Hillary Up Close

When Karen Berns emailed me a few days ago about a reception for Hillary Clinton in LA's Hancock Park neighborhood I tried to resist.

After suffering through the VP debate Thursday night, however, I needed a lift. This morning I decided, "You deserve to go."

For a mere $150, an opportunity to shake Hillary's hand and thank her for working so hard to give us the first female president in US history? Yes!

I arrived at a mansion owned by Bruce Raben at 3:45 pm and walked into the back yard, where Karen and her friend Pam Powell waved at me from the front line of a crowd of about 300 people waiting behind a black rope. Pam had driven up from San Diego; she and Karen had arrived an hour earlier to get their premium spot in the crowd. I squeezed in next to them, wearing my button, "Hillary for President '08", wishing it could still happen.

Everyone had cameras handy as well as Hillary's autobiography to be signed.

Talking with strangers around us, we wished Hillary were still in the race.

One woman next to me was talking about "the trailer trash." When I asked what she meant by that, she said, "You know, McBush and the trailer trash." Yes, it was a partisan crowd.

However, it included Republican women who had crossed the aisle in hope of getting a woman president and now weren't too happy with Palin, as well as Democrats who (after Obama pulled ahead for the nomination) had hoped Hillary would be the VP nominee.

From the looks of the crowd, much of Hillary's demographic was my age--sixtyish; there were many men as well as women. We were there both to meet this icon and to help her pay for the cost of her historic drive for the nomination. The big spenders ($1000 or more) were inside the house at a special reception while we waited outside.

Among the notable women present was Ellen Carol DuBois, UCLA feminist historian, author of Through Women's Eyes: An American History with Documents, as well as having written or edited other books including the letters of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She was there to hand Hillary a copy of Through Women's Eyes.

When Hillary came out to speak to the crowd, it was great having her just ten feet away. She spoke and then walked along the black rope to greet us at the front line. Karen and Pam shook her hand; I fumbled between getting an autograph and taking photos, completely forgetting to thank Hillary for blazing the trail for women presidential candidates.

In the second photo above, you see Hillary between the backs of Karen's and Pam's heads, Karen on the left. Both have been leaders in EEWC, my favorite Christian feminist group, starting in 1978 or 1980. (See www.eewc.com.)

Here are some excerpts from Hillary's speech:

"We must continue to make sure Democrats win... I've been to more than forty of these events since the convention. It matters who our president is.... The problems he faces are going to be among the worst any president has inherited."

"The financial crisis is unfortunate, but it has focused attention on the choice we face... We're going to have hard work to do, and we need to elect 60 democratic senators to have a filibuster-proof majority."

"Looking at all the work of the campaign, people often ask me, 'Would I do it again?' In a New York minute, I tell them."

A woman's voice rang out: "Will you do it again?"

"Let's not go there," Hillary laughed. "Ask me in eight years. It will take at least that long to clean up the mess we've got there."

"We need a mandate to govern," she continued. "We want an election that's not a squeaker, and then I promise you, we can turn this country around. Right now in the Senate we have 49 Democrats, 49 Republicans, and 2 independents. It's so difficult to push through legislation."

"Your state and mine are blue, California and New York--"

A voice called out, "I love blue!" Laughter.

"And we're pretty sure about Virginia and New Mexico. We may get Colorado and Alabama, maybe Minnesota and Mississippi. We're closing the gap in Kentucky. We have a good chance in Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas...." She urged us to work phone banks calling voters in another state, such as Texas.

"There's so much going on. This can be a great election year. So many people have had a chance to participate and express their deep desire for a better country."

"But I take nothing for granted. I've been in ten elections as an adult, and seven of them we lost, so I don't get carried away."

"The process is more open now. Remember, in 1992 there was no internet (except for 50,000 scientists talking to each other), no cell phones smaller than a brick, no Fox News--"

The crowd groaned.

"The rapid changes of the last 16 years have been both a blessing and a curse. Now campaigns continue 24/7, which is tough, but millions of people can be involved who never thought they could before."

"We must win, and after that the task will be overwhelming. We have only one president at a time, so we have to get behind our next president and work hard."

Then she vanished to be at her next scheduled event. The nostalgia and wishful thinking were over--the political battle continues for thirty days.