Bill Clinton: Hillary 'the best darn change-maker I ever met'

Bill Clinton addressed the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday in support of his wife and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The 42nd President of the USA walked out to a screaming crowd as delegates waved tall red, white and blue signs reading “America”.

He spoke fondly of his wife, speaking of the moment they first met and reassuring the audience that his wife was a "change-maker".

“In the spring of 1971, I met a girl,” he began to the amused audience, describing the first moment he saw his wife.

“The first time I saw her… we were in a class on political and civil rights. She had thick blond hair, big glasses, wore no makeup and she exuded this sense of strength and self-possession that I found magnetic," he said.

Clinton said it took three marriage proposals before Hillary agreed to marry him.

"I married my best friend. I was still in awe after more than four years of being around her at how smart and strong and loving and caring she was and I really hoped that her choosing me and rejecting my advice to pursue her own career was a decision she would never regret," he said.

He said she had been by his side through “good times and bad, joy and heartbreak”.

When the couple’s daughter Chelsea was born, Clinton said he was in awe of his wife.

"It was the happiest moment in my life. A miracle for me because my father died before I was born. And the absolute conviction that my daughter had the best mother in the whole world."

Clinton said his wife has "been around a long time", and "she's sure been worth every single year she's put into making people's lives better".

"I can tell you this, if you were sitting where I'm sitting and you heard what I have heard at every dinner conversation, every lunch conversation on every long walk, you would say this woman has never been satisfied with the status quo in anything," he said.

"She always wants to move the ball forward. That is just who she is."

Clinton said Hillary worked hard for Obama's election, adding: "She hesitated to say yes when he [Obama] asked her to join his cabinet, because she so loved being the senator from New York. But like me in a different context, he had to keep asking."

He continued: "She's insatiably curious, she's a good organiser and she's the best darn change-maker I ever met in my life."

"This is a really important point for you to take out of your convention. If you believe in making change from the bottom up, if you believe the measure of change is how many people lives are bettered," he said.

In his closing comments, Clinton added: "Hillary will make us stronger together. You know it, because she spent a lifetime doing it. I hope you will do it. I hope you will elect her."