UPDATED BELOW
Historiann.com correspondant Indyanna writes in today about a Clinton rally at Indiana University of Pennsylvania featuring the Big Dog himself. Thanks, Indyanna, and keep us posted about other campaign happenings in your neighborhood! (Photo below by Indyanna, via cellphone.)
“From your steadfast embed in Bitterminous Country: It was a luminous spring day, so different from the freak snowstorm that marked the VTech disaster exactly a year ago today. Bubba ran about 50 minutes late, which gave the c. 2,500-3,000 locals (a mix of students and us old undereducated folks suspicious of change and clinging to nostalgic dreams of industrial revival) time to pass through surprisingly light security checks and assemble in the old time Field House. After some remarks by local county and party officials, he bounded onto the stage like a terrier chasing his first ice cream truck in weeks. He gave a kind of discursive, not-polished but practiced and drawlingly-smooth rallying call for the Missus. His funniest line was that Hillary had been asking him to cover tons of ground in recent weeks, so he was glad this morning to find that he could be in Indiana and Pennsylvania at the same time! It got an appreciative rolling chuckle from the crowd. He read statistics, hit on talking points, pandered moderately where appropriate, and scored his best points on health care and, of course, tuition costs, student loans, and the future–spiced with quips about his own days with five outside jobs at Yale Law School.
Historiann 
Shouldn’t Bill be at home searching through the family’s cookbooks for some recipes to post on Hillary’s website?
That seems like much more appropriate “first-spouse” behavior than campaigning in Indiana.
LikeLike
Now, ej–you know no one is ever going to ask Bill Clinton for his recipies. One reason to vote for Clinton this year is that having Bill as the spouse of the President might put an end to the trivial foolishness of the role of “First Lady.” Even the most industrious and policy-minded wife of the President–like Eleanor Roosevelt or Hillary Clinton–finds that her work as “First Lady” is simultaneously trivialized (when it comes to giving her credit for substantial work), and at the same time deeply threatening to her husbands’ political enemies, and even to many of his allies. Presumably, a man (and an ex-President to boot) won’t have to fight this battle for relevance and being taken seriously, although of course he will remain deeply, deeply threatening.
But then, a lot of men find the Big Dog deeply threatening because of his successes both politically and with women.
LikeLike
Hook ’em ‘fords! Bill was introduced yesterday by a seriously and visibly-nervous student body president (the U. Prez. interestingly chose to give a rather flat welcome to the crowd a full fifty minutes before the Dog showed, and then apparently disappeared), who in all seriousness described him as “…soon to be the ‘First Man’ of the country…” To which, Clinton almost doubled over and roared along with the crowd in laughter. Not a red face or a finger-wag to be seen!
LikeLike
We eagerly await E.H.’s report–she should be in the room with the Clintons as I write this!
In other Pennsylvania colleagiate news: the Daily Pennsylvanian has endorsed Clinton! Those Fighin’ Quakers actually make a lot of sense in their editorial.
(H/t to Talk Left for the link.)
LikeLike
Drink a Highball! That’s an excellent editorial by the D.P. In many respects–to paraphrase Elizabeth Drinker blogging about Mary Wollstonecraft’s _Vindication_ in c. 1793–they speak my very mind! Thanks for that link.
LikeLike