Bill Clinton’s speech to the Democratic convention had been both heavily anticipated by a press corps looking for new evidence of tension between the Clinton and Obama camps and, we’re told, spiritedly contested by the two, with arguments over which time-slot the former president would be given and what he’d be allowed to say in it. [Clinton] used his time to deliver a masterclass in the art of political performance, most certainly, but also in the more elusive science of electoral strategy. Along with a luminous endorsement of Barack Obama, he did him an even greater service: he framed the general election contest ahead and showed the Democratic nominee exactly how to take on John McCain. The endorsement could not have been more glowing, doing exactly what his wife had failed to do the previous evening — not simply stating an obligation to back Obama but giving detailed, specific praise, listing the qualities that made him the right man for the job of president. No one would be naïve enough to believe that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are going to be buddies. [But] the ex-president gave Obama exactly the testimonial he needed, rebutting point by point the Republican argument that the Illinois senator is not ready to be president.That was what Clinton was required to do, but he went way beyond that narrow remit. In simple but precise language he defined the terms of the coming contest. “Our nation is in trouble on two fronts,” he said. “The American Dream is under siege at home and America’s leadership in the world has been weakened.” The problem thus defined, he showed how in both these crucial areas Obama has the right skills and ideas — while McCain does not. [All] week the Democrats have struggled to frame the choice between Obama and McCain and yet, in a few short sentences, the former president did it easily. “Here,” Clinton seemed to be saying to the party he led for eight years, “this is how you do it.”Excerpted from a comment by Jonathan Freedland in ‘The Guardian’
