Bill Clinton for Barack Obama, all the way: Wednesday recap

Former president Bill Clinton used nearly 50 minutes of keynote speech time at the Democratic National Convention to unleash a detailed dissection of Republican foibles, flaws and lies and a soaring assertion that the United States needs, nay, absolutely requires, a second-term presidency from Barack Obama.

"If you want a country of shared opportunities and shared responsibilities – a 'we're all in it together' society, you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden," Clinton told the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, NC.

Clinton, who strayed far from his prepared remarks, touched on Medicare, the national debt and student loans, sprinkling his speech with punchy one-liners and smart jabs at the GOP, even riffing on Republican president Ronald Reagan's famous "There you go again" line.

The speech should go a long way toward quelling popular speculation the former president and current POTUS don't see eye to eye (publicly, at least). Clinton, who appealed to centrist Democrats throughout his presidency, never straying as far left as Obama, told the voters "you must vote for Barack Obama."

Read more from the Star's Mitch Potter.

Women's rights activist and Rush Limbaugh target Sandra Fluke spoke at the top of the 10 p.m. primetime hour, drawing jeering, insulting reaction from Ann Coulter and the rest of the Twitterati.

 

Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts senate candidate, followed Fluke.