Old Home Day For Bill Clinton

By David Paul Kuhn, CBSNews.com Chief Political Writer, at the Democratic convention in Boston.

Standing on stage, staring down at the opening night of the Democratic National Convention, the former president could hardly be heard over the deafening crowd.

"Join John Kerry, John Edwards and the Democrats to make America safer, smarter, and stronger again," Mr. Clinton implored, pointing to the audience, pounding the podium.

It was a long way from that night in mid-July 1992, one minute before midnight, when Bill Clinton took the stage in New York, ready for his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention - younger and greener then, relatively unknown.

Twelve years later, Boston's FleetCenter was organic with energy - delegates overflowing into the aisles - as the don of the Democratic Party stood before some 20,000 party faithful, to rouse, rally, and lend his star power to Kerry.

"He brought images of when the Democratic Party policies worked, but he acknowledged to the crowd that it was John Kerry's time," said former Clinton strategist Doug Schoen, witnessing the moment from the convention floor. "This was the passing of the mantle between Clinton and Kerry."

The Democratic National Convention is Sen. John Kerry's show, but the opening night was unquestionably Mr. Clinton's. He owned it. Delegates waving Kerry-Edwards signs hollered excitedly, huddled shoulder to shoulder.

Mr. Clinton's long shadow still looms over this party. It only took a look around the massive FleetCenter, the delegates aflutter, on their toes, and on to behind the scenes where former Clinton staffers now hold key positions inside the Kerry campaign, to see that Mr. Clinton's influence remains.

But it is a different party now. Clinton brought Democrats to the center, convincing them that the comeback kid from Hope, Ark., could defeat then-President George H.W. Bush on an economic front.

The Democratic Party of 2004 has brought Kerry to the nomination, convincing itself that he is best suited to defeat President George W. Bush because of his national security credentials and deep Washington experience. With Kerry's nomination, the year of the Pragmatic Democrat is born.

Where Mr. Clinton has wowed, appeared engaging, personal, even sympathetic to the everyday man, Kerry has appeared bland, stiff, patrician, and removed from the plebian plight, so to speak.

Contrasts with Mr. Clinton are unavoidable but the Kerry campaign still hopes to sidestep them. That is the reason their speeches are separated by three days.

Democrats believe all the adjectives describing Kerry can change Thursday night, when the senator marks the beginning of his reintroduction to the American people. After Thursday, Democrats want the Clinton Gap to lessen, if not disappear.

Within the party, however, many are less worried about any comparisons between the Democrats' old and new leader, and are more focused on the fact that both men want a Democrat to replace President Bush. Again, pragmatism reigns.

"I think, really, you don't get the comparisons," said Rep. Albert R. Wynn, D-Md., surrounded by the Maryland delegation on the convention floor. "You've got a unique intensity within the Democratic Party now we haven't had. So any kind of divisiveness - Edwards has this, Clinton has that - you're not going to hear that, cause everybody says John Kerry is our standard bearer and we, as Democrats, are walking in lockstep."

Adding to Mr. Clinton's celebrity clout is his memoir, "My Life," which has sold over 1.5 million copies since its publication on June 22. Since the book came out, the Kerry camp has worried that the still bright Clinton spotlight might dim Kerry's attempt to assume his place at the forefront of the party. Monday night, Mr. Clinton did his best to avoid overshadowing the man who is the Democrats' best hope for retaking the White House.

Introduced by his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., the two-term former president said he is now a foot soldier, ready to "fight for the future as we nominate in Boston a true New England patriot for president."

Unspooling his pitch for Kerry, the former president contrasted a possible America, led by Kerry, with the America he sees under President Bush.

Mr. Bush, he said, supports tax cuts for wealthy, but Kerry is for the country. Mr. Clinton went on to criticize the Bush administration for leaving treaties like the Kyoto Protocols. And on foreign policy, he noted that the U.S. can't attack all of its enemies and diplomacy is a must.

Having set the tone, Mr. Clinton then got down to business.

"Let me tell you what I know about John Kerry," said Mr. Clinton.

The crowd waited. Mr. Clinton spoke of Vietnam. "John Kerry said, 'Send me,'" said the former president - who did not serve himself in that divisive war - referring to Kerry having voluntarily served in Vietnam.

Talking about Kerry's lifetime of public service, Mr. Clinton ticked off the Massachusetts senator's political and legislative achievements, on MIAs and veterans' affairs, the economy, education, and the environment.

Mr. Clinton continued: "Let every person in this hall and like-minded people all across this land say to him, what he has said to people all across America: 'Send me.'"

On Thursday, when Kerry formally accepts the nomination, voters will see if Kerry can stir his party as Mr. Clinton did. Democrats want the speech, expected to be about 50 minutes, to clearly illustrate why he is the better alternative to President Bush. Skeptics abound: is Kerry capable? But with expectations low, and Democratic energy high, Kerry has a low bar to leap.

Mr. Clinton also had his doubters heading into his 1992 convention. When the nominating season was over on June 2, 1992, then-Arkansas Gov. Clinton had swept 22 consecutive Democratic primaries. Even so, polls showed him trailing behind both President H.W. Bush and independent candidate Ross Perot.

But in the middle of the convention, Perot dropped out. The young Mr. Clinton said he accepted the nomination "in the name of the all the people who do the work, pay the taxes, raise the kids and play by the rules."

It appeared sincere and was a stirring and deft political attack on President H.W. Bush's political Achilles heel: the waning economy and the sense that the GOP incumbent was out of touch with the working class. Following the acceptance speech, Clinton received the largest post-convention lift in the polls since tracking began a half century before.

"Clinton's role in the party now is to say where the country was, where it went, and where it could go under John Kerry," said Schoen. "I think the real question with Bill Clinton is to lay out the contrast with the economy with George W. Bush."

"Tonight Clinton contrasted his years with the Bush failures," Schoen continued, speaking of the low unemployment and budget surpluses of the late 1990s. "The contrast was compelling."

These are the contrasts Schoen and Democrats want. "Clinton showed Kerry as continuing the prosperity under him," Schoen explained, and having that compared to Mr. Bush.

In Mr. Clinton's 1992 speech, he took on the GOP grip on the mores of Middle America. Kerry has, and will, do the same Thursday night.

In 2004, Mr. Clinton brought the crowd to its feet as he compared the Democratic ticket to President Bush, saying: "Strength and wisdom are not opposing values."

"John Kerry and John Edwards are people with good ideas," said the former president. "As I said in 1992, I say again tonight, we are all in this together."

"Now, again, it is time to choose," he continued. "Since we're all in the same boat, we should choose a captain of our ship who is a brave good man, who knows how to steer a vessel through troubled waters, to the calm seas and the clear sides of our more perfect union. That is our mission. So let us go in tonight and say to America in a loud, clear voice: 'Send John Kerry.'"

The crowd roared and Mr. Clinton stepped away from the podium, waved in his blue suit, and Mississippi delegate Mary Graham waved back.

"I think he helped us let go of Clinton and get ahold of Kerry," she said, minutes later, all smiles. "We didn't want to let go of Clinton. But I'm ready," Graham continued, shaking her head approvingly. "I'm now ready."

By David Paul Kuhn