About when you go to see a president

Tuesday night, I had a choice: go to my book club, as I do every month, or go downtown to listen to President Clinton's speech.
Positive of going: I would see, in person, my second president (the first being the older President Bush, back when he visited Huntington with Dan "Puppy Love" Quayle in 1988).
Negatives of going: I would see, in person, a president who half the people I know hate, and would take much criticism (delivered with a smile, but sincere, nonetheless) for it.
Positive: I have book club every month, and I hadn't read this months' books anyway.
Negative: I would have to go straight downtown from work and get no dinner.
Positive: This was a Very Special Event in Fort Wayne, as usually our state is so thoroughly red that no candidates come here, and our primary is so late in the spring that races are long since decided, so it would be like being Part of History.
Negative: My mom and my mother-in-law would be mad at me, as they both hate our 42nd president.
Positive: I wanted to go, and I didn't care what other people thought anyway.
Negative: I really was a little concerned about that dinner thing.
Of course I went. And was glad I did: I love observing stuff like that. I got to stand right behind the media, and I love watching the machinations there--a few tweaks in my career, and maybe that would have been me. I had an unobstructed view of the President, as long as the TV cameras guys stayed put. I wrote in more detail about in on my other blog, Common Sensibilities; you can read it, and see some pictures, here»
[President Clinton is pretty chatty; the speech lasted the better part of an hour, I really had to pee, I was starving, and my back was killing me. It was all good, though.]
I don't know who I'll vote for in the primary--it's fun to think that for once my vote might actually mean something, so I'll weigh issues carefully before I make up my mind. Somebody's husband's speech is not going to sway me--or anyone else, I suspect. He might have motivated a few people to volunteer (not me).
And people's reactions were interesting--if I discovered half a dozen people at work who wished they could have come with me, I discovered three or four who wanted me disinfected before I came back into the building. As I told someone, "He's not the devil!" (Again, some disagreed.)
His personal choices were extremely ill-advised; his moral example, deplorable. He is not the first president, nor will he be the last, to disappoint us in his personal behavior. Still, I judge not: nor do I condone.
I just wanted to hear his speech, and be in a room of people who might think a little more like I do, than I'm usually in a room with. You know: those ones with the spray cans of Lysol who met me at the door on Wednesday.
And if any other candidates come to town, I'm there--Hillary, Barak, John McCain--sh00t, I'd go to see Ron Paul. Stuff like this just doesn't happen in Indiana.
How about you? Are you disinfecting your screen after reading this?