The mood inside of the Pepsi Center before Bill Clinton’s speech was nervous excitement. Despite some concern from Obama supporters that the former President had crossed the line during the primaries, most of the people in the Hall understood the importance of this speech, and love watching the best skilled politician of our time. I was sitting up in the cheap seats and the mood was — “He better pull this one off. But there was no need to worry as Bill Clinton gave the address of the convention so far. Besides his amazing ability to read and speak to a room of any size, what Bill can do better than any political speaker is to frame the debate between the Democrats and Republicans in easy, understandable terms that pose the stark differences between the two sides.

First Bill had business to take care of — he had to leave no doubt of his support for Obama. He did that simply and it brought the House down:

Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she’ll do everything she can to elect Barack Obama.

That makes two of us.

Actually that makes 18 million of us — because, like Hillary, I want all of you who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November.

To be honest, reading it does not do it justice — it was his emphasis in delivery that did the job, and probably the Obama team, and good Democrats everywhere, exhaled with that line. In the Hall it was greeted with exhuberancy. Next he placed what is at stake in this election into two different categories:

Our nation is in trouble on two fronts: The American dream is under siege at home, and America’s leadership in the world has been weakened.

What is so simple about this categorization is that it covers everything — Whatever your definition of security, the Republicans are screwing it up. Bill then describes the problems being faced by average Americans and by America in the world in very basic ways:

Middle-class and low-income Americans are hurting, with incomes declining; job losses, poverty and inequality rising; mortgage foreclosures and credit card debt increasing; health care coverage disappearing; and a big spike in the cost of food, utilities, and gasoline.

Our position in the world has been weakened by too much unilateralism and too little cooperation; a perilous dependence on imported oil; a refusal to lead on global warming; a growing indebtedness and a dependence on foreign lenders; a severely burdened military; a backsliding on global nonproliferation and arms control agreements; and a failure to consistently use the power of diplomacy, from the Middle East to Africa to Latin America to Central and Eastern Europe.

Clearly, the job of the next president is to rebuild the American dream and restore America’s standing in the world.

There is no nuance, no long explanation, just a very basic description of the reality of the problems the country and its citizens are faced with at this time. It is both an indictment of George W. Bush and the Republicans who controlled all of government from 2001 through 2007, but it is also a list of the challenges faced by the next President — a list that favors Democratic solutions to Republican status quo.

Bill then “pays witness” to Obama, explaining why he is qualified to be President. Part of this section reads:

He has a remarkable ability to inspire people, to raise our hopes and rally us to high purpose. He has the intelligence and curiosity every successful president needs. His policies on the economy, taxes, health care and energy are far superior to the Republican alternatives.

Bill continues this list that not only explains Obama’s qualifications, but how it is necessary that THIS man be President. Again, the phrases are simple, yet bear more than their words. He did a nice job of stating that with the Choice of Joe Biden as the VP nominee, Obama “hit it out of the park,” with his first presidential decision, once again adding to Obama’s legitimacy to the reins of judgement and qualifications.

After declaring that “Barack Obama is ready to be President of the United States, Bill then goes into how the world would be better off with an Obama Presidency:

He will work for an America with more partners and fewer adversaries. He will rebuild our frayed alliances and revitalize the international institutions which help to share the costs of the world’s problems and to leverage our power and influence. He will put us back in the forefront of the world’s fight to reduce nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and to stop global warming…

Again his descriptions are basic, but by placing Obama as the cure for America’s ills, he is also defining those ailments. Then Bill ties the global issues with domestic ones:

Most important, Barack Obama knows that America cannot be strong abroad unless we are strong at home. People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.

The turn of phrase there seems so obvious when he says it, but it goes to the core of what the election is about — the core of the choice that is to be made between the Democrats and Republicans. Do we lead by example, or by force?

Then Bill paint the picture of Republican America:

Look at the example the Republicans have set: American workers have given us consistently rising productivity. They’ve worked harder and produced more. What did they get in return? Declining wages, less than one-quarter as many new jobs as in the previous eight years, smaller health care and pension benefits, rising poverty and the biggest increase in income inequality since the 1920s. American families by the millions are struggling with soaring health care costs and declining coverage. I will never forget the parents of children with autism and other severe conditions who told me on the campaign trail that they couldn’t afford health care and couldn’t qualify their kids for Medicaid unless they quit work or got a divorce. Are these the family values the Republicans are so proud of? What about the military families pushed to the breaking point by unprecedented multiple deployments? What about the assault on science and the defense of torture? What about the war on unions and the unlimited favors for the well-connected? What about Katrina and cronyism?

America can do better than that. And Barack Obama will.

But first we have to elect him.

The litany of Republican failures and excesses is well known, but again, the Clinton ability to make every sentence a potential news sound bite is still impressive. And he again ends this section with Barack Obama as the solution. In the final section of his speech, Bill does a basic, but potent, contrast of John McCain’s America with Barack Obama’s. After the seemingly essential acknowledgment of McCain’s service and sacrifice, Bill explains:

As a senator, he has shown his independence on several issues. But on the two great questions of this election, how to rebuild the American dream and how to restore America’s leadership in the world, he still embraces the extreme philosophy which has defined his party for more than 25 years, a philosophy we never had a real chance to see in action until 2001, when the Republicans finally gained control of both the White House and Congress. Then we saw what would happen to America if the policies they had talked about for decades were implemented.

They took us from record surpluses to an exploding national debt; from over 22 million new jobs down to 5 million; from an increase in working family incomes of $7,500 to a decline of more than $2,000; from almost 8 million Americans moving out of poverty to more than 5 1/2 million falling into poverty — and millions more losing their health insurance.

Now, in spite of all the evidence, their candidate is promising more of the same: more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that will swell the deficit, increase inequality, and weaken the economy. More Band-Aids for health care that will enrich insurance companies, impoverish families and increase the number of uninsured. More going it alone in the world, instead of building the shared responsibilities and shared opportunities necessary to advance our security and restore our influence.

This beautifully ties McCain to Bush and then he delivers the kicker:

They actually want us to reward them for the last eight years by giving them four more!

This should be the theme of the rest of the election campaign: That the Republicans actually believe that they deserve another four years. That is a phrasing of the debate between John McCain and Barack Obama that would truly make swing voters think about their ballot.

Bill’s final task is to match Barack Obama’s background with his own and McCain’s to show that he is qualified to be President and tie Obama to the Clinton years:

Together, we prevailed in a campaign in which the Republicans said I was too young and too inexperienced to be commander in chief. Sound familiar? It didn’t work in 1992, because we were on the right side of history. And it won’t work in 2008, because Barack Obama is on the right side of history.

His life is a 21st century incarnation of the American dream.

Again, Bill Clinton can frame the debate of an election and the debate for our country better than anyone else. By the end of his speech, everyone in the Hall was a true Bill Clinton fan again, and the cheers he got were sincere as he was basking in a role that he loves more than anyone else on teh planet.