot” on a large campus like UCD.

The student was right, though. Eventually others joined my sojourn, and soon we all walked up to the Pavilion at the ARC (Activities Recreation Center), the UCD basketball arena, which has a capacity of about 8,000 people. (Of course, I had parked nearly as far as it was possible to get from the ARC and still be on-campus, but that’s how it goes in university-land.) It was 8:35 p.m. and thousands of people were lined up outside the arena. Thousands of people! Sigh! So we all trudged off to find the end of the line.

The end of the line was at the SE corner of the Pavilion. The head of the line was also at the SE corner of the Pavilion. The line wrapped not only around the entire Pavilion, but the rest of the ARC complex as well, AND a large, adjoining athletic field, and made a complete circle around it all! Thousands and thousands of people wanted in!

It was clear that the people at the end of the line would never, ever make it into the Pavilion. But the head of the line was so alluringly close – just thirty feet away, separated from us by only one thin, young woman who was saying to the latecomers “you can’t join the line here, you have to stand at the end of the line, because they won’t let you in at the door.” The crowd-control concern in her voice was beginning to edge into panic.

So, do we do the right thing, and wait patiently here at the end of the line, and lose all opportunity of getting in, or do we get a bit creative?

Suddenly an “Ooooh!” passed through the crowd. Someone, somewhere near the head of the line could see over a concrete wall and see *something* in the distance. As if on cue, a cluster of about fifteen of us broke free from the end of the line and pressed towards the head of the line, so we could see *something* too. The young, thin woman began squawking at us to back off. Instead of complying, several of us from the cluster moved away and began walking down the incoming line of people, as if we were just passersby, not really interested in the event at all.

I followed a young woman from my cluster. She glanced over her shoulder at the squawking woman, and then suddenly dived into the oncoming line of people – and knelt, in order to tie her shoe. She pivoted around as she rose, and, in an instant, she had become part of the anonymous horde at the head of the line. A few feet farther on, I joined the horde as well.

Left: Current Lieutenant Governor (and frequent gubernatorial candidate) John Garamendi warms up the audience at the start of the rally, along with various other notables, such as Speaker of the California State Assembly Fabian Nuñez, 8th District State Assembly Member Lois Wolk, and 5th District State Senator Mike Machado (pictured at right), among others.







Upon entering the arena, I went into the upstairs stands, stage left. The seats there were already full, and many knelt in the aisles. I sat on an aisle step and we all listened to Speaker of the California State Assembly Fabian Nuñez, 8th District State Assembly Member Lois Wolk, and 5th District State Senator Mike Machado all make brief speeches. When another notable (Alice somebody) started talking, all of us kneeling in aisles were commanded to go onto the floor downstairs.

At the bottom of the stairs, we ran into an incoming mob of people that had to quickly decide whether to sit upstairs, or downstairs. “I’ll be on the top,” crowed a young male student. “I’ll be on the bottom,” squealed his young female companion. “TMI,” I thought to myself.

I found myself on the floor of the arena in a cluster of short people standing behind a lot of tall people. Boy, this won’t work! But there is the alluring platform with media people, and they have a great view, 200 feet directly in front of the Speaker’s platform. And there is just barely enough room on the steps leading up to the platform for me to stand. To my surprise, no one interceded as I made my precarious way up the steps. I had a terrible time taking photos, since the digital camera is slow and I generally had to hold the camera over my head, or at arm’s length, or otherwise in a manner that the pictures were guaranteed to be fuzzy. So, just a handful of the hundreds of pictures I took came out more-or-less OK. But I looked like a media person, and after awhile, people began treating me as if I was a media person. I only half-listened to Clinton’s speech, since I was trying so hard with the photos.

The excitement was wondrous to behold. “It’s as if Steve Tyler (lead singer of ‘Aerosmith’) was here,” enthused one young woman nearby. Another young woman on the media platform steps got faint and had to be led away (this is different event, however, than the fainting episode featured on MSN today).

Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi warmed up the audience (paraphrasing):

How about those Aggies? How about this economy? Have you heard about this war in Iraq? Are you ready for action on climate change? Are you ready for Hillary? Are you ready for the Main Event?

For some reason, Clinton was delayed walking to the Speaker’s platform, so the ‘Main Event’ turned out to be a musical interlude by the energetic Cal Aggie Marching Band. It was amusing - the politicos looked doofy clapping along to the music.

Clinton was introduced by Max Mikalonis President of the UCD College Democrats. His appeal was quite direct (I paraphrase here):

Under Bill Clinton, the environment was safe, the economy was strong, and America was protected. We need a change!

Mikalonis’ appeal got me thinking about the proper, and improper, uses of nostalgia on the campaign trail. I remember October, 1964, LBJ’s Democratic landslide year, when our elementary school was mustered out to greet some Democratic notable. This grandee stated that voters should choose the Democrats, because Republicans would implement the policies of Herbert Hoover, and we knew how all that had turned out. Even though I was only seven years old, I thought “that was thirty-two years ago!” I expected this kind of tone-deafness maybe from my parents, not from a professional politician. It would be as if some politician today tried to score points by letting go with some low blows against Jimmy Carter (Wait! Some politicians still do!) This kind of nostalgia is too old to work well.

