CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The sound of Arkansas never fell so sweet, coming from the man from Hope after a long twilight of fear, anxiety and uncertainty for the first 12 years of the 21st century.

It was not always thus. The Democratic convention gathering — and people across America were reminded of another country in the 1990s, a time of peace and prosperity as anticipation rustled through the hall. That fleeting Proustian Fleetwood Mac feeling was not just nostalgia, not only remembrance — but also a longing for better times again. Bill Clinton is beloved here — no other word. Unlike the blacklisted George W. Bush among Republicans, his Democratic Party and president needs him to energize voters and help the nation navigate rough seas. You could sense that on the delegation floor, that seldom has one former president helped a sitting president so much by being there to rally the party to save the day. Clinton played both professor and preacher in a political revival meeting.

"We're in for an awesome speech," Senator Michael Bennet, 47, of Colorado said moments before. "The contrast will be stark." Nobody explains policy choices and various consequences the way Bill Clinton does, he added.

In the same vein, John Podesta, Clinton's White House Chief of Staff, told me Clinton would lay out two paths, Mitt Romney's and Barack Obama's, and clarify the challenges that lie behind and ahead of us. Podesta didn't tell me Clinton would later rebut brash veep candidate Paul Ryan's false claims on preserving Medicare, but that dig was fun to watch.

It was also a shot across the bow to Romney and Ryan that he stood ready to be the truth enforcer in this campaign. To the 42-year-old Wisconsin small-town congressman, it was a way of saying, you're playing in the big league now, and I will call you on every foul.

From the moment the former president glided onstage at the Democratic National Convention, he looked incandescent. Every word he spoke was like a note played by a virtuoso, both light and dark, soft and forte. Stationed by the Ohio delegation, the state that mirrors the nation most closely, I felt their spirits rise, a result Democrats hope will spread like contagion back home. Ohio is the heartland constituency that matters most. Like every presidential nominee, Barack Obama must win that key battleground state to win the whole thing. Ohio, Ohio, so much depends on you. Wisconsin, too close to call now, was sitting right next door.

The sleek basketball arena space seemed to shrink as Clinton started speaking in a way that echoed Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Fireside Chats. It felt like he was speaking just to me, a Nebraska woman delegate said. That's a gift that Obama's oratory has lacked lately, well, since he became president. Clinton himself acknowledged that Obama was "cool on the outside" but sought to reassure Democrats that that was not such a bad thing. It's not my style, he seemed to be saying, but he's rowing the boat in the right direction.

The most important message from the Messenger-in-Chief was this: that he personally could not have cured what ailed the frail economy in four years. He could not have brought it back from the Bush brink, he amplified. He did not simplify the complexity of the mess we're in and soberly acknowledged the pain of the joblessness rate. The only promise he could make is that the tough times would relent if we stayed on course.

Barack Obama, were you listening? When the president was a boy in Indonesia, his friends knew he had a stone-hard head — so hard it hurt to hit it, according to biographer David Maraniss, author of "Barack Obama: The Story." Yes, that's what I mean. He leads with his head, not his heart. When he delivers his speech tonight at the finale, the visionary need not show up. He need not give a secular sermon on the mount as he did in Denver on top in a mile-high stadium. Keep it down to earth, Mr. President. And show some heart.

Head and heart bro-hugged at evening's end, for all the world to see. Bully for them and bully for us. Things are looking up.

To find out more about Jamie Stiehm, and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com.