SanFranChron Former president at Cow Palace

John Wildermuth, Chronicle Political Writer Wednesday, June 20, 2001

Former President Bill Clinton traveled to Daly City for a quick payday yesterday, sharing the Cow Palace stage with a traveling road show of infomercial hucksters, second-tier sports figures and out-of-work politicians.

Clinton, who collects a reported $100,000 or more for a speech, headlined a sold-out lunch for 1,000 people at the Success 2001 business seminar. He also gave a 35-minute talk to the more than 4,000 people who paid up to $225 each for a long day of motivational speeches.

Although Clinton may be out of office, his popularity has hardly waned in the Bay Area. At lunch and in the arena, he was greeted with cheers, whistles and standing ovations.

"The confetti, the music and the greeting made me almost feel like I was campaigning again," an upbeat Clinton told the crowd.

But the aging Cow Palace is a definite step down from the elegant San Francisco hotels and sprawling Silicon Valley mansions where Clinton spent his Bay Area visits as president.

Yesterday's luncheon was in the arena's North Hall, a room with cracked concrete floors and painted metal girders that normally hosts baseball card shows, computer sales and motorcycle swap meets. Instead of the well-heeled donors and party regulars who attended Clinton's $10,000-a-plate campaign galas, the $75 lunch brought a crowd of office workers, salespeople and would-be entrepreneurs, many attending on their employers' dime.

The ex-president was the day's main attraction for Sonia Barwick, one of six workers from the Blackstone Winery in Graton.

"I'm really looking forward to this," she said as she braved the long line to get into the lunch. "I've never had a chance to hear him, and I want to see him. He has a charismatic personality."

Clinton follows other former presidents who have spoken at the business success seminars, said Billy Barber, a spokesman for Tampa-based Peter Lowe International, which puts on about 25 of the events each year.

"We had former President Reagan in 1993 and have also had Gerald Ford and George Bush Sr.," Barber said. "The event is a mix of motivational, inspirational and educational speakers. We bring in people who have been highly successful in their chosen careers."

The local event combined seminar circuit regulars, like motivational guru Zig Ziglar, sales trainer Tom Hopkins and Lowe himself, with former GOP presidential hopeful Elizabeth Dole and local figures like San Francisco 49er quarterback Jeff Garcia and Oakland Raider coach Jon Gruden. Other speakers gave their tips for becoming rich from stocks or real estate, all while pushing their pricey private training seminars, coming soon to hotel near you.

But celebrities like Clinton -- or former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, also a veteran of the success seminars -- give the event a special cachet.

"I'm here for work, but I'm really interested in hearing Clinton," said Michele Abrahams of Lafayette. "He made it more important, more attractive."

Clinton himself may be a bit chagrined about the company he's keeping on the lecture circuit. His contract with the promoters specified that no reporters, photographers or TV crews were to be allowed into the event.

"Normally we want you guys to cover this," Patrick Caterson, a spokesman for Peter Lowe International, told reporters outside the Cow Palace. "But we have to honor our contract with ex-President Clinton.

Clinton joined the seminar for a stop in Pittsburgh last week and will be with them in Chicago in the fall.

Reporters who found their way into the arena heard Clinton introduced as "a man who has proved to us all that the American Dream is still alive."

Clinton set the crowd roaring when he told them "I never would have become president without California" and said he was enjoying the chance to walk through airports, something he didn't do much as president.

"Now you get to see all the people who voted for you and never thought they'd meet you and those who voted against you and are glad you're gone," he said.

In a rambling speech, Clinton recalled how President John Kennedy had announced his plan for the Peace Corps in a speech at the Cow Palace in 1960, talked about a 1985 Tina Turner concert he went to in Little Rock and warned that the same technology that made ever tinier cell phones "can make weapons of mass destruction that are smaller and harder to detect."

He admitted the hue-and-cry over his family's Whitewater investments "drove me nuts for about 2 1/2 years" and said that when he made the unpopular decision to approve a financial bailout for Mexico in 1995, "what I knew that (the public) didn't was that Mexico only had 48 hours to live, financially."

Clinton also talked about the skills that are needed for a political leader, including the knowledge that "the microphone is your friend."

"But those skills only count in the end if they are applied to good causes and noble aims," he warned.

In the six months since he left office, Clinton has used his own skills largely to start cleaning up his financial affairs, including an estimated $4 million he owes in legal bills. Speeches he made during a two-week swing through Europe last month reportedly earned him more than $1 million, while he is expected to make millions more when he signs a deal for his memoirs later this year.

E-mail John Wildermuth at jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com

-- Anonymous, June 20, 2001