Clinton: ‘Sky’s the limit’
Nominee says Americans don’t go it alone but work together
PHILADELPHIA — Hillary Rodham Clinton accepted the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party on Thursday night with a rejection of fear and a pledge to find the solution to America’s challenges in the unity of Americans.
“When there are no ceilings, the sky’s the limit,” she said as she became the first woman nominated for president by a major political party.
Mrs. Clinton began with a history lesson that warned against a future envisioned by her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, reminding the thousands in the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia that “what happened here 240 years ago still has something to teach us today. Our founders embraced the enduring truth that we are stronger together.”
The message was a direct dismissal of Mr. Trump, who she said has taken the Republican Party “from morning in America to midnight in America.”
“Americans don’t say ‘I alone can fix it,’” she said. “We say we will fix it
together.”
Throughout her acceptance speech, Ms. Clinton was cheered repeatedly and robustly by the crowd packed into the arena. There had been talk of protests by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ supporters, and there were scattered outbursts, including shouts from about a dozen people from California.
Mrs. Clinton was introduced by her daughter, Chelsea, who said she was there “as a proud American, a proud Democrat, a proud mother, and tonight in particular a very, very proud daughter.”
“My earliest memory,” she said, “is my mom picking me up after I had fallen down, picking me up and reading me ‘Good Night, Moon.’ No matter what was going on in her life, she was always, always there for me.
“That feeling of being valued and loved, that’s what my mother wants for every child. That is the calling of her life.”
Mrs. Clinton talked about her motivation for public service and thanked her family — including her husband, former President Bill Clinton — as well as President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle; her running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine; and Mr. Sanders, who engaged her in a long and sometimes bitter battle for the nomination.
“I want to thank Bernie Sanders,” she said in an appeal to his progressive supporters, who have been loath to support her. Many of them sat in the audience in the arena wearing neon-yellow shirts reading “Enough is enough.”
“Your campaign inspired millions of Americans, particularly young people,” Mrs. Clinton said. “You’ve help put economic and social justice issues front and center where they belong. And to all of your supporters here and around the country I’ve heard you. Your cause is our cause.”
Local Democratic delegates Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto — and fervent supporters of Mrs. Clinton — gave the speech the high marks one might expect.
“She put out a vision for America to continue the work that has been done over the last eight years, including on job growth and climate change,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “There have been people who felt they’ve been left behind, and she reached out to give them hope and to give their children hope.”
“She continued on the narrative that’s been building here since Monday: one of working together,” Mr. Peduto said. “She offered practical solutions to difficult problems.”
But one acceptance speech does not win an election. Greg Schaffer, a 27year-old delegate from Squirrel Hill, said Mrs. Clinton has a lot of work still to do.
“I’m not a Bernie-or-Bust guy, but she just doesn’t impress me,” Mr. Schaffer said. “She doesn’t just get my vote, she has to earn it. I want her to work for it. She has 102 days to do it."
To get it, he said, she’ll have to move a lot further to the left, especially on trade policy and fracking regulation.
In remarks earlier in the evening, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, who at one point had been considered a possible running mate for Mrs. Clinton, gave a fist-pumping endorsement as he rejected the label “Rust Belt” for a part of the nation that is rebounding.
“Hillary Clinton is a progressive who gets things done,” he said. “The only thing I’ve seen Donald Trump do when it comes to U.S. trade policy is run his mouth and line his pockets. Donald Trump looks out only for Donald Trump, no matter who he steps on along the way.”
Also on the stage was U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, Ohio, who talked about growing up “halfway between Cleveland and Pittsburgh,” an area that experienced “lost jobs in steel mills and other industries. Families were wrecked. Communities were destroyed. We felt betrayed, but we never lost the basic American value of respect for work and respect for workers.
“But Donald Trump? He’s been stabbing workers in the back for years. Trump got rich ripping people off. Stiffing small businesses and contractors. Now he says he’s gonna bring back our jobs? Hey, Ohio – don’t buy it! This guy cut deals to make the Trump line of products in China, Mexico, Bangladesh! Not Youngstown, not Akron, not Niles and not Pittsburgh! If he really cared about our jobs, he would have hired some of our people!”
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton, voiced a fullthroated endorsement of Mrs. Clinton, but not before saluting his late father, Mario Cuomo, the former governor of New York and longtime Democrat who delivered the keynote address at the party’s 1984 convention.
This election, Mr. Cuomo said, is “not about which person or party wins or loses. At stake in this election, my friends, is the very soul of America.”
The Republican plan, he said, “is to fan the flames of fear and offer a scapegoat for all our problems. Their message comes down to this: be afraid of people who are different. It’s divisive, it’s delusional, and we must expose the truth to the people of this nation . ... Fear is not strength. Fear is weakness. And no matter how you yell, our America is never weak.”
Perhaps one of the highlights of the evening was an appearance by Khizr Khan, whose son, Humayun S.M. Khan, was an American Muslim who died serving in the U.S. Army.
“Donald Trump, have you even read the United States Constitution?” Mr. Khan said, producing a pocket version of the document from his jacket pocket and holding it up. “I will loan you my copy.”
Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm spoke of an economy that promises “no one gets left behind.”
“Not the steel worker in Pennsylvania, not the farmer in Iowa, not the dreamer in Nevada, not the factory worker in Ohio,” she shouted to cheers. “We are stronger together.”
Other speakers Thursday night included House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, U.S. Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas.
But one of the speakers at the convention was not like the others. Doug Elments, a Republican who took the stage to say that this year he would be voting for the Democratic candidate.
“I haven’t just voted Republican. I worked in President Reagan’s White House,” he said. “I recently led an effort to place a statue of Ronald Reagan in California’s Capitol. I’m here tonight to say: I knew Ronald Reagan; I worked for Ronald Reagan. Donald Trump, you are no Ronald Reagan.”
This story was written by Dan Majors based on his reporting and the reporting of Tracie Maureillo and Chris Potter. Dan Majors: dmajors@post-gazette.com and 412-263-1456. Tracie Mauriello: tmauriello@post-gazette.com, 703-996-9292 or pgPoliTweets.