US President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton acknowledge the crowd on the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center, July 27, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Still, he says he remains undaunted. He was emotional as he thanked Americans for sustaining him through hard stretches. Yet in a scattershot news conference Wednesday, Trump tried to turn the table on Clinton, saying he believed it unsafe for her to receive national security briefings in light of her well-known email missteps while in office.
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With his speech and the stumping he plans to do all fall, Obama is seeking to persuade the coalition of voters who delivered him the White House to embrace Clinton with the same enthusiasm. But it also came with a warning: That last glass ceiling isn’t shattered yet and Republican Donald Trump is a formidable foe.
What Obama and Kaine did Wednesday night was rare. In an interview aired hours before his remarks, he said Trump lacks “basic knowledge about the world” and has shown no interest in learning more about it. “The real disaster would be to elect Donald Trump to be the face of the country that we love”.
He’d be a political consigliere who could also undertake diplomatic missions. “This is a more fundamental choice about who we are as a people. And no matter how daunting the odds; no matter how much people try to knock her down, she never, ever quits”, Obama said. “But it doesn’t keep me from wanting to keep on trying”.
After his wife, Michelle Obama, brought delegates to their feet with a stirring speech Monday evening, Obama stayed up late into the night fine-tuning his words, the White House said. His speech will combine an affirmation of Clinton’s judgment and fortitude with a rebuke of the scare tactics he accuses Trump of deploying. “We must united around a Democratic candidate and defeat a unsafe demagogue”.
You may remember that “Yes We Can” was Obama’s own campaign slogan back in 2008. His approval ratings have since recovered, though a solid majority of Americans still feel the country is moving in the wrong direction.
Virginia Senator Tim Kaine took the stage to “humbly” accept his party’s nomination for vice-president and then go on the attack. “She was a little surprised, and her team was a little surprised, but ultimately, she said yes – because she knew that what was at stake was bigger than either of us”. “And I promise you, our strength, our greatness, does not depend on Donald Trump”.
Trump accused Democrats of avoiding talking about the Islamic State group “because they grew it”. Vice President Joe Biden will deliver his valedictory. The businessman, the president said, is selling fear to attract votes. That’s not hyperbole. ISIS literally used Trump in a commercial, ” said retired Rear Admiral John Huston.
“Folks, you can not believe one word that comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth”, he said. He added: “I’d blow up every single inch, there would be nothing left”.
With his last State of the Union address behind him, Obama’s speech in Philadelphia will be one of his final opportunities to define and defend his tenure with a massive audience watching. Tens of millions have been tuning in to the conventions in primetime this year. The ritualistic roll call of the states that sealed her nomination proceeded without trouble inside the hall and Sanders himself stepped up in the name of unity to ask that her nomination be approved by acclamation.
A few blocks away, police detained 10 protesters at Comcast’s corporate headquarters for holding a sit-in accusing the cable TV giant and NBC owner of not reporting the truth.
Eight years after the bitter primary battle that Obama won, the president and his ex-rival are engaged in a baton-passing partnership: Clinton presenting herself as the protector of his legacy; Obama seeing the election in November as an affirmation of his course as president, if she wins.
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Other delegates acknowledged that Sanders’ loss was disappointing but told the supporters that they can create change without the Democratic Party and the mainstream media, contending the media contributed to a rigged election.
