Former President Clinton spoke this evening and as usual it was a superb delivery. With the passing of former President Reagan, there is probably nobody out there who can deliver a speech like Clinton does. He can bring a crowd to their feet and hold them in the palm of his hand.
I also thought he did a much better job of supporting Senator Obama. While some suggested that Hillary did the best she could in terms of offering support for Obama, it seems Bill was able to find more ways to do it.
He directly addressed the issues of experience and made some very effective arguments about why he thinks Obama is the best choice and why he is ready to lead:
He has a remarkable ability to inspire people, to raise our hopes and rally us to high purpose. He has the intelligence and curiosity every successful President needs. His policies on the economy, taxes, health care and energy are far superior to the Republican alternatives. He has shown a clear grasp of our foreign policy and national security challenges, and a firm commitment to repair our badly strained military. His family heritage and life experiences have given him a unique capacity to lead our increasingly diverse nation and to restore our leadership in an ever more interdependent world. The long, hard primary tested and strengthened him. And in his first presidential decision, the selection of a running mate, he hit it out of the park.
With Joe Biden’s experience and wisdom, supporting Barack Obama’s proven understanding, insight, and good instincts, America will have the national security leadership we need.
Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world. Ready to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. Barack Obama is ready to be President of the United States.
That seems to me a much stronger statement of support than Senator Clinton was able to deliver last night.
I do take exception with the next part of his remarks when he called on the need to fight diseases like AIDS and TB overseas. While President Bush has many faults, he has been stronger than any other President in providing help to Africa.
Following the theme of many speakers, he paid tribute to Senator McCain as a good man who is wrong on the key issues. I think this is a good tactic for the Democrats despite those who consider it flawed.
He then got into the red meat section of the speech where he attacked the GOP record over the last 8 years and suggested that McCain would be more of the same.
They took us from record surpluses to an exploding national debt; from over 22 million new jobs down to 5 million; from an increase in working family incomes of $7,500 to a decline of more than $2,000; from almost 8 million Americans moving out of poverty to more than 5 and a half million falling into poverty – and millions more losing their health insurance.
He concluded his remarks by a traditional Clinton rallying cry for everyone to unite and support Obama/Biden in November and brought the room to their feet.
Or at least most of the room.
One of the great advantages of the modern DVR is the ability to rewind live television and it allowed me to notice something interesting. Of all the people in the arena there seemed to be two who were not especially happy with the address.
Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama.
Each time the cameras panned to either woman during an applause line it seemed to me that their applause and reaction was quite strained. Neither seemed really pleased to be there or with what Bill was saying.
Hillary had her standard fake smile that she always seems to have when Bill is speaking and given the somewhat-rocky history between them I can understand why she probably is not his biggest fan.
But Michelle Obama seemed to be quite unhappy as well. Perhaps the reports of things Bill supposedly said are still not resting well with her.
Again overall it was a great speech, better than Hillary’s in my view but it was also interesting to read the faces in the crowd and find that perhaps things are not quite as happy as they seem between the Clintons and the Obamas or indeed the Clintons themselves.
Admittedly probably not going to impact the campaign much, but it was interesting to see.