Out of the Park!

Wednesday night was dominated by the appearance of Former President Bill Clinton who came out on the convention stage and told us the story of the lives of two people who have been icons in American politics for almost 50 years. In doing so he let us know what kind of woman his wife Hillary really is. He told us the inside story of many little details that make her human. Yeah, it was long, sure it wandered a lot, and certainly some of it was about him. But more than anything else, it told us why we should vote for Hillary, what kind of woman she is and how choosing her, compared t her opponent, the would be, egomaniacal dictator Donald Trump, would be a no brainer.

Hillary’s problem with younger voters has needed solving for a long time and this writer thinks that Bill gave us an insight. It wasn’t his most brilliant speech ever but it did the job. It was one small step into the fire that has been aimed at her for almost 40 years, even while she has been trying to better the lives of those who can’t better their own lives, What the hell has Donald Trump made better except the stock price of Fact Check?

Then on Thursday night, the Democrats unleashed an onslaught of super heavyweights to laud Hillary and denounce Trump.

It started with Leon Panetta, former Secretary of Defense and head of the CIA, who tore into the idiot candidate of the GOP. He attacked Trump’s stiffing of the veterans, his desire to promote torture, his insane notion of giving nuclear weapons to anyone who wants them and most important his tweet today announcing that he wanted Russian leader Vladimir Putin to loose his hackers on American communications in order for him to gain a political advantage. Where I come from that is treason. Panetta’s statement, “in an unstable world we cannot afford unstable leadership,” was right on the money.

Next came former NYC Mayor and multi-billionaire Michael Bloomberg. Mike was, arguably, New York’s greatest mayor for 12 years. If he had run again he probably would have won again. This is a guy who dealt with Trump and his money grubbing interference with the city for years. He hates Trump and with good reason. He gave an intelligent pointed speech, straight, strong and businesslike. He refuted everything that Trump says and is. He was logical and forceful. In his softer attacks he called Trump a risky, radical and wrong choice.

Following Bloomberg, Joe Biden walked onto the stage and gave a speech that was the equal of any political speech you have even heard. It wasn’t the material, we all knew what he was going to say and he said it. He battered Trump, he talked about family and then he blew it up with his vision of America and what it was and how it would continue to be Reagan’s shinning city on the hill. In a beautifully nuanced speech he explained how that could only happen with Hillary in the White House. He absolutely made the point that Trump’s negativity was not the way of America. He was, in e words of Rachael Maddow, “a force of nature.” He was able to do it because we all know that he is the real deal so there is no thought that he isn’t telling the truth, that he isn’t real or that he will be stopping that attack on Trump anytime soon.

And next in this night of super heavyweights, fighting for himself and for Hillary was Tim Kaine. He did his background thing, which is always good and his Spanish thing, which is wearing a little thin. Kaine is a good speaker, smart and glib. He threw a treat to Bernie but Bernie didn’t reward him with as much as a grin. I was a fan of Bernie’s but he’s wearing even thinner than Kaine’s Spanish skills.

It wasn’t the best speech of the night but it was certainly effective, especially as he ran a litany of Trump’s faults, weaknesses and sins. This writer has seen any number of conventions where the speakers lauded the candidate but I have never seen a convention where the speakers took on the opposing candidate with such gusto and were able to nail him with such accuracy; that’s probably because every denigration of Trump is true. Truth – that’s a concept that has forever escaped Trump but one that’s going to bury him.

And then there was Barak! Not only did he hit it out of the park, he did it with the bases loaded. We already know that Obama is a fine speaker, who really knows how to work a crowd, but the speech last night was not about oratorical excellence, even though that was surly there. What last night’s address was about was the difference between Hillary and Trump, the difference between what this country needs and what Trump sells, the difference in the values of our democracy and Trump’s potential dictatorship.

Obama knows what this country is really about, he knows what it takes to hold a great America on course. He knows the difference between America and the rest of the world and understands that this difference is what makes us great. History will look on Obama as a great President, not just because he was the first black President, not because he held up his end against he most concerted GOP opposition that any President has ever faced, but because he knows what he has accomplished and what has been left undone. He understands that if we give up on our values we will lose something of America. Obama understands that it is the people of America, not the leaders that make America what it is.

There is no way Chelsea or Hillary will be able to top his speech. In the last couple of days we have been fortunate to witness some of the finest, most effective addresses in the history of political oration. Now it’s up to us to pay attention to what we heard the last two nights and to VOTE!.