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Bill Clinton did his duty in his speech to the Democratic National Convention earlier tonight. His address was underwhelming, in my opinion. I know his role was to bolster Barack Obama’s credentials and his perceived “readiness issue”—hence, Clinton’s statement that “Barack Obama is ready to be President of the United States”—but the speech itself had the feel of someone completing his Saturday morning chores. There was nothing objectionable about it; its tone wasn’t suspect, and Clinton said all the right things in all the right ways. But it just felt like something was missing, especially after watching Hillary Clinton last night. She had the X-factor; Bill, not so much.
Fast forward to the outstanding veterans video produced by Steven Spielberg. What a gift to the Democratic Party from one of America’s foremost filmmakers—arguably, its foremost filmmaker when it comes to military pictures. Spielberg’s war films have included “Band of Brothers,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “Letters from Iwo Jima” and “Flags of our Fathers,” and he brought the expertise he has developed over the years to this production, a look at America’s willing warriors and the debt the nation owes them.
It set the stage perfectly for Beau Biden, Joe Biden’s son, Delaware’s attorney general and a soon-to-be-deployed-to-Iraq Marine captain.
If anyone stole the show tonight, it was Beau Biden. He is the up and comer of the party. If you missed his introduction of his father, don’t worry; you’ll be seeing Beau Biden a lot in the future.
Joe Biden took the stage after Beau’s introduction, and after sharing an emotional moment with one of the sons he nearly lost in the car accident that did take the lives of his wife and infant daughter, Joe Biden went to work.
It was Take 2 for the newly minted vice presidential candidate. He had a second chance to make that first impression—and he needed it, after his C-minus performance at the ticket rollout event in Springfield, Ill.
Biden didn’t waste the opportunity.
CNN’s pundits were basically split among party lines about the effectiveness of Biden’s speech, but I thought it was everything his speech on Saturday wasn’t. He was engaged and affable; he was commanding without being overbearing. He spoke plainly and personally about his family and his perception of how the Bush Administration’s foreign policy has made the world a more dangerous place for that family. He drew stark contrasts between experience—John McCain’s experience—and judgment, arguing that years in Washington don’t necessarily ensure that someone will make the right decisions or have the right philosophies on foreign and domestic policy.
But what made that section of the speech so effective was that he properly undergirded it before it began. Biden and McCain have served in the Senate together since McCain was elected in 1986. Biden spent nearly a full minute talking about his friendship with and respect for John McCain and his admiration of McCain’s courage and his service to America in the Vietnam War ("It’s a friendship that goes beyond politics,” Biden said). And that’s what enabled Biden to speak with authority about what he calls missteps in McCain’s foreign policy: Precisely because of his friendship with and respect for John McCain, Biden’s arguments carried more credibility than they would have if they had been couched in strictly partisan terms.
The evening wrapped up with Barack Obama’s appearance with Biden on stage at the Pepsi Center following Biden’s remarks. It was a visual exclamation point to the biggest evening the Democrats have had yet this year: A former president vouching for a would-be president, the nominee’s chief rival in the primaries calling for the nomination to be made by acclimation, resulting a major American political party nominating the first African-American for president of the United States.
The Democrats have had a terrific convention so far. It’s no wonder John McCain’s campaign is set to leak McCain’s VP announcement around midnight tomorrow and introduce the ticket Friday morning: The McCain camp wants to put a damper on Obama’s convention bounce as soon as possible.
After tonight, it’s easy to see why.
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