be pro business, but also pro people and figure out the right calibration. the brilliance of bill clinton, he, unlike almost any other politician in our lifetime, almost always finds that calibration that appeals to liberals and centers. doesn t have to put himself out there. elizabeth warren put herself out there. bill clinton knew how to reach democratic voters in north carolina, in virginia, in tennessee, in arkansas, across the southeast. he didn t always win those states but that s a gift he had and again, i wonder if we re going to see the president tonight realize that he needs to move a bit more to the center away from some of the things that jim was saying the democrats have been talking about this week. one of the reasons barack obama is president obama, is that he did learn the lessons of the 90s in 2008. remember this was not a radical left wing campaign. right. he didn t talk about guns.
people have that feeling about barack obama. they didn t need to do that. they needed to explain what they had to do over the last four years. tomorrow night barack obama needs to say what he s going to do over the next four years. he needs to lay out that road map for, you know, for the job that s not been completed but leave me with it and i will get us out of it. one of the most i thought one of the strongest lines bill clinton had last night is when he said, not me, not anyone, not any president could have fixed this recession in the space of four years. and there is katty kay. joe was not even joe scarborough. despite what he says every morning for three hours. lawrence, let me ask you, conventional wisdom seems to be setting in concrete this morning, that bill clinton is a better articulator of the case for president obama than is president obama himself. a, do you believe that and bf you do, why is that? why can t the president make the case better? i actually
katty, at the end of the day, it does come down to the president himself standing up and delivering. bill clinton can be as good as an advocate as he can be, but in the end it s barack obama that has to go out and win this election. yes, bill clinton may help with some segments of the electorate, he may have gemmed up enthusiasm here at the convention and perhaps amongst donors which i keep hearing throughout the course of this week is a big issue. huge issue. they re hoping this week is really going to rally some of the big donors, particularly on the west coast, but barack obama has to go out and make the case that bill clinton started to make, which is the work has begun on trying to put us back into progress, but obviously it s not complete but trust me with four more years to carry on the agenda. explain the economic agenda. bill clinton framed, we want to see made in america again. why was the auto bailout so important and how it relates and we re in this together, that
exclusive fraternity also here to discover the latest cover of time magazine. which we re not going to talk about right now. michael, i love your book. told everybody it s like crack for people that love presidential histories. but i saw last night on the stage, bill clinton, embracing a guy who four years ago in south carolina had a team that painted him as a bigot, racist. i thought about your book and you talk about how every president, other than jimmy carter, realized about two years in, this job is too big for one guy, i have nobody in the world i can talk to that can understand this, i got to talk to the last guy in office that i just i didn t think was that smart, maybe he can help. and so you see these guys on stage and boy, it plays out exactly what you ve talked about in your book. he put the whole pantheon of the club on stage right now. he invoked reagan against mitt
is saying that barack obama was in so deep that he couldn t have fixed it all in four years that matters. the democrats have the most popular person in the world who happens to be a former president to have as a weapon here, makes you think of who the republicans had at their convention and where was george w. bush? of course he was hidden away, right? it s awkward to think about. can you imagine? part of that, the fact that george w. bush doesn t really like politics. well, that and he never has and this happens with presidents. he ll be around four years from now, eight years from now, but i thought first of all, bill clinton, you re right he s not teddy kennedy talking about the dream. or barack obama. or ronald reagan. he s just not that kind of speaker. he s a good southern lawyer. but mark, i wanted to go to something you said last night talking about just how progressive these delegates are.