Roger Rabbit?
PHILADELPHIA – Hillary Clinton,
declaring the country at a “moment of reckoning,” sealed her status in
American history Thursday night as the first woman to top a major-party
ticket, officially taking the torch from President Obama as the
Democratic nominee for president -- while delivering a blistering attack
against Republican nominee Donald Trump, that challenged his fitness to
occupy the Oval Office and set the tone for what promises to be a
bruising three-month campaign.
“The choice is clear,” she said in Philadelphia.
The former secretary of state, senator and first lady
used her convention address to pitch an optimistic message, even
accusing Trump of taking his party from “Morning in America” to
“Midnight in America.”
On the sidelines, Trump accused Democrats of creating
a “fantasy world” at their convention and spreading a false message
that “everything is wonderful.”
And he bashed Clinton's address on Twitter:
But Clinton said, “He wants us to fear the future and
fear each other,” later announcing she accepts the nomination with
“humility, determination and boundless confidence in America's promise.”
At the same time, she warned Trump does not have the temperament to lead in dangerous times.
“He loses his cool at the slightest provocation,”
Clinton said. “Imagine, if you dare, imagine … him in the Oval Office
facing a real crisis. A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we
can trust with nuclear weapons.”
After a primary campaign – and convention week –
riven by party clashes, Clinton also used the address to reach out to
Bernie Sanders supporters, telling them, “I want you to know, I've heard
you. Your cause is our cause.”
The speech was still interrupted many times by noisy
protests, which were soon drowned out by Clinton loyalists chanting,
“Hillary!”
Meanwhile, gearing up for a cross-country campaign
against Trump for every last vote, she openly reached out to disaffected
Republicans and independents, as she vowed to fight for working
people.
“I will be a president for Democrats, Republicans,
independents, for the struggling, the striving, the successful … for all
Americans together,” she said.
A day after embracing Obama on the convention stage
in Philadelphia, Clinton on Thursday also defended the sitting
president’s record and suggested she’d build upon it -- a move that
could rally the divided base, but also make it easier for Trump to brand
her campaign as representing four more years of the status quo.
GOP boss Reince Priebus said in a statement after her
address, "Hillary Clinton is the ultimate Washington insider at a time
when Americans are eager to break with eight years of a Democrat status
quo, and there’s no doubt her longtime pattern of shady conduct and
double standards will continue if she is elected president."
But Clinton said Thursday that Trump does not offer “real change.”
Clinton, even as she reached out to Republicans and
independents, laid out a largely liberal agenda that at times echoed
themes from Sanders’ campaign that have weaved their way into the party
platform, on issues ranging from taxes to the minimum wage to
immigration to health care.
She also took up one of Sanders’ marquee agenda items
and vowed to work with her former primary rival to “make college
tuition-free for the middle class and debt-free for all.”
Her address capped a dramatic week in Philadelphia
that started with the abrupt resignation of party Chairwoman Debbie
Wasserman Schultz amid yet another email scandal and ended with an
all-hands-on-deck push for unity meant to ease unrest among Sanders
supporters and others who spent the convention railing against the
Democratic establishment.
Even on the final day, protesters organized events to
encourage voters to de-register from the party. And as delegates
streamed past the perimeter for the speeches, a contingent of
anti-Clinton protesters shouted at the gates, “Hell no, DNC, we won’t
vote for Hillary!”
The big question going forward is whether Democrats’
divisions are more damaging for their chances in November than are the
Republican fractures for the GOP. While Trump rival Ted Cruz infamously
did not endorse him in Cleveland, and Sanders did endorse Clinton, the
Vermont senator’s supporters have been far less willing to forgive and
forget and rally behind their party’s nominee. Also unclear is whether
Clinton will enjoy a bump in popularity out of her convention, as
several recent polls have shown Trump climbing after Cleveland.
Despite some suggestions by leading Democrats that
the Philadelphia affair would stay positive, the week was equal parts
Clinton advertisement and Trump take-down. Speakers brazenly ridiculed
and caricatured Trump throughout as a selfish businessman who has no
actual plan to execute his campaign promises.
Clinton ally and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo accused Trump of using “fear and anxiety to drive his ratings.”
Chelsea Clinton, though, the former first daughter
and an important surrogate on the campaign trail, offered a pause from
the attacks as she described childhood moments and painted a personal
picture of Hillary the mother and grandmother.
“Every single memory I have of my mom is that
regardless of what is happening in her life, she was always, always
there for me,” she said, describing how her mother will now “drop
everything” for a few minutes of FaceTime with her grandkids.
Chelsea filled in the biographical details for her mother the way Ivanka Trump did for her father at last week’s convention.
For his part, Donald Trump, who has held his own
events and stayed in the headlines throughout the Philadelphia
gathering, weighed in again Thursday, just hours before her speech. At a
rally in Davenport, Iowa, he said Democratic convention-goers are
telling “lies” and spreading a false message that “everything is
wonderful.”
“At Hillary Clinton’s convention this week, Democrats
have been speaking about a world that doesn’t exist. A world where
America has full employment, where there’s no such thing as radical
Islamic terrorism, where the border is totally secured, and where
thousands of innocent Americans have not suffered from rising crime in
cities like Baltimore and Chicago,” Trump said in a written statement.
The Democrats’ closing convention night, though,
included a sharper security focus than earlier in the week. Retired
Marine Gen. John Allen, who led troops in Afghanistan, vouched Thursday
for Clinton as the candidate who can keep the country “safe and free.”
“America will defeat ISIS,” he vowed, naming the
terror enemy that seemingly was glossed over by earlier convention
speakers. As he spoke, competing chants of “USA” and “No More War” broke
out in the audience.
