My favorite part of the 2012 Presidential race was Bill Clinton's speech at the Democratic National Convention (see here for the transcript). There are a couple of reasons for this:
1.
At first, I found the speech to be rather boring and pedantic, but it
got much better as it went on. Clinton became more animated than I had
ever seen him before in a speech, and he did a good job in detailing the
accomplishments of the Obama Administration and how he believed that
the Romney-Ryan plans would impact Americans. Perhaps the most powerful
part of the speech was when he talked about families with autistic
children, and Clinton said that he didn't know what they would do if
Medicaid were cut. Another powerful part of the speech was when Clinton
said that the economy was recovering, but many Americans didn't feel
the recovery yet. I appreciated that part of the speech because Clinton
was implicitly acknowledging that there was a reason that many
Americans might be disappointed with Barack Obama and supportive of Mitt
Romney. But Clinton said that it took a while for most people to feel
the recovery back when he was President, but they did feel it in 1996.
2. Many of us who read political books, read the newspaper, or watch
news shows are aware that there has been a lot of tension between the
Clintons and the Obamas. I remember watching the 2008 Democratic
Convention. Bill Clinton was about to speak at the 2008
convention----and this was soon after he had implied in a recent speech
that John McCain had more experience than Barack Obama----and Michelle
Obama had a livid expression on her face! It was moving, therefore, to
see Michelle Obama standing and applauding during Bill Clinton's 2012
speech, and to see Barack Obama come out onto the stage right after
Clinton's speech, as Clinton bowed to Obama, and the two embraced one
another. As my Mom said the following day, Obama needed Clinton to give
that speech. One concern was that Clinton would overshadow Obama, but
instead Clinton made a good case for Obama.