Tim Goodman on Bill Clinton

For those of you who watched the Democratic Convention last night, you were either in for a real yawn (as I fell asleep shortly before the end of Jimmy Carter’s speech and awoke to the shrill sounds of Hillary Clinton), or you were in for what amounted to CPR for the Democratic Party at the hands of Bill Clinton:

One thing was abundantly clear after watching an abbreviated night of TV coverage of the Democratic National Convention: They could do away with the next three days if people could somehow find a way to rewrite the rules and re-elect Bill Clinton.

Clinton’s speech was indeed a turnaround. It was an entirely different message than the anti-war, anti-Bush peacemongering we’ve heard from the left over the past few months. It was optimistic, defiant, on the attack, and in short refused to yield the initiative. Brilliant.

Of course, the speech stood in stark contrast to the droning of Jimmy Carter – his first appearance at a Democratic Convention in 24 years. As for Gore and Hillary, I have only transcripts for the most part. . . but Hillary sure didn’t sound good.

If Kerry can ever sound like Clinton, Republicans would be in big trouble. Fortunately for the GOP, John Kerry is no Bill Clinton.