Last night, after listening to Hillary Clinton address the convention, I wrote:

Dear news media,

Now that you’ve heard Senator Hillary Clinton’s speech, can you please stop peddling the nonsense about her not being 100% behind Barack Obama for President?

I know how much you like that story. But tonight Hillary blew it clean out of the water.

By this morning, though, it was clear that my wish was not to be granted:

Looks like my request for the news media isn’t going to be granted. I tuned into MSNBC’s Morning Joe this morning and discovered all the talking heads yacking about how Hillary had “held back” from a full endorsement of Obama because she hadn’t specifically said that he was experienced enough to be President.

All of which was on my mind as I listened to President Bill Clinton speak to the convention today. Because his address was perfectly calibrated to refute the silly charges the talking heads were slinging around with their morning coffee.

(Since I wrote about this before he spoke, I can only assume that he reads this blog and prepared his speech accordingly. Hi, Bill!)

He started by making his — and Hillary’s — endorsement of Obama crystal clear:

Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she’ll do everything she can to elect Barack Obama.

That makes two of us.

Actually that makes 18 million of us - because, like Hillary, I want all of you who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November.

Then he laid out his reasoning, describing the devastation wrought by decades of Republican economics in terms that readers of this blog will find quite familiar:

Our nation is in trouble on two fronts: The American Dream is under siege at home, and America’s leadership in the world has been weakened.

Middle class and low-income Americans are hurting, with incomes declining; job losses, poverty and inequality rising; mortgage foreclosures and credit card debt increasing; health care coverage disappearing; and a big spike in the cost of food, utilities, and gasoline.

Our position in the world has been weakened by too much unilateralism and too little cooperation; a perilous dependence on imported oil; a refusal to lead on global warming; a growing indebtedness and a dependence on foreign lenders; a severely burdened military; a backsliding on global non-proliferation and arms control agreements; and a failure to consistently use the power of diplomacy, from the Middle East to Africa to Latin America to Central and Eastern Europe.

Clearly, the job of the next President is to rebuild the American Dream and restore America’s standing in the world.

Then, as if to satisfy the talking heads, he laid out exactly why he thinks Barack Obama is ready to be President:

Everything I learned in my eight years as President and in the work I’ve done since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job.

He has a remarkable ability to inspire people, to raise our hopes and rally us to high purpose. He has the intelligence and curiosity every successful President needs. His policies on the economy, taxes, health care and energy are far superior to the Republican alternatives. He has shown a clear grasp of our foreign policy and national security challenges, and a firm commitment to repair our badly strained military. His family heritage and life experiences have given him a unique capacity to lead our increasingly diverse nation and to restore our leadership in an ever more interdependent world. The long, hard primary tested and strengthened him. And in his first presidential decision, the selection of a running mate, he hit it out of the park.

And he closed with a devastating recitation of what a John McCain victory would mean for America:

The Republicans will nominate a good man who served our country heroically and suffered terribly in Vietnam. He loves our country every bit as much as we all do. As a Senator, he has shown his independence on several issues. But on the two great questions of this election, how to rebuild the American Dream and how to restore America’s leadership in the world, he still embraces the extreme philosophy which has defined his party for more than 25 years, a philosophy we never had a real chance to see in action until 2001, when the Republicans finally gained control of both the White House and Congress. Then we saw what would happen to America if the policies they had talked about for decades were implemented.

They took us from record surpluses to an exploding national debt; from over 22 million new jobs down to 5 million; from an increase in working family incomes of $7,500 to a decline of more than $2,000; from almost 8 million Americans moving out of poverty to more than 5 and a half million falling into poverty - and millions more losing their health insurance.

Now, in spite of all the evidence, their candidate is promising more of the same: More tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that will swell the deficit, increase inequality, and weaken the economy. More band-aids for health care that will enrich insurance companies, impoverish families and increase the number of uninsured. More going it alone in the world, instead of building the shared responsibilities and shared opportunities necessary to advance our security and restore our influence.

They actually want us to reward them for the last eight years by giving them four more. Let’s send them a message that will echo from the Rockies all across America: Thanks, but no thanks. In this case, the third time is not the charm.

“The third time is not the charm.” Truer words were never spoken.

Let’s listen to Bill and Hillary. Let’s restore the American Dream. Let’s elect Barack Obama.