Erick Erickson: You’ve gotta respect Bill Clinton’s game. He is one helluva politician

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Full speech: Bill Clinton at the Democratic convention

Former president of the United States makes case for his wife at the Democratic National Convention

Editor's note: The following column originally appeared on The Resurgent.

The party of family values has just nominated a man on his third wife with numerous affairs and they are pitting him against a woman whose husband routinely cheated on her, but they kept their marriage together. Republicans are prone to cast aspersions on the Clinton marriage. “They did it for power” or “she stuck to him for her own benefit” are the most common ones. But in a day and age where marriages crumble and kids wind up spread all over between parents and step parents, the Clintons kept their marriage together. Judge not. They swore a holy vow and, though Bill broke the fidelity part, they have kept the bonds of marriage between them that Trump has so easily cast off.

That was a good speech. Bill Clinton is still the guy you want to have a beer with. He paraded through a tour of states on what Hillary had done for the little guy. He talked about their marriage. He completely skipped 1998. But he came to rehabilitate Hillary’s image in the eyes of the American people and I suspect the old charmer charmed a good number of people.

I do not think his speech was as effective as Michelle Obama’s. But I think it was vastly more effective with a demographic Michelle Obama cannot reach — blue collar white voters who remember the first Clinton years fondly. There are a lot of them and they are toying with Trump who has a bit of the old Clinton “playboy for the little guy” in him. Trump is the Clinton imitator. Clinton wants these folks to know they can get the real one back.

It was a good speech for what it needed to do and it needed to do a lot.

Bill Clinton is still the guy you want to have a beer with. He paraded through a tour of states on what Hillary had done for the little guy. He talked about their marriage. He completely skipped 1998. But he came to rehabilitate Hillary’s image in the eyes of the American people and I suspect the old charmer charmed a good number of people.

I may disagree with Clinton on virtually everything politically, but he is one hell of a politician. You gotta respect his game. Bill Clinton knows how to connect with people.

I know an older Republican lady who attended an event with Clinton in Middle Georgia back when he was running for re-election. She was prepared to give him a piece of her mind. She went into the event with him, he came up to her with his hand shake where he puts his other hand on you, chatted her up as if she was his long lost friend, and she came away completely charmed. She still voted Dole-Kemp, but she never was really quite as angry about Bill Clinton after that.

That’s kinda like this speech.