Yesterday, former President Bill Clinton spoke at the Democratic convention in Charlotte, NC. It’s amazing how he is now perceived (the elder statesman) compared to his last years as President. Maybe we’ve forgiven him for the Monica Lewinsky scandal, especially since we now look fondly on those economic boom years of the mid-to-late 1990s over which he presided.
Because of that, lots of people might now look to Clinton for advice that can put us back on the road to recovery. Since he’s no longer an elected official (with all of the polarization, demonization, and partisan criticism that comes with that), he’s actually been praised by both parties in recent months. Clinton has become so popular that the Democrats have been airing TV ads (effective, in my view) of him praising Barack Obama and arguing that economic recovery is more likely under a Barack Obama administration rather than a Mitt Romney administration.
Clinton’s speech at the convention hit most of the right notes, but he does like to talk. This year’s speech was over 45 minutes long – and does anyone remember his interminable speech at the 1988 convention? At that convention, I seem to remember that when he said “Finally….”, the crowd erupted with sustained applause – even the strong partisans in the crowd had had enough.
But those were different times. In 2012, people want something along the lines of the Clinton-era economy – lots of jobs (we had a dot com boom, remember?), increasing housing values and new home construction, and more relaxed rules for lending money to entrepreneurs so they could create their start-up businesses. Of course, some of that was illusory and temporary – it couldn’t be sustained.
I doubt that one speech will change people’s minds about which candidate can better fix our economy. But if people listened to Bill Clinton last night, and if he continues to actively campaign for Barack Obama, it’s possible that Mitt Romney’s competitive advantage on economic issues will decrease over the next two months. All in all, Bill Clinton’s speech has been the highlight so far of what I have considered to be a somewhat lackluster convention.
John Klemanski
Because of that, lots of people might now look to Clinton for advice that can put us back on the road to recovery. Since he’s no longer an elected official (with all of the polarization, demonization, and partisan criticism that comes with that), he’s actually been praised by both parties in recent months. Clinton has become so popular that the Democrats have been airing TV ads (effective, in my view) of him praising Barack Obama and arguing that economic recovery is more likely under a Barack Obama administration rather than a Mitt Romney administration.
Clinton’s speech at the convention hit most of the right notes, but he does like to talk. This year’s speech was over 45 minutes long – and does anyone remember his interminable speech at the 1988 convention? At that convention, I seem to remember that when he said “Finally….”, the crowd erupted with sustained applause – even the strong partisans in the crowd had had enough.
But those were different times. In 2012, people want something along the lines of the Clinton-era economy – lots of jobs (we had a dot com boom, remember?), increasing housing values and new home construction, and more relaxed rules for lending money to entrepreneurs so they could create their start-up businesses. Of course, some of that was illusory and temporary – it couldn’t be sustained.
I doubt that one speech will change people’s minds about which candidate can better fix our economy. But if people listened to Bill Clinton last night, and if he continues to actively campaign for Barack Obama, it’s possible that Mitt Romney’s competitive advantage on economic issues will decrease over the next two months. All in all, Bill Clinton’s speech has been the highlight so far of what I have considered to be a somewhat lackluster convention.
John Klemanski
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