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CHICAGO — Bill Clinton served as Barack Obama’s economics explainer-in-chief in a memorable speech a dozen years ago at the Democratic convention in Charlotte.
On Wednesday, the Big Dog, a little older and his bark more faint, sunk his teeth into another favorite topic and savaged Donald Trump as a narcissist obsessed with himself.
“Let’s cut to the chase: The stakes are too high and I’m too old to gild the lily,” Clinton said in his twelfth convention address, which he peppered with references to his advancing age. “I actually turned 78 two days ago. And I’m still not quite as old as Donald Trump.”
Clinton has long compared himself not to a dog, but to a racehorse, with his party the stable-keeper. Every two years, he would joke, they let him out of the barn for another lap around the track. Clinton was noticeably slower on Wednesday, but he still seemed to relish getting off his lines about Trump, whom he described as “a paragon of consistency.”
Trump, Clinton said, is still divisive, still casting blame, still belittling other people.
“He creates chaos, and then he sort of curates it,” he said, pausing slightly, “as if it were precious art.”
Clinton contrasted Trump’s self-centeredness with what he described as Harris’s inclusive vision for the country.
“The next time you hear him, don’t count the lies. Count the ‘I’s,’” he said, adding, “When Kamala Harris is president, every day will begin with ’you, you, you, you.”
The audience inside the United Center listened respectfully as Clinton, whose clout and standing within the party has diminished, continued to lay into Trump while returning to the contrasts with Harris. He spoke about her summer job at McDonald’s, which she worked to earn some spending money.
“She greeted every person with a 1,000-watt smile and said, ‘How can I help you?’”
Even as she rose to power, he said she’s still doing the same. Clinton spoke about her prosecutorial record and her plans to lower the cost of housing and healthcare, increase financing for small businesses and strengthen America’s alliances around the world.
He also dwelled, albeit briefly, on the challenges of the job. But he returned to Trump, time and again.
“I almost croaked in the first debate of this election season when President Trump said, ‘Nobody respected America anymore like they did when he was president.’ Wait wait, and with a straight face. Look, you got to give it to him: He’s a good actor. With a straight face, he cited as evidence the respect that existed for us when he was there, the presidents of North Korea and Russia.”
Then, he asked, what to make of Trump’s endless tributes to the “late great Hannibal Lecter?”
