Where do I begin?
First there was the welcome:
Whoops, had a hard time telling them apart
Yes we put the young Elvis on a stamp
...and the 'old Elvis in the White House.
CLINTON THE LIAR
The convention speech was a reminder of that. Former President Clinton brought down the house, he was truly in rare form - BUT - I suspect within a few days a detailed report will come out with a list of the lies and inaccuracies he said in his speech. That will make for a future posting. For now a basic critique.
CLINTON THE FLAWLESS SPEECHMAKER
For one thing, after taking 3 minutes to quiet down the crowd, he did do what Hillary did not, he made the case for supporting Barack Obama and he did it from the 1st sentence of his speech. Bill was kinder to Hillary than Hillary was to Bill too. I suspect Bill in usual Clintonian rapid-response, on-message style had read at least a summary of media critiques of Hillary's speech and made the necessary adjustments in his own address. I also imagine he could have done it off the top of his head as Bill has that gift for thinking on his feet and being disciplined when he wants to be.
CLINTON CHARMS EVEN MICHELLE
What was interesting was watching Michelle Obama (I honestly think she has no idea she is on camera) because at the beginning of Bill's speech she had a sort of tepid 'yeah, sure, right' look on her face. Polite clapping, no visible enthusiasm like smiling Hillary and tearful Chelsea. Michelle looked downright angry at 8 minutes into his speech. After 8:50 min Bill says, "...Barack Obama is the man for this job!" Michelle finally cracks a smile and stands up and gives a more enthusiastic clap. From there on in, he goes on for about 2 minutes complimenting Barack's personality, judgement, family, ideology and Veep pick and at 10 minutes you can see Michelle looking serious but now as if she is listening closely to him. At about 10:15 you can see her standing and smiling a bit again and nodding with someone in agreement. At nearly 11 minutes he tells the crowd Barack Obama is ready to lead and Michelle is standing, clapping and looking a little more enthusiastic, Hillary of course is beaming and waving a flag (where is Michelle's flag? hmmm...) at that same moment. Michelle sits through several applause lines and then is off camera for several other for about 5 minutes. At 16:10, Michelle is responding appropriately to Bill's hurtin' people pablum. At 16:53 Michelle is enthusiastically clapping and smiling, really smiling - she is with the program at this point. At 20:30 you can see her teeth for once, really smiling and going with Bill's assault on Bush and the GOP.
CLINTON STEALS FROM REAGAN
At About 15 min into his speech, Bill gets into the 'are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?' technique Reagan employed and uses it masterfully but I suspect not all the information was accurate. One thing is certainly overlooked and that is the one Democrats never acknowledge - in times of war, both parties traditionally agree deficit spending is OK. This was traditional US policy for both parties until the Bush years. After the glow of post-9/11 national unity faded, Democrats jettisoned that policy and declared open season on military and national security spending.
THE BIG LIE - WAR WHAT WAR?
From about 18:30 onto 20.30 Clinton goes on the attack against Republicans saying America never really had a chance to evaluate their 'extreme' policies until 2001 because it was then that the GOP controlled both the White House and Congress. Well, yes and no. Numerically and ideologically the GOP had a strong control over the House but had a slender margin of 1 seat in the Senate and that seat was held by Jim Jeffords, a liberal RINO Republican who functioned as a Democrat and he up and quit the GOP and became an independent who caucused with the Democrats giving them a functional majority. Senators like Lincoln Chaffee, Arlen Specter and Olympia Snowe were all liberal Republicans who frequently did not vote for Bush policies. When 9/11 happened in 2001, it not only killed thousands of Americans, it killed our economy, cost many people their jobs, drove up fuel prices and pushed us into a recession. Clinton made it sound as if all that has befallen America has occurred because of Bush's/Republican ideology put into practice. Quite the contrary. A lot of Republican lawmakers were uncomfortable with growing the size, scope and power of the Federal government but felt it was a necessary trade-off in order to keep America safe. Democrats conveniently ignore this fact over and over again.
BILL PASSES THE 'PLACE CALLED HOPE' MANTLE
At the conclusion of the speech, Bill talks about how Obamessiah is the "21st century incarnation" of the American dream. There is some truth to that in the sense that Barack Obama is the inheritor of the benefits of the freedoms guaranteed to us all in the Bill of Rights, Constitution and Declaration of Independence and their hard fought for realization made possible through the Civil War and Civil Rights movement. Ironically, Barack Obama is not a descendant of African born slaves and he is a Democrat and the Democrats were the Party of Slavery and then Segregation up to 1964. The fact he is a Chicago Democrat only makes the irony that much stronger.
