Posted on 07/26/2003 5:21:27 PM PDT by sweetliberty
Standing at Sams Club in west Little Rock, hundreds of Hillary Rodham Clinton supporters waited eagerly Friday to see the woman many of them believe will be president.
They stood in line for hours hoping for signed copies of Clintons latest book, Living History. She showed up 20 minutes early at 4:40 p.m.
Many of her fans wanted more than a signature from the Democratic senator from New York they wanted to chat with her and touch her hand.
"She wont run in 2004, but shell run [someday]," said Naga Pannala, 21, as she waited for a wristband to guarantee a spot for Clinton to sign her copy of Living History. "Ill vote for her."
Behind Pannala in the 400-long line, Dicky Simpson tossed in his opinion.
"Shes pulling the wool over everyones eyes," he said, arms folded across his chest. "Itll be 2004."
Clinton, former first lady of Arkansas, says shes not a candidate.
"I always tell people that I am not running, but I am hoping we will have a change in the White House," Clinton said in a telephone interview Thursday. "Ill be working hard to elect a Democrat, and hopefully well get that done in 2004."
Clinton said she came back to the state Friday partly because of her fans, who have opinions on her marriage, her politics and her ambitions.
"They offer opinions on everything. That comes with the territory," Clinton said. "They tell me what they relate to in the book."
Clinton, who has rarely returned to Arkansas, said Friday that the visit was a welcome one.
"I really dont know how long its been," she said of her last trip. "Too long."
Though shes been away from the state, Clinton said, shes run into several Arkansans on her book tour.
"Its so terrific to have people from Arkansas coming to New York, to California," she said. "Its like a huge extended family."
She will remain in Arkansas for part of today to do another signing at That Bookstore in Blytheville after touring the Clinton Presidential Library site in Little Rock.
"Im anxious to see the progress thats been made firsthand," she said. "Im so sure that building the library in Arkansas, alongside the river, is going to be a tremendous attraction for tourists all over the world."
The $160 million library and center is to open in November 2004.
So far on her tour, Clinton estimates, shes signed about 20,000 copies of her memoirs. Writing so many signatures, often in slots of just an hour or two, causes the senator a little pain.
"I plunge it into ice water after I finish a book signing," said Clinton, who also uses an elastic brace on her hand. "I must confess, my signature at the end of the book signing is a little less legible than it was at the beginning." Clinton signed hundreds more books Friday afternoon.
When she walked toward the book-signing table at Sams Club, 5-year-old Sophia Speiden called out, "Hi, Hillary Clinton."
Clinton acknowledged the child with a smile and a quick nod. Sophias parents, Sherri and Doug, brought Sophia to the book signing to take home a memento.
"Daddy, what did Mrs. Clinton say to me?" Sophia asked, tugging on his shirt.
Her father turned to her and said, "She said you were very cute and that she loved your earrings."
"I got them at a yard sale," said the beaming 5-year-old.
Friday morning, Sams Club didnt hand out the 900 wristbands for Clintons signing as quickly as expected.
Fans formed a line at Sams at 5:30 a.m. By the time the store began handing out wristbands at 10 a.m., the line snaked around the front of the store.
In an hour the line thinned out, and Sams Club employees stood at an unsteady folding table, fumbling with a pile of about 50 extra bright purple wristbands.
"Really, Im thrilled these are left," said Karyn Larko, a spokesman for the event. "Now people wont have to wait in the sunshine any longer."
Some of the stores customers who lined up for wristbands Friday held brightly colored umbrellas to shield them from the heat and sat in beach chairs to save their feet. They were grateful when Sams Club gave out bottles of Ozarka water.
"They brought out a whole buggyload," said Nancy Green of Star City, who arrived at the signing at 6:30 a.m. and was at the front of the line.
During the three-hour wait to enter the store, she and her friend Paula Boren chatted about politics and how they believe Clinton will continue to surprise Americans.
"This is history in the making," Boren said. "And since Im a history teacher, I like to know I was involved in it."
People without wristbands also showed up, forming a separate line. They were a little less talkative but just as political.
"I dont think the time is right for Clinton to run for president, and I think she knows it," said Denise White of Little Rock. But she added, "Shed be great. Shes not some little cookie cutter."
People without wristbands were able to get their books signed, too.
