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Clinton warns Americans against giving power to the Republicans
Source: Agencies |
September 7, 2012, Friday
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PRESIDENT Barack Obama was taking to the podium at the Democratic convention last night to accept the party's nomination for a second White House term, his candidacy lifted by a stirring endorsement from Bill Clinton, who warned Americans against returning the reins of government to Republicans who sent the economy crashing into a deep recession.
Arguing on behalf of Obama's efforts to end the disastrous US slide into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, Clinton recalled his own presidency - a period of sustained growth - to declare that no president could have repaired in one term all the economic damage inherited from Republicans almost four years ago.
The symbolism of the popular former president nominating Obama, an unusual turn of events, blunted Republican attempts to use the robust economy of the Clinton years as an argument against Obama.
Now it only remained for Obama, in his acceptance speech that ends the three-day Democratic political festival, to seize Clinton's soaring rhetoric to close the sale with undecided voters in one of the closest presidential contests in modern US history. Polls show Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney virtually tied two months before the November 6 election.
Clinton, who took office at the end of a recession in the early 1990s, argued passionately on Obama's behalf.
"President Obama started with a much weaker economy than I did," he said. "Listen to me now: No president, not me, not any of my predecessors, no one could have fully repaired all the damage that he found in just four years."
The speech was vintage Clinton. Famously long-winded, he commanded the stage for about 50 minutes while Obama waited backstage. He delivered insults to Republicans with a folksy grin and his familiar southern drawl. He said the Republican campaign argument was "pretty simple: 'We left him a total mess, he hasn't cleaned it up yet, so fire him and put us back in.'" Clinton accused Republicans of proposing "the same old policies that got us into trouble in the first place" and led to a financial meltdown.
He described Obama as "a man who is cool on the outside but who burns for America on the inside." He said the president has "laid the foundation for a more modern, more well-balanced economy."
The Clinton address also sealed the fence-mending with Obama. Relations were poor after an extended, bitter primary campaign in 2008 in which Obama claimed the Democratic nomination from Hillary Clinton, the wife of the former president and now Obama's loyal secretary of state.
After the speech, Clinton was joined onstage by Obama, who made his first appearance at the convention. The former president bowed, and Obama pulled him into an embrace as thousands of delegates jammed into the convention hall roared their approval.
Arguing on behalf of Obama's efforts to end the disastrous US slide into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, Clinton recalled his own presidency - a period of sustained growth - to declare that no president could have repaired in one term all the economic damage inherited from Republicans almost four years ago.
The symbolism of the popular former president nominating Obama, an unusual turn of events, blunted Republican attempts to use the robust economy of the Clinton years as an argument against Obama.
Now it only remained for Obama, in his acceptance speech that ends the three-day Democratic political festival, to seize Clinton's soaring rhetoric to close the sale with undecided voters in one of the closest presidential contests in modern US history. Polls show Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney virtually tied two months before the November 6 election.
Clinton, who took office at the end of a recession in the early 1990s, argued passionately on Obama's behalf.
"President Obama started with a much weaker economy than I did," he said. "Listen to me now: No president, not me, not any of my predecessors, no one could have fully repaired all the damage that he found in just four years."
The speech was vintage Clinton. Famously long-winded, he commanded the stage for about 50 minutes while Obama waited backstage. He delivered insults to Republicans with a folksy grin and his familiar southern drawl. He said the Republican campaign argument was "pretty simple: 'We left him a total mess, he hasn't cleaned it up yet, so fire him and put us back in.'" Clinton accused Republicans of proposing "the same old policies that got us into trouble in the first place" and led to a financial meltdown.
He described Obama as "a man who is cool on the outside but who burns for America on the inside." He said the president has "laid the foundation for a more modern, more well-balanced economy."
The Clinton address also sealed the fence-mending with Obama. Relations were poor after an extended, bitter primary campaign in 2008 in which Obama claimed the Democratic nomination from Hillary Clinton, the wife of the former president and now Obama's loyal secretary of state.
After the speech, Clinton was joined onstage by Obama, who made his first appearance at the convention. The former president bowed, and Obama pulled him into an embrace as thousands of delegates jammed into the convention hall roared their approval.
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