Actors and delegates took center stage in smaller and more subdued protests by Bernie Sanders supporters on a mostly quiet Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention. It was perhaps not a masterpiece of speechwriting, not for a former president known for his eloquence, but it was remarkable as Bill Clinton’s taking up the mantle of hopeful first spouse. “I say Trump lies”. Jeff Merkley of OR said, Rank and file members in states like MI are attracted to Trump’s message of America first, and fair trade.
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Obama closed the third night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia holding the unusual position of being an outgoing president whose popularity is on the rise. 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. Some put duct tape over the mouths – to suggest their voices were being silenced – and held a sit-in inside a large air-conditioned tent that’s housing news organizations covering the convention.
“The Democratic Party is in good hands”, he said. “We were treated like lepers”.
Clinton on Tuesday became the first woman to win the presidential nomination of a major U.S. political party, teeing up the November showdown with Trump.
For her part, Hillary Clinton sees the prospect of Bill Clinton back in the White House as a selling point. She’s been around a long time. He pointed to Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe’s comment Tuesday that Clinton would reverse course once elected and support the TPP trade deal, a prediction that McAuliffe quickly retracted.
Aides said Obama will make a familiar case for what has been achieved during his two terms, highlighting America’s recovery from the Great Recession. “This is the culmination of a career and a personal life”.
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. Tim Kaine — the vice-presidential nominee, almost overshadowed in a night that would normally have belonged to him — who broke out an impression of Trump a few times. “Excellent”, he said of her delivery.
Even voters who say they will support Clinton in a matchup against Trump this fall say she’s unlikely to bring much change to the way things work in Washington.
Clinton haters, and there are a lot of them, no doubt hated the speech.
The portrait was missing some strokes.
“I want to see her to go as far left as she is possibly willing to do, and more”, Tessa Sheehan, Kansas delegate, said. “Terry McAuliffe has more than a passing acquaintance with Hillary Clinton, and now he’s doubling down”. Unsavory episodes, like his numerous dalliances with women in Arkansas and the almost career-ending liaison with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, were omitted. “They’re friends of mine, and Donald, you’re no tough guy; you’re a phony”, said Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO. And, touching on the shootings of black men by police and by the killings of police officers, he envisioned a future “where nobody’s afraid to walk outside”.
It was the latest sign of lingering tension during the DNC, an event that got off to a rocky start Monday due largely to the passion of Sanders’ delegates, their hard feelings towards Clinton and leaked emails showing the party establishment was with her and not him. While campaigning in Kentucky, though, she might have gotten carried away.
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And yet, the following morning Sanders shifted his tone at a breakfast hosted by Bloomberg Politics, telling reporters he would return to his post in the US Senate not as a Democrat, but as an independent. “But it is harder to look your kids in the face if we are living under a Trump presidency”.
