Phil Town with Bill Clinton

I've appeared on stage with President Clinton a number of times as part of the Get Motivated program. He is a fantastic public speaker and a really hard guy not to like. Once he told me that the secret to public speaking was the new technology: the amazing microphones and speakers that they use in the big arenas. With the right gear, he said, we speakers can talk to 20,000 people like we're sitting in our living room at home. And he really understands how to keep an audience's attention. Once I was on stage sitting behind him watching a big black fly swoop in and land on his neck, then take off and swoop back and land and walk around and take off over and over. Pres. Clinton never reacted because he knew that if he did the attention of the audience would shift from what he was saying to what he was doing. And back stage, he's the only President I've been on stage with who took the time to meet the working people. Once he saw a Latino woman who was sweeping up backstage and he waved her over and asked her if she wanted a picture with him and then asked her how her life was going, and was sincerely interested in what she had to say. Says a lot about why people love him.

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