The map my grandmother suggested we use--"to the left of the hearth, on the far right of the pile of maps"--was published in 1988, but Newport, Oregon hadn't moved, as far as we could tell. She and I set off to find the 101 in her pale green Lincoln Towncar, the kind with the long bench seats that make you feel like you're sitting in a living room. Bill Clinton was going to speak, his fourth speech of the day, and the least likely to have students around. I mentioned this to a friend. "At the very least, maybe you'll find 1988," she said.

"I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar…." the car radio chimed in. A good start. In 1988, Dusty Springfield was collaborating with the Pet Shop Boys, and Foreigner was singing "I Don't Want to Live Without Your Love" while Chicago was singing "I Don't Want to Live Without You" and Bobby McFerrin was making kids hit themselves on every appendage in sync with "Don't Worry be Happy." Guns 'n Roses could inspire a whole school to sing "sweet chiiiild of mii i i ine…", even in school assembly. Since I went to high school in New Hampshire, the school assembly sometimes included Jack Kemp or Bob Dole, too.

What's interesting about remembering 1988 is that it's possible to remember politics without the Clintons being around. But not this rally. Of the dozen or so people I spoke to, a majority, but only a slim majority, were Clinton supporters. The rest seemed to be there to get a piece of the Berlin Wall before it fell. Clinton was part of history, the epitome of politics, best and worst, for Democrats of a certain age, including anyone over 15. They heard he was in town, and that he was a good speaker.

Many were undecided-- "It's a crowd of undecisive flip-floppers," one man said who didn't want to give his name, but few I talked to thought Bill Clinton would change their mind one way or the other.

When I asked about issues the most frequent response was "same as everyone else, I guess." Pressed, they brought up the war and health care. When I asked people what they thought the Presidency was for, they'd say "to lead the country." Expectations were low, but pleasant, like people waiting in a long line for fried dough at the county fair. When he finally arrived, people cheered, but it was the claps of comfort, not excitement. Time to take the pictures and tell the kids to focus for a few minutes before resuming duck, duck goose.

The only other time I'd seen Clinton speak up close was May 1994, at a fundraiser he was doing for Howard Dean, for whom I'd just started working. It was in the middle of the health care effort of 1993-1994 (the news reports running at the DNC, where I picked up my pass, were all about Hillary's hair), and the fundraiser was $1,000 per head.

I thought I couldn't miss this chance to meet a President, but it wasn't worth the twenty hours I spent driving down and back; I wore a dress my sister sewed and borrowed her pearls and yet still looked the part of the country cousin among the urban wealthy, and I stepped on a secret service man's toes at the buffet while I was staring embarrassingly hard at Clinton's face. I remember thinking he looked awful, bulbous, stressed, and self-absorbed. The few times I shook his hand only added to the sense of narcissism spilling outwards, instead of empathy radiating in. I concluded I was simply immune to his charm, but today I found him much more engaging, and now that I've looked at the calendar I realized that this fundraiser was a few days after Paula Jones filed her lawsuit.

He was no great story teller today, nor someone you'd automatically pick for best in show, but he was very good. His red face, which can look alcoholic in harsh lights, looked fine and ruddy. He spoke on the edge of a parking lot to a crowd of about a thousand, a good fraction of the local population. The town stared back at him, wind-burnt and squinting, and the people over 20 listened hard.

He was extremely longwinded, extremely bad at simple math ("Now. I have two reasons you should be for Hillary. Now. The fifth reason I think you should be for Hillary is…. Now. So these are my three reasons you should…."), and extremely good at clearly discussing important issues. He was the same man, then, who first ran in 1991, the guy who charmed you in part through his (almost arbitrary) insistance, and seemed genuinely interested in complicated math and genuinely unmoved by the fact that the entire baseball team--and half the high school--was leaving the crowd because the speech had gone on too long and they'd gotten their cell-phone pictures. Forty minutes in, he was just getting started.

He was most interesting on talking about the details of100 mile a gallon cars, and the importance of transmission systems between Texas and Canada for wind power. In a particularly evocative moment, he talked about standing in the back of the truck in Texas on primary night, with the wind blowing nearly 60 miles an hour, and saying to people around him, "that's money up there," in the wind, and how good transmission systems would work. "I was wearing these same cowboy boots," he said, as if they held something in them, and he could click his cowboy heels and be back there in Texas, bringing us all with him, to feel the wind pushing us over and knowing we were in a money storm.

