Friday’s lackluster employment numbers could hurt President Obama’s re-election effort — 96,000 new jobs are barely enough for people entering the workforce for the first time — but the strong endorsement by former President Bill Clinton at the Democratic convention should advance Obama’s chances.
Clinton, who has looked frail lately, still made the longest speech at the convention and could have gone on till past midnight if was asked. He spoke for almost an hour, twice as long as the president, vice president and Mrs. Obama. He easily took the top prize for best speech at either political convention.
Clinton can work a crowd, especially when he speaks like an Arkie: “Obama 250,000, Romney, zero,” he said, speaking of new jobs in the auto industry as a result of the bailout, which Mitt Romney opposed.
Clinton knows how to do the numbers and balance a budget. After all, he did it for 12 years while he was Arkansas governor: He’s the last president who left office with a budget surplus — they were supposed to go into a lock box, remember? — and thinks it’s easy arithmetic: End the wars and raise taxes on millionaires.
Clinton, who has a slight tremor now, often shook his hands as he spoke, insisting that Democrats are better at job creation than Republicans.
“Well, since 1961,” Clinton told the convention, “the Republicans have held the White House 28 years, the Democrats 24. In those 52 years, our economy produced 66 million private sector jobs. What’s the jobs score? Republicans 24 million, Democrats 42 million!”
He was too modest to tell the crowd half those jobs were created during his presidency. Maybe he would have told them if he’d been given more time. Still, it was the best speech of his career.
