| President Obama applauds Bill Clinton after his speech at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night |
Please also tip your hat to Mr President Clinton's spouse, Hillary Clinton who may well now be Mrs President Clinton in 2016 .
In all my years I have never heard a better Clinton speech than what he delivered to the Democratic National Convention last night.
Barack Obama owes him big time.
The payoff for Bill Clinton is obvious. If President Obama is re-elected he is now forced to back Hillary if she runs in 2016.
Hillary was the biggest winner next to Barack Obama last night.
Though she's in China on a State Department mission, her presence loomed large in the convention hall after Bill's stemwinder.
Democrats love the old dog, especially when he is let off the porch as Clinton was last night .
Clinton recently has looked older, has lost some of his booming cadence, and sometimes sounds very weary on stage.
Last time I heard him in County Cork at the American Ireland Fund dinner there he appeared punch drunk from a long flight and gruelling schedule and I wondered if the old master was losing a step or two.
I should not have worried.
I've been listening to him and supporting him since 1990 when he was an obscure governor from Arkansas.
I always knew he could deliver a stemwinder but this DNC speech was a tsunami compared to to the minor Atlantic wave disturbances we heard from the GOP.
It hit the spot at exactly where Democrats wanted it.
For the past two years many have bemoaned the inability of leading Democrats to articulate how they feel they are being stymied and blocked at every turn by Republican extremism..
The feeling most Democrats have is that the Republicans have gone as far right as Democrats went left with George McGovern.
Most Dems I know want to cross the aisle and work together, they want to make things work, but feel that Republicans have blocked everything in sight and they are frustrated that the electorate does not see that.
Last night Clinton caught all that beautifully with his single comment that, ”We believe ‘we’re all in this together’ is a far better philosophy than ‘you’re on your own.’”
Don't just take my word for it; two battle hardened national journalists who are the last word when it comes to cynical assessment of politicians, both told me it was the best speech by Clinton they had ever heard.
And Hillary no doubt thinks so too!
Here, courtesy of Politico.com are the 15 best lines as they saw them:
1. ”We believe ‘we’re all in this together’ is a far better philosophy than ‘you’re on your own.’”
2. “Democracy does not have to be a bloodsport. It can be an honest enterprise.”
3. “Senator, I hate to break it to you, but we’re going to keep President Obama on the job!”
4. “One reason we need to reelect President Obama is he is still committed to constructive cooperation.”
5. “So here’s another jobs score: President Obama plus 4.5 million, congressional Republicans zero.”
6. “No president, no president — not me or any of my predecessors, no one, could have repaired all the damage he found in just four years. But he has laid the foundation for a new, modern, successful economy, of shared prosperity, and if you renew the President’s contract you will feel it. You will feel it.”
7. “So are we all better off because President Obama fought for health care reform? You bet we are.”
8. “When Congressman Ryan looked into that TV camera and attacked President Obama’s Medicare savings as quote ‘biggest coldest power play,’ I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Because that 716 billion dollars is exactly, to the dollar, the same amount of Medicare savings that he has in his own budget. It takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did.”
9. “You won’t be laughing when I finish telling you this.”
10. “As their campaign pollster said ‘we’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.’ Now that is true. I couldn’t say it better myself.”
11. “I think this [debt] plan is way better than Gov. Romney’s plan. First, the Romney plan fails the first test of fiscal responsibility: The numbers don’t add up.”
12. “We simply cannot afford to turn the reins of government over to someone who will double down on trickle-down.”
13. “Now people ask me all the time, how we go four surplus budgets in a row. What new ideas did we bring to Washington? I always give a one word answer: Arithmetic.”
14. “The most important question is, what kind of country do you want to live in? If you want a you’re-on-your-own, winner-take-all society, you should support the Republican ticket. If you want a country of shared prosperity and shared responsibility — a we’re-all-in-this-together society — you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.”
15. “Though I often disagree with Republicans, I actually never learned to hate them the way the far right that now controls their party seems to hate our president and a lot of other Democrats.”
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