CHARLOTTE, N.C. (MCT) — Declaring that “America is better off” than it was when Barack Obama became president, former President Bill Clinton lauded the record of his Democratic successor and skewered his Republican rival, depicting the choice before voters as one between “a winner take all, you’re on your own society” and a “we’re all in this together society.”

His voice thinner and raspier, but his oratorical gifts unchanged, Clinton delivered a 48-minute address that alternated between lengthy discussions of policy and partisan jabs leavened with humor and admonitions that “this is important, I want you to listen.”