Mad Social Scientist

Bill Clinton set out to demolish the Bush-Cheney record and present Kerry as a worth successor to his own presidency, a man who can restore the peace and prosperity of the late 1990s. And boy did he knock this one out of the park. NYT has the text of the first half here. Some choice lines:

Now, since most Americans aren't that far to the right, our friends have to portray us Democrats as simply unacceptable, lacking in strength and values. In other words, they need a divided America. But we don't.

...

After 9/11, we all just wanted to be one nation. Not a single American on Sept. 12, 2001, cared who won the next presidential election. ... The president had an amazing opportunity to bring the county together under his slogan of compassionate conservatism, and to unite the world in the struggle against terror.

...

At home, the president and the Republican Congress have made equally fateful choices, which they also deeply believe in. For the first when America was on a war footing in our whole history, there were two huge tax cuts, nearly half of which went to the top 1 percent. Now, I'm in that group now for the first time in my life and you might remember that when I was in office, on occasion, the Republicans were kind of mean to me. But as soon as I got out and made money, I became part of the most important group in the world to them. It was amazing. I never thought I'd be so well-cared for by the president and the Republicans in Congress. I almost sent them a thank-you you note for my tax cuts - until I realized that the rest of you were paying the bill for it and then I thought better of it.

Now, look at the choices they made, choices they believed in. They chose to protect my tax cut at all costs, while withholding promised funding for the Leave No Child Behind Act, leaving over 2.1 million children behind. They chose to protect my tax cut while cutting 140,000 unemployed workers out of job training programs, 100,000 working families out of their child care assistance, and, worst of all, while cutting 300,000 poor children out of after-school programs when we know it keeps them off the streets, out of trouble, in school learning, going to college and having a good life.

They chose to protect my tax cuts while dramatically raising out of pocket costs of health care to our veterans and while weakening or reversing very important environmental measures that Al Gore and I put into place, everything from clean air to the protection of our forests.

Now, in this time, everyone in America had to sacrifice except the wealthiest Americans. And most of us, almost all of us, from Republicans to independents and Democrats, we wanted to be asked to do our part, too. But all they asked us to do was to expend the energy necessary to open the envelopes containing our tax cuts.

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During the Vietnam War, many young men, including the current president, the vice president and me, could have gone to Vietnam and didn't. John Kerry came from a privileged background. He could have avoided going too, but instead, he said: Send me.

When they sent those swiftboats up the river in Vietnam and they told them their job was to draw hostile fire, to wave the American flag and bate the enemy to come out and fight, John Kerry said: Send me.

And then, on my watch, when it was time to heal the wounds of war and normalize relations with Vietnam and to demand an accounting of the POWs and MIAs we lost there, John Kerry said: Send me.

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Their opponents will tell you we should be afraid of John Kerry and John Edwards, because they won't stand up to the terrorists. Don't you believe it. Strength and wisdom are not opposing values.

They go hand in hand.

They go hand in hand, and John Kerry has both. His first priority will be to keep America safe.

Still the best orator, shrewdest politician, and smartest policy brain in the Democratic party. If anything, he's gotten better at speeches---this one was the right length, had fewer rambling lists, and succeeded in doing what many doubted Clinton could do---build someone else up.

FYI, an interesting piece on Kerry from Oliphant