CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Former President Bill Clinton grabbed the spotlight at the Democratic National Convention Wednesday night to recall the "roaring" economy of the 1990s and hold forth the promise of a new era of prosperity under President Obama.
Clinton, earning an onstage embrace from Obama at the conclusion of a 49-minute speech, urged an ecstatic, cheering crowd of Democrats to fight for the president's health care and economic stimulus plans, policies that almost certainly would be reversed with the election of Republican candidate Mitt Romney.
"When we vote in this election, we'll be deciding what kind of country we want to live in," Clinton, the party's popular elder statesman, said in one of the most animated speeches of his long public career. "If you want a winner-take-all 'you're-on-your-own' society, you should support the Republican ticket. If you want a country of shared opportunities and shared responsibility -- a we're-all-in-it-together' society -- you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden."
Clinton's speech, an often ad-libbed point-by-point rebuttal of the GOP convention in Tampa, capped a night of withering critiques of Republican tax and budget policies by a Democrats, including Minnesota labor leader David Foster, who told the audience, "We don't need a president who fires steelworkers, or says, 'Let Detroit go bankrupt.'"
Clinton served as a reminder of the party unity that he helped forge after Obama defeated his wife, Hillary Clinton, in the 2008 Democratic primaries, a coalescing that paved the way to Obama's election and the appointment of the former first lady as secretary of state.
Clinton's speech, the most anticipated of the convention other than Obama's remarks Thursday, presented risks as well as validation for the president, who is presiding over a tepid economic recovery that Republicans hope will drive him from the White House.
Clinton's approval ratings are at his personal best, affording him a stature that some observers said could upstage Obama.
Despite the questions, Obama advisers believe the president could benefit from Clinton's forceful critique of Republican economic policies under former President George W. Bush, who left office amid a deep financial crisis.