Former President Bill Clinton channeled some of the relief inside the Democratic National Convention hall Wednesday when he said a ‘load’s off our shoulders’ while praising Kamala Harris and saluted President Joe Biden for dropping out.
He made the candid comment while praising Harris in her selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. Clinton, a former Arkansas governor, talked up Walz’s time as a coach and a ‘crack shot’ who backed an assault weapons ban.
‘So armed with her first decision Kamala Harris confronts an interesting dilemma,’ he said. Then he diverted: ‘We’re going to walk out of here feeling pretty good, I think. We’ve got energy, we are happy. We feel like a load’s off our shoulders. And we know we are just being asked to fight the same fight that the forces of progress have had to fight for 250 years. And in the face of stiff and often violent opposition, we have to find way to go forward together,’ Clinton said.
He made the remark on a night when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is credited with helping push Biden out the door with her public and private moves, herself got a rousing welcome from the crowd, which now faces an election with a nominee who is rising in the polls.
Like Barack Obama, the Clintons had put out a statement backing President Biden after his debate disaster last month. But some of their ex-aides joined former Obama officials in calling for Biden’s replacement.
Clinton made the comment about the load being lifted in a 28-minute speech where he compared Biden to George Washington for yielding to calls to end his campaign while facing a potential blowout in battleground states against Donald Trump.
‘And then he did something that’s really hard to do: He voluntarily gave up political power,’ Clinton said. ‘George Washington knew that and he did it. And he set the standard for us serving two terms before it was mandatory. It helped his legacy and it will enhance Joe Biden’s legacy.’
‘And it’s a stark contrast to what goes on in the other party. So I want to thank him for his courage, his compassion, his class, his service, his sacrifice,’ Clinton said, getting a round of applause for Biden, his political contemporary who flew off to vacation in California after wrapping up his own convention speech after midnight.
Clinton brought up Barack Obama once calling him ‘explainer in chief’ after his 2012 convention speech won plaudits for persuasion. He also bored convention-goers with his 1988 oration.
This time, he laced his pitch for Kamala Harris with yarns about the candidate himself. (He mispronounced her name once during his remarks).
Clinton pointed back to his past as a voracious fast food consumer to make the case for Kamala Harris at the Democratic convention.
Harris, as her campaign has been reminding voters, spent part of her youth working at McDonald’s, the kind of bootstrap gig that lets her present a contrast with billionaire Donald Trump, the scion of a real estate empire.
‘When she was young she worked at McDonalds. And she treated every person with that smile and said, “How can I help you?’ Clinton told fellow Democrats in Chicago, which played host to his own 1996 convention.
‘Now she’s at the pinnacle of power and she’s still asking: “How can I help you?”’
‘She will break my record as the president who spent the most time at McDonalds,’ Clinton joked, getting a big laugh from the crowd.
Many delegates and even floor speakers were young when Clinton’s own high cholesterol habits were a media sensation. He munched his way through his surprise 1992 campaign victory, occasionally trying to jog off the calories.
That was long before his quadruple bypass surgery and vegan diet that has him slimmed down.
‘I love seeing all these young leaders,’ Clinton said in his familiar Arkansas drawl, with a voice that has grown raspier with age. ‘They look better and they sound better and they’ll be exciting,’ he said.
Clinton observed that he just turned 78 years old, which makes him the oldest in his family of four.
‘And the only personal vanity I want to assert is I’m still younger than Donald Trump,’ Clinton said. The quip underscored how Democrats can now use the age issue to their advantage, after jettisoning the 81-year-old president who dominated the primaries.
Clinton praised Harris and threw a few barbs at Trump – although they were often gentler ones than the ridicule rolled out by Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama.
‘So in 2024 we got a pretty clear choice it seems to me. Kamala Harris for the people. And the other guy who has proved even more than the first go-round that he’s about me myself and I. I know which one I like better for our country,’ Clinton said.
‘What does her opponent do with his voice he mostly talks about himself. So the next time you see it, don’t count the lies, count the I’s,’ he quipped.
‘One of the reason that president-to-be Harris is doing so well is that we’re all so happy,’ said Clinton. ‘But you should never underestimate her adversary. And these people are real good at distracting us.’