John and Julia Hall of Arkadelphia drove to Little Rock for the signing. They waited in line for three hours without wristbands but emerged with signed copies.
They said they planned to go out on the town in Little Rock afterward.
"Were going to celebrate getting the signature," Julia Hall said.
Clinton, wearing a black dress and a blue sweater wrapped around her shoulders, spoke briefly with visitors about how happy she was to be back in Arkansas and to have the support of so many fans.
Outside the store, a small protest looked more like a Saturday Night Live sketch.
Susan Ferguson of Pine Bluff paraded along the sidewalk in a black beret, blue dress and knee pads. She held a sign that said, "Honk if you think Hillary should never run for president."
"I dyed my hair brown for this Im actually a redhead," she said. "Had to look like Monica [Lewinsky]."
Ferguson joined about a halfdozen other protesters from freerepublic.com a Web site that promotes conservative values.
"We dont like people that lie," she said, "and Hillarys a pathological liar."
Several drivers honked and screamed at the protesters. Some snapped pictures of Ferguson with Doug Merritt, who sported a Bill Clinton mask and twirled a cigar. Ferguson also set up a display with a black and white striped jail suit and a sign that said, "Hillarys new pantsuit."
When the final autograph was signed, Jolanda Stewart, a spokesman for Sams Club, said about 750 people had come through the store for the signing.
"Its safe to say she signed 1,100 to 1,200 books," she said.
It is important, before we hit the streets, to think about who is the target and devise a message that will resonate and achieve the goals for which we invest our time and money. We have to keep in mind that FReepers are not "normal people"...heheh. We are more informed and being ardent conservatives, may be more incensed at some of the debauchery of the Clinton Adminstration than the normal middle of the road voter (who should be our targets for the next election). What sets us off may not be the same for them. Unfortunately, I think some strategies that are being pushed as effective are actions that we think are hilarious but may be ineffective in achieving the goal of keeping Hillary out of the White House.
It is my opinion and the opinion of others that attacking Hillary for primarily Bill's foibles may not only be unproductive but counterproductive. For instance, previous studies have shown that when it comes to the Monica issue, Hillary elicits some sympathy as the "wronged woman"...particularly with other women. Why spend effort sending a message that may cast Hillary as a victim? If we make it easy for the left and press to label us "Clinton Haters", we've lost the advantage.
There is one thing for sure, non democrats just don't trust her. Also, people have negative feelings about the overall Clinton administration. We should use these. Reinforce people of their subconscious feelings of distrust about her. Tie Hillary to the general corruption of that Administration without getting specific. If we want to get specific, there is plenty of Hillary-only ammo such as the healthcare debacle, the pardons, the White House Silverware, her grand jury testimony, etc.
With all the tools at our disposal, I say let's keep it clean and witty...no need stooping to bathroom humor and being marginalized as typical "Clinton haters" or kooks. We need to keep in mind that hopefully there will be many more FReeper activists down the road. Let's make sure we hand them a legacy that opens doors and people's minds and projects a reputation of swift effective street activism as well as professionalism.
Actually, the Monica thing was more in relation to her lying about it in the book saying that she didn't know when everybody else in the country did.
That was my take on it too.
Oh, just give me one big f**king break........................give me a wastebasket; I need to wretch.
I agree completely and to those of us who have followed her lying ways, it was just one more affront to our intelligence.
The problem is, does the average Joe and Joan middle of the road voter know about that? And if they do, do they care? My guess is many women will give her a pass and men might not think it rises to a crisis level. With our limited time we don't want to miss any opportunities to remind people of what lies at the basis of our message... Hillary does not belong in the White House because she can't be trusted and the endless succession of scandals we saw in Clinton I may continue in Clinton 2.
There are many juicy Hillary topics that have top of mind and aided awareness among the general public. Watergate, the Rose Hill Law Firm records, Vince Foster, The Puerto Rican and New York pardons, White House Silverware (in my opinion a perfect target), Hillarycare, etc. These all tie directly to her own credibility and what people could reasonably expect of her as the Commander in Chief.
We know Hillary is running for the White House, probably in 2004. Let's not allow them to marginalize our impact by effectively portraying us as those Clinton haters. We know they will try but let's not give them the baton with which to beat us over our heads.
"Its safe to say she signed 1,100 to 1,200 books," she said.
yep, that sounds about like typical DemocRAT math! He must have been educated in public schools.
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