“And I promise you, our strength, our greatness, does not depend on Donald Trump”, he said, questioning Trump’s qualifications.
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The president went hard in the paint as he went head-on after Trump, a contentious candidate who was most recently in the news for encouraging the Russians (or Chinese; he wasn’t picky) to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails.
As Cortney noted on Monday, out of 61 speeches delivered that night-none mentioned ISIS. Despite Clinton clinching the nomination and Bernie himself endorsing her, a large number are still refusing to give their support to the party’s candidate. It found the former Secretary of State polling at 46 per cent among likely voters, with her Republican rival Donald Trump at 31 per cent. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson was on seven per cent and the Green Party’s Jill Stein on two per cent.
During one historic moment from the Democratic convention, following a video montage showing the faces of all 44 male American presidents, glass then shattered on the screen to reveal Clinton’s face.
“I think that we’ve got to have more good jobs – we’ve got to raise wages”, said Clinton, who was accompanied by her husband, Bill, vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine and his wife, Anne Holton, on the campus of Temple University.
During the president’s speech that was prefaced by a video in which history did not begin until 2008 (or so it seemed), Obama praised Clinton (of course), tore into Trump, and said that America was already great. But Trump’s apocalyptic view, he said, was a wild and risky invention, “a deeply pessimistic vision of a country where we turn against each other, and turn away from the rest of the world”.
Supporters of Clinton and Trump are sharply polarised, with Republicans at Trump rallies routinely chanting “Lock her up!” and Democrats adopting for themselves chants of “U-S-A!”
Trump’s campaign launched a pre-emptive strike in an message to supporters calling for a fundraising blitz timed to upstage her evening address.
Joking that “I get it that some people just don’t know what to make of me”, Clinton recounted experiences that included her health care fights of the 1990s and the 2011 military raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
He also made an appeal to Bernie Sanders supporters who are still cool on Clinton. “Change is never easy, and never quick; that we wouldn’t meet all of our challenges in one term, or one presidency, or even in one lifetime….Yes, we’ve still got more work to do”, Mr. Obama said.
Chelsea, who had her second child just six weeks ago, spoke calmly about how proud she is of her mother and how much her mother loves being a grandma. The America I know is full of courage and optimism and ingenuity. “We have to decide whether we all will work together so we all can rise together”, Clinton said. It also came as polls show Trump has surged into the lead nationally following the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. She talked about the rights of the LGBT community, and reminded the crowds of how Trump had slammed women, Mexicans, prisoners of war, and people with disabilities.
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Last night, President Barack Obama took the stage to endorse Hillary Clinton’s run for the presidency.
