How Bill Clinton ad-libs his way to a winning speech

David Kusnet at CNN:

By one account, the former president spoke for 48 minutes and 5,895 words, while his prepared text, which had been distributed beforehand to the media, was only 3,136 words. No wonder, when asked about her husband's speech, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was looking forward to comparing the “as prepared” and “as delivered” texts.

Reviewing each version, it's clear that the same person wrote both — the same president who improvised 20% of his first State of the Union address and explained his health-care plan from memory to a joint session of Congress after the teleprompter displayed the text of an earlier speech.

Clinton's improvisations are instructive because they show how the nation's most popular political figure (69% approval rating, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll) still serves as extemporizer-in-chief. While most speakers ad-lib anecdotes, Clinton also explains complex issues off-the-cuff.

More here. And here's the full speech from the DNC: