The Slatest

Remember the Boom Years Under Clinton? Obama Sure Hopes So

Bill Clinton is becoming Team Obama’s most prominent pitchman for the president’s economic vision

Photo by Paul J. Richards/AFP/GettyImages.

Team Obama is out with its latest paid campaign spot today, in which Bill Clinton offers something of a mini-preview of the speech he is expected to deliver at next month’s convention.

Here’s the pull quote from the 30-second spot: “President Obama has a plan to rebuild America from the ground up, investing in innovation, education and job training. It only works if there is a strong middle class. That’s what happened when I was president. We need to keep going with his plan.”

Democrats have tapped Clinton to give a prime-time speech in Charlotte, N.C., next month that is widely expected to be a forceful defense of Obama’s economic vision. The former president has served as one of Obama’s most powerful surrogates this year, but things haven’t always gone so smoothly. (See: Romney’s “sterling business career.”) Nonetheless, the campaign appears ready to weather any missteps in order to tie its candidate with the popular former president.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the new ad (embedded below)—the campaign’s first paid one starring Clinton—the will air in New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Colorado, and Nevada.