The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
‘WE WILL RISE TO THE CHALLENGE’
Clinton vows steady leadership, attacks Trump’s proposals.
PHILADELPHIA — Hillary Clinton cast herself as the right candidate to lead the country in a “moment of reckoning,” accepting her party’s nomination Thursday to close the Democratic National Convention as she pledged to be a steadfast hand guiding the nation at a fretful time.
Forcefully seeking to redefine her image to a national audience, Clinton presented herself as a job creator who will “empower all Americans to live better lives” and a commander in chief who will protect them from threats at home and abroad.
“We are clear-eyed about what our country is up against,” she said. “But we are not afraid. We will rise to the challenge, just as we always have.”
As the first female presidential nominee for a major party, Clinton emphasized equal pay and workers’ rights in her prime-time address, vowing to create higher paying work “from my first day in office to my last.”
Her speech was aimed as much at delegates in the Wells Fargo Center still skeptical of her candidacy as the millions watching the convention from afar. To supporters of Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders still mistrustful of her campaign, she promised to be a champion of their ideals.
“You’ve put economic and social justice issues front and center, where they belong. And to all of your supporters here and around the country: I want you to know, I’ve heard you,” she said. “Your cause is our cause. Our country needs your ideas, energy and passion.”
And after a tumultuous GOP convention in Cleveland, where delegates chanted “lock her up” and Donald Trump painted her as a corrupt establishment politician, Clinton posed the question whether voters can trust the New York businessman with the keys to the U.S. arsenal.
“Anyone reading the news can see the threats and turbulence we face. From Baghdad and Kabul, to Nice and Paris and Brussels, to San Bernardino and Orlando, we’re dealing with determined enemies that must be defeated,” she said. “No wonder people are anxious and looking for reassurance — looking for steady leadership.”
She was introduced by her daughter, Chelsea Clinton, who was tasked with painting a personal portrait of a woman who has been in the public spotlight for decades. The 36-year-old spoke of a “wonderful, thoughtful, hilarious mother ... who taught public service is about service.”
“She was always, always there for me. Every soccer game. Every softball game. Every piano recital. Every dance recital. Sundays spent together at a church, at a local library,” the daughter said.
Chelsea Clinton said the most frequent question she gets: “How does she do it?”
Her answer: “She never, ever forgets who she’s fighting for.”
Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech closed out a nominating convention that got off to a rocky start Monday — supporters of Sanders booed the very mention of her name — and was rocked by protests and sit-ins throughout the week despite the runner-up’s public pleas encouraging them to back down.
By Thursday, some Sanders supporters still held “Bernie or Bust” placards, though most acknowledged a hard-fought truce, and the senator was in the Wells Fargo Center cheering on his former rival.
“I am a Democrat first, and I always have been,” said Michael David Smith, an 18-year-old Sanders delegate from Columbus. “I love Bernie Sanders, and of course I supported him and wished he’d become president, but Hillary Clinton is by far the most progressive person that we’ve nominated for president in our history.”
Clinton’s speech followed blockbuster addresses by some of the party’s leaders, including President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday and first lady Michelle Obama on Monday. Each unequivocally endorsed Clinton as the most qualified candidate in decades, and the president said he was “ready to pass the baton” to her.
Obama’s embrace can help her tap into the coalition of minorities, women and voters with college degrees that twice fueled his White House victories. And her supporters seemed eager to reforge that alliance as a lengthy list of diverse officeholders and activists pledged their support before her speech.
“Families of America, it’s time to suit up. With our lipstick on. With our shoes polished. Our shoulders squared,” said U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland. “Ready to fight to put Hillary in the White House. Because we know she’ll be carrying the torch for all of us.”
Clinton’s campaign hopes that orbit also includes disaffected Republicans alienated by Trump’s sometimes inflammatory comments. Doug Elmets, a former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, confided to the audience that he’s preparing to vote for the first time in his life for a 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.”
But Clinton’s campaign also risks more attacks by Trump and his allies who have long painted her as an extension of the Obama administration. In a statement issued before she took the stage, Trump called Clinton a “radical” and said dreamy Democrats are “speaking about a world that doesn’t exist.”
She aggressively hit back, urging voters to unite against Trump and policies that “divide us from the rest of the world — and from each other,” and she said he’s brought his party to ruin by “betting that the perils of today’s world will blind us to its unlimited promise.”
And she objected sharply to Trump’s highest-profile proposal, the construction of a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, casting Trump as someone who “wants us to fear the future and fear each other.”
“Powerful forces are threatening to pull us apart. Bonds of trust and respect are fraying. And just as with our founders, there are no guarantees,” she said. “It truly is up to us. We have to decide whether we’re going to work together so we can all rise together.”