She did what numerous cable pundits did throughout Thursday, talk about what Hillary Clinton did or didn’t have to say in her speech. After she left the stage, a lone voice in the audience kept calling out “One more!” to no avail.
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“We are clear-eyed about what our country is up against”.
“It’s a tricky piece of business, how she addresses this”, Mr Axelrod said.
For another, the over-the-top descriptions were silly exaggerations, which is a very odd way to get people to trust someone they consider a liar – by telling more lies about them. “A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons”.
Addressing the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night, Clinton called for unity, saying it is up to Americans “to decide whether we’re going to work together so we can all rise together”. “Democrats are the party of working people, but we haven’t done a good enough job showing that we get what you’re going through, and that we’re going to do something about it”. Clinton herself appeared only at the end, when she declared, “It’s your time and I hope you’ll join me on this journey”. “The family I’m from, well no one had their name on big buildings”, Clinton said in a reference to Trump. She said he “wants to divide us from the rest of the world and from each other”.
But taking the stage in Philadelphia, as the first female presidential nominee of a major party in USA history, Clinton sought to emulate no one. Her opponent, she said over and over, did not.
“Donald Trump can’t even handle the rough-and-tumble of a presidential campaign”, Ms Clinton said. “Powerful forces are threatening to pull us apart”, said Clinton, a former secretary of state. “No wonder people are anxious and looking for reassurance – looking for steady leadership”.
She touched on the professional points in her life that connect with who she is now, and why she got into public service. Happy for boys and men too – because when any barrier falls in America, for anyone, it clears the way for everyone. Andrew Cuomo also noted that NY adopted marriage equality not because the Supreme Court said it had to but because it was the right thing to do.
No one heard anything like that at the Republican convention, and voters didn’t hear much in the way of sustained optimism from any Republican candidate this cycle.
AMY GOODMAN: The final night of the Democratic convention featured singer Katy Perry, basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and retired four-star Marine General John Allen. Her countrymen, she said, “don’t say “I alone can fix it”.
Clinton embraced her reputation as a policy wonk, offering a litany of proposals for tuition-free college, infrastructure investment, immigration reform, gun control, affordable child care, paid family leave and more.
Clinton’s four-day convention began with efforts to shore up liberals who backed Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary and it ended with an outstretched hand to Republicans and independents unnerved by Trump. Senator Claire McCaskill said Clinton phoned her after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Mentioning the billionaire tycoon more than 20 times, Clinton painted a picture of a failed businessman who does not pay contractors, makes business deals overseas, not locally, and lacks national security credentials.
Clinton’s unpopularity is second only to Trump’s, with a disapproval rating of 55 percent compared to his 57 percent, according to recent averages.
Trump was in Davenport and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for campaign rallies.
Trump has portrayed the country as being under siege from illegal immigrants, crime and terrorism and as losing influence in the world.
Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine hit the road on their first campaign swing together on Friday in a brand new campaign bus, emblazoned with their campaign’s slogan: “Stronger Together”. “Those were Donald Trump’s words in Cleveland”.
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The crowd also heard from Khizr Khan, an American Muslim whose son was killed in USA military service. You could certainly merge the two lines of attack into one – Trump is an authentic bigot who won’t keep his promises – but it doesn’t have much of a pop. Electoral politics isn’t and never has been the place for complexity and nuance.
