Former President Bill Clinton is getting a chance to speak during the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday, although the virtual, pre-recorded address will last less than five minutes and will come well-before the 10 p.m. primetime hour. That's a sign, some observers think, that the Democratic Party is ready to move on from the former leader.
Back in 2012, Clinton stole the show at the DNC with a 48-minute speech that left his allotted time in the dust. Some even credited the speech with making a better case for former President Barack Obama's re-election than Obama himself did. But those days are gone, even though Clinton reportedly remains personally engaged with the current state of politics.
Clinton is 74 now and is reportedly taking great precautions during the coronavirus pandemic because of some health concerns, so lengthy speeches might be out of the question, either way, but Democrats told The New York Times he's simply no longer a focus for a party that has shifted to the left of how he governed between 1993 and 2001. Additionally, the #MeToo movement has brought multiple allegations of harassment and assault against Clinton back to the forefront.
"It's been 25 years since he was president," said Patti Solis Doyle, a former aide to Hillary Clinton and her first campaign in 2008. "He ran much more as a conservative; he governed much more as a conservative. The party now has moved further to the left than it ever has been. I think his time as a politician has passed." Read more at The New York Times.