Is it really true that Al and Tipper kissed again like they did last convention summer? I missed it entirely, though what further proof do we need that Al is having trouble coming up with new ideas? Anyone know a good choreographer?
Driving home I tuned in to C-Span radio just as Al was winding down, sending a kiss to his wonderful “friend and … partner for eight years Bill Clinton.” A cycle late, and a few dollars short. But music to Clinton’s ear, no doubt, as yet again his indispensability was recognized by another of those many losers he’s had to put up with over the years.
Later Hillary gave a much better speech than the extended drone she performed in Los Angeles on the Democrats’ opening night four years ago. She was least effective in greeting her husband as he walked out for his star turn. Frigid doesn’t begin to describe whatever it was their effort of an embrace and kiss meant to signify. Luckily the moment was short-lived and Bill wasn’t knocked off his game. Perhaps it even kept him from overheating, because boy was he hot.
Could it have been the best speech of his life? Unlike in L.A., when he walked through a maze of corridors before landing on the stage, and for the next endless minutes proceeded to take credit for the greatest presidential performance he’d ever seen, last night he kept himself pretty much under wraps, understanding for once that he doesn’t have to talk about himself to have people eating out of his hands or to project absolute command of whatever devious political scheme he wants to impose on his dull-witted followers. He was the man, the maestro, speaking at sharp clip, reducing George W. Bush to the second coming of Newt Gingrich, twisting the Democratic construct of a nation divided into a Republican scheme, and above all elevating John Kerry to a stature he can’t possibly live up to.
Clumsily unclever Kerry had made a surprise appearance in Boston on Sunday only to leave town on Monday. By the time he returns for his Thursday appearance, the magical buildup Clinton gave him will have dissipated. What Kerry should have done is stuck around and delivered his acceptance speech right after Clinton had finished, preferably with Clinton at his side urging him on.
Instead, Clinton by Tuesday will be long gone, passing into another stratum of legend, toying with a party that without him can’t even go through the motions.
Before the speech some 15,000 pundits in Boston predicted Clinton would hurt Kerry by talking only about himself. Little did they know that Clinton would do just the opposite: hurt Kerry with a display of generosity that only reminded everyone in the universe that a Bill Clinton can have no successors. Once a devil, always a devil, and again dizzied Democrats are in the worst position to see him as he is.
