On the subject of in-person vs on-TV appearance, I also saw Clinton live, giving an impromptu/short-notice speech on the beach in Waikiki, shortly after he took office. Quite rousing. He wowed folks when he passed a Japanese couple who had just gotten married, and congratulated them in Japanese. Everybody thought, "hey, we actually have a guy with a clue in office for once!"
I also saw Papa Bush give a speech in person shortly after he became vice-president. In the primaries, he had seemed relatively articulate and intelligent, coining the phrase "voodoo economics" to attack Reagan's economic policies. Of course, once he became Reagan's running mate, he just rolled over and said, "hey, whatever the Big Guys says sounds good to me." In person, he seemed even more weak and spineless than he did on TV at that point. Someone in the crowd asked him about his flip-flop on economic policy, and he just stammered out some evasion in reply. You'd think his handlers would have at least had a snappy comeback prepared for that predictable one. I think his spirit and will were crushed by that period of subservience, and he never really recovered even after he became president in his own right.
Didn't he lose in his home state? What we have here is another Al Gore, who even lost Tennessee. 
