In CHARLOTTE — Here strode Bill Clinton onto the national convention stage once again, the Democratic man for all reasons.
Twelve years out of office but still and always ready to be needed, he took to prime time as master explainer and policy clarifier, party morale booster extraordinaire, voice of experience, historian longing for the old days of political bipartisanship, earnest economics instructor, hoarse whisperer to the middle class, and empathetic testifier for President Obama, who came to the Democratic National Convention arena on Wednesday night to watch as the former president placed his name in nomination.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bill Clinton took to the stage Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention to reassure Americans about President Obama’s leadership in tough economic times. And he did that, pointing especially to the tough hand Obama was dealt.But the former president’s most important lines of the night came when he took aim at the opposition party that he once worked successfully with in the White House: the Republicans.Littered throughout Clinton’s speech were sharp jabs at the GOP. And each one of them was delivered with an easy smile on his face that belied the stark charges.At one point, the president even accused Republicans of hating the current president.“I never hated Republicans the way some of them hate our president now,” Clinton said.Clinton also posited that the Republican plan would make Medicare go “broke by 2016″ and fact-checked GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan’s speech at last week’s Republican convention, noting that Ryan criticized the same Obama Medicare cuts that were contained in his own House GOP budget. (The Romney-Ryan campaign now says they would restore those cuts.)“You gotta give him one thing: It takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did,” Clinton said in one of many moments in the speech during which he departed from his prepared remarks.That was one of several zingers in the speech, in which Clinton fleshed out a line of attack that labels Republicans as the founders of the economic hardships that have plagued Obama’s presidency.“We simply cannot afford to give the reins of government to someone who will double down on trickle-down” economics, Clinton said.Earlier, he offered this take on the GOP’s campaign strategy: “We left (Obama) a total mess, he hasn’t cleaned it up fast enough, so fire him and put us back in.”The former president’s role as attack dog is notable. Generally, such partisan warfare is reserved for lower-profile speakers and vice presidential nominees — people less worried about harming their own political brand and who are essentially taking one for the team.
But Clinton, whose speaking skills are unrivaled in today’s politics and whose political brand is better than ever before and perhaps stronger than any politician, did so with grace and avoided coming across as angry, even while he lodged some very strong accusations.
