![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/230\/2012\/09\/clinto-300x217.jpg\" "\\"APTOPIX")
<\/a>Bill Clinton should still be a political punch line. After the Monica Lewinsky scandal and his impeachment by the House of Representatives one might think that he would still be too radioactive for the prime time slot at the DNC. Apparently not\u2026 because last night Bill Clinton stole the show. It was a legend do what he does best. Love him or hate him, you can\u2019t argue the fact that Bill Clinton is still the most talented politician in America.<\/p>\nI\u2019m not sure what I expected, but what I saw was that Clinton\u00a0gave the speech I expected Paul Ryan to give last week. In very clear terms he explained his version of why Barack Obama deserves a second term; a version which \u2013 let\u2019s face it \u2013 was long on rhetoric, shady stats, and questionable logic but which somehow rings true to what many Americans have been sensing for most of the election cycle. Clinton took nerdy, boring, political policy and wove it into a compelling policy centered narrative<\/em>. He demonstrated once again why as President, he \u00a0came back from every scandal: winning elections isn\u2019t about the candidate, it\u2019s about the policy and the people. Whoever can most effectively connect the policy narrative<\/em> to their candidacy will win. The election isn\u2019t about who is the better man. As far as I can tell the candidates are both very good and honorable men. The election is about connecting people\u2019s self interest to a compelling political narrative which will serve as a rationale for governing.<\/p>\nRomney doesn\u2019t have that narrative yet, and its unlikely he\u2019ll be able to find it in time. Obama has struggled to articulate his policy narrative because when he tries to make the case for himself, it sounds like a bunch of excuses and equivocation. When Bill Clinton said it for him \u2013 what can I say \u2013 it worked. Clinton told voters who are frustrated because they haven\u2019t quite felt the economic turn around yet exactly what they wanted to hear:<\/p>\n
\u201cNo president, no president \u2014 not me or any of my predecessors, no one, could have repaired all the damage he found in just four years. But he has laid the foundation for a new, modern, successful economy, of shared prosperity, and if you renew the President\u2019s contract you will feel it. You will feel it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This might be the only rationale many Americans need in order to vote for Barack Obama. People still believe that Bill Clinton knows what he\u2019s talking about, and he says it\u2019s coming back. Then he drove home what might have been the most effective subversion of Romney\u2019s rationale (his policy narrative) for election:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Tampa, the Republican argument against the president\u2019s re-election was pretty simple: We left him a total mess, he hasn\u2019t finished cleaning it up yet, so fire him and put us back in. I like the argument for President Obama\u2019s re-election a lot better. He inherited a deeply damaged economy, put a floor under the crash, began the long, hard road to recovery, and laid the foundation for a more modern, more well-balanced economy that will produce millions of good new jobs, vibrant new businesses and\u00a0lots of new wealth for the innovators.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This was the real political move of the night. Without even mentioning his name, Clinton effectively tied Romney to George W. Bush. The mistake that the Obama campaign continues to make is to paint Romney as a\u00a0mustache twisting daddy-war-bucks who has a couple of poor people tied up in his basement just for fun. It doesn\u2019t fit. But Clinton tied him to George W. Bush whose policy narrative is already set in stone: he was a really good guy, great on foreign policy and presidential pastoral care who was in over his head on the economy and steered the ship into a sandbar.<\/p>\n
Fact checkers will be working for days to try and help decide if they are buying what Clinton is selling, but it won\u2019t matter. The damage to Romney has been done. I look for Barack Obama to weave a similar<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bill Clinton should still be a political punch line. After the Monica Lewinsky scandal and his impeachment by the House of Representatives one might think that he would still be too radioactive for the prime time slot at the DNC. Apparently not\u2026 because last night Bill Clinton stole the show. It was a legend do […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23,80,79],"class_list":["post-741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-2012-election","tag-bill-clinton","tag-dnc-2012"],"yoast_head":"\n
Thoughts on Day 02 of the DNC 2012 - Bill Clinton Delivers the Policy Narrative Obama Has Struggled to Articulate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bill Clinton should still be a political punch line. 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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/230\/2012\/09\/clinto.jpg\" "\\"APTOPIX")
<\/a>Bill Clinton should still be a political punch line. After the Monica Lewinsky scandal and his impeachment by the House of Representatives one might think that he would still be too radioactive for the prime time slot at the DNC. Apparently not\u2026 because last night Bill Clinton stole the show. It was a legend do what he does best. Love him or hate him, you can\u2019t argue the fact that Bill Clinton is still the most talented politician in America.<\/p>\n