
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 6, 1992                   TAG: 9203060166
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MEMORY OF CLINTON SHINES IN W&L TRADITION

Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton was a big hit - in more ways than one - at the 1988 Mock Convention at Washington and Lee University.

In addition to giving a rousing speech, Clinton showed he knows how to kick back.

Clinton turned up at a Friday-night keg party where he drank bourbon with W&L students, danced and joined the band to play "Summertime" on the saxophone.

"He was a crowd-pleaser that night," recalled George "Chip" Gist, a convention organizer who attended the party.

Gist and other W&L students say Clinton did not drink to excess or behave inappropriately at the huge gathering at Zollman's Pavilion, a party shack about four miles from Lexington.

"I think he was trying to have as good a time as he could without compromising himself too much," said Lester Coe, another convention organizer.

The former W&L students remember they were impressed that Clinton - now a front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination - was no stuffed-shirt politician.

"Everyone else was a college student, so it was pretty obvious who he was. But he was pretty much a normal guy having a good time," recalled Jeff Kelsey, now a law student at W&L.

Clinton left around 1 a.m. but was up at sunrise the next morning for a jog before a breakfast with W&L students from Arkansas, Gist said.

Some students say there also was a calculated reason for Clinton's appearance at the keg party.

Sam Conner, a regional organizer at the 1988 mock convention, said Clinton had asked Friday night if the W&L students would nominate him for vice president at the convention on Saturday.

"This is what he said to me - that he was hoping to get the keynote speech at the Democratic Convention," Conner said. "He thought the mock convention nomination would be another way to toss his name out there."

Conner, who heads a non-profit housing group in Northern Virginia, said he agreed to lobby on Clinton's behalf because the Arkansas governor was one of the few big-name Democrats who would agree to speak at W&L four years ago.

"I figured, hell, this man took the time to come down here, so we should help him."

The mock convention eventually chose Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore for vice president; he drew 1,018 votes to 191 for Clinton.

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB