Bill Clinton headlined the second night of the Democratic convention, a jubilant celebration of her formal nomination for president.
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In his address to the Democratic convention on Tuesday night, Clinton set out two tasks for himself: humanize his wife, a candidate with poor personal favorability ratings who is often discussed as though she were not a person with feelings; and ground her ideology, making the case that she is a committed progressive who has devoted her life to making the sorts of policy changes people on the left care about, all while working successfully with Republicans.
Vermont was the last state to declare its delegate count in Tuesday’s roll-call vote.
His hard-core disciples could not fathom how, after months of supporting the socialist senator and his message, he could ask them to support Clinton. Several wept and embraced.
They also criticised the DNC for “denying independents the right to vote for their president, voter suppression and fraud, and for conspiring against Bernie Sanders”.
Delegates thrust placards in the air, forming a mosaic of “H’s” across the arena.
Though the speech went in chronological order – beginning with the time he first met Hillary while standing in line to sign up for class in law school – Bill Clinton did not reference the time his marriage was challenged the most: his public scandal with Monica Lewinsky after he had sexual relations with the White House intern. She added, “The idea that I’m going to be here when the first woman president is nominated is overwhelming”.
But most recently, it seems Hillary Clinton has settled on calling Bill Clinton “first gentleman”. The speech is among many highly anticipated speeches from a star-studded lineup.
“In the spring of 1971, I met a girl”, Bill began as he warmly recalled their budding romance and his “awe” at Hillary’s smarts, strength and persistence in doing public good. By his account, he was a bumbling, scared kid who couldn’t muster the courage to approach Hillary and talk to her. It was Hillary, he said, you actually walked up to him and got the conversation rolling. In an important move for party unity, her primary rival Bernie Sanders helped make it official when the roll call got to his home state of Vermont, prompting delegates to erupt in cheers. Tim Kaine is facing pressure to affirm his liberal credentials in his first prime-time speech as Hillary Clinton’s running mate. After serving on President Bill Clinton’s administration, she was involved in all of Hillary Clinton’s campaigns from the senate to her 2008 presidential bid for the democratic nomination, in which she was a senior advisor. Seeking to explain the vastly different perceptions of his wife, Clinton said simply, “One is real, the other is made up”. “But one of you is next”. Just as the towering and unifying figure for Republicans is Hillary Clinton, the counterpart for Democrats will be Donald Trump. “The reason you should elect her is that in the greatest country on Earth, we have always been about tomorrow”.
Bill Clinton’s speech struck a unifying tone, an all-important quest by organizers ahead of President Barack Obama’s address to the convention on Wednesday and Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech on Thursday.
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Clinton has voiced opposition to TPP but Ekstedt says she’s not fully convinced. I know she will also have yours. “We’re trying to get the attention of the leadership of the (Democratic National Committee) that this is not OK, this is not just going to blow over without being taken more seriously”.
