The mob rules during local presidential stop

I've experienced two "mosh" pits in my life - on the floor of the Tacoma Dome for a Green Day concert and Tuesday at Flathead Valley Community College when President Bill Clinton decided to walk a rope line.

No one was getting carried away by the music and I didn't fear that I would be shoved to the floor and crushed by hordes of teenagers as I had in Tacoma, but the crowd that stuck around after Clinton's speech on a rainy night to get closer to the former leader of the free world was big and aggressive enough that I could never get within six feet of the man.

These probably were all normally sane people, the type who would feel guilty trying to sneak 16 items into the 15-item line at the grocery store.

But they felt no reservations about pushing their way to the front of a mob just to get closer to a man in a suit with perfectly coifed white hair and who is not the lead singer of a cool rock band, and we all seemed to be equally caught up in the energy.

It's actually kind of fun to be part of the enthusiasm, surrounded by a bunch of people with the same ultimate goal, all wanting to say they touched or talked to or at least stood within 10 feet of a former president.

I guess people felt they deserved a little face time. When my family arrived at 6:30, an hour before the scheduled start of the speech, the line winding through the pavement of the college parking lot was intimidating. It must have been a quarter-mile walk to the end of the line.

But surprisingly, once the gates were opened the line moved with surprising swiftness. Considering you can't enter places like the Butte Civic Center with a granola bar for fear the surly gate ladies will wrestle you to the ground, I was expecting to have been slowed by at least a token coat search as we entered the officially roped-off Clinton speech area on a grassy knoll.

Instead there were a few passive-looking volunteers collecting the form we were supposed to fill out, while we rushed through unchecked.

We found our spot, and, as all who were there can attest, stood around for a good long time on a cold rainy evening before Clinton finally showed up an hour and 10 minutes later than scheduled.

Those of us in the crowd were not given information as to why he was late, but it didn't seem to hurt his popularity once he hit the rope line.

I had headed down there with a friend and we got close, but then as she was edging closer, a very determined and very tall young man blocked her out, sending her into retreat.

We tried a spot down the line a little, expecting that Clinton would keep moving. I could see him talking to someone, probably about 12 feet away, and it looked as if his Secret Service friend was trying to hustle him along, but for as long as I was there, he stuck with the same conversation - at least 15 minutes.

So my friend and I moved back and then I saw that my oldest son was standing right behind the men engaged in a conversation with President Clinton. My son left before the chat was over, having had his fill of listening to Clinton's detailed views on foreign policy, though he had received a real handshake from Clinton and was quite thrilled with this.

I heard from someone here in the newsroom that Clinton stayed around until 11 that night talking with the crowd, but then a woman told me she heard he was chatting with the crowd until midnight.

Whatever the truth, it seems that the people who left right after his speech missed the best part of the show when things were unscripted - when things always are more fun.

Reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4431 or by e-mail at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com