The President Comes To Town…Again

The white haired legendary Speaker, Tip O’Neill, got it right. In his years as Congressman from one of Boston’s ethnic wards (we call them council districts) he knew that power came from some of the unlikeliest places sometimes. He won his seat in Congress after John F. Kennedy ran for the Senate, and, of course, later became President of the United States, a martyr, a legend, etc. When he became the Speaker of the House during the era of Ronald Reagan he never lost sight of the fact that his national position of power always ultimately came from the working class ethnic people who elected him — as long as he delivered.
That fact of political life was never more evident on the national scene than last week when the President of the United States came to Queens. Any visit by a President is a part of history and to any town in America it is an event of great celebration. Queens is part of New York City — a metropolis where a presidential visit is nothing more than a traffic jam.
But Queens is still a collection of small towns and no President before — except maybe Teddy Roosevelt, who was a Queens resident until consolidation in 1898 — understands why Queens is unique in being a village — even if it is an incredibly global one.
Bill Clinton came to Woodside, to St. Sebastian’s Church to campaign for Congressman Chuck Schumer last Friday. But it was really a swan song for retiring Congressman Tom Manton, the leader of the Borough’s Democratic party. Here was the most powerful person on the planet, landing at J.F.K. in Air Force One, riding in a motorcade of — at the minimum — 100 vehicles with armored guards, sirens, etc. All of the power and might — the greatest the world has ever seen — to take this man, Bill Clinton, into a typical Queens basement hall (with a whole series of pumpkins on the wall) to address a room full of senior citizens. In a back corner there was Sam Donaldson and an entire array of the Washington Press Corps. Then, Manton, after introducing a group of local politicos introduced the most powerful man on earth. And Clinton’s first remarks were how he enjoyed coming to Queens, how at home he felt here. He recounted in detail how he first came to Queens in 1992 on the "F" train to speak to the Democratic Committee in Forest Hills to get their support. "Why would they want me?", he asked an aide. Because they are not that different from the people in Arkansas," the aide replied. Clinton said when he entered the party’s headquarters on Austin Street, he was nervous. Then "one very tall African-American man [actually City Councilman Archie Spigner] stopped me and said "Don’t worry, it will be all right. I was born in Hope, Arkansas, also."
Clinton got the Queens Democratic nod and went on to history. So in that little room at St. Sebastian’s Church in Woodside last Friday — even with a secret service man in the corner holding the "football" — the briefcase with the nuclear codes should a strike be necessary — it was clear that this politician from Arkansas was not very different from the Jewish boy from Brooklyn, Chuck Schumer, or the Irish kid from Woodside, Tom Manton. All politics is local and the power of this fragile earth is in our own hands.