Clinton speech

11.18 pm. Republicanism today is failed arithmetic. Clinton is really bringing this home - intellectually. It is not a series of platitudes; it is a series of arguments rebutting last week's entire convention arguments. It has far more policy substance than Romney's or Ryan's speeches. And it has the added benefit of being true.

11.15 pm. Clinton is now equating Obama's plan with Bowles-Simpson. And when you spell out the Romney plan as it exists, it does not add up. And it's perverse. Cutting revenues as a way to cut debt when revenues are at 50 year lows is not a policy. It's madness.

11.11 pm. Now the important passage on Romney's massive welfare lie. The requirement was for more work, not less. Bill Clinton is the perfect man to rebut this lie. I wonder if it will have some serious blowback for Romney. A former president has called him out on a clear lie.

11.10 pm. Now he's telling seniors that slashing Medicaid means slashing home-care for the elderly.

11.07 pm. "It takes some brass to attack a man for doing what you did." He's on fire. Now: welfare? Please: welfare.

11.04 pm. What's great about Clinton's speech: he has taken on the opposing argument directly. We are better off than four years ago. And the healthcare reform is already slowing healthcare costs. Now he's tackling the "robbing Medicare to pay for Obamacare" deception. He's a lawyer slowly moving the jury to a judgment.

10.57 pm. Now he's telling people exactly how the GOP tried to kill the recovery after 2010 by blocking a second stimulus and slashing budgets at the state level. Now touting the auto workers. And the new mileage standards. And a domestic energy boom. And better student loans. He's making it real. Have you lost count of the number of times he said, "Now, listen ..." We are. He's telling a story that Obama has so far failed to tell effectively.

10.51 pm. Clinton's summary of Republican malfeasance these past four years is simply liberating. Liberating because it is true: their moral and intellectual and political degeneracy is our biggest challenge. And he is directly comparing his re-election to Obama's. And he's being as honest as he can: no one could have repaired the full damage of the 2008 crash in four years - but the green shoots are there.

10.49 pm. Genius: "We left him a total mess and he hasn't cleaned it up fast enough so we should get back into power".

10.45 pm. This is a brilliant and core point: the difference between Obama and the GOP is that Obama can compromise and the Republicans will not. If this election is about who can best compromise, it's over. Obama has tried to bring people together - including his former rivals. And the GOP has from the very beginning refused to do anything with this president but plan to defeat him. For Bill Clinton to use the example of Hillary to illustrate Obama's capacity for magnanimity and compromise is a very Bill Clinton coup de grace.

10.41 pm. Clinton is now telling Americans he has worked with Republicans in the past and liked them. He is telling the independents that the current Republicans are different - they are hateful, angry, and partisan all the way down. For a man impeached by Republicans to say they hate Obama even more than they hated him is quite something.

10.36 pm. He's on. I'm gonna sit back for a bit to absorb it better.

10.34 pm. And now the likable rogue. Man did he love that walk onto the stage. And he took his sweet time. Now: for the second most critical speech of the convention.