Bill Clinton: Powerful Support for Barack Obama

Obama understood that Clinton, one of the most popular former presidents of the United States, could be a major asset.

It was not only in a fit of anger that Obama didn’t invite Al Gore to make a speech at the Democratic convention in Charlotte. The former vice president is an ecological advocate, which he has made a profitable business doing. It’s a good thing for him, but a source of discontent for the grassroot militants, since it is no longer a priority in times of recession. He was only given a commentator job for a TV channel. It is also not the result of chance that former president Jimmy Carter was confined to the role of a modest speaker on the first day of the convention. He was not even speaking at the platform, but via video. Carter has become the picture of an idealistic president full of good intentions. But his lack of realism isn’t desirable for a country that seeks to rebound in an economic and geopolitical landscape that has so dramatically changed.

Nobody Could Have Been Better than Obama …

On the other hand, Barack Obama deliberately asked Bill Clinton to make the official speech nominating him for reelection on Nov. 6 and to be the standard-bearer of the Democratic Party. A 66-years-old with white hair and the warm and the slightly hazy voice of a crooner, the Democratic president of happier times lit a fire in the arena of Charlotte. “No president — not me or any of my predecessors could have … no one could have fully repaired all the damage that he found in just four years,” he insisted. In passing, he very skillfully paid homage to Ronald Reagan and George Bush (the father, not the son) in an attempt to better tackle Mitt Romney. “Their number one priority was not to put America back to work, but to put President Obama out of work!”

We could have expected it, but it didn’t end up disappointed: The impassioned tone from the president of the 1990s contrasted strongly with the timid approval/support given to Obama at the Denver convention in 2008. We ought to remember that during the Democratic Party’s primaries, the then-future president had crushed Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton’s wife, whom Obama appointed Secretary of State as soon as he took office at the White House. Bill Clinton, who himself had actively participated in his wife’s campaign, had a difficult time getting over the personal attacks that the Obama camp had made against him. Such attacks included allegations of racism, despite his well-known empathy towards the African-American community; in his time, it had earned him the title of “the first black president of the United States.”

Sharing Wisdom

Before hugging each other on the stage of the Democratic National Convention last night, they got back on friendly terms after the Democrats lost their majority at the 2010 midterm elections. Last December, Obama invited Bill Clinton to the White House. They spent three hours in a private conversation, during which the former president told his successor that according to him he has taken excellent initiatives, but [Obama] didn’t know how to bring out their value in the eyes of the American people. He congratulated him for being able to pass healthcare reform, which he himself was unable to achieve. But Clinton said that he wished that Obama had done a better job selling the idea to the American public. Clinton later said to one of Obama’s advisers: If you do not reach out to people to explain what you do, it’s lost, since they will forget about it. On that day, in any case, President Obama was so convinced by the effectiveness of Bill Clinton’s performance that he went ahead and gave a common press conference with him, even though it was unplanned. And since the president had other commitments to attend to, he informally left his predecessor alone vis-à-vis the journalists. That is the type of situation Bill Clinton just loves.

By making him the curtain raiser of the convention, Barack Obama did not only want to pay homage to Bill Clinton, who is one of the most popular presidents with American voters in spite of his escapades. In a subliminal way, he also wanted his choice for such a prestigious spokesman to stress the essential pragmatism that the president admits will be necessary during his second term. Much like President Carter, he supported the idea of reforming society in the 2008 elections. Incidentally, the extraordinary success enjoyed by Bill Clinton, for whom warmth and empathy are second nature, may remind the president that it is not sufficient to be a very celebrated president known only for his differences. It is also necessary to reach out to people and explain to them what it is that he does. Barack Obama has failed to do that so far.