Bill and Joe, Cheerleaders Extraordinaire

I ended up with mixed feelings on Tuesday night. Hillary's night. It definitely did feel like Hillary's night, but for the wrong reasons.

After her speech, which was a very well written and delivered piece of triangulated rhetoric, I felt happy but empty. I figured out why: She wrote it for herself. She did address the anger amongst the Angry Women of Hillary, and she did address the need to defeat McCain, but it was no less a campaign speech than she had given in New Hampshire 6 months ago, or in Ohio only a few months after that. She was still campaigning, but now for 2012 or 2016.

She never explicitly endorsed Obama, but just pinned him as the lesser of two evils, according to her. "Pleeeease dont vote for a Republican! Oh yeah, and Obama is a decent alternative, too...but don't feel obliged to vote for him if you would rather vote for me--if so, wait til 2012, because I will be back!" The speech was well-done, but the first 15 minutes sounded like another stump speech and the last 15 were a half-hearted endorsement of the Democrat, not specifically of Obama.

Then came Bill. If you were to tell me that Bill would be the Clinton that I felt was more committed to Obama I would have scoffed and mentioned the fact that the Clintons and Obamas are like the Gores and Clintons, playing nice but only when people are looking.

Bill gave a rousing speech that even made me remember his years with fondness and admiration. He raised great points ("They said I was inexperienced and too young in 1992...sound familiar?"), wrote a beautiful political speech ("The world is more impressed by the power of our example than by the example...of our power") that made many more inroads to a unified party than Hillary's. Who knows, maybe Bill will be the US ambassador to the UN under President Obama. After his speech, I would love that idea.

And finally, to wrap up a feisty and fiery Wednesday, Sen. Joe Biden had his turn. His son Beau was a revelation. I am sure many Democratic leaders looked upon Beau as a bright political star with vast nurturable potential. So far, the Convention has revealed a very strong pack of young, ambitious, and charismatic pols that will soon enough graduate to the national (presidential) stage and frighten the GOP, such as former VA Gov. Mark Warner, Jesse Jackson Jr., Michelle Obama, and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

But back to Joe. He owned the lovable attack dog role. Presenting himself as a scrappy, hard-working Irish-Catholic, he blended likeability and fiery, direct talk that will help Obama tremendously. In fact, I believe Bill and Joe have made the case for Obama to undecided voters better than Obama himself has. Both Bill and Joe reminded the party of what a Democrat looked like, with a backbone and with a high emotional quotient. The important thing now is the man himself, and what he will do after an impressive set of cheerleaders.

Obama has a prime opportunity to help heal party wounds, cutout McCain and play up his potential and uniqueness for undecided voters to believe Obama is needed rather than preferable in this time in history.

Will he do it? Probably. But don't expect a bounce since McCain will surely steal the spotlight with a VP pick and his own Party party next week. What Obama can hope for is an undercurrent of momentum to help him crash McCain's time in the limelight. Obama has had trouble doing that so far.

lhp