Bill Clinton mysteriously glossed over the last years of his presidency during Hillary convention speech

Bill Clinton speaks at Democratic National Convention

(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

last updated 27 July 2016

In his long, effusive speech on why Americans should elect Hillary Clinton as America's 45th president, former President Bill Clinton talked a lot about his wife's qualifications and what he has learned from her and about her in their 45 years together. He talked about their courtship, their wedding, Hillary's water breaking at daughter Chelsea's birth, her various jobs on commissions, and her stints as a U.S. senator and secretary of state. He did not mention anything between 1997 and 1999, when Clinton was approached about running for an open Senate seat.

Now, Clinton also skipped the late 1980s, and maybe Hillary was busy adjusting to life as an empty-nester after Chelsea left for college. But the last few years of Bill's presidency were hardly uneventful. Twitter was coy:

Cable news talking heads were more explicit, and The Atlantic's Ron Fournier forewent the niceties. In an otherwise "uneven but effective" speech, he writes, Bill Clinton "left one big hole in the retelling of his family story: the pain he caused his wife by cheating on her with a White House intern, an affair that became public in a most humiliating way." Yes, oddly, in talking about how wonderful his wife is, Bill Clinton left out Monica Lewinsky. Of course, Twitter is never of one mind on anything, and there was a clear "there's a time and place" sentiment as well.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.

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