After all that, the old bastard delivers not only a much better speech than many had feared, but the best speech of the convention to date - some are saying the best speech he's ever made.
He gave a convincing endorsement of Obama, made believable by a reference to his own critics in 1992, when many said he didn't have the experience to be president. Indeed, he made the best case for Obama that anyone has made yet this week.
But the endorsement was just a part of it; he also offered an intelligent, passionate critique of where the current administration has gone wrong, and what America must do to restore its reputation in the world. Displaying his adroit grasp of chiasmus, he said: "People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power".
Some of the sharpest of his media critics, like Michael Tomasky, Andrew Sullivan, and Jonathan Chait are bowled over (Chait says, "now I understand why Hillary stuck with him all those years.")
How does he do it? How does he turn on a dime like this? I think he works out what the best thing to do is, politically, and then he diverts his his surging, powerful competitive instincts into the most productive direction.
He loved Hillary's speech last night. But he couldn't bear the thought of it being acclaimed as the most memorable Clinton speech of the convention.
Apparently, he won't be attending Obama's speech tonight. But as he flies off to wherever he's going, he'll be muttering under his breath, beat that, kid.
"How does he do it? How does he turn on a dime like this? I think he works out what the best thing to do is, politically, and then he diverts his his surging, powerful competitive instincts into the most productive direction.
Refer back to Occam's Razor: the correct answer is that Bill and Hillary Clinton are incredible people and that despite all the hatred heaped at them during this primary they were able to forgive and move on and re-dedicate themselves to the task of improving the lives of Americans and doing right by our country. Clinton-haters have always had this image in their heads of the Clintons as cold, calculating and power-hungry. Consider for a moment that they never wanted power for power's sake, but only in furtherance of very important issues. I think people should be grateful for the decades of service this couple has given us and for all the good things President Clinton did when he was in office, and the disrespect shown to him is appalling.
Posted by: Justin | August 28, 2008 at 01:08 PM