‘Obama Is the Man for This Job’

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The New York Sun

DENVER — President Clinton jumped aboard Senator Obama’s bandwagon here last night, with a generous speech intended to erase any concerns that lingering bitterness over Senator Clinton’s primary defeat might keep the former president from being an enthusiastic warrior in this fall’s presidential campaign.

“Everything I learned in my eight years as president, and in the work I’ve done since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job,” Mr. Clinton told a raucous crowd of 20,000 attending the third night of the Democratic National Convention.

“Hillary told us in no uncertain terms last night that she is going to do everything she can to elect Barack Obama. … That makes two of us,” the former president said.

While Mrs. Clinton’s speech Tuesday contained only a single line touting Mr. Obama’s abilities, Mr. Clinton’s address was far more fulsome in its praise of the talents and judgment of the senator of Illinois.

“He has a remarkable ability to inspire people, to raise our hopes and rally us to high purposes. He has the intelligence and curiosity every successful president needs,” Mr. Clinton said. “He has shown a clear grasp of foreign policy and national security challenges, and a firm commitment to rebuild our badly strained military. His family heritage and life experiences have given him a unique capacity to lead our increasingly diverse nation and to restore our leadership in an ever more interdependent world.”

Mr. Clinton also said Mr. Obama was “tested and strengthened” by the protracted primary fight.

“Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the world,” the former president said, to a roar from the crowd. “Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States.”

Mr. Clinton said the upcoming campaign reminded him of his first bid for the White House, some 16 years ago.

“Together, we prevailed in a hard campaign in which Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be commander-in-chief. Sound familiar?” he said. “It didn’t work in 1992, because we were on the right side of history. And it will not work in 2008, because Barack Obama is on the right side of history.”

The criticism in Mr. Clinton’s speech focused more on the record of President Bush and the Republican Congress than on the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator McCain of Arizona. However, the former president warned that Mr. McCain’s well-known tendency to buck his party does not extend far enough.

“As a senator, he has shown his independence of right-wing orthodoxy on some very important issues. But on the two great questions of this election, how to rebuild the American dream and how to restore America’s leadership in the world, he still embraces the extreme philosophy which has defined his party for more than 25 years,” Mr. Clinton said.

Later last night, Mr. Biden accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president and paid homage to the man who tapped him for that slot, Mr. Obama. “You can learn an awful lot about a man campaigning with him, debating him, and seeing how he reacts under pressure. You learn about the strength of his mind. But even more importantly, you learn about the quality of his heart,” Mr. Biden, who was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidential nomination this year, said. “I watched how Barack touched people, how he inspired them.”

Mr. Biden also took some shots at Mr. McCain. “These times require more than a good soldier. They require a wise leader. A leader who can change-change the change everybody knows we need,” the vice presidential nominee said, somewhat flubbing his lines. “Barack Obama is going to deliver that change.”

In one of the more amusing moments of the night, Mr. Biden spoke of how his mother told him to bloody the noses of bullies who harassed him on the way to school. “That’s true,” Mr. Biden’s mother, Jean, 92, seemed to say as television screens showed her nodding from a seat in the crowd.

After Mr. Biden spoke, Mr. Obama surprised the delegates by making a previously unannounced appearance on the stage and giving the senator from Delaware a warm embrace.

“Hello, Democrats!” Mr. Obama said to a roar from the crowd. He went on to praise his wife, Mr. Biden and the Clintons for their speeches. “Michelle Obama kicked it off pretty well, don’t you think?” Mr. Obama said. He said Mrs. Clinton “rocked the house” on Tuesday. “President Bill Clinton reminded us of what it’s like when you’ve got a president who actually puts people first,” the Democratic presidential nominee said.
Mr. Obama’s aides asked Mr. Clinton to focus on foreign policy, in keeping with last night’s theme, but the speech he ultimately delivered was divided fairly evenly between domestic issues and international ones.

One of the challenges Mr. Clinton faced in touting Mr. Obama’s foreign policy skills is that the former president was perhaps the most vocal proponent in his wife’s camp of the notion that Mr. Obama’s reputation for prescience on the war in Iraq was undeserved.

“It is wrong that Senator Obama got to go through 15 debates trumpeting his superior judgment,” he said in a January appearance in New Hampshire that received international attention after it was noted by The New York Sun. After citing a few incidents in which he said Mr. Obama seemed to waver in his opposition to the war, Mr. Clinton then delivered one of the most memorable lines of the campaign: “Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I’ve ever seen.”

As Mr. Clinton took the stage last night, the delegates erupted in such a thunderous and sustained ovation that the former president eventually had to plead with them to quit. “Please stop. Sit down. Sit down,” he said. “I love this and I thank you, but we have important work to do tonight.”
In earlier speeches yesterday, Mr. Obama’s aides made a sustained effort to shore up the presumptive Democratic nominee’s credentials on Israel. Mr. Obama’s promise to engage in high-level, unconditional talks with Iran and his involvement with Palestinian Arab activists in Chicago led to suggestions from some Republicans and, during the primary fight, from Democrats close to Mrs. Clinton that he might not reliably defend America’s democratic ally in the Middle East.

Convention organizers tapped a congressman of Florida, Robert Wexler, to defend Mr. Obama’s record on Israel and to raise doubts about whether Mr. McCain’s policies would help the Jewish state.

“On Bush and McCain’s watch, we have witnessed the growing influence of a belligerent Iran that has destabilized the Middle East and threatens our ally, Israel,” Mr. Wexler said. “Americans have a clear choice in November. John McCain offers more of the same failed policies that endanger America and Israel.”

Mr. Obama has “an unshakable commitment to Israel’s security,” Mr. Wexler told the delegates as signs reading, “Pro-Israel, Pro-Obama” flooded the convention floor.

“In his heart, in his gut, Barack Obama stands with Israel. Not only his words but his deeds bear testament to this fact. Barack Obama, not John McCain, led the fight in the Senate by introducing divestment legislation that would deliver powerful economic sanctions against Iran,” the congressman said.

The Israel issue was also raised by others, including Senator Bayh of Indiana, who said Mr. Bush’s policies endangered the Jewish state.
In a late addition to her speech seconding Mr. Obama’s nomination, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida invoked her religion as she vouched for his devotion to Israel. “As an American Jew and a strong supporter of Israel, I know there’s only one candidate who represents all of our values: an unwavering commitment to the security of Israel and a progressive agenda for America. And that candidate is Barack Obama,” she said.


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