Bill Clinton praises Hillary as 'the best darn change-maker I have ever known'

After a video touting the successes of his own presidency, former President Bill Clinton took the stage at Tuesday's Democratic National Convention to tell America why it should elect his wife, Hillary Clinton. Much of Bill's long speech was a mixture of personal anecdotes, gushing praise, and résumé recitation, and he began with the personal: "In the spring of 1971, I met a girl."

Bill said that he was immediately impressed with Hillary's "strength and self-possession." When she finally approached him in the Yale Law Library to demand why he had been staring at her, Bill said that, while it may shock people today, "momentarily, I was speechless." He said that a few weeks later, he asked Hillary on a walk, and "we've been walking, and talking, and laughing together ever since."

Before Hillary finally agreed to marry him — on his third proposal, after he bought a house she once admired — "Hillary opened my eyes to a whole new world of public service by private citizens," citing her work on school desegregation for the Children's Defense Fund, registering Latino voters in South Texas, fighting to get black teenagers out of prison in South Carolina, and helping getting rights for handicapped students in Massachusetts, among other things.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Bill said that once he and Hillary had Chelsea in 1980, Hillary spent the next 17 years as mother, but before and after Chelsea's childhood, she excelled at every job he gave her. He called Hillary "the best darn change-maker I have met in my whole entire life."

Then Bill asked, "How does this square with what you heard at the Republican convention?" It doesn't, he answered. "One is real, the other is made up." If you're Team Trump, "your real option is to create a cartoon," then run against that two-dimensional caricature. "Good for you, because earlier today, you nominated the real one," Bill told the delegates, and the convention erupted in cheers.

He tried hard to improve people's lives during his presidency, Bill said, but "for this time, Hillary is uniquely qualified." And he repeated his earlier line:

Clinton ended by saying that he hopes America elects Hillary, and "your children and grandchildren will bless you if you do."