ABSTRACT
Once Bill Clinton had secured enough delegates to ensure the nomination, his team discussed ways to reintroduce the candidate at the Democratic National Convention. He had been a Rhodes Scholar, a graduate of a top-tier college and a famous Ivy League law school. It was easy for foes to characterize him as just another member of the elite. But while the nominee often would make reference to the iconic figures in his party—Thomas Jefferson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy—all of them born to wealth and privilege, Clinton himself had a very different life story. So his friends Harry and Linda Bloodworth Thomason, Hollywood producers (and Arkansas natives), were asked to create a seventeen-minute film to be shown to the nation before the nominating acceptance speech. It would describe Bill Clinton’s remarkable road toward the pinnacle of power. And it took its theme of hope and change from the name of the candidate’s hometown. It was called The Man from Hope.
