Clinton has not always been a steadfast surrogate for this White House. | Jason J. Lee for POLITICO Clinton: 'Of course' country better off

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bill Clinton pleaded with the American people to “keep President Obama on the job” Tuesday night, urging voters to give the president another four years to turn around the economy and protect the social safety net from what Clinton called draconian Republican cuts.

Delivering a lengthy, point-by-point rebuttal of last week’s Republican National Convention, veering frequently from his prepared text, Clinton cast Obama as a steadfast economic leader who has been stymied by an intransigent Congress. If Obama is reelected, Clinton said, the full impact of his policies will soon be felt.


( Also on POLITICO: Obama, Clinton share hug on stage at DNC)

“No president, not me, not any of my predecessors — no one could possibly have repaired all the damage that he found in just four years,” Clinton said of Obama. “But he has laid the foundations for a new, modern, successful economy of shared prosperity. And if you will renew the president’s contract, you will feel it. You will feel it.”

Addressing a question that has stymied other Democrats in recent days, Clinton argued that thanks to the economic stimulus, the auto bailout, the health care overhaul and other White House policies, the country is better off now than it was four years ago.

( PHOTOS: Scenes from the Democratic National Convention)

“Are we where we want to be today? No. Is the president satisfied? Of course not. But are we better off than when he took office? Of course,” Clinton said.

Calling out Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan for what he called untruths about welfare reform and Medicare in their campaign messaging, the former president dubbed the Republicans agents of a discredited economic philosophy: “We simply cannot afford to give the reins of government to someone who will double down on trickle-down.”

“If you want a country of shared opportunity and shared responsibility, a we’re-all-in-this-together society, you should vote for Barack Obama and Joe Biden,” he said.

Clinton’s upbeat message, promising that an economic recovery is already underway — “I believe it, with all my heart I believe it” — is a rationale for Obama’s reelection that the president has struggled to convey himself, striking a balance between optimism about the future and candid acknowledgment that people have struggled during the economic crisis.

Obama joined Clinton on stage at the conclusion of his remarks, making his first appearance before the convention and bringing Charlotte’s Time Warner Cable Arena to its feet. Clinton’s remarks served as the formal nominating address for the president; delegates voted to nominate Obama for a second term shortly after midnight.

An icon of centrist Democratic politics, Clinton spoke to the crowd at the end of an evening punctuated by hard-edged liberal rhetoric. Immediately preceding him was Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, the heroine of Democratic activists who pummeled Romney for his comment that “corporations are people.”

“President Obama believes in a level playing field,” Warren said. “He believes in a country where nobody gets a free ride or a golden parachute. A country where anyone who has a great idea and rolls up their sleeves has a chance to build a business, and anyone who works hard can build some security and raise a family.”

And Warren wasn’t the only champion of the left to swing a hatchet at the Romney-Ryan ticket before Clinton addressed the crowd.

Sandra Fluke, the activist who became a national figure when Rush Limbaugh called her a “slut,” warned that Romney would usher in “an America in which states humiliate women by forcing us to endure invasive ultrasounds.”

Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee that Ryan chairs, assailed Romney and Ryan as extensions of failed George W. Bush-era policies.

“They call their plan brave, bold, courageous,” Van Hollen said. “Is it brave to reward companies that ship jobs overseas while cutting education here at home? And is it courageous to raise taxes on middle-class families while giving tax cuts to people with Swiss bank accounts?”

The Romney campaign reacted to the evening of speeches with a statement saying that the presence of Clinton, whom Romney has called a successful president, underscored the “failure of President Obama’s time in office” by comparison.

Said Romney spokesman Ryan Williams: “Bill Clinton worked with Republicans, balanced the budget, and after four years he could say you were better off. Barack Obama hasn’t worked across the aisle — he’s barely worked with other Democrats — and has the worst economic record of any president in modern history.”

The statement did not address Clinton’s pointed criticism of Romney and his party’s ideas.

Before any of the major speakers took the stage, the convention veered off course Wednesday afternoon when Democrats reopened the party platform to amend its language referring to Israel. The original version of the platform did not refer to Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state.

Over loud boos from some delegates, forcing multiple votes on the revision, Democrats updated the text to avoid offending supporters of Israel, particularly in the Jewish community.

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the change was made “to maintain consistency with the personal views expressed by the president and in the Democratic Party platform in 2008.”

“Jerusalem is and will remain the capital of Israel,” the Florida congresswoman said. “Our party platform already expresses strong support for the peace process and makes clear the steps that any Palestinian partner must take to be a part of such a process — recognizing Israel’s right to exist, rejecting violence and adhering to existing agreements.”

It was an unwelcome distraction for Democrats, who have battled criticism from Republicans throughout the 2012 race for allegedly failing to support Israel.

Convention organizers also announced that the final night of the gathering would not take place at Bank of America Stadium, as planned, but rather at the Time Warner Cable Arena, where the rest of the proceedings have been held. Democrats cited the weather as the reason for the decision, which will leave tens of thousands of Obama supporters unable to see his acceptance speech tomorrow.

But those flaps only delayed for a short while the gleeful denunciations of the Republican presidential nominee that dotted yesterday’s proceedings. Before long, Democrats were back to the 2012 task they seem to love best: beating the heck out of Mitt Romney.

AFL-President Richard Trumka turned the GOP’s “We Built That” refrain back on Romney, saying that the Republican doesn’t understand the meaning of work.

“Mitt Romney doesn’t know a thing about hard work or responsibility,” Trumka said. “We’re the ones who built America. We’re the ones who built it every single day.”

There was little question at the conclusion of the evening that it was Clinton’s speech that would leave the deepest mark on the 2012 campaign – and perhaps linger well into the next presidential election.

That’s because Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is widely viewed as her party’s strongest standard-bearer for 2016. And while she did not appear in Charlotte tonight – as a diplomat – she’s barred from engaging in electoral politics – her presence was felt all the same.

Praising Obama as a president committed to compromise, Clinton said: “President Obama appointed several members of his cabinet even though they supported Hillary in the primary.”

“Heck,” Clinton said, “he even appointed Hillary.”