He was least interesting when he tried to tell anecdotes about Hillary, or his own success. His examples about her were exercises in anti-climax. "I know no better agent of change," he said repeatedly, and found two Bush bills she voted against, and two lost voters who had said something positive, to support his thesis. (I couldn't help but think that agent was the operative word there--both in the sense of controlling her own destiny and seeming something like a CIA spy, even when she's on stage talking about transparency. If the sentence just stopped there, "I know no better agent…" then I'd be inclined to nod, though not sure what I'd be nodding about.) He kept to categories, and they were the categories you might find on a 1988 social studies test: energy, healthcare, foreign policy, education--each separate, each interesting, each solvable by people with expertise. He found himself in a shocking burst of applause when he mentioned the importance of research, too.

Meanwhile, I was on a parallel track, looking for the heart of 1988. In May, 20 years ago, my little sister braided my hair like Bo Derek from Splash, and my track team won our division in States on the same weekend I took the SAT. Tommy Hunton, whose pennies I stole in second grade--and who is now a cop--won the most votes in the at-large race for student council.

In the spring of 1988, fourteen senior boys in my high school set the world record for continuous leapfrogging. They were a dramatically handsome group of boys--you have to believe me--and inspired a small posse of supporters while they jumped over each other around the soccer field for 888.1 miles, 189 hours, 49 minutes of leapfrogging. We even put up tents.

At first, we ran around the field with them, but towards the end--and it is towards the end, of this long presidential race, Bill's vigorous cutting the wind notwithstanding--we just sat in the bleachers and watched their lovely awkward limbs hop over each other, happy, finally, to bask a little in the history as it passed us by, and let them do all the work.

Comments (24)

1. Completely off topic. But, I think you are off a decade. Daryl Hannah starred in splash.

   Bo was a "10".

   Eric

   Posted by Malcontent at 05/13/2008 @ 8:06pm

2. Exactly, what is the meaning of this post and the headline? Give it a rest!

   Posted by kevin99999 at 05/13/2008 @ 8:17pm

3. Posted by Malcontent at 05/13/2008

   Yep....Daryl Hannah in "Splash" (with crimped hair), Bo Derek in "10" (with the braids).

   Debra Winger in the cowboy hat and feathered hair....heheh

   Posted by Mask at 05/13/2008 @ 8:47pm

4. A pointless piece & poorly written. Please, Nation editors, no more like this.

   Posted by sloper at 05/13/2008 @ 9:20pm

5. Bill's vigorous cutting the wind notwithstanding.........

   hmmmmmmm?

   too much pork sausage, perhaps?

   Posted by frosty zoom at 05/13/2008 @ 9:31pm

6. A pointless piece & poorly written.

   Posted by sloper

   watch it, slopes.

   grammatical karma never rests.

   Posted by frosty zoom at 05/13/2008 @ 9:33pm

7. Guinness Will Not Recognize Leapfrog Attempt

   JUNE 7, 2004

   Taylor University officials have learned the attempt at the world's record for the number of people to play a game of leapfrog will not be accepted by the Guinness organization.

   The attempt, which came on May 14 and drew 927 students, faculty and staff, was rejected because, "the guidelines clearly state that hands and/or knees of the people being jumped over must not touch the ground," according to Guinness official Amanda Sprague, in an e-mail message to one of the event's organizers, Taylor graduate Kaiti Bierdeman. "It is clear from the photographs and the video footage that many people were kneeling or had their hands on the ground while being leapt over."

   "We appreciate that this may be disappointing to you. We are always keen to hear from people who wish to set a Guinness World Record. If you should need any advice regarding record breaking in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us," Sprague added.

   Posted by frosty zoom at 05/13/2008 @ 9:56pm

8. Sir Richard Branson -- and friends -- set record for leapfrog

   Monday 6th Sep 2004.

   Sir Richard Branson is not normally used to bending his knee to anyone, but if former swimming superstar and Olympic commentator Sharron Davies wants to leap on your back, how can a man refuse?

