Ear to the ground

“There’s nothing wrong with Durango that double-digit interest rates and three big winters won’t solve.”

-A local man offering up his solution to Durango’s growth woes

Radio Clinton

Mr. Bill paid Durango an on-air visit early this week. KDUR-Fort Lewis College Community Radio landed an interview with former President Bill Clinton on Super Tuesday, as he campaigned in support of his wife, Hillary.

Nancy Stoffer, KDUR station manager, welcomed Clinton and then got things off to a light-hearted start, saying, “If you were here today, you’d be up to your sweet bippie in snow.”

The former president replied that he’d actually had a little taste of the white stuff recently. “I was in a snowstorm in Colorado,” he said. “I had to land in a snowstorm. I didn’t think anyone would come out to Hillary’s rally, but we had several thousand people there in the snow. I was proud of them for braving the weather, but I guess you’re used to it aren’t you?”

The discussion then turned to more serious topics – health care, climate change and economics. “There’s so much at stake here,” Clinton told KDUR’s on-air listeners. “We have a very, very serious economic situation in America. We have this mortgage crisis to deal with. We have to make a commitment to a clean, independent energy future that will not only fight global warming but will create millions of jobs.”

Clinton then proclaimed that Hillary is the most electable candidate, predicting that she will be atop the Democratic ticket in November.

“She will win a big general election victory, I think, if she can be nominated,” he said. “That’s why the Republicans have tried so hard to beat her in the general election primary. That’s why a lot of the Republican-leaning cable networks have been kind of tough on her.”

Following a battery of questions, Stoffer got personal with Bill, asking him how he would deal with making history as the White House’s first, First Man. “Bill, as First Man, will you redecorate?”

Clinton almost got the joke and replied, “If it needs doing, and they want me to do it. I’m pretty good at it, actually.”

Stoffer closed out the interview by extending an invite to Clinton to visit and sit in at KDUR as a guest DJ. The former president nearly accepted.

Unfortunately for Bill and Hillary, the interview wasn’t enough to sway local Democrats. Following Tuesday’s caucus, Barack Obama carried La Plata County.