Awesome Bill Clinton

During my early morning browsing of TV Channels, I caught Bill Clinton's address to the Democratic Convention 2004 live in BBC. My knowledge of US Political scene is limited to what I read in The Hindu and NY Times online edition. And I am not too interested in what is happening in the presidential elections. But Clinton's speech was awesome.

I spent nearly half an hour listening to him. He is an orator par excellence, knows how and where to pause and used satire to good effect to paint George Bush as a silly moron being led by a bunch of neo cons. Sample this

At home, the President and the Republican Congress have made equally fateful choices indeed. For the first time ever when America was on a war footing, there were two huge tax cuts, nearly half of which went to the top one percent. I�m in that group now for the first time in my life.

When I was in office, the Republicans were pretty mean to me. When I left and made money, I became part of the most important group in the world to them. At first I thought I should send them a thank you note�until I realized they were sending you the bill

Read the entire speech here. The words, however sharp, do not describe the control he had over the crowd. Having been a college level debator, I was able to appreciate the way he papered over his mistakes and painted the republicans in bad light without resorting to unpleasant language. Hearing him, you were willing to forget the Lewinsky affair or that he is the guy who imposed sanctions on Iraq, leading to the death of many children due to malnutrition. He created a "suspension of disbelief" (as mentioned in the movie Basic Instinct). It was a real master piece.