   They were joined by more than 1,000 of Sir Richard's Virgin Group employees at the billionaire's home in Kidlington on Saturday to set a new world leapfrog record.

   No fewer than 1,109 people took part in the attempt, smashing the existing record of 849 set by members of the Brookfield Community School, in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a year ago.

   Posted by frosty zoom at 05/13/2008 @ 9:59pm

9. bill clinton is so passé..........

   Posted by frosty zoom at 05/13/2008 @ 10:01pm

10. BTW, I agree with slope....

    what the hell is this?!??!?

    Posted by Mask at 05/13/2008 @ 10:12pm

11. in 88 i was the captain of the color guard when bush sr. came to see a football game. i couldn't see him because as guidon i could not move my head and as hard as i strained to see the man with my eyes, all i got was a headache and colorful, billowing flags. that cute half philipina girl was next to me. tall. why didn't i go for that?

    although i could not see the prez, i could see the secret service guy get slowly and progresively more annoyed as old glory - my plag - kept whipping in the wind as the anthem played, slapping him in the face. why did he not just move? guess he had his place just like me.

    i never actually saw the president that day, in the strictest sense of the word, just his pissed off, sunglassed, ear reciever wearing secret service guy and the red and white stripes slapping him in the face.

    --------------------------------------

    in 1992 i was president of the young democrats at another college. things had changed. al gore was to come speak at the horseshoe, so we had road tripped down to meet other young dems and perhaps the future veep. and to go get shitfaced in five points after.

    we were all a bit let down that bill was not there, but we understood. our hick ass facist redneck state was going republican and so they sent down pre superstar al gore...sigh...well - at least i might get to meet him and schmooze...

    i was even more let down when the local YD's looked at me and immediately put me on "the goon squad"...i was the president dammit! what the fuck?

    but i was the president, and if they needed my big ass on the goon squad, it was my duty to take my place there without complaint, as an example to my fellow YD's, whose puny little posteriors would get a ring side seat to reverend lovejoy's attempt to remind us we were still loved even if our state hated them liberal democrats...

    so we gooneys were given air horns and clinton/gore signs on poles to hold up. the young republicans were expected to show up and in classic tamany hall style disrupt the rally for the camaras as well as the sheer devilishness of it. we gooneys were to keep ourselves in between them and the rally, and to drown out their sour grapes chanting with our own shouts...and our air horns...and try not to let it devolve into a brawl...

    and so they came in a seething, angry pack of oxfords, dockers and poofy sweaters. so many clean cut, red faced, nicely dressed young white people! and so we goons, the biggest and scariest looking of the dems gathered, closed ranks and blocked the onslaught.

    we zigged when and where they zigged, and zagged to their zag. all night we fought a running battle, shifting about the semi-circle, trying to keep in between the college republicans and the rally. and they were remarkably quick for white kids - and like their mentors, the real republicans, treacherous as the sea!

    i'll always remember this one republican guy who looked like he had been at the beach all day his face was so red. i must have air horned his spittle spraying screams too well because at one point i found him in my face, more pissed at me personally than at even al gore. i pretended to not hear him, put my hand to my ear and cocked my head as if to say, "what?", and when he came in to yell at me in my face, raised my air horn and gave him an especially long, obnoxious, ear splitting, blast from 2 - 3 inches from his face, a distance i judged to be roughly the lenght of his...

    that really pissed him off, and i remember gripping the air horn and thinking about exactly where on his head i was going to have to smack him with it, cause he was aggressively goading me and doing that chest bump thing like he was tough...thankfully one of his fellows dragged him away, telling him not to let the big bad goony goad him into trouble...

    i never even saw al gore the whole freakin night. barely heard his reverend lovejoy lisp above the clamor of yelling and air horning...

    but at least we managed to get shit faced as planned when it was all over. after getting the lowdown from my posse who had been only a few feet from old al, i figgered i had a better time air horning and blocking red faced college republicans in the goon squad after all. funny how things work out.

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 05/14/2008 @ 01:03am

12. still post warping? lets see...

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 05/14/2008 @ 11:25am

13. nope...

