Free Republic

Some of Bill Clinton's friends and teachers remember the Arkansas native as a charismatic standout destined for greatness, while others recall the young Clinton was a shy boy whose clarinet playing left something to be desired. Such first impressions -- along with memories of growing up in the still-segregated South -- are among the text of 28 interviews documenting the former president's early years in Hope and Hot Springs. The interviews, which were released Tuesday by the Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, are part of a project that aims to make Clinton the most documented president ever....

LITTLE ROCK (AP) -- The summer travel season is here, the Clinton Presidential Library is drawing more than 1,500 visitors a day, and 115 miles away in Hope, the director of Bill Clinton's birthplace museum is seeing a new tourism phenomenon: "Billgrimage." "People are coming from the library saying they're making a Billgrimage to Arkansas; it's so cute," giggles Crystal Altenbaumer. She has a right to delight in this new word: These pilgrims to all-things-Clinton are helping to resurrect the Clinton Birthplace's suffering bottom line. Internal Revenue Service documents show donations to the nonprofit Clinton Birthplace Foundation were down...