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Bill Clinton
BILL CLINTON....Ezra has his choice for the best passage in Bill Clinton's speech here, but my favorite was this bit:
On the two great questions of this election — how to rebuild the American dream and how to restore America's leadership in the world — [John McCain] still embraces the extreme philosophy that has defined his party for more than 25 years.And it is, to be fair to all the Americans who aren't as hard-core Democrats as we, it's a philosophy the American people never actually had a chance to see in action fully until 2001, when the Republicans finally gained control of both the White House and the Congress.
Then we saw what would happen to America if the policies they had talked about for decades actually were implemented. And look what happened.
They took us from record surpluses to an exploding debt; from over 22 million new jobs to just 5 million; from increasing working families' incomes to nearly $7,500 a year to a decline of more than $2,000 a year; from almost 8 million Americans lifted out of poverty to more than 5.5 million driven into poverty; and millions more losing their health insurance.
Now, in spite of all this evidence, their candidate is actually promising more of the same.
Think about it: more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that will swell the deficit, increase inequality, and weaken the economy; more Band-Aids for health care that will enrich insurance companies, impoverish families, and increase the number of uninsured; more going it alone in the world, instead of building the shared responsibilities and shared opportunities necessary to advance our security and restore our influence.
They actually want us to reward them for the last eight years by giving them four more.
Italics mine. Overall it was, of course, a great speech. The guy's a natural. And that line about people the world over being "more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power"? Pure Bill.
UPDATE: Jeez, I stepped out for a few minutes and missed John Kerry's speech, but everyone says it was great too. I'll try to catch it online later.
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"more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power" is a pretty righteous example of chiasmus.
More like this, please, Bill--and the rest of the Dems--and less like, well, like what Bill has been up to all too often recently. Probably the most gifted and infuriating politician of my generation.
This election SHOULD be about the GOP. Instead, they've already succeeded in making it about Barak "?" Obama. With a little too much of Obama's help over the last 6-8 weeks. Bill and Hillary put the focus back on the GOP and it needs to stay there for the next 9 weeks. Let's put that war chest to work Barry.
Kranko--righteous indeed. Exquisitely mocked in the person of The Sphinx in Mystery Men. But hey, when it works it works. And that one works.
I agree that it was a great speech and the segment you cited was one of the best.
The quote "more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power" is a quote that I think will age well and become a famous, or at least historic, quote.
The section Kevin excerpted should be turned into a 30 sec ad and shown every day until the election.
yeah, Kerry was great. you could tell he takes it personally when the GOP questions our patriotism. he was all fired up.
Bravo Bill Clinton! Plenty of that speech, including much of the praise of BObama, seemed not just outstanding rhetoric but also genuinely believed.
Now I'm hoping that BObama will rip into McCain a bit tomorrow night. (Even odds we'll hear the words "liar" or "lie" at least once.)
..and less like, well, like what Bill has been up to all too often recently.
I never found BC's behaviour during the primaries to be particularly egregious. They were tightly contested, he's an extremely keen political observer, and sometimes his observations were stated in a sketchy way.
Agreed regarding that section of the speech. When I heard it I thought it was a pithy summation. I agree with arkie - show it every day until election day.
I'm with Kranko as to the best line.
They don't call him the Big Dawg for nothing. Triple crown. Bill, Kerry and Biden.
Yeah, Kerry's speech was great. go listen to it!
What? No talk of "dog whistles" and other nonsense from the frothy, empty-headed denizens of the internet? Maybe this is what Clinton should have done from the start of the campaign: travel the country telling people how qualified and experienced and ready to lead Obama is. It might -- might, mind you -- have kept some of the looniest (and most cowardly -- read: Drum) elements of the Dem party from screaming nonsense themselves for the better part of two years. But probably not. They'd just scream that he wasn't telling people how experienced and qualified and ready to lead Obama was enough. And then they'd say it doesn't matter, because he's a closet Republican and a "Republican lite," and it was all some sort of racist, diabolical plan to sabotage Obama, and then decide that, since Clinton supported Obama, they should go support someone else. The internets: home of the smartest people in the room. In any room.
