Checking in after a long week

DATELINE: Delta flights from Little Rock to Cincy and Cincy to Indy, 19 May 2006

Had a great day yesterday at Clinton Presidential Center. Arrive around 10 at airport, with my heavy allergy suffering seguing (I think) into a cold, but I'm armed with some Alka Seltzer so I'm muscling my way through the day's events, which are non-stop.

A Clinton school official picks me up at the airport and we drive to the complex, which includes the Clinton School of Public Service (housed in an old railroad building set next to a similarly aged 19th-century bridge), the sleek new archives building, and the even more futuristic (with it's implied "bridge to the 21st century") library museum (to which the archives is connected).

First off I spend some time touring the school with dean Tom Bruce, who gives me an interesting primer on the differences and similarities of the 7 presidential schools (Wilson, Truman, JFK, Johnson, Ford, Bush, and Clinton--with only the Wilson not attached to a library museum) and how the Clinton school is focused on "public service" vice policy or administration.

Then a great lunch at Cafe 42 under the "bridge to the 21st century." Had great catfish and sweet potato fries, which is part of the school's recent push to promote sweet potato agriculture in the delta region nearby (actually, they beat regular fries by a ways in both taste and nutrition, so I think they're onto something).

Then the private tour of the museum, where they let me past the ropes repeatedly, with the highlights being my extended walk around the replica Oval Office and a preview of the "cowboys in movies" exhibit they're building.

Then a quick on-camera with local reporter and then some down time at the Peabody hotel in downtown Little Rock (very nice).

After an hour off, back to the library where I discover the room where I'll be speaking is extremely tough for my planned PowerPoint: totally glass and on the sunset side, minimal shades, and I'm supposed to speak to over 100 people using two smallish plasma (maybe 35 inches at best). I get a bit freaked and try to figure what to do. Fortunately the screens are solid, so I have the AV guys move them up in front of the audience as close as possible. Once I see the pictures, I relax a bit, but the sunset is stunningly bright and sends a blinding shaft of light sideways across the audience, so I'm pretty nervous about making this work.

To settle myself a bit, I submit to a quick radio taped interview in the hall just before the proceedings start. That warms me up a bit.

Once into the gig, I'm looking at all these people straining to see the screens and holding papers against the sides of their heads, trying to block the light. Easy to get frustrated, but instead I chose to highlight in my mind just how much effort these people (many older) were making to stay with me.

I brief my way through Development-in-a-Box in about 45 minutes, and my talk was supposed to be only 45 minutes, but at that point, the sun went down as far as the room was concerned, people were feeling much better and seeing the screens okay, so I decided to proceed with another half-hour of the regional/functional arguments (Mideast, China, GWOT, North Korea, New Core), joking that, "Hey, if there's anywhere a speaker is allowed to talk way past his time limit, it ought to be the Clinton Library!"

That got a big laugh, and I relaxed a lot at that point, sensing the audience was truly along for the ride.

After a short break, it was about 45 more minutes of good Q&A, and then signing books for about 20 minutes, which was nice.

Day ended with a nice meal downtown with the dean, a faculty member Bruce Bennett and his spouse. A very nice time had by all.

I hit the bed around midnight, got up at 7am, and was back at it by 0800.

First I do a breakfast with the Little Rock foreign affairs council. That was nice. Then a 30-minute taped show with its chairman for local broadcast. Then whisked to the airport and I finally begin the long trip home, feeling--quite frankly--really bad physically.

So while my ear drums pop repeatedly, let me try to whisk through some articles I've captured. Short and sweet. Gotta get it done by time I get home, cause I've been gone since Monday night and we have a family trip this weekend to Ohio.