William Jefferson Clinton was elected president of the United States in 1992 and re-elected in 1996, putting an exclamation point on his popularity in American history. Whether you're a Republican or Democrat, it is hard to argue the fact that under President Clinton's 8-year term that America enjoyed years of remarkable progress and prosperity. His success in the office was countered by a dark cloud that continued to follow him throughout his term, sex scandals.

       While his actions were wrong, the scandals were sad witch-hunts that cost millions of dollars just to prove he was an unfaithful husband. These scandals tarnished his legacy quite a bit, but we were able to look past these faults and see the good that he did for this country and for this reason he has become one of our favorite American presidents.

       Sterling and Earl weren't even planning to go on an autograph hunt on this particular day. President Bill Clinton was in town, but each of us was still fairly new to the autograph game and didn't know how to get tickets to this event. We didn't try that hard because we figured it was too crowded at the event already and our chances of getting close were next to nothing.

       Instead we were planning to go see a sneak peak at a local theatre, until Earl's Mom called with an update on President Clinton. She found out that he would be staying at a familiar hotel that night. Movies can wait, but a chance like this doesn't come a long everyday so we headed to the hotel.

       The hotel was buzzing with people waiting for Mr. Clinton to arrive and seeing this made us feel better about the situation. There weren't too many people, but at least we knew he was indeed staying there for the night. Everyone waited and waited, but there was still no sign or indication of Mr. Clinton. One of the hotel personnel told everyone that there were no guarantees Clinton would show up, but they were still planning for his arrival. It was getting really late or should I say early (it was about 1:00am) and other onlookers were leaving, so we also decided to call it a night as well. Did he ever show up? We may never know, but it is very unlikely.

       You know what they say, "if at first you don't succeed try and try again". We were at it again because President Bill Clinton's autograph has always been one of our most sought after. Trying to meet the President of the United States of America, even former, is definitely a difficult task. Up to this point, we had been 0-2 when trying to meet former Presidents and have only been successful in obtaining President's autographs before they take office -during political rallies.

       It was the 2004 election and it was promising to be a tight race involving President George W. Bush versus Senator John Kerry. Bill Clinton is still extremely popular among citizens and was hitting the road to help draw support to fellow Democratic candidate John Kerry. Earl quickly snatched up some tickets so we could attend, but getting an autograph would require much more work. Considering this was Halloween, we hoped we would end up with a treat instead of a trick after this autograph hunt was over.

       We arrived at the venue extremely early because getting spots at the barrier is critical to obtaining autographs at political rallies. Surprisingly there were many others with the exact same intention and it was frustrating because the people responsible for planning the event were unprepared.

       There were no signs/event staff informing people where to wait and as a result everyone was sort of grouped randomly all over the place. The man running the event kept telling all of us to wait in one location, only to change his mind a few minutes later. This was infuriating because people that had been there early in the day kept losing their great spots and positions in line. All of us were now squished together trying to secure positions to get in the gates quicker.

       Fellow autograph collector Newt was there and said he had tried to get President Clinton's autograph one day previous in another city, but he didn't sign for anyone. This is what we had expected, but this was a new day. All of us were pissed off once again when the event organizer went over to everyone's original spot and re-opened it, this guy seriously sucked. The gates finally opened and they said if everyone pushed and shoved that they would close them immediately.

       It was also weird because they were not giving pat downs or using metal detectors, which is a first at these rallies (I guess it just proves how unorganized these people were). Earl squeezed his way into the area first and ran over to secure spots at the barrier in front of the stage, which he did. We had pretty great spots at the front of barrier and would have a good shot of asking for an autograph if President Clinton walked the lines.

       We were keeping our fingers crossed and anxiously awaited his arrival. As we were standing there, we noticed one of the organizers collecting some books of Clinton's and were immediately curious as to why. It turned out that he was bringing them back stage because President Clinton agreed to sign on this visit. Each of us tried to get the man's attention in time, but we were too late.

