Bill Clinton

Coffee drinkers in Mount Vernon were graced Tuesday night with the presence of an ex-president: Bill Clinton apparently had to stop by Starbucks while in town for a talk at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Marcel Jagne-Shaw (@JagneShaw), who lived in Clinton's home state for five years, was studying late when he ran into the man himself. "I was preoccupied & caught off guard, I shoulda hollered out I was from Arkansas too Lol. Really down to earth tho," he tweeted. In case you're curious, Jagne-Shaw said he thought Clinton ordered a grande macchiato.

It's probably cranky of me to complain about the solicitude of journalists who write for me as if I were on the brink of senile dementia, but sometimes they just explain too much. What I have in mind is Pointless Then-ness. You see it all the time. "In 1996, then-President Bill Clinton appointed ... " Now, if I were in fact on the brink of senile dementia, I might still imagine that Bill Clinton is president. Or if I were one of the besotted Democrats watching the party's recent national convention, I might wish  that Bill Clinton were still president.

Former President Bill Clinton will headline a fundraiser this month for John Delaney, the Democratic candidate running for Congress in Maryland's competitive 6th District. For Delaney, the visit couldn't be better timed. Clinton is riding a renewed wave of popularity among Democrats after his performance at his party's convention in Charlotte. The event will take place in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 16, The Sun has learned. Clinton endorsed Delaney in the primary in early March -- one of a series of announcements at that time that helped the Potomac businessman build momentum and ultimately shift from the underdog to the front-runner in the race against state Sen. Rob Garagiola.

The Obama re-election team must be in panic mode. The president is stuck in a virtual tie with Mitt Romney in some polls and behind him in others, so in desperation it has reached out to the Big Dog, Bill Clinton, for help. Mr. Clinton will speak next month at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., in a Wednesday night position often reserved for the vice presidential nominee. Presidents Obama and Clinton have not had the most cordial relationship, but when you're drowning, your feelings about the lifeguard matter less than his ability to keep you afloat.

Watching Bill Clinton act as Barack Obama's "No. 1 surrogate," in the words of National Public Radio, is as exquisitely painful as watching a runaway monkey with a paintball gun at a museum. Most of the pundits have focused on Mr. Clinton's motivations for refusing to read his lines from the White House script. That's understandable, given that Mr. Clinton is a one-man reality show whose diversity of motives makes the ladies of the "Real Housewives" franchise seem nun-like in their simplicity.

Bill's coming! Former President Bill Clinton will headline Stevenson University's just-announced speakers series. He'll open the 2012-2013 series on Oct. 16 with a talk about the challenge of globalization. Here's the rest of the university's lineup, announced Wednesday: Oct. 30 - Author Jeanette Walls, best known for her best-selling memoir “The Glass Castle.” Nov. 27 - Lisa Ling, a former correspondent for "The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Isaac Cate Lycett, a retired engraver of social stationery who produced the invitations for Bill Clinton's presidential inaugurations, died Tuesday of a heart attack at his Delta, Pa., home. He was 84 and had a second home on Mount Vernon Place. Born in Baltimore and raised in Owings Mills, he was a 1945 McDonogh School graduate. He became a Navy pilot and after his military service earned a bachelor's degree at Haverford College. He joined the family business, originally founded on Pratt Street as a book bindery by London immigrant Edward Lycett in 1835.

Bill Clinton has some advice for Democrats heading into the 2012 elections, and you don't have to read very far into his new book to realize that what he has to say should be of particular interest to the current occupant of the White House. The former president thinks President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats have the right policies but have done a poor job of getting their message out. Mr. Clinton is worried that if that doesn't change, the Democrats will face another Republican shellacking like the one they endured in 2010.

In a political climate where President Obama has gotten dinged for "playing the race card" when he acknowledged taking offense at being described as "uppity" by Republicans, I guess it's only fair to ding Herman Cain for playing the race card over accusations that he sexually harassed female employees when he headed the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s. Never mind that some white politicians have been chastised for similar offenses. Mr. Cain's fellow Republican, Newt Gingrich, was roundly criticized for his serial marriages, although it doesn't seem to have hurt his career much.

When it comes to sex, the media apply different standards to Republicans and Democrats. Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton allegedly trolled for women, using state troopers as his procurers. As president, mr. Clinton engaged in oral sex with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office. He lied about it under oath and was impeached, though later acquitted by the U.S. Senate. Other sexual accusations tainted Mr. Clinton. That "everybody lies about sex" and "it was just sex" and didn't affect his public responsibilities, were just two of the exculpatory statements from Mr. Clinton's Democratic defenders.