Obama leads Clinton choir
President says nobody — not him, not Bill — has been more qualified for the job
President Barack Obama painted an optimistic picture of America’s future and offered full-throated support for Hillary Clinton’s bid to defeat Republican Donald Trump in a speech that electrified the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia yesterday.
He urged Democrats to enable Clinton to finish the job he started with his election nearly eight years ago in a rousing speech that capped a day when party luminaries took to the stage to contrast the party’s new standard-bearer with Trump, whom they portrayed as a threat to United States values.
“There has never been a man or woman, not me, not Bill — nobody more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president of the United States,” Obama said to cheers at the Philadelphia convention yesterday.
Hillary Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, will accept the party’s White House nomination today in a speech to end the convention. The election is on November 8.
“Tonight, I ask you to do for Hillary Clinton what you did for me. I ask you to carry her the same way you carried me,” Obama said. When he finished, she joined him on stage where they hugged, clasped hands and waved to the crowd.
Republicans have painted Clinton as a Washington insider who would represent a “third term” for what they view as failed policies under Obama, elected to a second term in 2012.
Speaking to delegates, Obama offered an alternative to businessman Trump’s vision of the US as being under siege from illegal immigrants, crime and terrorism and losing influence in the world.
“I am more optimistic about the future of America than ever before,” Obama said at the Wells Fargo Centre.
A former first lady and US senator, Clinton made history on Wednesday when she became the first woman to secure the presidential nomination of a major party.
Obama took aim at Trump’s campaign slogan and promise to “Make America Great Again”. “America is already great. America is already strong. And I promise you, our strength, our greatness, does not depend on Donald Trump,” he said.
Senior Democrats and former national security figures lined up earlier in the day to describe Trump as unable to steer America through the dangerous waters of today’s world.
Senator Tim Kaine, who accepted the party’s nomination as Clinton’s vice-presidential running mate, described billionaire Trump as “a oneman wrecking crew” who cannot be trusted in the Oval Office.
Vice-President Joe Biden said Trump was an opportunist who had no clue about how to make America great or to help working families.
Drawing chants of “Not a clue” from the floor of the convention, Biden took Trump, a reality TV host,
America is already great. America is already strong. And I promise you, our strength, our greatness, does not depend on Donald Trump. Barack Obama
to task for his trademark slogan, “You’re fired”. “He’s trying to tell us he cares about the middle class. Give me a break. That’s a bunch of malarkey!” Biden said.
New York media mogul Michael Bloomberg, a Republican-turnedindependent, assailed fellow billionaire Trump in a speech of his own, calling Trump’s presidential bid a “con” and ripping into his history of bankruptcies and lawsuits.
“Trump says he wants to run the nation like he’s running his business? God help us,” Bloomberg, a former New York City Mayor, said to roaring applause. “I’m a New Yorker and I know a con when I see one.”
Trump has hammered Clinton as untrustworthy and cast America as a place where security threats abound and law and order are breaking down.
Clinton waged another hardfought primary battle this year, beating off an unexpectedly strong challenge from the left by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
Democratic leaders have sought to tamp down lingering bitterness among some die-hard Sanders supporters, and move past unruly displays of dissent that marked the convention’s first day on Tuesday.