Last night, the Clintons started on the long road to redemption among the supporters of Barack Obama, the other segment of the Democratic Party. There's often a lot of talk about what Obama will do to win over Hillary supporters but not much discussion of the near disrepair of the Bill Clinton legacy. He had alienated a lot of folks, particularly black folks.
But during her speech at the Democratic Convention Hillary and Bill both made huge strides in regaining the support of a lot of disaffected Democrats last night --with a little bit of graciousness and a big helping of charisma. At least for me, the Clintons flashed for a second the way I remembered them: champions of democratic principles, friends of those whose voices had gone ignored.
Many black folks considered Bill Clinton and his wife friends. I know I always thought that Bill, out of so many politicians, was the one that got it. He worked so hard to gain the trust of black folks to the point that he had gained our loyalty. But then during his wife's campaign, we felt betrayed by some of his rhetoric, by the way he so easily threw us under the bus, so to speak. We had supported him so faithfully in both of his bids for the White House, but when we needed him to support us, he deserted us.
Or rather he deserted those principles that ingratiated him with us. Many black people saw something in Obama and a lot of us couldn't figure why Bill --a man so supportive of the black cause before--couldn't join us in our desire to see Obama president.
I know his wife was running but that didn't mean he had to sacrifice and squander that hard won connection he once had with the black community. The old Bill Clinton would have been able to finesse his wife into the White House, Barack Obama out of the way, and black folks into his wife's column. The new Bill Clinton is, by all accounts, just not as politically savvy.
But last night at the convention, Hillary Clinton's words reverberated with a newly affirmed fidelity to Democratic principles. And Bill Clinton glimmered like we all know he can as he sat next to the late fellow Democrat Chairman Bill Gwatney's wife. On Bill's left sat the son of the late Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a woman with a huge dedication to achieving a better life for all through implementing policies based on the best of Democratic ideals. Clinton had embraced the young man tightly before Hillary's speech in a way that I know was partly for the cameras and partly out of the way Bill Clinton is.
Clinton provided for Gwantney's wife and Jones' son a respect and a caring that he had shown for all of the downtrodden--no matter their race--during both his terms and since up until the point of his wife's candidacy. Then he faltered; he acquiesced to the worst in political wranglings in a desperate fight to get his wife elected.
But the Bill Clinton that was once beloved by black folks showed up last night. You could see it in his swagger, in the outward compassion he showed to the two victims of tragedy, his friends, that sat on either side of him.
Yet, the best moment, the moment that I had a flash of pure adoration for the political prowess Bill Clinton once exhibited was when Hillary acknowledged how this country had prospered under a Clinton administration. The way Bill slouched back in his chair with such a self-satisifed smirk on his face--it was unadulterated charisma. It was undeniably Clinton.
I don't know what Bill Clinton will say tonight. He may still be holding a grudge against Obama. Maybe that's because they are so much alike. Clinton could be so good politically sometimes that I'm sure he had those days when he couldn't even stand himself. So I understand his trouble with Obama.
I am hoping that the Bill Clinton of old makes an appearance tonight, though. Bill frustrated me to no end during the primaries. But watching him watch his wife during her speech, I saw just enough of a sliver of the old Bill Clinton that, to be honest, makes me want Obama to ask him to campaign with him.
I think it may be worth the blow to the ego.
