My life changing night with Bill Clinton

For many years I have been what my father calls a “raging liberal”. In 2004, I attended the March for Women’s Lives in Washington D.C. on a scholarship from Planned Parenthood during my third semester in college. I was young and uninformed on some issues, but I understood the bigger picture. President Bush was conveniently away at Camp David the weekend we staged our over 1 million strong protest, and I have no doubt he wouldn’t have known what to do with us had we been there.

But last night was a different feeling than my protest of almost four years ago. Last night didn’t quite have the strong unified feeling that the March for Women’s Lives did. What it did have, however, was total and complete awe for Bill and his speaking prowess. We’ve all heard that it takes a charismatic person to lead a country, but I never quite believed it until last night. Seeing Bill in person is entirely different than watching him on television or listening to him on the radio. He commands such attention from the people he’s speaking and you feel so gripped by him that you can’t look away. While seeing Bill in person has always been one of my life long dreams, I can say with absolute certainty that last night far exceeded the dream.

I think of my experience last night as privilege. While the 2008 campaign has yet to fall into the mud-slinging fights and accusations of campaigns in the past, it hasn’t exactly been the cleanest race either. But Bill was ever the gentleman last night: he had nothing bad to say about the competition. He said “for once, I am not against anybody. I like all of the candidates.” While he did compare Hillary’s positions to “other candidates” (never mentioning names), it was always to highlight her positives and not accent the negatives of her competition. He praised Obama, Edwards, Biden, Dodd, and many other candidates who have dropped out of the race. He highlighted, individually, what each candidate has done for this country. But then he paused for a moment and he said “but you have to think about what you want in your President”, at which point I screamed “OVARIES!”.

He launched into his usual “why I am endorsing Hillary” speech, but it was targeted towards the citizens and students of Davis. He spoke in great detail about the environment, education, and universal health care. He outlined things his Presidential administration did in these three key areas, and many others, while telling us what Hillary was doing behind the scenes. He explained Hillary’s viewpoints on these issues and what she has done recently to advance them. In short, he told us, without quite saying it, that Hillary has been a key player in politics since he was in Arkansas. And after going home and checking some of his statements, I have to say, wow, I’m impressed. I had no idea how much Hillary had done before she became a Senator.

But perhaps the most important and touching part of his speech for me was when he spoke on failure. Hillary has not been stopped by failure. When trying to improve health care during Bill’s administration, she was knocked down. She didn’t stay down for long: she came back blazing with health insurance for uninsured children, which we now use today. Hillary’s failures are not failures: they are motivators for future action. We have watched George W. Bush wallow in his own failures and increase problems by muddling things up further and now we deserve to watch someone who is not deterred by failure… someone who actually knows how to spell failure.

While I have been a strong Hillary supporter from day 1, this rally helped to increase my passion for her. I have been fairly nonchalant about my vote in the upcoming California primary because I personally feel that the Democratic candidates are equally impressive. In this upcoming election, I feel very strongly that Obama, Edwards, and Clinton could all successfully lead out country and aid in repairing the widespread damage George W. Bush has managed to do in his past seven years as President. I firmly believe that all three of them can make change happen. But I also firmly believe that Hillary can fix this damage better than the other two candidates.

On my personal key issues, I vote for Hillary. I vote for Hillary for her diplomacy with international countries, friend or foe. I vote for Hillary because she cares passionately about Universal Health Care, because she wants everyone to have health care in America, and her health care plan encourages that. Her health care plan covers everyone. I vote for Hillary because she has always been a strong supporter of a woman’s right to choose and will not lay down for the good old boys. I vote for Hillary because she values education and an educated America, regardless of your family’s socio-economic status. But most importantly, I vote for Hillary because I believe that she understands that way the White House runs and that she can do it better than the other candidates.

I will be the first person to admit that I absolutely do not agree with her on every position. I vote for Hillary because I know she can do it, no matter the obstacles the Republican party creates, no matter how many times she fails. I vote for Hillary because, for her, failure is not an option. Failure is a motivator. And right now, what America needs more than anything else, is a lot of motivation and someone who is able to repair what went so very wrong these past seven years.

If you would like to see more pictures from last night's rally, you can check them out here.

Liz is a raging liberal who lives and works in Northern California. She has a "Hillary for President" sticker on her car and complains about Republicans semi-daily on her personal blog.

Image taken by Liz of anythings.org. Please credit accordingly if using the image.

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