Bill Clinton gave a boffo speech, a speech that hit all the DNC talking points, mixed them up with cherry-picked statistics, moved from one to the other so fast and smooth that the whole thing sounded plausible and even reasonable. Did you notice that Clinton did it almost off the cuff? He departed widely from his prepared text. No teleprompter for Bill!

In short, Bill Clinton just gave the speech Barack Obama should give tomorrow, but lacks the talent to give.

What did I say? A speech that no Obama supporter can complain about, but will leave every delegate wishing Bill was still on top of the ticket.

Actually, my impression was that Clinton was doing a freestyle riff on the current Democratic arguments, a kind of Clintonion mashup of the DNC talking points. He hit them all with a number of style points added -- fondly remembering Republican bipartisanship of old (that would be during his administration, naturally) is just another method of slamming today's Republicans, and not a novel one. Basically, we got a reminder how a master pol delivers a partisan hit speech while still sounding positive and reasonable. He was doing it ex tempore as well. No teleprompter for Bill Clinton!

The funny thing is, the speech doesn't deserve any of the praise for being analytical that Molly Ball gives it. It didn't analyze a thing. It was just rat-a-tat talking points. So what is she praising him for? Being able to remember cherry-picked statistics that sound good for Democrats? Clinton is great at that. It takes political skill to stand up under these circumstances and declare that the economy is recovering and we're better off than we were four years ago. It also takes an enormous talent for lying. Clinton has both.

It was also a subtle reminder that Obama cannot perform this task. Obama is an proven failure at political persuasion on any subject save himself. Where Clinton can toss 50 factoids into a speech and sound knowledgeable and even plausible, Obama repeats the same 5 unconvincing factoids until they are worn to death. The very fact that Obama needed Bill to make this speech for him shows what a failure Obama is. I wonder what Obama will talk about tomorrow. Probably all the new government goodies he will give away if reelected (to be purchased with more borrowed and printed money).

All in all, Bill lived up to my expectations: I predicted beforehand that he would give a boffo pro-Obama speech that would not contain one word any Obama supporter could complain about, but that would leave the audience reminded how much better Bill was than Barack, and wishing they still had Bill on top of the ticket. He did it all, and almost off the cuff too.