The Nineties: A Book

by Chuck Klosterman

When impressionists (and especially lazy impressionists) delivered their comedic interpretation of Clinton, the phrase they always used was “I feel your pain,” expressed with a sympathetic Southern drawl. It became the Clintonian trademark, even though the origin of the phrase is unrelated to how it came to define him. It appears that Clinton literally said “I feel your pain” only once, at a fundraiser in the spring of 1992, angrily responding to an AIDS activist named Bob Rafsky[*] who accused Clinton of not caring enough about the AIDS crisis. Clinton says these four words loudly and emphatically, a little mad at the guy for questioning the sincerity of his sentiments. It’s strange that people would later see this phrase as Clinton feigning sympathy he never feigned, but that’s the nature of memory.