Former President Bill Clinton brought the Democratic Party to its collective feet Wednesday night at the party's national convention in Charlotte with a big speech nominating Barack Obama for reelection.
Nearly 12 years since leaving the White House, Clinton has tossed off some of the personal issues that plagued him in office to become one of the most popular active politicians in the country. In fact, according to the latest Gallup poll, taken before the Democratic convention began, his approval ratings are at an all-time high of 69 percent.
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His widely lauded convention address served to ignite the enthusiasms of the party faithful, and perhaps sway some of the few undecided voters left, to turn out for President Obama on election day.
But Bill Clinton himself may have been the biggest winner of all. The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza of The Fix thought his speech was so good, he named Clinton twice in the winners' column of his "Winners and Losers" feature.
In short, at least for the day, Bill Clinton was back to being king of the Democratic Party.
Twenty years ago, Clinton was the guy being nominated, rather than the one doing the nominating. And in making the campaign rounds, he stopped by the Arsenio Hall Show in June of 1992, playing a rollicking rendition of Elvis's "Heartbreak Hotel." It would go on to be remembered as the moment he endeared himself to a critical coalition of young people and African Americans.
Those same groups of people will make or break Obama's reelection chances, which suddenly seemed a lot brighter on the heels of 2012's version of Bill Clinton.
Clinton will take his combination of nerdy wonk and jazzy cool on the road this fall for Obama, hoping his popularity will give the sitting president the lift he needs to re-win the White House.
As it's wont to do, the Internet has graciously provided a remix.
