You can’t praise what isn’t there

Unlike Hillary’s speech, Bill’s attempts to focus on Obama, rather than on generic Democratic goals.  Bill has a problem, though — the object of his praise has no record on which to run.  The best that Bill can do is create what amounts to a report card for a good student:  he’s a nice guy with a firm grasp of his subject at a purely academic level:

He [Obama] has a remarkable ability to inspire people, to raise our hopes and rally us to high purpose. He has the intelligence and curiosity every successful President needs. His policies on the economy, taxes, health care and energy are far superior to the Republican alternatives. He has shown a clear grasp of our foreign policy and national security challenges, and a firm commitment to repair our badly strained military. His family heritage and life experiences have given him a unique capacity to lead our increasingly diverse nation and to restore our leadership in an ever more interdependent world. The long, hard primary tested and strengthened him. And in his first presidential decision, the selection of a running mate, he hit it out of the park.

We’ve all attended school with kids who were academically bright, but who just never quite grasped the functional realities of the world outside of school.  To date, Obama’s greatest skill has been advancing himself.  Other than that, he’s

  1. written two self-congratulatory books;
  2. done a stint on a law review without any writing of his own (and you don’t know how bizarre that is);
  3. done a stint as a law professor without leaving any written record or clear ideas;
  4. done a stint as a community organizer and local politician that saw him (a) funnel money to his friends; (b) bollux up a major grant program; and (c) do nothing; and
  5. spent three years in the US Senate, most of them campaigning for the job of President.

Obama’s Ivy League degrees notwithstanding, that’s a mighty thin resume for a night watchman, let alone the President of the most powerful nation in the world.  Shouldn’t he be tested in the real world a bit more before he uses the US Presidency as his first job experience?

And it’s not just me being snarky.  Go back and read Bill’s words.  He couldn’t find a single substantive point to make about the guy — and he still went one better than his wife, who didn’t even try.