Reed lauds Clinton, his efforts as mayor

Atlanta mayor tells delegates: ‘I believe in our future.’

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed laid out a spirited argument for electing Democrat Hillary Clinton — and offered a stump speech of his own about a certain Southern Democrat who helped teach his city how to “lean on one another.”

The Democrat, a likely candidate for higher office, took the stage Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention to introduce former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, his frequent partner in fighting for more gun restrictions and combating climate change.

Reed opened by telling the crowd he was there “because I believe in our future.”

“I believe we have a responsibility to one another, and to the next generation, to ensure that our opportunity is limited only by our imagination,” Reed said. “I share this belief with Hillary Clinton: That our achievements are limited only by what we can dream and do.”

And then he made his case for how he revived a city down on its luck.

“You see, Atlanta is a city of dreamers, but when I became mayor, our city was struggling through the worst recession in 80 years,” Reed said. “We were broke. Crime was up. I looked around our city and I saw that the way forward was to lean on one another, to turn to one another, and to make an agreement: That if a young woman was willing to learn, we would put a book in her hands. If a young man was willing to work, we would put a job and a paycheck in his hands. If you’re willing to step up, then we will meet you halfway and, together, we would put your future back in your hands.”

Reed closed by turning his focus back to Clinton:

“Fellow Democrats, tonight we choose diversity over division,” he said. “We choose a steady-handed commander in chief over a loose cannon. We choose a leader who would rather be in the trenches securing health care for 8 million children than in a suite putting his name on a tower.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed hit on the theme of unity in his prime-time speech.