“We are clear-eyed about what our country is up against”.
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So the question is whether enough people will like what Clinton has to say and the way she chooses to present herself.
Rose Watson, 61, one of 200 Sanders volunteers credentialed for the convention, said they all were shut out after the first day.
Khizr Khan, whose son was killed serving in Iraq in 2004, delivered a powerful indictment of Donald Trump. “Instead we will build an economy where everyone who wants a good job can get one”, said Clinton, to thunderous applause. “He’s betting that the perils of today’s world will blind us to its unlimited promise”, Clinton said.
The Clinton team also used the week to reintroduce the former secretary of state to Americans, emphasizing causes such as her longtime work for children and families. “But we have got to push for some of these issues we have to make sure she walks the walk, even if we have to lift her feet every step of the way”.
“Let me ask you: Have you even read the U.S. Constitution?” “Incredible”, she said, shaking her head.
As she prepared to deliver her speech, people familiar with the matter said the FBI is investigating a cyber attack against another Democratic Party group, which may be related to an earlier hack against the Democratic National Committee.
But for me, at least, the grand doings Thursday in Philadelphia also guided us back to earth, as the headiness of aspiration gave way to the practical needs of politics, as if the play reached its climax with the nomination, shifting the storyline to the quotidian labor of winning the election.
Clinton said it would be her “primary mission” to create more opportunities and more good jobs with rising wages, and to confront stark choices in battling determined enemies and “threats and turbulence” around the world and at home. “We will strike their sanctuaries from the air, and support local forces taking them out on the ground. Bonds of trust and respect are fraying”, Clinton said.
“Some people are anxious”, she said. Through four nights of polished convention pageantry, Democratic heavyweights told a different story about Clinton. They both garner high “unpopularity” ratings.
Sean Spicer, who works for the Republican National Committee, tweeted that Clinton lifted the phrase from political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville.
“We will rise to the challenge just as we always have”, she said.
Capitalizing on the advantage of following the Republican convention, Clinton chose “stronger together” as the theme of the night to highlight Trump’s emphasis on how he alone could solve the nation’s problems. “For the struggling, the striving and the successful”.
Trump must prove that his boast that “I alone” can fix what ails America aren’t the words of a snake-oil salesman who doesn’t know his own – or the government’s constitutional – limits. Clinton said she’s heard the views of Bernie Sanders’ steadfast supporters and says their cause is her cause.
“There are many, many very ardent, vocal Bernie supporters, and they’re in the streets, and they’re making it known and I totally feel their pain”, he said.
“I want you to know I’ve heard you”, Clinton said. An average of national polls showed Trump surging to take a narrow lead in the days after the Republican convention.
The air in the convention hall was thick with anticipation, and women delegates and party members smiled exuberantly.
Speakers, some of whom included military and police officers, made frequent mentions of religion and patriotism. I know that at a time when so much seems to be pulling us apart, it can be hard to imagine how we’ll ever pull together.
In the video presentation, and on the podium throughout the week, we met everyday people with whom Clinton had connected either on the campaign trail or during her tenure as the USA senator from NY. Vice President Joe Biden said of Trump that no major party nominee has been less prepared to handle the country’s national security. Now that her opponent is Donald Trump, it makes sense for her to ramp up that contrast: dismiss him as offering “empty promises” while she’s offering practical solutions.
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Schale, of Florida, said that given Trump’s lack of knowledge or interest in the functioning of government, a much more significant inflection point in this election could well be the first debate this autumn.
