Bill Clinton on Larry King Live had this to say about Sarah Palin’s selection for VP:

I was surprised. I just — you know, apparently some people who were following it more closely than I were not surprised. But look, I get the down side that the people who criticize her give her, but I can only judge how I think this is going down in a state like Arkansas where I am from, where we have half the people live in communities of less than 2,500 and there are people who are pro-choice and pro-life and more than half the people have a hunting or fishing license. But they like families that hang together, that deal with adversity, that are proud of all their members, that don’t let off from life’s vicissitudes.

So I think that she and her husband and their kids come across gutsy, spirited and real. I have significant disagreements with her about any number of social and economic issues but I find her an appealing person and I think that it’s best to say that Senator McCain looks like he knew what he was doing. He picked somebody who gave him a lot of energy, a lot of support. . .

I think that Senator McCain nominated her partially because she hoped she would excite women who thought a woman who ought to be on a national ticket and on a national stage. But they disagree on an awful lot of things.I think she also is there because she excited the conservative base of the Republican Party. He’s always been a little more iconoclastic, even though he’s been pro-life as a matter of conviction his whole career, he’s never really thrilled the right wing of the Republican Party. So she lit a fire under them and now they have more volunteers and they’re closing the enthusiasm gap.

So I think there were mixed reasons. And I think he tells the truth. I think he liked her because he thought she represented the kind of reform that he represents which is different from the kind of reform that Senator Obama and Senator Biden and Hillary and I and most of our crowd think we need.

Well, if you thought that was a tad glowing, here’s what he had to say about John McCain:

I admire him. I like him and I admire him. And you know, he helped me normalize relations with Vietnam. He has been out front sticking up for the little folks in Georgia, for the whipping they’ve taken over there and trying to stand up for them.He has got a lot of — he helped me stand up against ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo. But I think that I disagree with him about Iraq. And I really disagree with him about the economic policies of the last few years.

I think — and strong disagreements on health care, Senator Obama’s plan is much closer to what I believe should be done and what Hillary has advocated. And I think his energy plan is better.

And I think energy is the key to national security through energy independence to fighting global warming, and most important of all to the people that are listening to this, to more jobs and higher incomes.

So I’m for Obama and would I say that if I — just because I’m a Democrat? Yes. But I also really believe this. I give the reasons that I think are relevant to the American people. That is far more important than having one more guy sitting at the television with a lot of badmouthing the other person.

We should be able to like, admire, respect the contributions of people and still vote in another way.

Now, Clinton does say many nice things about Barack Obama and the Democrats’ agenda, but if he was supposed to be convincing conservative Democrats and Independents of the dangers of the GOP ticket he had a funny way of doing it. If he was, on the other hand, expressing empathy with former Hillary supporters who are considering McCain-Palin, he did a fine job.