Opinion Michelle and Bill for Barack
Now its just a matter of balancing the budget like Clinton or plunging the US into debt like Bush
On Wednesday,the Democrats got to the point. That was thanks to Bill Clinton,Beloved Democrat,a man who got negative ratings from only 27 per cent of Americans in one recent national poll. There are pictures of kittens that get worse grades. Everyone at the convention was eager to hear what Clinton had to say,particularly Barack Obamas aides who had been pacing around all day waiting to get a look at the transcript.
A lot! Clinton ran overtime surprise! talking for nearly 50 minutes about a President Obama who had saved the auto industry,passed a stimulus that totally worked,improved the environment,reduced student loan costs,passed a transformative healthcare law,offered a reasonable and workable plan for debt reduction and helped create millions of private-sector jobs. If there was still stuff left undone,it was because no president not me,not any of my predecessors could fully have repaired the damage he found in just four years.
But,really,it was some endorsement from a guy whod been consigned to the Alpha Doghouse for trash-talking Obama during the 2008 primaries. Remember what F. Scott Fitzgerald said about there being no second acts in American lives? So wrong,Scott. Let me introduce you to Mr Act Twelve.
The Democrats had been waiting for Clintons speech for two days,during which they diverted themselves with a couple of brief platform fights,one about inserting a mention of God,
who had inadvertently been cut out of the platforms 40 pages. (The Republicans left Tampa,Florida,wondering who had invited Clint Eastwood. The Democrats are now wondering who disinvited God.)
There was,of course,a lot of talk about rising from humble roots. The Republicans played that card hard,too. But Ann Romneys story about eating off an ironing board in college couldnt match Michelle Obamas saga of riding in a car so rusted out I could actually see the pavement going by in a hole in the passenger side-door.
Michelle was a wow,but theres something kind of ironic about a woman wearing the best dress in the history of political conventions,one that offers a particularly flattering view of the best upper arms in the history of the female gender,giving a speech in which she earnestly explains how she is just like us.
The first lady had a lot to say about the burden of student loans,but in her eagerness to press a mom-centric theme,never mentioned her work life after Harvard Law. One of the unremarked-upon factoids in recent political history is that the last two Democratic presidents both had their careers underwritten by lawyer spouses who served as the chief family wage-earners.
So,were almost done,convention-wise. Weve learned that both parties like God and moms,particularly moms with humble roots. They both have faith that people who work hard and play by the rules can overcome exposure to secondhand furniture while theyre in college. Otherwise,its just a matter of whether you want to raise taxes and balance the budget like Clinton,or cut taxes and plunge us into a hopeless sea of debt like Bush. Let the fight begin.
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