The same can’t be said today; Obama and his fellow speakers had to walk precisely that line Wednesday night, and they did it deftly. In a video before his speech, an ominous-sounding Bryan Cranston narrated a dramatized timeline of the key moments of the president’s two terms, from the economic crisis to the Affordable Care Act to the Osama Bin Laden raid to the failed attempts to usher through gun reforms in Congress.
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“Look, Hillary’s got her share of critics”, he said.
“We must put [differences] aside for the good of our country and we must unite behind a candidate who can defeat a unsafe demagogue”, he said, pleading with the liberal audience that “as an independent, I am asking you to join with me-not out of party loyalty but out of love of country”.
The former president sought to draw a personal portrait of his wife, while Obama focused on her role as a public servant.
“This year, in this election, I’m asking you to join me to reject cynicism, reject fear, to summon what’s best in us, to elect Hillary Clinton as the next president of the United States”, Mr Obama said as he concluded his remarks.
Obama and Clinton competed in a fierce primary battle in 2008.
Hours after Democrats put the first woman in history at the top of a major political party’s ticket, Donald Trump was in a news conference, publicly inviting a foreign adversary to conduct cyberespionage into Hillary Clinton’s email.
Speaking to delegates, Obama offered an alternative to businessman Trump’s vision of the United States as being under siege from illegal immigrants, crime and terrorism and losing its way in the world.
Trump’s campaign issued a statement calling Wednesday a “sad night” for the Democratic Party and saying they presented only proposals to reward the rich while attacking “decent Americans who want change for their families”. “If you’re serious about our democracy, you can’t afford to stay home just because she might not align with you on every issue”, Obama said. “It’s always been about what can be achieved by us, together”.
“There is only one candidate in this race who believes in that future”, he said, “a leader with real plans to break down barriers, blast through glass ceilings, and widen the circle of opportunity to every single American – the next President of the United States, Hillary Clinton”.
“I was so young that first time in Boston”, Obama said.
“Maybe a little nervous addressing such a big crowd”, Obama said amidst laughter from the audience.
Americans, Obama said from the Wells Fargo Arena, will face an important choice in the coming months, a choice that goes beyond politics.
“Does anyone really believe that a guy who’s spent his 70 years on this Earth showing no regard for working people is suddenly going to be your champion?” Because you’re who I was talking about 12 years ago when I talked about hope – it’s been you who’ve fueled my dogged faith in our future, even when the odds are great, even when the road is long. “I don’t even think she’s a bad candidate”, Harrell said. “If so, you should vote for him”. “America is already strong. our greatness does not depend on Donald Trump”.
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“If you’re rightly concerned about who’s going to keep you and your family safe in a unsafe world – well, the choice is even clearer”, Obama said. To her detractors, Hillary’s dishonesty has only been reinforced by the revelations over her use of a private email server in government. Obama noted his own bruising contest with Clinton in 2008, hailing his erstwhile rival’s toughness as a candidate and “her intelligence, her judgment and her discipline” as a team member. But at bottom, his closing plea to Democrats is that she’s the only thing standing between our democracy and an unpredictable leap into an authoritarian abyss. “You all know, all the Republicans know, that is not who we are”.
