Clinton gets a Magic boost in L.A.

Barack Obama’s name was never mentioned. In the meeting room at King/Drew Magnet High School in Willowbrook, the word on everyone’s lips as they lauded Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday was experience.

“On a championship team, we need experience; we need a veteran,” Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat, said of Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.). “We need someone who’s been through a championship game, played at a championship level.”

Former Los Angeles Laker Earvin “Magic” Johnson, whose formal endorsement of Clinton was the campaign’s news of the day, furthered the argument.

“The president that we have in there now has gotten us so far in debt,” Johnson said. “We need an experienced person to get us out of debt.”

Although the name of Sen. Obama (D-Ill.) was not uttered, he was the clear subtext to Clinton’s appearance before several hundred community leaders and students, most of them African American. The implicit message to the audience and to those who might see broadcasts -- 10 TV cameras were present -- was that Clinton’s experience trumped any emotional tug from the man running to be the first black president.

There were repeated references to her work as a poverty lawyer, her many visits here, her partnership with Bill Clinton -- who is still popular among black voters -- and her three decades in public life. The unspoken contrast: Obama’s eight years in the Illinois state Senate and less than three in national office.

The event itself, with Johnson embracing Clinton figuratively and literally, was meant to bolster the idea that she passes muster.

“He’s an icon to a lot of blacks, not just as an African American but as a sports star, and he’s got crossover appeal to nonblacks,” said Garry South, a veteran Democratic consultant who is not aligned in the 2008 race.

Although endorsements like Johnson’s rarely make a huge difference, “voters do take cues and clues from popular figures about the acceptability of candidates running for public office,” South said. “So this is sending signals. It’s about sending messages.”

It was also about money, with a fundraiser Friday night for Clinton at the Beverly Hills home of Johnson and his wife, Cookie. Campaign officials said several hundred were invited, with tickets $500 each. The gathering was the oddly logical bookend to last Saturday’s fundraiser for Obama hosted by Oprah Winfrey.

The earlier event at King/Drew high school -- across the street from the controversial medical center -- drew invited guests and dozens of students, with cheerleaders opening the program and a gospel choir closing it.

Clinton made note in her speech of the hospital, which last month lost its federal funding and was forced to close.

“Part of why I’m running for president is to make sure that nobody feels invisible anymore,” Clinton said. “If you don’t have healthcare, and you don’t know where to go, and your hospital closes, you sure feel invisible, don’t you?”

Questioners -- including one who prefaced his query with the comment “By the way, you’re extremely attractive” -- broached subjects including prison budgets, mortgage rates, faith-based initiatives and discrimination. Clinton repeatedly reached back to her husband’s administration, noting to the approving nods of several preachers onstage that he had -- with her praise -- funded the first joint federal-church initiatives.

She alluded to her failed effort to overhaul healthcare, promising to get it right as president, and she returned again and again to advocating education that begins before kindergarten, stretches through college and expands teacher training.

“It takes a village to make sure every child gets an education,” she said, riffing on the title of her 1996 book.

To a student who asked about unequal opportunities for schoolchildren in poor communities, she responded: “Anybody who tells you there’s no longer discrimination in America is not living with their eyes open.”

As popular as Clinton was with the audience, she met her match in Johnson, who drew raucous cheers from students who were youngsters when he retired from the Lakers for the last time in 1996.

So it was left to him to charge up the crowd as the event ended.

“Remember that this is not the first time that the senator is in our community; this is not the first time that she’s come and supported people of all colors,” he said. “She has been about young people -- she has been about poor people, middle-class people -- her whole life.”

“Thirty years of experience,” he said as the crowd cheered. “She’s the most qualified candidate in this race.”

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cathleen.decker@latimes.com