Another 'Private Event' Hillary Clinton visit: Campaigning behind closed doors

The way Clinton visits used to be: President Bill Clinton wades into the crowd at Seattle's Pike Place Park on Sunday, Nov. 6, 1994. The way Clinton visits used to be: President Bill Clinton wades into the crowd at Seattle's Pike Place Park on Sunday, Nov. 6, 1994. Photo: Grant M. Haller, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Photo: Grant M. Haller, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Another 'Private Event' Hillary Clinton visit: Campaigning behind closed doors 1 / 6 Back to Gallery

Hillary Clinton is running for President with the slogans "Fighting for Us" and "Forward Together." But the Clinton campaign in the Pacific Northwest is governed by the moniker: "Private Event."

Hillary hits town Friday for a fundraiser at the Paramount Theater and a "small group" heavy hitter event for those willing to part with as much as $27,500. She tops the price tag on President Obama's brunches, which cost as much as $17,500.

What a difference 20 years makes. Bill and Hillary Clinton were here during his 1996 reelection campaigns, for a massive early morning rally at the Pike Place Market, and then a bus tour with gatherings in Yelm, Centralia and Longview.

They did raise $1 million at a Columbia Tower Club fundraiser, but money was subordinate to meeting the folks.

Visits by VIPs can be a pain in the neck -- or perhaps lower in the body -- with traffic tie ups and buses used as barriers around the Westin. Strollers with babies at our Pike Place Market, and along Granville Street in Vancouver, have been confronted by a Clinton entourage barreling along in the opposite direction.

Still, those outside the donor class are losers when Hillary hobnobs mainly with the one percent, from the Hamptons to Martha's Vineyard to Medina.

Hillary loses, too, whatever the haul from Friday's visit. A candidate should not only introduce himself/herself to America, but be introduced to America.

John F. Kennedy learned about poverty in mining hamlets West Virginia, was visibly outraged, and made a commitment to rural redevelopment. George W. Bush became a defender of dams on the Snake River, or "the river on the Snake" as he memorably called it.

Bill Clinton confronted the precipitous decline of the Northwest's timber industry, and was back a few months into his Presidency for a daylong forestry summit in Oregon.

He also latched onto passenger jets as a U.S. product that the world wants to buy, and brought Air Force One back to where it was built for a long meeting with industry and airline CEOs.

We would eventually see Bill Clinton pay 13 Northwest visits during his presidency. He smoked out our small pleasures, too. Even in today's cloistered campaigning, the ex-President was able to duck into Elliott Bay Books last January.

What do we miss with a Paramount visit so "private" that the Clinton campaign has (so far) resisted entreaties even to release a text of her remarks. Hell, she's not speaking to Goldman Sachs.

Access, when it was allowed, revealed constructive stuff that Clinton might do as President.

She is up on climate change, particularly its impacts of rising ocean levels and ferocious storms. As senators, Clinton and John McCain toured Arctic villages in Alaska that are being hit by ferocious Bering Sea storms and no longer getting protection from pack ice.

In a post-trip briefing for New York reporters, Clinton worried aloud of the potential ravages that a hurricane storm surge could inflict on Staten Island and Long Island ... a full six years before Hurricane Sandy.

And, like some women's movement leaders around here, she has been laboring ever since the 1970s on such issues as pay equity, children's health insurance, family leave and the minimum wage.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi raises money here, but Pelosi puts on forums on topics like paid family/medical leave and the Equality Act. Clinton could spare 90 minutes, and put to rest the lingering concerns of many (but not all) Bernie backers.

Instead, the singular focus is money. Clinton can use us as an ATM. She has a lock on the state's electoral votes (except for one elector, a die-hard Bernie backer, who threatens not to vote for her)..

It applies not only to Hillary, but to Bill Clinton -- the Big Dog has been chained to money events -- Tim Kaine, campaign manager Robby Mook, James Taylor, and even such surrogates as a gay state senator from Pennsylvania.

With local media, the two words get expanded to four: "Private event: Closed Press."

Blame the Supreme Court's infamous Citizens United decision, which blew open unlimited campaign spending. But Bernie Sanders contrived to hold six open rallies in the state, and to have events in Vancouver, Spokane, Yakima and Seattle. The candidate's one fundraiser was at the Comet Tavern. (Sanders is coming back Saturday to boost U.S. House candidate Pramila Jayapal.)

The Comet Tavern has been spruced up under new owner Dave Meinert. The bathrooms are O.K. to use. Hillary Clinton ought to drop in. Bill Clinton can direct her the way around the corner to Elliott Bay Books.

It would do her good.