Gentlemen! Behold! Unleash John Kerry!

Despite my serious misgivings about the Big Dog last night and my decidedly mixed reaction to the selection of Joe Biden as Obama's Veep, both men came through with guns a-blazin' for the Big O. Bill's speech especially was a strong endorsement of Obama.

Bill Clinton was one of Barack Obama's fiercest critics during the primary campaign, but Wednesday night the former president delivered an enthusiastic endorsement of the Democratic presidential nominee.

"Barack Obama is ready to lead America and to restore American leadership in the world," Clinton told the crowd of cheering delegates. "Barack Obama is ready to be president."

Clinton pushed back on attacks initiated by himself and his wife during the bitter primary campaign, and later taken up by Republican John McCain, that Obama is ill prepared for the White House, especially on matters of national defense.

"With Joe Biden's experience and wisdom, supporting Barack Obama's proven understanding, insight, and good instincts, America will have the national security leadership we need," Clinton said.

He really put the issue of Hillary 2012 to bed: they are behind Obama 100% (or at least in the high 99% range.) Is it enough to forgive and forget all the nasty things they said? Hell, it's too important NOT to at this point. They've chosen live and let live, and we even saw a bit of the old Clinton magic. It's honestly more than I expected, doing the right thing at the eleventh hour is still doing the right thing.

Joe Biden also crushed one out of the park. Yeah, he made a couple of gaffes, but the guy hit McSame like a prizefighter when he connected...and he connected a lot.

Biden rattled off a list of McCain's positions on issues ranging from taxes to alternative energy, repeatedly saying, "That's not change; that's more of the same."

Sen. Barack Obama joined Biden onstage at the end of his speech, the campaign announced, marking his first appearance in person at the convention that nominated him to be the first African-American to lead a major party ticket for the White House.

Biden praised Obama as a leader who had been right on a wide range of issues, including Afghanistan.

"On the most important national security issues of our time, John McCain was wrong, and Barack Obama has been proven right," he said.

But in all honesty, the best speech of the night was the one you didn't see John Kerry make. You can watch it here, courtesy of Talking Points Memo.

Kerry had some of the best lines of the entire convention.

Candidate McCain now supports the wartime tax cuts that Senator McCain once denounced as immoral. Candidate McCain criticizes Senator McCain's own climate change bill. Candidate McCain says he would now vote against the immigration bill that Senator McCain wrote. Are you kidding? Talk about being for it before you're against it.

Let me tell you, before he ever debates Barack Obama, John McCain should finish the debate with himself. And what's more, Senator McCain, who once railed against the smears of Karl Rove when he was the target, has morphed into candidate McCain who is using the same "Rove" tactics and the same "Rove" staff to repeat the same old politics of fear and smear. Well, not this year, not this time. The Rove-McCain tactics are old and outworn, and America will reject them in 2008.

So remember, when we choose a commander-in-chief this November, we are electing judgment and character, not years in the Senate or years on this earth. Time and again, Barack Obama has seen farther, thought harder, and listened better. And time and again, Barack Obama has been proven right.

When John McCain stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier just three months after 9/11 and proclaimed, "Next up, Baghdad!", Barack Obama saw, even then, "an occupation of "undetermined length, undetermined cost, undetermined consequences" that would "only fan the flames of the Middle East." Well, guess what? Mission accomplished.

So who can we trust to keep America safe? When Barack Obama promised to honor the best traditions of both parties and talk to our enemies, John McCain scoffed. George Bush called it "the soft comfort of appeasement." But today, Bush's diplomats are doing exactly what Obama said: talking with Iran.

So who can we trust to keep America safe? When democracy rolled out of Russia, and the tanks rolled into Georgia, we saw John McCain respond immediately with the outdated thinking of the Cold War. Barack Obama responded like a statesman of the 21st century.

So who can we trust to keep America safe? When we called for a timetable to make Iraqis stand up for Iraq and bring our heroes home, John McCain called it "cut and run." But today, even President Bush has seen the light. He and Prime Minister Maliki agree on guess what? a timetable.

Kerry made a beautiful case, as did Biden later in the evening, powered by the Big Dog earlier. Clinton got a three minute plus ovation from the crowd. They loved him, and he really set the table. Biden cleared that table and despite his classic "George, I mean John McCain" gaffe really showed his passion and fire, but it was John Kerry who really laid out the most powerful argument yet that Barack Obama is far more ready to be President than John McSame, on the basis of the judgement displayed just in the last several months alone.

That is the message Obama's camp has to get across. Obama has been proven right, McSame has been proven wrong. He's already shown himself to be a more capable and much wiser leader than McSame.

Last night was pretty amazing stuff. Let's see what tonight holds when Barry speaks.