POLITICS

POLES APART

Probably nothing could better illustrate the degree of political polarity — in the country, in general, and in these parts, in particular — than the receptions accorded former President Bill Clinton and his successor, President George W. Bush, during visits to the area last week, a few days apart.

Both men were greeted with enthusiasm — adulation, even — from their supporters, who happened to come from wholly different segments of the population.

Clinton — who, along with local civil rights legend Maxine Smith, was a recipient of a Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum — was the first to arrive, on Tuesday of last week. He and Smith made two appearances — at an afternoon forum, at Temple of Deliverance COGIC Church on the street, G.E. Patterson Blvd., named after one of the church’s eminences; and at The Peabody Tuesday night for the Freedom Awards banquet.

It will probably enrage the former president’s critics to read this, but the fact is that when the fit-looking, blue-suited, white-haired Clinton emerged in the Temple of Deliverance auditorium, he was greeted with nothing less than a collective and highly audible swoon from the overwhelmingly African-American audience.

It has been observed by some of the more metaphorically minded that Clinton may have been “the first black president” — a description that derives from the former president’s obvious affinity for such audiences and from social and economic policies meant to benefit blacks and perhaps, too, for some elements of personal style.

Buoyed by his reception, Clinton felt entitled to use the description himself — and did so, to applause. He was relaxed enough to indulge in a characteristically Clintonian compliment to Smith, the longtime former local NAACP head and ex-Memphis school board member. Marveling at one of the shots of a younger Smith shown in an introductory video, Clinton acknowledged thinking how “good looking” she was. “I hope you’ll forgive me. I did it. I confess.”

And, speaking of first black presidents, both at the afternoon forum and before his remarks at the evening banquet, at each of which venues Memphis’ 9th District congressman introduced him, Clinton made a point of stating, “I hope I live long enough to vote for Harold Ford Jr.”

Fade to the weekend and the arrival of President Bush, whose motorcade route in Southaven, Mississippi, where the president spoke on behalf of Republican gubernatorial candidate Haley Barbour, was lined with enthusiastic white suburbanites.

There were blacks in the crowd, as there were also in the DeSoto Civic Center, which was filled to the rafters, but they were a distinct minority. Besides stoking the audience on the virtues of Barbour and the other GOP candidates present, he president’s speech addressed the verities of patriotism and family values and education that might be expected to — and, as various polls have shown, do — predominate among middle-class homeowners.

This was an audience that would have sat on its hands — or applauded politely — for Clinton, just as the former president’s admirers would have provided a lukewarm reception — at best — for the current president.