DNC Winners & Losers

WINNER - Bill Clinton.  His folksy, rambling, wonky red meat for the blue crowd was the speech of the week.  Some in the crowd were probably wishing for a repeal of the 22nd Amendment by the time he was done.  Or thinking making him First Gentleman in 2016 is close enough.

LOSER - Jennifer Granholm.  The Michigan governor turned Current TV host came out to throw some haymakers at Mitt Romney.  She wound up indicting herself more than Mitt by trying to somehow blame Bain Capital for not bailing out GM. "And then the cavalry rode iiiiiiin!"  She started as Howard Dean and ended as Hacksaw Jim Duggan. "USA! USA! Hoooooooo!"

WINNER - The delegates. Overall, they had more emotion than the RNC delegates, be it ovations or tears.  Lotta crying in the crowd actually.  More celebrities and rock stars to see too.

LOSER - God.  He was removed from the platform, then put back in despite not getting the 2/3 vocal support to change the platform back. And the hashtag #TheyBooedGod was born.  The camera caught the Arab-American Democrats not happy about the Jerusalem addition too.  And to top it off, the platform change was in the TelePrompter before the vote was taken.

WINNER - Michelle Obama - What are the main things she gets criticized for? Pushing healthy food?  That witch.  The biography's always a nice ingredient to a convention week.

LOSER - Debbie Wasserman-Schultz - Now whenever Anderson Cooper talks to her, he can only shake his head and ask what color the sky is in her world.

WINNER - The military - They had more lip-service and actual speakers at the DNC than the RNC, including an Admiral.  Not to mention Vietnam vet John Kerry getting to say the line "Ask Osama bin Laden if he's better off now than he was four years ago."

LOSER - The economy - The morning after, we learned the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1% only because 368,000 more people have given up looking for work.

WINNER - The ticket's likeability - Obama's still capable of soaring words and a gospel edge to his message.  In speech battles, 49 times out of 50, Obama's going to get people quicker to their feet than Romney could.  And Biden's like a favorite uncle.  But....

LOSER - The ticket's speeches - Biden's speech was literally rambling in a way nowhere near as effective as when Clinton did it.  You could literally feel the Obama campaign holding their breath that he wouldn't say anything too literally stupid.  Meanwhile, Obama's speech felt like one of a hundred speeches he's given.  Anecdotal, some hope and change, but more of a "things will be tough; temper your expectations" tone to it.  So both presidential candidates failed to be the highlights of their own conventions.

Overall, I did watch more of the RNC speeches than DNC, but looking at all the reactions, I'd say Dems have the edge.  Obama had a slight lead going in, and he has a slight lead coming out.  This makes the first debate between Obama and Romney all the more important for Romney.  Unlike 2008, where it became clear McCain had no chance by September after the financial collapse, I think Romney still has a chance here.  The economy's still sluggish.  Even if the Dow's back up to 13000, middle America is still being hammered by unemployment, stagnant wages, high gas prices, rising costs in health care and education, and lowered home values.

But it always comes down to the swing states, and from what I can see, Romney won't win the presidency unless he wins Ohio and Florida.  I think Ohio's going to be the key to the whole election.  A week's a lifetime in politics; something huge could happen that changes everything.

Ranking the Presidents #22

BILL CLINTON (D) - 1993-2001

Fewer presidents have been more deft at being all things to all people. He inspired the youth of the country to "rock the vote", his affairs were addressed and then dismissed by a forgiving media, and thanks to a third-party candidacy by Ross Perot, he was able to become the 42nd President with only 43% of the popular vote.

The economy was on an upswing when he took office thanks to Bush 41's candidacy-killing compromise on deficit reduction, which included tax increases. Clinton raised taxes again, but only on the wealthy. In his first few months, he was damaged by overzealous federal agents botching stand-offs at Waco and Rudy Ridge domestically, and US troops getting killed in Somalia. The Don't Ask Don't Tell compromise on the military made neither side happy, and 1994 saw a dramatic swing toward the Republicans. From there, Clinton triangulated and became more moderate in his approaches.

A 1995 government shutdown swung the momentum back to Clinton, and with 49% of the vote, he was re-elected over Bob Dole and again, Ross Perot. He maintained positive foreign relations with US allies but was bogged down back home by personal scandals, women accusing him of sexual assault and harrassment, and being caught lying about his "sexual relations" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. He became the second president to be impeached, but the Republicans could not garner the votes in the Senate to have him removed.

The longer Clinton's impeachment trial went on, the more his popularity rose, and the more petty the Congressional Republicans looked. A final blot on his resume were his last-day pardons of questionable people like Marc Rich, lending speculations Rich "bought" his pardon.

I've read complaints that Clinton's policies were as much to blame as Dubya's on the economic collapse in 2008. There may be something to that, but the country stayed relatively peaceful and prosperous on his watch. With his honesty problem and wandering eye, he may have been his own worst enemy, but anyone who took him on, lost.