But an appeal to the nostalgia of the Nineties is likely to work very well today. After all, these UCD students were children in the Nineties, when “the environment was safe, the economy was strong, and America was protected,” as fuzzily recalled in the recent, happy past.

Clinton stated:

YouTube and blogs – we can have a government that communicates 24-hours a day with the American people.

("I don't want to be that blogger, though," I thought.)

Then Clinton himself made a reference to the Nineties:

So much has changed. When I ran in 1992, there were fifty sites on the Internet. Fifty new sites have started on the Internet since I started speaking tonight. Cell phones were the size of a shoe. Today, they are too small for my big hands.

This election is more important to you than it is to me. Because you have more tomorrows. Not to be morbid about it.

So you have a job to do. You have to decide who is the best to do this job of President.

(A young woman shouted “You”, to laughter).

Clinton talked at length about America’s desire to form “a more perfect Union” and how the absence of affordable health care, the mortgage crisis, and the dire effects of climate change all threatened that “more perfect Union.” Interestingly, he also talked about failure:

Harry Truman - a great President. He tried to get nationalized health care, and he was crushed. LBJ stopped at Medicare and Medicaid. Jimmy Carter tried, and he got nowhere. Hillary tried in 1994, and she was defeated.

If you aren’t careful, as President, you begin to think that you really are somebody special. After leaving office, it took me three months to get used to the absence of that song they play when I made an appearance. But to really know a leader, you want to see what they do, not when they succeed, but when they fail. After health care’s failure, Hillary picked herself up, dusted herself off, and tried again. I admire her so much.

Clinton offered effusive praise to Bill Richardson, and more perfunctory praise to Chris Dodd, John Edwards, and Barack Obama.

The great thing about this election, I don’t have to be against anything. There is so much to be for.

Clinton rarely mentioned Iraq. Certainly he never talked about withdrawing troops from Iraq. To great applause, he talked about the importance of working together with other countries. His strongest point concerned the use of Blackwater security in Iraq, and their role in the recent civilian massacre in Baghdad (hoping I got the numbers right here:

It takes $65,000 to train and equip an American soldier. It takes $135,000 to train and equip a single Blackwater security contractor. We could have trained two responsible American soldiers, who would have followed the rules of engagement, instead of one Blackwater security contractor, who would not follow any rules, and saved $5,000 in the bargain. Why didn’t we do that?

Afterwards, Bill Clinton left the stage. In a few minutes, he reappeared at the NW corner of the Pavilion, shaking a few hands, and then left again. He apparently then sat down backstage and started signing memorabilia ferried to him from the floor by Hillary campaign aides.

On the steps of the media platform, a Hillary aide asked me to convey a message to the rest of the media “we want you fellows to stay here.” I conveyed the message to the next fellow, and he said “No way! I have to go!” I asked the Hillary aide “Why should we stay here? Is someone going to make an appearance?” The aide said “…someone might come out…”

Apparently this was all media control. I overheard two photographers talking:

Fellow A: They want us all to stay here.
Fellow B: Why?
Fellow A: They don’t want us pursuing Bill and asking questions. Say, did you get any good shots?
Fellow B: About 500.
Fellow A: Did you get any of him waving his finger, like “I did not do that.” THAT’s the money shot!

(the type of photo I’ve got at the top of this blogpost).




Left: Immediately after the rally, the crowd was in a festive mood. The closest thing to a dissonant note was the Obama sign (visible at left).


I eventually left the media platform and watched happy autograph recipients get their prizes. The security people were discussing how big the crowd was (there were three guesses: 11,000, 10,000, and 7,000). Since the stated game capacity is 8,000, and the floor was half full, I thought maybe 9,000, with several thousand people left outside who had to go home instead (at one point, we could hear them from the inside, as they chanted something – perhaps “Bill! Bill!”).

Update: According to the Davis Enterprise:

A crowd of 7,800 filled the Pavilion and another 3,500 were turned away at the door, according to UCD Fire Department estimates.

So, the evening ended on a happy, giddy feeling, together with a very long walk back to the car. I was surprised how, despite the crowd, I managed to get a better-than-average location from which to see things. It occurred to me that I was receiving deference because of my age, enhanced by the fact that the student body is about half Asian, and respect for the old is ingrained in Asian cultures. It is regrettable that I got in, and some other person who waited longer in the cold, likely a young Asian student, no doubt more deserving, didn’t get in. After all, that student has more tomorrows than I do. But one must give rude old people wide berth…..

Here is the link to the Sacramento Bee’s article on the event.

Here is the link to the Davis Enterprise’s article on the event.

Left: After leaving the floor of the arena, Bill Clinton apparently sat down backstage and started signing memorabilia ferried to him from the floor by Hillary campaign aides.

Left: Music for the evening was provided by a very energetic Cal Aggie Marching Band.

Left: Then suddenly, the Cal Aggie Marching Band vanished, as if it had been Raptured, or something.