zr4x3cvg's Journal

They were undeterred by the fact that I was...
They were undeterred by the fact that I was virtually unknown to the American people and far behind in the pollsUnlike 1987, this time I was ready

O ctober 3 was a beautiful autumn morning in Arkansas, crisp and clearI started the day that would change my life in the usual way, with an early-morning jogI went out the back gate of the Governors Mansion, through the old Quapaw Quarter, then downtown to the Old State HouseThe grand old place, where I had held my first reception when I was sworn in as attorney general in 1977, was already decked out in American flagsAfter I ran past it, turned, and headed for home, I saw a newspaper vending machineThrough the glass, I could read the headline: Hour Arrives for ClintonOn the way home, several passersby wished me wellBack at the mansion I took a last look at my announcement speechI had worked on it until well past midnight; it was full of what I felt was good rhetoric and specific policy proposals, but still too long, so I cut a few lines

At noon, I was introduced on the stage by our state treasurer, Jimmie Lou Fisher, who had been with me since 1978I started out a little awkwardly, probably because of the conflicting feelings flooding through meI was at once reluctant to abandon the life I knew and eager for the challenge, a little afraid but chanel classic bag sure I was doing the right thingI spoke for more than half an hour, thanking my family, friends, and supporters for giving me the strength to step beyond a life and job I love, to make a commitment to a larger cause: preserving the American dream, restoring the hopes of the forgotten middle class, reclaiming the future for our childrenI closed with a pledge to give new life to the American dream by forming a new covenant with the people: more opportunity for all, more responsibility from everyone, and a greater sense of common purpose

When it was over, I felt elated and excited, but maybe relieved more than anything else, especially after Chelsea wisecracked, Nice speech, GovernorHillary and I spent the rest of the day receiving well-wishers, and Mother, Dick, and Roger all seemed happy about it, as did Hillarys familyMother acted as if she knew I would winAs well as I knew her, I couldnt be sure if it was truly how she felt or just another example of her game faceThat night we gathered around the piano with old friendsCarolyn Staley played, just as she had done since we were fifteenWe sang Amazing Grace and other hymns, and lots of songs from the sixties, including Abraham, Martin, and John, a tribute to the fallen heroes of our generationI went to bed believing we could cut through the gucci women's watches cynicism and despair and rekindle the fire those men had lit in my heart

Governor Mario Cuomo once said we campaign in poetry but we govern in proseThe statement is basically accurate, but a lot of campaigning is prose, too: putting together the nuts and bolts, going through the required rituals, and responding to the pressDay two of the campaign was more prose than poetry: a series of interviews designed to get me on television nationally and in major local markets, and to answer the threshold question of why I had gone back on my commitment to finish my term and whether that meant I was untrustworthyI answered the questions as best I could and moved on to the campaign messageIt was all prosaic, but it got us to day three

The rest of the year was full of the frantic activity of a late-starting campaign: getting organized, raising money, reaching out to specific constituencies, and working New Hampshire

Our first headquarters was in an old paint store on Seventh Street near the CapitolI had decided to base the campaign out of Little Rock instead of WashingtonIt made travel arrangements a little more complicated, but I wanted to stick close to my roots and to get home often enough to be with my family and handle official business that required my presenceBut staying in Arkansas also had another women's rolex watch big benefit: it helped our young staff keep focused on the work at handThey werent distracted by the pervasive Washington rumor mill and they didnt get too carried away by the surprisingly favorable press coverage I received early in the campaign, or too depressed by the torrent of negative press soon to come

After a few weeks, we had outgrown the paint store and moved nearby to the old office of the Department of Higher Education, which we used until we outgrew it, too, just before the Democratic conventionThen we moved again, downtown to the Arkansas Gazette building, which had become vacant a few months earlier upon the purchase and subsequent dismantling of the Gazette by the owner of the Arkansas Democrat, Walter HussmanThe Gazette building would be our home for the rest of the campaign, which, from my point of view, was the only good result of the loss of the oldest independent newspaper in America west of the Mississippi

The Gazette had stood for civil rights in the fifties and sixties, and had staunchly supported Dale Bumpers, David Pryor, and me in our efforts to modernize education, social services, and the economyIn its glory days, it was one of the best papers in the country, bringing well-written and wide-ranging national and international stories to readers in the far corners large gucci bag of our stateIn the 1980s, the Gazette began to face competition from Hussmans Arkansas Democrat, which until then had been a much smaller afternoon paperThe newspaper war that followed had a foreordained outcome, because Hussman owned other profitable media properties, which allowed him to absorb tremendous operating losses at the Democrat in order to take advertising and subscribers away from the GazetteNot long before I announced for President, Hussman acquired the Gazette and consolidated its operations into his paper, renaming it the Arkansas Democrat-GazetteOver the years, the Democrat-Gazette would help to make Arkansas a more Republican stateThe overall tone of its editorial page was conservative and highly critical of me, often in very personal termsIn this the paper faithfully reflected the views of its publisherThough I was sad to see the Gazette fall, I was glad to have the buildingPerhaps I was hoping that the ghosts of its progressive past would keep us fighting for tomorrow

We started out with an all-Arkansas staff, with Bruce Lindsey as campaign director and Craig Smith, who had handled my appointments to boards and commissions, as finance directorRodney Slater and Carol Willis were already hard at work contacting black political, religious, and business leaders across the chloe bag coun