The New York Times is reporting tonight,

Bill Clinton to Have Key Convention Role

WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton is set to play a central part in the Democratic convention, aides said, and will formally place President Obama’s name into nomination by delivering a prime-time speech designed to present a forceful economic argument for why Mr. Obama deserves to win a second term.

Several times in recent weeks President Obama has invoked Bill Clinton and his jobs record, trying to frame this election as a choice between the Clinton economy we had then and the Bush economy we have now.  Who could blame the President when the actual numbers are so bad? It’s a good strategy. In fact, the first time I noticed President Obama reaching for the Clinton administration lifeline was during his now infamous “You didn’t build that” speech.

But you know what, I’m not going to see us gut the investments that grow our economy to give tax breaks to me or Mr. Romney or folks who don’t need them.  So I’m going to reduce the deficit in a balanced way.  We’ve already made a trillion dollars’ worth of cuts.  We can make another trillion or trillion-two, and what we then do is ask for the wealthy to pay a little bit more.  (Applause.)  And, by the way, we’ve tried that before — a guy named Bill Clinton did it.  We created 23 million new jobs, turned a deficit into a surplus, and rich people did just fine.  We created a lot of millionaires.

We created Mr. President? You were an Associate Attorney for Davis, Miner & Barnhill and a State Senator for the final three years of the Clinton administration. One that voted present more than anything else. We?

State Senator 1997 to 2004
State of Illinois, Chicago, IL

Associate Attorney 1993 to 2002
Davis, Miner & Barnhill, Chicago, IL
• Litigated employment discrimination, housing discrimination and voting rights cases.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE:

Lecturer / Senior Lecturer 1992 to 2004
University of Chicago Law School
• Taught courses in General Law, Constitutional Law and Government Affairs

Ah yes…constitutional law expert….

Photo: The eating crow summit.

There is a fatal flaw in the President Obama-Clinton comparison. President Obama does not believe what Bill Clinton believed about businesses or the economy. The differences go far beyond Clinton’s vigorous defense of both Romney and Bain. How about the signature domestic accomplishment of the Clinton administration, overturned by fiat, at the pen of Obama’s HHS secretary.  Here is a good piece by Mickey Kaus,

Obama weakens welfare reform (again): Here are some quick initial reactions to the administration’s apparent surprising (and possibly illegal) attempt to grant waivers of the work requirements written, after great effort, into the 1996 welfare reform law

…If today’s action stands–surviving legal as well as political challenge–it will allow HHS to let those states that don’t really want to require welfare recipients to work to not require them to work. Before 1996, HHS would be preventing states that did want to require welfare recipients to work from requiring them to work. Still a big difference between then and today. But not as much as between then and yesterday.

15. Souljah Opening Available: Obama could turn the HHS rule into a big political plus if he dramatically ordered Secretary Sebelius to withdraw it, saying he wanted to encourage people to work, not go on the dole. But that’s not his style.

Update: Dave Weigel points out the long-term implications of the administration’s legal argument: Once HHS has the power to fiddle with work requirements, even worse may be on the way. The Mark Greenbergs are just getting started.

Given the economic performance, lack of leadership and overall malaise, the Clinton comparison is not the one on voters minds.