Darn, it's too bad Bill Clinton can run for president again, - he said exactly the right words. Obama does okay but his FISA Bill and his VP pick were telling people that he reallys isn't about change.
Bill Clinton put it all a completely different way - but darn if he did spell out exactly why we don't want another 4 years of McBush II.
As a leader, Clinton always had exactly the right words, at exactly the right time. He is a very gifted politician indeed.
"Maybe this is what Clinton should have done from the start of the campaign: travel the country telling people how qualified and experienced and ready to lead Obama is."
Pssst! His WIFE was running.
The internets: home of the smartest people in the room. In any room.
Aye. Living proof.
Of course, there are always proud exceptions.
He's a natural? Of fuck that shit. He's a racist! I've been told so for months now!!!
(Kevin, I'm genuinely sorry (maybe I missed it) you didn't blog about George McGovern earlier this month opposing the EFCA abolishing secret ballots for unions in companies. He opposed that bill in the WSJ, stating that Some of the most respected Democratic members of Congress -- including Reps. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, George Miller and Pete Stark of California, and Barney Frank of Massachusetts -- have advised that workers in developing countries such as Mexico insist on the secret ballot when voting as to whether or not their workplaces should have a union. We should have no less for employees in our country.
But it's not just the bill you should have blogged about, but the name calling and smearing of McGovern at FDL.
It's not enough for us Democrats to disagree with McGovern, no, we have to say he's senile, say he's corrupt, say he's bought and paid for, say he's not a Democrat.
At what point do we cast off McGovern as representative of any current Democratic Party principles? He's just rolling around in corporate cash and happy to sully his name in the process. Most Democrats in office support the Employee Free Choice Act, so McGovern is the one who's out of step. It's he who no longer represents what even moderate Democrats believe and it's time for him to stop trading on what he was yesterday, for cash today.
Yeah, George McGovern, corrupt, senile, and not a true Democrat.
Jesus Fucking Christ. It's assholes like that at FDL and all around the blogosphere calling anyone who disagrees trolls, republicans, corrupt, racist, what have you, it's assholes like that that should have the spotlight put on them, not Bill and not George and not Hillary and not Geraldine.
Damn you stupid, ignorant, hate mongers for pissing all over the Democratic Party and for smearing genuinely good people.
Jerry, go back on your meds.
Oregonian, why don't you ban yourself for violating MoJo's blog comments rules. Or just do what you really want to do which is call names and enforce the speech and thoughts on this blog.
God forbid you should consider responding on the merits, or consider letting other people speak their minds.
God forbid you should consider responding on the merits, or consider letting other people speak their minds.
Merits? You must be joking. That was pure incoherence.
At the risk of going on topic, Clinton was pure gold. For the life of me, I can't understand why there would have been any concern over his desire to address economic issues on an evening dedicated to national security -- as if the issues are unrelated. He made their interdependence crystal clear, and I hope Obama runs with that ball (if I can mix a couple of metaphors). Outstanding night for Bill Clinton. Let's build on it.
I think the concerns about how it would go were legitimate in that the campaign had gotten ugly and Bill had not been a shining example of himself in those months, but overall it would seem unlikely to me that he would actually try to screw Obama at this point and, in so doing, screw the party. I don't think anyone underestimates how important it is to block the Republican and corporate direction we've been going in these many years. It is vital for America that Obama win and McCain lose. The Clinton's know this as much as anyone else.
The power/example play was less "pure Bill" than quintessential Ted Sorensen. He made a living justapozing phrases like that for JFK.
Pedantry alert! It's not chiasmus, but antimetabole; chiasmus is a reversal of structure (inverted parallelism), while antimetabole is the repetition of words, with a switched grammatical order(e.g. I know what I like, and like what I know).
Ted Sorenson used to refer to this as a "reversible raincoat," and that's both more descriptive and easier to understand than either chiasmus or antimetabole.