Democrats promise much less vitriol, more unity as they nominate Clinton
PHILADELPHIA — The Democrats and Republicans who planned this month’s nominating conventions have more in common than you might think — both put a great deal of focus on Hillary Clinton.
But when Democrats gather today to nominate the former first lady, senator and secretary of state, the tone won’t match the vitriol Donald Trump and his allies aimed her way in Cleveland.
Instead of chanting “Lock her up!” they’ll be cheering.
“It was kind of perversely flattering,” Clinton said Friday night in Tampa. “It’s hard to believe they spent so much time talking about me and no time talking about jobs, education or health care.”
She promised a sharp contrast — an uplifting and detailed message that will stand apart from Trump’s “dark and divisive vision. He offered a lot of fear and anger and resentment” and few solutions, she said.
Conventions are a time for the parties to sell their agendas and leaders to voters, to shape a flattering image of their presidential nominee, while pointing out the warts on the other side, and to gird the faithful for months of hard work heading to Election Day.
Democrats head to Philadelphia far more unified than Republicans, but with a nominee carrying a lot of baggage. Clinton, like Trump, is mistrusted or disliked by an unusually large share of the electorate. But there the comparisons begin, with Democrats highlighting the differences to expect next week.
Here are some of the contrasts to watch for.
There will be no sore losers. Or sore winners.
In Cleveland, Trump’s runnerup, Ted Cruz, was jeered off stage after refusing to say one nice thing about the nominee and pointedly withholding an endorsement.
Despite that, Trump on Friday morning declared his convention “one of the most beautiful, one of the most love-filled conventions in the history of conventions.” At the same time, he reinvigorated his feud with Cruz, threatening to set up a political action committee to fight the Texan if he runs for president again.
Trump’s claim that the week in Cleveland was an unparalleled show of “unity” didn’t jibe with the turmoil and tensions.
Party leaders quashed a small
band of anti-Trump rebels who’d sought to block his nomination. That fight played out in back rooms and on the convention floor in a squabble over the state-bystate roll call of delegates.
The list of GOP luminaries and 2016 contenders who kept their distance was long. And the feud between Cruz and Trump ripped away any such pretense. Democrats have already exploited it and may well keep it up in Philadelphia.
“Something has gone terribly wrong when one speaker says, ‘vote your conscience’ and gets booed,” Clinton said Friday night, referring to Cruz’s not-so-veiled swipe at Trump. “I never thought I would say these words, but Ted Cruz was right.”
Democrats will have squabbles, too, but nothing of that magnitude.
Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders may have been as tepid toward Clinton as Cruz backers were toward Trump. But the Democratic runner-up has already conferred a full seal of approval on the nominee of his party.
Some Sanders supporters may arrive miffed about emails posted Friday by WikiLeaks that reveal DNC officials treating the Sanders campaign with contempt. Some have also expressed disappointment in her choice for a running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.
Sanders will be featured on tonight’s program, with Michelle Obama.
For Republicans, the main schism was between hard-line conservatives who disdain Trump as an ideological phony and op-
portunist and Trump backers who are thrilled by the appeal to working-class voters and vows to restore American pride, greatness and security.
Trump and Sanders both rail against the political and business establishment and complain about a system they see as rigged on behalf of elites. Both are skeptical of trade deals. But their prescriptions have hardly any overlap, and Sanders’ support for Clinton will provide a sharp contrast with Cruz’s tack toward Trump.
“Never in the history of conventions,” Clinton said, “have we moved forward together by pointing fingers and scapegoating and blaming people instead of rolling up our sleeves, getting a plan together and then working to achieve it.”
Democrats promise a vision for unifying the country, investing in its infrastructure and strengthening alliances around the world.
Trump harped on the economic insecurity many Americans feel. Democrats will acknowledge it, while emphasizing 76 months of job growth, the fact that 20 million more Americans have health insurance under Barack Obama and the health of a U.S. auto industry that was on the brink of extinction eight years ago.
The scenes on TV will, as always, show a more diverse party, though Republicans insist that’s because Democrats set aside delegate slots for black, Hispanic and other activists.
Presidents will be in the house this time.
The entire Bush family shunned the Republican convention — not much of a surprise, given how nasty Trump was to Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor who had hoped to become the third president in the family.
That ruled out the only two living Republican presidents, George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, though at 92, the 41st president’s health could have kept him home anyway.
One former GOP nominee, Bob Dole, did turn up in Cleveland. Trump’s wife, Melania, gave him a gracious welcome, and he waved from the VIP box in the arena. Mitt Romney and John McCain stayed away.
The lack of tributes to the grand old leaders of the Grand Old Party was notable. There wasn’t even a gauzy, eye-misting video montage of Ronald Reagan, as Trump kept the focus tightly on him and his Democratic opponent.
In Philadelphia, by contrast, two Democratic presidents will eagerly serve as cheerleaders: Hillary Clinton’s husband, the 42nd president, and Obama.