Noonan：A life of the party.doc

Noonan: The Life of the PartyFrom/article/SB10000872396390444320704577565393495544010.html?mod=hp_opinion2020/1/29What Bill Clinton could add to the Obama re-election effort.From a friend watching the Olympics: How about that Michael Phelps? But lets remember he didnt win all those medals, someone else did. After all, he and I swam in public pools, built by state employees using tax dollars. He got training from the USOC, and ate food grown by the Department of Agriculture. He should play fair and share his medals with people like me, who can barely keep my head above water, let alone swim.University of Virginia Center for Politics director Larry Sabato on whether President Obama is succeeding in defining Mitt Romney as a callous rich guy. Photo: Associated PressThe note was merry and ironic. And as the games progress, well be hearing a lot more of this kind of thing, because President Obamas commentYou didnt build thatis the political gift that keeps on giving.They are now the most famous words he has said in his presidency. And oh, how he wishes they werent.*There was lots of chatter this week about the decision to have Bill Clinton speak in prime time on the penultimate night of the Democratic Convention. Is it a sign of panic? Would the president give Big Dawg such a prominent spot if he wasnt nervous? Does it gall him to ask for help from the guy who said of his 2008 candidacy, This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale Ive ever seen?But all this kind of misses the point.The central fact of Bill Clinton is that he is really good at politics. And he has every reason to want to give a really good speechto show hes still got it like nobody else, to demonstrate hes still the most beloved figure in the party, to do his wife proud. And of course to rub Mr. Obamas nose in it.The central fact of the Obama campaign is that they have not yet made a case for re-election. They havent come up with a reasoned argument in common words that can be repeated by normal people. Ask an Obama supporter to boil it all down and hell flail around and then say: But Romney is awful or The Republicans are bad.The White House and the campaign have not been able to make a case for their guy. Theyre just trying to make a case against the other guy.But Mr. Clinton might actually be able to make the case, and he just may do it by making a case for the Democratic Party.No one has talked about the Democratic Party in a long time. Democrats dont talk about it because they feel theyre on the run, and have brand problems. The president doesnt talk about it either, which is remarkable. Youd think hed want to rally the troops. But he doesnt seem to love his party all that much.Mr. Clinton does, though, and that ol man, with his white hair and reading glasses, can bring you back. He can ring. He can walk you back to FDR and JFK and Bobby, he can remind you why the party exists, what its done, what it has always meant to do.Enlarge ImageOlivier Douliery /ABACAUSA.COMFormer President Bill ClintonBecause hes doing a favor, and because hes now a wise man of the party, he could be more or less candid about the Democrats recent struggles and acknowledge a few things that havent fully worked. And then he could be delightfully mean: He could say: Much holds us together, not only the past but our dreams of the future. And now those low, shadowy operatives, those bundlers and billionaires with their big PAC moneythose cold scoundrels are trying to steer us off course. But you cant make progress by going backward, you cant move forward by taking U-turns.It could be a barn-burner. Love him or hate him, it could wake things up. Like theres an election going on. Which, by the way, there is.*In Mitt Romneys campaignwell, his supporters had high hopes for his overseas trip. It would show hissize,show that he can move in the world, that he has the heft, weight and ease to be international. He didnt do as badly as his critics say, but he probably didnt do himself much good.When he shared his concern that London might have problems with the Olympics it seemed unguarded, which hes always being urged to be, but it also came across as a sly little put-down of a new business by a guy whod run an old business so well. It wouldnt have been such a big story if the British press werent so hissy and pissy, but they are, and high-level visitors must operate with that in mind.The trip to Israel, with the high-ticket fund-raiser and the casino magnate and the definitive speech that gave him no room to move as president, when presidents always need room to move this way and that, plus the unnecessary put-down of the Palestinians, which wasnt needed to make his pointall of it seemed lacking in size, in heft. Panderish.An old-fashioned thought: Theres something discomfiting in candidates for the American presidency going overseas during a crisis to campaign and fund-raise and make grand speeches. This was true in 2008, with Mr. Obama, and is true now. A Romney supporter might say, But its summer, the campaign hasnt even begun, it just broadens the picture.But the campaign has begun, the clocks ticking.*The oldest clich in presidential politics is that no normal person cares about the election until after Labor Day, when the kids are back in school. Its a clich because its always been true. Ive seen it. But I dont think its true anymore, and in fact has been changing for some time.The clich is replaced by a new one: The screens are everywhere. Theres no place to hide from presidential candidates anymore. For a solid year they follow you from the TV monitor in the airport to the one in the taxi; you check your smartphone and theyre in the inbox telling you their plans and asking for money. You get home, turn on the TV, fire up the computer, and theyre there.No one can hide anymore: politics will find you. And you wind up having an impression of a candidate sooner than you meant to, and it hardens into an opinion earlier than it used to. People dont make the decision after Labor Day anymore.Theyre making their decisions now. Theyve been making them for months.Its showing in the polls. A NYT/CBS swing-state survey that came out this week reflects the dynamic: In the three states they polled, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, when respondents were asked who they were voting for, only 4% of them said they didnt know. Th