Bill Clinton vouches for Obama

By Sasha Issenberg, Globe Staff

DENVER -- Delivering a valedictory to the nearly two-decade period in which he and his wife dominated Democratic politics, Bill Clinton strode on stage to Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop” and promised that “America must always be a place called Hope,” endorsing Barack Obama as an inheritor to the spirit of his first presidential run.

“Together, we prevailed in a campaign in which the Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be Commander-in-Chief. Sound familiar?” Clinton asked a crowd. “It didn’t work in 1992, because we were on the right side of history. And it won’t work in 2008, because Barack Obama is on the right side of history.”

In speeches nearly twenty-four hours apart, Bill and Hillary Clinton addressed distinct factions of disillusioned Democrats who months ago joined to comprise the New York senator’s unusual primary-season coalition of professional liberal women and more socially conservative working-class whites.

While Hillary saluted her “sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits” and focussed on women’s issues like equal pay, Bill -- who thrived this spring on rural turf where he wooed what strategists called “the Bubba vote” vouched for Obama’s credibility on national-security issues and his fitness to serve as commander-in-chief.

“It is a one-two punch of considerable power,” said David Wilhelm, who managed Clinton’s 1992 campaign. “They can, and have, sent a great message of unity and the stakes involved in this election.”

The former president offered a broad tour of Obama’s positions and the failings of the Bush administration, at one point, the former president directly addressed a criticism of John McCain to “all the Americans who aren't as hard-core Democrats as we.”

“As a senator, he has shown his independence of right-wing orthodoxy on some very important issues,” Clinton said. “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 that has defined his party for more than 25 years.”

Although he came under criticism during the primary for his aggressive politicking, marked by a number of high-profile outbursts including several considered racially provocative, Clinton’s return to a convention podium was acknowledged with a long, flag-waving ovation that appeared to dwarf the welcome received by his wife.

“You’ve got Bill Clinton supporters and you’ve got Hillary supporters,” said Eric Hampton, a county party chairman and Clinton delegate from Mississippi. “The people that are really loyal to Bill Clinton won’t listen as much to Hillary and vice versa.”

In fact, sixteen years after the Clintons offered their marriage to the country as a “two-for-the-price-of-one” partnership, the tribute to Hillary reimagined the family as a matriarchy. In a video documentary narrated by Chelsea, the former president was cheekily identified only as “Hillary’s husband” -- the dominant axis was clearly the one running through Hillary from her mother to her daughter.

“She certainly did very well in the primaries, but he was elected president twice, and he had the support of Republicans and independents,” said Charles Fogarty, a former lieutenant governor of Rhode Island. “People look back at that in a very positive way and with very fond memories, and he can evoke the possibilities of a future with a President Obama and do it with a lot of credibility.”

UPDATE: Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesman responding to Clinton's speech, said in a statement, “It is indicative of the concern among Democratic voters about Barack Obama’s inexperience that after three full days of the Democratic National Convention, President Clinton was finally forced to testify that Senator Obama is ready to be President, despite his previous arguments to the contrary. President Clinton was a forceful advocate for Democratic partisanship, but what he fails to recognize is that the problem in Washington is not the Republicans or Democrats in Congress, the problem is that people aren’t following John McCain’s lead to work together to solve America’s problems.”