Every time Bill Clinton addresses the Democratic National Convention, I fall in love all over again. He hit a grand slam in ’04, in ’08 and again tonight in Charlotte. This was The Master — a man who talks straight and specific and with beautiful rhythm and emotion, and just lays it down like an oratorical God…wham! Playing the crowd like a violin, choice line after choice line…spirit-lifting, like great music.

To fully understand what a truly great speech Clinton gave, you might want to read Ryan Lizza’s New Yorker piece (“Let’s Be Friends”) about the relationship between Clinton and Barack Obama.

“People ask me all the time how we delivered four surplus budgets,” Clinton said. “What new ideas did we bring? I always give a one-word answer: arithmetic.

“If [the Republicans] stay with a 5 trillion dollar tax cut in a debt reduction plan – the arithmetic tells us that one of three things will happen: 1) they’ll have to eliminate so many deductions like the ones for home mortgages and charitable giving that middle-class families will see their tax bill go up two thousand dollars year while people making over 3 million dollars a year get will still get a 250,000 dollar tax cut; or 2) they’ll have to cut so much spending that they’ll obliterate the budget for our national parks, for ensuring clean air, clean water, safe food, safe air travel; or they’ll cut way back on Pell Grants, college loans, early childhood education and other programs that help middle-class families and poor children, not to mention cutting investments in roads, bridges, science, technology and medical research; or 3) they’ll do what they’ve been doing for thirty plus years now — cut taxes more than they cut spending, explode the debt, and weaken the economy.

“Remember, Republican economic policies quadrupled the debt before I took office and doubled it after I left. We simply can’t afford to double-down on trickle-down.”