DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION: TWO NIGHTS DOWN, TWO NIGHTS TO GO

…President Bill Clinton’s speech about Hillary

 

The Democrats have seemed to now be mostly united after a shaky start.

 

On day 1, even though there were WikiLeaks e-mails from the DNC, supposedly provided by Putin’s Kremlin, plus lots of booing rightfully from the Sanders supporters, and then you add back-to-back-to-back liberal speeches by First Lady Michelle Obama, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the party began to focus more on defeating Republican nominee Donald Trump, and stop fighting amongst themselves.

 

The day had a rough start when the outgoing Democratic National Committee Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) stayed offstage following heavy criticism over that leak of embarrassing DNC emails.

 

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake stepped in for Wasserman Schultz to formally open the convention.  Wasserman Schultz excused herself from the exercise earlier in the day, bowing to the heavy opposition from Sanders supporters and party activists in trying to ease hard feelings.

 

Sanders, whose “political revolution” had electrified millions of Democrats throughout his hard-fought primary campaign with Clinton, he was greeted by several minutes of sustained applause as he took the stage to cap the night. He repeatedly thanked the crowd before he was finally able to begin his remarks.

 

“Election days come and go,” he said, before referencing his revolution on behalf of the poor and marginalized. “That struggle continues.”

 

There were many comments throughout the night that were barely veiled shots at Trump such as when Sanders said, “We need leadership in this country which will improve the lives of working families, the children, the elderly, the sick and the poor,” he said. “We need leadership which brings our people together and makes us stronger — not leadership which insults Latinos, Muslims, women, African Americans and veterans — and divides us up.  By these measures, any objective observer will conclude that, based on her ideas and her leadership, Hillary Clinton must become the next president of the United States. The choice is not even close.”

 

During the night, as usual, Donald Trump continued his tradition of Tweeting after and during the various speeches.  Also as usual, he was particularly venomous toward Senator Elizabeth Warren when he Tweeted:  "Pocahontas bombed last night! Sad to watch."  He later said that the senator had misrepresented him, but what we all heard from Sen. Warren’s comments sounded like normal “Trumpisms” to everyone listening.

 

Warren has emerged as one of Trump’s fiercest critics, and her blistering speech Monday night seemed to enhance that reputation.

 

Warren warned that Trump is “a man who must never be president of the United States.”

 

The First Lady Obama’s speech was outstanding as usual, and she really hit the point strongly when she said, “We don’t turn against each other…..no, we listen to each other,” she said, before invoking two of Clinton’s signature mottos. “We are always stronger together. I am here tonight because I know that that is the kind of president that Hillary Clinton will be…. and that’s why in this election, I’m with her.”

 

“Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life,” Michelle Obama added to thousands of cheers.

 

Trump was obviously watching the convention speeches, and as usual, needled Clinton, Warren and Sanders via Twitter.  “Bernie Sanders totally sold out to Crooked Hillary Clinton. All of that work, energy and money, and nothing to show for it! Waste of time,” he wrote.

 

“She’s [Hillary] been paying it forward her whole life,” the Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) told the crowd.

 

Booker, a rising star in the party, was considered as a Clinton vice-presidential running mate, led the arena in chants of “We will rise” and then laced into Trump.

 

“We cannot be seduced by cynicism in our politics,” he said. “We will not surrender the moral high ground,” he added. “Here in America, love trumps hate,” he shouted, to some of the loudest applause of the night.

 

The policy fights that were a big part of the Clinton-Sanders primary fight remained on display Monday night, including trade deals, climate change and fracking, a particularly strong issue in Pennsylvania and the Rust Belt.

 

However, the Democrats approved a party platform Monday that reflects the influence of the liberal ideas Sanders advanced. Clinton, remained opposed to breaking up the country’s largest financial institutions and making government-paid health care a universal right.

 

Then we had day 2.

 

Hillary Clinton on day 2 of the convention became the first woman to be nominated for president by a major political party on a historic night during which her campaign also sought to reintroduce her to skeptical voters and calm continuing tensions here.

 

Part of that task fell to former president Bill Clinton, who delivered a keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention that began by recounting his courtship of his wife and detailed her lengthy career in public service, including helping children, immigrants and people with disabilities.

 

“She’s the best darn change maker I ever met in my entire life,” the former president said. “This woman has never been satisfied with the status quo on anything. She always wants to move the ball forward. That’s just who she is.”

 

Bill Clinton also argued that Republicans had tried to turn his wife into a “cartoon” during their national convention last week in Cleveland.

 

“What’s the difference in what I told you and what they said?” he asked. “One is real, and the other is made up. . . . You just have to decide which is which, my fellow Americans.”

 

Hillary Clinton formally secured the nomination earlier in the night during the roll call of states, which ended with a symbolic gesture: Her primary rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, asked that Clinton be declared the Democratic nominee, a move that prompted resounding cheers.

 

Hillary Clinton, along with her daughter, Chelsea, are scheduled to address the convention Thursday, when she formally accepts the nomination. But Tuesday night, she later appeared on a large screen, remote from New York, thanking the delegates for helping her put “the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet.”

 

“Hillary is one mother who can ensure our movement will succeed,” said Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, who was fatally shot by a neighborhood-watch volunteer in Florida.

 

Chants of “Black Lives Matter” could be heard in the convention arena as the women, who call themselves “The Mothers of the Movement,” made their emotional presentations.

 

As to the protests, after the roll call, some delegates exited the hall, chanting, “Walkout! Walkout! Walkout!” As the program continued, most of the seats in delegations from Maine, Kansas, Alaska and Oklahoma, all states Sanders won against Clinton, were emptied.

 

Several Oregon delegates, wrapped black cloth around their jaws, as gags, and headed into the hallway of Wells Fargo Center. There they were met by dozens of angry delegates from the other states.

 

A Sanders delegate from Louisiana, walked out wearing a button with the initials: DNC GFY, obviously no publication would print what the initials stand mean.

 

But overall, the convention’s problems that were at the start on Monday had disappeared by Tuesday night and the convention is mostly united going into Wednesday.

 

Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, said that Tuesday night’s programming was designed to remind Americans about the former Secretary of State’s long public-service career.

 

“A lot of people aren’t familiar with her accomplishments,” Mook told ABC’s “Good Morning America”  “She never forgot who she was fighting for,” as stated by the former Governor of Vermont, Howard Dean.

 

The night’s presentations also paid tribute to Clinton’s tenure of Secretary of State, highlighting efforts to fight human trafficking as well as various diplomatic endeavors.

 

“She sees a world where girls are not captured and sold, but are fearless and bold,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).

 

On to day 3.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016