Bill Clinton Picks Mo Club Over DQ and Rumors? What Was He Thinking?

President Bill Clinton's visit to Madison Saturday was a thrill. But why on earth couldn't we get him to stop by the world-famous Madison Dairy Queen for a cheeseburger, or mosey over to the Four Corners for a beverage and and maybe a sax jam? Madison was his fifth and final stop of the day -- he had to be hankerin' for a good meal and a cool drink.

Alas, President Clinton took his supper dollars elsewhere... to Missoula, Montana! I just heard an NPR interview with a Missoula bookstore owner who says the 42nd President stopped in the Mo Club for supper Saturday night. The Missoulian offers more details on the President's night on the town:

The Saturday night bar crowd at the Mo Club took a double take when a big white-haired man walked into the iconic watering hole around 9 p.m. surrounded by a posse of unusually serious men.

All sorts of people frequent the infamous downtown Missoula bar, but never a president.

“That's Bill Clinton. That's really Bill Clinton,” went the murmurs, mushrooming as they hopscotched down the barstools....

He ordered a Mo burger and a beer, and ate it standing up in the back of the bar while talking with the enthusiastic patrons, many of whom pulled out their cell phones and asked to snap his photograph.

Clinton was so accommodating, Schulte said, that he posed for a picture with all the Mo Club bartenders, and after all the meeting and greeting, the former president ordered the bar a round of Washington Red Apples - a concoction of schnapps, whiskey and cranberry juice.

The shots went out to about 70 people, Schulte said.

[Betsy Cohen, "Mo Club Gets Surprise Visit from Clinton," The Missoulian, 2008.06.03]

And here I thought the President skipped DQ just because, as one of his staffers told us Saturday night, Clinton is watching his diet. Yeah, right!

O.K., Madison, time for some planning. Having the President here is all good and fine, but the next time the President of the United States visits Madison (at current rates, that should be in 2047), we're getting a committee together and getting her/him/whoever to stay for dinner.