“I get it. Some people just don’t know what to make of me”, she said, offering a testimonial to her parents and their values, and her Methodist faith as her bedrock.
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In an explicit bipartisan play, Clinton referenced Republicans who were supporting her campaign, and promised, “I will be a President for Democrats, Republicans, and Independents”. “I want you to know I’ve heard you”, she assured Sanders supporters. She did spend time criticizing her Republican opponent, Donald Trump. But here, Clinton declared her support for what is, quite genuinely, the most progressive platform the Democratic Party has crafted in at least half-a-century (and obviously, the more economically progressive platforms of yesteryear had relatively little to offer on the rights of women, racial minorities and LGBTQ folks).
The Nielsen company estimated that 29.8 million people watched Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night on the commercial networks.
Clinton faces a major trust deficit among a U.S. public that has known her for the past quarter century. Trump embraced empty slogans and sound-bite solutions, so Clinton emphasized expertise and qualifications. Her radical amnesty plan will take jobs, resources and benefits from the most vulnerable citizens of the United States and give them to the citizens of other countries.
She also drew a sharp contrast with her election rival Donald Trump, calling the Republican supremely unqualified for the White House. “Really, I just beat 16 people and am beating her!” Clinton, accompanied by running mate Tim Kaine and their spouses, will speak about economic opportunity, diversity and national security, themes hammered home this week by a stream of politicians, celebrities, gun-violence victims, law enforcement officers, and activists of all sexualities and races.
It’s no secret that Clinton prefers prose to poetry, and she’ll never be hailed as a legendary orator, so last night was partly about turning a perceived negative into a positive. Trump also bashed Clinton as “owned by Wall Street” and claimed her “vision is a borderless world where working people have no power, no jobs, no safety”.
But the heart of the speech was an argument for unity and inclusion, and the emotional climax of the night was a searing attack on Trump by the father of a Muslim US Army captain who died in Iraq trying to stop a truck bomb, saving other members of his unit.
You could ask more of a great orator, but you could not have asked for more from Hillary Clinton. But Clinton’s public perception has always been that she is not warm and is only a policy wonk. Throughout the convention, Democrats tried to convey the stakes of the election not only to Sanders backers but Republicans concerned about Trump’s bombastic tone and foreign policy positions.
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Khan: “Trump, have you even read the USA constitution?” But Trump said Friday that Sanders “sold his soul to the devil” when he – unlike some of his loudly protesting supporters – threw his support behind Clinton.
