Hell.  Yeah.

Agreed on all accounts.

In the words of Peter Griffin, "Wow. You are good."

Obama with the better angels of the Clintons' nature is pretty tough. Can't wait to see them go to work in Florida and Ohio.

I only caught about the last ten minutes.  But, even that bit was enough to see it was the best speech of the Convention so far.  And the only one that made a really strong case for Obama.

Bill Clinton, on a good day, is still the greatest politicians-- if not the greatest person or president-- since WW2.

I only caught about the last ten minutes.  But, even that bit was enough to see it was the best speech of the Convention so far.  And the only one that made a really strong case for Obama.

Bill Clinton, on a good day, is still the greatest politician -- if not the greatest person or president-- since WW2.

I agree. It was like having old Bill back. And I swear: the man had a face lift! He looked at least ten years younger. Perhaps that made it easier for him to be generous with  Barack...

Meanwhile, now that everyone has seen Clinton give the greatest endorsement speech Obama has ever received, he can sit out the rest of the campaign and quietly do what he can to make Obama lose.

Bill will have the indelible plausible deniability of that speech, and nobody will remember that he was guilty of Obama negligence afterwards.

He has covered his ass on an Olympian scale.

"Bill Clinton, on a good day, is still the greatest politicians-- if not the greatest person or president-- since WW2."

A measure of the brilliance of this speech: it actually made hell freeze over.

Word up. Stunningly good, indeed.

Can you compare Clinton to the One?

Brilliant speech. Hearing it, I understood what people meant when they questioned holes in Hillary's speech that I wasn't sure I'd heard or cared about. Now I understand. Stirring, thorough, and accurate. Wandrey, you were right.

Also want to second Chait's last point. Too many of these speeches are still hammering "Bush" too hard and/or using mostly rhetoric rather than fact. Bill laid out a far more factual and convincing connection, and it was fantastic to hear.

Then we turned the volume down on John Kerry and watched the Daily Show's Monday coverage online instead.

Not so fast Wandreycer1.  Our friend Chan returned true to form quite quickly.  That Clinton magic can only go so far.

And Idefix: I thought the same thing too about Bill.  He looked like his old self again.  He seems to have put on some weight, which in his case is a good thing.  When I saw him speak a while back he seemed to have lost so much weight his shirt collar even looked to big. Now he seems back to fighting form for real.

This whole convention puts to rest the bullshit idea the MSM is pushing that the Dems are divided.  I sure can't see it even if I squint reaaal hard.

"Can you compare Clinton to the One?"

Jacob, every time you open your mouth, two words come to mind: "bitter", and "cling".

"Then we turned the volume down on John Kerry and watched the Daily Show's Monday coverage online instead."

Thats a shame, because Kerry killed McCain along the same lines as Clinton; his comparison of senator McCain to candidate McCain was sublime.

Clinton's speech was wonderful. Compared to the previous speakers, it was Demosthenes' “The Third Philippic.” What a yawner this thing has been up until now. Enough with this feel-good Ya Ya Sisterhood bullshit, time to start relentlessly kicking McCain.

Joe Biden better bring the heat.

Can I just say (and there is nothing about ChanRobt's ideology than I can relate to, much less endorse) that he nailed it with respect to plausible deniabilty?  The encomia felt like boilerplate.   The rhetoric may have been soaring, but the sincerity of the endorsement?  Not so soaring.

I'm increasingly ill-at-ease with the whole thing.  The media shots of Michelle O?  The developing backstory on Obama's situational opportunism?  Anything (maybe a pet rock) will be better than the best the GOP has on offer this year.  But am I psyched?  Maybe not.

What GSpinks said.  Kerry was just right on target - self deprecating on his failures, and wielding a damned sharp scalpel to dissect candidate McCain away from the man he used to be.

jacobt1, keep up. Nice to see a non-believer around.

gspinks,

Yes, reading text of Kerry's remarks, it does seem that way. Our mistake. Leftover disgust from 2004 and a slight burnout of flunkies repeating the same vague criticisms of McCain. Seems like Kerry, to his credit, was more specific. I'll watch clips of it later.

Biden was a snooze. But when the One came out, I almost wet myself. Jacob, get on board, there's still room here in the People's Temple of Obamatown.

Bill was outstanding indeed.  There is a good Bill and a bad Bill and the good Bill is very very good while the bad Bill is, oh neverrmind, I am willing to forget the bad Bill.

Clinton claimed that the Republicans have followed an "extreme" foreign policy over the last 25 years.  Does that mean that he agrees with Putin that the fall of the Soviet Union was a bad thing?

What have the Republicans done that was extreme?  Bush invaded Iraq, along with 50 other nations.  Was that extreme?   I just don’t share the Democrats’ Saddamophilia. I don’t share their sniveling bumper sticker pacifism.  Do you?

Most of the Democrats didn't oppose the invasion of Iraq at the time.  But when the going got tough they turned against their country, as is their habit.  The majority of Democrats are cowards and fair weather patriots.   “Honor” and “integrity” to them are meaningless words.   If you don't believe me look at Joe Biden’s history.  He is  liar and a buffoon.

Yea, Clinton is a good speaker.  Too bad he the content of what he says is a tissue of lies.

wandrey writes, "...A measure of the brilliance of this speech: it actually made hell freeze over."

My meaning was that Bill is the greatest American politician since WW2.  I should not have next used the conjunction 'if,' but instead said more emphatically, 'though certainly" not the greatest person or president.

I have always respected Clinton's political skills.  When he is on his game, they are awesome.  And he writes a more coherently constructed speech on his best days than does Obama, too.

Hillary's problem always was that for all her virtues as of intellect and hard work, she was no Bill Clinton as a politician.  He is so good on stage that he could transcend the disarray in the back room.  Hillary could not transcend that disarray.

Chan never met a silver living without manufacturing a dark cloud.  Right.

Jacob is still slinking around?  Well, the rock is safely back in its place; you can crawl back under it.

A William Jefferson Clinton is a terrible thing to waste. I think he legitimately supports Obama and will be pleased to see him elected. But  if Obama doesn't have enough sense to give this guy a real job the day after the Inauguration, we're in for tough sledding.

Both Clinton and Kerry delivered old-fashioned stemwinders.  If Kerry had been able to speak so well in 2004, we would have been spared the last four years of misery at home and foreign policy disasters.  It's time to stop carping and finding ulterior motives.  Obama has shown he knows how to make the best use of talented people, and Bill Clinton can be a strong right arm for him in the campaign, and perhaps a wonderful Secretary of State afterward.

Ugh. I thought it was passionless and that he went through the motions. But I'm happy to see other people liked it! That's all that matters, I suppose.

This was a setting these two aging, white, male Washington insiders hadn't found themselves in before.

Obama gave Hillary the left-handed compliment that she was was "likeable enough". Last night Bill returned the favor by implying that Obama was "electable enough".