MSNBC - In 8 minutes, Clinton shows his mastery
MSNBC - In 8 minutes, Clinton shows his mastery
Will beloved Democratic soldier push swing states to Kerry?
By Howard Fineman
MSNBC contributor
PHILADELPHIA - They mapped Bill Clinton's path to the stage in Center City so that he wouldn't have to climb too many stairs, which was thoughtful, because he looked like what he was: a guy who had had quadruple bypass surgery only a few weeks ago. The shock of light-gray hair was familiar, as was the ironic, world-weary smile; as was the European cut suit. But he was so skinny that he didn't fill it out, and his skin was sallow, and his long sculpted fingers looked as though they had been painted by El Greco. When he spoke, his voice was reedier, thinner and more tentative than we remember: no anger, no volume and no Lewinsky-era drama.
Still, in eight minutes in front of a crowd of 80,000 Democrats that stretched from City Hall to 17th Street, the former president summarized the case against George Bush and for John Kerry better than Kerry himself has ever done, with more humor, concision and bite. Among the pundits, the assumption was that Clinton had come to town to jack up the black vote, which is true as far as it goes.
But as I listened to Clinton I was reminded of the political genius he possesses to speak to the dispossessed and the comfortable at the same time. His first argument: that Bush and the Republicans had indulged in runaway spending in Washington, which meant that the Japanese and Chinese — who are buying all the T-Bills — will control the fiscal destiny of our children.
Clinton's appeal was shrewdly conservative and flag-waving. He defended Kerry's call for a rollback of Bush's top-rate tax cut as a matter of patriotism: Wealthy folks (he is one of them) should be willing to sacrifice. Kerry, he said, would build a "larger Army" than Bush's and be tougher on al Qaida and homeland defense. With deadpan skill, he called the Republicans "our friends" and then caricatured them as go-it-alone bomb throwers.
Finishing with a flourish, he said that if one side is trying to scare you and playing on fear, and the other side makes you think and offers you hope … you know what to do. Kerry has been selling fear, of course: on the draft, on Social Security, on the war. But you couldn't tell that by listening to the sweet if somewhat enervated reasonableness of William J. Clinton.
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