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Forget What Everyone Else is Saying, What Did You Think About Bill Clinton's Speech?

• Chris Miles
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• Politics,
• 2012 Elections
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• 8 months ago

The Bill Clinton speech has so far been reviewed as everything from the “moment the Democrats won election 2012” to a 47-minute rant.

On Wednesday night, Clinton was the keynote speaker at the Democratic convention in Charlotte, giving the honorary nomination speech for Barack Obama.

The speech drew huge traffic for the DNC, despite competing with the opening night of the NFL — and a huge New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys game and the marquee media markets that come with them.

Google reported huge spikes in user interest on its search engine when Clinton said “As another president once said, there they go again…” and “For the last four years, health care costs have been under 4% in both years for the first time in 50 years….”

Democrats seemed to love the speech, almost proclaiming in a whipped-up fervor that Bill Clinton, not Obama, should be the 2012 nominee.

Republicans, for their part, were stunned after the speech.

"Tonight, when everybody leaves, lock the door," GOP strategist Alex Castellanos said on CNN immediately after the speech ended. "You don't have to come back tomorrow. This convention is done. This will be the moment that probably re-elected Barack Obama. Bill Clinton saved the Democratic Party once. It was going too far left. He came in and took it to the center. He did it again tonight."

Mike Murphy, another leading Republican operative, tweeted his praise: "Highly effective Clinton speech. Aimed right at voters Obama needs," Murphy wrote.

For what it’s worth, I personally love Bill Clinton, but also thought the speech was long-winded, and filled with sometimes boring policy remarks that I just completely glazed over. I was jacked up at the beginning of the speech, but right at the middle, I just wanted the whole thing to be over.

Regardless, let’s open this up.

What did you think of Bill Clinton’s speech?

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Bill Clinton Speech: This is What Republicans Thought of the Speech, and Romney May Not Like It
By Chris Miles

Chris is the editor at PolicyMic. He has worked for media outlets including the Associated Press and the Stars and Stripes. He has covered issues including the Iraq War, the United …

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