‘MOMENT OF RECKONING’
Clinton accepts Democratic nomination and becomes first female presidential candidate for a major party
PHILADELPHIA >> Confronting a “moment of reckoning,” Hillary Clinton is casting herself as a unifier for divided times and a tested, steady hand to lead in a volatile world.
“We are clear-eyed about what our country is up against,” she said in excerpts released ahead of her speech Thursday accepting the Democratic presidential nomination. “But we are not afraid. We will rise to the challenge, just as we always have.”
Clinton was introduced by her daughter, Chelsea, who spoke warmly of her mother as a woman “driven by compassion, by faith, by kindness, a fierce sense of justice, and a heart full of love.”
Clinton’s national convention address follows three nights of Democratic stars, including a past and present president, asserting she is ready for the White House. On the gathering’s final night, she was making that case for herself on the convention’s final night.
Acknowledging Americans’ anxieties, Clinton is vowing to create economic opportunities in inner cities and struggling small towns. She also says terror attacks around the world require “steady leadership” to defeat a determined enemy.
The first woman to lead a major U.S. political party toward the White House, Clinton was greeted Thursday by a crowd of cheering delegates eager to see history made in the November election. But her real audience was millions of voters who may welcome her experience but question her character.
Clinton’s four-day convention began with efforts to shore up liberals who backed Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary and it ended with an outstretched hand to Republicans and independents unnerved by GOP nominee Donald Trump. A parade of military leaders, law enforcement officials and Republicans took the stage ahead of Clinton to endorse her in the general election contest with Trump.
“This is the moment, this is the opportunity for our future,” said retired Marine Gen. John R. Allen, a former commander in Afghanistan. “We must seize this moment to elect Hillary Clinton as president of the United States of America.”
American flags waved in the stands of the packed convention hall and the crowd broke into chants of “U-S-A!” drowning out scattered calls of “No more war.”
The Democratic nomination now officially hers, Clinton has just over three months to persuade Americans Trump is unqualified for the Oval Office and overcome the visceral connection he has with some voters in a way the Democratic nominee does not.
Campaigning in Iowa Thursday, Trump said there were “a lot of lies being told” at Clinton’s convention. In an earlier statement, he accused Democrats of living in a “fantasy world,” ignoring economic and security troubles as well as Clinton’s controversial email use at the State Department.
The FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s use of a private internet server didn’t result in criminal charges, but it did appear to deepen voters’ concerns with her honesty and trustworthiness. A separate pre-convention controversy over hacked Democratic Party emails showing favoritism for Clinton in the primary threatens to deepen the perception that Clinton prefers to play by her own rules.
Through four nights of polished convention pageantry, Democratic heavyweights told a different story about Clinton. The most powerful validation came Wednesday night from President Barack Obama, her victorious primary rival in 2008. Obama declared Clinton not only can defeat Trump’s “deeply pessimistic vision” but also realize the “promise of this great nation.”
Seeking to offset possible weariness with a politician who has been in the spotlight for decades, he said of Clinton: “She’s been there for us, even if we haven’t always noticed.”
A studious wonk who prefers policy discussions to soaring oratory, Clinton has acknowledged she struggles with the flourishes that seem to come naturally to Obama and her husband. She’ll lean heavily on her “stronger together” campaign theme, invoking her 1996 book “It Takes a Village,” her campaign said.
Indeed, the Democratic convention has been a visual ode those mantras: The first African-American president symbolically seeking to hand the weightiest baton in the free world to a woman. A parade of speakers — gay and straight, young and old, white, black and Hispanic — cast Trump as outof-touch with a diverse and fast-changing nation.
Khizr Khan, an American Muslim whose son was killed in military service, emotionally implored voters to stop Trump, who has called for a temporary ban on Muslim immigration.