       This was very disheartening because we felt our chances had just flown out the window. After listening to a local band, they brought out special musical guest Linda Ronstadt -which was a cool bonus. Ronstadt opened with a traditional Mexican ballad as well as her big hit "Desperado." Unfortunately she didn't sign any autographs, but she wasn't whom we were there to meet anyway.

       Then came the moment everyone had been waiting for... the introduction of former President Bill Clinton! He made his way to the stage and it was just cool getting to see him in person. President Clinton really does have the kind of great charisma that he is known for. He was a fantastic speaker and even a bad microphone couldn't rattle Clinton. "Are the Republican's running the sound system?" Bill Clinton chuckled.

       Clinton told the crowd that if not for the war and people's fear this election would be a route. In mentioning incidents of Republican efforts to reduce voter turnout, he spoke of a "Clinton Law of politics": "If one candidate wants you to vote," Clinton said, "and one candidate wants you not to vote. You better vote for the candidate who wants you to vote!" It was a good speech and his words really seemed to rally the supporters behind John Kerry.

       We held our breath after the speech, hoping that he would work the crowd and at first it didn't look too promising because he just stood there clapping to the music on stage. Then he took off his coat and came down ready to greet all of the supporters. He was getting closer and closer, during this time each of us was preparing for the encounter. A man a little in front of President Clinton saw Sterling's picture and Sharpie and said, "Put that away, he is not signing... If I see it again I'll take them away".

       This was startling and put a stake through our lil' autograph collector hearts. Sterling listened to the grumpy man and since he couldn't get an autograph he asked Earl to quickly take some shots of President Clinton making his way to Sterling. The crowd behind us was squeezing us in, so Earl did the best he could in the chaos of the crowd. Before we knew it President Clinton was shaking each of our hands and the hands of supporters behind us.

       He was shaking hands like crazy and Earl kept saying, "Mr. Clinton", and finally got his attention. Bill looked down and saw Earl's photograph and said, "You want me to sign that?" and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out Earl's answer. Earl handed his photograph and binder to his secret service and Bill said, "They will take that and get it back to you". This was great news for Earl, but when he looked back at Sterling to celebrate he noticed that Sterling still had his photo in his hands. Of course Earl would try and help out his bud, so he stopped our local congressman and said, "Can you please give this photo to them? They forgot to take it".

       The congressman kept dancing around answering the question by saying, "Yep, he's the man" pointing to Bill Clinton's picture. Earl didn't give up however and persisted that the congressman hand it to the secret service and he said, "I'll see what I can do". One of President Clinton's henchmen overheard this and agreed to take Sterling's photograph as well and we thanked our congressman/henchman for their help. Now our autograph chances depended solely on the trust of Clinton and his associates.

       We did take some comfort in the fact that we included (with the pictures) an index card with our names/addresses on it, just incase they needed to mail them. Clinton continued on his way shaking hands and greeting the legion of supporters, but this didn't last forever and he made his way into the secured building. People that had handed over their items had no idea where to wait, until a Bill Clinton associate informed everyone where their items would be dropped off. He said Bill was now sitting down and signing everything and they would bring things out as he signed them. Newt didn't even attempt to hand President Clinton anything because of his experience the day before and was now pissed because it looked like he was indeed signing everything.

       Our fingers were crossed and it wasn't long until a couple of people came out holding a stack of books and everyone jumped the barrier and met them halfway. We knew we had to get there fast because people tend to steal items that are not claimed right away (cough cough Al Gore/Wes Clark encounters). Our things weren't in the first three or so arrivals, but we finally spotted Earl's binder under a stack of things being brought out.

       Each of us ran up and were so happy to see that both of our pictures were SIGNED and inscribed!!! Since we included index cards with descriptions of the pictures it allowed President Clinton to personalize them using our first and last name, which is awesome. Upon seeing this, Newt freaked out and could only kick himself in the butt for not asking Bill Clinton. A couple of fans, as we were leaving, were upset because someone had stolen one of their signed books and that's why it is important to get there fast. This was a fantastic success and we sure went home happy.