Here's what I noticed during last night's Democratic National Convention festivities:
Hillary Clinton:
Her new botox application seemed to be giving her trouble with facial expressions. I don't think I could be the only one who noticed-I just couldn't get over it for at least the first few minutes of the speech.
All paranoid conservatives should take heart in the fact that Hillary was striking for her lack of rhetorical skill. I'd forgotten how bad she is. She gave a clever speech, but every sentence came at the top of her lungs with the same patronizing, grade-school teacher tone. John Kerry will look very good in comparison. From a stylistic perspective, Hillary is the opposite of George W. Bush-she gives a great interview, but fares poorly in speeches.
On the other hand, she does have Teresa Heinz coming up to make her look good in comparison.
That canary yellow pantsuit has to go. She can't continue to be a parody of herself and expect to run for president someday.
She referred to Bill as a former president, but not as her husband.
Aside from the Rev. Alston who preceded her, Hillary gave the first positive speech of the night.
The close-up of a woman openly crying during Hillary's speech may have been enough to turn conservative stomachs, but you have to appreciate the amazing grip she has over "her" people.
Bill Clinton:
He referred to Hillary as his senator, but not as his wife.
He spoke almost twice as fast as he normally does. In my opinion, this diminished his legendary delivery. His handlers probably read Bob Novak's column yesterday and encouraged him to keep it short, since x42 has a history of giving long-winded speeches that go well beyond the allotted time. But Clinton is not the kind to pare down a speech, so he crammed it all in by hurrying up.
His speech was scathingly negative, effectively a simple demonization of conservatives. Two visions of America: ours, of freedom and opportunity, and theirs, of concentrating money and power among the elites. It's probably too much for the average Joe to believe.
Clinton compared his own war record as a draft-dodger, to that of Bush, an honorably discharged national guardsman. But Bush didn't flee the country to join America's enemies in protests, and according to accounts from his commanders he even tried to volunteer for combat at one point.
He did much better by discussing the 1990s economy, his strong suit and supposedly the great success of his presidency. It gave him an opportunity to be positive.
Most people probably don't feel the same nausea I do when Clinton talks about how he left the country much better off after eight years in office. He really had little to do with it all, and that "great economy" was a house of cards, already falling as Clinton fled the Oval Office with the presidential china. Moreover we did have 9/11 just months after he left-so how much better off could we have been?
