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Bill Clinton makes a special case to convention: For his wife

PHILADELPHIA — He had triumphed in speeches to Democratic conventions, and he had bombed. He had spoken twice to accept his party's presidential nomination, and so bright was his star, even as a former president, that in 2004 he was slotted as far as possible from the nominee.

Former president Bill Clinton acknowledges the audience before speaking during the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 26, 2016. (Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY)

PHILADELPHIA — He had triumphed in speeches to Democratic conventions, and he had bombed. He had spoken twice to accept his party’s presidential nomination, and so bright was his star, even as a former president, that in 2004 he was slotted as far as possible from the nominee.

But on Tuesday night, Bill Clinton gave a speech unlike any of his previous seven: one making the case for his partner in a marriage that has been the most politically important since Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s — and the most fraught.

Alternately wonkish and romantic, he could not have been more flattering, more proud, or more loving. He contrasted the Hillary Clinton described last week at the Republican convention with what he repeatedly called “the real one.’’

“She is still the best darn change maker I have ever known,’’ he said. “You could drop her in any trouble spot — pick one — come back in a month … and somehow she will have made it better. That’s just how she is.’’

Former presidents often address conventions to boost their would-be successors; none had ever done so for a candidate who happened to be a spouse, much less the first woman ever nominated by a major party.

He began with these words: “In the spring of 1971, I met a girl.’’

She, like him, was a student at Yale Law School, and he’d seen her from a distance. Finally, noticing that he was staring at her, she walked over and said, “I’m Hillary Rodham. Who are you?’’

He said they’ve been together ever since, “through good times and bad, the joy and heartbreak,’’ which seemed to some a veiled reference to difficulties that tested, but never ended, their marriage.

He recalled that when he told the young woman, after he got to know her, that she should run for office, “she just laughed and said, ‘Are you out of your mind? No one’d ever vote for me!’’’ The crowd laughed.

He recalled how she rebuffed his marriage proposals; how he bought a house because she liked it and he thought she’d marry him; how finally, on his third try, she accepted his marriage proposal.

In 1975, “I married my best friend,’’ he said. He said he was in awe of her, and hoped she wouldn’t regret her decision.

Former president Bill Clinton speaks on stage during the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 26, 2016. (Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY)

What followed was an escorted tour through Clinton’s career as a lawyer, children’s advocate, first lady of Arkansas and America, senator from New York and secretary of State.

His brief boiled down to this: “She’s the best darn change maker I ever met in my entire life. … Speeches like this are fun. Actually doing the work is hard.’’

“This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo,’’ he said. “She always wants to move the ball forward. That’s just who she is.’’

He piled on facts and figures to round out his wife’s résumé, but it paled with the moments when he described his feelings for her, their history and their daughter Chelsea.

The speech was relatively muted, save when he launched into the “real one’’ litany, including:

  • "The real one did more before she was 30 than most public officials in a career.’’
  • “The real one has friends who fight for her.’’
  • “The real one calls you when you’re sick, when your kid’s in trouble, or when there’s a death in the family.''

Clinton ended on an elegiac note, referring to himself as someone with “more yesterdays than tomorrows,’’ who nevertheless recognizes that America “has always been about tomorrow.’’

And it was clear who he thought should lead it there.

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