On Wednesday night, former president Bill Clinton issued a promise to the country that if Barack Obama is elected to a second term then their economic situation would improve.
“A lot of Americans are still angry and frustrated about this economy,” Clinton said. “If you look at the numbers, you know that employment is growing, banks are beginning to lend again, and a lot of housing prices are even beginning to pick up. But too many people do not feel it yet. If you will renew the president’s contract, you will feel it. You will feel it.”
Clinton stopped for a moment and said, “Folks, whether the American people believe what I just told you or not may be the whole election. I just want you to know I believe it. With all my heart I believe it.”
The speech given by Clinton lasted almost one hour and it took on the charges made against Obama by the Republican Party. Mitt Romney was mentioned just a couple of times by Clinton, who then provided framework for the election.
“If you want a winner-take-all, you’re-on-your-own society, you should support the Republican ticket,” Clinton said. “But if you want a country of shared opportunities and shared responsibility — a we’re-all-in-this-together society — you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden.”
Clinton declined to attack the record of Romney while at Bain Capital but instead focused on the GOP as a whole. Clinton did say that Romney will “double down on trickle-down” when it comes to taxes. He said that during the RNC, the Republicans wanted to get across one message about Obama. That message was, “We left him a total mess, but he hasn’t cleaned it up fast enough, so fire him and put us back in.”
The former president then went after Paul Ryan for bashing Obama on cutting $716 billion from Medicare when in fact, Ryan’s budget plan included the same cuts. “You gotta give him one thing. It takes some brass to attack a guy for doing what you did,” Clinton said.
Clinton then took on the fact that Romney blamed the president for undermining the work requirements in welfare reform. “Their campaign pollster said, ‘We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers,'” Clinton said. “Now, finally I can say that is true. I couldn’t have said it better myself –- I just hope you remember that every time you see those ads.”
