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The Speech Clinton Wants To Give

 

Politico reports Bill Clinton is "disappointed" that, per the Obama campaign's instructions, he has to speak about foreign policy instead of domestic issues and how great his administration was when he addresses the convention on Wednesday night. Boo hoo.

Of course, convention speeches are always a delegate delicate* dance, as the speaker and convention speechwriters battle over substance, language, even punctuation. If a pipsqueak like Harold Ford can be a pri madonna prima donna*--Ford's battles with Al Gore's speechwriters at the 2000 Democratic convention are the stuff of legend--just imagine what a headache the Big Dog must be. (Even the cool and collected Obama was said to be furious in 2004 when John Kerry's speechwriters cut what he thought was one of his best lines.)

But here's the good news. Mark Penn, who's reportedly advising Clinton on his speech, has gone to the trouble of writing a whole column for Politico hailing Clintonism as "the most cohesive and successful Democratic governing philosophy the country has had since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s election 1932 and the advent of the New Deal." So my suggestion would be for some enterprising Clintonite to head to Kinko's, print out 20,000 or so copies of Penn's column celebrating Clintonism, and then distribute it around the Pepsi Center before Bill gives his speech on foreign policy. There, problem solved.

*--Apologies for egregious original spelling mistakes. I've now had my coffee and things should hopefully improve. 

--Jason Zengerle