Former President Bill Clinton; his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and basketball legend Magic Johnson campaign in Des Moines on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2007 (AP Photo/Steve Pope)
by Jason George
DES MOINES – Sen. Hillary Clinton has no problem telling Iowa voters that she has “proven leadership” to be the nation’s next president. Sharing her personality?
Not so simple.
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“It’s a little hard for me,” she said Tuesday morning. “I know people have been saying we’ve got to know more about her.”
And thus, on the day after Clinton surrogates spoke about her warm, caring nature at stops across the state, the senator was joined by two towers of charm to help her make her case: former Pres. Bill Clinton and Magic Johnson.
Pres. Clinton worked the room with typical ease, handing out enough high fives, hugs and backslaps for both him and the senator. “How are you doing?” he asked of nearly everyone working or shopping in the Hy-Vee grocery store where the event took place.
Johnson – one of the few people taller than the former president in the store – smiled for pictures and signed jerseys of a local high basketball team that had been planted there for just such spontaneity.
When asked by a television reporter why he wasn’t supporting Sen. Barack Obama, the former Laker said Mrs. Clinton’s “30 years of experience” won him over, citing her work on healthcare and education.
Marge Webber, 83, was buying groceries for her Christmas meal when the Clinton motorcade pulled up at the store. (Appropriately or not, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” played on the Hy-Vee’s overhead speaker at just about this time.)
Webber said she’s for Sen. Clinton – and against $1.49 a head lettuce – and her choice of Clinton(s) for the presidency springs from the same buy-one-get-one-free bargain she looks for at the Hy-Vee.
“We’ll have two good people at the same time!”