LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — In Bill Clinton’s Primetime speech in Democratic National Convention In 1988, the young governor of Arkansas bored delegates so much that they cheered when he said, “In conclusion…” Many years later, Clinton, a former president whose legacy had made a comeback, helped Barack Obama get re-elected with a speech at the party’s 2012 convention that earned him the nickname “Minister of Statements.”
Clinton, 78, a veteran of convention speeches over the past four decades, knows the difference between a good speech and a disastrous one as well as anyone. What is less certain, as he prepares to deliver his 12th convention speech on Wednesday, is the impact he will have on a party trying to prevent Donald Trump from returning to the White House.
Clinton’s political journey from Little Rock to the White House and later to elder statesman status can be traced in part through his changing role at the Democratic National Convention – for better and for worse. When he was elected in 1992, he rejuvenated the Democrats, and as the last president to leave office with a budget surplus, Clinton is still a rock star to many Democrats. But for others, his legacy is complicated, both by changing views of his centrist policies and the sex and power scandal that nearly ended his presidency.
This time, as Democrats seek to end Trump’s political career, allies and experts see Clinton as a valuable ambassador for Vice President Kamala Harris on the economy: A recent AP-NORC poll shows that Americans trust Trump slightly more on economic issues than the Democratic Party candidate.
“Nobody can take very complex economic issues and explain them in simple terms – he’s the best at it – and why they matter to you and to everyone else,” said Terry McAuliffe, former governor of Virginia and longtime friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
But the former president’s influence could be waning, especially as he turns to a party that has moved further to the left of his centrist policies on issues such as crime and trade.
Although Clinton delivered speeches at the 1980 and 1984 conventions, he first attracted national attention when he officially nominated then-Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis at the 1988 convention. That did not go well.
The planned 15-minute speech lasted twice as long and the delegates lost interest.
“It was 32 minutes of total disaster,” he later wrote in his 2004 autobiography “My Life.”
Clinton countered with a self-deprecating appearance on Johnny Carson’s late-night show, where the host greeted him by placing an hourglass on his desk. Clinton ended his performance by playing the saxophone with the show’s band.
“He quickly re-established his position,” said Skip Rutherford, a longtime friend of Clinton’s and former head of Clinton’s presidential foundation.
This set the stage for Clinton’s next two convention speeches. The first as the party’s nominee in 1992, when he declared that he still believed “in a place called hope.” And when he sought re-election in 1996, he vowed to build “a bridge to the 21st century.”
“He steps on the stage as the most experienced convention speaker there,” Rutherford said. “But I’ll still bet he’s talking about the future.”
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But Clinton’s reputation as a former president has changed over the years, shaken by both policies and the evolution of his legacy.
Part of this reflects how the #MeToo movement revived discussion of Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, a young White House intern, that led to his impeachment by the House of Representatives. Lewinsky said in 2018 that although it did not amount to sexual harassment, the relationship constituted a ” gross abuse of power.”
In 2000, as Clinton’s second term as president was coming to an end, he ceded the spotlight to his vice president, Al Gore, who wanted to distance himself from the scandal and Clinton’s impeachment. Gore highlighted his own marriage with a long onstage kiss with Tipper Gore, emphasizing the contrast between the two men. (The Gores separated a decade later.)
Gore lost the presidential election to George W. Bush in a race so close that it was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court. The historic margin has since fueled debate over whether Clinton’s role in the campaign should have been handled differently.
Eight years later, Clinton’s role at the convention became complicated again after Hillary Clinton lost a bitter primary battle to Obama. He spoke at the 2008 convention in Denver, but Obama had little interest in addressing the ex-president’s legacy, and Clinton’s speech was the prelude to the same evening that Joe Biden delivered his speech as the party’s vice presidential candidate.
Clinton’s most memorable speech since then came in 2012, when he picked apart the Republicans’ economic plans point by point. That speech earned him the nickname “Minister of Explanations” from Obama. He also gave a heartfelt speech on behalf of his wife at the 2016 convention during her presidential bid.
Clinton’s presidential library remains a popular tourist attraction in Little Rock nearly 20 years after it opened, and his foundation announced last year that plans to expand it to include Hillary’s personal archives. He also plans to publish another reminder after the election.
But Clinton’s star status may be less than Obama’s. About 6 in 10 Democrats think Obama is the best president in recent memory, according to a 2023 poll. Pew Research Center survey The survey asked adult US presidents which president had done the best job over the past 40 years. About two in ten Democrats chose Clinton.
This comes as the party shifts away from the center-left policies that Clinton represented for most of his presidency. Clinton won over moderates with policies such as welfare reform and the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump and others say has led to thousands of jobs being moved overseas.
“I would say he is a diminished figure in the Democratic Party, there is no doubt about that,” says Nelson Lichtenstein, a Clinton administration historian at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Clinton could also be overshadowed by his wife, who remains popular in the party eight years after her unsuccessful bid for the White House. Hillary Clinton was welcomed by wild and sustained applause that lasted more than two minutes when she spoke before Congress on Monday.
And Bill Clinton’s record has come under new scrutiny from his fellow Democrats in recent years. The 1994 criminal justice reform law he signed, which imposed harsher penalties and gave states incentives to build more prisons, was criticized as a blunt instrument of mass incarceration that ruined the lives of thousands of people who could have been redeemed with a less harsh sentence. Biden was challenged in the Democratic primaries four years ago over his support of the law.
Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist and former adviser to Clinton, said the former president remains an asset to the party.
“I think he’s an elder statesman and a popular figure with particular credibility on economic issues,” Begala said. “If I were campaign manager, I would send him anywhere.”
That could help Harris’ speech get exposure to moderate voters who don’t want to vote for Trump but may be receptive to his claim that she’s too liberal.
“I think the ‘Minister of Explanations’ has work to do,” said Russell Riley, co-chair of the Presidential Oral History Program at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. “Give him some time, he can explain just about anything and make sometimes unattractive decisions seem not just logical but inevitable.”
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Associated Press writer Bill Barrow contributed to this report.
