PHOTOS: ABC7 at the 2016 Democratic National Convention Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff says it’s hard to strike a balance, especially for women.
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Hillary Clinton made history Thursday night as the first woman to accept a major party’s nomination for president in the United States, a moment that thrilled Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) delegates who packed the Wells Fargo Center.
Trump, a 70-year-old reality TV show host who has never held political office, is running just ahead of Clinton in a RealClearPolitics average of recent national opinion polls.
Her effort will focus particularly on places “that for too long have been left out and left behind, from our inner cities to our small towns, Indian Country to Coal Country”, she will say, according to speech excerpts released by the campaign. She’s worked to make it easier for foster kids to be adopted; for our 9/11 first responders to get the health care they deserve; for women around the world to be safe, to be treated with dignity, and to have more opportunities. I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders – he never had a chance.
“Hillary Clinton’s speech was an insulting collection of clichés and recycled rhetoric”.
American flags waved in the stands of the packed convention hall.
Clinton mentioned several types of Americans who work to “fix it together” such as police officers, implying that Trump ignored the crucial role they play in fixing our country’s problems.
Even though Clinton spoke of threats at home and overseas, her boarder message was one of hope – a stark contrast to the dark image painted by Trump in his acceptance speech of an America lacking “law and order” and marred by “terror”.
“I’m very disappointed at a time when we were honoring our veterans”, said Daisy Baez, a vet from Miami.
One of the fascinating twists Thursday evening is that this time it’s Bill Clinton who will be the adoring spouse, rapt and smiling when the cameras cut away from the candidate in the spotlight. In an earlier statement, he accused Democrats of living in a “fantasy world”, ignoring economic and security troubles as well as Clinton’s controversial email use at the State Department.
Clinton, after her nomination on Tuesday, appeared in a video noting the historic moment.
“I will be a president for Democrats, Republicans and independents”. Trump pressed the idea that crime is out of control, even as official crime stats tell a different story. She also promised a comprehensive immigration reform, one of the unfulfilled agendas of the outgoing president Barack Obama.
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Clinton had just been anointed the inheritor of Obama’s legacy with his vigorous endorsement speech, the candidate who could realize the “promise of this great nation”. “It is the calling of her life”, Chelsea Clinton said. There is no other Donald Trump. He has proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country and a wall along the border with Mexico to keep illegal immigrants out. “But here’s the sad truth: There is no other Donald Trump…This is it. And in the end, it comes down to what Donald Trump doesn’t get: that America is great — because America is good”.
