Last night, during the Democratic National Convention, Bill Clinton got seriously gushy while talking about his wife.

Speaking for nearly 45 minutes, Bill touched on various topics – none of which included his own accomplishments as president – and painted a picture of what life would be like if citizens voted for the the right candidate, his wife, Hillary.

She is the best darn change-maker I have ever known.

Hmm, just what kind of change are we talking about, Bill?

Anyways, here’s how his speech started, interrupted with long applauses:

In the spring of 1971 I met a girl.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

The first time I saw her we were, appropriately enough, in a class on political and civil rights. She had thick blond hair, big glasses, wore no makeup, and she had a sense of strength and self-possession that I found magnetic. After the class I followed her out, intending to introduce myself. I got close enough to touch her back, but I couldn’t do it. Somehow I knew this would not be just another tap on the shoulder, that I might be starting something I couldn’t stop.

And I saw her several more times in the next few days, but I still didn’t speak to her. Then one night I was in the law library talking to a classmate who wanted me to join the Yale Law Journal. He said it would guarantee me a job in a big firm or a clerkship with a federal judge. I really wasn’t interested, I just wanted to go home to Arkansas.

(APPLAUSE)

Then I saw the girl again, standing at the opposite end of that long room. Finally she was staring back at me, so I watched her. She closed her book, put it down and started walking toward me. She walked the whole length of the library, came up to me and said, look, if you’re going to keep staring at me…

CLINTON: …and now I’m staring back, we at least ought to know each other’s name. I’m Hillary Rodham, who are you?

(APPLAUSE)

I was so impressed and surprised that, whether you believe it or not, momentarily I was speechless.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

Finally, I sort of blurted out my name and we exchanged a few words and then she went away.

Well, I didn’t join the Law Review, but I did leave that library with a whole new goal in mind.

The idea of this bit of history was to point out that Bill Clinton is more than qualified to make a claim on Hillary’s role as president, because he knows her better than most, and knows what it’s like to be the most “powerful man in the world.”

Watch it in full below:

Fortune was kind enough to put up a transcript – read it HERE.

[source:fortune]