10:32 BILL CLINTON SPEECH
* Nice video intro, complete w/ Fleetwood Mac. Crowd boogies in aisles.
* Good shout-out to FLOTUS.
* Gets right to the elephant-stomping. “Alternative universe” captures Tampa well.
* Strauss quote perfect for Mitt.
* Pretty classic presentation of Clintonomics. Wish his allergies weren’t kicking in, affecting his voice.
* “The far right that controls their party….” Nicely casual.
* Very nice use of his own bipartisanship to indict GOP.
* Had to endorse Obama’s national security record, and did.
* Best simple parody of GOP economic message ever!
* “There they go again.” Priceless.
* Well, no one can say Democrats are evading “Are you better off…” question any more.
* Good, deft handling of mess Obama inherited.
* Figured “opportunity, responsibility, community” would pop up.
* Glad someone remembered to mention Obama had a jobs plan.
* “Ze-ro!” Gets better every time.
* Clinton was always big proponent of income-contingent student loans. Gets to spend some time on this because of voters who really care about it, too.
* Health care stuff not original, but masterfully presented. Guess you’ve figure out by now that I’m a little soft on Bill.
* “Takes a lot of brass to attack somebody for doing what you did.”
* Just amazing handling of Ryan and Romney on the Medicare “cuts.”
* Medicaid! Medicaid! And Medicaid’s effect on seniors and the disabled! Thought we might get to end of convention without anybody mentioning that.
* Welfare! Yes! Would have liked it if he had mentioned effect of Ryan Budget on programs that help work pay, but you can’t have everything. If nothing else, this speech should convince Team Mitt to take Clinton’s image out of their mendacious ads.
* Dissection of debt responsibility nice and clear.
* “Double-down on trickle down.” Not just clever slogan, but succinct linkage of past and future Republican economic proposals.
* Reference to voter suppression very late, but still welcome.
* Clinton very popular among Latinos. So reference to immigration not just throwaway.
* As Clinton enters altar call, conservatives already madly promoting idea that he “upstaged” Obama. Count on it.
* And here’s the shocker: Obama comes out and gives the Big Dog a big hug. Will be difficult to ignore that, even among people writing the “they actually hate each other” stories.
