As both a blogger and as an activist Democrat who once was able to donate moderately large amounts of money, I sometimes get invited to the really high-end fundraisers, the ones with top-level political celebrities. But even back when I could afford larger contributions, I never was able to donate the large amounts needed to attend one of these fundraisers.

Last Friday I received one such invitation. Bill Clinton would be present at a Halloween night fundraiser for Christine Jennings [1], the Democratic candidate running in the FL-13 race to replace Katherine “I say whose vote counts” Harris. Now, not only would I LOVE to see FL-13 elect a Democrat to replace the corrupt Republican Harris [2] (who is going down in flames trying to get elected Senator), but I would love to meet Bill Clinton. Look, I hear from my Green friends all the time how terrible Clinton was, but I think, given the weakness of Congressional Dems at that time and the nastiness of the Republicans, Bill did about as well as anyone could as President, and, had Al Gore followed him, many of his best legacies would remain. Greens seem to forget that Clinton set aside the largest amount of land for preservation of any President in history…something that was reversed by Bush the second he got into office, thank you Nader. In my life I have seen presidents in action since Nixon (can’t remember LBJ) and of them all Clinton was the best. So, to meet the man who I consider the greatest president of my lifetime would mean something to me.

I have met Jimmy Carter and gotten his autograph. He had a book signing at UCLA when I was a grad student there and I took time off from work to stand in line and meet him. I was a bit audacious, too. I did buy Carter’s book to be signed, but my friend’s children’s birthdays were coming up and I had bought some kids books for them. I asked Jimmy Carter to sign those books as well. And, with a slightly irritated and slightly baffled look, he did so. I had explained that it would mean so much to them if he signed. And it did! They and their parents (including their Republican father) were quite impressed. I believe Jimmy Carter was one of this nation’s most intelligent, most forward thinking presidents and I was extremely nervous when I met him, feeling a sense of awe. Carter had the misfortune to be president at a time when Americans wanted to look backwards, not forwards, so his wild ideas of energy independence and human rights as the basis of foreign policy were rejected in favor of Reagan’s 1920’s nostalgia for failed “trickle-down” economics. I think we would be far better off now had America listened to Carter. He hadn’t yet won a Nobel Prize at that time, but even then I thought he deserved one.

So I have met Jimmy Carter and gotten his autograph. To meet Bill Clinton would mean I would have met both Democratic presidents of my lifetime (other than LBJ who I don’t remember and is dead anyway…and other than Al Gore who…oh never mind), both men I respect enormously.

When I received the invitation to the Christine Jennings fundraiser I realized that to meet Bill Clinton at that event would require a donation of $500 each for my wife and myself. If we wanted to go to the special, more private meeting with Clinton, it would be $6300. Now I really wish I COULD donate that amount since Christine Jennings is a great candidate. The daughter of a blue-collar steelworker in Ohio, she was the founder of a highly successful bank in Florida and has won many awards for charitable fundraising efforts. I find her mixture of blue-collar, pro-union background, and her practical, successful financial career as a very good combination for a Democratic politician. So if I COULD, I’d give her campaign $6300. But we’d have to miss some mortgage payments to pull it off. So, I forwarded the invitation to my wife with the message: “If only we had an extra $500...each...” with an implied wistfulness that I knew my wife would understand.

Only I didn’t forward it to my wife. I had accidentally hit “reply” instead…and only realized the second after I had hit “send.” Well, I think most fundraisers would have gotten a chuckle at that and then moved on to bigger and better donors than myself.

But Scott Dworkin, Christine Jennings’ fundraiser, perhaps also catching on to the wistfulness of my reply, wrote back that we could make a deal. If I could recruit people or raise some money, my wife and I could go for free. Well, I am lousy at fundraising most of the time. But, I always do my best even when an invitation to see Bill Clinton isn’t at stake, having raised some $6000 through my Act Blue sites for races all over the country over the past year or so. So I made another Act Blue site, NYC for Christine Jennings [3], and started blogging and emailing to raise money. I raised about $500 in 24 hours. I had hoped for more. I did not consider it quite enough to justify free entry to the fundraiser for my wife, my son and myself (my step-daughter would rather trick-or-treat than see Bill Clinton). I’d rather they save the space for someone who could give more.

But Scott Dworkin liked my enthusiasm. Or maybe he liked my offer of my cute 2-year old for photo-ops. Either way, we got a call on Sunday inviting us not only to the fundraiser, but to the earlier, more personal get together with Bill Clinton. And we were told to dress nicely because they would be taking pictures.

Well, I was certainly excited, and my wife even more so. My son caught a bit of the excitement, saying “go meet Bill Clin…ton.” We were psyched! Okay, my step-daughter was bored in that pre-teen way, but even she told us to make sure to get Clinton’s autograph.

Now, meeting Christine Jennings was also exciting. Don’t get me wrong; we weren’t only doing it for Bill. Here is what I wrote/complied in an unsuccessful fundraising plea I did for Christine some months ago:

This is the seat formerly held by the corrupt Republican Katherine Harris who pretty much stole the 2000 election for Bush. This is payback time. We have a great shot at winning this one.

