Mitch Perry
Before Tuesday night, Bill Clinton had never visited the small Pinellas County town of Safety Harbor, but he joked that after Sunday night’s second presidential debate, “I feel that I need to be here.”
The 42nd president of the United States spoke for 45 minutes in front of an intimate crowd of just 250 people at the Safety Harbor Community Center, where another 400 observed from an auxiliary room, and hundreds of others were not admitted inside. It was his third and final stop in Florida Tuesday, on what was originally going to be the last day to register to vote in next month’s election (It has been extended until Wednesday after Democrats went to federal court to ask for an extension due to Hurricane Matthew).
Dubbed “The Explainer in Chief” by Barack Obama after his masterful speech at the 2012 Democratic convention, it’s been a more subdued William Jefferson Clinton on the campaign trail in 2016, as he tries not to take the spotlight away from his wife, Hillary Clinton, who may be just weeks away from becoming the first female president of the United States.
“I was really proud of her at that debate, how calm she was and how she didn’t take the ‘debate bait,'” he said, referring to how Donald Trump tried every which way to unnerve her Sunday, including inviting a handful of women who allege they were sexually mistreated by her husband in the past. “She was running to serve you, not to get into a mud fight,” he said.
Speaking on the couple’s 41st anniversary, Clinton spent considerable time reflecting on the unease in certain sectors of the country that has led to Trump’s emergence, though he never mentioned the Republican nominee by name. And on a couple of occasions, he exhorted the audience to keep cool and “do not fight fire with fire.”
“The price of everything goes up, and a lot of people look in the mirror and think, all my tomorrow’s are going to be just like yesterday and I can’t change it, I can’t make it better for my kids, and nobody gives a rip about me in Washington,” he said, adding that there are two major candidates running, one “who is great at rubbing salt in your wounds, the other was great at dressing your wounds standing you up and pushing you into the future,” eliciting a large round of cheers.
He said while a Trump presidency “might make for good reality TV, it’s a lousy way to run a country,” as he argued for “empowerment over resentment.”
“This election depends a lot on your worldview,” he mused. “And if you believe everything in America is going terrible, and the generals don’t know what they’re doing and the other candidate knows more than the generals, and if you believe global warming and climate change are a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese to take over the American government, if you believe that the only evidence you ever need for anything is what you you see on Fox News …” which then led into digression on how his late mother-in-law used to force herself to watch Fox News for an hour every day.
Clinton had kind words for the people who live in coal country, who he said was “the backbone of her opponent’s support.” Hillary Clinton has had to pay for her comment earlier this year, when she said that “we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business,” but Bill Clinton said those workers shouldn’t be angry at her or Obama, but other politicians who haven’t offered incentives for business people, tax credits to invest in economically impoverished areas.
Clinton created a headache for the Democrats last week when he freelanced on the Affordable Care Act in Flint, Michigan, saying, “The people that are getting killed in this deal are … individuals who make just a little too much to get any of these subsidies….People are out there busting it [and] wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half.”
He didn’t say anything nearly as controversial in Safety Harbor. In fact he lavished praise on Barack Obama, saying that he’d bet that in 10 years, economic historians would give the current president high grades on how he handled the American economy during his eight years in office, which also generated a loud cheer.
Clinton talked up Hillary’s plan for infrastructure spending, but added that in addition to fixing the nation’s roads, airports and seaports, it could also employ people to work on combating climate change, and by creating universal affordable broadband to bring the internet to the many areas of the country that don’t have access.
And he got plenty wonkish at times, reciting a litany of economic statistics.
But as was his role four years ago, the now 70-year-old ex-president is again trying to get another Democrat elected for a four-year term. He said his wife ought to be elected because she has the best ideas and a proven track record of working with Republicans and Democrats in Congress.
There was one discordant note to the proceedings. About two-thirds of the way through his speech, a lone protester began shouting out, with a piece of paper with the word “rapist” written on it. He was quickly escorted out of the building.
