Bill Clinton's Speech

Bill Clinton's speech was a surprise. He did a 180.

What happened to the offended, angry Bill of the primaries?

Will the real Bill Clinton please stand up and bite your lip?

Speaking of that, his entire speech was punctuated with a lot of lower lip biting. Some things never change.

I wonder what the Obama campaign promised him to get him to roll over the way he did.

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When Clinton appeared on stage, he was greeted with wild and lengthy applause.

He began: "Y'all sit down. We gotta get on with the show."

"Show"? I guess that's right.

He tried to begin his speech: "Ladies and gentlemen, I am honored to be here tonight..."

The crowd continued its ovation.

Clinton pleaded, "Sit down."

There were chants of "Bill! Bill! Bill!"

Smiling, Clinton said, "Please stop. Please stop." I don't think Bill Clinton says that often.

When the crowd allowed Clinton to speak, he said, "I am here first to support Barack Obama... (cheers) and second, I'm here to warm up the crowd for Joe Biden."

Michelle Obama looked tense, but she was smiling as she stood and applauded.

Clinton said, "I loooove Joe Biden, and America will too."

Talking about the primaries, Clinton said, "That campaign generated so much heat it increased global warming."

"In the end, my candidate didn't win."

"But I'm really proud of the campaign she ran."

Bill went on to pay tribute to Hillary. He said that he dreaded having to speak after her magnificent speech last night.

"Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she is going to do everything she can to elect Barack Obama."

"That makes two of us."

"Actually, that makes 18 million of us."

"Because, like Hillary, I want all of you who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November." Mentioning the 18 million was a subtle reminder that Obama's victory was by no means a landslide.

Nevertheless, if there was doubt last night about Hillary's support for Obama, about the Clintons being tepid in their support, Bill seemed determined to put that to rest.

I kept thinking that he didn't mean what he was saying. We know better. I could hear echoes of all the anger from the primaries as he cheerily delivered his canned lines.

As a result, his speech seemed completely insincere.

Then, Clinton stopped playing the cheerleader and played the elder statesman.

"Our nation is in trouble on two fronts."

"The American dream is under siege at home."

"Our position in the world has been weakened."

It didn't take long for Clinton to get back on task and talk about Obama.

"The job of the next president is to rebuild the American dream and restore American leadership in the world."

"Barack Obama is the man for this job."

There was a shot of Hillary looking quite pissed.

Clinton sang Obama's praises. He did leave out "clean" and "articulate."

What a crock! Really. Suddenly, Obama has become a decent man and experienced enough to be president.

"The long hard primary tested and strengthened him."

Blah, blah, blah. It tested all of us.

Regarding Obama's choice of Biden to be his running mate, Clinton said, "He hit it out of the park."

Then it was on to Biden and what an incredible man he is.

"America will have the national security leadership we need."

That could be interpreted as a swipe at Obama.

It seemed like Bill was filling in all the blanks that Hillary left open last night.

"I say to you Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world."

There's no parsing that statement, unless you want to quibble about the meaning of the word "is."

"Barack Obama is ready to honor the oath to preserve, protect, defend the Constitution of the United States."

"Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States."

Making the case for what kind of leader Obama will be, Clinton said, "People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than the example of our power."

OK.

Then it was on to attacking the Republicans. This was Clinton's opportunity to sing his own praises and talk about how Bush destroyed the utopia that Clinton handed over to him in 2001.

This segment of the speech was self-indulgent and untrue. In short, it was typical Bill Clinton.

He spoke briefly of John McCain.

"The Republicans in a few days will nominate a good man. He loves his country every bit as much as we do."

Nonetheless, McCain should not be president according to Clinton.

"Let's send them a message: 'Thanks, but no thanks.'"

"In this case, the third time is not the charm."

"My fellow Democrats, 16 years ago you gave me the profound honor of leading our party to victory."

"Together we prevailed in a hard campaign."

"The Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be commander in chief."

"Sound familiar?"

The crowd loved it. So did Michelle Obama. Hillary? Not really.

Clinton said, "It didn't work in 1992 because we were on the right side of history and it will not work in 2008 because Barack Obama is on the right side of history."

"Barack Obama will lead us away from the division and fear of the last eight years back to unity and hope."

That, of course, gave Clinton the opportunity to connect Obama's brand of hope with his own Hope, Arkansas.

In effect, he was saying that he was passing the torch, HIS torch, to Obama.

Bill Clinton's speech left no doubt that he is fully behind Obama.

It was quite a performance. He was almost believable. Close, but no cigar.