Bush and Clinton

We went to the event at Butler last night to see George H. W. Bush. One of the major personal studies I looked forward to was comparing the crowds between the Bush event and Clinton's last Fall. What I observed was fascinating, although predictable.

The Clinton crowd was a visibly Democratic crowd. To illustrate that fact, I need only describe the people who sat directly on either side of me at the Clinton event. To my right was a lesbian couple. To my left was a College professor.

How do I know? OK, the prof was grading essays before the event started. And the lesbians - come on, all I needed was a glance in their direction.

The characteristics of the Clinton crowd were fairly easy to discern. The Clinton crowd was heavily populated with professors and teachers, gays and lesbians, whole sections of black folks that I guessed were from churches or other organizations that picked up their tickets in blocks, and lots of, hmm, how to describe? Let's go with strangely dressed and mannered young people who could be described variously as free spirits, hippies, artists, bohemians, etc.

In attitude, the Clinton crowd bordered on rowdy, and showed their love and approval for their favorite president loudly and enthusiastically. During the speech, whenever it seemed that Clinton might rip on current President Bush, they could barely contain their excitement, but it was often squashed when Clinton stopped short of a 2-barreled blast. But they certainly cheered loudest for Clinton's more subtle jabs at his replacement.

The contrast between the Clinton crowd and the Bush crowd was dramatic. The Bush crowd was more reserved, more polite. They were more conservatively dressed, and I saw a lot more suits and ties. There were more seniors, but also more children. There were blacks present, but in much fewer numbers. The strange looking young people from the Clinton event were nowhere to be seen at the Bush event.

The contrast between speeches was dramatic as well. Clinton's speech was heavy on globalism and government policy, while Bush's speech was mostly about people. While we all gathered from Clinton's speech all the things the government was doing or should be doing to solve problems and bring peace, Bush's speech was fundamentally about how each of us has a responsibility to get involved and do whatever we can to help make the world a better place.

In other words, the essence of each reflected the essence of their political philosophies: Clinton believes in government, and Bush believes in people.

I enjoyed the Bush speech, and found him surprisingly funny, especially during the early part of the speech. He was right on with comments about the lack of objectivity and civility in the press, and the inappropriateness of former president Carter's political demagoging at the funeral of Coretta Scott King. He talked about being a proud father and grandfather, and about how we all can make a difference just by getting involved.

There was one story that the Clinton crowd would have found objectionable, but I found rather funny. To paraphrase:

Once during my presidency, I had the opportunity to visit San Francisco. And you all know how dangerous it is for someone like me to show my face in that city. We were driving into the city, with two limosines, you know, the decoy and the real one, with all the armoring and security stuff. And of course, there were protestors everywhere. Suddenly, a woman - and I'm talking about probably the ugliest woman I ever saw in my life - jumps in front of my limo waving a sign. And the sign says, "Get out of my womb!". So I say, "Whoa, lady. OK, Believe me, No Problem!" (Hands in the air in a sign of surrender)

Writing that, I realized much of the effect is in the delivery, which was hilarious. But of course, the radical feminists and lesbians in the Clinton crowd would have been horribly offended. Because if something strikes too close to home, it is offensive to those living in the home. What makes it funny to the rest of us is that it's probably true.

Oh yeah, the other thing I had hoped to observe was the difference between the two crowds in their generosity. There were fraternity guys outside of Hinkle Fieldhouse again this time taking donations for Riley Hospital for Children. But we arrived a little early and left before the main crowd, so I didn't really have the opportunity to observe what happened with the large crowd of people passing the frat guys. Except there were some people walking in front of us to and from the Bush event, of which I observed several dropping dollar bills into the guys' buckets. Contrast that to the Clinton event, when there were probably 10 times the number of people in the crowd, and I didn't see a single person drop even spare change into the buckets.

Interpret that how you will.