Bill & Hillary Clinton: From the Comeback Kids to the "Redeem Team?"

In rousing speeches to the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton on tuesday night, Bill Clinton on wednesday, one of the most investigated, gossipped about and controversial couples in American history left no doubt about who they would be supporting for President of the United States in November.

In the midst of much speculation about what Bill and Hillary Clinton would say in their separate speeches, they both delivered in a big way in support of the election of Barack Obama. Now all that's left for their legion of critics to speculate about is their motives, which I'm sure both the extreme left and the hard right will do, gleefully. If people would rather speculate about such inanities as Bill and Hillary Clinton's hidden motives or sex lives than on the issues that confront this country, that's the problem of those tabloid reading, Fox News-loving, Rush Limbaugh-"ditto-heads" on the right and the Naderites on the left who helped elect Dubya twice.

It had to be a bitter pill to swallow for Hillary Clinton to lose to a newcomer on the national political scene. In fact, it seemed harder for Bill Clinton to come to grips with than Hillary. Bill Clinton is not accustomed to losing political races. After losing a race for the U.S. House of Representatives to a four-term incumbent as a 28 year old, Bill Clinton won 8 of 9 races he entered, losing only a second term race for Governor of Arkansas in 1980. An office Bill Clinton recaptured in 1982 and won again in 1984, '86 and '90 before winning Presidential elections in 1992 and '96.

But Bill Clinton, confounding his many critics as he has so many times before, electrified the Democratic National Convention with his rousing speech on behalf of Barack Obama's candidacy, just a little less than 24 hours after Hillary Clinton did the same. Former President Bill Clinton did so with enthusiasm, emphasizing the state of the economy during his Presidency contrasted with the abysmal state of the economy the last 7 years. An economy that John McCain says is just fine and McCain's economic adviser, former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, called a "mental recession" imagined by a "nation of whiners".

Bill Clinton also emphasized that the Republican attack lines of 2008 against Barack Obama are the same tired GOP rhetoric that was used against then Governor Clinton in 1992. "Elitist". "Too young" at 46 for Clinton, 47 for Barack Obama. The same old tired rhetoric is apparently the only thing the GOP believes in recycling.

Bill Clinton, after praising John McCain for his service to the country and for being a good man, subtly and cleverly attempted to drive a wedge between McCain and the right wing base of the Republican Party. Bill Clinton did so with a line about how MCCain had formerly not given in to pandering to the extreme right earlier in his career, but was wrong on the two basic issues in this campaign, Iraq and the economy.

With this line, a subtle reminder to the right, who are not exactly enamored of John McCain anyway, that McCain was not their choice for President, Bill Clinton might have motivated some right wingers to sit out this election rather than vote for such a man. A man who was praised by Bill Clinton, who the right considers the "Prince of Darkness", the embodiment of evil and maybe even the Anti-Christ. Bill Clinton thus was able to criticize McCain's policies vigorously without attacking him personally.

In endorsing Barack Obama with enthusaism, Bill and Hillary Clinton defused the GOP spin that the pair were only out for themselves, even at the expense of their party and would try to sabotage Obama. Don't be surprised if Bill Clinton's subtle message to the right that McCain is not their darling resonates more with voters than the GOP trying to stir up dissension between Democrats.

In so doing, the images of Bill and Hillary Clinton have surely been redeemed in the eyes of most voters who were disgruntled with the pair after the democratic primaries