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.
