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Clinton speaks and our correspondent wonders: why am I still hung up on this jerk?
BY ADAM REILLY
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TUESDAY, July 27, 2004 -- Bill Clinton’s speech to the Democratic National Convention last night was brilliant. It was also infuriating. All the hallmarks of Clinton’s political genius were manifest Monday -- the disarming empathy; the quasi-evangelistic rhetorical tropes; the masterful, almost effortless deployment of facts and figures; the ability to draw contrasts between Democrats and Republicans that make supporting the GOP seem like the stupidest thing in the world. Case in point of the latter: "We think the role of government is to give people the tools and conditions to make the most of their lives. Republicans believe in an America run by the right people -- their people -- in a world in which we act unilaterally when we can and cooperate when we have to. They think the role of government is to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of those who embrace their political, economic and social views, leaving ordinary citizens to fend for themselves on matters like health care and retirement security." If John Kerry could sell his political vision half this skillfully, instead of tying himself and his audience in mental knots while attempting to explain the most rudimentary positions, he’d win in a landslide come November. And yet. Just when Clinton was so magnetic you were ready to pine for bygone days, to wish the two-term limit on the presidency didn’t exist and Clinton could have held the office well into his dotage, the Man from Hope would make a stray comment that revealed the depth of his blithe obliviousness and served as a reminder that, for all his talents, he was and is a deeply flawed human being. At first listen, for example, Clinton’s assessment of the Republican Party’s divisive deployment of "values" seemed pitch-perfect: "Since most Americans aren’t that far to the right, they have to portray us Democrats as unacceptable, lacking in strength and values. In other words, they need a divided America. But Americans long to be united." Great stuff. But then, almost as an afterthought, comes this realization: by engaging in his tawdry dalliance with Monica Lewinsky -- and issuing that endlessly replayed, still-excruciating denial of any such relationship -- Clinton made the "values" card far, far more potent than it needed to be. A second hold-it-right-there moment came in the midst of another virtuoso Clinton riff, one in which he juxtaposed the programs denied the American public so top-money earners like Clinton himself could pay a few thousand less in taxes every year. When he realized he would benefit from Bush’s tax cuts, Clinton told the adoring assemblage inside the Fleet Center, he was pleasantly surprised because, as he put it, "When I was in office, the Republicans were pretty mean to me." The Republicans were pretty mean to me? These seven words suggest both an abiding victim complex and an unwillingness or inability to realize that, had Clinton simply kept his hormones in check, no one would be talking about how dangerous a president George W. Bush is for the simple reason that he wouldn’t have been elected in the first place. Add it all up, and Clinton’s speech, however triumphant it seemed at the time, was like a reunion dinner with a devastatingly appealing ex who toyed with your mind and cast you aside. First you feel a bit of lingering heartache and wonder why the relationship had to end. Then you catch yourself and think, "Why am I still hung up on this jerk?"
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