Y'all don't even know...

September 5, 2012

Y’all don’t even know…

I was 15… and, my Dad would listen to NPR on the way to school… I told him Bill Clinton could never be President, because he “surely did do something with that woman”, to which my father told me not to judge without all facts…

I was 16… (I had a birthday in August there…) And, I was in U.S. History… and Bill Clinton lit my proverbial political geeky girl fire. Somehow, he made everything make sense. Oh, I guess a better way to phrase it is, he structured it logically for me. He showed me the path. He was also the first Presidential nominee actually willing to talk to my generation. The JFK thing didn’t hurt, either, but they kind of grew together, starting that year - my love of politics and my love of JFK. (I was more of a JFK fan before I began really reading up on Jackie…)

At 16, I was able to debate, intelligently, in a U.S. History (Honors level) course in front of THE toughest teacher at my high school (and win several arguments) against the niece of a pretty reputable (now infamous) formerly-seated Congressman. (I’m from Sugar Land, Texas. It was the 90s. Figure it out.)

I still remember asking my mom, “If Clinton doesn’t win Ohio, can I not go to school tomorrow?” Facing that niece, my classmate, would have been tortuous. I waited… for what seemed like hours, but in today’s political world and against a backdrop of Florida’s disastrous 2000 election, really no time at all. Funny how Ohio has always been in the background of my life. The Buckeye State has a solid place in my heart, apparently.

You see, I don’t know if my political torch would have been lit without Bill Clinton. I really, really don’t. Something about him and that year, I came of age. It would take me far too long to realize it, but Bill…

I can’t even say the words.

Bill was my man… my President… He gave me a terrific gift when he ran in 1992, by igniting my zest for the political world, and even if there’s been a time or two that I’ve been disappointed in him… In the end, he has always been one of the best men in this world, and probably one of the few people in this world I would never be able to say the words to…

Y’all don’t even know… what that man means to me.