Why Barack needs bill

Bill Clinton is there for Obama in Charlotte. But the big-tent, business-friendly wing of the party he built is long gone. Peter J Boyer looks at how the death of Clintonism could be a major hurdle for the president

WHEN Bill Clinton took centre stage at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte last night, he made a characteristically forceful case for the party’s other big dog, Barack Obama, arguing that a second Obama term is a vital necessity, and sounding for all the world as if the current president has no greater admirer than the man from Hope.