Jennings has served in leadership roles in a number of civic and charitable groups over the years including serving as President of the Sarasota Downtown Association, President of the Sarasota Film Festival, Board Member of the Community AIDS Network and Board Member of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Sarasota County among others. Christine was appointed as Chair of the Real Property-Lease Procurement Task force by former Governor Lawton Chiles.

She has received numerous awards from the groups including the United Negro College Fund, the National Council of Jewish Women and the National Association of Fundraising Executives. She also received numerous appointments over the years to various boards and task forces.

I have met Congresscritters and candidates before. So meeting Christine would be cool, but not novel. But Meeting Bill Clinton, THAT was something to be exciting about.

Halloween arrived. I had planned to keep my experiments at work to a minimum so I could go home a bit early and dress up. While most people were dressing in costumes of ghosts and monsters and (in my step-daughter’s case) barrels of toxic waste, my wife and I dressed in our costumes: me a suit and she a dress. A sight rarely seen. Once we had prepared ourselves, we went to pick our son up early from daycare from which we caught the F train into Manhattan.

Snooty, high-end events make me nervous. Often I don’t like the people there even though we have a common interest or cause. I used to volunteer to bartend for fundraisers for a friend’s orchestra in Los Angeles. Now in most places people like you if you give them free booze. But at snooty, high-end events, often you are simply treated as “the help” and I seldom feel much affinity for people who are smug because they have lots of money. That was what I was expecting for the Halloween fundraiser.

The house was magnificent, with artwork that museums would be proud of. So the expectation of snooty smugness was seemingly going to come true. But it didn’t. In fact, everyone there was extremely nice and warm. Our hosts were wonderful people and everyone practically hummed with the dual expectations of meeting Bill Clinton and of winning big in a week. Even the caterers seemed to be enjoying themselves. We found it easier to talk to this crowd of strangers than we generally feel talking to crowds of strangers in more grassroots get together. Not to disparage the grassroots get-togethers we have attended. It was more a mark of how friendly this crowd was.

Christine Jennings’ staff was very nice even though I am sure we were the lowest-end donors there. We were given a T-shirt (“Babies for Jennings”) for our son, which he looks VERY cute in, and which indeed allowed us to be a photo-op. And our nametags had gold stars on them, allowing us to join the enthusiastic crowd that got to personally meet Bill Clinton.

Well, I can attest that Bill Clinton is extremely warm and personable. He cooed over our son, and seemed to mean it. Our son's response was to say "This is Bill Clin-ton" to Bill, which amused everyone. He didn’t wait for us to ask him to sign his book, he offered. He took his time and he chatted with us. He looked very tired, which is understandable since he apparently does and average of three fundraising events a day, often traveling large distances to do so. But being tired didn’t prevent him from being charming. Hell, when I’m tired I get grumpy.

After that, our hostess introduced Barney Frank who introduced Bill Clinton who “spoke briefly” (it wasn’t brief at all, but it was great!) and introduced the candidate. Several other local politicians were there, including Congressman Rangel, but none of them spoke.

Bill Clinton’s speech was dead on. He pointed out the stupidity of abandoning our fight against al-Qaeda in favor of the Iraq quagmire, pointing out (if I heard him right) that we now dedicate fewer resources to catching bin Laden and stopping al-Qaeda than his administration put into the Kosovo operation. He pointed out the stupidity of abandoning the Kyoto accords, describing how those industrial nations that embraced them as opportunities have more jobs creation and better economic growth than the US by far. He quoted a Barney Frank joke that went something like this: The Republicans will convince you that if you vote Democrat you will be taxed into the poorhouse, on your way there you will be attacked by terrorists on every street corner, and as you run away from the terrorists you’ll trip over an illegal alien. The theme of Bill Clinton’s talk is that the ideology we need to solve modern problems is not fear, not war, not divisiveness…but plain and simple intelligence, with the implied insult to Bush’s abilities fully intended.

We didn’t get to meet Christine, unfortunately. The crowd was too thick. But her speech was excellent and he message of fulfillment of Clinton’s message of hope was inspiring. She also pointed out that in the latest poll she is 11 points ahead of her Republican opponent…in a district that is 55% Republican with the rest being split between Democrats and Independents. My wife and I both thought of Ann Richards when we heard Christine speak, though we are not sure there is any clear point of comparison other than they are both very intelligent, capable Democratic women. We both felt Christine was comparable to Ann Richards, a woman we both admire, though perhaps without the wonderful biting wit of Governor Richards. Christine’s main message is that Democrats are the great fixers: they take the mess left by Republicans and they fix it. Looking at the history of the two parties from FDR on, I would say that is not always true, but generally is.

Last night was both a reminder of what America was before Bush ruined everything from our economy to our international respect to our environment, and a glimpse of the hope of what will come. My wife put it this way: It was uplifting to hear Bill Clinton’s voice again. I put it this way: it was uplifting to be reminded that once my investments were skyrocketing while unemployment was at an all time low, the nation ran surpluses and started paying off its debt for the first time in history, my job was secure, we could hold our heads up if we traveled abroad and the entire nation seemed upbeat. That is my memory of the Clinton years, a far cry from the fear, division, economic stagnation (or even stagflation) and despair America now feels. Christine used that reminder of what Democrats can do for America and gave us a promise that she will work to return us to the hope, pride and prosperity of the Clinton years.

Please join me in helping Christine Jennings fulfill that promise [4].

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