Trump has no national security experience and few ties to the norms that have governed U.S. foreign policy under presidents from both parties, including standing by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies threatened by countries including Russian Federation.
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Even before the president’s speech, Republican leaders criticized that message as naive and insensitive of Americans struggling after eight years of a Democratic White House.
QUESTION: How do you feel about tonight, Mr. President?
With his last State of the Union address behind him, Obama’s speech in Philadelphia will be one of his final opportunities to define and defend his tenure with a massive audience watching. That was a joke. When asked who she was most excited to hear speaking at this convention, she mentioned the president.
He continued: “Does anyone really believe that a guy who’s spent his 70 years on this Earth showing no regard for working people is suddenly going to be your champion?” Hundreds left Wells Fargo Center after Clinton’s nomination Tuesday, and some did not return, unwilling to participate in a carefully choreographed ceremony for the nominee.
Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent, considered his own run for president before issuing a statement in March saying he would not risk the chance that he would divide the electorate in a way that would lead to Trump getting elected. “They’re friends of mine, and Donald, you’re no tough guy; you’re a phony”, said Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO.
“Until you’ve sat at that [Oval Office] desk, you don’t know what it’s like to manage a global crisis, or send young people to war”, Obama said. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. “I have seen all kinds of insane stuff happen and I think everybody that goes into campaigns not running scared can end up losing”.
Specifically, several delegates said they wanted to get a sense that Clinton is not planning to drop her opposition to the pending Pacific Rim free trade deal – a pact she once called the gold standard of trade agreements, but later abandoned under pressure from Sanders and his supporters. Some Sanders delegates have been discussing ways to register their unhappiness, including talk of perhaps turning their backs during his speech. The Sanders delegate stood nearby, also inside the giant media tent, but she did not speak or join her Hollywood defenders on stage.
“We can all cry and keep going”, she said. But he said she will have to work to inspire him to get out and volunteer for her campaign this fall. You count every vote, in every state, and you make sure they all have every right to vote, in every single way.
The poor view of the second-time candidate came just weeks after Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey found that, while her use of a personal email as secretary of state was not so egregious as to merit a criminal prosecution, her handling of classified information was “extremely careless” and “negligent”.
And while he acknowledged Clinton’s weaknesses and mistakes he attributed it to her being under a microscope from 40 years in the public eye.
Obama concluded his speech by asking voters to elect Clinton, 68, as the 45th president. Democrats have little noted the threat of terrorism or the Islamic State group, though both were expected to be more relevant in Wednesday’s program. Tonight will be the Democrats’ chance to answer that and they will do it with some heavy hitters, one of them, Leon Panetta, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and former director of defense. “She’s been part of those decisions”.
Obama, Biden and Kaine proffered a counter-narrative to what they perceived as a pessimistic view that prevailed at Trump’s Republican convention in Cleveland, which Ohio Sen.
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But after Barack Obama completed his soaring, 45 minute address to the convention – one of his best, according to many commentators, and certainly one of his most important – those scripting the event could not resist the powerful symbol of unity and transition of having Hillary Clinton share the stage with him. Hundreds of delegates walked out of the convention in protest Tuesday night following the roll call.
