Clinton set on uniting divided nation
Hillary Clinton capped off a fourday convention celebration with a plea for national unity and tolerance. Now she must convince voters that she rather than Republican rival Donald Trump can bring a deeply divided nation together.
‘‘I know that at a time when so much seems to be pulling us apart, it can be hard to imagine how we’ll ever pull together again,’’ Clinton said to a rapt Democratic convention audience. ‘‘But I’m here to tell you tonight – progress is possible.’’
The convention provided hours of glowing tributes, including deeply personal testimonials from her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and former boss, President Barack Obama – tributes the party hopes will help her build trust among a sceptical public.
Despite her decades on the public stage, voters know Clinton as much from Republican attacks as her resume. And yesterday, she acknowledged it. ‘‘I get it that some people just don’t know what to make of me so let me tell you.’’
With the general election in full swing, Clinton must find a way to fix that.
The Democratic convention was meticulously designed to craft her image as a caring grandmother tough enough to battle terrorists and unite a party still unsettled by a fractious primary process. Clinton, who aides say spent weeks working on her address, saw the speech as a major opportunity to answer what her husband called the ‘‘cartoon alternative.’’
Lacking Obama’s sweeping rhetoric or the ‘‘feel-your-pain’’ sensitivity of her husband, Clinton leaned into her wonky image, saying: ‘‘I sweat the details of policy.’’
Clinton offered an open hand to backers of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, saying: ‘‘I’ve heard you. Your cause is our cause.’’
Yet resentments lingered throughout the convention, with a handful of attendees booing during her address.
Throughout the convention, Democrats tried to convey the stakes of the election not only to Sanders backers but Republicans concerned about Trump’s bombastic tone and foreign policy positions. Speaker after speaker cast Trump as intolerant, inexperienced and dangerous, including the Pakistani-immigrant father of a Muslim American soldier killed in Iraq, who waved the Constitution and remarked that Trump ‘‘has sacrificed nothing.’’
In a first for a Democratic convention, a number of Republican economic and foreign policy leaders hammered home the point.
‘‘I knew Ronald Reagan. I worked for Ronald Reagan. Donald Trump, you are no Ronald Reagan,’’ said Doug Elmets, a Reagan administration aide, echoing a famous debate quip by vice presidential nominee Lloyd Bentsen in 1988. ‘‘This year, I will vote for a Democrat for the first time.’’
Asserting Clinton’s national security capabilities were a group of military leaders, including retired General John Allen, the former deputy commander of the wars in the Middle East, who called Clinton the kind of ‘‘commander in chief America needs’’
With Clinton, ‘‘our international relations will not be reduced to a business transaction,’’ Allen said. ‘‘I also know that our armed forces will not become an instrument of torture.’’