I'm in shock. Since 1992, I have been a very loyal Bill Clinton supporter and #1 fan. Through thick and thin. Hell & high water. What happened today at UNH shook me to my core.
He bored me. He rambled. He failed to impress me.
At 2pm I lined up with the other faculty, staff, community members, and occasional students to see the former President at UNH. We were seated in the Granite State Room by 2:40ish, and waited patiently, making polite political conversation. The room did NOT fill. I eavesdropped on various other nearby conversations, the most striking being the woman seated behind me saying to her friends: "Look at her staff, they look like someone just beat them up." To which her friend replied, "Someone did." So I looked around the room, and she was right. The person I saw, working the room and giving out stickers, looked as if her boyfriend had just dumped her and she was trying to put on a good face. And they all looked that way. It was sad. And that was the start of the energy drain.
First up was Katie Wheeler, giving the intro. I should have counted how many times she used the word "change" in her intro; it must have been at least a dozen. It sounded a little desperate to me. Then she introduced her "favorite president, so far."
Bill Clinton was dressed casually, in black jeans with a sweater vest under his suit jacket. He looked tired. He wore a Hillary button on his lapel. He went into his reasons why Hillary would make a great president. More on the experience. Didn't anyone tell him that this line isn't working? Of course he gave it a spin, how her experience is in bringing about change.
Worst of all was the response from the crowd. Little or no applause to his big lines. Polite but quiet laughter at jokes. The crowd was clearly there to see & hear him, not as support for his wife. He started storytelling, and rambling. At one point, he referred to the Bill Clinton tax cuts, when he meant the George Bush tax cuts to the wealthy. Little things like that. I almost thought he was drunk. And, for once, I was wishing for it to be over.
He took some questions, even the questioners had no spark. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I didn't even try to get a handshake, which I could have easily gotten because the crowd thinned fast leaving the rope line not as mobbed as usual.
It was a downer, and I'm having trouble shaking that vibe. I feel sorry for him.
