Posted on 11/15/2003 9:49:18 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
AP -- The president of the foundation building the Clinton Presidential Library is reaching out to tour bus operators by showing that the former president knows a thing or two about buses himself. Skip Rutherford, head of the Clinton Presidential Foundation, is to attend a motorcoach convention in Charlotte, N.C., with the Clinton-Gore campaign bus that covered 30,000 miles and 20 states in 1992 and 1996. "Then-Gov. Clinton introduced himself to America through the bus trips, and now we're appealing to the motorcoach industry to include the Clinton Library, Little Rock and Arkansas on their bus tours," Rutherford said. He'll speak Tuesday at the National Tour Association's conference in Charlotte. "This will show that Bill Clinton's been using the motorcoach industry for a long time," he said. Rutherford's appearance before the crucial motorcoach industry comes one year before the library is to open its doors. The 600 members of the National Tour Association are setting their 2004-05 schedules now, and NTA president Hank Phillips said Rutherford's presentation and the chance to view the famous Clinton-Gore bus full of campaign memorabilia will resonate with members. "The Clinton Library is placing an emphasis on tourism, more so than other presidential libraries have," Phillips said in a telephone interview from Charlotte. "There's a strong tourist interest these days in matters of history, which may be related to the patriotism after 9-11. Something like the motorcoach from the campaign will underscore the library's commitment to attracting these operators." The Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau also plans to meet individually with 30 or 40 NTA members and another 500 members in a convention booth over the weekend. "We do pretty good business with the tour operators in the city now, but this is going to step Little Rock up to another level," said Theresa Main-Kyzer, the bureau's tour and travel sales manager. The NTA will hold its spring meeting in Little Rock in March, and Phillips said he has extended an invitation to Clinton. The former president, an Arkansas native, is not expected to attend the NTA Charlotte convention or a tour of his library site Tuesday afternoon, Rutherford said. But Rutherford will make it to both events, hopping a plane after his speech to lead visitors through the construction site. It's the middle of a big week for the library as it counts down to the grand opening Nov. 18, 2004. It starts Sunday with a drive to sell the final 5,000 copies of the 15,000-copy first edition of the Clinton Presidential Center Cookbook. Rutherford hopes to announce a deal with a major publisher for nationwide and international distribution of a hardbound edition. The foundation will also sell a Christmas ornament depicting Sturgis Hall, the new name for the old Choctaw Train Station that will serve as the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. Until now, the ornaments were only available to library donors through direct mail and Internet sales. The week wraps up the following Sunday, Nov. 23, with a speech by Clinton's friend Taylor Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. That will kick off a special Clinton Library preview exhibit opening Nov. 24 in the Cox Building downtown. The exhibit will run through Feb. 3 and feature books Clinton used at Oxford and Yale Law School, volumes on his recommended reading list, gifts he received as president from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and his collection of Elvis Presley memorabilia.
Naaah. Too easy.
Charlotte to speak of foundation in Clinton Head.
This Tuesday, the 18th? How about a NC ping - anyone want to FReep the Clinton bus? I wonder what the weather forecast is ...
Yeah. Include it on the tours and see how that goes over.
"This will show that Bill Clinton's been using the motorcoach industry for a long time," he said. Rutherford's appearance before the crucial motorcoach industry comes one year before the library is to open its doors.
Funny, I don't recall seeing Bubba on a motorcoach in a long time.
This the worst job title in the world!
This asshole is selling a cookbook? I can just see the table of contents:
Hemlock Heaven
Bottulism and Beef
Hepetitis HamSuphuric Acid Sauces
Steroid Stew
any other recipes from fellow FReepers?
I think they were referring to his double-wide in Arkansas.
Any honest person with a grain of sense who knows anything at all about history would not connect x42, 9/11, and patriotism in any way, shape, or form. Only the brain-dead would use that as a justification for going to visit the Clinton Liebrary.
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