Elizabeth Warren and Sandra Fluke both gave surprising speeches. Warren's was a terrific progressive speech that reclaimed liberal values in prime time television. Hopefully, her speech will give her a bump over Scott Brown in the senatorial race in Massachusetts:

And Fluke was exactly as she was when I saw her a couple days ago: She comes across as passionate, genuine, friendly, and unpolished in just the right way. I predict it won't be long before she wins elected office somewhere soon; Rush Limbaugh may have created a liberal monster.

But both of those speeches were overwhelmed by Bill Clinton's speech, which was a total rock star performance. I've never seen Clinton speak in person before; he uses facts and figures the way a musician plays an instrument. He eats up the audience's devotion and pays it back with his attention. There were more facts and figures in his speech than in the entire three days of last week's RNC. I have a clear view of his teleprompter, and so I watched him stray from the script to add digression after digression before wandering back to the point he strayed from. It was seamless, wonky work, and a reminder of how much America loved him back in the 90s. And he continued the trend of headline speakers bringing their best stuff. President Obama is a highly competitive person, and he now understands that he has to deliver one of the best speeches of his life tomorrow night. If he does, he'll have Clinton's superlative performance to thank for that. Watch it after the jump.