OpEdNews » Bill Clinton's Finest Hour; Barack Obama Takes the Torch

It was a moment for the ages as Bill Clinton joined Ted Kennedy in passing the torch to a new generation of Americans led by Barack Obama at a defining moment in history that will change the world. There was wisdom and generosity of spirit to Bill Clinton last night; the kind that Kennedy showed yet again in his courageous speech on Monday night.

It was a historic moment, not only for the first African-American presidential nominee, but for the dream that rises for women, for Hispanics, for the sons and daughters of steelworkers after eight ugly years of insiderism, cronyism, war profiteering, demeaning, division, wedge politics, greed, anger, torture, hate, smears and lies from a Republican Party with nothing left but negativity and its nominee, the man who used to be John McCain, with nothing left except the poisons that the Republican Roves teach him how to inject into the body politic.

It was Bill Clinton's finest hour; a moment for the ages; a merging of the dreams; a magic that brought together the aspirations of good and decent people for something better, and something nobler, and something that is both new to our age and timeless in the American character, taken away by the party of Bush and Cheney and Rove and McCain, to be restored by the party of Kennedy and Clinton and Roosevelt and Jefferson and the long line of leaders whose torch Obama now takes.

The dark genius of modern Republicanism is to convince people to vote against their own interest through the advanced technology of modern media and predictable sycophancy of many of those in it, using weapons of fear, falsehood and fraud in which the lie takes hold, before the truth catches up, after the damage has been done.

The great light of the Democratic Party at its best is to unite people behind their higher hopes and truest interests through a politics of aspiration, and unity, and ideals, that rallies the better angels of our nature, and lifts the nation to common purpose.

It was Bill Clinton's finest hour. It was a great night for Democrats. It was a great night for the dream. It was a great night for America. It was great night for the young who will inherit the world, and the old, whose trust must be fulfilled to leave the young a better world then they inherited, a trust that has been lost in the last eight years, and must be regained again.

Now the fight begins in earnest for the heart and soul and future of America.

http://pundits.thehill.com/2008/08/28/bill-clintons-finest-hour-barack-obama-takes-the-torch/

Brent Budowsky is a regular columnist on thehill.com. He served as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, responsible for commerce and intelligence matters, including one of the core drafters of the CIA Identities Law. Served as Legislative Director to Congressman Bill Alexander, then Chief Deputy Whip, House of Representatives. Currently a member of the International Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit. Left goverment in 1990 for marketing and public affairs business including major corporate entertainment and talent management.