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James Clyburn: Bill Clinton’s Speech ‘Second Best of Convention’

(Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call)
(Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — House Assistant Minority Leader James Clyburn (D-S.C.) weighed in on former President Bill Clinton’s widely praised nominating speech for President Barack Obama, calling it the “second best of the convention” so far.

“I thought it was a great speech,” he said in a brief interview on the floor of the Democratic National Convention tonight. “I gotta give No. 1 to Mrs. Obama, but I thought it was a great speech.”

Although the 2008 Democratic primary between then-Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton took a nasty tone in his home state of South Carolina, Clyburn brushed off any ongoing enmity between the Obama and Clinton camps.

“We have to look at any competition as being exactly what it is: competition,” he added. “That doesn’t mean there is any ill will. I don’t think there is any ill will between the two. “

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