Clinton Hits a Homer

Hi, and sorry for the long hiatus! Wow, did Bill Clinton hit it out of the park last night at the DNC, or what? I was still weepy and ecstatic after Michelle Obama's show-stopper speech the night before and wondered how anyone could follow her. But Clinton just plain rocked. I don't know about you, but he's the only president in my lifetime (except Obama) that I never got tired of listening to. What I most appreciate--and what he proved again last night--was his brilliant knack for putting dizzying economic (and other) concepts in layperson's terms, so anyone can understand them, without making us feel like idiots. Last night, he laid out the "other side's" fatally flawed economic plan, and he also explained how faulty fiscal policy created the mess that he cleaned up during his two terms, and how it is a far deeper mess this time, that no one presidential term could fix... but Obama is on his way to doing that. This is a fierce case for an Obama second term, and I just hope all those fence-sitters (or those inclined to sit out the vote this time) out there were listening. But I suppose the deepest impression he made on me and my partner last night was when he talked about "cooperation" being what "works" in the real world--that he couldn't imagine "hating" the Republicans the way they seem to feel about Dems, and especially Obama. Their utter determination to simply rid the White House of Obama he pointed up to be the small-minded (my words) focus that it is, which I hope will embarrass the folks who feel that way. In a PBS interview last night, with the roar of the convention in the background, Governor Deval Patrick (MA) spoke eloquently about the need to articulate not just what one is against, but what one is for, and he decried the Republicans in Congress who, in the past two years, have voted against legislation merely because they felt it would stymie Obama's plans for this country. He declared that this sort of political behavior has got to stop, now. I couldn't agree more. Thanks to his words, and those of Bill and Michelle, I feel the fire again, like in 2008--this sense that decency and honesty and cooperation CAN win the day--and in fact MUST win, with so very much at stake.