Contrast will be easy for Clinton

Democrats meeting in Philadelphia on Monday don’t have to worry about setting themselves apart from last week’s doom-and-gloom fest at the Republican National Convention.

“All Hillary Clinton has to do is smile, and that alone will provide a contrast,” said Katie Merrill, a Democratic strategist who will be spending the week as a volunteer with the California delegation to the Democratic National Convention.

For Democrats, their fourday get-together provides an opportunity not only to draw a very clear line between themselves and Donald Trump’s Republican Party, but also gives Clinton an early boost for the fall campaign.

With President Obama in the White House, the Democrats have the convention second this year. This gives the party the chance to be counterpunchers, looking at what the Republicans did in Cleveland and adjusting their plans accordingly.

“It’s absolutely good to go second,” said Gale Kaufman, a Democratic consultant. “After that clown-car experience in Cleveland, we don’t have to do much to look more presentable and diverse.”

More star power

The Trump campaign’s well-publicized spat with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who declined to spend a minute at the convention in his home state, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s televised refusal to endorse Trump, and the nominee’s own hourplus acceptance speech painting the United States as little more than a Third World country, plagued by growing violence and a government crippled by corruption, give the Democrats plenty of targets.

“Trump did nothing to appeal to swing voters,” said Corey Cook, dean of the School of Public Service at Boise State University in Idaho. “Instead, Trump united the party by going after Clinton.”

Some of the Democrats’ work will be easy. While many of the best-known GOP leaders, like former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, stayed away from Cleveland, virtually every big-name Democrat will be in Philadelphia, from Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to California officials such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, Gov. Jerry Brown, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Rep. Maxine Waters of Los Angeles.

Unity will be the theme Monday night, when Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont speaks to the convention. The progressive Sanders ran an often-harsh primary campaign against Clinton, prompting Trump to suggest in his acceptance speech Thursday night that the senator’s disgruntled backers had more in common with him than Clinton.

But Sanders, who endorsed Clinton this month, would have nothing to do with that.

“Those who voted for me will not support Trump who has made bigotry and divisiveness the cornerstone of his campaign,” he wrote in a tweet.

Democrats, though, have to recognize Trump’s appeal to voters who haven’t seen their lives improve during the country’s slow-motion economic recovery and who are worried about growing reports of terrorism and violence, both in the United States and abroad.

Stressing changes

Coming off eight years of Obama as president, Clinton and the Democrats have to avoid a call for “four more years,” said Garry South, a Democratic consultant.

“You can’t make this a ‘crow about yourself ’ convention, saying everything is great, because it’s not and people know it,” he said. “Democrats have to talk about change and how things will change.”

Although Sanders is backing Clinton, it’s not clear whether the young and enthusiastic progressive voters who crowded into his rallies, sent in their $27 donations and jumped into politics for the first time are willing to join him.

There are plenty of young people who don’t much like the 68-year-old Clinton, seeing her as the representative of the political past and someone they have little in common with, said Barbara O’Connor, professor emeritus of political communication at Cal State Sacramento.

“The danger is that young people who don’t like her won’t vote, and she needs their support,” she said. “And for the first time in memory, I’m hearing Democrats tell me that they’ll vote, but not for president.”

One challenge is to change the look of the convention and replace some of the usual political

warhorses with speakers who appeal to young voters.

“Surrogates can help,” O’Connor said. “People who don’t relate to Clinton may find someone they can relate to.”

A shout-out to Sanders also wouldn’t hurt, Merrill said.

Sanders “deserves to be given all the credit in the world for his campaign and what he did to raise critical issues that should be part of any presidential campaign,” she said.

But it’s the presidential candidate who sets the tone for any convention, and that’s a heavy burden for Clinton.

With her decades in the

political spotlight, virtually every voter already knows plenty about the former first lady, senator and secretary of state. And while the GOP convention was a virtual Clinton attack-a-thon — with angry calls of “Lock her up!” — there are plenty of Democrats who still have to be convinced that she should lead the party.

A RealClearPolitics poll shows 55 percent of voters have a negative opinion of Clinton, only slightly better than Trump’s 59 percent unfavorable. And some polls show that Trump is seen as more trustworthy than Clinton.

“I don’t know what can be done to make her more trustworthy, other than to emphasize her strengths,” said Cook, the Boise State dean. “She needs to show her steadiness, her knowledge

and her sober decision-making. That won’t appeal to Bernie’s people at all, but others will see her as a president.”

Clinton, who admits she’s not a natural politician, also needs to open up during the convention and let millions of voters watching her know that she’s more than a walking encyclopedia of policy minutiae.

“She already has the Iron Lady position locked up,” South said. “After the campaign, no one would say she’s not tough.”

But that’s not enough to get elected, he added.

“A presidential election is not about who has the best 17-point plan,” South said. Clinton “has to show people not just that she’s qualified, smart and authentic, but that she has a soul.”

Ending on upbeat note

The optics of the Democratic convention will be the easy part. Bringing out a wide range of speakers, highlighting the racial and ethnic diversity of the party and adding an upbeat element missing from the GOP affair can be done.

“A little levity will go a long way,” Merrill said.

But it’s the close of the convention, when Clinton steps up Thursday night to give her vision for her campaign and the country’s future, that’s going to be remembered.

That speech can’t be an all-out attack on Trump or an effort to answer every nasty remark aimed at her by Trump and other GOP officials. It also needs to both uplifting and forward-looking, both inspirational and aspirational.

“When she speaks from the heart, she speaks as a true leader, and people get that,” Merrill said. “If she shows herself as a leader who has a heart and who really cares about what happens to America’s people, the contrast with the Republicans will be stark.”