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 05/14/2008 @ 11:27am

14. Dear readers

    I'm sorry you all disliked it so much--I was rather fond of it, but then again I think of blogging as a way of playing and poking, trying out different ways of seeing the world, some legal, some reflective, some political, some polemical, some personal. I'm struck by the strong sense of "what is the point" by a few of you, and it makes me curious to know what the expectations are, because the reaction suggests a clear set of expectations.

    But thanks nonetheless for reading. And I am sorry I confused Bo Derek and Darryl Hannah.

    Z

    Posted by zephyrteachout at 05/14/2008 @ 12:06pm

15. Posted by zephyrteachout at 05/14/2008

    Ms Teachout, I'm sorry, I've re-read it again just out of fairness. Also out of fairness, I tried to plough through Joyce's "Ulysses" once and could barely hold my own (and I was a Writing major...though I've gotten rusty on my 3-point, 5 paragraph paper these days).

    And I just don't get it. "Clinton was 'leap-frogging' in his speech for Hillary"?!?? "He's not the man he was 20 years ago...and speaking of 20 years ago, let's talk about my sister's hair"?!??

    If either or both of the above, I just don't think it worked.

    As for "what we want"...well, speaking for myself a detailed look at a current event, American or even international politics, or an ideological philosophy on an issue, I guess.

    Par for the course, but kind of what atleast I have been coming here for.

    Posted by Mask at 05/14/2008 @ 12:47pm

16. "most of them are in African American Studies, Anthropology or some such `soft' areas!"

    Posted by HAPPY3 at 05/14/2008

    And "Hard areas"? That could refer to the zone around Family Values Republican Larry Craig as he stalks the airpoirt mens room, tooling for some serious anus.

    It could also refer to the science curriculum, in light of the comment farted out by CRAPPPY. But wait -- when those much valorized "hard areas" discuss climate change ... suddenly they are not so "hard" afterall for these same mewling rightwing zombies. What accounts for the sudden shift, the flip-flopping on the truth status of science, on what is "hard" and what is "soft"?

    The simple fact is that rightwing detritus believe in nothing and have no principles to speak of, aside from what party line they are instructed to ape by Rush, Sean and others, whom they subsequently obey like mangy abused dogs. Case closed.

    Posted by LV-LIBERTY-2 at 05/14/2008 @ 1:07pm

17. Z

    Posted by zephyrteachout at 05/14/2008

    i thought i kinda got into the spirit...

    and your entry was at least as comprehensible as mine...

    ;)

    Posted by ibbleblibble at 05/14/2008 @ 2:59pm

18. well,

    i kinda liked it.

    a moment......

    not everything has to be "the duke of spinister signed the treaty books in 1874".

    Posted by frosty zoom at 05/14/2008 @ 3:59pm

19. I have to say I kinda liked it - but then, I like Joyce. I miss Zepher from the Dean days.

    Maya

    Posted by mayah at 05/14/2008 @ 5:40pm

20. Do a little research Happy, before you spout off. Ms. Teachout did not join the faculty of Duke until after the ad was placed in the Chronicle.

    Posted by davefoley0 at 05/14/2008 @ 5:46pm

21. Babbling all over the place , I was expecting something of substance to account for the title. Since Hillary is about done with the "race", I expected the writer to say something about Hillary leapfrogging into a winning position, or something, but the babbbling went nowhere. A dissapointment. A waste of time.

    Posted by etniks at 05/14/2008 @ 10:27pm

22. Babbling all over the place , I was expecting something of substance to account for the title. Since Hillary is about done with the "race", I expected the writer to say something about Hillary leapfrogging into a winning position, or something, but the babbbling went nowhere. A dissapointment. A waste of time.

    Posted by etniks at 05/14/2008 @ 10:27pm

23. Babbling all over the place , I was expecting something of substance to account for the title. Since Hillary is about done with the "race", I expected the writer to say something about Hillary leapfrogging into a winning position, or something, but the babbbling went nowhere. A dissapointment. A waste of time.

    Posted by etniks at 05/14/2008 @ 10:28pm

24. What exactly is the point of this post...except to take an opportunity for Clinton bashing....has the left gone totally insane?

    Posted by kevin99999 at 05/15/2008 @ 1:25pm