Inside a gymnasium packed with enthusiastic supporters (mostly), former president Bill Clinton touted the economic policy proposals his wife, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, would seek to put into place — or keep in place — if elected. It was a wide-ranging speech interrupted once by a couple of protesters, by whom the two-term president seemed unfazed as he engaged his audience.
On the heels of a few very good weeks for his wife's campaign against reality show star and self-proclaimed female genitalia grabber Donald Trump, Clinton urged the at-capacity room to get out the vote and not engage in the divisive, insult-heavy discourse that's come to define the 2016 election season.
"If you go back and read the Constitution of the United States, I think it's fair to say a lot of the Founders would be appalled to see what [passes for] the political discourse today," he said. "They had big fights, but they were over real issues. And in the end they argued for the purpose of seeing who had the better side, then they got together and compromised and made something happen. If you read the Constitution, the whole point of it was to prevent unlimited concentration of power, so it might have been subtitled 'Let's Make a Deal.'"
That last part drew roaring laughter from the audience, given how often Trump refers to his supposed deal-making skills.
Seeking to contrast the Democratic Party's platform with efforts of Trump and the right to “distract and demonize” while offering little in terms of substance, he framed the prospective Clinton administration's economic policy as one that has something for everyone: out-of-work coal miners in West Virginia, recent college grads buried in student debt, veterans who are having a tough time finding work.
Areas that once enjoyed coal-mining booms are obviously not bastions of Democratic support at the moment, of course, but Clinton said the anger at Democrats — who are seeking alternatives to fuels that pollute heavily, like coal — is misdirected.
“Coal production peaked in 1950,” he said. “What they should be mad about is, we have not done what we should to get people to invest there.”
He suggested the feds offer businesses a "whopping tax credit" — up to 39 percent — if they invest in areas with stagnant economic growth.
For students, he said a Clinton administration would push for debt-free college, forgiveness after ten to 20 years as well as the ability to refinance student loans.
“It is the only debt in America you cannot refinance. It's crazy,” he said.
His wife's answer on how to create jobs, he said, rested largely with investing in upgrades to the country's infrastructure, everything from road and bridge repairs to helping low-lying coastal areas adjust to sea-level rise. A priority would be getting military veterans employed.
“It's disgraceful that the veterans' unemployment is higher than the national average,” he said.
Though it was a stump speech by a popular former president at a crucial time in the election cycle, the economics-heavy speech may have also served as a preview for how Clinton would function as the first First Dude. Hillary Clinton has said that she would put him in charge of "revitalizing the economy," so it's only appropriate he would help articulate how that would happen on the campaign trail.
The crowd inside the gymnasium was capped at 250 — the building's capacity, per the fire marshal. About 400 more people watched his remarks from a nearby overflow room. Hundreds more, a campaign spokeswoman said, had to be turned away for lack of space. Prior to the event, about 15 pro-Trump protesters shouted at Clinton supporters as they waited in the blocks-long line to get in.
A couple of protesters managed to get inside the event.
About 35 minutes into Clinton's speech, shouting erupted from two young protesters who carried small, Sharpie-scrawled signs that read "Bill Clinton = rapist." They were, of course, in reference to (unsubstantiated) rape allegations against Clinton that Trump sought to play up ahead of and during Sunday's presidential debate, possibly as a way to deflect controversy over his own bad behavior.
The protesters disrupted a point in Clinton's speech in which he was calling for an embrace of American Muslims amid widespread Islamophobia; they shouted something along the lines of "Bill Clinton is a rapist" before security swiftly escorted them out.
(Note: Alex Jones, founder of anti-Hillary Clinton site InfoWars.com, has been offering his readers $1,000 to $5,000 to disrupt pro-Hillary Clinton campaign events and media appearances by verbally accusing Bill Clinton of rape or wearing apparel that does so.)
Clinton seemed to take it in stride.
“They had a really bad week,” he said.
Then he urged the crowd not to engage in the politics of division as, he said, the right has done for decades in scapegoating certain populations — African Americans, gays, Muslims — as a means of deflecting blame for poverty and lack of opportunities.
“I am tired of seeing them played. And I'm asking you this: do not fight fire with fire,” he said.
He may not have changed the minds of any Trump supporters, but after he spoke, the crowd was fired up.
"I thought it was wonderful," Ruth Phelps, a West Virginia native currently residing in Zephyrhills, said of his speech. "I think he's one of the greatest speakers I've ever heard."
She wore a pink t-shirt bearing Hillary Clinton's name, underneath which were the words "honest" and "trustworthy" — words Clinton's detractors say are not exactly synonymous with the former Secretary of State. Phelps said she's been watching Clinton's career for decades, and knows better.
"I knew when she married Bill," she said. "I knew when she was trying to get kids educated. I knew when she was trying to get healthcare for the kids and she had to fight so hard, and they just wouldn't let her do anything for anybody else. And I've never lost that admiration. And I just do not understand why people hate her so. It's such a foreign idea to me, because I see nothing but good from her.”
Zan Smith of Tampa said he supported Clinton during her 2008 run — when he was 20 — and is excited to do so now.
He said a lot of the hate that's lobbed at the Clintons (from the left and the right) comes from clickbait and other bad sources of information.
“I feel it's lack of education and basically brainwashing for so many years and just being told to hate her,” he said. “You can get on TV and say what you want and a million people will believe you and not even check.”
A key difference, he said, between a Clinton/Tim Kaine administration and a Trump/Mike Pence administration is that his personal life could be directly impacted by the policies they push and the Supreme Court justices they nominate.
“I wouldn't be able to get married,” he said of the prospect of the election going for Trump. “The LGBTQ community, everything we've fought for, for decades, would be gone. Especially with Mike Pence on board. Let's face it: I don't want to go to conversion camp.”
This article appears in Oct 6-13, 2016.