For the first time, a woman was nominated to be a major party presidential nominee.
Advertisement
Vice President Joe Biden confronted the reality Wednesday, telling delegates in Philadelphia that Trump’s claims of being a middle-class savior are “malarkey” and that the Republican presidential nominee and billionaire real estate mogul “doesn’t have a clue about the middle class”.
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.
But it may not be so simple for Bill Clinton if he becomes America’s first “first gentleman”, since he’s also a former president. On Wednesday, he steps on the convention stage as the battle-hardened president hoping his legacy won’t be eroded by the outcome of the election to replace him.
Yet the stream of women, African-Americans, Latinos, gay Americans – from USA senators and celebrities to activists and, on Thursday, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton herself – also serves as a reminder of Democrats’ struggles to connect with most heterosexual white men.
Clinton has been dogged by scandal after scandal over her three decades in politics.
Tuesday was by no means a kumbaya moment for the entire Democratic Party. “This is akin to putting the person who announced the Oscar victor on the front page instead of the Oscar victor”. “This work is a grind – it’s not big speeches, it doesn’t come with wide applause, and it requires an emotional toughness most human beings can’t summon”.
Bill Clinton – a hyper-charismatic politician – made the case for someone many see as a poor politician. It was a policy-driven ode to the “best darn change-maker I have ever met”.
Or, as Bill put it, “Speeches like this are fun”, he said.
Has Clinton always wanted to be president?
Bill Clinton traced the couple’s love story chapter and verse, starting from their meeting in a library and proceeding through his head-strong courtship and on through the years. And that resume painted a picture of a high-achieving woman who doesn’t crave the spotlight. He did talk about her rise, and he listed ambitious projects she has undertaken, but he didn’t describe her as politically ambitious.
“What we heard was a deeply pessimistic vision of a country where we turn against each other, and turn away from the rest of the world”, Obama said.
The roll call vote was laden with emotion and symbols of women’s long struggle to break through political barriers. In this narrative, it was other people who were constantly saying she had political potential, not Clinton herself. “But the important point that I want to make to you is that in my view, our efforts do not cease on November 8”.
“He’s trying to tell us he cares about the middle class?” People have often made the case that people don’t like ambitious women, or – more specifically – that Clinton’s ambition makes her less likable.
It’s hard to overstate what Obama has at stake as he implores voters to elect Hillary Clinton.
The FBI concluded this month that Clinton had been “extremely careless” in her handling of classified material via a private email server, but did not recommend that she face criminal charges. “She’s reached this monumental platform”, she said.
Advertisement
Americans already really, really do not trust government.