TTFN,
Jim
CLINTON THE FLAWLESS SPEECHMAKER
For one thing, after taking 3 minutes to quiet down the crowd, he did do what Hillary did not, he made the case for supporting Barack Obama and he did it from the 1st sentence of his speech. Bill was kinder to Hillary than Hillary was to Bill too. I suspect Bill in usual Clintonian rapid-response, on-message style had read at least a summary of media critiques of Hillary's speech and made the necessary adjustments in his own address. I also imagine he could have done it off the top of his head as Bill has that gift for thinking on his feet and being disciplined when he wants to be.
CLINTON CHARMS EVEN MICHELLE
What was interesting was watching Michelle Obama (I honestly think she has no idea she is on camera) because at the beginning of Bill's speech she had a sort of tepid 'yeah, sure, right' look on her face. Polite clapping, no visible enthusiasm like smiling Hillary and tearful Chelsea. Michelle looked downright angry at 8 minutes into his speech. After 8:50 min Bill says, "...Barack Obama is the man for this job!" Michelle finally cracks a smile and stands up and gives a more enthusiastic clap. From there on in, he goes on for about 2 minutes complimenting Barack's personality, judgement, family, ideology and Veep pick and at 10 minutes you can see Michelle looking serious but now as if she is listening closely to him. At about 10:15 you can see her standing and smiling a bit again and nodding with someone in agreement. At nearly 11 minutes he tells the crowd Barack Obama is ready to lead and Michelle is standing, clapping and looking a little more enthusiastic, Hillary of course is beaming and waving a flag (where is Michelle's flag? hmmm...) at that same moment. Michelle sits through several applause lines and then is off camera for several other for about 5 minutes. At 16:10, Michelle is responding appropriately to Bill's hurtin' people pablum. At 16:53 Michelle is enthusiastically clapping and smiling, really smiling - she is with the program at this point. At 20:30 you can see her teeth for once, really smiling and going with Bill's assault on Bush and the GOP.
CLINTON STEALS FROM REAGAN
At About 15 min into his speech, Bill gets into the 'are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?' technique Reagan employed and uses it masterfully but I suspect not all the information was accurate. One thing is certainly overlooked and that is the one Democrats never acknowledge - in times of war, both parties traditionally agree deficit spending is OK. This was traditional US policy for both parties until the Bush years. After the glow of post-9/11 national unity faded, Democrats jettisoned that policy and declared open season on military and national security spending.
THE BIG LIE - WAR WHAT WAR?
From about 18:30 onto 20.30 Clinton goes on the attack against Republicans saying America never really had a chance to evaluate their 'extreme' policies until 2001 because it was then that the GOP controlled both the White House and Congress. Well, yes and no. Numerically and ideologically the GOP had a strong control over the House but had a slender margin of 1 seat in the Senate and that seat was held by Jim Jeffords, a liberal RINO Republican who functioned as a Democrat and he up and quit the GOP and became an independent who caucused with the Democrats giving them a functional majority. Senators like Lincoln Chaffee, Arlen Specter and Olympia Snowe were all liberal Republicans who frequently did not vote for Bush policies. When 9/11 happened in 2001, it not only killed thousands of Americans, it killed our economy, cost many people their jobs, drove up fuel prices and pushed us into a recession. Clinton made it sound as if all that has befallen America has occurred because of Bush's/Republican ideology put into practice. Quite the contrary. A lot of Republican lawmakers were uncomfortable with growing the size, scope and power of the Federal government but felt it was a necessary trade-off in order to keep America safe. Democrats conveniently ignore this fact over and over again.
BILL PASSES THE 'PLACE CALLED HOPE' MANTLE
At the conclusion of the speech, Bill talks about how Obamessiah is the "21st century incarnation" of the American dream. There is some truth to that in the sense that Barack Obama is the inheritor of the benefits of the freedoms guaranteed to us all in the Bill of Rights, Constitution and Declaration of Independence and their hard fought for realization made possible through the Civil War and Civil Rights movement. Ironically, Barack Obama is not a descendant of African born slaves and he is a Democrat and the Democrats were the Party of Slavery and then Segregation up to 1964. The fact he is a Chicago Democrat only makes the irony that much stronger.
TTFN,
Jim
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