As Phil Klein writes for today’s Examiner, President Obama overpromised so much in 2008 and has since under-delivered so badly as president that he needed someone to bring voters’ expectations back down to earth. Bill Clinton’s speech this evening was as effective in pulling this off as one could have hoped. Better than that, it was a very good speech — if a bit long — and quite persuasive.

Clinton departed from the economic happy-talk that has dominated the Democratic convention so far. Far from the universe of “the private sector is doing fine” and “yes, you’re better off, you just don’t know it” he cast the economy in the worst possible light: