Then it was Bill’s turn.  The Itzhak Pearlman of speakers took out his Stratavarius and stepped to the mike.  His speech was emotive, warm, humorous, stern, and filled with humanity.  Where Hillary had played the notes, Clinton filled the hall with feeling.  After his wife’s correct performance, Bill’s scintillating and often haunting remarks seemed to soar.

Hillary worked so very hard at getting her speech into prime time.  Scheduled to speak before the nation’s networks were fully covering the convention, she delayed her entrance by almost one half hour to assure that she would be on the air in as many of New York’s living rooms as possible.

But her prime time gamble had backfired.  For once -- for the first time -- all America saw what those who know the Clintons well have always realized but never dare say out loud -- that he is a lot better, brighter, abler, smarter and subtler than she is.  While President Clinton set the party line in place that Hillary and Al were his worthy successors, he belied it with every eloquent gesture, phrase, and intonation of his address.  Mrs. Clinton’s speech was good standing by itself.  But it was a tinny, paltry, uni-dimensional performance in contrast with that of the master.

For decades, Hillary has always clucked backstage while Bill performed. She always, in her heart, felt that she could do better.   Like a theater critic who has never produced a play, she would scrutinize his every move and complain to those around her about every shortcoming.  If only, she seemed to think, if only it were me instead of him, I could do so much better.  On Monday night, in the opening moments of Bill’s speech, Hillary’s body and facial language from her skybox (separate from his) seemed to indicate that she finally got it.  That he was better.

Indeed, Bill’s speech was just too good for the convention.  It was as if William Jennings Bryan, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Adlai Stevenson, or John F. Kennedy had risen to their accustomed heights of convention oratory and then simply left the stage for their understudies to attempt to measure up to their heights. He’s a hard act to follow.

But Clinton’s goal in speaking was not about Al or Joe or Hillary.  It was not about the future.  It was not about anyone’s candidacy.  It was about him.  Self-indulgently, he used his convention speech to address history.  Its target was the nation’s memory.  The words were a summation for the jury of history of the case for Bill Clinton.

The president’s presidency has always revolved around his annual State of the Union speeches.  Like the cable that holds up the George Washington Bridge, its oratorical towers hold it aloft.  In between speeches, it dips, strained by the weight of the structure.  Then it rises again with the next annual address.  Like Christmas in July, Bill Clinton’s convention speech was a mid-year state of the union.  It was one last effort to hold the bridge aloft.

Did Bill Clinton succeed?  He certainly did at describing America’s achievements during his tenure in office.  His failing was in making the case that he was its cause.  He would have done better to explain how his courage (and, although he wouldn’t mention it, that of President Bush as well) in raising taxes and cutting the deficit gave the Fed the room to lower interest rates to kindle economic growth.  He should have pointed out that all those statistics on income growth for the poor would not have been possible without the impetus of welfare reform legislation forcing them to work.  His speech addressed the effects and let people speculate about the cause.

Will Hillary Clinton succeed?  Clearly she will benefit from the bounce of this convention.  Certainly she will use the Lieberman candidacy to strengthen her frayed relationship with New York’s Jewish voters.  She did her best to put to rest the “what has she ever done?” argument.  But doubts about her veracity and ability will still haunt her candidacy.  Since it is a candidacy built on a deception -- that she lives here -- it will always be suspect in all of its particulars.  If this convention leaves Hillary still below 50% of the vote, the odds are she’s never getting there.