Hillary Clinton takes the stage here Thursday night to officially claim the Democratic presidential nomination.
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While Clinton must play to the party’s base – and seek to soothe bruised Bernie Sanders supporters, some of whom wore fluorescent green shirts Thursday inside the arena as a subtle form of protest – a key mission is to appeal to crossover voters and independents wary of Trump.
Campaigning in Iowa Thursday, Trump said there were “a lot of lies being told” at Clinton’s convention. Still, the dissenters are passionate and have significantly influenced the party’s platform. Clinton, she said, just hasn’t been a positive for black Americans.
From India’s Indira Gandhi to Germany’s Angela Merkel, many other nations have elevated women to their highest office.
To address doubts about her candidacy, Clinton will make the case for unity at a time when “people are anxious and looking for reassurance” due to threats of terrorism and violence.
And before that, Obama plagiarized the line from George W. Bush who, after 9/11, said, “That’s not the America I know” about women who cover their heads being afraid to go outside. Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday night brought the crowd in the Wells Fargo Center to its feet with rousing speeches that lauded the former secretary of state for her experience and steadiness and denigrated Trump as a danger to the country. “She’s not one of us, the 99 per cent”. Donald Trump is anxious that more people will watch Hillary Clinton’s speech than tuned for his long-winded screaming tirade in Cleveland. That makes the industrial Midwest, along with Florida and Virginia, the real battleground. “Bernie, your campaign inspired millions of Americans, particularly the young people who put their hearts and souls into our primary”, Clinton said. So far, her campaign’s been rich with policies targeting lower-income workers, including a proposal for the largest investment in infrastructure jobs since Dwight Eisenhower. Former Reagan administration official Doug Elmets announced he was casting his first vote for a Democrat in November, and urged other Republicans who “believe loyalty to our country is more important than loyalty to party” to do the same, according to excerpts of his speech.
“The American people hear from her directly every day”.
Clinton, 68, made history this week when she became the first female presidential nominee of a major USA party.
The 4-day Democratic convention in Philadelphia has been a parade of party heavyweights – and some independents – who have all stressed that the former first lady and United States senator is uniquely qualified to be commander-in-chief.
Chelsea Clinton, Mrs Clinton’s daughter, will introduce her.
Even so, critics say the candidate herself needs to show more openness.
“There’s nothing relatable about her”, said Quinn Symonds, 34, of Mason City, Iowa.
“She is probably one of if not the most recognizable persons in the world”.
Those are the same priorities that Clinton is putting at the core of her own campaign. That same day, state Democratic Chairman Mike Madigan said the next state gubernatorial primary was a wide open affair.
Clinton also must urgently blunt her dropping standing with voters, a majority of whom are skeptical of her honesty and trustworthiness.
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Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran who lost her legs in combat, took on Trump’s readiness to be commander in chief, saying “I didn’t put my life on the line to defend our democracy so you could invite Russian Federation to interfere with it”.
