Day two of the Democratic National Convention  By |
Politics,Beltway Confidential,Michael Barone,Politics Digest
The night belonged, clearly, to Bill Clinton. In the preceding
hour we saw instant celebrity Sandra Fluke, a droning Costco
exec and an Elizabeth Warren who to my surprise got weakening
applause as she went on. Clinton spoke for nearly an hour, as he
used to in State of the Union addresses, ad libbed and added new
riffs to his text. He was plainly enjoying every minute.  What
to make of Clinton’s speech. My reaction, as he went on, is that
he was doing a repair job–and that he was trying to repair what
the Obama strategists or Clinton himself think are Barack
Obama’s weaknesses.  So he started off describing Obama as a
compromiser, one who cooperates rather than reflexively
opposing. Most of the rest of the convention proceedings and
Team Obsma’s negative campaigning tend to undercut this claim.
Obama’s unfavorable ratings have been going up. Both Clinton and
Michelle Obama tried to get his favora