CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Wowed by Bill Clinton’s “honor roll” speech endorsing President Obama here Wednesday, Bob Schieffer, host of CBS’ Face the Nation gave the edge to the Democrats over Republicans for holding the better national convention.
Despite a floor fight over God and a venue change from the massive Carolina Panthers football stadium to the compact home of the Charlotte Bobcats and compared to a virtually flawless Republican convention, the newsman said “the Democrats are ahead at this point.”
At a Thursday conference hosted by National Journal and the Atlantic, Schieffer called Clinton’s address a “barn burner” that belongs in the “honor roll.” What’s more, he suggested that Clinton’s speech might overshadow Obama’s, “but I guess that’s kind of a good problem to have.”
The reason he liked it: Clinton made a better case for Obamanomics in 48 minutes than the White House has in four years.
“I don’t care how good your message is, if you can’t break it down and explain it to people in language that people can understand then you are wasting your time,” he said of Obama.
But while Schieffer said it would be OK for Clinton to overshadow Obama, Clint Eastwood’s media-mocked speech to the Republican convention isn’t good for Mitt Romney. “What I thought was kind of interesting was a PEW Research Center poll that came out yesterday that showed that…more people remember the Clint Eastwood speech than remember the Mitt Romney speech, so I would guess that’s not good news,” said Schieffer.
