A hushed Clinton speaks proudly of Patrick

Former president Bill Clinton rallied a crowd of about 1,200 people yesterday for Deval L. Patrick, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, raising $2 million and offering a Southern-style explanation for the attacks on Patrick by the Republican, Kerry Healey.

``When they start throwing the kind of stuff at you that they've been throwing at him, they don't do that unless they think they're going to get a big whipping laid on," Clinton said.

The former president's visit was a major moment for the Patrick campaign, which has seen its poll numbers slip after nearly a month of harsh ads and sharp rhetoric from Healey.

With Patrick standing behind him, Clinton spoke for about 28 minutes before a packed upstairs ballroom at the Westin Copley Hotel late yesterday afternoon, doting on his former assistant attorney general as if he were his own nephew.

``I'm so proud of Deval, I could practically burst," Clinton said. ``I'm sitting there listening to him speaking and I'm, `Oh, you just keep on talkin'."

Though Patrick joked that his supporters were ``the rowdiest people in Massachusetts," the crowd last night was somwhat subdued, declining to clap for some of Patrick's usual applause lines. The audience was full of graying, well-dressed donors, with fewer of the more energetic college students and ground-level activists that Patrick's crowds usually include.

But the crowd also seemed to be listening intently for some advice from Clinton, the last Democrat to win the presidency.

After Clinton told a joke about Newt Gingrich and laughter quickly hushed to silence, Clinton's voice grew very quiet, and the ballroom quieter still.

``Rowdy, rowdy, boisterous Massachusetts," he said, speaking just above a whisper. ``Look how quiet it is." He ticked off a list of states he had traveled to, campaigning in a midterm season when Republicans appear vulnerable. ``I was in New Jersey, maybe the brawliest state in American politics. Quiet as a congregation.

``You know why? Because everyone knows this is an extraordinary moment," he said, his voice hushed. ``Everybody knows that somehow the wheel has run off of our national discourse and our common life. And people don't want us to shout at each other any more. They want to be talked to, reasoned with, lifted up. Even they want arguments, but they just want to hear people talking."

A bit later, Clinton told the crowd to talk about Patrick with their neighbors, no matter what their political leanings, with the larger goal of establishing a civil conversation about politics.

``We will never make it better with the kind of stuff that we've allowed to dominate too many of our elections," he said.

``Thank you!" a woman shouted.

``You like this guy when he stands up here and talks, because he makes you feel good, he makes you feel like the best that's in your heart, the best that's in your being, the best that's in your children's future," he said. The crowd, at last, roared.

It was a message that dovetailed perfectly with Patrick's. The candidate has portrayed himself as the target of nasty ads and has cast his own campaign as taking the high road. Yesterday, Patrick poked fun at Healey, who has attacked him for his legal work on behalf of a convicted rapist and murderer.``I'm not a criminologist; I'm a prosecutor," he said, and excoriated her record on the Big Dig, the economy, and other issues.

But he also said there would be a limit to how far he would go in responding to Healey.

``I know that there are a lot of you who are worried, who say: `Here comes all the negative stuff. When is he going to hit back with his own negative ads?' And I have to tell you that is no small calculation," Patrick said. ``Because we have invited people back into political engagement by offering them something positive and hopeful. We've built it up here. I will not break faith with them."

Patrick also challenged Healey's remark that he only gives a good speech. He quoted some of history's greatest speakers.

``I am no Bill Clinton. I am no Dr. King or John Kennedy or FDR or Thomas Jefferson," Patrick said. ``But I do know the right words, spoken from the heart with conviction, because of a vision of a place just beyond our reach and a faith in the unseen, are a call to action," Patrick went on. ``That's what I'm asking you to do: Take action."

The Patrick campaign and the state party collected big money from the Clinton visit. The Patrick campaign said it expected to pull in about $2 million from Clinton's visit, which was preceded by a reception for about 100 large donors and followed by a thank-you dinner for the biggest fund-raisers.

The campaign said it was the largest fund-raiser for Patrick since he announced his candidacy.

Senators Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry spoke, as did Patrick's running mate, Mayor Timothy P. Murray of Worcester. Said Kerry: "Kerry Healey's ads are something . . . I haven't seen something like that for two years."

``Clinton boiled it down to what it was all about," said Stewart Clifford, 45, a training video producer from the South End. ``We have to be focused on the future."