WATERLOO, Iowa — It’s probably only something a preacher could do — get a former president, namely Bill Clinton, to give him his necktie. 
 
In snowy Waterloo, while Bill and Hillary Clinton attended church services at the Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church, the pastor, Frantz Whitfield, spoke of the Christmas season of giving and apparently noticed the former president’s rather striking, red necktie.
 
He went on to describe a show he had seen recently on the cable music television channel VH-1 that mentioned Clinton once giving up something valuable, one of his neckties.
 
“You know I do like neckties,” Whitfield said from the pulpit and looking over toward the former president. “This is the Christmas season. President Clinton, I’m not making you do anything … but if you just so decide …” the preacher said to peals of laughter and applause from the audience. 
 
But it apparently was a hard sell. Clinton got up and gave a five-minute speech introducing his wife without referring to Whitfield’s Christmas gift idea. 
 
Hillary Clinton walked to the podium and before her husband could sit down she gestured for him to take off the tie and give it to the pastor, prompting thunderous applause from the crowd.

As the service broke up, Whitfield quipped to congregants: “I’m going to wear my new tie tonight at our Christmas program.” 

– Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young